Stories
‘The weight of the responsibility’: Teaching genocide and the Holocaust in one Connecticut classroom
At first, Joe Goldman hesitated. When he was asked to teach the genocide elective at E.O. Smith High School in Storrs, Conn., he was, for a moment, in awe of the assignment. There seemed to be little room for error. “I immediately felt some of the weight of the responsibility,” Goldman said. “It feels like…
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A federal judge has released Springfield from a consent decree regulating the hiring of police officers. The rules, which until last month also applied to the city’s fire department, have been in place nearly 50 years. The consent decree was meant to prioritize Black and Latino candidates for entry-level police and fire positions, so the…
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Recreationists and wildlife have to coexist. But there are times when wildlife need their distance from the humans that like to explore their habitat. For a handful of sites around New Hampshire, that means closing certain areas over the spring and summer so peregrine falcons can nest. Peregrines were considered endangered until the late 1990s,…
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The state of New Hampshire is suing the nation’s largest pharmacy chains — including CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens — alleging the companies failed to stop “a flood of prescription opioids” that fueled the addiction epidemic of the past decade. The suit, filed in Merrimack County Superior Court Tuesday, says the pharmacies failed to create…
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After two neo-Nazi protests in Boston in a month, Massachusetts officials are deepening their efforts to combat white nationalism. District Attorney Kevin Hayden’s office announced that it will add two civil rights attorneys to its High Risk Victims Unit “due to recent hate-based incidents.” U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Rachael Rollins said she will be creating…
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Earlier this month at a city park in Augusta, Maine, Chrysanthemum Gates got a chance to speak at her first ever in-person Disability Pride event. Gates, a social media disability advocate with Tourette Syndrome, said she wished more people knew about events like this in New England. “I really feel like if more people knew…
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Just off the bike path in Somerville, Mass., Michael Collins waded through the bushes and picked up a metal box. Collins popped open the lid — and immediately noticed a rancid smell. A dead rat was decomposing inside. “I’d say it’s a juvenile,” said Michael Collins, of Modern Pest Services, as he slid the rodent…
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A group of Connecticut cicadas disappeared nearly 70 years ago. Scientists still search for answers.
On a hill overlooking the Fenton River Valley, John Cooley gestures to a horizon blanketed with trees. It’s the bucolic embodiment of New England’s forested landscape. It’s also the scene of a mystery that’s puzzled scientists for nearly 70 years. What happened to a group of periodical cicadas that used to live here? “You would…
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The leader of a known Neo-Nazi group was placed into custody today by Boston Police following a demonstration by the group in Jamaica Plain. The protest by NSC-131 took place outside the historic Loring Greenough House where residents had gathered for a children’s drag queen story hour, an event in which individuals in drag read…
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A global conservation collaborative — the International Union for Conservation of Nature — has declared North America’s migrating monarch butterflies endangered. The designation doesn’t carry regulatory weight — but it sends a strong message that the species is in trouble. Eastern monarch butterflies spend their summers along the eastern seaboard and migrate thousands of miles every…
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