Stories
ATLANTA — Kyle Wells, 49, grew up in Boston’s Mattapan near the intersection of Morton Street and Blue Hill Avenue. By the end of his senior year at Boston Latin School, he was itching to leave town. “My kind of high school goal was to move out of Boston,” said Wells, who headed southward to…
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Four years ago this month, high school teacher Jonathan Soto left Puerto Rico and made his way to Holyoke, Massachusetts. He was among the thousands of Puerto Ricans who evacuated from the island after the devastation of Hurricane Maria. After the storm, Soto’s family considered themselves lucky, he said. But it was traumatic, and it’s…
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It was 10 years ago, but when Lori Mathieu thinks about extreme weather events, she remembers Hurricane Irene. “Which was a hurricane that turned into a tropical storm, but hit us pretty hard,” she said. “And then we had that incredibly odd snowstorm that hit us while the leaves were still on the trees.” And…
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Educators across Maine expected an adjustment when students returned to school full time this year, with unfamiliar routines and the enduring pandemic. But now, they’re grappling with a rise in behavior challenges, which come as studies show depression and anxiety have doubled for children and teens since before the pandemic. This week, three leading pediatric health organizations warned that…
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We did not have an American flag outside of our house prior to 9/11. But after 9/11, my dad made sure to put an American flag outside the house, at least as a visual symbol that yeah, in this house, we also support the US. Even if secretly we were criticizing everything. It was a…
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What do Maine and Syria have in common? Neither is an especially easy place to launch a career in hip hop. But that is exactly what one Syrian-born rapper has done, through a winding journey that began on the streets of Aleppo and led, last week, to an album release concert in Portland. In the…
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In western Massachusetts, the cost and availability of child care can be a major barrier to employment for some parents. During the pandemic, it has become an even bigger problem, in part because day care providers themselves are having a harder time recruiting employees. Standing in a circle, preschoolers at the Mt Carmel Early Education…
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PFAS chemicals are everywhere — woven into the fabrics of modern life as components of carpeting, clothing and cosmetics. They’re also in cookware, food packaging, drinking water and personal hygiene products. This family of long-lasting “forever chemicals” can accumulate over time in the body and may lead to certain cancers, according to the Centers for…
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Danielle Jensen spent two years working on Mars — not the planet, the offshore oil rig. Her job was to keep the crude flowing for Royal Dutch Shell. She operated the platform’s pumps and compressors, clocking two-week shifts with a mostly male crew. Workdays were long, and walking around in a flame-retardant suit all…
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On a recent Monday evening, a book club met to discuss the Greek play Agamemnon. It’s a tragedy, about a king coming home after a long, brutal war. When King Agamemnon first shows up in his home city, a group of wise, old men don’t know how to greet him. They ask, “How shall I hail…
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