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3entertainment

For Disney's 100th anniversary, 10 animated movies to watch

Maybe that’s why I grew up to be such a fan of Disney World (I’ve been there 20 times) and the Disney experience in general. Granted, my enthusiasm for the Disney experience doesn’t always extend to Disney movies, as this year’s reviews of “ Elemental ” and “ Wish ” can attest. Back in the before-times known as the early 1970s, my mom took me to the Loew’s Jersey to see a series of Disney double features that ran every summer. It was usually a classic animated feature and a far-from-classic live-action movie like “ The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes .” I was lucky to have seen many of the films we associate with the first golden era of Disney in theaters. Advertisement Speaking of “Wish,” that lackluster film is Disney’s anniversary present to itself. The Mouse House turns 100 this year (a milestone shared with its rival studio, Warner Bros., known for Looney Tunes). To honor the occasion, I’m listing my 10 favorite Disney animated features. Get The Big To-Do Your guide to staying entertained, from live shows and outdoor fun to the newest in museums, movies, TV, books, dining, and more. Enter Email Sign Up A few notes: No Pixar movies; that’s a different list. You won’t find “Fantasia” (1940) here (hated it) or 1941′s “Dumbo” (pink elephants, good; racist singing crows, BAD!). “Bambi” (1942) isn’t here — it’s a runner-up. Neither is the Tarantino-level foot-obsessed “Peter Pan” (1953). And I only chose two movies that were released post-1988, the year I became a jaded, cynical adult. (Sorry, Ariel and Genie!) A scene from "The Great Mouse Detective" (1986). RDB/ullstein bild via Getty Images 10. “The Great Mouse Detective” (1986) One of the few gems made during the much-maligned era that began with the mildly entertaining “The Aristocats” (1970) and ended with Disney’s nadir, “Oliver & Company” (1988). Features two icons I love to this day: Vincent Price and Sherlock Holmes. Technically, our hero is Basil, a mouse sleuth who lives in Holmes’s house, but he’s learned a thing or two from his landlord. Price, as expected, lends his glorious voice to the villain, Ratigan. He even gets to sing. Advertisement A scene from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937). Walt Disney Co. via REUTERS 9. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937) This one earned the nostalgia vote, as it was my first Disney movie. It was also supposed to be the first movie I ever saw, but on that same day, my cousin took me to “The Exorcist” beforehand. I was 4. Guess which movie terrified me more? Bonus points for naming a dwarf after my general disposition: Grumpy. 8. “The Sword in the Stone” (1963) Other than this film and “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” I hate everything that has to do with King Arthur. But then, neither of these choices is remotely faithful to the legend forced upon me in high school. This was my second favorite Disney cartoon as a kid (keep reading for what’s still my first). I found endless amusement in the exploits of Merlin, Archimedes the Owl, and Wart — I mean Arthur — the kid who would be king. I rewatched it during the pandemic, and it held up. 7. “The Jungle Book” (1967) Contains my pick for the best Disney song (“The Bare Necessities”) and the great voice talent of Sterling “Winnie-the-Pooh” Holloway, Phil Harris, and Sebastian Cabot. As the villainous tiger Shere Khan, Disney cast the star of the greatest movie ever made (“All About Eve”), George Sanders. Sanders’s droll line readings alone would have put this film on my list. Advertisement A scene from "Mary Poppins" (1964), starring Julie Andrews. The Walt Disney Company/Buena Vista Home Video 6. “Mary Poppins” (1964) This is a bit of a cheat — I hated “Mary Poppins” as a kid. Here’s why. “Lady and the Tramp” was the bottom half of the double feature I attended back in 1975. I wanted to see that, but “Mary” ran first. It was 417 hours long. As soon as “Lady” began, I fell asleep — and never saw it. As a result, I held a grudge against Julie Andrews’s practically perfect nanny for 40 years. Since then, I’ve come to my senses. This is a great movie, and Andrews deserved that best actress Oscar. A scene from "Cinderella" (1950). 5. “Cinderella” (1950) Sing along! “Cinder-elly! Cinder-elly! Night and day, it’s Cinder-elly!” Growing up the oldest of five kids, I identified with Cinderella. If only I had Gus the Mouse, perhaps Disney’s best talking-animal sidekick, to advocate for me. A scene from "Pinocchio" (1940). Disney 4. “Pinocchio” (1940) “Pinocchio” scared the hell out of me, and you know the scene that did it: That kid turning into a donkey is David Cronenberg-level body horror, and we only see the transformation in silhouette. It still scares me. There’s a famous song in this one, too, something about wishing on a star. A scene from "The Princess and the Frog" (2009). Disney Enterprises Inc. 3. “The Princess and the Frog” (2009) I was damn near 40 before Disney gave me a cast of characters who not only looked like me, but included one named after me, too. This is easily Randy Newman’s best score for Disney, sung by the great Anika Noni Rose as Princess Tiana, Keith David as the evil Dr. Facilier, and Jenifer Lewis as . . . Mama Odie. Plus, the animation is gorgeous! Get Jenifer Lewis to play me, and I can forgive that Tiana is the only Disney princess whose “happily ever after” includes going to work. Advertisement A scene from "Beauty and the Beast" (1991). Disney 2. “Beauty and the Beast” (1991) Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman’s best movie score is a highlight of the first animated feature nominated for best picture. Angela Lansbury singing the title song (famously in one take)! Jerry Orbach sliding his way through “Be Our Guest.” And then there’s “Gaston,” the rare Disney love song sung to a man, with clever lyrics so subversively gay I’m shocked Ashman got them into the movie in 1991. “You can ask any Tom, Dick, or Stanley,” the song goes about admirers of Gaston, “and they’ll tell you which team they’d prefer to be on.” A scene from "Sleeping Beauty" (1959). handout 1. “Sleeping Beauty” (1959) This is Disney’s most stunning animated achievement, from the intricate details in the backgrounds to the character design of Maleficent — before and after she becomes a fire-breathing dragon. It’s always been my favorite, even when I was a kid. Back then, the super-boring “Fantasia” made me hate classical music; this film’s use of Tchaikovsky ultimately changed my mind. Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.

79442632f8b8f6a33061a95fb6186d9b

1crime

Springfield police investigate deadly shooting on Albemarle Street

BOSTON — A Boston man who prosecutors said acted out a “one-man crime spree” over the weekend -- by vandalizing the Holocaust Memorial, Paul Revere’s grave and other tombstones, and damaging federal buildings, businesses and a police cruiser -- hurled expletives while facing a judge during his arraignment on Monday. Lawrence Hawkins, 46, is charged with vandalizing property, two counts of malicious destruction of property greater than $1,200, and injury to a church of synagogue. Additional charges are expected, prosecutors said. Judge Paul Treseler set bail at $22,500 cash, considerably higher than the $3,000 bail that had been requested by prosecutors. Hawkins was also ordered to stay away from all of the locations that were vandalized, to wear a GPX with an exclusion zone of downtown Boston, and ordered to undergo evaluation by a court clinician to determine whether he is competent to stand trial. “This is an individual who over the weekend was his own one-man crime spree down downtown Boston,” Assistant District Attorney Samuel Jones said in court. “He took bricks and rocks and threw them into businesses throughout the Commonwealth.” As Jones spoke, Hawkins began shouting expletives, loudly. “You (expletive) piece of (expletive). (Expletive),” Hawkins shouted out in court. The judge asked Hawkins to back down. “Sir, why don’t you have a seat? Have a seat and relax, OK?” Treseler said. Two court officers stood on either side of Hawkins, watching him. Jones said surveillance video captured Hawkins on a vandalism spree throughout Boston. Hawkins is accused of throwing a brick into a building on Charles Street South, smashing the front windshield of a Boston Police cruiser, breaking a window at a business on Washington Street, vandalizing another location at Court Square, and also breaking a window on Sudbury Street. Lawrence Hawkins (Boston 25) He is also accused of smashing windows at two federal buildings, the John F. Kennedy Federal Building on Sudbury Street and the Thomas P. O’Neill Jr. Federal Building on Causeway Street. Prosecutors estimated damages to both federal buildings at $20,000 to $30,000. “He took bricks and rocks and threw them into the glass of businesses windows and doors. He was seen on surveillance video committing all of these acts,” Jones said. Surveillance video captured Hawkins throwing an object at the Holocaust Memorial located at 98 Union St., prosecutors said. Police later found the historic memorial, which honors the millions of people who died in the Holocaust, vandalized with a brick on the ground. “These are random acts of violence against businesses, against property, the defendant having no wherewithal for the public and just going around throwing objects, causing damage to businesses, federal property, national landmarks and also landmarks for the deceased and honor for the dead,” Jones said. Lawrence Hawkins (Boston 25) Hawkins is also a person of interest in other reported vandalism, including at the Granary Burying Ground off Tremont Street where Paul Revere’s tombstone was vandalized over the weekend, among more than a dozen tombstones that were pulled from the ground and broken into pieces, prosecutors said. Six additional tombstones in the adjacent King’s Chapel Burying Ground were also vandalized. Jones said federal and park authorities are investigating and additional charges are expected. Investigators were able to trace Hawkins to the vandalism at various sites through surveillance cameras. He also trespassed at the State House building, from where a state police trooper drove him to a local shelter, Jones said. Police later traced Hawkins to that shelter at 112 Southampton St., where he was arrested. Jones said that Hawkins “has a litany of committed time” on his lengthy criminal record, which dates back to the 1990s. He also has been to Bridgewater State Hospital. “He’s not a stranger to the criminal justice system. He’s also not a stranger to the Boston Police,” Jones said. Lawrence Hawkins (Boston 25) Hawkins then began shouting in court again, and the judge asked him to quiet down. “Sir! Sir! Stop! Your attorney will have an opportunity to address me, OK?” said Treseler, the judge. Defense Attorney Robert Glotzer said at one point, Hawkins “seemed to have a productive life” prior to his criminal record. He is a graduate of Tyngsboro High School, attended community college for a year, is a father and has worked as a construction worker. Hawkins now resides in a homeless shelter and takes “psychotropic medications,” Glotzer said. Glotzer said it is “appropriate” for Hawkins to undergo a competency evaluation. “Order that doctor come down. He can go. He can go at this point,” Treseler said at the close of the arraignment. “Let’s get a doctor down here.” This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW ©2023 Cox Media Group

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3entertainment

Conversations and insights about the moment.

Pinned Every day at this week’s Davos World Economic Forum, I have had to respond to Arab officials and friends who are unable to sympathize to any degree with the trauma that Hamas inflicted on Israel on Oct. 7, given the thousands of Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza. These deaths, of course, are the result of Israel’s war on Hamas fighters who deliberately hide under, and fire rockets from, civilian homes. My own way of dealing with the nightmarish nature of this war is to focus all my energies on thinking about how to stop it. But I can always think about China, or something else, if I want. That’s not the case if you are Secretary of State Antony Blinken and you are Jewish and you understand how unspeakably vicious the Hamas onslaught was on Oct. 7. Not to mention if you understand that Israel has a right to self-defense, but you also understand that Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza have reached numbers you cannot ignore and that could leave a long-term stain on Israel and America. So when I was invited to Davos to interview Blinken before a large audience today, I asked him bluntly the question people here have been asking me: One of the things you hear so often from people given the high number of civilian casualties in Gaza is, for the United States, do Jewish lives matter more than Palestinian Muslim lives or Palestinian Christian lives, given the incredible asymmetry of the casualties? Blinken did not hesitate for a second to give an impassioned and heartfelt answer that I thought did him and America proud — an answer that neither obscured the vast human tragedy that has been triggered by Israel’s retaliation nor let Hamas off the hook for its role in starting the whole thing. “No — period,” Blinken immediately shot back at me. “I think for so many of us,” he continued, “what we’re seeing every single day in Gaza is gut-wrenching, and the suffering we’re seeing among innocent men, women and children breaks my heart. The question is: What is to be done? We’ve made judgments about how we thought we could be most effective in trying to shape this in ways to get more humanitarian assistance to people — to get better protections and minimize civilian casualties at every step along the way. Not only have we impressed upon Israel its responsibilities to do that, we’ve seen some progress in areas where, absent our engagement, I don’t believe it would have happened.” Blinken continued: “But that in no way, shape or form takes away from the tragedy that we’ve seen and continue to see. It’s why we’re at it relentlessly, every single day. All I can tell you, Tom, is just on a purely human level, it’s devastating,” he said, referring to the “gut-wrenching” suffering that Israel has inflicted on the Palestinians in Gaza. “But it also reinforces my conviction that there has to be — and there is — another way that answers Israel’s most profound concerns” about security. Because of deep-fake technologies and other distortions that are made possible by social media, Blinken added, “there are large swaths of the world” that “don’t believe Oct. 7 actually happened — they don’t believe that Hamas slaughtered men, women and children, that it executed parents in front of their kids, that it executed kids in front of their parents, that it burned families alive. They don’t believe it.” Therefore, he explained, when Israel responds the way it did, with seeming indifference to thousands of Palestinian civilian casualties, a lot of people think there is no context at all. The biggest poison around the world is the inability to see the humanity in the other, he concluded. “When that happens, you get so hardened that you’re willing to do and accept things that you wouldn’t if the humanity of the other was front and center in your consciousness. So one of our challenges is to fight that dehumanization — to find ways to diffuse it to take that poison out.”

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0business

U.S. Engine Maker Will Pay $1.6 Billion to Settle Claims of Emissions Cheating

The United States and the state of California have reached an agreement in principle with the truck engine manufacturer Cummins on a $1.6 billion penalty to settle claims that the company violated the Clean Air Act by installing devices to defeat emissions controls on hundreds of thousands of engines, the Justice Department announced on Friday. The penalty would be the largest ever under the Clean Air Act and the second largest ever environmental penalty in the United States. Defeat devices are parts or software that bypass, defeat or render inoperative emissions controls like pollution sensors and onboard computers. They allow vehicles to pass emissions inspections while still emitting high levels of smog-causing pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, which is linked to asthma and other respiratory illnesses. The Justice Department has accused the company of installing defeat devices on 630,000 model year 2013 to 2019 RAM 2500 and 3500 pickup truck engines. The company is also alleged to have secretly installed auxiliary emission control devices on 330,000 model year 2019 to 2023 RAM 2500 and 3500 pickup truck engines.

3ae5abbcd1a398f7442ba04ed720124d

5science

Researcher calls for investigation into the relationship between Harvard and Facebook

Joan Donovan, a prominent disinformation scholar who left Harvard University last summer told NBC10 Boston's @Issue that she was terminated from her position at the university as she launched a deep dive in late 2021 into a trove of Facebook files she considers the most important documents in internet history. The actions impacting Donovan's work coincided with a $500 million donation to Harvard by a foundation run by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan. "I am calling for an investigation into understanding how Facebook and Harvard in particular interact," Donovan told Cory Smith and Sue O'Connell. In a whistleblower disclosure, Donovan accuses Harvard of betraying academic freedom and the public interest to protect Meta, Facebook's parent company. Donovan is asking Harvard President Dr. Claudine Gay, Harvard's general counsel, the Massachusetts attorney general's office and the U.S. Department of Education to look in what she calls "inappropriate influence." Get New England news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NECN newsletters. "As researchers and as academics, we have to be above the fray," Donovan told @Issue." We have to be in a position where we can't be bought. And that requires the university to say you as an academic are telling the truth and we support you. And if a lawsuit comes, we will protect you. It's cowardice to tell a researcher they're not protected by academic freedom." The CEO of Whisteblower Aid, a legal nonprofit supporting Donovan, called the alleged behavior by Harvard's Kennedy School and its dean a “shocking betrayal” of academic integrity at the elite school. "Whether Harvard acted at the company’s direction or took the initiative on their own to protect (Facebook's) interests, the outcome is the same: corporate interests are undermining research and academic freedom to the detriment of the public,” CEO Libby Liu said in a press statement. In response to NBC10 Boston, the Kennedy School rejected the disclosure’s allegations of unfair treatment and donor interference. “The narrative is full of inaccuracies and baseless insinuations, particularly the suggestion that Harvard Kennedy School allowed Facebook to dictate its approach to research,” spokesman James F. Smith said in a statement. "By longstanding policy to uphold academic standards, all research projects at Harvard Kennedy School need to be led by faculty members. Joan Donovan was hired as a staff member (not a faculty member) to manage a media manipulation project. When the original faculty leader of the project left Harvard, the School tried for some time to identify another faculty member who had time and interest to lead the project. After that effort did not succeed, the project was given more than a year to wind down. Joan Donovan was not fired, and most members of the research team chose to remain at the School in new roles. Harvard University and Harvard Kennedy School continue to carry out pathbreaking research on misinformation and the role of social media in society. For example, a Kennedy School faculty member has constructed and posted online the Facebook Archive, the only academic archive that makes available to researchers thousands of leaked Facebook documents. As another example, a Kennedy School faculty member publishes and edits the only peer-reviewed academic journal on misinformation, the Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review. By policy and in practice, donors have no influence over this or other work.” During her interview on @Issue, Donovan pushed back against that statement. "The... thing that's confounding about their statement is... that research staff don't have academic freedom. Now, if anything in my disclosure kept me up late at night was the description of the one on one meeting I had with (former) Dean Douglas Elmendorf, where I make the claim that he intimidated me by saying I don't have academic freedom, which meant to me if I proceeded with the Facebook project, I could be personally liable. He's since doubled down on that in the Harvard Crimson and in (Washington Post) suggesting that that is the rule at Harvard. This raises huge concerns for the over 6000 academic research staff that publish at Harvard that aren't faculty. I believe that that is one of the crucial things that come out of this whistleblower complaint, especially. Before Donovan spoke with NBC10 Boston, Latanya Sweeney, a professor who leads Harvard's Public Interest Tech Lab, responded to Donovan's whistleblower complaint in a statement provided to NBC10 Boston by the Harvard Kennedy School. “The number and nature of inaccuracies and falsehoods in the document are so abundant and self-serving as to be horribly disappointing. FBarchive was under my charge from the beginning. Meta exerted no influence over FBarchive or any of our/my work. Just a few weeks ahead of the public launch, we offered Meta the chance to review the archive for security and privacy concerns and suggest redactions, which we independently elected to accept or reject.” Meta spokesman Andy Stone told NBC News the company had no comment on the dispute between Donovan and Harvard. In its statement, The Kennedy School said it “did not receive any portion of the Chan-Zuckerberg gift,” which went to Harvard University for an unrelated artificial intelligence initiative. Both Chan and Zuckerberg went to Harvard, where Facebook was first launched. .A representative for their philanthropic organization told CNBC that the group “had no involvement" in Donovan’s "departure from Harvard and was unaware of that development before public reporting on it.”

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2culture

Attention parents: Trick-or-treaters in Mass. town given alcohol-infused chocolates

WEST BOYLSTON, Mass. — Parents are being urged to check their children’s Halloween candy after alcohol-infused chocolates were given to trick-or-treaters in one Massachusetts town. West Boylston police put out a post warning parents that two trick-or-treaters found candy that contained alcohol. Both parties said they were trick or treating in the Horseshoe Drive neighborhood. The candy given out contains Jose Cuervo and police recommend that parents check their children’s candy. Police are investigating this incident and asking anyone with any information concerning this candy, and from which house it came, to please call the West Boylston Police Department at 774-450-3510. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW ©2023 Cox Media Group

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4politics

American Unions Long Backed Israel. Now, Some Are Protesting It.

“Why are we here?” said Brandon Mancilla, a leader with the United Automobile Workers. Mr. Mancilla faced a crowd of hundreds of union members gathered on the steps of the New York Public Library’s Fifth Avenue branch, huddling against the cold as they rallied for a cease-fire in Gaza. “Cease-fire now, solidarity forever!” Mr. Mancilla, 29, said as the crowd cheered, waving union banners and Palestinian flags. “Let’s get more and more unions behind us.” On display in that Dec. 21 protest — which came shortly after the 350,000-member U.A.W. voted to support a cease-fire — was a shift in the American labor movement’s relationship with Israel. For decades, the most prominent American unions were largely supportive of Israel. Today, though, amid a resurgence of the American labor movement, some activists are urging their unions to call for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and succeeding — a change that reflects a broader generational shift.

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7weather

Mass. weather: How will the upcoming storm Friday compare to Tuesdays?

While the weather in Massachusetts should be mild during the day Sunday, with cloudy skies and highs in the upper 40s and low 50s, the National Weather Service predicts that a strong storm system will bring heavy rain and high winds to the state overnight and into Monday. On the eastern side of the state, gusty winds between 50 and 60 mph could down trees and cause power outages, according to the weather service. In the central and western parts of the state, heavy rainfall — up to 3 to 4 inches — could cause flooding. Strong winds could cause power outages, especially in eastern Mass. The National Weather Service has issued a high wind warning for most areas of Massachusetts east of I-95 from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday. During this time, 30 to 40 mph winds with gusts up to 60 mph are possible, and on the Cape and Islands, gusts could reach 65 mph. The weather service predicts that travel will be difficult during the windstorm, especially for vehicles which sit high off the ground. It advises those who must drive to drive with caution, and for residents to stay in the lower levels of their home and avoid windows. A wind advisory is also in effect in central Massachusetts from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, and in western Massachusetts from 1 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday. In these areas of the state, the weather service predicts 20 to 30 mph winds, with gusts up to 55 mph. During the storm Monday, winds are expected to be between 30 to 40 mph, with gusts up to 60 mph in some areas of Massachusetts, according to the National Weather Service.National Weather Service Flooding is possible west of I-95, especially in western Mass. The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for the western half of Massachusetts. It is in effect from 7 a.m. Sunday to 7 p.m. Monday in the Worcester and Springfield areas, and from 7 a.m Sunday to 5 a.m. Monday in the Pittsfield area. In these parts of the state, excessive runoff may cause rivers to flood, and creeks and streams may rise out of their banks, according to the weather service. Additional flooding may occur in urban areas with poor drainage. Read more: The Geminid meteor shower is expected to blaze across the night sky The western halves of Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden Counties and the eastern half of Berkshire County are expected to get the most rain, with 3 to 4 total inches possible, according to the weather service. Springfield, Pittsfield and Great Barrington should all miss the heaviest rain, but will likely still see two to three inches, as will central Massachusetts west of I-95. East of I-95, the weather service predicts 1.5 to 2 inches of rain, except for the South Coast, Cape and Islands. The South Coast, Martha’s Vineyard and western Cape should see an inch to an inch and a half of rain, while Nantucket and the eastern Cape can expect a half inch to an inch. During the storm Monday, winds are expected to be between 30 to 40 mph, with gusts up to 60 mph in some areas of Massachusetts, according to the National Weather Service.National Weather Service When the storm will hit each part of the state The storm will hit the western half of the state first, and the Pittsfield area could experience a drizzle as early as 11 a.m. Sunday. According to the weather service, Springfield and Worcester have a 30% chance of rain beginning 2 p.m. Sunday, while all areas of the state should start experiencing rain by 8 p.m. The weather service expects the rain to stick around across the state through Monday, and taper off gradually through Tuesday and Tuesday night. Chances of rain volley between 60% and 30% across the state beginning Monday night and ending overnight Tuesday. Snow is possible later on Tuesday in some areas of the state, according to the weather service. Pittsfield has a 50% chance of snow beginning 7 p.m. Tuesday, while Worcester has a 40% chance of snow up until 11 p.m. that day. The weather should be cool and clear the rest of the week Lows overnight Sunday are predicted to drop into the upper 40s before a jump into the upper 50s and low 60s during the day Monday, according to the weather service. Most of Massachusetts is expected to see highs in the mid to high 40s on Tuesday, and then highs in the low 40s and upper 30s the rest of the week. The weather service predicts lows overnight Monday to be in the low 40s and then drop into the low 30s and upper 20s the rest of the week. Skies across the state are expected clear on Wednesday and should stay clear into the weekend.

