Jamie Forbes’ initial hesitation to come forward encapsulates why thousands of sexual abuse victims stay silent for decades or their entire lives. After recently coming forward, accusing a former teacher at Massachusetts’ Milton Academy of sexually abusing him for months in the early 1980s, he watched as his fear came to life in a Dedham courtroom. Charges of sexual abuse...

Months after natural gas explosions rocked three Massachusetts communities, audio transmissions from one police department calling for backup have been released. North Andover police hopped from fire to fire, gas leak to gas leak, in a bewildering game of Whack-a-Mole in the first hour of fires and explosions in the Merrimack Valley last September, according to the new police radio...