Minute Man Statue
The Vision for Lexington Committee conducts this survey every five years with the goal of informing Select Board, Planning Board and School Committee planning and decision-making. (Sophie Culpepper / LexObserver)

Hello, Lexington!

Good morning and welcome to LexObserver’s Friday news roundup.

Before you read today’s edition, just so you know, we’re taking a break for Thanksgiving next week (reporters need stuffing, too), so you won’t receive a Friday roundup on Nov. 25. You can expect our weekly roundup back in your inbox on Friday, Dec. 2!

Here’s Erin’s NewsMatch update for this week:

NewsMatch update graphic

NewsMatch is ongoing, and so many of you have stepped up to help us reach our goal! The donation meter is rising — slowly — but we have some exciting bonus opportunities coming up:​

  • ​On Giving Tuesday, we’re challenging everyone to help us find 100 first-time donors! We will get a bonus match of $1000 if we can get 100 new donors. So even if it’s $5, please donate for the first time on 11/29 or tell your friends to!
  • Also the week of 11/28, One2One Bodyscapes in Lexington Center has generously offered to match donations up to a total of $500!

If you’re planning to give, these are some excellent bonuses to take advantage of. Every dollar and every donor matters to us, and we thank you for your help! Have a safe, happy Thanksgiving.

**

Thank you, as always, for reading, and here’s this week’s news.

In this issue:

In latest town-wide survey results, resident desires for more diverse housing options, greater vibrancy in Lexington Center, improved LPS communication stand out to Town leaders

Results of spring 2022 survey were first published in August, presented in multiple fall forums and public meetings; Select Board, Planning Board, School Committee liaisons to the Vision for Lexington Committee reflected on some implications of the survey results in interviews

Results from Lexington’s third town-wide survey to gauge resident priorities and perceptions of Town performance suggested that, despite most Lexingtonians feeling generally satisfied about life in the Town, respondents share concerns about a loss of community in Lexington.

Keep reading
by Sophie Culpepper

With Haoyang Yu’s sentencing approaching in December, lawyers renew effort to have single remaining criminal charge dismissed on grounds of “selective enforcement and prosecution” based on Yu’s ethnicity

Previously, Court partly denied pre-trial motion to dismiss case; on Monday, CALex joined regional organizations in co-signing letter asking U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins to withdraw single remaining criminal charge

In May, Lexingtonian Haoyang Yu was found guilty of possessing a stolen trade secret – a microchip prototype owned and developed by his former employer, Analog Devices, Inc. – following a month-long jury trial where he was acquitted on the great majority of charges.

Keep reading
by Sophie Culpepper

Obituary

We are piloting the addition of an obituary section, and will develop final submission guidelines for this section after Thanksgiving. While we are piloting this section, we’re accepting obituary submissions for members of the Lexington community with one photo to community@lexobserver.org. We will update this page with additional submission instructions once we finalize our guidelines and process.

Community Submissions

To submit a community announcement, please contact community@lexobserver.org. Thank you!

(And if you’d like to submit a letter to the editor, learn how to do that here!)

That’s a wrap for today. Was this roundup useful to you? What do you want to see in this email next week? Let us know, and please ask your friends to sign up and DONATE too! Reach out to sophie@lexobserver.org with tips and questions anytime (and I’ll get back to you after next week). As always, you can also check out and share our website, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages. Thanks so much for reading and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!


Nicco Mele, Sophie Culpepper, Erin Sandler-Rathe and the LexObserver Team

Edited by Craig Sandler

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