Stories
In a dank basement of a 113-year-old building in Boston, Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology’s new president Aisha Francis struggled to turn the key to a classroom where — when school is in session — students learn how to fix cars. “They learn to take apart and rebuild a transmission, so they have to be…
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If you were hoping for hot, sunny days on the beach this summer, you’ve been mostly disappointed. But the wet, cool weather has been great for wild mushroom gatherers like Christine Gagnon. She’s known on Facebook for her pictures, including selfies with wild mushrooms, jokingly called “melfies.” On a recent walk along the Piscataqua River…
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In early May, Smith College senior Rumbila Abdullahi relaxed on a couch in her living room off a quiet street in the Sixteen Acres neighborhood of Springfield, Massachusetts. She wore a baati — a traditional Somali dress — and a hijab. Days earlier, she sat in a testing center for most of a day taking…
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Roughly 900 structures on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket may experience daily flooding from tides in 2050. That’s one of the key takeaways from a new report from the nonprofit Trustees of Reservations, which asked a consultant a few years ago to look at erosion and flood risk at their coastal properties. The Trustees is — somewhat surprisingly…
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Around 20 towns throughout western New Hampshire are dealing with washed-out roads, damaged bridges and flooding after rain hit the area over the weekend. Jennifer Harper, New Hampshire’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management director, said recovery efforts have been difficult. She said her crews and the state’s department of transportation have been out helping affected…
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A year after keeping the price of taxpayer-funded purchases out of public view in an effort to protect private business, state Comptroller Kevin Lembo has changed course and released unredacted contracts between 10 vendors and the state for COVID-19 testing. The release came one day before Connecticut Public was set to argue for the full…
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For student Alex Putney, the debate over diversity and inclusion efforts at her New Hampshire high school took a turn in July 2020. Local residents had submitted a proposal to SAU 41 to “make anti-racism and equity a strategic priority” in local schools. Putney, one of the few biracial students at the mostly-white Hollis Brookline…
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North Atlantic right whales can now be found year-round in offshore wind development areas in the waters off Southern New England, a new study found. Previously, it was thought that the critically endangered whales were only present in high numbers in waters off Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard from late winter to early spring. But new research, published…
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A Norwegian investor wants to bring a new kind of fish farm to a stunning, island-studded bay at the base of Acadia’s famous Cadillac Mountain. The project is uniting broad opposition in and around tourist-dependent Mt. Desert Island. The “American Aquafarms” project is the latest in a series of industrial-scale fish farms proposed for Maine,…
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