Advertisement
22 for '22: Read some of WBUR's biggest feature stories of the year
WBUR's reporters, photographers, producers and editors filed thousands of stories this year, from multi-day series down to quick-hit radio spots, talking with the moms, dads, kids, teachers, researchers, punks, patients, community members, workers, immigrants and everyone in between who make up the world around us.
Here are a few of our favorite features from 2022 in chronological order. We can't wait to share more stories with you in 2023.
Screaming their heads off, moms let it all out at Charlestown High
Jan. 22
Moms are fed up. Not tired, not overwhelmed, not upset — but fed up. Done. Crispier than a slice of burned toast.
Kids are sent home from school or daycare because of COVID cases. Work/life "balance" becomes impossible when you're trying to listen in on a Zoom call while your toddler is crying or the baby needs a diaper change. And with the stress and worry that comes with having kids who aren't old enough to be vaccinated, it's no wonder some moms just want to scream their heads off.
Visa renewal backlogs leave some Mass. workers torn between work and family
March 11
Dr. Rajandeep Singh Paik wants to celebrate his son’s first birthday in his hometown in India. COVID-19 cases are dropping. Cities are loosening mask mandates. People are planning vacations and traveling internationally again.
However, Paik, who lives in South Boston, cannot leave the United States because he wouldn’t be allowed to come back on his visa that expired during the pandemic. He hasn’t been home in more than two years.
Cooked: The weeklong challenges
April/May
As part of WBUR's Cooked newsletter series about environmentally-friendly ways to eat, reporter Barbara Moran challenged herself and colleagues Martha Bebinger and Andrea Shea to try their hand at going vegan, plastic-less and local, respectively, for a week. How'd they do? Well, change is very doable, but don't perfection be the enemy of good. You can check out the entire Cooked series by signing up here.
It's hard to avoid plastic while grocery shopping — even for a week
The thin plastic thread running between one leaf on my pineapple and its tag does me in. I don’t see it when I put the pineapple in my shopping cart, when I load the check out conveyor belt or when I unpack groceries at home. It isn’t until I chop off the top and tug on the tag that it hits me.
I broke the rules again.
I tried to eat 100% local food for a week. Here’s what I learned
On a drab April morning I opened my eyes and immediately felt bereft. I sighed, then pouted. My usual cup of comfort and courage was off limits. While the beans in my coffee press are roasted in Sudbury, they’re harvested in Ethiopia.
If you're like me — and about 66% of Americans — drinking coffee is a beloved, maybe even medically necessary, daily ritual. But I volunteered to go without it and countless other edibles sourced from far away for a week-long experiment in eating a 100% local diet.
Eating less meat is better for the planet. Could my family go vegan for a month? Could I?
One of my son’s favorite recipes is “dinner en papillote” — it sounds fancy but it’s just sausage, potatoes, onions and mushrooms, wrapped in aluminum foil and baked for an hour.
Voila — dinner is served!
In Chelsea, cooling an urban heat island one block at a time
May 12
A city block just behind the industrial waterfront in Chelsea is typical for urban heat islands across the U.S. Nearly every foot is covered by a roof or pavement. There’s a Boys & Girls Club at one end and a vacant lot at the other. Ten multi-family buildings with parking lots for backyards fill out the middle. A few weeks ago, there were just five small trees.
But this nondescript slice of the state’s smallest city is worth watching. It may become a template as municipalities struggle with longer, more intense warm seasons and heat waves.
State commission takes years to resolve discrimination cases. One took 17. Another took 15
May 30
Michelle Pavlov was seven months pregnant when she got fired. The owners of Happy Flooring in Yarmouth said they were closing their showroom on Cape Cod and couldn't afford to keep her on as a manager.
But when Pavlov started searching for a new job online, she came across a Craigslist ad for what looked like her old position — with one key difference: The post said candidates should be "preferably male."
Pavlov immediately filed a gender bias complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. Then, she waited. And waited.