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0business

Stocks end 2023 up 20% for the year as resilient economy energizes investors

Business Stocks end 2023 up 20% for the year as resilient economy energizes investors The broader market's gains were driven largely by the so-called Magnificent 7 companies, which include Apple, Microsoft and Alphabet. People pass the front of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Tuesday, March 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan, File) AP NEW YORK (AP) — The S&P 500 closed out 2023 with a gain of more than 24%, and the Dow finished near a record high, as easing inflation, a resilient economy, and the prospect of lower interest rates buoyed investors, particularly in the last two months of the year. Stocks closed Friday with modest losses. The S&P 500 slipped 13.52 points, or 0.3%, to 4,769.83. That is still just 0.6% shy of an all-time high set in January of 2022 and it still left the benchmark index with a rare ninth consecutive week of gains. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 20.56 points, or 0.1%, to 37,689 after setting a record Thursday. Advertisement: The Nasdaq slipped 83.78 points, or 0.6%, to 15,011.35, but that was barely a blemish on an annual gain of more than 43%, its best performance since 2020. The broader market’s gains were driven largely by the so-called Magnificent 7 companies, which include Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Meta Platforms and Tesla. They accounted for about two-thirds of the gains in the S&P 500 this year, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Nvidia led the group with a gain of about 239%. Most major indexes were able to erase their losses from a dismal 2022. Smaller company stocks had a late rally, but managed to erase the bulk of their losses from last year. The Russell 2000 index finished 2023 with a 15.1% gain after falling 21.6% in 2022. The rally that started in November helped broaden the gains within the market beyond just the big technology companies. It marked a big psychological shift for investors, said Quincy Krosby, chief global strategist at LPL Financial. “Investors were able to accept that fact that the market would close the year on a higher note,” Krosby said. “Above all else, it was broad participation in the market that reinforced and confirmed gains for smaller company stocks were particularly important.” Shares in European markets edged higher Friday, also after a year of gains. Benchmark indexes in France and Germany made double-digit advances, while Britain’s has climbed just under 4%. Advertisement: Asian markets had a mixed session on the last trading day of the year for most markets. Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gave up 0.2% to 33,464.17. It gained 27% in 2023, its best year in a decade as the Japanese central bank inched toward ending its longstanding ultra-lax monetary policy after inflation finally exceeded its target of about 2%. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong ended flat, while the Shanghai Composite index gained 0.7%. The Shanghai index lost about 3% this year and the Hang Seng fell nearly 14%. Weakness in the property sector and in global demand for China’s exports, as well as high debt levels and wavering consumer confidence, have weighed on the country’s economy and the stock market. Investors in the U.S. came into the year expecting inflation to ease further as the Federal Reserve pushed interest rates higher. The trade-off would be a weaker economy and possibly a recession. But while inflation has come down to around 3%, the economy has chugged along thanks to solid consumer spending and a healthy job market. The stock market is now betting the Fed can achieve a “soft landing,” where the economy slows just enough to snuff out high inflation, but not so much that it falls into a recession. As a result, investors now expect the Fed to begin cutting rates as early as March. Advertisement: The Fed has signaled three quarter-point cuts to the benchmark rate next year. That rate is currently sitting at its highest level, between 5.25% and 5.50%, in two decades. That could add more fuel to the broader market’s momentum in 2024. High interest rates and Treasury yields hurt prices for investments, so a continued reversal means more relief from that pressure. Wall Street is forecasting stronger earnings growth for companies next year after a largely lackluster 2023, with companies wrestling with higher input and labor costs and a shift in consumer spending. Bond market investors appeared headed for a third losing year in a row until things turned around starting in late October. Excitement about potential cuts to interest rates sent bond prices soaring and yields dropping. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which hit 5% in October, stood at 3.88% Friday, up from 3.85% on Thursday. The yield on The two-year Treasury, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, fell to 4.25% from 4.28% from late Thursday. It also surpassed 5% in October. U.S. and international crude oil prices were relatively stable on Friday. The price of oil tumbled by more than 10% this year, defying predictions from some experts that it could cross $100 per barrel. Despite production cuts from OPEC, a war involving energy exporter Russia and another in the Middle East, U.S. benchmark crude dropped nearly 11% in 2023, and a whopping 21% in the final three months of the year. Increased production in the U.S., now the top oil producer in the world, as well as Canada, Brazil and Guyana offset the reduced output from OPEC. Not all OPEC members participated in the cuts and some countries like Iran and Venezuela are pumping more oil, energy analysts say. Advertisement: Charles Sheehan contributed to this report.

248e2390bf9797c7015062491c1dcae2

1crime

They Ran for a Better Life, Straight Into a Wildfire

Greek authorities assumed the victims were migrants because no one was looking for missing people locally. And for more than a month, their identities, and the circumstances of their deaths, remained a mystery. But over weeks of reporting, The New York Times was able to piece together previously unknown details about the group’s journey in its desperate final hours. The reporting shows that at least 12 had already been captured once before by Greek border guards and turned back to Turkey. Their decision to risk the wildfire was meant to avoid recapture at any cost. They were fleeing war-ravaged Syria, seeking what they hoped would be a better life in Europe. Instead, they died on a rocky hillside, their ashes now mixed with the gray-scale landscape of Evros, where the climate crisis fueling ferocious wildfires collided with the migrant crisis that has long brought tragedy to this region. Only one body has been identified conclusively through DNA testing, because most of the close relatives of the rest live in Syria and cannot travel to provide similar tests. But interviews with Greek officials, aid workers, more than 20 relatives of the victims, and the smuggler who put them on the route, provided extensive evidence about the identities of the others.

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3entertainment

Opinion | The Golden Bachelor Is a Fantasy. Aging in America Isnt.

This transcript was created using speech recognition software. While it has been reviewed by human transcribers, it may contain errors. Please review the episode audio before quoting from this transcript and email transcripts@nytimes.com with any questions. michelle cottle I am Michelle Cottle, and I cover national politics for Opinion, but I have also done a lot of reporting on the graying of America and what society looks like, as it ages here. So that has led me to become completely obsessed with “The Golden Bachelor.” archived recording 1 I’ll be the first bachelor that’s on Social Security. michelle cottle So I’m not sure that “The Golden Bachelor” is something that I would say that I like, like. But “The Golden Bachelor” is completely mesmerizing because it is the first time they’ve done this format with people in their 60s and 70s. And it is not just a look at reality TV and all of its tropes, but also just kind of this fascinating look at how baby boomers, in particular, see aging and how they want America to see aging. archived recording 2 And I’m your first Golden Bachelor. It’s all starting now. michelle cottle So on the regular Bachelor franchise, the contestants are kind of young and nubile in their 20s and 30s, and the twist on this is that everybody’s in their 60s and 70s. archived recording (leslie) I’m Leslie. I am 64 years old, and I live in Minneapolis, Minnesota. michelle cottle And they are seriously of the boomer generation. archived recording 3 And I am ready to play some pickleball! Ow, ow, ow! michelle cottle So we’re dealing with this 72-year-old widower named Gary Turner — archived recording (gary turner) I’m Gary. Tonight is the first day of the rest of my life. michelle cottle — who comes from Indiana, and he is just Americana all the way, but with better hair and a spray tan, I think. archived recording (gary turner) I yearn for the second chance in life to fall in love again, the person who can lay down beside you at night, not have to say anything and you feel it. That’s love. That’s what I want. michelle cottle The most telling was the series opener where the women come up and introduce themselves to Gary. It is, from the get-go, kind of hot and heavy. They pull up in the limo, get out, and they are on Gary like a duck on a junebug. archived recording 4 Gary is so handsome. I’ve checked out every last inch of him. michelle cottle These are not your grandma’s boomers, so to speak. They are extremely toned and fit and tan with — I’m pretty sure some have hair extensions. Definitely sure some have had work done. But they are all focused on projecting the most youthful, up for anything — archived recording 5 Yay! michelle cottle — zippy, kind of sexually predatory vibe you can possibly come up with. archived recording 6 You see these heels? archived recording (gary turner) Yeah. archived recording 6 I’m very comfortable with 6 inches. michelle cottle There are only a couple of the women who are not playing the game of “let’s act and look and sound as young as humanly possible.” And they are booted the first night. Those people do not last long. You have a woman who whips in on a motorcycle. archived recording 7 That’s impressive. michelle cottle — flips her hair and tells Gary — archived recording 8 If you leave here with me, it’ll be the ride of your life. michelle cottle One of the finalists is a woman named Theresa who shows up kind of all wrapped up, tells Gary it’s her birthday, and says — archived recording 9 So I thought, why not come in my birthday suit? archived recording (gary turner) Um — [LAUGHS] michelle cottle And I am just like, oh — archived recording (gary turner) Oh, my goodness. michelle cottle Even Gary looks a little frightened. It’s not just a question of, well, how do the producers handle 70-year-old people making out like teenagers? It is, how are we even watching these women handle the reality of aging? archived recording 10 We have power. We are loved. No, there’s always Botox. michelle cottle So it’s clear that these women, in addition to just trying to come across as attractive or personable or smart or charming or whatever, are just so eager to prove they’re not old. archived recording 11 Hi. archived recording (gary turner) Good evening. archived recording 11 We’re all breaking the stereotypical view of what a senior looks like or acts like. michelle cottle And that is definitely the undercurrent of the show. Weird split-personality moments where people are talking about their bad knees or their bad digestion or their cute grandkids or whatever. These people have had a lot of life experience. A lot of them have lost spouses. A lot of them have difficult family situations. But at the same time, they’re supposed to be telegraphing that I’m up for everything, not just young at heart, but kind of young physically, too. They have these women sleep in bunk beds like they are at summer camp. archived recording 12 Do you like top or bottom? archived recording 13 Bottom. archived recording 12 OK. archived recording 13 I can’t climb up. archived recording 12 I’ll go up. archived recording 13 Didn’t want to be on top. I’ve had my knees replaced. That’s a lot of climbing. So I’m going to be underneath. Puts me three steps closer to the bathroom. archived recording 14 How many of you have to get up in the middle of the night to pee? archived recording 13 I do. I have to. Otherwise, it’s going to be an accident. michelle cottle But those pieces are never allowed to interfere with the kind of, “look at how young and perky I’m behaving.” So there’s a huge tension at play. And I think that actually is pretty representative of what you see in society in general. What is completely fascinating about this is that it seems really fake and surreal on one level, but on the other hand, it does reflect this broader tension in society. So one of the things that has been a reporting — I don’t know — almost an epiphany is that you have this kind of understanding that in politics, older voters are consistent, and that’s who the politicians cater to. They’re just the most reliable voting bloc. And as the boomers, which has always been this 800-pound demographic gorilla, has aged, they understandably have wanted their issues looked at. They were not going to go quietly into this good night. But at the same time, the whole idea of American society aging is not getting a lot of policy attention. We are not prepared for this. And it is, in part, because nobody likes to think of themselves as old until it happens. They don’t want to talk about what kind of housing changes they’ll have to make, what kind of caregiving changes they may face, what kind of medical issues may come up. If you talk to people about how they’re going to spend their twilight years, they’re like, I’m just going to stay in my house, and it’s going to be just like it is right now. I’m never getting old. And that’s very boomer-ish in its conception, where 60 is supposed to be the new 40, or in the case of “The Golden Bachelor,” the new 25. archived recording 15 Gary! Gary! archived recording (gary turner) Nobody has fun like we have fun, right? michelle cottle And you just continue to party like it’s 1985 or 1975 for as long as you can, and the rest will take care of itself. Every day, a huge number of baby boomers is entering the senior category. And what is happening is, those who can afford it kind of kick it until it jumps on them, and they have to figure out what to do with their medical issues or housing or care or whatever. And those who can’t are getting completely left behind. So you see a rise in homelessness among seniors. You see a huge affordable housing crunch. You see a housing crunch in general in terms of housing that is accessible to seniors. Eventually, you have to contend with this. Everybody gets older, unless they don’t have that privilege. But nobody wants to pay any attention to it until they absolutely have to. archived recording 16 I may not be as tight-skinned or as good shape, but I’m not dead yet. michelle cottle We all want to think that we’re riding up on that motorcycle, taking off our helmet, flipping our hair, and looking great in short skirts and plunging necklines well into our golden years. One of the things that I think has been hard for boomers is that even though they’re this important demographic and they have all this political clout, as you go through the culture, we still worship youth, and you don’t get a lot of boomer-ish faces on TV. Certainly, reality TV tends to be the province of the young. So a lot of these women talk about how — archived recording 17 As you get older, you become more invisible. People don’t see you anymore. Like you’re not as significant as when you’re young. michelle cottle So I think that they are definitely trying to tap into this feeling that I’ve certainly seen among boomers, where they feel left behind. They feel like they’ve just been forgotten and that everybody’s trying to move so fast past them. archived recording 17 Society makes us feel like we’ve had our chance, and we’ve raised our children. And it’s time now to support the next generation and take a back seat. michelle cottle So as far as the takeaway from this, from a cultural perspective, is it good, is it bad, for one, it’s reality TV and we shouldn’t read too much into it, although I say that and then, suddenly, we have a reality TV president — oh, god. But I think it is instructive because it does show you this weird dichotomy and how ambivalent America is about aging in general. I mean, if you watch this carefully, you’re like, wow, this is weird. [LAUGHS] And so I’m here to sell people on watching “The Golden Bachelor,” which, even if you just want to hate watch it, holds up this kind of funhouse mirror to how Americans and baby boomers, in particular, are approaching aging in all of its weird glory, where you deny certain things and cling to the idea that you’re always going to be young, even as this is creeping up on you. archived recording (gary turner) Here’s to you, ladies. Here’s to you. And I feel hopeful. michelle cottle And when you’re ready for the finale, I will be there, Thursday, November 30. My husband will be forced to watch. archived recording 18 That was precisely as gross as I thought it would be. [LAUGHS] michelle cottle

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2culture

Dating After 60: A Lot of Roses, Some Thorns

On their third date, Ms. Ha drove three hours from her home to his so they could spend the weekend together. They have spent nearly every weekend together since, playing Yahtzee and cribbage, cooking and having what Ms. Ha described as “mind-blowing” sex. (The secret, she said, is good communication.) “We are really open to talking about everything in a way that I have never experienced before,” Ms. Ha said. “I used to be afraid to show who I really was in a relationship before, because they might leave. And I don’t have that at all anymore.” ‘Shot Out of a Cannon’ One in three baby boomers is single, said Susan Brown, a distinguished professor of sociology at Bowling Green State University who studies demographic shifts in marriage and divorce, and an estimated 14 percent of single people between the ages of 57 and 85 are in a “dating relationship.” David, 61, described feeling like he was “shot out of a cannon” when he began dating after his marriage of 25 years ended in divorce. He said he had found the “loneliness of a cold marriage even lonelier than being alone,” and is now experimenting with polyamory and nonmonogamy. He’d had inklings of these things during his largely sexless marriage, but never felt like he could explore those sides of himself, and described the confidence he now feels as “a remarkable feature of mid-life dating.” (David asked that only his first name be used out of respect for his ex-wife’s privacy.)

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6sports

Patriots interview Saints coach for opening on Jerod Mayos staff (report)

Jerod Mayo is casting a wide net for his new coaching staff. For his open defensive coordinator spot, Mayo is interviewing Saints LB coach Michael Hodges, according to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport. Mayo has also brought in 32-year-old Broncos DBs coach Christian Parker and Panthers LB coach Tem Lukabu as external candidates for the opening. BetMGM BET $5, GET $158! BONUS BETS CLAIM OFFER Promo code: MASS158 STATES: MA, KY, AZ, CO, IA, IL, IN, KS, LA, MD, MI, NJ, NY, OH, PA, TN, VA. Visit BetMGM.com for Terms and Conditions. 21 years of age or older to wager. MA Only. New Customer Offer. All promotions are subject to qualification and eligibility requirements. Rewards issued as non-withdrawable bonus bets. Bonus bets expire 7 days from issuance. In Partnership with MGM Springfield. Play it smart from the start with GameSense. GameSenseMA.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org. Still just 37 years old himself, Hodges has been in New Orleans since 2017, starting as a defensive assistant and rising to linebackers coach. Despite the Saints shifting from Sean Payton to Dennis Allen during his tenure, both coaches liked Hodges as linebacker coach and kept him there. “There’s only good things that you can say about the linebacker room, and you start with Coach Hodges,” linebacker Demario Davis told Nola.com. “He did a phenomenal job (in 2022), coaching a group of diverse individuals — all of us come from different backgrounds with different skillsets — and being able to have a personal relationship with each of us and being able to bring the best out of all of us.” A Helotes, Texas native, Hodges played linebacker at three different schools in college, ultimately walking on at Texas A&M and winning their “Aggie Heart Award,” which is highly esteemed for seniors. It’ll be fascinating to see how Mayo fills his defensive coordinator opening, given a bevy of internal candidates as well as the outside voices he’s bringing in. Mayo already reportedly offered Steve and Brian Belichick jobs on his staff, and defensive line coach DeMarcus Covington is a rising coordinator candidate as well. While it seems like a slam dunk that New England’s next offensive coordinator is going to be an external hire, the defensive side of the ball is more of a mystery.

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2culture

Can you afford this? 4 kinds of microaggressions that sink the joy of travel for Black people

A weekly newsletter for the chronically online and easily entertained. Honey dishes us savvy analysis on culture, entertainment and power to make you the group chat MVP. Subscribe today! With over 103 million views, the Royal Caribbean has recently been trending on TikTok due to its 9-month voyage. The Royal Caribbean Ultimate World Cruise set sail in Dec. 2023 and will visit 60+ countries before docking in Sept. 2024. However, passengers online have been posting that the trip is already making waves. According to TikTok user Nchimad in Dec. 2023, they are determined to stay on “CruiseTok” to get all of the drama and arguments that are allegedly happening between passengers. “[Seven hundred] people on one cruise ship for nine months. Can you imagine the type of drama that’s going to happen on that boat?” they said. One of the most controversial moments so far has happened very recently to Tiktok user Brandee Lake. A world traveler of over 75 countries, they went to Tiktok to express their concerns as a Black passenger. In a video posted Dec. 2023, they said their first few days on the trip were difficult, with passengers and crew making her feel she didn’t deserve to be there. But Lake’s experience speaks to a larger issue impacting travelers of color. Despite their significant contribution to the travel industry, Black travelers often face microaggressions and discrimination. A 2019 report from The Black Traveler found that Black U.S. leisure travelers spent $109 billion dollars on their escapades. In the same year, Black people accounted for 20%of the luxury spending in the U.S. market, according to a report from the consulting firm Bain and Company. Regardless of their impact, Black people still can face microaggressions, or the indirect verbal or non-verbal instances of racism, homophobia and more in these settings. Not only are they offensive, but microaggressions have been found to have a major physical and mental effects, according to psychology and education professor Derald Wing Sue in a 2020 interview with The Washington Post. These symptoms can include increased stress and the discrimination can contribute to conditions like cardiovascular disease and hypertension. “The Black/African American community is taking back their narrative, imagining new possibilities, and rewriting their stories into a vision that depicts prosperity and wellness. They are normalizing their success, wealth, and comfort within the community,” author Dr. Taiwo Abioye said in a 2022 blog post for C+R Research. A 2020 study has found that online reviews using the hashtag #TravelingWhileBlack have helped those online avoiding potential racist encounters while being tourists. Along with these posts, Black travel and luxury influencers like travel content creator and creative digital media strategist Samantha O’Brochta share their love for exploration online through their own platforms. Still, there is a fear that O’Brochta and others have when stepping somewhere new. “I’ve been a budget traveler most of my life, so my luxurious experiences have been few. But part of why I’ve shied away from certain expensive opportunities is out of worry that I won’t be treated the same way that a white traveler might in the same experience,” O’Brochta said. While there are numerous types of microaggressions, four common microaggressions that Black people, even those in the influencer world, have experienced while traveling or in luxury spaces are below. 1. Negative assumptions or intrusions Black folks traveling can experience a variety of microaggressions, including being mistaken for staff, unwarranted questioning of finances and overly familiar or patronizing interactions like unwanted physical contact or overly casual language. For example, Lake was treated as if she was a crew member rather than a fellow passenger on the Royal Carribean cruise. “If I get asked if I work on this ship one more time. It started at the Pre-Cruise gala where they assumed I was working. After I said I wasn’t working, they asked if I was independently wealthy. Basically, how can I afford this? Now one of the crew members assumed I was not a guest,” Lake said. Social media immediately came to her defense, providing clapbacks that she can use in the future as well as encouraging words in her comments. “Tell everyone a different story. Make them super elaborate and over the top. You own a diamond mine. You’re royalty. Etc. Eff them. Enjoy your trip!” Tiktok user Hannah L. Drake said in a Dec. 2023 comment. For some Black people, they are willing to skip the vacation experience overall to avoid potential racist acts towards them. “Idk. I don’t want to go on vacation and have folks follow me, ask to touch my hair, ask to take pictures with me or give me excessive compliments because I’m Black. I don’t want to be fetishized and I don’t want to be asked if I’m famous. Sounds like a nightmare to me,” X user Afro-African said in a July 2022 post. 2. Inability to fully enjoy amenities Due to microaggressions, Black people may not get the full luxury or vacation experience compared to their white counterparts. This can be seen in influencer marketing, where there is a racial difference not only in what they earn, but how brands treat them abroad. PR agency MSL US and influencer education platform The Influencer League released a study in Dec. 2021 that found that Black creators made 35% less than white creators. This inequality has also been seen in the treatment that Black creators receive on PR trips by brands like Tarte. From private jets to giant pools, the brand is known to go all in for participants – but there is still mistreatment even in the influencer world. In May 2023, the brand invited Black influencers like Bria Jones to a trip to Miami for the year’s Formula 1 race. In an since-deleted Tiktok video from May 4, Jones explained that she would be leaving on May 5 and coming back home May 6, only being able to see the practice days. However, she learned that non-Black creators with more followers were invited to stay until May 7, the day of the big race. “I have more integrity than to get all the way to Miami and realize that I’m being treated like a second-tier person or like I’m being ranked,” Jones said in the video. Tarte’s founder Maureen Kelly addressed the situation on May 5, stating that they were trying to ensure a mix of up-and-coming creators and big creators as well. Nevertheless, the damage had already been done despite Jones later saying there was “miscommunications on both ends.” This wasn’t the brand’s first trip controversy, with their Dubai trip in Jan. 2023 having a visible lack of POC creators according to content creator and brand collaboration coach Kahlea Nicole Wade in a Jan. 2023 interview with Today.com. 3. Having to be the “token Black person” With calls for more diversity in influencer marketing, brands have attempted to be more inclusive of all types of people. However, in May 2019, Youtuber Kiana Naomi called out the brand Dote Shopping for using her as the “token Black girl” on their PR trip to Fiji. She originally did not discuss how she was treated on the trip because she wanted to avoid being portrayed as the ungrateful or problematic Black girl. Eventually, she decided that she needed to release a video explanation because she felt that the company didn’t care for her well-being. “By being silent, I am doing a disservice to the thousands of Black girls who watch me, look up to me and look up to this brand that I was mistreated by,” Naomi said. Being the only Black girl on the trip, she shared how the other white girls on the trip cliqued up, leaving her to feel like an “outcast.” On top of that, the company wasn’t interested in taking pictures of her. “Diversity is not throwing one Black girl among a whole bunch of white ones and saying ‘Aye, we are diverse.’ That’s not how it works,” Naomi said. Dote Shopping later released a statement denying the claims that Naomi made, stating that promoting diversity, equality and inclusivity is part of their company mission. 4. Interactions with security or official personnel According to a 2019 study by Pew Research Center, “Black adults are about five times as likely as whites to say they’ve been unfairly stopped by police because of their race or ethnicity.” These interactions can happen anywhere, even while traveling. For example, author of “Black People Breathe: A Mindfulness Guide to Racial Healing” and DEI consultant Zee Clarke in a 2022 interview with Triple Pundit found that Black women are more likely to have their hair searched by airport security. Despite the TSA website stating that hairstyles like braids and buns could trigger the alarms, many Black women have had their scalps roughly searched, according to Clarke. In another instance, American Airlines faced backlash in 2023 for kicking both track star Sha’Carri RIchardson and rapper Talib Kweli, who almost was arrested, off their flights for filming a video and the size of their bag. The airline also was sued in federal court last year by a passenger who said they were kicked off the flight in an “act of blatant racial discrimination.” The NAACP back in 2017 released a statement cautioning Black people when flying with American Airlines. Regardless of the warning, Black individuals can face discrimination and microaggressions randomly during their travel experience. What needs to happen now Time will tell if the work that is needed for true equality in these spaces and online will come. According to O’Brochta, the first place to start is with the travel companies that help organize these trips and experiences. “There’s a discrepancy of how many Black travel influencers get invited on press trips or included in campaigns over their white counterparts, and it’s glaringly obvious and shows that Black traveler’s dollars are not appreciated and respected,” O’Brochta said, sharing the need to make space for everyone to be seen in a positive light. Since releasing the video about her negative first days on the cruise, Lake has continued to post each day of her experience, from crossing the equator to celebrating Christmas on board. She has not released any videos addressing any microaggressions or racist behavior towards her since.

