Had it not been for what he describes as his "hands-on" nature, Woburn resident Judd Doucette's life might have turned out drastically different on Christmas Eve some 75 years ago.

For nearly 10 years, the Town of Winchester and the MBTA have been attempting to rebuild the Winchester Center Commuter Rail Station. The project has finally begun to move forward with the MBTA reaching the 60 percent design phase last month.

It has all the workings of a busy quarry: The roar of explosive charges shredding apart buried ledge deposits, the deafening clatter of heavy boulders being ground down into crushed stone, and the sight of excavators and heavy trucks crawling across a barren and earth-torn landscape.

By JIM HAGGERTY

Anyone in the month of November who sees a man in a police uniform with a bushy beard, a handlebar mustache or any type of facial hair, don’t be alarmed. He’s not protesting the department’s anti-facial hair policy and he didn’t get laid off but forget to return his uniform.

Another day, another 40B project in Winchester. Last month, the town held a public hearing with the Zoning Board of Appeals for a proposed project at 19-35 River St. (off Cross Street near the Woburn line). A couple of days before that, the Select Board weighed in with some concerns of their own.

Little League officials have hit a home run.

MIDDLESEX - Long viewed as one of Woburn's worst rush hour corridors, it's hardly an area associated with the ability to just slip past traffic.

It's a battle too often waged alone and with heartbreaking results.

It was once an ironclad and near uniform policy position: Dogs and public parks just don't mix.

On Sept. 26, 1969, a fire broke out in the Landers family home in Wilmington that claimed the lives of six people: Nancy Susan Landers, 37 years old, and her children David Landers, Jr., 13, William Landers, 12, Kevin Landers, 9, Lisa Landers, 6, and Kathleen Landers, 4. Father David, along …

Lynnfield’s citizens later this month will cast the latest do-or-die decision regarding the future of the proposed multi-million dollar Wakefield-Lynnfield Rail-Trail project.

BY PAT BLAIS

Imagine waking up and not knowing where you were or how you got there. Imagine not remembering the people around you: family, friends or caregivers. If that sounds like a nightmare, it’s a reality to the millions of people who suffer from dementia. It’s certainly not a laughing matter . . . …

For the better part of two decades, an entire generation of parents relied almost exclusively on videotape-cassette-format cameras to capture footage of their childrens’ milestone moments and momentous family gatherings.

Woburn officials earlier this month began circulating an ambitious fire department modernization plan that would couple the construction of a new headquarters off of Main Street by Route 128 with major renovations to three other firehouses.

The Rotary Foundation recently awarded a $30k grant to Rotary District 7930 to sponsor a Vocational Training Team (VTT) to Kent, England this past May. Winchester Police Department’s School Resource Officer Sergeant Dan Perenick was competitively selected to join a team of four School Resour…

It’s going to be a busy summer for the Tewksbury Police Department. The department is hosting two important programs aimed at keeping residents safe while children are out of school.

In just a few short years, Lord Hobo founder Daniel Lanigan and his team of craft beermakers managed to convince skeptical Woburnites that the city's first brewery wouldn't drag a steady horde of ale-crazed hooligans into town.

Rightfully plugged as one of the nations' best displays, Boston's evening fireworks spectacular along the Charles River might grab all of the state's major July 4 headlines.

In a region where many communities rigidly enforced strict minimum 100-seat capacity thresholds and prohibited liquor license holders from serving any patron unless they ordered a meal, it was once rare to stumble across an unlicensed eatery where customers routinely imbibed their own booze.

This morning, members from the Massachusetts Cultural Council were set to descend upon Winchester’s downtown area for a walk-through and a meeting to determine if the town center would qualify as a cultural district.

Woburn's indoor mall era is over.

Essentially declaring the northernmost stretches of Main Street as off-limits for any other type of development, Lynnfield's citizens recently defended the area's underlying single-family zoning designation.

