Kathy McCormack

Stay informed with Kathy McCormack’s coverage and analysis.

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America’s most famous groundhog sees his shadow, predicting 6 more weeks of winter weather

By Mark Scolforo, Tassanee Vejpongsa, and others

Brett James

Arts & Entertainment

Brett James, writer of ‘Jesus, Take The Wheel,’ dies in plane crash at 57

By Kathy McCormack, Josh Funk, and others

Kseniia Petrova wearing a pair of headphones

A Harvard University researcher was just charged with smuggling frog embryos into the country. Her colleagues say she’s doing critical work on cancer cures

By Kathy McCormack and The Associated Press

In this image taken from security camera video, Rumeysa Ozturk, a 30-year-old doctoral student at Tufts University, is detained by Department of Homeland Security agents on a street in Sommerville, Mass., Tuesday, March 26, 2025. (AP Photo)

Turkish doctoral student at Tufts handcuffed and detained by masked DHS agents: ‘It looked like a kidnapping’

By Jake Offenhartz, Kathy McCormack, and others

The outside of Leavitt's Country Bakery in New Hampshire, which shows a giant mural painted on its roof

A mural painted by high school students perched atop a New Hampshire bakery is the flashpoint for a major First Amendment showdown

By Kathy McCormack and The Associated Press

FILE – A Paqui One Chip Challenge chip is displayed in Boston, Friday, Sept. 8, 2023. A medical examiner says a Massachusetts teen who participated in a spicy tortilla chip challenge died from ingesting a substance “with a high capsaicin concentration,” according to autopsy results The Associated Press obtained late Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Capsaicin is a chili pepper extract. Harris Wolobah died on Sept. 1, 2023, after eating the chip. (AP Photo/Steve LeBlanc, File)

‘One Chip Challenge’ led in part to high school sophomore’s death, autopsy found

By Steve LeBlanc, Kathy McCormack, and others

Sean Young

New Hampshire donut censorship and the ‘speech police’: Local bakery sues over ruling that student-painted mural was advertising, not art

By Kathy McCormack and The Associated Press

New York City

Violent winds, inches of rain pound Northeast after day or tornadoes and blizzards south and west

By Kathy McCormack, Scott McFettridge, and others

Geoffrey Holt

New Hampshire town shocked by multimillion-dollar gift from trailer-park caretaker: ‘I was sort of dumbfounded when I found out that all of it went to the town’

By Kathy McCormack, ROBERT F. BUKATY, and others

Hurricane Lee

Extreme rains are pounding New England so hard that hundreds are being evacuated and a 15-foot dam is in danger of collapse

By Michael Casey, Kathy McCormack, and others

New York City

New Yorkers are getting a faceful of California-style wildfire ash—thanks to hundreds of acres ablaze north of the border

By Kathy McCormack and The Associated Press

A customer holds the door for a family arriving at Leavitt’s Country Bakery, Thursday, April 13, 2023, in Conway, N.H. The large painting of pastries created by students and displayed over the bakery is at the center of a legal battle pitting a zoning ordinance against freedom-of-speech rights. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A donut shop owner is in a showdown with his town’s zoning board over a pastry mural and his right to free speech

By Kathy McCormack, ROBERT F. BUKATY, and others

FILE – A conductor makes sure all is clear as the Amtrak Downeaster passenger train pulls out of the station, Dec. 14, 2021, in Freeport, Maine. Riders on the Amtrak train that runs from Maine to Boston will soon have to hold off on buying alcoholic beverages during the 35-mile stretch of the trip that goes through New Hampshire. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)

Amtrak is trying to figure out how to serve alcohol on a train that runs through New Hampshire after the state made a fuss

By Kathy McCormack, Patrick Whittle, and others