A Prize in Providence
With this issue of the Independent, we complete Volume 5, our fifth full year of weekly publication — 261 issues in all. All those deadlines have kept us tightly bound to our desks, but Teresa and I...
View ArticleUnsponsored Content
Scroll down the Boston Globe’s homepage and you’ll come to a lineup of stories under the heading “From Our Partners.” They have headlines like “You can afford that big European trip — here’s how.” That...
View ArticleSpecial Delivery
This week’s issue of the Independent includes our annual statement of ownership, management, and circulation (see page A19), which the U.S. Postal Service requires of all periodicals that are delivered...
View ArticleStormy Weather
“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” sang Bob Dylan in 1965. Now, the weathermen are warning us about winds that would have been unimaginable 60 years ago. One meteorologist,...
View ArticleMisinformation for Voters
I like a good argument. That’s been true ever since I was a member of the debating club at Teaneck High School. We faced off against teams from other schools on subjects like socialized medicine and...
View ArticleHarris for President
“Why We Don’t Endorse” was the title of a column I wrote in April 2023 explaining why the Independent was not endorsing any candidates in town elections that year. “We are in favor of anyone who runs...
View ArticleThe Bubble Bursts
As this most anxiety-provoking presidential election campaign comes to a climax, we are here at our desks with our heads down, working against the weekly deadline on stories about affordable housing,...
View ArticleHope Here at Home
In the week since the election, I have read more than my fill of hand-wringing analyses, chilling predictions, and assignments of blame. I’m not going to add to that bleak collection. But I like what...
View ArticleGet Up, Stand Up
Billy Hough has been a Provincetown original for a long time, as fans of the singer and songwriter’s stage show “Scream Along With Billy” will readily confirm. Hough and bassist Sue Goldberg have been...
View ArticleTaking Account of Others
There’s a gift in this Thanksgiving issue of the Independent. It’s a special section called Young Voices, a collection of articles from past issues of the newspaper written by next-generation reporters...
View ArticleLet’s Get Personal
When the big-city press publishes a story about weekly newspapers these days, it’s usually focused on how they’re losing readers and going out of business. But last Sunday’s New York Times had a very...
View ArticleNuclear Reactions
Nuclear power appears to be making a comeback. After years of decline in the number of operating U.S. reactors, there are signs that new ones may be on the way. At a forum of the World Nuclear...
View ArticleCyberattack Upside
Santa’s got me thinking: What is it that we most want the kids in our own and our friends’ families to have this year? Recent news reports suggest that it’s not the latest smartphone. It’s something...
View ArticleCultch Clash
There’s a kerfuffle going on in Wellfleet over clamshells. The town shellfish department uses cultch — recycled clam and oyster shells that form a bed for oyster larvae to grow on — to expand the...
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Zigging and Zagging Through History
You know already that this is an odd and special place. It’s one reason we — and others before us — figured Outer Cape Cod needed its own newspaper. All of us at the Independent think about that fact...
View ArticleA New Year’s Progress Report
After three years of dreaming, planning, and raising start-up funds, plus a month or so of online posts, the first regular weekly edition of the Independent was published on Oct. 10, 2019. Like kids...
View ArticleThe Year-Round Bonus
Last week we reported that the Eastham Select Board had voted again, three to two, not to adopt the residential tax exemption (RTE), the option that enables a town to offer property tax relief to...
View ArticleInto the Vortex
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A polar vortex swooped down from the Arctic on Monday, fueled by climate change-driven instability in the jet stream, forcing Donald Trump’s inauguration indoors. But nobody in...
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