de5c0ffb73b41d9473c0a409ae9ca6f6

1crime

Joshua Hubert of Worcester charged with rape of girl police say he threw off bridge in 2017

The man accused of throwing a 7-year-old girl off a Massachusetts bridge after he took her from her family’s Worcester home in the middle of the night in August 2017 has now been charged with raping the child, prosecutors said during his Wednesday morning court appearance. Joshua Hubert, 41, of Worcester, had initially been charged in district court with kidnapping, then attempted murder in August 2017. He was held on a cash bail set at $1 million that later increased to $2 million. Hubert, who was 35 at the time of his suspected felonies, was indicted by a grand jury in January 2018 on two counts of attempted murder and one each of kidnapping and strangulation. He was held on a $50,000 cash bail following his arraignment on Jan. 29. He posted that bail and had a previous trial date postponed from March until Oct. 19, 2020, the Associated Press reported. But Hubert was not back in court until Dec. 13, 2023. On Wednesday morning, Hubert was indicted on two counts of aggravated rape with the victim being a child who was tied, bound or gagged during their rape, and at least a five year age difference. Hubert pleaded not guilty to both charges. He was ordered to continue to have no contact with the victim or unsupervised contact with any children under the age of 16. Though there was no new bail set, he is next expected in court for hearings in both cases on Feb. 7. In 2017, the 7-year-old girl had told detectives her “friend Josh” had thrown her off a bridge into a lake on Aug. 27 of that year, prosecutor Courtney Sans previously said in superior court. The girl had been asleep on a chair at her grandparents’ Forestdale Road home following a cookout the house earlier that day, when officials said Hubert, who’d been at the cookout, took her around 2:30 a.m. The man had been longtime friends with the girl’s father until a falling out, prosecutors previously said. He drove with the child in his Saturn around Worcester for over an hour, Worcester Police said. A district court prosecutor previously said Hubert stopped the car at one point to choke the child. In search warrant affidavits obtained by MassLive in 2018, Worcester Detective Dyan Patient wrote Hubert had used both hands to strangle the 7-year-old. “He strangled her with two hands, and his arm, then got back in the driver’s seat and started driving again,” Patient wrote. “When asked if she had tried pushing him away, she stated, ‘I tried that but it didn’t work’.” It was before 4 a.m. when Hubert stopped his car on the Interstate 290 overpass at the Worcester-Shrewsbury line, prosecutors said. While she was wrapped in a blanket, he threw the 7-year-old over the bridge into Lake Quinsigamond, according to prosecutors, police and court records. “The victim stated that she fell for a long time and landed in the waters below,” Patient wrote. “She stated that she began to swim to a building she could see but the blanket she was carrying was getting very heavy, which made it difficult to swim. She then swam to a house and stated that she was able to stand up in the water.” The lake is up to 90 feet deep in some parts, with an average depth between 21 and 36 feet. The little girl then swam the some 100 yards to shore and, soaking wet in her pajamas, ended up the door of a Shrewsbury woman’s home, prosecutors previously said. The woman brought her inside, wrapped the child in a towel, gave her dry clothes, and then called the police after the girl told her what happened. Hubert was arrested at the Worcester Police station. And Patient wrote a witness came forward and said they were on I-290 on Aug. 27 when he saw a Saturn Ion parked in the breakdown lane of the highway on the bridge over the lake. According to the witness, a man was walking around the car before it sped off, Patient wrote. The witness got home around 4:15 a.m. and texted a friend, jokingly saying he just saw someone throw something off the bridge. Hubert had apparently stopped at his home Bernice Street around 3:15 a.m. and told his girlfriend he was going to the store, police said. Officials said he told his girlfriend to delete all of his accounts with Lastpass.com, an encrypted data storage company, after his arrest. Prosecutors said surveillance footage showed Hubert driving around the city, buying “Dutchies” at a gas station on Southbridge Street and looking inside the trunk of his car. Investigators obtained search warrants to retrieve information from Hubert’s phones to help track his whereabouts, and searched his home and seized clothing. Police said he lied about his whereabouts when questioned on the allegations. Investigators also found a portion of DNA evidence on the child’s underwear, which did not match Hubert’s voluntary sample, his defense attorney said. The attorney also questioned the positive identification the witness made and the surveillance footage’s validity. After the incident, Hubert was suspended from his job at the Fay School in Southborough where he’d worked in the school’s technology department as a systems support analyst. School officials said he did not have any contact with children.

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4politics

Crime Is Nonpartisan

This is not to say Republican leadership leads to more crime. You can find examples of blue states and cities doing worse than Florida, and of other red states and cities doing better. Looking at all the data, it is hard to make much of any connection between political partisanship and crime. To put it another way, prominent Republicans are misrepresenting the country’s crime problem. Comparing places The Republican claim is rooted in a real pattern. Big cities generally have higher crime rates than rural and suburban areas, thanks to their density and other factors. Democrats run most big cities because urban areas tend to contain more liberal voters. So when looking at the places with the most murders, you’ll often find Democratic-run cities. But that is not the whole story. Take the 20 largest U.S. cities. The 16 run by Democratic mayors had 12.3 murders for every 100,000 people. The three Republican-run cities — Jacksonville, Fort Worth and Oklahoma City — had a rate of 11.4. There is a difference, but it is small. (I’m focused on murders because the data for them is more reliable than for other crimes, which go underreported.) Those rates mask a lot of variation. In a ranked list of murders for all 20 cities, the three Republican-run cities fall around the middle. Some blue cities — such as New York, San Francisco and Seattle — have roughly half the murder rates as their red counterparts, while the rates in other blue cities, like Philadelphia, Indianapolis and Chicago, are two to three times as high. That variation is the point: Whether a big city is run by Democrats or Republicans has little influence on its murder rate.

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4politics

DeSantis Lobs Most Forceful Attacks Yet Against Trump, Days Before Iowa Caucuses

This has been updated to reflect news developments. Of all that’s been said and written about the war between Israel and Hamas, nothing has cut through the mental fog quite so brightly as a remark this month from Hillary Clinton on “The View.” “Remember,” the former secretary of state said, “there was a cease-fire on Oct. 6 that Hamas broke by their barbaric assault on peaceful civilians and their kidnapping, their killing, their beheading, their terrible, inhumane savagery.” Those three words — “that Hamas broke” — aren’t trivial. They give the lie to the “Cease-Fire Now” mirage, or imposture, that has become a rallying cry at pro-Palestinian demonstrations. They are at the heart of what the war is about, and the key to how it can end. And they are the bright dividing line between those who would allow Hamas to get away with murder, and those who would refuse. Why should it matter that it was Hamas that broke the cease-fire when Palestinian civilians are being killed in large numbers by Israeli bombs and bullets? Those saying that it shouldn’t matter argue that questions of culpability become secondary, if not irrelevant, when kids’ lives are at stake. If Israel has the power to save those kids by halting its campaign, goes the argument, then it has a moral obligation to do so. But wait: Doesn’t Hamas also have the power? Hamas has a long record of firing those rockets from the vicinity of schools. It has sought to prevent ordinary Gazans from obeying evacuation orders, deliberately putting them at increased risk. It hides in a vast network of tunnels while civilians must fend for themselves above ground. The Israeli government and Hamas agreed on Wednesday morning to a four-day cease-fire in which Hamas would free 50 of the hostages. But Hamas did that only because it’s under intense military pressure. It could get a real and lasting cease-fire for the people of Gaza — and probably safe passage out of the territory for many of its members — in exchange for releasing all the hostages, surrendering its arms and renouncing its rule in favor of some other Arab power. That Hamas has done none of these things isn’t shocking: It’s a terrorist death cult. What’s shocking is that people in the Cease-Fire Now crowd don’t appear to have much interest in making any demands of Hamas equivalent to those they make of Israel. They want Israel to stop firing. But do you often hear them insisting that Hamas return the favor? They want Israel to provide Gaza with humanitarian relief in the form of electricity, fuel and other goods. But I haven’t seen those protesters in the street demanding that Hamas provide Israel with humanitarian relief in the form of immediately freeing all hostages. They claim to want a “free Palestine” for all its people. But I never hear them criticize Hamas’s dictatorship, or its contempt for the civil and human rights of its own people, or its members’ avowedly antisemitic boasts of slaughtering Jews. There is a buried, unwitting compliment to Israel in this asymmetry — an assumption that, as a Western democracy, the Jewish state is susceptible to moral suasion, public shaming, or at least diplomatic pressure in a way Hamas and its patrons in Iran aren’t. Yet that compliment is rarely accompanied with even a gesture of respect for Israel’s grief, or the legitimacy of its grievance with Hamas, or its need to keep its citizens safe, or even its right to exist as a sovereign state. Even when Israel’s notional right to self-defense is briefly acknowledged, every exercise of it is immediately deemed a war crime, whatever the evidence. For Israelis, what “Cease-Fire Now” means is “Surrender Now.” No wonder they decline to heed the call. What about for Palestinians — women, children and noncombatant men for whom the calls for a cease-fire are supposedly intended? Would they benefit? In the short term, of course: Palestinian lives would be saved if Israel held its fire. But a cease-fire wouldn’t spare just civilians. It would spare, and embolden, the main fighting force of Hamas. It would also embolden terrorist allies like Hezbollah. That’s a virtual guarantee for future mass-casualty attacks against Israel, for ever-larger Israeli retaliation, and for deeper misery for the people of Gaza. No Israeli government of any political stripe is going to allow the territory to rebuild so long as Hamas remains in charge. That gives a second meaning to “Cease-Fire Now”: Either a demand for Israel’s total capitulation, or a recipe for a perpetual cycle of violence between a terrorist group sworn to Israel’s destruction and a Jewish state that refuses to be destroyed. Whatever else one thinks of Israel, no country can be expected to sign its own death warrant by indulging those who, if given the chance, would annihilate it. There are good intentions, if also ignorance and shortsightedness, among many of those demanding a cease-fire. But there is also the bottomless cynicism of others who accept, and even celebrate, Hamas as it uses living Gazans as human shields and dead Gazans as propaganda victories. The tragedy of these protests, like so many “antiwar” movements in the past, is that the naïve and earnest are again being manipulated as tools of the cunning and cruel. Instead of Cease-Fire Now, we need Hamas’s Defeat Now. Only on that basis does a lasting peace for Israelis and Palestinians alike have any chance to follow.

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0business

The Way Big Banks Shut Down Customer Accounts Is Callous. Lets Fix It.

For most of the last year, my inbox has been overflowing with tales from people like these: The accounting professor whose bank closed his accounts — and whose audit of his own transactions found nothing remotely suspicious. The tech executive whose entire family lost banking privileges because an estranged family member — with a single account linked to one parent’s account — committed a crime. The former European central banker who served as a senior fellow at Harvard and abruptly lost his banking privileges with no explanation. Every person — more than 1,000 wrote to me and my colleague Tara Siegel Bernard — volunteered a story of losing banking and credit-card accounts and included contact information. It’s not the sort of thing most people normally do if they have something to hide. Banks say they need to close accounts they deem suspicious to prevent money laundering, fraud and terrorist financing. In addition, regulators are pressuring them to sniff harder for signs of dirty dealings. But there are many frustrating things about this phenomenon: The account closings often come without warning. There is usually no recourse, appeal or explanation from the bank. Sometimes you find out you have lost banking privileges when you’re buying food at the grocery store and your debit and credit cards no longer work. But losing your bank account isn’t just inconvenient. It’s scary. If you’re a small business, it disrupts your payroll and can damage your reputation in the community. Given no explanation, you wonder if you’ve been blacklisted or put on some kind of government watch list.

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0business

Dunkin welcomes back the Pink Velvet Macchiato, launches new seasonal menu

Dunkin’ is “tickled pink” as the await for the return of a customer favorite is almost over. Launching nationwide as part of a new, seasonal menu on Dec. 27, the coffee chain’s Pink Velvet Macchiato will be back at Dunkin’, at least for a little while. Responding to an influx of begging from Dunkin’ lovers, the business is bringing back the drink that first made its debut in January 2020, Dunkin’ said in a release. “This visually striking, layered drink captured hearts with its bold espresso, red velvet cake flavor and notes of cream cheese frosting,” Dunkin’ said. The drink will be available hot or iced, and as part of the menu through late February. Pairing with the pink coffee drink is the Frosty Red Velvet Specialty Donut. The doughnut features a red velvet cake base, topped with vanilla-flavored icing and cream cheese-flavored sprinkles. Dunkin’ is also introducing the new White Hazelnut Bark Coffee, a drink inspired by fans’ love for the Toasted White Chocolate Swirl, which is one of Dunkin’s most popular seasonal flavors. The drink’s flavors comprise exactly what it sounds like: flavors of toasted hazelnut and white chocolate. It will also be sold hot or iced. Making a return with the Pink Velvet Macchiato, the Pancake Wake-Up Wrap will be back. The food item features a fluffy pancake wrapped around bacon or sausage, egg and melted cheese, paired with a side of maple syrup for dipping. Lastly, the Sweet Black Pepper Seasoned Bacon returns, available in both the Sweet Black Pepper Seasoned Bacon Sandwich and as Snackin’ Bacon. To round out the cheer this time of year, Dunkin’ Rewards members can get a $2 medium hot or iced coffee and 3X points when Boosted Members place an order through the mobile app on Wednesdays. The $2 coffee is limited to one per member per day, the chain said. There is also 100 bonus points available for all members who place an order through the mobile app on Mondays. Those who aren’t Dunkin’ Rewards members yet can sign up for free on the Dunkin’ app or by visiting here. Starting Dec. 27, new members will receive a free medium beverage with purchase.

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3entertainment

How to watch the new episode of Love After Lockup, stream for free (Dec. 1)

A new episode of “Love After Lockup” will air on Friday, Dec. 1 on WE Tv at 9 p.m. ET. The new episode can also be streamed live on Philo, DirecTV Stream and fuboTV. All platforms offer a free trial for those interested in signing up for an account. “Love After Lockup” is said to be a spin off from WE Tv’s “Love During Lockup” as couples navigate their love lives through prison. The show will show inmates struggle to keep their love through video dates, letters and phone calls. But there’s no telling who can and can’t handle the cell wall that separates the couples. In the new episode, “Chance’s prison past catches up with him; Redd leaves Joy speechless; Cam’s surprise shocks Aris; Louie pops up on Melissa with undesired consequences; Kerok’s secret plan is revealed; Shavel and Quaylon’s feuding families derail their plans.” How can I watch if I don’t have cable? If you don’t have access to cable television, you can stream “Love After Lockup” on streaming platforms Philo, DirecTV Stream and fuboTV. What is Philo? Philo is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers 60+ entertainment and lifestyle channels for the budget-friendly price of $25/month. If you purchase a product or register for an account through one of the links on our site, we may receive compensation. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels. What is DirecTV Stream? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels.

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7weather

Snow, Dangerous Cold On Way For MA: See Latest Forecast

Weather Snow, Dangerous Cold On Way For MA: See Latest Forecast A round of ocean-effect snow could drop up to 4 inches in parts of the state Friday before the deep freeze sets in for all of Massachusetts. While the next bout of winter weather is not expected to bring major snow totals to most of Massachusetts, the frigid weekend to follow could be the coldest stretch in nearly a year. (Shutterstock) MASSACHUSETTS — Another shot of snow on Friday will be followed by the coldest air in nearly a year across the state this weekend, according to the latest National Weather Service forecast. While the next storm will mostly miss New England, energy from the storm combined with ocean-effect snow off the relatively warm Atlantic Ocean could bring a period of heavy precipitation to parts of Massachusetts on Friday. Most of the eastern and southern parts of the state are likely looking at 1 to 2 inches of snow with parts of Cape Cod and the South Shore having the chance of plowable snow up to 4 inches. Areas north and west of the Mass Pike and Route 128 should largely get to sit this one out with a coating to an inch possible. The snow is forecast to start as showers on Friday afternoon with the heaviest areas coming in between 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. for the Plymouth area and Cape Cod. Then the whole state will have to bundle up over the weekend in what could be the coldest stretch since the record-breaking sub-zero blast last February. Temperatures will struggle to reach 20 degrees on Saturday with wind chills below zero through much of the day and at night. Sunday won't be much better with highs in the 20s and a persistent northwest wind making it feel closer to single digits. The weather pattern looks to change next week, however, with a "January thaw" bringing temperatures back above normal into the 40s for much of the week with a chance of rain or snow mix possible later in the week. (Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)

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4politics

Bad record keeping may have led to bias in MBTA Transit Police dispatch contract

Chronic poor record-keeping may have led to an unfair selection process for the MBTA’s police dispatch vendor, Massachusetts Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro said in a report Wednesday. According to the report, MBTA Transit Police may have showed an unfair bias when selecting IXP Corporation to provide police dispatch services in 2017. “The need for clear, transparent and fair procedures for the selection of contractors by public entities is a bedrock principle,” Shapiro said in a statement. “It is essential that the public have confidence in government when it conducts public procurements and expends the public’s money.” In 2016, the T released a request for proposals for police dispatch services on its Business Center website, which provides notifications for new bid opportunities to companies looking to work with the agency. While more than 1,000 companies were notified, few provided the needed service, and the deadline was extended multiple times before three companies, including IXP, responded. However, the 2016 request for proposals did not result in a contract, and the MBTA released a second in 2017 on the public procurement website COMMBUYS, which is managed by the state. When the new request for proposals was posted, 33 companies, including IXP, were notified. But the other two companies that had responded the year before were not, according to the report. Only IXP submitted a proposal in 2017, and was eventually selected as a contractor. In 2022, the Inspector General’s Internal Special Audit Unit released an initial report investigating the contract, but the agency said in that report that it did not have enough information to evaluate the fairness and competitiveness of the procurement process. According to the report released Wednesday, the MBTA did not complete or maintain records about its evaluation of IXP’s response to the 2017 request for proposals. That means that the Inspector General investigation could not fully assess the process. In addition, according to the report, communications between the Transit Police and IXP during the evaluation process raised concerns about a bias toward the company. After the failed 2016 procurement process, officials at the Transit Police continued communicating with IXP over e-mail, with one official telling the company, “The MBTA is looking at other solutions but I’m still interested in bringing IXP on board.” “Based upon our investigation, significant concerns were raised regarding whether or not the selection process was fair,” Shapiro said. “The MBTA’s poor record-keeping and records retention practices meant that the authority could not conclusively demonstrate that its selection of IXP was free from favoritism. That is not acceptable.” While Shapiro said the lack of record-keeping was a “chronic problem” at the MBTA, he said Wednesday he is optimistic that new leadership at the T and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation will be able to fix the issues revealed in the report. “Nonetheless, the test will be how the MBTA conducts itself during future procurements and with future contract administration and how its actions align with the results from future oversight reviews,” he said. In a statement, an MBTA spokesperson said the agency has not yet had the chance to do a comprehensive review of the report, but has identified potential areas for improvement and is committed to transparency and accountability under its new leadership. “As we continue working to strengthen MBTA operations overall, we remain committed to making appropriate changes that bolster accountability, integrity and responsible stewardship of funding, including continued improvements in record-keeping protocols and expanded staff training around procurement best practices,” they said. “The public deserves assurance that every MBTA project and expenditure is fully compliant and in the public’s interest.”

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4politics

Lowry: Jack Smith takes aim at 2024 election

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7weather

Biting Cold Sweeping U.S. Hits the South With an Unfamiliar Freeze

Extreme weather gripped large parts of the Southern United States on Monday, with ice and snow hampering plans to commemorate the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, and several governors declaring states of emergency. Communities generally unaccustomed to major winter storms, from Tennessee to Texas, canceled or postponed events honoring Dr. King. In Memphis, the National Civil Rights Museum, located at the site of Dr. King’s slaying in 1968, announced it would close its doors and deliver its special programming virtually. Normally, the museum offers free admission on the holiday. In San Antonio, an annual M.L.K. Day walk was canceled, with officials citing “dangerously low temperatures and potentially hazardous walking conditions.”

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7weather

Storm Moves Into Northeast, Bringing Heavy Rains and High Winds

A powerful storm system was moving through the Northeast on Monday, prompting flood and wind alerts as well as travel advisories while some areas braced for power outages and up to six inches of rain, forecasters said. The National Weather Service in New York issued a flood watch for portions of southern Connecticut, northeast New Jersey and most of New York City and Long Island and parts of the Hudson Valley. The flood watch is in effect from Sunday afternoon through Monday afternoon. “It is a pretty large storm system covering the Northeast,” Joe Dellicarpini, a meteorologist with the Weather Service office in Boston, said on Sunday. “We are looking at a potential for flooding, not just the roadways, but some rivers and small streams as well, and that is primarily across Connecticut and Massachusetts,” he said.

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4politics

Henry Kissinger, US diplomat who was revered and reviled, dies at 100

Henry Kissinger, a brilliant master of the art of statecraft and one of the most polarizing figures of the Vietnam War era, died Wednesday at his home in Connecticut. He was 100. A man of towering intellect who shaped U.S. foreign policy during one of the most dynamic and explosive eras in the nation's history, Kissinger was both revered and reviled for his work in the Nixon White House, as he opened up China, eased relations with the Soviet Union and both enflamed and ended the Vietnam War. Kissinger's career in politics began with work as an unofficial advisor to Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Lyndon B. Johnson, before Richard Nixon tabbed him as head of the National Security Council from 1969 to 1974, and Secretary of State from 1973 until 1977. The Vietnam War would come to define Kissinger's White House career. The war was already a decade old with no end in sight when the Nixon Administration inherited it, and one their first moves was to try to get the South Vietnamese to take control of their side of the war with the North, while beginning the draw down of U.S. troops. Get Boston local news, weather forecasts, lifestyle and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Boston’s newsletters. "I'm uniting Vietnam and both halves are screaming at me," Kissinger once said. But at the same time, the U.S. was expanding the battlefield by running secret bombing missions over Cambodia and Laos. In 1971, Kissinger began a series of secret meeting with his Vietnamese counterpart, Le Duc Tho, eventually leading to the Paris Peace Accords, which called for an end to U.S. involvement in Vietnam, as well as a ceasefire by the North and South. For their efforts, Kissinger and Tho were awarded the 1973 Nobel Peace Prize, one of the most controversial choices in the organization's history. "Political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize," said songwriter Tom Lehrer at the time. Tho would refuse his share of the award on the grounds that there was not yet real peace in Vietnam. Though Kissinger spent countless hours negotiating for peace, and managed to withdraw more than 500,000 U.S. troops out of Vietnam, he would occasionally infuriate those on the left with his professorial mien, formidable ego and condescension. "The very people who shout 'power to the people' are not going to be the people who will take over this country if it turns into a test of strength," Kissinger said in the early '70s, as anti-war protests were rocking the nation's college campuses. Kissinger's efforts as a globetrotting mediator would lead to the birth of the term "shuttle diplomacy," as he flew back and forth between Israel and Arab nations, trying to smooth over differences, and had a hand in ending the Yom Kippur War. "Realpolitik" was another hallmark of the Kissinger worldview, encouraging Nixon to approach foreign powers on a practical level rather than an ideological one. Instead of shunning the Soviets and Chinese for being communist, he engaged them as global powers with whom the U.S. had to coexist. Kissinger was a key force behind the détente between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that lead to the first SALT treaty (Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty) in 1972. But the greatest foreign policy success during the Kissinger era was the normalization of relations with China. Nixon's 1972 meeting with Chairman Mao Zedong was the first ever visit by a U.S. president to the People's Republic of China. "What we are doing now with China is so great, so historic, that the word 'Vietnam' will be only a footnote when it is written in history," said Kissinger that year. For all of his achievements, Kissinger's time in the White House was so controversial that his appearances drew protesters for years after the war in Vietnam ended, and in 2001, journalist Christopher Hitchens wrote "The Trail of Henry Kissinger," a 145-page volume outlining the statesman's alleged war crimes. Hitchens accused Kissinger of planning, arming or signing off on assassinations, coups and massacres in Chile, Cyprus, Kurdistan and East Timor, among other faraway lands. “It goes on and on and on until one cannot eat enough to vomit enough,” wrote Hitchens. When he wasn't shaping U.S. foreign policy in the late '60s and early '70s, Kissinger earned a reputation as something of a ladies' man, hitting the town with the likes of Jill St. John, Candace Bergen, Liv Ullman, Marlo Thomas and Zsa Zsa Gabor among others, and he was a frequent patron at Studio 54 in New York. "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac," Kissinger famously explained when asked about his success with some of the world's most beautiful women. After leaving the State Department in 1977, Kissinger retreated to private practice, working as a consultant. Though he held no official title in the U.S. government, Kissinger enjoyed almost diplomatic-level access to world leaders. As such, he drew criticism for leveraging his relationships into millions of dollars in fees from clients eager to do business in China and other far off lands. In 2002 Kissinger again was a lightning rod for controversy, when the Bush Administration appointed him to head the 9/11 Commission. Just two weeks later amid accusations of a possible conflict of interest, he resigned from the commission, rather than reveal his client list. Heinz Alfred Kissinger was born on May 27, 1923, in Furth, Germany, the son of a teacher and a homemaker. The Jewish family fled Nazi Germany in 1938, stopping first in London, before heading on to America. Kissinger began attending City College in New York in 1941, but was drafted two years later, serving as a translator for U.S. Army intelligence in Germany until 1946. Upon returning home, Kissinger enrolled in Harvard University as a sophomore in 1947, graduating summa cum laude three years later. He would go on to earn a Masters in '52 and his doctorate in '54 from there as well. Kissinger is survived by his wife Nancy, whom he met when she was a student at Harvard, and his two children, Elizabeth and David, from a previous marriage. In Memoriam: People We've Lost in 2023

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2culture

How Cave Canem Has Nurtured Generations of Black Poets

The poet Cornelius Eady took out his phone the other day and clicked to a black-and-white group photo that was taken 43 summers ago when he was a fellow at Bread Loaf, the famous writers’ retreat held each year in Vermont. Eady is easy to spot — he is the only Black person in the picture. This was not at all unusual for a writers’ retreat in 1980. In fact, it’s not all that unusual at many writers’ retreats 43 years later. But the fact didn’t sit well with him. It was a little over a decade later, when Eady was invited to teach at a different retreat, that he met Toi Derricotte, a fellow teacher. She, too, had often been the only Black poet in the room at such gatherings. When they began talking, they discovered that they both shared the same wish: to create a program specifically for Black poets. “It started as a conversation,” Derricotte said. “We both had a —” “A recognition,” Eady finished. “I thought, ‘My partner in crime has arrived.’”

