In April 2024, Massachusetts State Police rolled out a voluntary Blue Envelope Program to protect autistic drivers and officers. But the program must still be codified into law to ensure its longevity and because the envelopes are meaningless if someone drives through a city or town that is unfamiliar with the program, writes Ilyse Levine-Kanji.
Almost exactly 140 years ago, in an April 1886 decision, the Supreme Court called voting the "fundamental political right, because [it is] preservative of all rights." That right is now in danger, writes Traci Griffith of the ACLU.
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The running community lost a legend last week: Bob Hall, the first person to ever race the Boston Marathon in a wheelchair, died at 74. Cog editor Cloe Axelson talked...
"I had always thought of running as an individual sport, a place to measure myself against a watch," writes Mike Dlott. "But by midlife I was slower, and the old...
Most schools in Massachusetts now have AEDs. But ownership is not the same as access, writes Courtney Desy. “If the device is locked in the nurse’s office or in a...
A 100% renewable energy grid isn’t realistic in New England, given increased demand, weather and other factors, writes Frederick Hewett. We need an approach that includes nuclear power.
Cog editor Sara Shukla wrote an essay this week about the Artemis II mission, and there were countless moments of “moon joy” she wished she could have included. Here are...
A few months ago, Linda Button traveled to Seoul for a Hanmadang, a taekwondo festival. Button, a black belt, has been practicing for 20 years. At 68, she was one...
Climate change costs include higher home insurance bills, disaster recovery costs in the form of higher taxes and health damages from wildfire smoke and extreme weather. "In short, climate inaction...
"This is what we owe the people of the past," says Emily Franklin, in an interview with Cog editor Sara Shukla. "Not only giving them voices, but bringing their stories...
When Emily Franklin began her historical fiction novel, “Love & Other Monsters,” she knew only a little about Mary Shelley’s stepsister, Claire: her wit, her relationship with Lord Byron, her...
"I realize we’re not going back to the days of frequent phone calls," writes Lauren Kleutsch. "So over the past year or so, I’ve tried something different: voice notes."
"Are you aware that lemons were a botanical accident?" asks Cloe Axelson, who returned from a recent family vacation dreaming of lemons.
Jonathan D. Fitzgerald grew up playing video games, but he worried about modern gaming culture’s reputation problem when it came to his son — until just recently. “Having spent over...
After cancer treatment in her early 20s, Madison Chapman found comfort in a cardinal who visited a feeder outside her window. "I’d come to rely on the bird feeder, each...
Cog editor Kate Neale Cooper isn't a big college basketball fan — she spent more time writing this than filling out her bracket — but she's a big fan of...
This is a most unusual story about an affectionate duck, grief and the signs nature provides when we need them. Journalist Phyllis Karas explains.
"Some might say it’s frivolous to get so worked up about a sport that involves humans bouncing a ball on a wooden court and launching it into the air, hoping...
Julie Wittes Schlack volunteers with new immigrants to the U.S., helping them get settled. The Trump administration's cuts to food benefits have forced one of the immigrants Julie supports, Adje,...
WBUR senior correspondent and host Deb Becker remembers her unlikely friend Larry Clifford, who died in February at the age of 89. "We didn’t always agree," writes Becker, "but kindness...
"There are so few areas in adulthood where my input can come even reasonably close to predicting the output. Words are squishy, people are complicated, my kids exist to push...
