Category Archives: Massachusetts

Massachusetts town grapples with sea rise after sand barrier fails

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A $500,000 sand dune collapsed in days after being erected, and residents are looking for help to protect their homes

On the border with New Hampshire and Massachusetts – about 35 miles north of Boston – is Salisbury, a coastal town and popular summer destination for tourists. But for those who live in the town year round, especially those who live on the coastline, life’s not a beach.

Last month, after a series of storms battered the area, local citizens came together to take the necessary steps to protect their homes. Volunteer organization Salisbury Beach Citizens for Change raised more than $500,000 to erect a 15,000-ton sand dune – a formidable barrier that would hopefully protect at least 15 beach houses from destruction.

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Gray whale sighted off New England 200 years after species’ Atlantic extinction

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Scientists confirm cetacean’s presence but cite impact of climate change which has made North-west Passage ice-free in summer

Scientists have confirmed the presence of a whale off New England that went extinct in the Atlantic Ocean two centuries ago – an exciting discovery, but one they said that illustrates the impact of climate change on sea life.

Researchers with the New England Aquarium in Boston found the gray whale while flying 30 miles south of Nantucket, Massachusetts, on 1 March. The whale, which can weigh 60,000 pounds (27,215kg), typically lives in the northern Pacific Ocean.

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Super Tuesday 2024 live: millions of voters head to polls in the US as Haley suggests she could stay in the race

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Donald Trump looks all but certain of Republican presidential nomination as Nikki Haley rejects suggestions of third-party bid and says she may keep fighting

Over at CNN, Ronald Brownstein has an analysis piece which looks a little at the potential weakness of Donald Trump support away from his core base. Brownstein writes:

[Trump’s] performance so far reflects his success at transforming the Republican Party in his image. He’s reshaped the Republicans into a more blue-collar, populist and pugnacious party, focused more on his volatile blend of resentments against elites and cultural and racial change than the Ronald Reagan-era priorities of smaller government and active global leadership that former South Carolina Gov Nikki Haley has stressed.

But while the primaries have underscored Trump’s grip on the GOP, they have also demonstrated continued vulnerability for him in the areas where he has labored since he first announced his candidacy in 2015 – particularly among the white-collar suburban voters who mostly leaned toward the GOP before his emergence. The early 2024 nominating contests have shown that a substantial minority of Republican-leaning voters remain resistant to Trump’s vision.

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Jack Teixeira expected to plead guilty in leaked Pentagon documents case

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Air national guard member was arrested in April over charges of leaking highly classified military documents on social media

Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts air national guard member accused of leaking highly classified military documents on a social media platform, is expected to plead guilty in his federal case, according to court papers filed on Thursday.

Prosecutors asked the judge to schedule a change of plea hearing for Monday, but no other details were immediately available. Teixeira had previously pleaded not guilty.

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Winter storm brings heavy snow and freezing rain to parts of US north-east

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Meanwhile, Sierra Nevada storm with heavy snow in the west shut down a stretch of interstate and leaves thousands without power

A major winter storm bringing heavy snow and freezing rain to some communities spread across New England on Sunday morning, sending residents scurrying to pull out their shovels and snowblowers to clear sidewalks and driveways.

Winter storm warnings and watches were in effect throughout the north-east, and icy roads made for hazardous travel as far south as North Carolina.

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Last US lighthouse keeper steps down from role at Boston Light Beacon

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Sally Snowman waxed philosophical about her 20 years tending the lighthouse on Little Brewster Island in Massachusetts

Sally Snowman, the last remaining official lighthouse keeper in the US, retires this weekend from her post looking after the first lighthouse built in North America, on a tiny island in Boston harbour, in what would later become the United States.

Snowman, 72, has been looking after Boston Light Beacon on Little Brewster Island for two decades, and it’s now being sold to a private owner. The arrangement – the new owner will be required to preserve it – comes almost 60 years after it was designated a national landmark and government funding was secured to keep it staffed, making it the last staffed lighthouse in the country.

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‘Gut punch’ US north-eastern storm leaves at least six people dead

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Deadly winter storm leaves hundreds of thousands without power and deposits flooding and freezing temperatures in its wake

At least six people were killed and hundreds of thousands were left without power as a deadly winter storm swept across the north-eastern US on Monday, depositing flooding and freezing temperatures in its wake.

Two of the deaths were in Maine in separate cases involving fallen trees, authorities said. Other deaths were reported in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and New York.

Associated Press contributed reporting

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Newborn dead, multiple people injured in Holyoke, Massachusetts, shooting

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Gunfire from fight hit several people, including pregnant woman who was hospitalized and delivered baby who died

A shooting claimed the life of a baby that was delivered after its mother was one of several people hit by gunfire during a fight Wednesday on a downtown street in the western Massachusetts city of Holyoke, authorities said.

The pregnant woman was shot in the afternoon while seated on a public bus and taken to a hospital in critical condition, the Hampden district attorney’s office said.

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Maine and Atlantic Canada face flood warnings as Hurricane Lee heads north

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Storm, which has already brought strong winds and heavy rain to Bermuda, is weakening in strength but expanding in size

Parts of coastal New England and Atlantic Canada are under a tropical storm watch this week as Hurricane Lee continues on its path upward.

With maximum sustained winds of up to 100mph, Lee was 265 miles south-west of Bermuda as of Thursday morning, the National Hurricane Center said.

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At least seven injured in shooting at Caribbean parade in Boston

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Gunfire occurred during J’ouvert parade on Saturday morning and several arrests were made, police say

At least seven people have been injured in a shooting during a Caribbean parade in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, police said on Saturday.

