Leah Willingham, Author at The Rapid City Post

South African rowers, from left, Sheldon Krishnasamy, Lwazi-Tsebo Zwane, Lebone Mokheseng, and Sepitle Leshilo practice on the Charles River in preparation for the Head of the Charles Regatta, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi)

South African rowers of color become first to compete at Charles, part of larger trend toward access

October 19, 2025

Five athletes are becoming the first from South Africa to compete in the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston as part of a crew comprised of all people of color. The event is part of a multinational effort to expand access to one of the most exclusive, elite sports. In recent years, diversity initiatives have expanded in rowing. The first all-Black women’s 8+ from the U.S. competed at the Charles in 2022. Lwazi-Tsebo Zwane, a 23—year-old from Germiston, South Africa, said he and his boatmates feel very aware of the fact that they are role models for younger rowers.

A court officer clears the area outside of a courtroom, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025, at Boston Municipal Court, where arraignments were held for protesters arrest at a pro-Palestinian rally in Boston on Tuesday night. (Mark Stockwell/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

Pro-Palestinian protesters arrested in Boston after clash with police

October 8, 2025

Authorities say 13 pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested in Boston after a clash with police that resulted in four officers being sent to hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries. Police said in a news release that everyone arrested Tuesday is from the Boston area and between the ages of 19 and 27. Police say officers were stationed at Boston Common to monitor the rally, and that about 200 to 300 protesters later clashed with police a few blocks away, blocking a road, chanting and interlocking arms to prevent police vehicles from passing. The protest was one of many around the world that coincided with the second anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that sparked the war in Gaza.

FILE - Pharmacist Kenni Clark injects Robert Champion, of Lawrence, Mass., with a booster dosage of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination clinic at City of Lawrence's "The Center," Dec. 29, 2021, in Lawrence, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

Massachusetts state health insurers to be required to cover vaccines, regardless of CDC guidance

September 4, 2025

Massachusetts insurance carriers will be required to cover vaccinations recommended by the state’s department of public health. Democratic Gov. Maura Healey announced the move Thursday, saying the coverage will be required whether or not those vaccines continue to be recommended by the federal government. The announcement comes after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s extensive restructuring and downsizing of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For decades, the CDC has set the nation’s standards on vaccines. The recommendations were guidance, not law. But they were automatically adopted by doctors, school systems, health insurers and others.

Scientists standing by to rescue rare manatee sighted in cold New England waters

August 12, 2025

A manatee was recently spotted off the coast of Massachusetts for the first time in almost a decade. Scientists told The Associated Press Friday that officials are standing by to intervene if needed. The manatee was first seen July 26 off the southwestern coast of Cape Cod in the area of Nantucket Sound. Bystanders found it beached a few days later on the tidal flats in Mattapoisett and pushed the manatee back into the water. The animals usually find habitat in warmer southern waters. Experts say the animals could become sick, starve or die in the colder New England water.

Massachusetts Health Connector Executive Director Audrey Morse Gasteier poses for a portrait in the state health insurance marketplace's office Tuesday, July 2, 2025, in Boston. (AP Photo /Leah Willingham)

Fears in Massachusetts that Trump’s bill could unravel health safety net

July 3, 2025

In the state that served as the model for Obamacare, advocates and health care workers fear the Trump administration is dismantling the program piece-by-piece. The massive tax and spending cuts bill that got final approval in the House Thursday will strip health insurance from up to a quarter of the roughly 400,000 people enrolled in Massachusetts Health Connector, according to state estimates. The changes will create anew the coverage gaps state officials were working to close when Massachusetts in 2006 became the first U.S. state to require that nearly all residents have health insurance.

FILE - Tamara Lanier attends a news conference near the Harvard Club, on March 20, 2019, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

Harvard agrees to relinquish early photos of enslaved people, ending a long legal battle

May 28, 2025

Harvard University will relinquish 175-year-old photographs believed to be the earliest taken of enslaved people. A lawyer says the images will be transferred to a South Carolina museum devoted to African American history with a woman who says she is one of the subjects’ descendants. The photos of the subjects identified by Tamara Lanier as her great-great-great-grandfather Renty and his daughter Delia will be transferred from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology to the International African American Museum in South Carolina. The settlement marks the end of a 15-year battle between Lanier and the Ivy League school to release the 19th-century “daguerreotypes,” a precursor to modern-day photographs.

Leah Willingham.