1st. Erin Clark, The Boston Globe

SUMMARY: Patrick Lupien and Mariah LeMieux-Lupien knew they were going to be evicted, because they hadn’t paid rent on their apartment in Biddeford, Maine, for two months. The lapse was a matter of basic math: As Mariah put it, when you don’t have it, you don’t have it. The Lupien family then became part of an often invisible group known as the “working homeless,” people with jobs who aren’t making enough to cover the high cost of rent. The family’s experience over the next six months — sleeping at multiple campgrounds and in a dozen churches before finding another apartment to rent — offers a window into the insecurity and panic that come with raising children on the brink of financial insolvency, never sure if the money coming in will cover the bills today or the rent tomorrow.

2nd. Craig Walker, The Boston Globe

SUMMARY: South Station was once the city’s crown jewel – an icon the instant it opened on New Year’s Day in 1899. Bostonians marveled at its elegant Neoclassical facade, buttressed by Ionic columns and topped by a giant hand-wound clock modeled after London’s Big Ben.
Each morning, as the first trace of dawn kisses an inkblot sky, a crush of humanity begins its course through South Station: corporate suits hurrying to work, college students racing to class, weary commuters, lost-looking tourists, homeless people seeking respite after a fitful night outdoors.
A thoroughfare for most, a refuge for others. Tens of thousands of lives, brushing past one another in the chaos of the crowded station, thrust closely together, yet apart in their own worlds.

3rd. Jessica Rinaldi, The Boston Globe

SUMMARY: Wisconsin is one of the four battleground states that will be pivotal in the upcoming Presidential Election. For Democrats the path to victory will run through cities like Milwaukee, where they lost the confidence of black voters last time around. For Donald Trump the key to keeping the edge he won in the last election cycle will be among the farmers and evangelicals who have put their faith in him.

Honorable Mention 1. John Tlumacki, The Boston Globe

SUMMARY: The St. Louis Blues battled the Boston Bruins in a seven-game Stanley Cup Final. The season for both team came down to a dramatic Game 7, in which the Blues won their first championship in their 51st season of play. For the Bruins, the long season ended in disappointment on their home ice at TD Garden in Boston.

Honorable Mention 2. John Tlumacki, The Boston Globe

SUMMARY: The arm of Cape Cod has challenged the power of the sea for centuries, but the contest has escalated. Climate change is altering this vacation paradise in myriad ways, perhaps forever. The waves crash like they always do, but they are not the same. They come from the open ocean now. Families play on beaches that look like they always have, but the sand is not the same either. To see what is happening on the Cape, you have to know where to look. Tody’s storms and sea tear up the marsh and the shore. Homes along the coast are in danger. A warmer atmospher holds more water vapor providing more fuel for storms and hurricanes.