The victims were taken to local hospitals with non-life threatening injuries and several arrests were made and firearms recovered, according to Boston police Sgt Det John Boyle.

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Massachusetts man charged with putting rocks on road to damage cars

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Suspect arrested after undercover detective waited in woods to see whether rock-leaver would emerge on rural road

For months, danger lurked on a dark road in the quiet coastal town of Kingston, Massachusetts. Rocks, some as heavy as 50lbs, started appearing in the middle of a rural road flanked by thick woods.

These rocks would be placed sporadically, “mostly during darkness”, each discovery appearing to involve one wayward rock. Sometimes, motorists would simply drive over the rocks without incident while at many other times, “vehicles’ undercarriages were being ripped out, causing fluid spills, disabling vehicles and even causing airbag deployments”.

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US faces week of dangerous weather with flooding and heatwave alerts

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While the north-east was inundated by heavy rains, southern states are gripped by record heat levels predicted to intensify

Deadly flooding in the north-east on Monday coupled with alerts over longer, hotter heatwaves set to boil much of the southern and western US kicked off a week of dangerous weather, as July warnings about the climate crisis intensify.

Rescue teams raced into Vermont after relentless, torrential rain drenched parts of New England and north-east overnight, washing out roads, forcing evacuations and halting some airline travel.

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At a glance: what you need to know about Canada wildfires and smoky US skies

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Hazy skies hung over north-eastern US a day after the midwest received a similar alert from the Environmental Protection Agency

Canada is dealing with a series of intense wildfires that have spread from the western provinces to Quebec, with hundreds of forest fires burning. Wind has carried smoke from the fires southward, triggering air-quality alerts throughout the United States.

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday issued a poor air-quality alert for New England, a day after parts of Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota received a similar advisory. Last week, US officials as far south as Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania reported being affected by the wildfires.

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Pentagon leak suspect may still have access to classified info, court filings allege

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Jack Teixeira, 21, expected to appear in Massachusetts court on Thursday as prosecutors urge judge to keep him behind bars

The Massachusetts air national guardsman suspected of leaking highly classified US intelligence documents is set to appear in federal court on Thursday, after federal prosecutors urged a judge to keep the suspect behind bars.

Jack Teixeira, 21, is expected to appear at 1pm ET for a detention hearing in Worcester, Massachusetts.

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Democratic states stockpile abortion pills as legal fight for access looms

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US supreme court has preserved access to mifepristone for now, but blue states announce plans to safeguard abortion rights

Despite a reprieve by the US supreme court, a growing number of Democratic states are stockpiling abortion pills as the legal fight for access to the abortion drug mifepristone is set to continue.

On Friday, the supreme court decided to temporarily block a lower court ruling that would have significantly restricted the availability of mifepristone, an FDA-approved abortion medication.

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Jack Teixeira, suspect in Pentagon leaks, charged under Espionage Act

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Government to seek 10 years on each of two charges, says prosecutor in Boston court

Jack Teixeira, the air national guardsman arrested on suspicion of leaking hundreds of secret defence documents, has been charged in a Boston court on two counts under the Espionage Act as Washington reeled from the fallout of the worst leaks of US intelligence in at least a decade.

The clean-cut 21-year-old was brought into court in a beige jumpsuit, and his handcuffs were removed by a bailiff. He sat quietly, turning only once to three family members to smile weakly.

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Wellesley College students vote to admit trans men and non-binary people

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Proposal also calls for gender neutral language at women’s college whose alumni include Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright

Students at the famed Wellesley College for women voted this week to extend admission to trans men and non-binary students, though campus administrators have said there is “no plan” to immediately change school policy.

In a non-binding election on Tuesday, students at the liberal arts college in Massachusetts voted to open admission to all non-binary and transgender students, including trans men, reported Wellesley News, the college’s student newspaper.

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Authorities identify Massachusetts ‘Granby girl’ 45 years after she was shot

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Advanced genetic testing revealed the murder victim as Patricia Ann Tucker, who was found dead on the side of a logging road

For nearly 45 years, authorities did not know the name or life story of a woman who was shot dead and left off the side of a logging road in western Massachusetts.

But authorities ultimately turned to advanced genetic testing to help them solve the mystery, and they recently figured out the murder victim was Patricia Ann Tucker, who was 28 and had a 5-year-old son when she was killed without her loved ones knowing for decades.

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JetBlue pilot’s ‘evasive action’ averts crash at Boston’s Logan airport

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A Learjet on Monday was directed to wait for passenger plane to land but began to take off, forcing JetBlue craft to ‘climb out’

US aviation authorities are investigating a near miss at Boston’s Logan international airport after a JetBlue pilot had to take “evasive action” while landing when another aircraft crossed an intersecting runway.

The close call occurred at about 7pm on Monday when the pilot of a Learjet 60 took off without clearance as a JetBlue flight was preparing to land on an intersecting runway, according to a preliminary review from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

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Haunting new footage of Titanic wreckage to be released

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More than 80 minutes of rare and mostly unseen video was taken during pioneering 1986 expedition

Haunting new footage of the wreck of the RMS Titanic was set to be released on Wednesday, taken during the pioneering 1986 expedition that gave the first glimpses of the doomed ocean liner since its notorious sinking on its maiden voyage more than seven decades before.

The cache of more than 80 minutes of the rare and mostly unseen video comes from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOI) of Massachusetts, which partnered with French explorers in the discovery of the ship’s remains.

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