That was seven years ago.
With ‘fentanyl everywhere’ and Black deaths soaring, advocates in Brockton test ways to save lives
June 16
Junior, a lumbering former high school football star, stood propped against a chain-link fence. He and his buddy chatted together, loading a crack pipe. He took a deep drag, leaning back to welcome a familiar surge of energy and clarity.
Instead, he collapsed.
“I was falling out right over here,” Junior said, gesturing toward the fence that separates Perkins Park in Brockton, from a church. “It’s serious stuff.”
“It” was fentanyl, the powerful opioid that can stop breathing in seconds.
We asked 8 child care workers about their joys and frustrations. Here's what they said
June 13
In June, WBUR ran a series, "The cost of child care," which explored how Massachusetts, a leader in public education, has some of the most expensive child care in the country. You can read the full series here.
Staffing shortages and high turnover have been challenges in early education and child care for years. But the pandemic has taken those issues from bad to worse.
WBUR checked in with eight current and former child care workers about the joys and challenges of working in this industry, and why some are leaving the profession. Here's what they had to say.
One last hang at the Pit in Harvard Square
June 23
The organizers of Pit-A-Palooza are aware of the irony. They’re putting on an organized, permitted event to celebrate the impending demise of Harvard Square’s longtime home of anarchy, spontaneity and youth culture: the Pit.
Nation’s first vaginal fluid transplants offer hope for millions
Aug. 5
Almost one in three women in the U.S. has bacterial vaginosis, and the numbers are even higher for certain groups. More than 50% of African American women have the condition. BV has been linked to serious long-term health issues and yet, for many people, medicine does not have a good treatment.
But now there is new hope.
This summer Massachusetts General Hospital started performing the first vaginal fluid transplants in the U.S. After years of delays, the hope is that this study will offer insights that can help the estimated 21 million Americans, from teenagers to middle-aged women, who have BV.
Crisis pregnancy centers are at the center of a renewed debate over abortion rights
Aug. 18
Little-known nonprofit organizations called "crisis pregnancy centers" are finding themselves in the spotlight in the renewed fight over abortion rights.
The centers, many of which advertise "free pregnancy services," offer pregnancy testing and ultrasounds with no health insurance required. They do not offer abortion services and are supported by anti-abortion rights groups.
Critics accuse them of hiding an anti-abortion agenda, providing inaccurate information and working to lure pregnant people to their facilities, so they can encourage them not to terminate pregnancies.
'The worst I've seen': Dental practices struggle with staffing shortages
Aug. 23
Dental practices are facing labor shortages that are delaying routine care for some patients, and the delays can stretch on for several months. The shortages are compounded by what dentists describe as higher-than-normal patient demand because of care that was deferred early in the pandemic.
Dorchester musician Eph See channels teen angst into buoyant pop
Aug. 25
Eph See stood in a recording studio at Northeastern University, practicing a passage on electric guitar, undeterred by inch-long, powder-puff-pink acrylic nails. The 22-year-old singer and songwriter was working out a song idea inspired by early 2000s pop punk. Eph had already laid down the main track, an ascending chord progression hoarse with distortion. Now they just had to execute a short lick — more of a flourish, really — that punctuated that triumphant final chord. On the other side of the glass, Eph’s friend Cheryl Tugade waited for the musician's signal. Then, she hit “record.”
How a Mass. law intended to protect victims became a 'gift to abusers'
Aug. 27
Groton police found the body of Mary Fairbairn, 57, lying in bed in a pool of blood. An autopsy showed she had been stabbed 27 times. Her husband immediately confessed.
“I killed my wife,” Gregory Fairbairn allegedly told police when they arrived on Oct. 19, 2019. “Just put a bullet in me.”
Though prosecutors quickly provided details about the murder, police used a sweeping confidentiality law to prevent the public from learning crucial details about what they did — and didn’t do — in the months that led up to the stabbing.
