WORCESTER – On the last day of 2025, we look back at a year where the list of local news stories seemed endless. Many of the hottest topics this year, like immigration and the U.S. Department of Justice pattern or practice investigation of the Worcester Police Department, had long life cycles and led to ongoing reporting throughout the year.
As we look forward to 2026, here is a last look back at 2025 and the top 10 individual news articles viewed by visitors to the This Week in Worcester (TWIW) website in 2025.
Thank you for your support of our work.
1. Exclusive: Trump DHS Plans Immigration Raids on Churches Over Holidays
Published on Nov. 17, TWIW contributor John Keough wrote of a plan which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) to target Spanish-speaking churches across the country during the holiday season. Raids on churches took place in Charlotte, New Orleans, Chicago, and other locations.
2. Man Dead After Fall from Upper Floor of Worcester Courthouse
3. Auburn Police Officer Arrested by Massachusetts State Police
In April, Massachusetts State Police Detectives arrested several men, including Auburn Police Officer Dominick Boschetto, after an online sting. The charges filed against Boschetto included sexual conduct for a fee and enticing a child under 16 for sex.
4. Three Women Slashed with Box Cutter at Bar in Worcester
Three women, including two 20 -year -olds and another 21 years old, sustained significant injuries after an altercation at a bar on Pleasant Street in Worcester. All three received wounds from the use of box cutters.
This piece has images of the wounds the woman received. Viewer discretion is advised.
5. One Seized by Federal ICE Agents, Two Arrested by WPD
Federal agents arrested a woman on Eureka Street on May 8, leading to a significant crowd, mostly women, gathering at the scene. Worcester Police officers arrested the woman’s daughter, a minor, but those charges were later dropped. Ashley Spring, of Worcester, was also arrested and charged with a felony, which was later dropped. She still faces misdemeanor charges.
A Worcester officer charged City Councilor Etel Haxhiaj days after the incident. Both Haxhiaj and Spring face a trial in separate cases, scheduled for February.
6. Federal Govt. Cancels Over $1 Million in Central Mass. Leases
Just over six weeks after the inauguration of President Donald Trump for his second term, an analysis by the Worcester Business Journal found that the federal government had cancelled leases for properties it rented in central Massachusetts that combined for an annual rent of $1.34 million.
7. Worcester Woman to Voters: Reject Candidates that Protected Alleged Child Rapist
A Worcester woman, Heather Prunier, who reported in 1997 that the principal of Belmont Street School, John Monfredo, sexually abused her between 1991 and 1994, when she was between nine and 12 years old, appears in a video in October urging Worcester voters to reject the candidates that helped protect him. Monfredo went on to serve as a member of the Worcester School Committee.
8. Who Wasn’t Protesting in Worcester Tells the Story
A column by John Keough discusses the lack of diversity he saw in the crowd at the “No Kings” rally in Worcester in April.
At a subsequent rally, the crowd appeared to represent far more diversity.
9. Records Show New Details of Monfredo Sex Crimes Investigation
In early November, the Worcester Police Department released 23 pages of documents related to the allegations against John Monfredo. The department released the records to Heather Prunier, the survivor of Monfredo’s alleged crimes, who provided those records to This Week in Worcester. This piece covered what information those documents revealed, some of which appears to be in dispute with Monfredo’s long-held position that he was never alone with Prunier.
10. $3.4 Million in Federal Food Assistance to Mass. Cancelled
On March 31, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) received notice from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Northeast Regional Office that the federal government cancelled the allocation of $3.4 million from the Emergency Food Assistance Program (TEFAP) to Massachusetts.