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3entertainment

FanDuel Vermont promo offers $300 pre-registration bonus

Sports Betting Dime provides exclusive sports betting content to MassLive.com, including real-time odds, picks, analysis and sportsbook offers to help sports fans get in on the action. Please wager responsibly. FanDuel Sportsbook is heading to the Green Mountain State on January 11, 2024, and you can earn up to $300 in pre-registration bonuses with the newest FanDuel Vermont promo. Click here to pre-register for an account today. FanDuel Vermont $300 PRE-LAUNCH BONUS BETS CLAIM OFFER 21+ and present in participating states. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. Any bettor who pre-registers via our links will secure a two-part pre-launch bonus. This FanDuel Vermont promo is easily the best of its kind in the state. Legal online sports betting’s expansion continues early in 2024. Following state launches in Ohio and Kentucky in 2023, FanDuel has targeted a January 11, 2024, launch for its sportsbook in Vermont. The pre-registration window will remain open until that date, giving players the chance to load up with bonus bets. Pre-register for this FanDuel Vermont promo to get up to $300 in pre-launch bonuses when you click here. FanDuel Vermont promo offers $300 pre-registration bonus If you’re in the state of Vermont, it’s important to note that pre-registration offers are typically far from a guarantee. In fact, some states over the past few years have opted to prevent sportsbooks from offering pre-launch bonuses. In some states with a pre-registration window, a number of sportsbooks have opted not to offer a bonus of any kind. Not only can you lock-in a $100 return in bonus bets just for pre-registering today, but you’ll also be eligible for an additional bonus after launch. Once the state gives FanDuel VT Sportsbook the green light to go live, you’ll be able to make a qualifying deposit of $10 or more. Then, your first $5 cash wager will earn you a $200 guaranteed return in bonus bets. These bonus bets will be eligible for any game in any league. How to pre-register for this FanDuel Vermont promo If you want to sign up early with FanDuel Vermont, be sure to follow the instructions in our sign-up guide below. This will walk you through the entire process: Click here to pre-register with FanDuel Vermont. Fill out the required information fields with your full name, residential address, phone number and date of birth. Confirm you’re in the state limits by accepting a geolocation verification request. Set up your account with an email address. Create a password. Once you’ve completed this process, FanDuel will add $100 in bonus bets to your account. After the app goes live in January, add $10+ to your account and wager $5+ to secure an additional $200 in bonus bets. What to bet on with FanDuel VT at launch FanDuel Vermont’s launch comes at the perfect time for sports fans. The NFL Playoffs will be underway, while the NBA and NHL will have tons of games to bet on. College basketball will also have quite a few huge matchups on tap as well. With all of that in mind, it’s clear that having $300 in guaranteed bonus bets will pay dividends. These bonus bets won’t be tied to a specific sport, which means you’ll be able to spread them across quite a few games in any league. Click here to sign up for this FanDuel Vermont promo and lock-in up to $300 in pre-launch bonuses. FanDuel Vermont $300 PRE-LAUNCH BONUS BETS CLAIM OFFER 21+ and present in participating states. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. Get the latest sports betting news, advice and promos sent straight to your inbox. Enter your email here: Think you know Patriots football? Play the MassLive.com Prop Bet Showdown for a chance to win prizes! If you or a loved one has questions and needs to talk to a professional about gambling, call the Massachusetts Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org to speak with a trained specialist to receive support. Specialists are available 24/7. Services are available in multiple languages and are free and confidential.

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2culture

Photos: Boston woman stops to rescue kitten while running Chicago Marathon

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103ecc38c817bc7162c1a56897b740ed

5science

Study says seniors sleep better in warmer temperatures

BOSTON - Many of us like to sleep in cooler temperatures, but seniors may want to crank up the thermostat a bit. Researchers at Harvard and Marcus Institute for Aging Research studied 50 people in the Boston area aged 65 and older. The participants wore a ring linked to their smartphone to monitor their sleep and vital signs, and sensors were put in their bedrooms to track overnight room temperatures. They found that sleep was "most efficient and restful" when bedroom temperatures were between 68 and 77 degrees Fahrenheit though the ideal range was between 70 and 74 degrees.

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1crime

Air Force: 15 members of accused Mass. Airman Jack Teixeiras unit found at fault for leaks

The Air Force Inspector General said on Monday that members of Jack Teixeira’s unit didn’t take proper action after finding out about the Massachusetts airman’s alleged leak of classified government information and has disciplined 15 people as a result. In an announcement on Dec. 11, the Inspector General said that while its investigation found Teixeira to be solely responsible for the social media leak of information on Russia’s war in Ukraine, leadership members in the 102nd Intelligence Wing also were indirectly at fault for his actions. Read more: Jack Teixeira pleads not guilty to sharing classified documents Teixeira, 23, is accused of leaking top-secret military documents regarding the war in Ukraine to his internet friends over Discord, a communication platform popular amongst video gamers. Officials said he accessed Discord while employed at the Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod. He was arrested and charged with six counts willful retention and transmission of classified information relating to the national defense in April under the Espionage Act. Each count carries a potential sentence of up to 10 years in prison. The Massachusetts man pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Worcester in June, and was denied release in September as he waits in jail for his next trial date. Because of these indirect factors, many people were removed from their positions, and other administrative actions were brought against unit members, the Air Force said. Some of these factors included Texeira’s commanders’ failure to review their areas of command, inconsistent guidance on reporting security incidents and a misunderstanding of the government’s “Need to Know” classified info concept, the investigation revealed. Additionally, a lack of supervision of night shift operations, poor administration of disciplinary actions, and not providing security clearance field investigation results all factored into Teixeira’s suspected crimes, the Air Force said. Leadership also did not properly inspect the conduct of the people they were in charge of — specifically, security was not prioritized because those in charge did not take “the required actions to accomplish security program responsibilities fully and effectively,” investigators found. Two of the 15 people who received disciplined by the Air National Guard, which began Sept. 7, were identified as Col. Sean Riley, a 102d commander, and Enrique Dovalo, a Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group commander for the 102d. Riley was relieved of his position, the Air Force said. Dovalo received administrative action for its concerns with the commander’s unit culture and compliance with policies and standards. Also permanently removed were commanders who were previously suspended from the 102d Intelligence Support Squadron, and the detachment overseeing administrative support for Airmen at the unit mobilized for duty under Title 10 of the U.S. criminal code, the Air Force said. The 102nd Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Group had been taken off mission when allegations against Teixeira surfaced, and the group’s mission remains reassigned to other organizations within the Air Force. In addition to the disciplinary and administrative actions, the Air Force implemented department-wide security improvements, such as the members’ review of security procedure compliance, their attendance of security training, and a survey of security practices across the Air Force. The Air Force also implemented several reforms, including but not limited to, increased emphasis on cyber-hygiene, improving its procedures on “Need to Know” and classified access, improving security training content, and delivery and improving security training content and delivery. “Every Airman and Guardian is entrusted with the solemn duty to safeguard our nation’s classified defense information,” U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in the statement. “When there is a breach of that sacred trust, for any reason, we will act in accordance with our laws and policies to hold responsible individuals accountable. Our national security demands leaders at every level protect critical assets, ensuring they do not fall into the hands of those who would do the United States or our allies and partners harm,” Kendall said.

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3entertainment

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1crime

U.S. Naval Officer Is Released From Jail in Japan After Yearslong Effort

The state Attorney General's office today sued the state's home-grown Nazi group and two of its leaders on civil-rights and conspiracy charges for using violence and intimidation against drag-queen story hours, immigrants and just random people over the past couple of years, including in Jamaica Plain, the Seaport and on a pedestrian bridge over Storrow Drive. In the suit, filed today in Suffolk Superior Court, the state says it's suing the Nationalist Social Club and leaders Christopher Hood of Newburyport and Liam McNeil of Waltham for "their escalating violations of the state’s civil rights laws, and the disruptions to public peace and safety caused by their unlawful conduct" that also includes "patrols" of MBTA trains and random neighborhoods. The lawsuit seeks a court order barring the Nazis from continuing to act like Nazis, specifically by barring them from continuing to be a "public nuisance" and from trespassing on both public and private property, along with sufficient monetary damages to make them think twice about acting out on their racist, homophobic and anti-Semitic impulses. Defendants have recently and repeatedly engaged in violent, threatening, intimidating, and coercive conduct that has interfered with the exercise of rights secured by state and federal law; unlawfully obstructed access to public accommodations, including libraries and hotels; and damaged, defaced, and unlawfully intruded upon property throughout Massachusetts. Since 2020, Defendants have engaged in an escalating campaign of unlawful conduct as they have attempted to "shut down" groups and activities that they deem harmful to the interests of white New Englanders. Defendants have recently carried out a series of violent and otherwise unlawful Club actions targeting those they have designated "enemies of our people. Among these Club actions, Defendants have repeatedly attempted to disrupt public events organized by LGBTQ+ groups, and interfere with the provision of emergency shelter to recent immigrants at local hotels through the Commonwealth's Emergency Housing Assistance program. Defendants have also periodically carried out vigilante "patrols" in cities and towns across the Commonwealth. During these patrols, NSC members – some carrying dangerous weapons – have hunted for "anti-White" activity in residential neighborhoods, and trespassed upon and "tagged" public and private property to claim territory for the Club. Defendants' conduct during these targeted actions, patrols, and other Club activities has repeatedly and substantially interfered with the public peace, safety, comfort, and convenience. The complaint cites numerous examples of public Nazi violence and threats by the roughly 30-member group, including a failed attempt to stop a drag-queen story hour at the Loring Greenough House in Jamaica Plain on July 23, 2022: After approximately an hour and a half, the NSC members left the sidewalk outside the Loring Greenough House and began walking toward the parking lot where they had left their cars. After traveling about half a block, several Club members broke away from the main group and crossed the street – moving away from the parking lot – to confront the protesters at close range. This conduct provoked an escalating conflict that continued back across the street and culminated in a street fight involving Defendant Hood in Greenough Avenue. Multiple police officers were forced to intervene to break up the fight. After the event, NSC posted a video to its social media accounts in which it threatened that those organizing and supporting future Story Hour events would "BE ALLOWED NO PEACE, NO REST, AND NO FUTURE IN NEW ENGLAND"; stated that, as a result of Club members' activities at the Loring Greenough House, "POLICE ESCORTED THE DRAG QUEEN OUT THE BACK DOOR"; and reaffirmed that members would continue to attempt to "DISRUPT AND SHUT DOWN" Story Hour events in Massachusetts. The khaki-clad thugs were more successful the next month in shutting down a similar event on Harbor Way in the Seaport: The Story Hour was canceled by organizers due to safety concerns after approximately twenty NSC members arrived in a group and lined up in formation immediately in front of the public entrance to the building. The complaint also cites the way the masked Nazis roughed up a woman who was walking on the Fairfield Street pedestrian bridge over Storrow Drive and tried to pull up the white-supremacist banner they had just unfurled on Feb. 12, 2022: At one point, a pedestrian crossing the bridge objected to the NSC members' conduct and began recording their activities using a cell phone. In response, at least one NSC member began to follow the pedestrian across the bridge. When the pedestrian reached approximately the halfway point over the bridge, another Club member let go of the section of banner he was holding and performed a Nazi salute at the pedestrian as she was approaching. The pedestrian briefly stopped and grabbed the section of banner next to the member, attempting to pull it loose from the railing. Three more NSC members then charged at the pedestrian and began shouting in her face, surrounding her and forcing her up against the railing of the bridge. One of the NSC members then swung at the pedestrian, striking her in the arm and knocking the phone out of her hand onto the bridge. More recently, the group ran similar intimidating pickets outside Boston-area hotels used by the state to house the influx of immigrants shipped up here by southern states, the complaint continues. The complaint details what happened on Nov. 13, 2022, when the Nazis were thwarted in their effort to gain entry to the Anarchist Book Fair in Cambridge - they decided to bully passersby across the street: One Club member approached a man who was pushing his small children in a stroller and began shouting and aggressively gesturing in the man's face. Another Club member charged across the street, gesturing at another pedestrian and screaming, "You want to punch a fucking Nazi? Come on motherfucker! What? Yeah, back up bitch! Get the fuck out of here you bitch!" The complaint details what it says is the planning that goes into the group's outbursts: In advance of Club activities, NSC members regularly scout targeted locations in order to familiarize themselves with the area. Defendants use the information gathered to develop operational tactics and create detailed "planning graphics" that identify parking and gathering points, primary and contingency access and exit routes, and potential chokepoints or danger areas near targeted locations. At the direction of the Club’s leadership, NSC members generally wear a standard "uniform" during sanctioned public activities. This uniform consists of khaki pants; black shirts or jackets; black ski masks, balaclavas or neck gaiters; and black or khaki hats. 33. During Club activities, NSC members regularly seek out and attempt to instigate fights and other physical confrontations. To prepare Club members to engage in physical violence, Defendants periodically organize and provide combat and weapons trainings during which members practice fighting and engaging in coordinated maneuvers. NSC members engage in aggressive and violent conduct during Club activities in an attempt to intimidate their "enemies" and to generate material for propaganda and recruiting videos. It adds: Since 2020, Defendants have repeatedly posted videos and images to NS'’s social media accounts that have featured Club members carrying out assaults, fighting, and engaging in other physical confrontations. Defendants have given these videos and images titles such as "Join the Club" and "The Life," and labeled Club members who engage in physical violence as the “Bully Squad.” Complete complaint (1.6M PDF).

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2culture

These Mass. towns put on the best Christmas celebrations in New England, according to Yankee

It’s officially the holiday season here in New England, which means it’s also Christmas festival season. And the six-state region, replete with picture-postcard perfect small towns that soon, hopefully, will be covered in seasonally appropriate snow, puts on no shortage of can’t-miss holiday observances. But which holiday festival to hit first in the 22 days that remain to you before Christmas Eve? Not to worry, the folks at Yankee magazine have you covered. The regional stalwart has put together its list of the 10 best Christmas celebrations across New England in 2023. The Bay State takes three spots Yankee’s countdown. Here they are: Main Street at Christmas, Stockbridge, Mass. This community, nestled in the heart of the Berkshires, and famed for its vigorous arts and culture scene, earlier made a list of the coolest small towns in the nation. Now it can add best Christmas festival to its list of accolades. Artist Norman Rockwell “made Stockbridge famous in his depiction of the town’s Main Street at Christmas, and the town pays tribute to the beloved painter each year in a weekend-long celebration of vintage holiday cheer,” according to Yankee. The celebration, which takes place this weekend, includes holiday house tours, caroling, horse-drawn rides, a visit with Santa, and enough concerts make to appease even the most enthusiastic caroler. And make sure you don’t miss the “the Sunday afternoon re-creation of Rockwell’s painting, complete with period automobiles,” Yankee noted. Nantucket Noel and Christmas Stroll, Nantucket, Mass. This month-long celebration, which kicked off on Nov. 1 and runs through Dec. 31, starts with Santa’s arrival on a U.S. Coast Guard vessel. It also includes craft shows, a holiday house tour, and the “Festival of Lights” at the Nantucket Whaling Museum, according to Yankee. The kids also will love the “Magical Talking Tree.” Christmas in the City, Boston, Mass. “Whether it’s a day of holiday shopping on Boston’s city sidewalks, admiring the tree and musical light show at Faneuil Hall, treating yourself to a fancy dinner and performance of The Nutcracker or the Holiday Pops, skating on the Frog Pond, or even sipping a hot chocolate while cruising the city via trolley tour, Boston offers just about everything the urban holiday spirit desires,” according to Yankee. Add in a stop to Snowport in the Seaport neighborhood, and your holiday celebrations in Beantown will be complete.

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5science

Opinion | A Terrible Phone Call and What Came Next

Early on the morning of Friday, Nov. 10, my phone rang with terrible news: My wife, Nancy, has a highly aggressive form of breast cancer. Even as I type these words, I know there are countless readers who know the exact sensation. Either they’ve received a similar diagnosis or they love someone who has. And each of those readers knows the surreal feeling of having your life change instantly. Nancy and I lived in one reality before the phone call and another reality afterward. It’s like the difference between peace and war. In peacetime, you can dream and plan. True joy may be elusive, but it seems like an attainable goal. In wartime, you dig deep. You fight. And the goal is not joy but survival itself. Peace has its many challenges, but war is emotionally shattering. The fight is so very hard and can feel unending. Imagine how much harder that fight, any fight, would be if you fought it alone. But ever since the deep darkness of that November phone call, Nancy and I have experienced countless bursts of light shining through, each one coming through the love and care from other people. My son immediately decided to give up his final quarter of in-person college and take his last classes online, so that he could move across the country back home to help his mom. Our church small group immediately started organizing meals. My friends from college raked our leaves so that I could sit with Nancy in chemotherapy. My fantasy baseball league collected funds for wigs.

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3entertainment

Small movie theaters in Pioneer Valley still feeling pandemic pinch

Though Christmas Day is one of the year’s biggest for movie theaters, operators say they are still feeling the effects of the pandemic. One of them, Robert Adams, owner of South Hadley’s Tower Theaters, will use a recently awarded $30,000 grant to help cover costs. The pandemic had a huge impact on the movie industry, said Isaac Mass, co-owner of Greenfield Garden Cinemas. “We’re still recovering from it,” he said. “The industry as a whole is about 85% of where it was pre-pandemic.” He added, “It’s going to make a big impact until about Memorial Day of next year. A lot of the films that were slated to be released got pushed back.” Both owners say they believe their businesses play a role in supporting their communities and stimulating commerce. Tower Theaters, for instance, purchases Pioneer Valley Popcorn from Hager’s Farm Market, according to Adam. The theater is considered the anchor store of The Village Commons and is close to Mount Holyoke College. From its perch downtown, Mass said the Greenfield Garden Cinemas helps small restaurants and retail establishments. Customers can grab a bite to eat or get shopping done before catching a flick. Stacey Velez, development director for the Tower Theaters in South Hadley, makes popcorn at the concession stand. (Don Treeger / The Republican) 12/21/2023The Republican Although Tower Theaters will not be open for Christmas Day, patrons this week can stop by to catch a viewing of “Migration,” starring Nora “Awkwafina” Lum, Elizabeth Banks, and Danny DeVito. “Wonka,” starring Timothée Chalamet, is also screening at the theater. Adam said he is pleased to serve movie-goers in the region. “I love hearing people’s positive comments about (how) they appreciate the value of a local theater,” Adam said. The grant helping to underwrite Tower Theaters operations came through the Massachusetts Growth Capital Corporation’s Movie Theater Program. Greenfield Garden Cinemas will be open on Monday. It has worked to bring Christmas cheer throughout the month with weekly free Christmas movies every Saturday morning, sponsored by Liberty Tax. On Christmas Day, guests can stop by to view “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” starring Jason Momoa, “Migration,” “The Color Purple,” starring Halle Bailey, Danielle Brooks, Taraji P. Henson, and others, along with “Iron Claw,” which stars Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White, among others. Mass said Christmas Day is one of the busiest for the business.

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5science

Before the Coronavirus Pandemic, Overlooked Clues From Chinese Scientists

In late December 2019, eight pages of genetic code were sent to computers at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. Unbeknown to American officials at the time, the genetic map that had landed on their doorstep contained critical clues about the virus that would soon touch off a pandemic. The genetic code, submitted by Chinese scientists to a vast public repository of sequencing data run by the U.S. government, described a mysterious new virus that had infected a 65-year-old man weeks earlier in Wuhan. At the time the code was sent, Chinese officials had not yet warned of the unexplained pneumonia sickening patients in the central city of Wuhan. But the U.S. repository, which was designed to help scientists share run-of-the-mill research data, never added the submission it received on Dec. 28, 2019, to its database. Instead, it asked the Chinese scientists three days later to resubmit the genetic sequence with certain additional technical details. That request went unanswered.

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0business

Triplex in Cambridge sells for $3 million

The spacious historic property located at 95 Trowbridge Street in Cambridge was sold on Nov. 8, 2023. The $3,000,000 purchase price works out to $512 per square foot. The three-unit house, built in 1916, has an interior space of 5,856 square feet. This three-story triplex presents a total of nine bedrooms and four baths. On the exterior, the home features a flat roof design constructed with tar and gravel roofing. There is a lone fireplace indoors. The property is equipped with a steam heat system and a cooling system. Additional houses have recently been purchased nearby: On Roberts Road, Cambridge, in July 2023, a 3,906-square-foot home was sold for $2,300,000, a price per square foot of $589. The home has 6 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. In June 2023, a 3,993-square-foot home on Dana Street in Cambridge sold for $2,700,000, a price per square foot of $676. The home has 10 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. A 3,393-square-foot home at 27 Harold Street in Somerville sold in June 2023, for $1,400,000, a price per square foot of $413. The home has 7 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms. Real Estate Newswire is a service provided by United Robots, which uses machine learning to generate analysis of data from Propmix, an aggregator of national real-estate data. See more Real Estate News

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2culture

Topics Suppressed in China Are Underrepresented on TikTok, Study Says

Topics often suppressed by the Chinese government within its borders, including Tibet, Hong Kong protests and the Uyghur population, appear to be unusually underrepresented on TikTok compared with Instagram, according to a report published Thursday by online researchers. The findings could add to a wave of concern that Beijing may be influencing content on the popular video platform. TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company. The report, from the Network Contagion Research Institute at Rutgers University, analyzed the volume of posts with certain hashtags on TikTok and Instagram, which has hundreds of millions more users. For popular pop culture and politics terms like #TaylorSwift and #Trump, the researchers found roughly two Instagram posts for every one on TikTok, the report said. But that ratio jumped to more than 8-to-1 for #Uyghur or #Uighur, 30-to-1 for #Tibet, 57-to-1 for #TiananmenSquare, and 174-to-1 for #HongKongProtest.