Chinatown’s 9-man tournament takes its Labor Day showdown to Providence
Sept. 2
9-man is an urban adaptation of six-player or international volleyball with strong New England ties. In the 1930s, immigrants to Boston from Toisan in southern China began playing the game on streets and alleyways behind the laundries where many of them worked. They'd string rope across poles to create nets and fashion volleyballs from rolled up towels.
Why electricity prices are rising unevenly across New England
Sept. 8
You may have noticed that your most recent electric bill is higher than usual — and if that change hasn’t happened yet, it’s probably coming this fall. These price spikes are occurring across New England, but bills are rising more in some places than others.
Some ratepayers in New Hampshire saw the price of electricity double this summer, resulting in bills up to $70 higher, while many in Massachusetts are only paying an extra $11 per month.
If it seems unfair, blame the energy markets. And if it’s confusing because everyone in New England shares an electricity grid, well, read on.
WBUR presents: The Makers
Sept. 23
For the third time, WBUR presented The Makers: 15 artists of color leaving an imprint on Massachusetts. This year, we asked you who we should highlight. The Makers were selected from over 140 nominations submitted from our audience, Instagram and Twitter followers, newsletter subscribers and beyond. We deliberated for months to whittle the list down.
With the help of an advisory panel comprised of members from last year’s cohort of artists, we selected the artists who have reached a point in their practice where they’re not only making waves, they’re elevating all of those around them.
After leaving 'Mass. and Cass,' former Sox minor league pitcher has 'team' helping him toward recovery
Oct. 18
One year has passed since Boston officials declared an encampment near Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard a public health crisis. At the time, more than 300 people were living on sidewalks, in tents and under makeshift shelters across about five city blocks. The streets were strewn with human waste, garbage and used hypodermic needles.
Mike Spinelli was one of the people living there. He spent about five years in the area, known as "Mass. and Cass," even through the depths of winter.
Natick and its police continue to bury allegations of sexual assault against one of their own
Oct. 30
On a quiet Easter morning two years ago, a handful of Natick police officers and a dispatcher gathered in a secluded parking lot to share some drinks and unwind after work.
The gathering soon got out of hand. The dispatcher, the only woman there, later told investigators that Officer James Quilty stuck his hand down her pants and groped her. Then after the four other officers left, she said he trapped her in her car, undid her bra, kissed and fondled her, and forced her hand onto his pants over his crotch.
But Middlesex County prosecutors say Natick police initially shrugged off the allegations. And even after the town completed a formal investigation, records show they didn’t initially seek criminal charges. Instead, they signed a deal with Quilty to keep him on the police force after a suspension. And Natick officials have fought for more than two years to keep almost all the records secret.
Mass. homebuyers pay hidden fees to lawyers for title insurance, with no state oversight
Nov. 16
Early this year, Peter Ott and his partner sat at a table in their lawyer’s office, signing a thick stack of papers to buy their first home. Like most people, they agreed to a slew of closing costs.
Several big expenses had to do with the property title – reflecting the couple’s legal right to own the Dorchester property, and that no one else could lay claim to it. They had to buy insurance on the title to protect the bank, the lawyer explained. She also recommended they buy a second, optional, title insurance policy for themselves, just in case.
Together, the policies would cost close to $4,800. What the attorney didn’t say: Nearly 80% of that money would go to her law firm.
'Officer shuffle': Some ousted cops find jobs at new departments in Mass.
Nov. 20
A UMass Dartmouth police officer gave a student a ride in his cruiser to her residence hall late one night in October 2010.
When they arrived, Officer David Laudon gave the 20-year-old a hug and grabbed her breast, she told university police, according to a department report. Laudon later texted her: "Those boots make me hot, and I want to go to bed with you."
That incident marked the beginning of a pattern of harassment, she told police, including alleged groping and unwanted texts and phone calls from him.
Laudon resigned after his department began an investigation, but the complaints didn’t end his career in law enforcement.
