Stories
Standing in front of her three-level house in Somerville, Lena Sheehan looks down at the construction of a new high school and transportation hub just a block away. “I can’t get over it, I haven’t been here in so long,” she says. “This is the new T — isn’t that brilliant, right beside the house.”…
Read MoreOn Tuesday, the Manchester, New Hampshire School District announced tentative plans to expand in-person classes from two days a week to four, starting in May. And at Manchester West High School in Manchester, that experiment is well underway. For over a month, staff there have been encouraging students who are learning English as a second…
Read MoreChelsea-based singer Sonni Mai remembers her last real gig before the COVID-19 pandemic lock down in February of last year. “It was at Capone’s in Peabody,” she recalls in detail. “It was not as busy as it usually is — it was pretty dead. You know, sometimes we would get tips and stuff, but that…
Read MoreOn the edge of the Reggie Lewis Center’s indoor track turned mass vaccination site, Emily Rice barely seems to notice the hundreds of people getting inoculated in front of her. Instead, she’s focused entirely on the tiny vial between her fingertips. In her other hand, she eases the plunger back on a syringe, drawing 0.3…
Read MoreThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s list of medical problems that increase risk from the coronavirus includes common conditions like cancer, heart disease and obesity — plus a recent addition you might not guess: Down syndrome. People with Down syndrome are prone to serious illness — or even death — if they contract COVID-19. “I said, ‘Why…
Read MoreProtecting children from COVID and getting to herd immunity will depend on children getting vaccinated. But the existing vaccines aren’t designed for most kids. Moderna and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccines can only be given to those 18 and older, and Pfizer’s vaccine can only be given to people ages 16 and older. That’s why volunteers…
Read MoreMapping Project Explores Links Between Historic Redlining And Future Climate Vulnerability
The rain started just before Mother’s Day, in 2006. It fell for days over the Merrimack Valley, causing the worst flooding in decades. Water reached to rooftops. Pipes burst in Haverhill, pouring millions of gallons of sewage into the rising Merrimack River. Streets flooded, highways closed, thousands of people evacuated their homes. Andy Vargas was…
Read MoreInside a storefront health clinic in a Price Rite shopping plaza in Providence, the regulars are mostly immigrants who speak Spanish, Portuguese and Creole. They work cleaning offices, washing cars and fileting fish in grocery stores. And nearly one in four of the patients last month tested positive for the coronavirus, said Dr. Annie De…
Read MoreCatastrophic damage from climate change threatens coastal homes all over the Cape, and Islands, prompting regional planners to eye managed coastal retreat options Whenever a beachfront home goes on the market in Sandwich, it’s going to draw dozens of prospective buyers. “So this is all private beach, which people just love. They want their privacy.…
Read MoreA three-story-tall gate creaks open, and reveals a warehouse filled to the brim with brown crystals. It’s a mountain of rock salt. “We filled this shed this past week,” says T.J. Shea, Cambridge’s superintendent of streets. Shea is what some might call a “snow fighter.” It’s his job to keep roads dry all winter using this…
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