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0business

This Seed Season, Consider a Catalog That Takes a Different Approach

It takes a village, not a threshing machine, to complete the harvest of pounds of watermelon seeds that will fill the simple, white packets sold by Turtle Tree Seed. “Nobody minds helping with the watermelon-seed collection,” said Lia Babitch, the seed company’s co-manager. She’s not just talking about their crew: Residents of Camphill Village, in Copake, N.Y., where Turtle Tree is headquartered, are happy to join in. It’s a pretty sweet task, after all, that involves eating the fruit of yellow-fleshed Early Moonbeam, or perhaps an heirloom like Moon and Stars, and spitting the seeds into cups provided for that purpose — the first step before washing, drying and eventually packing them for sale.

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3entertainment

This Taylor Swift album is the most popular in Mass., study says

One Taylor Swift album sticks out from all the rest in Massachusetts, according to a new study. The study analyzed 120 keywords around all of Swift’s albums, both original and “Taylor’s Version”, to crown one of them as her most searched in the country. Read more: Travis Kelce shouts out Patriots for showing Taylor Swift on video board Vegas Gems found that reputation is Swift’s most popular album in Massachusetts, having accumulated the highest average monthly searches, the study said. The album earned 10,368.3 average monthly searches in the Bay State alone, along with the largest number of searches in all 50 states. The interest in the album may also come from the highly anticipated re-recording and release of reputation, later to be called reputation (Taylor’s Version). Second on the list for Massachusetts favorites is 1989, which earned an average search volume of 6,724.2. The album was originally released in 2016, but was re-recorded and released in November of 2023. Read more: Taylor Swift class to be offered at Harvard during spring of 2024 Following close behind was Lover with an average search volume of 5,842.5, Midnights with an average search volume of 5,275.8 and Speak Now with an average search volume of 3,387.5. “This is also confirmed by the great numbers reported by this data, which sees hundreds of thousands of Americans googling her albums, as well as listening to them on all streaming platforms: regardless of where you go looking, the 34-year-old will find a way to steal everyone’s attention and break some records,” Josh Lingenfelter, a spokesperson for the study said. To listen to all her albums in one, Swift’s record-breaking “Eras Tour” film is now available to stream online. The film is available on platforms like Amazon Prime Video and Apple TV. Fans can rent the movie for $19.89. Swift will return with the tour in February, continuing with international stops. Taylor Swift’s international tour dates with links to purchase tickets are below:

d40b5bc9b3e6c8aea59e6baa4cb53d2a

6sports

MLB scouts take on Vaughn Grissom, acquired in Chris Sale trade

In return for Chris Sale, the Red Sox acquired infielder Vaughn Grissom from the Atlanta Braves. Grissom had been one of the Braves’ highest-rated prospects and was expected to take over at shortstop last season. Instead, the Braves went with Orlando Arcia and returned Grissom to the minor leagues. Over the last two years, Grissom has appeared in 64 games in the majors with a .746 OPS, and his star has dimmed somewhat in the process. We surveyed a number of scouts and evaluators to get their read on what the Red Sox are getting. Reports were mixed. SCOUT 1: “I think he got into the habit of being too fast on some routine plays in the infield and is in need of more game-speed experience. I guess I see him as an offense-first shortstop option who would, ultimately, fit better at second base.” SCOUT 2: “Carries the profile of an offensive second baseman, but his defense can be underwhelming. Still, he should have everyday, run-producing value at Fenway.” BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. SCOUT 3: “I’m luke-warm on him. He really can’t play shortstop, and I see him being limited to either second base or a corner outfield spot. He has contact skills, but the power is not there. For me, not an impact guy.” SCOUT 4: “It’s all about upside and patience with him. He has the talent to be a productive major league bat in the No. 2 hole in need of an OBP upgrade, strike zone (recognition) and walks. Has some defensive versatility and could play at second, short and the outfield, but we had some concerns about his ability to play shortstop. He should be able to hit and play second base. Has a good work ethic and can be tough on himself. Brings some instincts and attitude to develop. He’ll need some time (to develop further) at the major league level, sort of like (Triston) Casas did.”

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0business

Whats open and closed in Massachusetts on New Years Day 2024

If you’re the kind of person who wakes up on New Year’s Day without a hangover and ready to leave the house, this list is just the thing for you. Here’s what’s open and closed in Massachusetts on New Year’s Day 2024. Government City and town offices: Closed State offices: Closed Registry of Motor Vehicles: Closed State and local courts: Closed Federal courts: Closed Finance Banks: Closed. Most ATMs will remain open. Stock market: Closed Alcohol Massachusetts liquor stores: Open; hours may vary per location Connecticut liquor stores: Closed Shopping Auburn Mall: Open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Holyoke Mall: Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Hampshire (Hadley) Mall: Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Natick Mall: Open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Big Y: Open regular hours Stop & Shop: Open regular hours Market Basket: Open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Price Rite: Open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Star Market: Open Walmart: Open 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Target: Open 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. Wegmans: Open regular hours Safeway: Open, hours vary by location Costco: Closed CVS: Open, hours vary Walgreens: Open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Aldi: Closed Whole Foods: Open, hours vary Trader Joe’s: Closed Parcel services Post offices: Closed FedEx: Closed; no regular pickup and delivery UPS: Closed Transportation Pioneer Valley Transit Authority: PVTA will operate on a Sunday schedule. Additionally, beginning Jan. 1, no fares or passes will be needed for PVTA bus and paratransit services on Saturdays and Sundays. UMass Transit: UMass Transit has no services on most routes; B43 will operate on a No School Sunday schedule. R29 will operate on a weekend schedule. Worcester Regional Transit Authority: There will be no fixed-route bus or paratransit service. MBTA:

3ca69c25a1bec91ba333d80a016d21c7

6sports

Jets latest free agent bust makes Patriots look even smarter

The New England Patriots and New York Jets both needed some veteran running back depth this offseason. The Jets got Dalvin Cook while the Patriots landed Ezekiel Elliott. The Patriots got the better player at about half the cost. BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. This comes after Wednesday’s news that the Jets and Cook are parting ways, a move that was dubbed “good business.” The 28-year-old fell well below expectations in New York. Coming off four straight Pro Bowl appearances, Cook arrived with the Jets with high expectations. However, he ran for just 214 yards, averaging just 3.2 yards per carry. He also wasn’t much of a factor in the passing game. Cook’s price tag: a one-year, $7 million deal with $5.8 million guaranteed. Meanwhile, the Patriots got Elliott for cheap, signing him to a one-year deal worth $3 million total and $2.15 million in guarantees. Both players former Pro Bowlers who are 28 years old. They were both cut loose this offseason due to cap concerns. But while Cook had just made his fourth straight Pro Bowl, Elliott’s stock had declined a bit in Dallas. Elliott, a two-time NFL rushing leader, last made the Pro Bowl in 2019. After emerging as one of the NFL’s biggest stars in Dallas, he was cut loose in favor of Tony Pollard this offseason. He eventually found a solid role in New England. Over 16 games, Elliott has run the ball 171 times for 588 yards. That’s a career-worst average of 3.4 yards per carry. However, his biggest contributions have come in the passing game. Elliott heading into the final game of the season with 46 catches on the year, with ranks second on the team. He’s also drawn high praise for his effort level and pass blocking even when he’s not getting the ball. Bill Belichick’s roster building has been far from perfect as of late. The Patriots have rocky situation at quarterback. Their offensive line is held together with duct tape. The receivers (especially JuJu Smith-Schuster) have been a disappointment. But at least with Elliott, Belichick landed a good bargain-bin find. Plus, even the receiver deals have gone worse for the Jets. They signed Mecole Hardman as a free agent over the offseason and traded him back to the Kansas City Chiefs by October.

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4politics

Editorial: Basic incomes basic question who will pay?

Boston leaders are hashing over a universal basic income for needy Hub residents, and thankfully Mayor Michelle Wu is looking before she leaps. Cities around the country have rolled out guaranteed income pilot programs, in New York, Texas, Michigan and California for example. Cambridge is also a participant, providing direct cash payments to families with children under the age of 21, and who earn at or below 250% of the federal poverty level. Like most municipalities experimenting with the program, funding in part comes from the American Rescue Plan Act. That COVID-era windfall allowed a plethora of cities to ease a life of poverty for many residents. But the $1.9 trillion ARPA fund is finite, and the spigot will eventually turn off. This leaves Boston with the inevitable question: how will we pay for such a program? A proposal for implementing a “temporary guaranteed income program” put forward for discussion by outgoing Councilor Kendra Lara couldn’t come at a worse time, as the city and state struggle with housing and caring for an unceasing influx of migrants. According to Lara’s hearing order, 18.9% of Bostonians are living “in poverty,” including 27.7% of children. Nearly 60 years after LBJ’s War on Poverty, and we have statistics like this – hardly a ringing endorsement for government programs. Segun Idowu, the city’s chief of economic opportunity and inclusion, said Monday that there have been “a lot of discussions,” but no plans in place for a pilot program. As the Herald reported, data from other municipal pilot programs across the country, including how successful a short-term income boost is in lifting people out of poverty and whether it hurts or helps the local economy, will inform whether Boston moves forward with a similar effort, Elijah Miller, the city’s director of policy, said. “If guaranteed income is a way that we determine with our colleagues here is the way to go, it is something that we can look at as well as other tools that may be available, because we know that there is no silver bullet to addressing this problem,” Idowu said. True, the bullet is for poverty is always green. Which brings us back to the question – where would the money for such a venture come from, if we were to adopt it? Chicago’s $31.5 million Resilient Communities Pilot is cutting checks for 5,000 residents for a year. And when the money is gone, the county will tap funds from cannabis sales and other revenue streams, according to an official from the Cook County Board of Commissioners. Might Boston consider such taxes? Will local philanthropic organizations step up? Or will property owners get another tax bite? Would newly arrived migrants, many of whom are impoverished, also qualify, regardless of immigration status? Universal basic income is popular with progressives, who are thick on the ground in Massachusetts. Fiscal responsibility, not so much. Lifting people out of poverty is a worthy cause, but unless a stable source of funding is found which won’t have a negative impact on the city’s economy, the help is unsustainable.

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4politics

Judge threatens to bar Trump from courtroom over interjections during E. Jean Carroll trial

Read this article for free! Plus get unlimited access to thousands of articles, videos and more with your free account! Please enter a valid email address. By entering your email, you are agreeing to Fox News Terms of Service and Privacy Policy , which includes our Notice of Financial Incentive . To access the content, check your email and follow the instructions provided. A judge threatened to bar former President Trump from his civil trial in New York City on Wednesday over his loud reactions to E. Jean Carroll's testimony claiming he ruined her reputation after she accused him of sexual abuse. Judge Lewis Kaplan admonished Trump for his audible reactions to Carroll’s testimony in front of the jury, threatening that the former president could be barred from the trial if he continues. Trump was heard saying "that’s not true," "it’s a witch hunt" and "it really is a con job" during Carroll’s testimony. After the jury was excused for lunch, Kaplan told Trump that his right to be present during the trial could be forfeited if he is disruptive. TRUMP CANNOT ASSERT PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY IN E JEAN CARROLL DEFAMATION LAWSUIT, APPEALS COURT RULES "Mr. Trump, I hope I don't have to consider excluding you from the trial," Kaplan said in an exchange after the jury was excused for lunch, adding: "I understand you're probably eager for me to do that." "I would love it," Trump responded from the defense table. "I know you would like it. You just can't control yourself in this circumstance, apparently," Kaplan said. "You can't either," Trump muttered before walking out. EXCLUSIVE: TRUMP TO APPEAL VERDICT IN E JEAN CARROLL CIVIL CASE, SAYS HE HAS 'ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA' WHO SHE IS The judge attempted to crack down on Trump speaking loudly while conferring with his lawyers after Carroll’s lawyer complained about the remarks for a second time. Carroll testified about the various threats she has received since she accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s, including death threats and threats of rape. When asked if she regretted her decision, Carroll said, "Only momentarily. I'm very glad I came forward." CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Carroll is seeking $10 million in compensatory damages and millions more in punitive damages. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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2culture

Arts Beat: New venues, returning directors in local performing world in 2023

It has been a milestone year for several organizations. The Hartford Symphony Orchestra and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra both celebrated their 80th anniversaries. Goodspeed Musicals and Hartford Stage celebrated their 60th anniversaries. Jacob’s Pillow presented its 90th season of live dance performances. Hartford Symphony celebrated its anniversary announcing that its musicians had signed a new four-year agreement, and Maestra Cariolyn Kuan committed to three more seasons. Springfield’s Symphony emerged from the pandemic with Paul Lambert appointed as its CEO, and a two-year agreement with its musicians, although the SSO is moving forward without a music director. Under Lambert’s direction, the SSO gave a free Juneteenth concert, and is experimenting with start times to better accommodate its audiences.

a548e3c969d452debfb88738a9d7646a

1crime

Former Milford teacher pleads guilty to child sex abuse video possession

Two men, one from Boston and another from South Carolina, are accused of bringing more than two dozen illegal firearms from the south into Massachusetts, where federal prosecutors say many of the guns were used in crimes. Aizavier Roache, 30, of Boston and Trevon Brunson, 31, of Columbia, S.C., were both arrested and charged earlier this month on one count of firearms trafficking and conspiracy, according to recently unsealed documents and Acting United States Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua Levy.The case began after investigators determined that a gun purchased in South Carolina was recovered from a Boston shooting 15 days later, Levy's office said.Prosecutors said that over three years, Roache would send Brunson photos of the guns he wanted. Roache also allegedly provided the cash used to purchase the weapons.Roache and Brunson would meet in South Carolina to transfer the weapons before Roache brought them home to Massachusetts. “Over the course of several years, these defendants allegedly trafficked dozens of illegal firearms many of which ended up on the streets of our communities – 11 of those guns, it is alleged, were involved in criminal activity and have since been recovered,” Levy said in a statement. “The unchecked flow of weapons amplifies violence, empowers criminals and puts innocent lives at risk. Our office is committed to working with ATF, FBI and local partners like the Boston Police to aggressively investigate the origin of every gun used in crime and hold accountable the people who import illegal guns into Massachusetts.”According to Levy and charging documents, prosecutors have bank, travel and firearm records that detail the alleged conspiracy. Roache was ordered to be detained following a hearing in Boston on Jan. 12, and Brunson made his first court appearance in South Carolina on Jan. 10. Two men, one from Boston and another from South Carolina, are accused of bringing more than two dozen illegal firearms from the south into Massachusetts, where federal prosecutors say many of the guns were used in crimes. Aizavier Roache, 30, of Boston and Trevon Brunson, 31, of Columbia, S.C., were both arrested and charged earlier this month on one count of firearms trafficking and conspiracy, according to recently unsealed documents and Acting United States Attorney for Massachusetts Joshua Levy. Advertisement The case began after investigators determined that a gun purchased in South Carolina was recovered from a Boston shooting 15 days later, Levy's office said. Prosecutors said that over three years, Roache would send Brunson photos of the guns he wanted. Roache also allegedly provided the cash used to purchase the weapons. Roache and Brunson would meet in South Carolina to transfer the weapons before Roache brought them home to Massachusetts. “Over the course of several years, these defendants allegedly trafficked dozens of illegal firearms many of which ended up on the streets of our communities – 11 of those guns, it is alleged, were involved in criminal activity and have since been recovered,” Levy said in a statement. “The unchecked flow of weapons amplifies violence, empowers criminals and puts innocent lives at risk. Our office is committed to working with ATF, FBI and local partners like the Boston Police to aggressively investigate the origin of every gun used in crime and hold accountable the people who import illegal guns into Massachusetts.” According to Levy and charging documents, prosecutors have bank, travel and firearm records that detail the alleged conspiracy. Roache was ordered to be detained following a hearing in Boston on Jan. 12, and Brunson made his first court appearance in South Carolina on Jan. 10.

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3entertainment

Two more legendary country music acts will call it a day in 2024

When Bill Hartline bought 50 acres of forested land outside Muncy, Pa., he was looking for a bit of solitude and a place to eventually build a new home in retirement. But during a camping trip there in early 2020, he discovered the wooded plot wasn’t as lonely as he thought. That evening, a ruffed grouse — a crow-size bird with a tiny mohawk and mottled feathers — appeared at his feet. “I crouched down and said, ‘Hello.’ He cooed back and started following me around,” Mr. Hartline, 66, said. “Three years later, he’s still following me around.” That’s putting it mildly. Mister Grouse, as he has named the bird, seems to ingratiate himself into everything Mr. Hartline does. Mister Grouse rides the tractor, hops up on ladders and enjoys the campfire from atop Mr. Hartline’s shoulders. It’s a far cry from the behavior of most ruffed grouse, whose stealth and elusiveness are why hunters call them the “king of game birds.”

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0business

Shipping packages before Christmas heres what USPS wants you to know

The Celtics will be back in Boston on Tuesday, heading home after being soundly beaten in crunch time by the Pacers in a 122-112 loss in the quarterfinals of the NBA in-season tournament Monday night. There were some familiar areas of concern for Boston after the loss, which dropped the Celtics to 6-5 on the road this year. The visitors surrendered a 9-0 run in crunch time to a Pacers squad as the defense suffered from miscommunications and the offense delivered uninspiring possessions. Boston’s road offense (19th in the NBA) continues to be a problem as it stumbled late against one of the NBA’s worst defenses. Ultimately, the Celtics are still in a great position in the standings at the quarterpole of the season with an East-best 15-5 record through 20 games. That mark comes despite playing one of the toughest schedules in the league. The Celtics will now have three days of rest before facing off against the loser of the Knicks-Bucks matchup at TD Garden on Friday night. That consolation prize is quite the silver lining for the Celtics in the big picture on several fronts. Boston winning the in-season tournament would have made for a fun story and provided some eye-opening cash for the Boston bench and coaching staff. However, from a 10,000-foot view, bowing out in the quarterfinals may be a more appealing development for the Celtics goals this year. $200 INSTANT BONUS DRAFTKINGS MASS CLAIM OFFER BET $5, GET $200 BONUS BET FANDUEL MASS CLAIM OFFER BET $50, GET $250 BONUS CAESARS MASS CLAIM OFFER $1,000 FIRST-BET BONUS BETMGM MASS CLAIM OFFER MA only. 21+. Gambling Problem? If you or a loved one is experiencing problems with gambling, please call 1-800-327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org for 24/7 support. LiveChat with a GameSense Advisor at GameSenseMA.com or call 1-800-GAM-1234 MA Gambling Helpline. MA only. 21+. Gambling Problem? If you or a loved one is experiencing problems with gambling, please call 1-800-327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org for 24/7 support. LiveChat with a GameSense Advisor at GameSenseMA.com or call 1-800-GAM-1234 MA Gambling Helpline. First, consider the schedule. With the loss, the Celtics will play just one game in the next seven days (on Friday night) and will play five games in the next two weeks total, all coming at TD Garden. After a brutal road schedule to begin the year in November, avoiding an extra trip to the west coast could do wonders for the team from a rest perspective. Boston is already set to play a four-game road trip in two weeks starting against the Warriors and finishing up with a tilt against the Lakers on Christmas. Going back and forth across the country twice in three weeks would have been a tough ask for this group from a fatigue standpoint, particularly with the raised stakes of the in-season tournament for the Vegas games. An elimination now for the in-season tournament also reduces the stakes in the present for a couple of potentially hobbled veterans. Kristaps Porzingis is still working his way back from a strained calf and would certainly be itching to get back on the floor if Boston had advanced to the semifinals. Instead, he gets an added extra day of rest until the Celtics’ next game along with some lower stakes in that matchup. If Boston’s training staff wants to play it safe, they could give him three more days off after Friday since the Celtics won’t play again until Tuesday night against the Cavs. There’s also the issue of Jrue Holiday who came up hobbling in the final minute of Monday’s loss before being subbed out of the game. The 34-year-old would have plenty of incentive to play through any lingering pain in Las Vegas. Now? The Celtics can play it safe with him, if needed, without any kind of financial remorse or added pressure to compete. Any risk of complacency also can fade into the background in the wake of how the Celtics lost to a mediocre Pacers squad on the road. Haliburton was great but the Celtics struggled in a few key areas yet again in crunch time while also letting go of the rope on both ends in an ugly third quarter. Boston has been an average team all year on the road and that was highlighted yet again in Indiana. Working through those issues at home in the next week while getting some added rest could pay dividends for this team in the big picture. A trip to Vegas may have made for a fun story but this team has far more important goals this year. Avoiding an extra busy week in what will likely be a 100-plus game grind may end up helping more over the long haul than some extra cash in everyone’s pockets.

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2culture

Ninety-one is a lot (Bostons version)

Beth Wolfensberger Singer is a Boston-based artist. You can see more of her work at Bethwolfensbergersinger.com.

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2culture

Dear Annie: After very generous money gift, family expects more each year

Dear Annie: My husband and I are in our mid-60s and have been married for 45 years. We had our children early in our marriage and made many sacrifices to make sure our daughter and son had all the benefits of a well-rounded childhood. Because this took up most of our discretionary income, rarely did my husband and I eat out, and we took very inexpensive vacations, if we went anywhere. During our early marriage, we pursued higher education and worked our way into well-paying jobs. About 25 years ago, we received the first of what’s ended up being numerous inheritances. We have continued to be generous to our children, who are now in their late 30s. We paid for their college and gave them a substantial amount of money for down payments on their first homes. We have four grandchildren and have invested enough money in our state’s college savings plan that they will have very little, if any, college debt. When my father died eight years ago, we gave each of our children a Christmas present that was enough to pay off their mortgages. That may have been a mistake. I feel that every Christmas since has been a disappointment. We’re very practical, so we give checks. The checks seem insignificant in comparison to the “big one,” and I’m sure our gifts are a huge disappointment. The biggest problem of all is that my husband and I feel guilty spending money on traveling, a hobby we love. I suspect that my daughter, in particular, feels that I’m wasting her money. How much do parents owe adult children? What about our grandchildren? Their parents aren’t saving money, and I don’t see much chance that they’re going to get the kind of benefits that our children have received. Should we cut back on our spending so we can give them down payments for homes when they get to that stage in their lives? — To Give or Not to Give Dear TGONTG: Please, step away from the checkbook. Your adult children don’t need another cent. What they do need, sorely, is some sense. To continue giving them cash is to rob them of valuable experience and life lessons. You’ve already given your grandchildren immense advantages, as well. If and when the time comes that they want to buy houses, they can work hard (using those great college educations for which you paid) and set aside the money for a down payment, just like millions of other Americans. Enjoy your retirement. Take as many trips you want, and don’t take any guilt-tripping from your kids. If you get the itch to be generous with your wallet, donate to folks who need it. Charity Navigator (https://www.charitynavigator.org/) is a great resource. Dear Annie: Frequently, I read letters in your column from older people complaining that their children, grandchildren and others do not acknowledge gifts or send thank-you notes. I have another take on this. If someone doesn’t thank another for a favor done or a gift given, maybe it is because he or she doesn’t feel the emotion of gratitude. How sad. It is a wonderful feeling to know that you are important enough to another person for them to give you a gift or a special service. If they don’t feel this, they are the ones who are the poorer for it. I have come to realize that the inability to feel gratitude is terribly impoverishing. Maybe gratitude is the modern secular equivalent of the Christian idea of grace. The gift-giver loves me despite my faults, just as Christians believe that God loves and forgives them despite their faults. — Secular Grace Dear Secular Grace: In response to your lovely letter, a quote: “I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” — G.K. Chesterton “How Can I Forgive My Cheating Partner?” is out now! Annie Lane’s second anthology — featuring favorite columns on marriage, infidelity, communication and reconciliation — is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit http://www.creatorspublishing.com for more information. Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2024 CREATORS.COM

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3entertainment

How to watch the new episode of Southern Hospitality, stream for free

The newest episode of “Southern Hospitality” will premiere on Thursday, Jan. 4 at 9 p.m. ET. on Bravo. Viewers without cable looking to stream season 2 and the rest of the show can watch it online using DirecTV Stream, Sling, and fuboTV. DirecTV and fuboTV both offer free trials. “Accepting nothing short of perfection from her staff, Leva runs a tight ship, but her once-close-knit team faces a multitude of obstacles as they try to keep their jobs while maintaining their friendships and relationships,” Bravo wrote about the show. How can I watch the newest episode of ‘Southern Hospitality’? Viewers looking to stream can do so by using FuboTV, Sling or DirecTV Stream. Both FuboTV and DirecTV offer free trials when you sign up and Sling offers 50% off your first month. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels. What is DirecTV? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels. DirecTV also offers a free trial for any package you sign up.

