A roundup of recent articles from the Massachusetts independent press
Read on for some of the best recent articles by local independent news outlets around the Bay State!
ARTS
Theater Review: “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein” — A Beautifully Performed, Engaging, and Thought-Provoking Creature Feature
The Arts Fuse
The Merrimack Repertory Theatre “earns its keep,” says critic.
Artist Cassie Wang Finds Even Rhythm by Mixing Dance With Computer Tech
Sampan
A real utility player, Wang seemingly does it all … even oil painting.
CRIME
Suspect in organized theft spree held on $100,000 bail
Plymouth Independent
The lede was buried in this piece. The perps were caught by facial recognition software—the use of which is a slippery slope from a civil liberties perspective to be sure.
EDUCATION
Agenda Preview: November 14th School Committee Meeting
Worcester Sucks and I Love It
Always nice to see a regular column covering school committee happenings.
Potential housing growth puts focus on school enrollment
The Concord Bridge
Tony Concord could see a real spike in new students if developers build a large housing complex on the old MCI-Concord prison site.
School Building Committee unanimously votes to pursue “Bloom” for Lexington High School building project
The Lexington Observer
Lexington is about to spend $655 million (with state and federal aid) on additions to Lexington High School including a field house and new central offices for the town’s school department. Wow.
ENVIRONMENT
In race for state rep, Mitts and Davis navigate choppy waters of ‘Rest of River’ debate
The Berkshire Argus
Here’s an issue I’ve written about myself. And I fear that no matter who prevails in this particular dustup, corporate monolith General Electric (now chopped into three smaller monoliths by its own leadership) has won the right to despoil an entire river valley long since it committed environmental crimes over decades.
An extended lack of rain brings critical drought, including in Cambridge, which owns reservoirs
Cambridge Day
The Massachusetts drought drags on, bringing serious consequences to even the most prepared municipalities.
Fishing-line waste injures local herons in Arlington ponds
YourArlington.com
An article covering an environmental reporter I know, making herself useful in her community.
FOOD
Healthy Food Program aims to help diabetes patients buy nutritious foods
The Bay State Banner
Now here’s a worthy project. Nice to see its pilot come to fruition.
GOVERNMENT
Liquor permit expansion is drawing some interesting applicants
Dorchester Reporter
Readers from outside Boston may be unaware how wildly unfair the state’s liquor permitting system has been to the city until now.
The CPA Surcharge: Is It Here to Stay?
Sudbury Weekly
The Community Preservation Act surcharge is apparently not necessarily forever town by town. Some opposition to the CPA in Sudbury, typical of many suburbs, focuses on its funds being used for the dread affordable housing. Quelle horreur!
Select board denies clammers’ applications for private aquaculture farms
The Local News (Ipswich)
For the moment, it’s the public good over private profit on the Ipswich clam flats. Although from this corner, it looks to be more of a war between two factions of commercial clammers.
Possibilities shared for new Center for Active Living; strong opposition voiced to Cronin Field option
The Anchor (Hingham)
A Zoom meeting of the town committee looking at options for a new senior center had an usually large turnout of advocates pushing for one possible site over another.
HOUSING
Regulations on Accessory Dwelling Units Begin to Take Shape
Burlington Buzz
More proof that even the most clever and inoffensive plans to alleviate the regional housing crisis by expanding the number of housing units in the burbs draw reflexive freakout reactions from local reactionaries. “When they create zoning like that, you’ve got to look at the worst case scenario. If everybody in the town did it, you’d have two dwelling units on every lot in this town. It would no longer be the town of Burlington.” Shut up.
Newton uses these three grants for affordable housing
The Newton Beacon
Advocates are concerned too much of the funding goes to better-off senior-living communities instead of affordable housing.
JOURNALISM
Guardian celebrates milestone first year with community support
The Worcester Guardian
Congrats to my colleagues at the Worcester Guardian for publishing for one year!
LABOR
Dress Code Crackdown Follows “Apartheid Free Co-op” Vote
The Shoestring (Western Mass)
For those who thought food co-ops were automatically free-speech zones … they are not.
BREAKING NEWS: Judge slaps Marblehead teachers with $50K fine today
Marblehead Current
OK, this is just a blurb, but I included it because a) it’s super-newsworthy, and b) I just love to see local outlets doing breaking news.
PHILANTHROPY
Community Fund for Wellesley gives out $50k in grants to worthy nonprofits
The Swellesley Report
I feel like Wellesley swells could dig deeper than $50,000 for these kinds of donations.
POLITICS
Fishermen celebrate Trump: ‘Government has crucified this industry’
The New Bedford Light
Fishermen: Not fans of wind turbines.
IndyMass is produced for HorizonMass, the independent, student-driven, news outlet of the Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism, by Jason Pramas and is syndicated by BINJ’s MassWire news service. Copyright 2024 Jason Pramas.
