WBUR News

Local officials and advocates in Maine are reacting cautiously after hearing ICE may wind down its "enhanced" operations in Maine.

As the Trump administration comes under pressure to de-escalate the immigration crackdown in the Twin Cities, mayors of both parties sounded alarms.

Healey's spending plan comes as state revenues are growing. But her administration is contending with an uncertain economic outlook, a president who's increasingly hostile toward Democratic states and a rising rate of spending that fiscal hawks warn is unsustainable.

ICE says its made than 200 arrests in Maine since expending operations in the state last week. And while the agency has said it's going after criminals, many of those detained are asylum seekers with no criminal records, according to their lawyers, family members and employers.

For 32 years, Olive McSweeney Sheehan has run a family child care center out of her Boston home. She loves the work she does, but she faces a stark financial reality. And with property taxes going up 13% this year, she's worried about the future of her business.

Matthew Shifrin is on a mission to make Legos accessible for blind people through his nonprofit Bricks for the Blind.

Nearly all of Massachusetts got at least a foot of snow Sunday. For lots of kids, that made Monday a sledding holiday.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu joins WBUR's Morning Edition to provide an update on the city's response to the winter storm that's dumped a foot and a half of snow on the city.

It's going to snow much of Monday, with between 2-4 fresh inches dropping before the storm finally ends between 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. But difficult conditions won't end then. It's going to be freezing all week.

Ed Freni, director of aviation for MassPort, joins WBUR's Morning Edition for an update on conditions at Logan Airport amidst the Boston area's biggest snowstorm in years.

While the exact totals might shift a bit, all signs point to a plowable, disruptive and memorable New England snowstorm.

Cassandra Linton, who runs a company that supports adults with disabilities, said one of the people arrested on the first day of the surge was an employee. She said she's concerned about what would happen to her clients, some of whom are nonverbal, should their caregiver be arrested while they're out in public.

Gov. Maura Healey had two points of focus during her State of the Commonwealth address Thursday night: lowering costs for residents and lowering the rhetorical boom on President Trump.

In early December, I went to dinner with coworkers and said something along the lines of, “There's this show I need to tell you about. It's about hockey … kind of,” writes Sara Shukla. Soon after, this show about two rival gay hockey players kind of took over my life.

Arctic air moves in Friday, followed by a nor'easter Sunday into Monday that could dump a foot of snow on Boston and the region.

St. Francis House leaders were worried the shelter was adding to people's stress instead of helping them. They hired an architect to make the space more calming and to make it guide people to critical services.

The MBTA's transit plans for World Cup are still up in the air, just months before millions of visitors arrive in the Boston area.

Dmitrii Georgiev was on vacation when he said his GPS led him to a U.S. port of entry in Vermont. By the time he realized that, it was too late. He'd spend months in a black hole of ICE custody and felt he was "not in America."

In her first term, Wu was untested — all possibility and potential. Now, her constituents expect her to deliver major improvements, and she does too.

A Trump administration decision to terminate hundreds of health services grants sent several Massachusetts mental health and addiction treatment providers scrambling for further details and plans to cover new funding gaps.

It's been a little over a hundred years since fishermen were free to catch shellfish in the Boston Harbor. But now, the state has declared that shellfish from parts of the harbor can be safely caught and eaten again. 

“ Stay nonviolent; observe from a distance; and do your best to not fall for the bait to create any kind of violent reaction,” former immigration judge George Pappas said.

A classically-trained, New England Conservatory grad is helping the Boston orchestra A Far Cry kick off the new series, "Amplified." Yeemz plays her cello beautifully in the upright position, but she's also created a signature, indie-folk sound by turning her instrument on its side.

The Coonamessett Farm Foundation is trying to create a market for species that prey on bivalves — especially scallops, which have dwindled in numbers. The top of their list is the moon snail, which is a common bycatch in existing fisheries.

"There's no easy solution," Berklee pianist Leo Blanco said. "The only thing I'm celebrating is that one important piece of the chess game was removed. They took a king away."

For his latest book, "The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn of the Century America," David Baron looked into one source of that fascination: a Harvard astronomer named Percival Lowell.

In the lead-up to November's elections, factions battled over a ballot question that would have changed overnight street parking rules in the Boston suburb of Newton. By only a few dozen votes, residents opted to keep the decades-old parking ordinance in place.

Rory Gilmore is the first television character to traverse the world as an unapologetic reader, writes Joanna Rakoff. She's also the first small screen heroine to be celebrated, rather than mercilessly mocked for her intellectual proclivities.

Local coffee businesses are trying different things to reduce the sticker shock for coffee lovers. Some have switched up blends with coffee from lower cost countries. Others have increased the costs of other goods instead.

Mayor Michelle Wu was able to create three fare-free bus routes during her first term. But the money for the program is running out, and the long-term sustainability of the program is uncertain.

The MSPCA has seen a nearly 50% increase in animals being surrendered to their shelters for housing-related concerns over the last three years. The organization is now offering new resources for families and advocating for legislation to make housing more pet inclusive.

The addiction recovery program in Gardner, Mass., is part animal sanctuary, part therapy center. The men who stay there get assigned to care for one of dozens of animals — from chickens, pigs, goats and even ponies — as part of their treatment.

Leaders at art museums have been grappling with a cascade of existential challenges in 2025. We checked in with directors at four Massachusetts institutions to see how they fared.

Based on the best-selling children's novel of the same name, the show follows 7th-grader Auggie, who has a craniofacial difference. The two actors portraying the character relate to the part, and each other. "It feels really nice to have someone who has similar experiences and struggles as me."

Cedric Lodge was sentenced to eight years in prison for his central role in a nationwide network of human remains trading. His wife, Denise Lodge, was ordered to serve one year and one day in prison.

U.S. health officials like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tout San Patrignano, Europe's best-known rehab center, as a "beautiful model" of long-term drug treatment. But it and other therapeutic communities hold infamous, dark histories, and some addiction experts warn the style of care can leave residents vulnerable to abuse.

Matthews Arena was the original home of the Boston Bruins, and the site of the first-ever Boston Celtics game. Northeastern University is demolishing its 115-year-old hockey rink.

San Patrignano stands out among the "therapeutic communities" that treat drug addiction. The 700-acre campus is nestled in the Italian countryside, and features businesses — built on residents' labor. Critics worry this model could lead to exploitation.

Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said ICE activity has impacted hundreds of cases prosecuted by his office — noting instances in which defendants got detained during proceedings, as well as times when victims and witnesses were afraid to cooperate because of agents' presence.

The rally was a response to President Trump's remarks calling Somali immigrants "garbage." Most attendees were not Somali, but rallygoers said they turned out to show their solidarity.

The Strummerville Ukulele Club members know that many people think of their instrument as a toy. But that's part of the point. They're there to have fun, play songs badly and sing loudly.

Boston University's Warren Towers is the largest dorm in Massachusetts and one of the biggest in the country. Its three-and-a-half year, $550 million renovation will improve the living quarters and also the building's greenhouse gas emissions.