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0business

House of the Week: Wilbraham home has multiple laundry rooms, fire places and heated pool

Arguably, the best gift for a traveler is a ride to the airport for a 5 a.m. flight. But if you insist on wrapping something up, here are some things we have tested and loved. 10:47 a.m.

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6sports

Memphis vs. Iowa State: How to watch the Liberty Bowl for free

The Memphis Tigers, appearing in its 10th straight bowl game, take on the Iowa State Cyclones in the Liberty Bowl. The Tigers are 9-3 while the Cyclones are 7-5, having won six Big 12 games. Memphis, which had the AAC’s No. 2 scoring offense (39.7 ppg), is led by 1,000-yard rusher Blake Watson. Iowa State quarterback Rocco Becht is the Big 12 offensive freshman of the year. The Cylcones are 1-2 in the Liberty Bowl. Fans looking to watch this college football bowl game can do so for free on fuboTV, which offers a free trial (as well as RedZone, for you NFL fans) or on DirecTV Stream, which also offers a free trial. SlingTV has promotional offers available, as well. Through the end of 2023, fuboTV is also offering $20 off the first two months of subscription (in addition to the 7-day free trial). Who: Memphis vs. Iowa State When: Friday, 3:30 p.m. ET Where: Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee Stream: fuboTV (free trial); or Sling; or DirecTV Stream Tickets: StubHub and *VividSeats Gear: Shop around for jerseys, shirts, hats, hoodies and more at Fanatics.com Sports Betting Promos: Football fans can wager online on Massachusetts sports betting with enticing promo codes from top online sportsbooks. Use the FanDuel Massachusetts promo code and the DraftKings Massachusetts promo code for massive new user bonuses. RELATED CONTENT: Memphis is playing Iowa State in the Liberty Bowl for the second time since 2017. The Tigers have a chance for some payback after losing that game by a point. Memphis needs a victory on its home field for just the fifth season in school history with at least 10 wins and the fourth since 2014. Iowa State is 1-2 all-time in this bowl. The Cyclones are trying to finish winning three of their final four. They upset then-No. 19 Kansas State 42-35 in the regular season finale. Iowa State is playing in its sixth bowl since Matt Campbell took over as coach. WHAT’S AT STAKE? With a victory, Memphis can post just the fifth season in school history with at least 10 wins and the fourth since 2014. The Tigers also can get a little payback after losing this bowl to Iowa State 21-20 in 2017. The Iowa State Cyclones are 1-2 all-time in this bowl. Iowa State is looking to finish winning three of its final four and comes in having upset then-No. 19 Kansas State 42-35 in the regular season finale. KEY MATCHUP Iowa State’s opportunistic defense against a Memphis offense that averaged 39.2 points a game this season. The Cyclones ranked fifth in the NCAA picking off 16 passes and tied for 18th nationally with a plus-8 turnover differential. PLAYERS TO WATCH Iowa State: QB Rocco Becht is the Big 12 Offensive Freshman of the Year and has school freshman records with 20 touchdown passes and 2,674 yards passing that had been held by Brock Purdy, now in the NFL with San Francisco. Becht also has the freshman mark with 209 completions in 12 career starts. Memphis: Seth Henigan is the third-youngest starting quarterback at 20 in FBS this season. He comes in needing to throw for 321 yards for a school record, and he already has 17 300-yard passing games and five 400-yard passing games that are the most in program history. He ranks 10th averaging 293.2 yards passing per game and 11th with 3,519 yards passing for the season. He is ninth averaging 313.8 yards in total offense per game. FACTS & FIGURES Iowa State is playing its sixth bowl game with coach Matt Campbell, a big improvement for a program that had made 12 bowl appearances in its 124 seasons. ... Memphis is one of nine teams in FBS with nine or more straight bowl appearances, a group that includes Alabama, Clemson, Georgia, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Wisconsin and Iowa. ... Iowa State is 7-2 all-time against American Athletic Conference teams. The Cyclones are 1-5 all-time in games played in Tennessee, including 1-3 in Memphis. ... Memphis has won 87 games since 2014, 16th-most nationally in that span and most among AAC schools. ... Memphis has scored 20 or more points in 26 straight games for the longest active streak nationally. ... Memphis has forced at least one turnover in 24 of the last 30 games with 54 takeaways in that span. ... Iowa State has won 20 straight games when leading at halftime and is 41-5 when leading at the half under Campbell. The Associated Press contributed to this article

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6sports

4 takeaways as Celtics beat Lakers on Christmas in another stellar win

LOS ANGELES — The Celtics built up a huge lead only for the Lakers to make a comeback to erase the big deficit. But the C’s still came away with the 126-115 victory over the Lakers on Monday on Christmas Day. The Celtics are now 23-6 on the season as they finished 3-1 on their West Coast road trip. It looked like the Celtics were going to run the Lakers off the court early as they built up an 18-point lead in the first quarter. The C’s defense was crisp while their stars had hot starts, leading to the early advantage on the road. But the Lakers locked down, making it a one-point game by halftime. There was a scary moment in the second quarter when LeBron James and Jaylen Brown got into a collision as both stars were down on the court. They eventually returned to the game; James a few minutes later and Brown to start the second half. BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. The Celtics built up a double-digit lead in the second half as they were powered by a 41-point third quarter. While the Lakers kept trying to chip away at the lead, the C’s didn’t let them get closer down the stretch as they secured the victory. Kristaps Porzingis had 28 points for the Celtics while Jayson Tatum added another 25 points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Anthony Davis had 40 points and 13 rebounds for the Lakers, while LeBron James had an off-night, shooting 5-of-14, though he did have 16 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. The Celtics return home as they take on the Pistons at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at TD Garden. Here are four takeaways from Boston’s win over Los Angeles: Difference-maker: When the Celtics went out and traded for Porzingis, it was for games like Monday where he can change the team considerably. That was indeed the case as the C’s were able to hunt Porzingis mismatches, and he kept contributing. The big man’s ability to stretch the floor and score gives the Celtics a different dynamic, which is something they’ve missed in past seasons. Porzingis finished with 28 points and 11 rebounds, shooting 11-for-19 from the floor. Balanced scoring: The Celtics offense has put up some lofty numbers recently, and while it wasn’t as high Monday, the C’s were still efficient on that end. Porzingis and Tatum put up 25-plus points, but the other Celtics starters all put up at least 18 points. It wasn’t the most efficient night for Tatum and Jaylen Brown from the field, but that’s why this team has so many weapons. Derrick White and Jrue Holiday had 18 points apiece, while Brown had 19 points and five rebounds. Another strong third: While the C’s have been flat to come out of halftime at times this season, that wasn’t much of an issue during this road trip. It was another strong third quarter for the Celtics, this time outscoring the Lakers 41-33. On the flip side, the C’s will look to finish quarters stronger compared to Monday. They let up a big Lakers run at the end of the first after their 18-point lead, among other parts of the game. Still, their finish down the stretch impressed as part of anothe rwin. Bench check: The Celtics have been thin up front with Luke Kornet missing the last six games, but the reserve big man was available for Monday’s game. However, C’s coach Joe Mazzulla elected to go with Neemias Queta, who has impressed in his recent games. Kornet ended up not seeing the court Monday. Queta played seven minutes, recording an assist and rebound. The rotation situation is worth monitoring as the C’s will need that backup big spot to be productive over the course of a long season. Payton Pritchard also impressed in his limited time, and his 10 points to start the second quarter were much-needed when the Lakers were making a run.

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4politics

Tackling Climate Change in the Birthplace of Oil

For the second year in a row, the United Nations climate summit known as COP will take place in a petrostate. COP29 will be in Baku, Azerbaijan, and overseen by Mukhtar Babayev, who worked for more than two decades at Socar, Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company. There’s a precedent: Last year’s climate summit was controversially hosted by the United Arab Emirates and led by Sultan Al Jaber, who also runs the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. Many activists fiercely opposed Al Jaber’s involvement, but COP28 was ultimately seen by many as a success. His ability to corral fossil-fuel-producing countries like his own helped yield an agreement that saw countries pledge to “transition away” from fossil fuels. It remains to be seen whether Babayev, a former low-ranking executive who is now Azerbaijan’s environment minister, will have the same impact. But there is also a poignant historical resonance to COP29: By some measures, Azerbaijan is where the modern oil industry began.

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5science

Firefighters Rescue Animals From Burning Home In Fire That Displaced 6 In Boston

Fire crews arrived at 343 Market St. on Sunday evening, Dec. 3, around 10 p.m. to stop the blaze in the attic of the building, the Boston Fire Department said. Photos shared on X, formerly Twitter, show firefighters taking a black cat as well as what appears to be a fish tank to safety. The fire caused more than $250,000 in damages to the home, and around six residents were displaced, according to the department. No one was injured. Another fire happened overnight just a few miles in Allston on Saturday, Dec. 3. Fire crews arrived to put out a heavy fire in a first-floor apartment at 38 Fordham Rd. The fire in Allston was extinguished shortly before 9 p.m. before crews began a secondary search, the fire department said in a social media post. Three adults were displaced, but there were no injuries in the Allston fire. Click here to follow Daily Voice Suffolk and receive free news updates.

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4politics

U.S. Navy Destroyer Shoots Down Three Drones in Red Sea, Pentagon Says

A U.S. Navy destroyer shot down three drones during a sustained attack in the Red Sea on Sunday, the Pentagon said, in what could signal another escalation in the tit-for-tat attacks between the American military and Iranian-backed militants. A Pentagon official said the U.S.S. Carney shot down the drones as several commercial ships nearby came under fire as part of an attack that began at 9:15 a.m. and lasted for several hours on Sunday. The destroyer intercepted three drones during the attack, United States Central Command said in a statement, including one that was headed in the direction of the Carney. The Pentagon said there were no injuries onboard the destroyer and that the ship was not damaged. In the statement, Central Command said the attacks originated from areas in Yemen that are controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi militia. Since the Oct. 7 incursion into Israel led by Hamas, the Houthis based in Yemen have launched a series of attacks — including with drones and missiles — on Israeli and American targets in the Red Sea. A Houthi military spokesman, Yahya Sarea, said in a statement on Sunday that the militia had targeted two Israeli ships in the area of the Bab al-Mandeb strait off southern Yemen, but did not mention the American naval vessel. The group fired a missile at one ship and targeted a second with a drone, he said, adding that the Houthis would continue to prevent Israeli ships from sailing in the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea until Israel’s military “stops its aggression” in Gaza. In October, the Carney shot down three cruise missiles and several drones launched from Yemen that the Pentagon said might have been headed toward Israel. One of the drones on Sunday “was headed toward Carney, although its specific target is not clear,” Central Command said in the statement, adding, “we cannot assess at this time whether the Carney was a target” of the drones. After Hamas attacked Israel, the Biden administration rushed two aircraft carriers and additional troops to the eastern Mediterranean near Israel to deter Iran and its proxies in the region from expanding the war. Sunday’s attack underscored the risks that the fight in Gaza could spiral into a wider conflict. For more than a month, Iranian-backed militias have conducted drone and rocket attacks against the 2,500 American troops based in Iraq and the 900 troops in Syria. In its statement, Central Command said “we have every reason to believe that these attacks, while launched by the Houthis in Yemen, are fully enabled by Iran. The United States will consider all appropriate responses in full coordination with its international allies and partners.” Shuaib Almosawa contributed reporting.

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6sports

PVIAC Late Meet Week 3: Top 3 finishers from each event

The PVIAC indoor track season continued on Sunday with an event at Smith College in Northampton. Below are the top three overall finishers for each event from the late meet. Girls — Late Meet

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0business

With MBTA closures underway, commuters turn to walking, driving

Bree, in her 30s, moved in September to a Union Square apartment along the MBTA Green Line Extension, and was initially excited about living so close to the T. She took the Green Line to Park Street every day, switching trains to an outbound Red Line that would take her to work, near JFK in Dorchester. The trip lasts about an hour and 15 minutes, but lately, she’s been cutting her commute time in half by driving her partner’s car a few days a week. Bree K. relied on public transit all her life while growing up in New York City and after moving to Boston 10 years ago. But recently, amid relentless MBTA shutdowns and slow zones, she got something she never thought she’d need: a driver’s license. Advertisement “I’ve relied on public transportation for 20 years of my life, but it’s very freeing right now to be able to drive instead of having to take the train,” said Bree, who did not want her last name published. “I drive around a lot now. It’s been great.” The Globe heard from several riders who, after recent T closures, opted for other modes of transportation: cars, bikes, and for one Brighton resident, the first Uber of her life. Their experiences reflected the increasingly apparent ways in which the T has been unable to serve the needs of many riders. The MBTA announced last month it would incrementally shut down segments of the Red, Blue, Green, and Orange Lines for maintenance and repairs. The periodic closures, the MBTA said, target the T’s slow zones, aiming to eliminate them for good by 2025. The first of the closures spanned a significant portion of all branches of the Green Line, including the entire E branch, from Nov. 26 to Dec. 5. Advertisement Lisa Battiston, a spokesperson for the MBTA, told the Globe that maintenance performed during shutdowns that began in November has helped eliminate 24 speed restriction zones between the Green, Red, and Orange lines. “The MBTA recognizes these shutdowns are frustrating for riders, but the improvements to infrastructure following these shutdowns have allowed the T to lift slow zones and provide more reliable service with less unplanned service delays,” Battiston said in a statement to the Globe. So far, T closures have garnered mixed reactions from riders, some of whom expressed optimism for a once-and-for-all solution, while others remained wary of the maintenance. Among the pessimists is Rob Adams, who recently discovered he can walk faster than the T. “I just can’t see it getting better,” he said, describing the Green Line as inefficient and decrepit. Adams has commuted since 1996 from Wood Island on the Blue Line to Hynes Convention Center on the Green Line, typically in 35 minutes. His commute has varied in recent years, peaking at two hours before leveling out to an inconsistent 45 minutes or an hour, Adams said. Fed up with the inconsistency of the Green Line, Adams decided to start walking that leg of his journey, exiting the Blue Line at Bowdoin near the North End and walking southwest through the Boston Public Garden and into Back Bay, where he works, for a total commute of about 45 minutes. The walk often gets him to work faster than the Green Line, and with the right podcast or playlist, it’s a breeze — plus, added movement, sunlight, and an escape from the germ-infested subway during cold and flu season. Advertisement “I look at it as more of a plus than a negative,” Adams said. “I get out, I get exercise, I’m not stuck on the Green Line wondering whether I should get out and walk.” Among more hopeful riders is Matt Wunderlich, who lives near the Washington Square stop of the Green Line’s C Branch. “I have more faith than ever that these shutdowns might be the shutdowns that put us in the right direction,” he said. Most weekdays, Wunderlich takes a 35-minute bike ride to his Seaport office — a commute that would eat up an hour and 15 minutes via T. He said the T’s slowness creates an illusion of distance in the city, leaving riders feeling even more desperate during closures and shutdowns. “It makes you think you’re going much further than you actually are, and then you walk or bike somewhere and you’re like, ‘oh, that’s actually pretty close,’” Wunderlich said. He said biking is not only faster, but more consistent — especially when car traffic increases. While those driving, taking ride-share services, or riding MBTA shuttles to work battle with packed roads, Wunderlich hasn’t experienced any crowding within bike lanes, he said. Molly Liddell, who lives in Braintree and commutes via the Red and Orange Lines to Ruggles, switched to the commuter rail after the month-long Orange Line shutdown in 2022. The new route cut Liddell’s commute time in half — and it’s more relaxing, she said. Advertisement “On the Red and Orange [lines] I would try to read, but it was so crowded and I felt like I always had to be vigilant,” she said. “On the commuter rail I can read or listen to a podcast.” The downside: cost. While Liddell’s commute costs $4.80 via T, the commuter rail racks up quickly — she pays $9 to park in a lot near the train station, $7 for the first leg of her journey, and $2.40 for the second. Once she gets to work and back, Liddell tallies up to $27.80 per day. While she hopes the closures and maintenance will result in a fully-functioning T, Liddell said the timing for such repairs is never good — and more often than not, it’s everyday riders who have to pay. “Commuters are collateral damage in all of this,” Liddell said. “Our time and our money are being taken advantage of just because fixes need to happen.” Vivi Smilgius can be reached at vivi.smilgius@globe.com. Follow her @viviraye.

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2culture

Sea Creatures From the Deep, Captured in Glass, Rise at Mystic Seaport

Leopold, who hailed from Bohemian glassworkers, started out making jewelry and then glass eyeballs both for humans and taxidermy. He also made stunning glass flowers, producing more than 4,000 with his son for Harvard. What’s surprising is that these two artists in landlocked Dresden could have replicated marine species so accurately. Leopold did in fact glimpse live jellyfish in all their glass-like luminosity years before he started making them, while sailing across the Atlantic to the U.S. in the early 1850s. By the late 1870s he and his son had acquired a seawater aquarium and ordered live animals that came wrapped in seaweed from marine stations throughout Europe. (Much of what we know of them comes from their archives at the Corning Museum of Glass.) Zoological illustrations were also essential. Early on, Leopold emulated drawings of anemones by Philip Henry Gosse, the Victorian naturalist and collector of marine species known as the inventor of the modern aquarium (and for trying to reconcile his creationist beliefs with his scientific findings). Later, the Blaschkas borrowed illustrations from Ernst Haeckel, a German zoologist and skilled artist who cataloged many of the thousands of marine species pulled up by the HMS Challenger, a British ship that spent three and a half years, starting in 1872, gathering data from the ocean’s depths. “There was so much documentation of marine invertebrates in the 19th century,” Rose said. “Citizen scientists were walking the shores noticing these things.”

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6sports

New Red Sox pitching coach describes his philosophy: Strikes are everything

Over the last couple years, the Red Sox have attempted to fine-tune their organizational pitching philosophy by placing more of an emphasis on throwing strikes. From signing veteran strike-throwers Chris Martin and Kenley Jansen to urging pitchers like Brayan Bello and Nick Pivetta to attack the zone more, the club has shown an increasing focus on the importance of command in recent seasons. It appears new pitching coach Andrew Bailey, whose hiring was made official Tuesday, shares that philosophy. “Strikes are everything,” Bailey said Tuesday when asked to describe his pitching philosophy. “Stuff in (the) zone plays. Limiting walks. Being aggressive and ahead in counts. Obviously, there’s been a been a big change in stuff and swing-and-miss and (velocity) and all that. There’s a handful of things, but identifying the the KPIs (key performance indicators) that we can hold our ourselves accountable (to) is really a priority. And making sure that each player knows himself best. “‘What makes you an outlier? What makes you a big leaguer?’ There’s generally one or two specific things that you can point to and making sure there’s an education piece around this as well. And doubling down on strengths and making sure guys know what makes them major leaguers (who) hopefully (have) the ability to play for a long time.” In Boston, Bailey — who pitched for the Red Sox in 2012 and 2013 — will be tasked with turning around a staff that has significantly underperformed in recent seasons under his ousted predecessor Dave Bush. In 2023, Boston ranked 21st in team ERA (4.52), 24th in opponent average (.256) and 24th in homers allowed (208). Those numbers come in stark contrast to the performance of the Giants’ staff during Bailey’s four years as pitching coach from 2020 to 2023. During that time, Giants pitchers ranked sixth in baseball with a 3.80 ERA while allowing the fewest home runs (525) and posting the third-highest strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.16). In 2023, San Francisco issued the fewest walks in the majors (403). BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. With the Giants, Bailey was integral to the emergence of star pitchers like Logan Webb, Carlos Rodón and Kevin Gausman. Rodón and Gausman both turned their careers around in San Francisco before securing massive free agent deals with American League East teams. Bailey hopes to have similar success with some pitchers in Boston. “Players are never finished products, whether you’re a top-end starter or you’re up and down and on the option train,” Bailey said. “If we ever are a little bit complacent in that, negativity can creep in, and poor performance. For me, it’s always pushing an envelope, obviously identifying what makes guys quality big-leaguers and big-leaguers for a long time and helping them understand themselves. “If you take a look at some of the pitchers that I was fortunate enough to work with in San Francisco and how they were able to adapt later in their careers, they were totally open-minded and some of them did it on their own. We had a really good group. I am not the best pitching coach in the world. I’ll tell you that right now. I think it’s a product of a lot of smart people around us working inter-departmentally.” Bailey’s first official day with the Red Sox was Tuesday, so he hasn’t had much of a chance to get himself acclimated to the pitchers he’ll get to work with (or fully dive in to potential free agent pursuits). He did praise Brayan Bello as a potential front-line starter while noting he worked with reliever Mauricio Llovera in San Francisco and that he has enjoyed watching Chris Sale, Garrett Whitlock and Kenley Jansen from afar. The first step has been calling some pitchers, including Sale, to make an introduction. “I think there’s a litany of arms that are special in Boston, and I’m hoping to help them perform at their best as often as possible,” Bailey said. “I think we have a lot of talent. We have a lot of things to to look at.” In Boston, the 39-year-old Bailey will work with two bosses — chief baseball officer (and Bailey’s close friend) Craig Breslow and manager Alex Cora — who also played for the Red Sox more than a decade ago. Like he did in San Francisco, Bailey is hoping to work collaboratively with everyone around him. “I view ourselves as coaches as consultants for the player,” Bailey said. “We’re not to hide the ball, hide any information. We give them the facts. We want them to know how the industry values them. We want to maximize their earning potential. “If we are able to maximize performance and earning potential, we in turn are creating value for the organization and winning ballgames. Each and every player needs to be coached just a little differently. And that’s why I feel strongly that for me, I don’t need to be the vessel all the time that is managing or coaching or delivering the information... We all have unique relationships with every player.”

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1crime

Boston police: 4 stabbed at Dorchester hotel, suspect in custody

While it’s not quite as cold this morning as yesterday morning, we still have a chill in the air with temps near 20 outside of Boston and around 30 in the city. With very little wind in place, it’s an easy cold to handle. Temps this afternoon rebound into the lower 40s, under light winds and a mix of sun and clouds. A nice seasonable December day to end the workweek. The temp trend is up through the weekend, peaking late Sunday into Monday morning. It’ll stay dry Saturday into Sunday morning, but we’ll likely have scattered showers start to kick in mid to late afternoon Sunday, especially inland. Sunday night into Monday morning is the main concern for a potent storm moving through. As southerly winds increase Sunday night, temps stay warm, near 60. A lot of moisture moves in from the west, with downpours, thunder and strong winds predawn Monday, through most of the morning commute. Rain totals run 1-3″ across Southern New England and winds will gusts 45-65mph, strongest down across Cape Ann and the Cape and Islands. We’ll watch for isolated to scattered tree damage and power outages where winds are the strongest. Some minor coastal flooding is possible along the south coast of MA/RI during the Monday morning high tide too. Rain tapers off mid to late morning and temps crash from near 60, back into the 40s as we dry out. We’ll stay dry mid week with a seasonable chill.

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6sports

Hitting a Home Run on Their First Date, With the Help of a Furry Friend

On July 18, 2021, the day Patrick Alan Pennel was supposed to meet Margaret Ann Kretzmer for a first date, he canceled to spend time with someone else he was getting to know. When Ms. Kretzmer offered to meet him the following day instead, he said OK but brought the other girl along. Mr. Pennel, 40, wasn’t being a cad, he just didn’t have much choice: He had recently moved to Santa Monica, Calif., by himself and, to stave off Covid loneliness, was adopting a dog. Emma, the shepherd mix he brought home the day of the postponed date, was too new to leave alone. So on July 19, she came with him to meet Ms. Kretzmer at Ashland Hill, a Santa Monica bar. “I was still very much getting to know Emma,” he said. “I didn’t know what to expect.” Nervous barking or a date cut short by a needy new pet he could have anticipated. Feeling the first stirrings of love for an Los Angeles Dodgers fan: not as much. Mr. Pennel and Ms. Kretzmer met on Hinge, where an app-generated prompt on Ms. Kretzmer’s profile connected them. To the query, “We’ll get along well if …” Ms. Kretzmer had written “ … you like baseball.”

