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Associated Press
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Book Review: A town struggles with environmental change in Kate Woodworth's ‘Little Great Island'
Mari McGavin is on the run from a powerful religious cult and her controlling husband, fleeing with her young son back to the tiny island in Maine where she grew up. On Little Great Island, she crosses paths with an old friend from her childhood, Harry Richardson, who is fleeing his own demons, in his case grief and painful memories after his wife's death. Harry is so bereft he can barely function as he returns to sell the home where his family spent summers when he was kid. In her novel 'Little Great Island,' author Kate Woodworth explores the relationship between the two as they navigate pain and loss, as well as their connections to an island being reshaped by global warming. Harry reluctantly allows Mari, who lived for years in a religious farming community in South Carolina, to plant a vegetable garden on his family's property while he clears out its contents and readies it for sale. They grow closer as Harry helps Mari and her 6-year-old son, Levi, with gardening chores and he slowly starts absorbing his loss. Distinguished retired diplomat Tom Estabrook, who knew Mari and Harry as children, is also a key character in the book released this month by Sybilline Press. Estabook, who spent many summers on Little Great Island, worries over its future as the ocean around it heats up, lobsters and clams die from shell disease and monarch butterflies on land largely disappear. Mari's father bemoans that his daily lobster catch is now just around 60, down from an average of 400 or 500. In Woodworth's skillful hands, Little Great Island itself emerges as a leading character, with vibrant mentions of the natural world that range from an osprey's hunting sound to lobster mating habits. As Little Great Island and its way of life are increasingly threatened, year-round and summer residents are struggling over the future. Some permanent residents are considering whether to move to the mainland and get a regular job in an office or shop. Others can't decide if a developer should be allowed to build an executive retreat center that could harm the environment and forever change the island's character. Mari believes organic farming could provide a sustainable way to save the island and its character. But in the end, as tension builds over a decisive vote, it's up to the permanent islanders to decide their path forward. ___ AP book reviews:
Boston Globe
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Demonstrators rally in Boston against Trump administration's effort to cut federal research funding
The acting director of the National Institutes of Health on Feb. 7 announced the agency would cut the rate on payments for 'indirect costs,' which typically cover things like rent, utilities, administrative staff salaries, and other expenses that are not directly tied to a project. Scientists say funding for those indirect costs are essential to maintaining the infrastructure that support research projects. Advertisement 'These attacks on federal funding are an attack on me, my coworkers, and working people,' said Tom Estabrook, president of the Grant and Contract Employees Union at UMass Lowell. A second separate protest that organizers are calling a 'rally to defend federal workers' is expected to start later Wednesday afternoon at the Thomas P. O'Neill Jr. Federal Building on Causeway Street. The demonstrations come amid an aggressive push by President Trump's administration to slash the federal workforce and government funding. Thousands of government employees have already been let go in the first month of his second term in the White House, led by the administration's Department of Government efficiency that has told agency leaders to plan for 'large-scale reductions in force' has frozen trillions of dollars in federal grant funds. The job terminations have come in different forms and have faced legal pushback. The White House offered a 'deferred resignation' proposal in exchange for financial incentives, like months of paid leave, to almost all federal employees who opted to leave their jobs by Feb. 6, but a federal judge blocked the plan. Still, about 75,000 federal employees had accepted the offer as of Feb. 12, according to the Office of Personnel Management. Advertisement The administration has also sought to let go thousands of probationary employees, which are typically workers who have been on the job for less than a year and have no civil service protection. On Feb. 13, Trump's White house issued a sweeping order for agencies to lay off nearly all such workers. That move led to the The workforce cuts have been felt across the federal government, including the Department of Health and Human Services which has 5,000 probationary employees, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, the Department of Justice, the Internal Revenue Service, the National Park Service, the Agriculture Department, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Foreign aid has also taken a major hit under the Trump administration. During his first week in office, Trump issued an executive order directing a 90-day hold on most of the foreign assistance disbursed through the State Department. Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued several specific exemptions, but thousands of US-funded aid programs around the world have stopped work, and the contractors who carry out the work have let staffers go. On Feb. 13, a federal judge ordered the administration to temporarily lift the funding freeze as they consider other lawsuits challenging the agency cuts. This developing story will be updated. Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Advertisement Nick Stoico can be reached at
