WBUR News

City Hall reporter Eve Zuckoff joined WBUR's All Things Considered to share three takeaways from Tuesday night.

Massachusetts residents who receive SNAP benefits may get about half their usual monthly payment of $324, on average. Food pantries are trying to do more to help. Recipients say they're eating less and trying to stretch food donations.

The seven-term mayor enjoys largely unchecked power, with a city council that rarely pushes back on his agenda. But nearly every council seat is being challenged on Election Day.

Area groups are trying to make up some of the loss in SNAP federal food assistance that started Saturday. The Worcester County Food Bank distributes food to meal programs, shelters and food pantries across the region.

The controversies around Maine's Graham Platner are resurfacing difficult conversations among Democrats about who gives them the best chance to recapture the House and Senate.

Boston University community members gathered around at lunchtime Friday to watch pumpkins fall off a roof.

Cog editor Cloe Axelson interviewed Sen. Elizabeth Warren, and her dog Bailey, who's dressing up as Stephen Colbert for Halloween this year. They talked about dogs, political humor in a democracy, and why she keeps moving.

Helen Kahn, who runs the weekly market for Grow Food Northampton, said a third of all market sales are from SNAP purchases.

Said Ahmed and the Rev. Miniard Culpepper are both political newcomers battling to fill the seat of disgraced former councilor Tania Fernandes Anderson in District 7, an area that includes high poverty rates, low homeownership and poor health outcomes.

Gov. Maura Healey's cabinet has seen major turnover this year, in roles from veteran services to transportation, as the first-term Democrat faces reelection in 2026 and a continuing onslaught from the Trump administration on federal funding, energy and health care.

Pediatricians across Greater Boston said they are extending patient visits and booking follow-up appointments to talk to families about vaccines, sometimes at the expense of other important topics like sleep and nutrition.

An exhibit at Harvard's Houghton Library showcases the work of the macabre illustrator Edward Gorey, who attended the university in the 1940s.

Two IRS workers in New England say they are furloughed as the government shutdown drags on and are concerned about their livelihoods. "It about time that we stop being used as pawns in this situation," said Beth Willwerth, an IRS employee in Andover.

A handful of local bands can fill up a venue as large as Boston's 3,500-capacity Roadrunner. Couch is one of them. After years of touring success, the group has released its debut album.

The artist was a cornerstone of Boston's Black arts community, welcoming mentees into his South End home and offering unwavering support. He helped shape careers, leaving a legacy defined not only by his art, but by the vibrant community he nurtured.

In 2019, John Hancock announced it had found a camera hidden in the women's locker room. But six years and one lawsuit later, former employees told WBUR they feel those at the top may have been more interested in protecting the company than finding the perpetrator.

Grounded in faith and inspired by his mother's teachings, the Boston artist was devoted to exploring Christian liturgy and Black spirituality.

Salem native Robby Roadsteamer was arrested after taunting ICE while wearing a giraffe costume during a protest in Portland last week. Underneath his absurdity, there's a serious aim: bringing laughter to highly charged situations.

A pair of landmark exhibitions at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and Boston Athenaeum celebrate Allan Rohan Crite's vivid portrayals of Black life in Boston. Featuring more than 100 works, the retrospectives honor the legacy of a pioneering artist who captured the spirit and daily rhythms of the city's neighborhoods.

Screening as part of the Boston Palestine Film Festival, “Put Your Hand on Your Soul and Walk” depicts one year of Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassona's life in Gaza, culminating in her death in an Israeli airstrike shortly before the documentary premiered at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

Bucknell University womens rowing coach and Brookline native, Katy Ruderman is leading the team in their first regatta appearance in six years.

Hundreds of local giant pumpkin growers race toward personal bests and heaviest weights. And this is their season. Their Super Bowl is the Topsfield Fair, when the best bring their giant pumpkins to compete for the title and the prize money.

It's getting harder for immigrants to win release from custody, even when they're in dire health.

The job market is lagging, according to numbers and firsthand accounts from job recruiters. The people who help connect job seekers and employers say navigating the job market has changed significantly compared to prior years.

“We chose the statues of Michael and Florian to honor Quincy's first responders, not to promote any religion,” said Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch.

In a campaign video released Wednesday morning, Moulton said the Democratic Party "has clung to the status quo," and it's time to "change course."

For many parents, giving a child their own smartphone is a fraught milestone. But some are finding ways to avoid its pitfalls and still keep their pre-teens connected to friends: they're getting landlines.

In the few weeks since announcing his run for Senate, political outsider Graham Platner is drawing big crowds and raising lots of money. But Maine's incumbent, Republican Sen. Susan Collins, is no easy political mark. Nor is Democratic Gov. Janet Mills, who may soon enter the race.

On its opening night in 1900, Boston's Symphony Hall drew patrons in more than 250 carriages and headlines nationwide. Today, the landmark's revolutionary acoustics — engineered by a Harvard physics professor — continue to set the standard for concert halls worldwide.

Chelsea is an industrial hub for the region and has a troubled highway overpass that cuts through it. But there's a real cost. Chelsea residents have been fighting to improve the city's environment and in turn, their own health. The latest setback to that ongoing battle: the cancellation of a federal grant to mitigate flooding.

Every year in the early weeks of fall, Aroostook County potato farmers race to dig up their fields before the first frosts hit. Since at least the 1940s, students get a break from school to help out during the busy season.

Cities are confronting waves of extreme climate challenges in their neighborhoods. Solution-driven designers and architects like Brazier are engaging communities in new ways.

Artist crystal bi is transforming Boston's public spaces with interactive events that invite residents to reflect on memory, belonging, and the power of imagination. Through collaborative experiences inspired by ancestral traditions and local history, bi encourages Bostonians to envision a more inclusive and hopeful future for their city.

In downtown Boston, the artist's installation “SONG/LAND/SEA: WAI Water Warning” rings out a message about climate change.

The Providence musician released his first album of Black mountain music during America's racial reckoning. Amid Trump's DEI purge and environmental collapse, his Afrofuturist folk hits different.

Activists connected through an immigrant advocacy group called LUCE are documenting arrests throughout the state. The "ICE watchers" record the names of those detained to make sure they're accounted for, and help family members connect to resources.

Known for projects that explore heritage, motherhood, and resilience, Nixon-Silberg uses repurposed fabrics and deep-rooted storytelling to help Boston's young people find meaning in their histories and repair what has been lost — one stitch at a time.

Using materials like plaster, glass and wire, the artist creates abstract, textured wall sculptures inspired by forms found in nature. Nanajian tries to represent all the ways that human memory can be preserved, changed or lost.

The Nipmuc cultural steward teaches traditional Indigenous arts and advocates for Indigenous communities to be able to access, and even help manage, conservation land.

If you ride the MBTA, chances are you've seen an alert about a signal problem delaying your train. The T is in the middle of a project to improve the signal system on the Red and Orange lines so it can react to problems faster.

The Iranian-born artist transforms memories and conversations into visual stories. Exploring longing, displacement, and belonging, Sarabi charts connections between cultures, people and place, even from oceans apart.

The Boston artist is using her background in environmental science and activism to train and empower the next generation of dance leaders. “Culture is really an integral part of resiliency and survival,” Molinar said.