Massachusetts

For years I’ve invited friends to my summer beach cottage and provided all the food. Now with prices on the rise, I need help with the grocery bills. Is there a delicate way to ask for a donation or supermarket gift card? If not, what do you advise? We’re mining the archives for some of Robin Abrahams’s hit columns you may have missed (this one is from 2008). But keep your questions coming for the future! There isn’t a delicate way, so be upfront about the matter. Acknowledge the awkwardness...

It began with what seemed like a standard upper respiratory infection. As symptoms persisted, I quickly found myself at an urgent care clinic, making subsequent calls to my physician. I’ve been coughing since early April. At least that’s how it feels. As someone who’s battled seasonal allergies my entire life, with a touch of asthma in the mix, I’m used to springtime discomfort. The sneezing and watery eyes are usually just the beginning with the release of tree pollen this time of year. My doctors cycled through treatments: first antibiotics,...

All the stars were shining on Monday night at Gillette, where Kendrick Lamar and SZA performed for a sold-out stadium full of fans. Here are some of the highlights from the Grand National Tour . Lamar kicked off the show with “wacced out murals,” and was later joined on stage by SZA, who greeted fans with a “Hello, Boston!” Lamar used the song “Angel” by Anita Baker, whom he has referenced on several “GNX” songs, including “wacced out murals” and “gloria,” as a transition into “tv off.” On the single,...

“We thank each and every one of you for all that you bring to this community, and hope that you will carry on the mission to feed your communities and create the worlds you want to see through resilient, hyper-local food systems,” Freight Farms wrote in an email to clients, obtained by the Globe. The company ceased operations on April 30, it wrote in an email to clients, the same day it filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy protection in federal bankruptcy court in Massachusetts. Freight Farms, a Boston agricultural tech...

Confronting the very real risk of throwing their countries into costly recessions, the United States and China agreed over the weekend to a 90-day cease-fire in their trade war. Breaking up is hard to do. This column is from Trendlines, my business newsletter that covers the forces shaping the economy in Boston and beyond. If you’d like to receive it via email on Mondays and Thursdays, sign up here . The two sides will roll back most of the tariffs they imposed on each other, backing away — at least...

Michelin traditionally uses five criteria to evaluate restaurants: quality products; harmony of flavors; mastery of cooking techniques; voice and personality of the chef as reflected in the cuisine; consistency between each visit and throughout the menu. Michelin uses anonymous inspectors who visit restaurants multiple times throughout the year. A spokesperson from tourism organization Meet Boston, which partnered with Michelin to bring the coveted guide to the area, says that the included restaurants will be inside the Route 95/128 corridor.

The Boston Globe’s investigative Spotlight team has been reporting on wrongdoing for decades—before and after its stunning exposure, in 2003, of the vast Catholic Church child-sexual-abuse crisis, dramatized in Tom McCarthy’s movie “Spotlight,” in 2015. Its latest exposé is “Spotlight: Snitch City,” a print and podcast series about how police have abused the confidential-informant system in the historic port city of New Bedford, Massachusetts.

Tom Cruise kicks off the season with the “final” installment of the “Mission: Impossible” series, which began an unbelievable 29 years ago. While we’ve gotten older, Mr. Cruise has gotten bolder, choosing to accept the death-defying stunts he keeps doing in these movies. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the first true-blue summer blockbuster, Steven Spielberg’s shark scarefest, “Jaws.” While 2025 gives us a Spielberg-adjacent monster movie in “Jurassic World Rebirth,” most of the summer lineup is filled with the usual glut of sequels and remakes. Alongside Cruise’s latest...

Leaders at the Franklin-based school are awaiting delivery from Canada of the steel frame of their new building and hoping to be spared an unexpected $2 million surcharge on the already-expensive project. Thanks to the regional school’s multiple-town structure and the state’s rigid financing system, the only option to pay for that tariff and others is to cut costs elsewhere, said Brian Mushnick, the project‘s building committee chair. But at Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School and other projects around Massachusetts, another increase is looming: tariffs.