Latest news with #Hallowell
Irish Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon: Fictionalised murder mystery inspired by a towering real-life midwife
The Frozen River Author : Ariel Lawhon ISBN-13 : 9781800755529 Publisher : Swift Press Guideline Price : £14.99 In November 1789, midwife and healer Martha Ballard is summoned to determine the cause of death of a man entombed in Maine's frozen Kennebec River. Her profession ensures she is more aware than most of the intimate lives of her close-knit community of Hallowell. Ballard keeps a diary, in which she not only records births and deaths, but also any crimes brought to her attention. She had noted the dead man's name months earlier as one of two alleged rapists of a local woman. Ballard declares the death a murder, but when the town's new physician disagrees, she decides to investigate alone. From the striking opening scene describing the frozen body to the thrilling showdown and delivery of justice – in several forms – months later, this dramatic narrative powers along as sure and strong as the Kennebec itself. A bestselling author of historical fiction, Lawhon has always taken pride in sticking closely to fact. The Frozen River is inspired by real events rather than based on them, making it her first deviation from 'biographical fiction'. She alters dates and events to suit her narrative, yet Martha Ballard (who delivered more than 1,000 babies in her career without losing a mother in childbirth) and her diaries were very real. It was unusual for a woman in Ballard's situation to be literate, making her decades of record-keeping even more remarkable. Lawhon's Martha regards her diary as a form of safekeeping, a chronicle of facts not feelings: 'Memory is a wicked thing that warps and twists. But paper and ink receive the truth without emotion, and they read it back without impartiality.' The imagery is consistently imaginative and period-specific ('the light feels weak and sickly, as though sifted through old cheesecloth') and Martha's character and her relationship with her community and family make for compelling reading. The research underpinning The Frozen River is impressively extensive, though the serving sizes can be large, such as passages about the ratification of the constitution or the workings of the legal system. Martha Ballard's life and legacy are impressive. She was great-aunt to Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, and great-great-grandmother of one of America's first female physicians. Through fiction, Lawhon celebrates and honours a memorable, and very real, woman.
Axios
25-04-2025
- Automotive
- Axios
MBTA will use cameras to crack down on parking in bus stops, lanes
Boston drivers will have a new reason to quit parking in bus lanes later this year: bus-mounted cameras that can read license plates and issue tickets. Why it matters: The MBTA is taking advantage of a new law that allows the agency to fine vehicles stopped where they shouldn't be. The hit could be $25-$125. State of play: The T has 7,000 bus stops and more than 40 miles of dedicated lanes. Some 185,000 people use them every day, according to the agency. Eighty-two percent of riders are low-income and 44% don't have their own car. Blocking the stops forces riders to get off in the street, slows the system down, and is dangerous for disabled riders, according to T officials. What they're saying:"We want to change behavior. We want people to obey the law. We are not trying to generate money," MBTA transit priority director Alexandra Hallowell told the T's board Thursday. "The first time you encounter our system, you receive a warning so you have the opportunity to change your behavior before you are being fined." The fines will go to the state's transportation trust fund, not the MBTA. How it works: The tickets will come in the mail to the address attached to the license plate. Commercial vehicles will face steeper escalating fines than private drivers. The T is considering using technology such as Flock to read the plates and automate the fines. If multiple tickets are written for an infraction, say from the MBTA and a local jurisdiction, one of the fines can be challenged and dismissed, Hallowell said. It will take three unpaid citations to trigger a vehicle registration hold through the RMV, but licenses won't be suspended for bus zone violations. What's next: The MBTA Board will vote on final regulations by August, and camera installations should begin in the fall. The first wave will be installed in high-traffic corridors and routes near medical facilities. There'll be a 60-day grace period after the system launches. The board hasn't yet decided whether first-time offenders will get fines or warnings.
Fox News
06-04-2025
- Health
- Fox News
Investigating Miracles: Are They Supernatural, or Just Natural?
Polls show the vast majority of people believe in miracles. But what is a miracle? When does a healing defy the laws of medicine? Investigative journalist and author Billy Hallowell journeyed through the realm of the supernatural and the natural to find out if miracles do happen, why they happen, and why they don't happen. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Hallowell talks about his documentary 'Investigating the Supernatural: Miracles', now streaming on Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN). Hallowell says the bar was set pretty high to determine if someone indeed was miraculously healed, that there could be no other scientific reason for the healing. The investigation focuses on several different people including the case of Dr. Chauncey Crandall, a cardiologist who prayed over a patient who suffered a massive heart attack and had no pulse for 40 minutes. The patient was given one more jolt from the defibrillator after Crandall's prayers and his heart began beating. But that was only part of the miracle… The patient had no resulting brain damage. But why was Crandall's prayer for his patient answered, and yet years before his prayer for his own dying child was not? That, Hallowell says, is part of the mystery of our walk with God in searching for a miracle. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
