In 2014, Lutheran Social Services of New England became Ascentria Care Alliance. While organizational name changes and re-branding efforts have become fairly common, they are rarely just cosmetic, because they are usually accompanied by structural changes under the surface. Ascentria has changed profoundly over the course of a decade. Read more

No enterprise in the United States—or any market economy—could survive if it only counted the costs of doing business and ignored the benefits side of the ledger. But that is exactly how some Trump administration officials are insisting on evaluating the refugee resettlement program, according to a report in The New York Times this week. Read more

Trump administration officials, under pressure from the White House to provide a rationale for reducing the number of refugees allowed into the United States next year, rejected a study by the Department of Health and Human Services that found that refugees brought in $63 billion more in government revenues over the past decade than they cost. Read more

QUINCY – Thousands of children will be entering the new school year with new pencils and notebooks, thanks to volunteers at Quincy’s Blue Cross Blue Shield location. Read more

AMHERST -- When he was young, Rody Lipson and his father built a gazebo in the woods near his New Marlborough home -- an experience he described as "the blind leading the blind." Read more