Boston City Council President Stephen Murphy will support Ayanna Pressley in her bid for re-election this year, even -- or especially -- if Michael Flaherty runs for his seat back.

Murphy and Pressley, two of the four incumbent at-large councilors, had a conversation over the weekend in which Murphy pledged his support.

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I take a look at the Chuck Turner expulsion, the Cure Lounge incident, the NAACP-Boston election, the recent elections of several black officials, the coming Urban League and Blacks In Government conventions, and more... all in the context of wondering whether Boston might be ready to shed its image as a hostile environment for the black professional middle class?

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I have a short piece about a little-known $126 million that the Commonwealth is about to send to the city. The money will go directly into a pension fund, without passing through the General Fund, leaving some to wonder whether at least a portion could have been used to bolster the budget that is about to de-fund branch libraries, community centers, and other staff and services.

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I report on the increasing suspicion that Mayor Tom Menino is crying wolf about the city's dire financial straits.

The article includes claims by Boston's firefighters that the city is stashing tens, or hundreds of millions of dollars, that could be used not only to pay the new contract its union was awarded in arbitration, but also to pay for the branch libraries, community-center staff, and other services heading for the chopping block.

--Do you think the state house of representatives sits around and brainstorms ways to further lose the public's trust and confidence, or do you think it just comes to them naturally?

--And, same question for the Boston Fire Department.

--Meanwhile, this really begs the question: What would it take for the MBTA director of safety to lose her job?

"NathanSpencer" asks, via Twitter appropriately:

"Are tools like Twitter and Facebook really helping candidates GOTV? Who is using it best?"

I've seen no evidence of it helping in any significant way with GOTV in any local elections, and have heard few if any convincing tales from elsewhere. I'd love to hear from anyone who has experience to the contrary, though.

The Qs keep coming! "Venkman" asks:

Do you think emailgate will make its way into the Senate race? Could Coakley's dismissal of the issue become an issue?

I think emailgate (the heavily reported issue surrounding missing emails within the Menino administration) has barely made its way into the mayoral race, beyond that core group of people who really, really care about that kind of thing -- who were voting against Menino anyway.

Here we go, off and running with Ask Me Anything Day! First up, "Rob" asks:

If Menino defeats Flaherty in November's election, does Flaherty become the immediate front-runner for the 2013 mayoral election? What are your thoughts on what Sam Yoon does? I'm also interested on which current candidates (Menino or Flaherty) other potential 2013 candidates are supporting/endorsing, and if you think that affects their future chances at all.

We got our first one-on-one mayoral debate tonight. I thought Michael Flaherty was very good, but Tom Menino was quite good, and as far as I know he's holding the lead in the late innings, so I'd say the mayor came out fine.

Speaking of innings, how psyched must Menino be that the Sox made the playoffs, so nobody in town could possibly find themselves accidentally taking interest in the mayoral race.

Boston City Council president Mike Ross confirms for me that his chief-of-staff, Reuben Kantor, is leaving to join the Ayanna Pressley campaign for at-large city council.

Kantor, who joined the political arena just a few years ago, has quickly become one of the city's top progressive operatives. "Ayanna will really benefit from Reuben's strength on both the political and the policy side," says Ross, who endorsed Pressley the night of the preliminary election.

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I analyze the at-large Boston City Council race coming out ofthe preliminary election, which narrowed the field to eight. I find that local politicos believe that -- unlike other recent at-large races -- the top four in the preliminary will end up as the four winners in November.

Hmmm... Seems like some commenters don't appreciate my expert analysis. Oh well.

Anyway, let's back up and look at what I prognosticated and analyzed the last time I was asked, about a month ago -- and whether it still stands. First off:

I think that the prelim top four will likely be Murphy-Connolly-Pressley-Arroyo.