Worcester, MA Weather Alert: 2 To 4 Inches Snow Risk Near I-290 Through 6...
Country Herald is Local News, Independent Pulse. Covering breaking local news, sports, lifestyle and events. Boston, Massachusetts – Snow will begin coating portions of I-90 and I-93 by late Sunday morning, setting up slick travel before a surge of Arctic air drives wind chills near zero by early Monday. According...
Bodycam Bombshell as Boylston Cops’ Fatal House Standoff Returns to the Spotlight
A newly released body-camera clip is pulling Boylston back into the tense night last March when a 25-year-old man was shot and killed during a police standoff inside a home. The footage, posted Wednesday by Boston 25 News, shows officers and a K-9 team confronting a person indoors in the moments leading up to the...
Why more Massachusetts drivers failed the road test in 2025
More Massachusetts residents are failing the driving test compared to roughly a decade ago. In 2017, the state administered slightly more than 170,000 tests, and 117,456 people passed, or 69%. In 2025, Massachusetts gave about 177,000 road tests, and 102,300 people passed — a 58% pass rate. That’s a drop of nearly...
Loan officer from Brookfield who defrauded MassMutual gets 18-month sentence
Brian Socha, a former loan officer from Brookfield, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for defrauding his employer of nearly $1 million. Socha worked for MassMutual Federal Credit Union. He was sentenced Friday, Feb. 27, in U.S. District Court in Springfield. He was ordered to pay $902,541.15 in restitution,...
Massachusetts state employee health plan to drop GLP-1 coverage
The Massachusetts Group Insurance Commission during a Feb. 26 meeting voted to eliminate GLP-1 coverage for state employees and retirees. Chair Valerie Sullivan said removing the coverage would help with managing the budget. She called the vote “a very difficult decision.”. Several commission members opposed the...
Worcester man sentenced in international smuggling ring
A Brazilian national who was living illegally in Worcester has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for his role in a large-scale international human smuggling operation that funneled migrants into the United States and moved them across the country, prosecutors said. Flavio Alexandre Alves, also known as...
Watchdog Rips Bay State Sheriffs Over ‘Chaotic’ Budget Binge
Massachusetts sheriffs just got hauled into the budget spotlight. On Friday, a state watchdog issued a blistering preliminary review of how the state's 14 county sheriffs plan and spend public money, branding the system "opaque, chaotic and deeply flawed." Investigators say many sheriffs routinely blow past their...
IG Torches Applegreen Rest Stop Deal, Puts MassDOT On Hot Seat
Massachusetts Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro has put the state’s transportation leaders under a harsh spotlight, sending an investigatory letter to Acting Transportation Secretary Phil Eng that flags conflicts of interest and procedural problems in the award of a 35-year MassDOT lease to Applegreen. The move...
New England’s lost farms a warning to rest of U.S.
When I was young, maybe 6 years old, I recall climbing up a long-retired rusted Minneapolis-Moline tractor at McCray’s Farm in South Hadley, Mass. There, lost in youthful imagination, I envisioned puttering down guess rows in the old tractor’s seat, its diesel motor puffing smoke. At one point,...
Officials issue warning after destructive forest insect spreads across US region: ‘Report any suspected...
The danger comes from numbers. Officials issue warning after destructive forest insect spreads across US region: 'Report any suspected damage' first appeared on The Cool Down .