Ask some people about climate change and they might tell you it’s a hoax, not real or even use the ever popular phrase “fake news.” Ask fifth grade student Malia Soderland from the Acera School in Winchester and she’ll give you a completely different answer (spoiler alert: her answer is prob…

By PATRICK BLAIS

By PATRICK BLAIS

Six years ago, two men responsible for placing two bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon shot and killed Wilmington native and MIT police officer Sean Collier as he sat in his police cruiser while on his normal 3 - 11:15 p.m. assignment.

A Middleton builder earlier this month shaved 15 units off of a proposed Chapter 40B apartment complex in Wakefield on the Reading side of Route 128.

Stoneham's voters could drastically change the political landscape in the community this spring by enacting a trio of Town Meeting initiatives aimed at establishing term limits, blocking municipal workers from holding some public offices, and allowing citizens to recall any elected official.

MIDDLESEX - In the end, area leaders conceded that when it comes to large-scale energy installations, public utility companies simply wield too much juice.

Scores of area residents intend to descend upon Hopkinton later this spring in an attempt to conquer the world's oldest 26.2-mile road race: The Boston Marathon.

Thanks to Massachusetts School Building Authority funding, Tewksbury has the green light to move forward with plans to build a new elementary school next to the existing Ryan School on Doucette Field, 135 Pleasant St.

With the entertainment industry drastically changing its brick-and-mortar cinema models, a pair of commercial developers hope Lynnfield's voters will likewise change their minds about allowing a movie theater in town.

(Editor's Note: In order to protect the privacy of Jess' family, The Middlesex East agreed to not identify her last name in this story. The letter A, representing anonymous, is used in reference to her last name to honor that agreement).

To commemorate its 375th anniversary, the Town of Reading has many events planned for May and June.

Even up-and-coming Hollywood screenwriters like Jon Hartmere Jr. can get lost in the almost mechanical routine of a hustle-and-bustle work life.

History buffs might find a stroll through Woburn's fire houses quite informative, especially those venturing to the city's Central Square area, where the community's Station 3 once housed horse-drawn fire carriages.

By RYAN LAROCHE

MIDDLESEX - Over the past two years, perhaps no other issue in Wilmington has sparked more controversy and division in the community than a proposal to erect a 48-bed detox center on a vacant commercial lot by the town's commuter rail station.

With many cities and towns thriving amidst a spectacular construction boom, area home values have burst through the ceiling that collapsed under the weight of the subprime mortgage crisis just about a decade ago.

The Wright-Locke Farm located at 78 Ridge Street in Winchester keeps expanding. The property, now owned by the town and leased by the Wright-Locke Farm Conservancy, was originally established in 1638 by Philemon Wright, and was owned privately (by the Wrights from 1638-1800, the Lockes from …

Jennifer Georgescu is both a mother and an artist. Her newborn child shaped her “Mother Series”; teaching her about life and death, and how motherhood changes your own perception of yourself. Before childbirth, you are living for yourself; after childbirth, you are living for another human w…

STONEHAM - Stoneham's leaders had roughly 55 million reasons to stay-the-course, but with each passing year, hope for getting state funding for a new high school grew a little dimmer.

Democratic State Representative Jay Kaufman has served the residents of Lexington and Woburn for two decades (give or take, as he actually served residents of Lincoln and not Woburn early in his political career). However, this year he chose not to seek reelection. In his farewell address, h…

Everyone has probably struggled through the unpleasant experience of traveling to a distant medical specialist's office or waiting for untold hours in an emergency room for treatment of non-critical ailment.

By JIM HAGGERTY

A four-sport athlete at Wilmington High School, Lisa Stokes is now using her athletic skills in another capacity, as Director of Booking and Talent Productions for ESPN.

Woburn's roots reach back to the era before the United States even existed.

MIDDLESEX - Lynnfield officials may have secured a game-changing victory over sharing-economy giants like AirBnB and VRBO without ever having to step into a courtroom to face lawyers for the new age businesses.