What to call it?

For the past 4½ years, I have been living, or as I prefer, thriving, in an assisted living facility in Newburyport without assistance.

Our society is fueled by artists whose work provides entertainment, education and enjoyment for us to view and absorb.

Just in time for Earth Day 2021, environmental advocates have recently enjoyed some major – and long overdue - successes. Only three months into the year and the forecast for dealing with the climate crisis seems to be looking up.

Last year was one of the warmest years on record. And that wasn’t a 2020 fluke.

I have been noticing more forsythia and dogwoods in bloom around the area. More flowers are blooming in yards as the weather slowly warms.

In the current time of COVID-19, students have been struggling more than ever.

To the editor:

This one, I wasn’t expecting.

We’ve hit the one-year mark since the COVID-19 pandemic began to impact the United States.

Approximately 1,000 Americans were shot and killed at the hands of the police in 2020.

The United States is facing a growing representation crisis. While our population continues to grow, the number of elected officials representing us at the highest levels of government has not changed in more than a century. As a result, our Congress has among the most disproportionate repre…

How many times in the last 12 months have you said to someone that you felt like you were living in "The Twilight Zone"?

I was a churchgoer in my youth, but being in the military changed all of that. As a young guy, Sundays were always church days.

Teen jobs are always difficult to navigate, however, during a pandemic everything feels more complicated.

I pay moderate attention to my carbon footprint. You probably do, too. It just seems like the right thing to do.

If elections have consequences, as the cliche goes, then so do lies. Both kinds of consequences were on display last week in Georgia.

NEWBURYPORT, April 1 — Local historian Helen Highwater hopes to wow both City Hall and the Chamber of Commerce at today's annual "Up Newburyport" conference with a daring, ingenious plan to raise funds to offset a year of COVID-19 losses.

When do you think you'll hear pop-pop-pop and wonder what the sound is, and where it's coming from?

I have been thinking long and hard about this, and I believe I have come to a conclusion about at least one problem plaguing society these days.

There’s some scientific justification for using vaccine passports to allow vaccinated people — and only vaccinated people — back into restaurants, movie theaters and other indoor spaces.

Every now and then, my sister and I will talk on the phone between Athol and Newburyport. Almost always, the talk will turn to the past.

As Massachusetts observes World Water Day today, March 22, our state’s communities have particular reason to celebrate.

I just couldn’t believe how fast things were moving. One day, I was finishing basic training and the next thing I knew, I was boarding a troop ship to Europe.

March has an interesting gravitas to it this year. As always it is Women’s History Month and, on the 8th, we celebrated International Women’s Day.

It is clear that it’s time to get all of our kids back to school, full time, now.

Well, it’s been a quiet winter on Plum Island, my retreat from the mania of the mainland where all the Port's coffee shops are being evicted by landlords hungry for higher rent paid by yet more chain restaurants and jewelry shops.

One rainy Sunday morning recently, I took our youngest, a 3-year-old girl, for a quick trip into Henry Bear’s Park.

I’ve been using the phrase “the right side of history” for many years. Recently, I’ve been taking a closer look at the assumptions behind it, their possibilities and their limitations.

The word "funky" does not appear in my dictionary, nor should it, I suppose.

Black History month is almost over. This annual event, sparked a memory. When I was a young lieutenant, I volunteered to serve as my unit’s race relations officer. I was subsequently informed by my commanding officer that I could not perform the duties associated with the post because I was …

It’s clear, this is not a bad dream. The reality is, without warning and after 11 years, Plum Island Coffee Roasters was told to vacate by March 31.

If I could get a do-over, a mulligan if you will, I would have been on the winning side of the plastic bag ban vote as a city councilor a few years back. Why wasn’t I? Well, in short, my research then was not on the side of the ban. Too many paper bags were being used in neighboring towns th…

First Commune, now Plum Island Coffee Roasters. And I’m still reeling from the loss of Greta’s Great Grains.

Salisbury, Rowley and Newbury are included in the Triton Regional School District while Amesbury, Newburyport, West Newbury and other surrounding towns have separate school districts. They all are great communities filled with kind and wonderful people. 

When I think back to my high school days in the late 1930s, not many people were thinking about going to college.