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.

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.

BY PAT BLAIS

Just about any bleary-eyed commuter trapped in gridlock on I-93 and I-95 has likely wished they could just fly over the sea of cars clogging their path to work or back home.

The Stoneham's Historical Society gets excited about pretty much anything from days-long-gone, but when it comes to its William Street headquarters in the center of town, the organization would welcome a touch of modernity.

Just about two weeks ago, roughly 410 pupils in Woburn became the first students to ever set foot inside of the city's new 71,000 square foot Hurld-Wyman Elementary School by Lowell and Wyman Streets. It's an educational milestone rooted in an ambitious proposal formally adopted by local off…

Every September since 1989, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration celebrates National Recovery Month. Cities and towns all over the country, including Winchester, participate with events and speakers to highlight those in recovery and shed light on addiction.

MIDDLESEX - State legislators representing both Lynnfield and Wakefield have hopefully secured enough money to finish design and feasibility study documents needed to bring a new recreational trail through both communities.

While detractors say communities should stay out of a private-sector contract squabble, a growing number of municipal leaders believe National Grid's months-long lockout of its unionized workforce jeopardizes public safety.

After serving as a volunteer captain with Dana Farber at the Boston Marathon Jimmy Fund Walk at refueling station #3, Burlington’s Andrew Verderame will leave his post this year to join the walkers on Sunday, Sept. 23. The walk is the nation’s most successful single-day fundraising event for…

It's the big developer's swanky and upscale response to the public's sudden and unanticipated revulsion to both indoor malls and taking up residence within sprawling, gated communities situated in the middle of nowhere.

Two Lynnfield natives' bid to transform one of the region's longest continuously-operating restaurants into a three-story apartment complex hinges upon the very history that drew many through its doors.

Analog Devices is growing, both in Wilmington and nationally.

With partisan politics pushed to the side earlier this summer to celebrate passage of the "Grand Bargain Bill", a handful of area legislators played pivotal roles in securing the deal to boost workers' compensation packages while simultaneously enacting a handful of business-friendly initiatives.

In a search for new town leadership, it’s been the best of times and the . . . not so best of times for Burlington and Winchester.

MIDDLESEX - One might say a price can't be put on history.

Jack Scribner is like any two-year-old boy. He loves being outside, being around people, laughing, and causing mischief. The major difference between Jack and other boys his age is that Jack is much tougher. That’s not to say most two-year-old boys aren’t tough, but most two-year old boys ar…

MIDDLESEX - No one knows when he developed the habit of scraping the metal identifiers together, but perhaps it began the moment the late John J. “Jack” Doherty crossed into Nazi-held territory as part of General George S. Patton's relentless advance to the Rhine River in the winter of 1944.

MIDDLESEX - With the fallout from near continuous construction activity spreading to the far corners of Stoneham, community leaders say utility companies have been delivering more chaos than public services as of late.

One of the most discussed issues in Wilmington over the winter and spring has been the fate of Sciarappa Farm, located at 333 Andover St. at the Andover line. It is a 68 acre parcel of land where 62.5 acres lie in Wilmington.

In an action that may doom the future of Lynnfield's privately-operated Sagamore Spring Golf Club, Town Meeting participants a few weeks ago rejected a proposal to erect a 154-unit senior housing complex on a portion of the recreational site off of Main Street.

Sometimes plans to erect a marvelous gateway cries out to those accustomed to making grand entrances.

Four students from Shawsheen Tech - Madison Shipka, Brayden Taylor, Matt Canadas, and Drew Miller - got together last year to create Flashing Floral Lights, an audio and visual system for floral arrangements, providing users with selectable constant colors to the arrangement while offering t…

For more than a decade now, talking trash in Stoneham has heaped controversy and division like few other issues in town.

BURLINGTON - With the promise of the high-tech era giving rise to innovations once considered limited to the pages of science fiction lore, the country's top military brass and homeland security experts say laboratory researchers in rogue nations could easily tip the balance of world power.

Three years ago, Winchester residents Sue Dobler and Mary Fuller led a charge to make the environment (at least in Winchester) greener by sponsoring a warrant article for Fall Town Meeting that would ban plastic bags at checkout. While the motion ultimately failed, the vote was close enough …

Lynnfield voters will later this month consider whether to indirectly sanction the construction of an age-restricted housing development along the eastern side of the private Sagamore Spring Golf Club.

MIDDLESEX - An institution that lured thousands into the community every year, the landmark Montvale Plaza will soon vanish from its Montvale Avenue perch near the gateway into Stoneham Square.