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4politics

To Bolster Russias Army, Putin Eases Citizenship Path for Foreign Fighters

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has approved a measure that makes it easier for foreigners to acquire Russian citizenship if they enlist in the army amid the war in Ukraine, part of an effort to increase the military’s ranks while also sparing Russians from being deployed to the battlefield. Under the decree, which the Kremlin published on Thursday, foreigners who sign a one-year contract with the Russian Army or volunteer for “army formations” during what Moscow calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine can apply for Russian citizenship under a fast-track procedure. The benefits also extend to the recruits’ spouses, children and parents. Unlike those who go through Russia’s regular citizenship process, such foreigners would not need to live in the country for five consecutive years under a residence permit before applying. They would also be spared requirements to speak Russian and be familiar with the country’s history and basic laws. A decision on such applications will take only one month instead of the usual three, according to the decree.

6df2929baf6736dcf0df975830c01051

0business

The Power Vacuum at the Top of the Crypto Industry

The price of Bitcoin is surging again. Major financial firms are showing renewed interest in digital currencies. And crypto fanatics are celebrating the end of a long period of depressed prices and business collapses. But the sudden explosion of optimism has come at a turbulent moment for the cryptocurrency industry. The last time crypto prices were skyrocketing, the industry’s most influential executives were Sam Bankman-Fried and Changpeng Zhao, rival billionaires whose online sparring could move markets. Now Mr. Bankman-Fried, the founder of the FTX crypto exchange, and Mr. Zhao, who ran the world’s largest crypto firm, Binance, both face prison time after parallel falls from power. A federal jury convicted Mr. Bankman-Fried last month on fraud and conspiracy charges stemming from FTX’s collapse. Three weeks later, Mr. Zhao pleaded guilty to a money laundering charge and agreed to relinquish control of Binance.

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2culture

The Black press and the Stuart case

“I can’t believe the brother spent 12 years in jail after everyone knew he was framed in the Stuart case.” This week, the Boston Globe and HBO premiered a series on one of the most notorious crimes in Boston history: The October 1989 murder of Carol DiMaiti Stuart by her husband Charles, who allegedly covered up his actions by shooting himself and claiming a fictitious Black man did it. The horrific crime rocked the city for weeks as police relentlessly shook down the Black community, Black men in particular, in search of the imaginary assailant. Caught up in that manhunt was William Bennett, a Black man implicated by his nephew and another youth who shortly afterward recanted their story. But by then, Bennett’s name and photo were widely disseminated by media in Boston and beyond as the likely killer. He remained under suspicion until Jan. 4, 1990, when Stuart jumped of the Tobin Bridge in a likely suicide a day after his brother Matthew told authorities the true story behind the plot. We commend HBO and the Globe, and in particular columnist Adrian Walker, for revisiting the story that many would rather forget as another stain on Boston’s troubled racial past. But it is precisely because it is painful that it must be remembered, and to prevent such a horrendous act from ever happening again. The Globe-HBO collaboration is not the final word, however, nor as we can gleen from the early installments, is it a complete one. A key element never fully reported in white-owned media is the story from William Bennett himself, which he gave to the Banner exclusively in 1993 in an interview with then-managing editor Robin Washington. In it, Bennett — who was incarcerated for two unrelated robberies he was convicted of shortly following the Stuart case — said that prosecutors used the sane fabricated evidence from Stuart’s concocted accusation to pin the robbery cases on him. Except for the Banner, his contentions fell on deaf ears. (Bennett in 2017 gave one more interview to WBZ-TV, but did not elaborate on the robbery case. That report said he served 12 years and was released in 2002). The Globe/HBO series reports that Bennett, now 73, is afflicted with dementia and was not available to be interviewed by them. It’s not certain he would have granted one regardless of his health. In the 1993 Banner interview, he vowed never to speak with the Boston Herald or the Globe, which long after Stuart’s apparent suicide and Bennett’s complete exoneration published a column by then-Globe staffer Mike Barnicle making the specious suggestion that Bennett and Charles Stuart knew each other after all. The Stuart Case and the hoax it perpetrated maligning the entire Black community must never be forgotten or repeated. Likewise, the role of the Black press in telling the stories that mainstream media either forget or are perpetually unaware of cannot be understated. The Banner is honored and proud to be part of that tradition, and rededicates itself to that invaluable mission, and the truth it brings to all of society. Here is William Bennett’s interview with the Banner from 1993: Bennett claims police framed him after Stuart case hoax By Robin Washington BAY STATE BANNER • MARCH 4, 1993 The first thing the inmate in the 65-degree interview room at Gardner Correctional Facility wants you to know is that his name is William Bennett. Not Willie Bennett, unless you know him personally. And not Slick Willie or Willie Horton either. Yet for three-and-a-half years, he has constantly been mistaken for someone else. “They lied to get me in here,” embitters Bennett. “I don’t see why in hell they don’t lie to get me out of here.” The lie that sparked Bennett’s current incarceration on November 13, 1989 was Boston’s most notorious case of mistaken identity: the claim by Charles Stuart that Bennett was the imaginary black man who a month before shot his wife Carol and unborn son Christopher. Yet, though Bennett was exonerated by Stuart’s apparent suicide of the Tobin Bridge in January 1990, the former Mission Hill convicted cop-shooter says he is still serving time for the racial hoax of the century. “I’m at the top of [the police department’s] brains,” Bennett philosophizes. “When they wake up in the morning, they think of me because of what I did in the past. “You’ve got people that keep on saying that this robbery case and the Stuart case are unrelated,” assesses Bennett of the two robbery convictions for which he is serving a 12-to 25-year sentence. “They’re not unrelated. They’re related. Because they used the same identification that Chuck Stuart did.” On October 9, 1990, Bennett was convicted of the armed robbery of a Brookline video store in a trial moved to Cape Cod because of Stuart case publicity. Two weeks later, Bennett was also sentenced for the robbery of a Beacon Hill yogurt shop. Yet, says Bennett, placing a ream of court documents and newspaper clippings on a prison table, evidence used to convict him closely mimicked false allegations made by Charles Stuart. One document, a 1989 Brookline police report, then overlooked by the media in exhaustive searches of Boston Police records, cites a “black man in a running suit” description of the video store robber. The wording is nearly identical to Stuart’s fictitious account. “[Stuart] said that I had a raspy voice. And then you got people in Brookline who said I had a raspy voice,” compares Bennett. “Where did those people get that identification from? They got it from the police who coerced those witnesses and said, `listen, we need this guy, we got him, we want him.’” “On November 11 when they first picked me up, they said in the paper that I had a nickel-plated .38. Brookline case: nickel-plated .38. Stuart case: I had a raspy voice and a spotted beard and a short afro. Well, that’s a coincidence because the people in Brookline, they said the same damn thing! Now, January 4, 1990, this lame jumps over the bridge and takes his life. Everything that he said was a lie.” But a jury’s verdict and three-and-a-half years later, authorities refused to label the Brookline and Beacon Hill convictions a similar lie. In that time, Bennett was moved from Walpole to Gardner prisons, and has seen his name resurface again and again in connection with the Stuart case. “They asked me if I ever got cards from Chuck Stuart or if I ever worked at [Stuart’s employer] Kakas Furs,” relates Bennett of Boston Globe and Boston Herald interviews that he says he will no longer grant. “They were trying to trick me into saying that I knew him. I never knew the man. I never heard of the man.” Other allegations of a relationship between Bennett and Stuart have come from more official sources, including a Boston Police detective, Tommy Montgomery, nearly two years after the Carol Stuart killing. Yet in September 1991, a month after Montgomery’s charges, Bennett was exonerated a second time of any role in the case by former Suffolk County District Attorney Newman Flanagan. While being transferred between prison facilities following Flanagan’s statement, Bennett responded with a middle finger to gaping television cameras. “I did that because I couldn’t say what I wanted to say,” explains Bennett to suggestions that his gesture may have offended some people. “I did that because they were still trying to put the Stuart Case on me and they couldn’t do it. Plus I didn’t have enough time. I was shackled and I was handcuffed. I couldn’t say what I wanted to say.” Bennett also cares little if he offends black community leaders, who he says did nothing for him before Stuart’s apparent suicide and little following. “After [the police] tore my mother’s house up, I thought that they were going to do something for me then. But they didn’t do nothin’. When they walked into my daughter’s mother’s house on Warren Street, they tore her house inside out. And when I was staying out in Burlington with my other kid’s mother, they tore her house up. Nobody did nothin’. I don’t have anything good to say about the black community because they didn’t do nothin’ for me.” The 43-year-old inmate, who says he spent nearly half his life behind bars but never felt despondent until the Stuart allegations, reserves his strongest condemnation for the police and the mayor. Under Mayor Ray Flynn’s directive, Boston police conducted a massive manhunt for the fictitious black assailant named by Charles Stuart after the 1989 murder. A 1991 U.S. Attorney’s report strongly condemned the department for coercing young Mission Hill residents into implicating Bennett. “They put guns to my nieces’ and nephews’ heads, [saying] ‘where’s your uncle?’ My nephew can’t even talk or hear,” recalls Bennett. Last fall, Bennett filed suit against the Stuart estate and the City of Boston. Also, the state Supreme Judicial Court has heard arguments by Bennett’s attorney that he was denied a fair trial in the video store case. If for no one else, Bennett believes that there may be a lesson in the case for the police. “I bet the police woke up. And they won’t be able to do things like that no more. “When I was in Dedham Jail, President Bush made a statement. He only did this because the Boston police all voted for him. I’ll never forget this. He said ‘the Boston Police did a tremendous job in the Stuart investigation.’ In 1990, I think it was either August or September. I’m sitting in Dedham Jail, and I’m thinking, what the hell does this man have to say? And the Boston Police felt so embarrassed. I know they felt embarrassed. Everybody knows the Stuart case! “But I’ll tell you, things like this case, some people want it to die down. But as long as I’m black and as long as I’m still living, I’m not gonna let it die down because I’m still in jail for something I didn’t do. The joke’s over. I want to get out. I want to go home.”

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1crime

Police: 2 arrested, following narcotics drug bust on Pine Street in Holyoke

DEERFIELD — Two Connecticut men were ordered held on $10,000 bail after they were arrested on a variety of charges following a high-speed chase on Interstate 91 on Thursday. Massachusetts State Police troopers from the Shelburne barracks attempted to stop the Acura sedan they were traveling in, after police determined it had been reported stolen in the Bronx, New York, several weeks ago.

e61db975c993141c9856c9f8813ec529

7weather

Frigid Temperatures Are Expected Across the U.S. on Tuesday

Weather Pre-Thanksgiving Storm Update: When Will MA See Rain, Wind, Snow? While most of the state will deal with wind-swept rain on the "busiest travel day of the year" some traveling north and west will get snow. Most areas east of Route 495 will receive up to one inch of rain overnight Tuesday and early Wednesday morning before the weather calms down into Wednesday afternoon. (Shutterstock) MASSACHUSETTS — While most of the Greater Boston area will deal with a wind-swept rain late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, those traveling well north and west of the city will have to get into winter driving mode with up to four inches of snow expected from a pre-Thanksgiving storm raging across the country early this week. Forecasts remain on track from Monday, when wind gusts up to 60 mph were expected for the Cape and Islands, gusts up to 40 mph with heavy rain were expected along the coastline and a burst of snow was forecast for interior Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont. While many areas north and west of Route 495 could see a brief burst of snow at around 9 p.m. on Tuesday night, that wintry mix will linger longer in the higher elevations of Worcester and Berkshire counties. Worcester remains on track to get about an inch of snow overnight before much of it washes away during a cold, rainy morning commute. The Fitchburg-Leominster-Gardner area could get up to three inches with the chance of slippery conditions for those with a morning commute on Wednesday. Most areas east of Route 495 will receive up to one inch of rain before the weather calms down later Wednesday morning. Those who can put off Thanksgiving travel a few hours will find better conditions Wednesday afternoon and Wednesday night. Thursday should be clear and cool for high school football and holiday travel with sunny skies and temperatures rising from the 20s and 30s early in the morning to the 40s by the afternoon.

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0business

October Jobs Report U.S. Job Growth Shows Signs of Slowdown

Pinned Employers added 150,000 jobs in October on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department said on Friday. The increase was slightly below what economists had forecast, but not too different from the sort of monthly jobs growth the U.S. economy was experiencing prepandemic. The unemployment rate, based on a survey of households, ticked up to 3.9 percent from 3.8 percent in September. It has been below 4 percent for nearly two years, a stretch not achieved since the late 1960s. Figures for August and September were revised downward by a total of more than 100,000 from earlier reports. Still, October was the 34th consecutive month of job growth. Average hourly earnings were up 0.2 percent from the previous month, slightly less than expected, and were 4.1 percent higher than a year earlier, slightly exceeding forecasts. The October numbers may have been held down because the survey was taken during major work stoppages — notably the strikes by the United Automobile Workers and related layoffs. Since then, the U.A.W. has reached tentative contract agreements with the three major U.S. automakers and told striking members to return to their jobs.

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2culture

7 ways Black joy will show up and show out in 2024

Sign up to get positive Black news stories, words of affirmation and weekly curated playlists delivered to your inbox twice a week: Enter your email to subscribe to Black Joy. When I first started writing as a preteen, I had a goal to write my first novel by 30. With fantasy as my genre of choice, I awed at how authors used words to transcend time and space. I wanted to capture that magic somehow and take people on journeys far beyond our galaxy. Funny how the universe works. I’m 31 now and while I haven’t authored a book, almost a decade in journalism has me feeling like I’ve written an anthology on the trials and triumphs of the human experience. It’s an interesting space where I get to analyze what’s happening and foresee what’s to come. In that spirit, we see a lot of Black celebrations on the horizon in 2024. To be clear, Black joy isn’t a trend like you see on social media. It’s a birthright – an everlasting energy we tap into whenever we feel the weight of oppression. This is a legacy passed down by our ancestors. We’re nurturing it for our descendants. With that being said, here are the ways I foresee us adding to the legacy of Black Joy this year. Time to get lit and be loud with it We stayed booked and busy this year. Naw, I mean literally when it comes to our literacy. Our audience didn’t just give flowers, but whole meadows to Black-women owned bookstores on our Instagram back in December. This energy is needed considering how hard some politicians and their followers were coming for our history and storytelling in 2023 with book bans and school curriculum changes (side-eyes Florida), then have the caucasity to try to rewrite the narrative so it makes white people more comfortable. In typical Black fashion, we refuse to let that happen. So let’s erect more radical little libraries in our neighborhoods. I’m seeing more book clubs and swaps centered on Black storytelling. Bring on the community teach-ins that echo with the same impact as the Freedom Schools in Mississippi. May the nonprofits dedicated to teaching our children how to read be blessed with financial abundance. We come from a long line of Black literary geniuses who’ve woven our identity and heritage into their storytelling. Our stories have not been written in vain. Resistance is joy I’ve never been prouder to be an Alabamaian than on Aug. 5 – the date of the infamous Riverfront Brawl in Montgomery, Ala. When white platoon boat owners attacked the Black co-captain of a riverboat, Black crew members and witnesses of the assault leapt and swam into action to protect one of their own. The memes and hilarious commentary entertained us for days. But I was more pleased with the Alabamaians who added context to what that moment meant for a city where enslavement ships undocked human cargo on that same riverfront. Zoom out from that viral moment and you’ll see how the present pulses with the Black power of the past. When calls for reparations by those whose labor set the foundation of this country and others goes unheard, then rage becomes the orchestrator of justice. Enslaved Africans overthrew a French regime to secure Haiti’s independence on Jan. 1, 1804. I’ve witnessed how people leaned into a restorative form of resistance in 2023. Hundreds of Black and brown queer dancers brought the ballroom scene to the same Brooklyn gas station where Black gay dancer and choreographer O’shae Sibley was stabbed to death in July. Sibley’s murder spotlighted the increasing violence against Black transgender and gay people, but mourners used voguing to celebrate Sibley’s life and the liviness of Black queer culture. The Black skater community initiated the same game plan last January by hosting vigils and roll outs in an effort to reclaim the joy of Tyre Nichols after he was murdered by Memphis Police. We are recognizing loss by amplifying the way we live. Black resistance extends beyond the boundaries of our own nation, especially as the dehumanization and genocide continues in Gaza, Congo and Sudan. There’s a long history of Palestinians and Black Americans working together as siblings against similar oppressions. Boycotts have been issued against companies profiting from the violence. So, if we aren’t drinking Starbucks, what local Black-owned coffee shops can we support? If we aren’t nibbling on McDonalds, is there a Black-owned burger joint that’s been waiting on our coins? Divesting from systems sustaining oppression gives us the opportunity to invest in spaces and places that will nurture and empower our communities. We have the power to create a new reality that will sustain us and that comes from the powerhouse of resistance, according to Black Joy social media producer and archivist MacKenzie River Foy. “Joy is the natural byproduct of claiming your power and knowing your worth,” Foy said. “When we refuse premature death for life, exploitation for cooperation, domination for care - when we dare to say that we deserve better than this - joy follows. And it’s infectious.” America’s mixtape if Black AF Blues. R&B. Gospel. Rock and roll. No matter what music genre you fancy, I can assure you the roots of the sound were planted by Black artists who didn’t get the honors they deserved until long after their deaths. So when I see Black creatives like Andre 3000 taking full ownership of his artistic journey by releasing an album that was absent of his iconic rap bars but showcased his flute and instrumental abilities, I was here for it. It also made me curious. If Black people are the inventors of America’s soundtrack then how do we continue to experiment with music? I see more artists following Andre 3k’s footsteps. But I also see us reclaiming space in genres that once kicked us out – but in a way that doesn’t sacrifice our Black identities. Black artists in the country music space have been trickling into my FYP lately. Alaskan Reyna Roberts made sure to explore the full spectrum of her personality through music with her debut album “Bad Girl Bible Vol. I” last year. And she has created quite the success for herself in Nashville. Virginia native Shaboozey has created an anthem of hope for many with his latest single “Let It Burn.” He’s been Rubik’s cubing different genres to make his own sound in the country space for years. The Black alternative rock space is giving the same energy. Give me Baby Storme performing “This City Is A Graveyard” at the Grammys! Now, this isn’t the first time we fuse different sounds to create new genres, but I’m excited to see how we shake up the airwaves this year. The ancestors are with us A pattern that became clear to the Black Joy team is that y’all love connecting with your aunties, uncs, big mamas in the afterlife! We’ve hosted a few virtual events educating our community about how we can tap into the superpowers of our lineage. Those events sold out quickly - even when we offered extra tickets on Eventbrite. The popularity speaks to our communities desire to connect friends and fam who have entered into the next life. This momentum won’t die down in 2024 as our community continues to curate spiritual practices on our own terms. Those of us who grew up going to church every Sunday, Wednesday, New Years, you name it, may have found love and community in these spaces. Unfortunately, the church has also been identified as a perpetrator of trauma for a lot of us as those with ill-intentions spew criticism and control from the pulpit. This has pushed people out of the church and onto a journey of individualizing their own spiritual experiences – including learning about our ancestors who work things in our favor alongside our higher power. It’s comforting to know that when we interview for that new job, when we leave that toxic relationship or we are celebrating a new chapter of our lives, that we are not entering these rooms and situations alone. Learning about our ancestors can also help us navigate our own lives. We may learn how our grandmother found peace through gardening and start practicing it ourselves. Our auntie who manifested abundance using orange peels may have given us the literal recipe for success. Danielle Buckingham, a Black Joy reporter and co-founder of the Hoodoo Plant Mamas Podcast, said learning about our ancestors is essential to our well-being. “Celebrating our ancestors is also celebrating the most beautiful parts of ourselves. All that we are is because of them. So, honoring them is a self-love practice,” Buckingham said. Balancing self-care with community care In her book “All About Love,” the late Black feminist and poet bell hooks writes, “I am often struck by the dangerous narcissism fostered by spiritual rhetoric that pays so much attention to individual self-improvement and so little to the practice of love within the context of community.” To be clear, this isn’t a knock on our journeys of learning how to put ourselves first. Black people – especially Black women – have been known for being the mules and pillars of our communities. The burnout is real and we need space to nurture our emotional, spiritual and mental health. At the same time, the balance of self-care and community care is an important human need. Young adults are struggling with loneliness, according to a 2021 study by Cigna Healthcare. Even in the self-love posts I see on social media, people are looking for solidarity in the struggle in the comment section. What’s also caught my eye is how people are tapping into their interests and hobbies to find a village, whether that be through Double Dutch, traveling or even sowing together. It’s important that these spaces for us and by us to avoid code switching and microaggressions. I see these connections deepening in 2024. Now, this doesn’t mean we ditch effort to take care of ourselves. We can create a community without being codependent. But I think it is important to heal the isolation the pandemic and the digital age forces us into. So step out with your homegirls, heal with your homeboys, or revel in a celebration of Black queerness. When it feels like the world has forgotten about us, know we got us! A renaissance of the imagination Microaggressions and discrimination have always been threats to the expression of our Blackness. But something I have learned while writing stories for our community is that the imagination is the genesis of liberation. In order to obtain freedom, we have to envision what that looks like for us. This is where Afrofuturism enters the chat. This creative expression empowers reimagines our past, empowers our presents and sets our future by using elements of science fiction and fantasy. We witnessed a lot of this as we stepped out in our glittery and extravagant outfits for Beyoncé's renaissance tour. Halle Bailey’s performance as Ariel gave us the ability to imagine ourselves as mermaids. Black Fae Day, which pushes for positive Black representation in the fantasy space, increased its popularity with a feature in Allure. This abundance will overflow into 2024, but in a more localized and intimate way. With the Tony-award winning musical “The Wiz” still on tour and heading to Broadway in late-March, the hype won’t die down at all. The hangouts may not lead to large crowds, but it’s giving Afrofuturistic family cookouts, weddings and birthday parties. We’ll also be thinking about how we can personally use Afrofuturism to embolden our own past, present and futures. Nurturing our inner child – and our descendants, too! One thing about Millennial and Gen-Z folks, we love breaking intergenerational curses. One way we are addressing our traumas is by breaking away from hustle culture and pausing to observe our inner worlds. That includes connecting with our inner child either through some form of play or even journaling. When we give our inner child space to express themselves, we discover the wants and needs that went unmet during our upbringing. So grab the coloring books, dolls, video games or however else you had fun as a kid. When we indulge in these moments, we learn to become the caregiver we needed in our childhoods. Engaging in this process will not just benefit us. When we reparent ourselves, we also become better parents for our children. We are the new adults and we practice conscious parenting in our households. We don’t engage in verbal assaults or spankings to get our children to do what we want them to do. There are other more respectful means to teach loving accountability that doesn’t lead to the suppression of emotions. We don’t force our children to hug or kiss family members as a sign of respect. We teach them how to speak up and uphold their boundaries so they can learn to respect themselves. When parents learn how to communicate and trust their children, we create environments of liberation within our households — something we cannot promise them in the outside world. But one thing about it, the days of teaching our children respectability politics are long gone cause our kids are gonna know how to express their authentic Black selves without apologies. I’m excited to see how Black parents continue to create new healing cycles in their lineages! Thanks for peeping into the future of Black joy with us. We’re excited to see how your own joy adds to this legacy.

