Stories
The pandemic is waning, but the mental health crisis for children isn’t. And for many children of color, the full impact of the last 15 months — against a backdrop of longstanding systemic racism and inequities — may just be coming into focus. Mahailya Effee, a 15-year-old who lives in Roxbury, Mass., says from the…
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When Erika Hoffman-Kiess first heard about people applauding for frontline workers in big cities, she didn’t think that would work so well in her town of Thetford, Vt. “There are some places in Vermont where you can go outside your door and bang a pot and pan and nothing’s going to happen because nobody hears…
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Patti Machado is worried. Usually by this time of year, Machado, Barnstable’s recreation director, has a full cadre of 105 lifeguards ready to patrol Cape Cod’s beaches and ponds. But not this year. The town is facing a lifeguard shortage as the busy summer season gets underway. “So, at the moment, we are 22 lifeguards…
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As the mid-week lunch rush picks up at Don Quijote, salsa music plays in the kitchen as oil crackles and the chop-chop of onions, peppers and cilantro echoes. Huge pots of carne guisada simmer on the stove. Green plantains are ready to go in case a client orders one of the Manchester, N.H. restaurant’s defining…
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Fisheries regulators in the Northeast are permanently putting some 25,000 square miles of seafloor off-limits to some types of commercial fishing, in an effort to protect sensitive deep-sea corals. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a final rule this week that bars mobile bottom-trawling gear from vast deep-sea areas along the outer continental shelf…
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The emergence of the 17-year cicadas has dominated bug news of late, but in the northeastern parts of the U.S. and Canada, another cyclical menace has emerged that has the potential to do more lasting damage. Several weeks ago, Mark Boltz-Robinson started noticing that a couple of red oaks on his Vermont property were thinning…
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Early last year, as the coronavirus threat spread, a 9-year-old named Miles turned into a raging boy his parents did not recognize. The family pediatrician referred Miles to a therapist. His mom, Emily Johnson, says her son needed help right away, but the earliest appointment was one to two months away. Three weeks after seeing…
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In a year with tremendous uncertainty, three Boston-area high school students faced a pandemic, remote school, and hardships — and prevailed. GBH News journalists followed their journey all year long as part of the COVID and the Classroom project. Check out this special retrospective looking back at the year, followed by a panel discussion with…
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Vermont is about to embark on a new effort to address racial and other disparities in the health care system. Over the last two years, the life expectancy of Black men in the United States has dropped by three years. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the racial gap in life expectancy is now wider than…
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Fewer families are choosing burials for deceased loved ones and opting instead for cremation. It’s a funerary trend that is helping to forge a link between the Catholic Church and the solar industry. If you picture a solar field, what do you see? Probably a large open space. Flat and dry without too many trees…
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