Stories

Self-Help Evictions Surge As The Coronavirus Pushes Landlords, Tenants To The Brink

May 29, 2020

Brandon Bradley was job-hunting in Tennessee two weeks ago, when he got a text from his landlord’s daughter. It read: “Brandon, my husband said you need to get your stuff out by tomorrow or he will put it in storage for you in the garage. The power and gas will be shut tomorrow.” Brandon and…

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Emotional Calls And Weekend Worries: Working As A Coronavirus Contact Tracer

May 28, 2020

Dallas Paiva was excited and nervous as she picked up the phone and made her first call as a Massachusetts contact tracer. The goal of the state’s Contact Tracing Collaborative is to reach out to every person who tested positive for the novel coronavirus or might have been exposed and help them isolate themselves so…

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Welcome Back To The Office. Please Don’t Touch Anything.

May 27, 2020

It’s reopening week for some Massachusetts office buildings that have been closed for months because of the coronavirus pandemic. Occupancy is capped at 25% to promote physical distancing, and some companies are taking additional measures. At the Cambridge Innovation Center, home to hundreds of Kendall Square startups, the main entrance now opens with a wave of the…

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‘They Should Include Us’: Vermont’s Immigrant Farmworkers Push For Coronavirus Aid

May 25, 2020

Immigrant workers on Vermont’s dairy farms say they want access to the same coronavirus aid programs that have helped other residents weather the unprecedented economic downturn. Vermont’s dairy industry has been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, and a sudden drop in milk prices due to COVID-19 has forced some farmers to scale back…

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Maine And Canada’s Border Communities Feel Unique Impacts Of The Coronavirus Pandemic

May 22, 2020

Along Maine’s border with Canada, communities on either side are closely connected, historically, culturally, economically. But the COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily severed that connection, as the governments of the two countries have suspended nonessential travel along the border. As part of Maine Public’s series “Deep Dive: Coronavirus,” Robbie Feinberg visited one border town to see…

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‘An Economic Tsunami’: Cape Cod Businesses Weigh Reopening Ahead Of Uncertain Summer Season

May 18, 2020

Summer won’t be the same this year on Cape Cod. Many businesses in the region rely on tourism during the warmer months. Gov. Charlie Baker is expected to announce the re-opening plan for Massachusetts on Monday, but with so much uncertainty and so many questions about how the state will reopen, some Cape Cod businesses are…

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Connecticut’s Reopening Presents New Challenges For Residents With Underlying Medical Conditions

May 18, 2020

Even before the stay-at-home orders were officially issued in late March, Sarah Keitt had begun a two-week period of quarantine in her Fairfield home, isolated from her husband and two children. “It was lonely, it was painful to have basically no contact other than yelling up and down the stairs to people,” she said. Keitt…

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Was That COVID-19? Antibody Tests Promise Answers But Beware Of Their Limits

May 15, 2020

In mid-February, a nasty bug hit Matt Kelly’s whole Cambridge family. First, his wife, Annie, a teacher, got the fever, fatigue and cough, and lost her sense of smell. “And then it rapidly spread to me,” said Kelly, who publishes a newsletter on corporate legal affairs. “And then rapidly to our son, who’s in kindergarten,…

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Maine Summer Camps Consider How They Can — And If They Should — Open Their Doors

May 9, 2020

For more than 100 years, kids have flocked to summer camps in Maine to play in the woods, swim in a lake, forge new friendships and find a bit of freedom from their lives back home. But the new coronavirus is casting a cloud of uncertainty over how sleepaway camps might operate this summer —…

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As Summer Nears, Seacoast Grapples With Extended COVID-19 Beach Closures

May 7, 2020

When New Hampshire reopens parts of its economy in the next couple of weeks, the public beaches on the Seacoast will stay closed. It’s sparked debate in seaside towns like Rye over what restrictions are warranted. Last Sunday, on the first warm weekend of spring, the coastal Route 1A or Ocean Boulevard in Rye looked…

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