SAQM • 06/19/2023

Reflecting on Comfort, Challenge & the Quilts

I’ve been thinking about how much American culture values excessive comfort.

Instantaneous comfort, like a microwaved meal or directions from Siri.

Or material comfort: think gentrification, athleisure and bath salts.

Are those things really comforting?

The Sacred Ally Quilt Ministry’s George Floyd quilts, which spell out his dying words, embody comfort but disrupt it.

They’re items of nurture that were made slowly during pandemic lockdown...

Burlington County Times • 05/25/2022

Damaged graves leave South Jersey Quaker community uneasy about fate of meeting house site

MANSFIELD — Behind a peeling, two-story house that has, over the last 290 years, functioned as a Quaker place of worship, a school and a private residence, Thomas Barclay walked through mud. Around him lay toppled gravestones, rain puddles, coffin nails and two piles of dirt.

“I mean ask yourself, is that respect?” he asked rhetorically.

Burlington County Times • 08/08/2022

Here's how South Jersey's 911 dispatchers are battling industry pressures

Sometimes, when dispatchers in Salem County are talking to emergency responders, their radios pick up interference from a distant broadcast station.

"When that happens, we can't hear the responding unit," said Kristi Hunter, acting chief of communications for the Salem County Sherriff's Office, 911 Communications Division.

It's a technical difficulty Salem County literally can't afford to have.

Burlington County Times • 06/24/2022

South Jersey reacts to Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade

Susan Druckenbrod was in elementary school when Roe v. Wade was first decided, and spent most of her life unconcerned about any restrictions on her reproductive choices.

Now in her 50s, she is co-chair of the committee on racial and economic equity at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Cherry Hill and an avid organizer with South Jersey Progressive Democrats.

“It’s a very heavy day,” Druckenbrod said Friday. “I worry for younger women and what this means for them.”

02/24/2022

Gaslit: Straddling the divide between environmental action and energy revenue

COUNSELOR, New Mexico — Bright pink flags mark a swath of newly cleared land, rubber water hoses snake along the roadside and pump jacks dot the horizon, all signs of the state’s growth as an oil and gas hub.

10/01/2021

People are skipping home inspections due to Wisconsin hot market — but that could create big problems in the future

Wisconsin’s home selling market is red hot, driving prospective buyers to pull out the stops — and take big risks — as they rush to close offers.

Some buyers are offering tens of thousands of dollars over the asking price and are making cash offers with no contingencies.

Others are trying to speed up deals by skipping a home inspection – a thorough assessment of a house's systems. And that could spell expensive trouble for both buyers and sellers long after closing.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel • 08/25/2021

More homeowners are installing solar energy systems as federal incentives are set to decrease

More Wisconsin homeowners are giving their roofs a solar makeover to save on energy bills, help the environment and increase the value of their homes. Solar energy has become more affordable and more mainstream — driven by lower costs, economic incentives and more low-interest financing options.

Green Bay Press-Gazette • 06/24/2021

Wisconsin Dells, Door County tourism is surging — but businesses are struggling to find employees

Wisconsin Dells, Door County tourism is surging — but businesses are struggling to find employees.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel • 05/29/2021

'A dream come true': Rohingya group buys community center on Milwaukee's south side

A south side church is being converted into a community center for Rohingya refugees in Milwaukee, believed to be home to one of the largest populations of Rohingya in the U.S. after they fled decades of systemic repression in their native Myanmar.

Cronkite News - Arizona PBS • 04/28/2021

Travel nurses, staffing industry pushed to the limits by COVID-19

PHOENIX – On one of her first days working in an Arizona hospital, Kelsi Shawd placed the bodies of COVID-19 patients into cadaver bags.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel • 05/12/2021

'I can't wait to give 'em hugs': Milwaukee senior-living residents reunite with family on Mother's Day after a year of isolation

Barbara "BB" Bold couldn't celebrate her son's 60th birthday. Judy Levin canceled her flight to California to visit her daughter — whom she hadn't seen in a year — to quarantine from COVID-19 in Milwaukee. Shirley Langer, 92, likened the past year to wartime America.

The Montague Reporter • 07/23/2020

Evictions Delayed Until October as Crisis Looms

With federal assistance and protections provided under the CARES Act scheduled to expire at the end of next month, extended from an original end date of July 24, experts in economics and housing are warning of a national surge in eviction filings.

The Montague Reporter • 05/14/2020

Advocates Fear a Hidden Rise in Violence

FRANKLIN COUNTY – The number of domestic violence-related police reports in Montague has not changed dramatically since Governor Baker put a statewide stay-at-home advisory in place in late March, Montague police chief Christopher Williams told the Reporter yesterday.

The Montague Reporter • 03/12/2020

Local Towns, Schools Prepare For Arrival of COVID-19 Virus

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency Tuesday following an overnight spike in confirmed cases of COVID-19, the novel coronavirus that is sweeping the globe this month.