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7weather

After weekend snowstorm, Mass. to be hit by another powerful storm Tuesday

Communities in the North Shore are looking to recover after a storm brought heavy winds and flooding to the area on Saturday. Crews from the Department of Public Works and firefighters are coming around to different neighborhoods on Sunday morning to help pump out people’s flooded basements. Anyone with 6 inches of water or more in their basement can request a pump-out by calling the Fire Department. Salem is one of several North Shore communities hit hard by this storm. Severe flooding shut down roads in Gloucester. Waves came crashing over the seawall in Lynn, covering the pedestrian esplanade and shutting down Lynn Shore Drive. In Revere, Mills Avenue was completely submerged before high tide. Further North in Hampton, New Hampshire, downed trees damaged homes on North Shore Road. And concrete sea walls were dismantled on North Beach. Get Boston local news, weather forecasts, lifestyle and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Boston’s newsletters. People came from all over to get a look at the damage. “I had to get up early this morning to come out and see it. I love crazy weather, they’re very big. I saw them coming in the dark but yeah they’re fierce.” said Stoneham resident Billy Dalton.

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4politics

DeSantis Says Trumps Indictments Sucked Out All the Oxygen From Primary

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said that the indictments of former President Donald J. Trump had “distorted” the Republican presidential primary, tacitly admitting that the former president’s legal problems have helped him. “If I could have one thing change, I wish Trump hadn’t been indicted on any of this stuff,” Mr. DeSantis told David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network in an interview that aired on Thursday. He added that the indictments had “just crowded out, I think, so much other stuff and it’s sucked out all the oxygen.” With just weeks until Iowans cast the first votes in the race, Mr. DeSantis’s campaign has struggled to gain ground on Mr. Trump and has had to focus more on battling former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina for second place. When Mr. DeSantis entered the race in May, he was widely regarded as the most viable challenger to Mr. Trump. That reputation frayed as his campaign struggled to articulate an effective message, organize in key early primary states and guard against internal turmoil. Last week, the top strategist for Mr. DeSantis’s super PAC, Jeff Roe, stepped down from his post.

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4politics

Rep. Lori Trahan takes place in key Democratic Caucus position ahead of 2024 election

Massachusetts Congresswoman Lori Trahan just took a step up into a prime position as co-chair of the Democratic Policy and Communication Commission, the main messaging arm of the Democratic House Caucus. What message does she want voters to hear ahead of the 2024 election year? Rep. Trahan joined Radio Boston to talk about her new role.

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0business

Dozens protest closure of popular Boston Walgreens

BOSTON — Dozens protested the imminent closure of a popular Roxbury Walgreens Friday, the latest among a series of closings both locally and nationally. “This is a matter of life and death for our community,” said Rev. Miniard Culpepper. “Walgreens has time to do what’s right.” Communities of Color for Health Equity organized the demonstration, telling Boston 25 News long-standing customers who fill critical prescriptions at the Warren Street pharmacy were given less than two weeks’ notice of the closure. Black and brown neighbors, especially seniors and those without transportation, will suffer most, the group says. After the initial protest and letters of support from local lawmakers, Walgreens delayed the original closing date from Martin Luther King Day to the end of January. But protesters say the community needs more time to transition their critical medications. “You cannot leave our cities in a desert where we don’t have pharmacies to help every walk of life,” said Clifton A. Braithwaite. The Warren Street pharmacy and store will be the fourth Boston Walgreens to close in little more than a year. The pharmacy chain announced about 200 in total will close nationally this year. “To close down Dudley – Nubian Square – the Walgreens there, the one in Mattapan, imagine when they close this,” said Jewel Crutchfield. “People like me that can’t walk far, that can’t bend over to tie their shoes, that can’t even get themselves dressed, that have [personal care assistants], that need their medications.” Once the Warren Street pharmacy closes, customers’ prescription files will automatically be transferred to the closest location, Columbus Ave., about a mile away, Walgreens said in a statement. “When faced with the difficult decision to close a location, several factors are taken into account, including our existing footprint of stores, dynamics of the local market, and changes in the buying habits of our patients and customers, among other reasons,” Walgreens said. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW ©2024 Cox Media Group

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6sports

Bailey Zappe shares personal goal for Patriots final 3 games

FOXBOROUGH — It’s not hyperbolic to say New England’s final three games could go a long way towards determining Bailey Zappe’s future. If Zappe plays well, he could solidify his standing as the backup of the future. If he really lights it up, the second-year quarterback could play his way into a starting role somewhere. Though the 3-11 Patriots have nothing to play for as a team, there’s still plenty on the line. BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. So what does Zappe want to prove in his next three starts? In his Wednesday morning press conference, Zappe shared his personal goal — that will inevitably lead to more team success — as he’s closing out the season. “For me personally, I think it’s important for me to put a full game together,” Zappe said. “First halves have been great. Second half hasn’t been so good. So I think if I’m able to go out there and execute and run the offense the way it’s supposed to be run for two halves, I think we’ll score a lot more points. That directly reflects on me doing my job well, and that will relate to everybody else doing good. So for me, that’s what I want to do.” In the first half this season, Zappe has gone 36-of-52 (69.2 %) with four touchdown passes and no interceptions. In the second? He’s yet to throw a touchdown, has been picked off four times, and is completing 53.5% (38-of- 71) of his passes. With passer ratings of 115.5 and 43.3, it’s been a stark contrast. He’ll get his next chance to play a full 60 minutes on Christmas Eve, as the Patriots travel to Denver for an 8:15 p.m. kickoff. The quarterback said spirits in the locker room are high despite the team’s record and holiday schedule. “You’re playing a prime time game, so everybody’s excited for it,” Zappe said. “We’re playing for ourselves right now. We’re just trying to go out there and compete as a team. Play as a team. Try to come back on Christmas Day with a win. We’re going to do everything we can to do so.”

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3entertainment

Powerball: See the winning numbers in Wednesdays $20 million drawing

It’s time to grab your tickets and check to see if you’re a big winner! The Powerball lottery jackpot continues to rise after one lucky winner in Michigan won $842 million in the January 1 drawing. Is this your lucky night? Here are Wednesday’s winning lottery numbers: 30-31-38-48-68, Powerball: 08, Power Play: 10X Double Play Winning Numbers 08-09-17-31-56, Powerball: 23 The estimated Powerball jackpot is $20 million. The lump sum payment before taxes would be about $10.1 million. The Double Play is a feature that gives players in select locations another chance to match their Powerball numbers in a separate drawing. The Double Play drawing is held following the regular drawing and has a top cash prize of $10 million. Powerball is held in 45 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The Double Play add-on feature is available for purchase in 13 lottery jurisdictions, including Pennsylvania and Michigan. A $2 ticket gives you a one in 292.2 million chance at joining the hall of Powerball jackpot champions. The drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. Eastern, Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The deadline to purchase tickets is 9:45 p.m.

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4politics

CNNs Iowa Debate Will Be a DeSantis-Haley Showdown

A Republican presidential primary debate that CNN plans to host in Des Moines next week will be a one-on-one showdown between Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley, who are fighting to emerge from the state’s caucuses as the definitive alternative to former President Donald J. Trump. Both Mr. DeSantis, the governor of Florida, and Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, are long shots to win the caucuses, given that they are trailing Mr. Trump in polls of Iowans by more than 30 points on average. But if either one is to have even a small chance of claiming the nomination, that person needs to drive the other out of the race, which they could do — or at least take a first step toward doing — by beating them for second place in Iowa. Mr. Trump did not participate in the official debates sponsored by the Republican National Committee last year, and he will not participate in the CNN debate in Iowa either. (The Iowa event will be followed by a similar one in New Hampshire.) And no other candidate qualified by the deadline on Tuesday. Participants needed at least 10 percent support in three national or Iowa polls that met CNN’s criteria, including at least one poll of likely Iowa caucusgoers. The entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy; former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who has largely ignored Iowa in favor of campaigning in New Hampshire; and former Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas did not meet that mark.

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4politics

Opinion | The Progressive Case for Bidenomics

Oh, and unit labor costs are up only 1.6 percent over the past year, another indicator that inflation is coming under control. Another report showed that unfilled job openings are down. Last year many economists were arguing that the high level of vacancies meant that we needed high unemployment to control inflation. That gap has now largely disappeared, one of many signs that the economy is healing from the disruptions brought on by the Covid pandemic. And this process of healing explains why we’ve been able to get inflation down without a recession or a surge in unemployment. Nonetheless, many Americans continue to have very negative views of the economy. Some of this may reflect the fact that while inflation has come way down, prices are still high compared with the recent past. This effect may wear off over time; as I wrote not long ago, there has to be some statute of limitations on how far back people look for their sense of what things should cost. One interesting recent analysis suggests that it takes around two years for lower inflation to be reflected in consumer sentiment, in which case Americans might be feeling better about the economy in time for next year’s elections. On the other hand, inflation has been a global phenomenon, but the huge gap between favorable economic indicators and grim public perceptions is unique to the United States, where people believe many bad things about the economy that simply aren’t true. I can report from experience that talking about these issues with people on the right is basically impossible. Point out that most workers’ earnings have significantly outpaced inflation since the eve of the pandemic, and they’ll say you’re a member of the elite who has no idea what things really cost. Point out that Americans are more likely than not to express positive views about their family’s own financial situation and that strong consumer spending belies claims that families are suffering, and they’ll say you’re a snob telling people how to feel. It’s a no-win situation.

98caa4f41aaf66e02ebd1ae751cc46c5

6sports

Celtics stars reveal keys to staying perfect at home

BOSTON — The Celtics are now an undefeated 12-0 at TD Garden this season with their most recent victory coming Thursday against the Cavaliers. The C’s have been tested at times, but they still continue to rack up wins in front of their home crowd — they’re now 18-5 on the season. The C’s themselves haven’t spoken at length amongst themselves about being perfect at home. But Jaylen Brown talked about what it takes to be locked in every single day of the season, even when things can get mundane. So it goes beyond the perfect home record, but more the consistency of a winning basketball team. BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. “Just having respect for our opponents,” Brown said. “And then also coming out and playing with the right mindset from start to finish. I’ve emphasized to not skip any steps this year. Success is earned every single day, so that means every shootaround, every film session, every time we’re together, we need to be aware of what’s going on and aware of the mission in total.” That’s been a common theme for the Celtics where they try to fight back against the routine of an 82-game season. The C’s are still taking care of business as the best team in the East, but things can start to feel stale during the dog days of the season. So the team has continued to stress the process of becoming a great team during these times. C’s coach Joe Mazzulla has spoken at length how they’re still not a finished product — especially with the new pieces like Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday still incorporating into the fold. So while the Celtics rely on Brown and Jayson Tatum, it’s still a team-wide effort to keep racking up the victories. “We kind of try to just win every day,” Tatum said. “Every practice day, every game day, and just have a sense of pride about playing at home. In the last year or two, we haven’t been as great as we want to be at home, especially in the playoffs. We’ve lost some, some tough games at home. So just trying to get back to my first couple years when we were just electric at home. And we have been so far.”

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6sports

Steelers T.J. Watt in concussion protocol after loss to Patriots

The Steelers lost more than their Thursday night game against the Patriots. Star push rushers Alex Highsmith and T.J. Watt are in the NFL’s concussion protocol. According to ESPN’s Brooke Pryor, Watt began experiencing symptoms Friday morning. He and Highsmith both have to be cleared by an independent neurologist before playing again. On the first snap of Thursday’s game, Watt took an Ezekiel Elliott knee to his face. He returned to the game after having his jaw looked at with a tinted visor and was seen using smelling salts. He also looked uncomfortable at times while he was on the field. Watt was checked out on the sideline but was never removed from the 21-18 loss at Acrisure Stadium. He also didn’t speak postgame. BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. Watt played 90% of the defensive snaps. It’s unclear if the 2021 Defensive Player of the Year will be cleared for Pittsburgh’s game next weekend against the Indianapolis Colts. The Steelers are trying to remain in the Wild Card race, but not having Watt on the field for any amount of time certainly wouldn’t be ideal. It’s also unclear if Watt played through a concussion Thursday night.

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3entertainment

10 standout shows for theater audiences this winter in Boston

ANNIE Andrea McArdle, the original Annie on Broadway, the one who turned “Tomorrow” into an inescapable earworm, turned 60 in November. The latest of many young actors who have played Annie since McArdle originated the role is 11-year-old Rainier “Rainey” Trevino. The national tour that began last fall is directed by Jenn Thompson, who played Pepper in the original Broadway production when she was 10 years old. Stefanie Londino plays Miss Hannigan, and Christopher Swan is Oliver Warbucks. Feb. 6-11. At Boch Center Wang Theatre. www.bochcenter.org MACHINE LEARNING Hoping to end their estrangement, Jorge (Armando Rivera), a brilliant young computer scientist, creates a nursing application designed to provide individualized treatment for his ailing father, Gabriel (Jorge Alberto Rubio). But matters do not go according to plan, underscoring the perils of AI. Perhaps Jorge shouldn’t have named the application Arnold (Matthew Zahnzinger), after the Terminator? Francisco Mendoza’s play is directed by Gabriel Vega Weissman. Jan. 25-Feb. 25. Central Square Theater, Cambridge. 617-576-9278, ext. 1, www.centralsquaretheater.org The 7 Fingers return to the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre for "Duel Reality," Feb. 7-18. Arata Urawa DUEL REALITY The welcome mat is always out in Boston for the 7 Fingers, an endlessly inventive Montreal-based troupe that blends circus arts and theater. This is the eighth time they’ve come to Boston under the auspices of ArtsEmerson. “Duel Reality” is a riff on “Romeo and Juliet” that turns the stage into an arena as the Montagues and Capulets square off against one another, sporting-style. Directed by Shana Carroll. Feb. 7-18. ArtsEmerson. At Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre. 617-824-8400, www.artsemerson.org Advertisement DISHWASHER DREAMS An autobiographical solo show, written and performed by stand-up comedian Alaudin Ullah, about growing up in Spanish Harlem as the son of Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh; the conflicts with his family in which he struggled to find his own voice; and his encounters with stereotypes about Muslims as he tried to build a career as a film and TV actor. Directed by Chay Yew. Feb. 28-March 17. Merrimack Repertory Theatre. At Nancy L. Donahue Stage, Lowell. 978-654-4678, www.mrt.org Advertisement JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN In Kimberly Belflower’s play, a group of mainly female high schoolers in rural Georgia take a close, challenging look at Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” through a contemporary lens, and at the patriarchal, sexist assumptions they have to battle in the present day. Directed by Margot Bordelon. Feb. 8-March 10. The Huntington. At Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. 617-266-0800, www.huntingtontheatre.org GOLDA’S BALCONY The gifted Annette Miller portrays Israeli prime minister Golda Meir in William Gibson’s solo drama. It takes place on the eve of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and Meir has momentous choices to make. Miller originated the role at Shakespeare & Company in 2002, directed by Daniel Gidron, who also returns for this production. Feb. 23-March 10. Shakespeare & Company. At the Jackie Liebergott Black Box Theatre, Emerson Paramount Center. 617-824-8400, emersontheatres.org BECOMING A MAN P. Carl, who formerly served as co-artistic director of ArtsEmerson and worked as a dramaturg on the American Repertory Theater production of Claudia Rankine’s “The White Card,” has adapted his memoir about his decision to affirm his gender, and the impact it had on the people in his life, amid an ominous political climate. In press materials, Carl said that “Becoming a Man” is “about surviving, becoming embodied, and learning to live.” Diane Paulus, who is co-directing “Becoming a Man” with Carl, has said that the play “asks the question: When we change, can the people we love come with us?” Feb.16-March 10. American Repertory Theater. At Loeb Drama Center, Cambridge. 617-547-8300, www.amrep.org Advertisement COST OF LIVING Martyna Majok won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for this drama about human connection and disconnection, as seen in the relationships between two people with disabilities and their caretakers. John (Sean Leviashvili), an affluent graduate student with cerebral palsy, hires Jess (Gina Fonseca), a Princeton grad working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Meanwhile, Eddie (Lewis D. Wheeler), an unemployed truck driver, and his estranged wife, Ani (Stephanie Gould), quadriplegic after a car accident, are trying to figure out the contours of their relationship. Directed by Alex Lonati. March 8-30. SpeakEasy Stage Company. At Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. 617-933-8600, www.speakeasystage.com KING HEDLEY II Having enjoyed success last year with August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars,” Actors’ Shakespeare Project is tackling Wilson’s drama — set in Pittsburgh in the middle of the Reagan era and featuring a couple of characters from “Seven Guitars” — about a former prison inmate (played by James Ricardo Milord) who steals and sells refrigerators in an attempt to raise the funds he needs to open his own video store. Directed by Summer L. Williams, with a cast that also includes Omar Robinson, Patrice Jean-Baptiste, and Naheem Garcia. March 8-31. Actors’ Shakespeare Project. At Hibernian Hall. 617-241-2200, www.actorsshakespeareproject.org Advertisement GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY A musical built upon the songs of Bob Dylan, “Girl From the North Country” is set in a boardinghouse in Depression-era Duluth, Minn. (the city where Dylan was born), with travelers who are struggling with loneliness and despair. Written and directed by Dublin-born playwright Conor McPherson (”Shining City,” “The Weir,” “The Night Alive,” “The Seafarer”). March 12-24. Broadway In Boston. Emerson Colonial Theatre. 888-616-0272, www.broadwayinboston.com Don Aucoin can be reached at donald.aucoin@globe.com. Follow him @GlobeAucoin.

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0business

Massachusetts revenues plunge as spending soars

Beacon Hill’s growing financial headache got worse when the Healey administration reported that tax collections tumbled in November, putting the state’s revenue picture about $627 million below the projection for this point in the year. The Department of Revenue announced it collected $2.253 billion in taxes last month, which was $131 million or 5.5% less than in November 2022. It was also $274 million or 10.9% short of the benchmark figure the administration set for the month. Through the first five months of fiscal year 2024, Massachusetts has hauled in about $14.097 billion in taxes. That’s a slight increase of $146 million, or 1%, over the first five months of fiscal year 2023, but $627 million or 4.3% less than the estimates the Healey administration and Legislature used to craft this year’s record $56 billion budget. Tax collections have failed to hit benchmarks for five straight months, getting this state budget year off to a rocky beginning, and forcing the Healey administration to at least begin considering possible responses. “November collections decreased in non-withheld income, sales and use tax, corporate and business tax, and ‘all other’ tax in comparison to November 2022,” Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder said. “These decreases were partially offset by an increase in withholding. The decrease in non-withheld income tax was driven primarily by an unexpected increase in income tax refunds. The decrease in sales and use tax was mainly due to a decline in regular sales tax. The decrease in ‘all other’ tax is mostly attributable to a decrease in estate tax, which tends to fluctuate.” “We find ourselves at a precarious crossroads,” Senate Ways and Means Chair Michael Rodrigues said Monday during a consensus revenue hearing for the upcoming budget year. “There are storm clouds gathering on the horizon. We’ve faced several months of collections that have fallen below benchmarks. The economy, while strong, is slowing and cooling off in face of high interest rates and other stresses.” The slowdown in tax collections could inflict pressure to reduce revenue expectations and rein in spending on Beacon Hill. State revenues including surtax collections need to increase 5.7% over the FY23 total to hit the FY24 benchmark, according to Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. Five months in, the growth so far has been only a single percentage point, well below the necessary pace and significantly less than the 6.2% annual spending increase authorized in the state budget. Administration officials urged caution against extrapolating based on the numbers so far this fiscal year. November is typically responsible for about 6.5% of annual tax revenue, they said, putting it “among the smaller months for revenue collection because neither individual nor business taxpayers make significant estimated payments during the month.” Healey in August stamped her approval on a $56 billion budget for FY24, roughly 6.2% higher than the prior year’s spending plan. “Given the brief period covered in the report, November and year-to-date results should not be used as a predictor for the rest of the fiscal year,” DOR wrote in a press release about the latest data. The benchmarks used in Tuesday’s report also do not account for the impacts of a roughly $1 billion tax relief law Gov. Maura Healey signed in October. DOR said the changes in that measure will start affecting revenues in December 2023 or in January 2024. Most major tax collections are lagging below state projections. Income taxes, which are responsible for more than half of all tax revenues so far this year, are 2.8% below benchmark through November. Year-to-date sales and use tax collections are also 3.6% short of projections, corporate and business taxes are down 8.9%, and other types of collections are 10.9% less than expected. Analysts with the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation pointed out that robust hiring in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to slow, as is wage and salary growth, contributing to the sluggish withholding tax revenues. And when it comes to sales tax collections, which represented about a quarter of all tax revenues last year, “it appears that purchases of durable goods have cooled considerably in Massachusetts and nationally,” MTF wrote in an analysis published Monday. MTF and several other economic experts on Monday suggested officials reduce their forecast for tax collections this year by hundreds of millions of dollars, saying they expect the below-benchmark performance so far to continue. The administration sometimes adjusts its revenue forecasts upward or downward partway through the year, and governors also have the authority to trim spending through a maneuver colloquially known as “9C cuts.” The last such cuts took place in December 2016 under former Gov. Charlie Baker. House and Senate Democrats — mostly operating with the support of Healey, a Democrat, and Baker, a Republican — have overseen a spending blitz in recent years. Between fiscal 2018 and fiscal 2022, state spending from the general fund increased by 26.7 percent, significantly more than the 14.7 percent growth in the Boston area consumer price index over the same span, according to figures tracked by regional business groups. Healey in August stamped her approval on a $56 billion budget for FY24, roughly 6.2% higher than the prior year’s spending plan. “The large gap between spending and CPI increases, even over a period with exceptionally high inflation, suggests that state spending is not limited to increased costs for employee salaries or goods and services,” business leaders warned last month in a letter to state budget-writers. “Instead, it is expanding each year and often on a large scale. Worth noting, even when accounting for the rapid pace of increases in health care spending – a significant share of which is reimbursed by the federal government – state spending still substantially outpaced inflation. This approach is not sustainable and not responsible.”

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0business

Western New England University, WPI get $1.1M for advanced robotic welding

SPRINGFIELD — The state has granted $1.1 million to Western New England University for a research and training cluster in advanced robotic welding. The award will support a collaborative project between the university’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing Systems, Worcester Polytechnic Institute and local industry partners to grow the advanced welding cluster and deliver new highly skilled workers to employers in the region. Cutting-edge welding technologies have applications in offshore wind, vehicles, aerospace and defense, such as submarines.

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3entertainment

Hundreds of rounds of ammunition explode during fiery New Hampshire car crash

SPRINGFIELD — Nearly a month after allegations of voter fraud erupted in the city’s mayoral race, the top elections official said the FBI has requested a meeting. Gladys Oyola-Lopez, the elections commissioner, said an FBI agent recently called to request a sit-down but was not specific about what the federal agency wants to discuss.

f57d1353286d4c0ec3b2d3b3a5bc61ec

5science

This Cake Maker Finds Beauty in Change, Time and Even Life and Death

A decade ago, Jasmine Rae de Lung, a San Francisco-based cake maker, wanted to test out some new decorating elements. She headed to Clement Street in the Richmond, a neighborhood with several Asian markets. Her haul that day included some rice paper sheets, typically used to form Vietnamese spring rolls. Back in her Mission District kitchen, de Lung realized the sheets wouldn’t work for draping on a cake; they became flimsy when wet and shrank and shattered when refrigerated. The diaphanous material offered greater potential, though, in detailing: Cut into pieces, dyed, dried and attached to wire, the rice paper resembled delicate flowers. But de Lung also learned the paper couldn’t be commanded; it curled and changed in unexpected ways. Instead, she had to create multiple versions and choose which ones worked best with the cake. “You have to let it be the beauty that it wants to form,” she said.

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3entertainment

Golden Globes 2024 Nominations: Barbie and Oppenheimer in Front

To many, the Golden Globe Awards are a perfect example of Hollywood’s two faces. In public, the entertainment capital plays along: It’s an honor just to be nominated, giggle tee-hee, this event is an absolute delight. In private, smiles drop and eyes roll: The prizes are not seen as meaningful markers of artistic excellence, but there is no way around them. From a business perspective, the Globes represent a crucial marketing opportunity for winter films and TV shows. The nominations for the 81st ceremony, which will be televised by CBS and streamed on Paramount+ on Jan. 7, were announced on Monday morning by Cedric the Entertainer and Wilmer Valderrama. New movies like “American Fiction,” “Poor Things” and “The Zone of Interest” will compete alongside summertime behemoths like “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie.” “Barbie” led the nominations with nine, followed by “Oppenheimer” with eight. In the television categories, “Succession” had the most with nine, followed by “The Bear” and “Only Murders in the Building” with five apiece.

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3entertainment

Mass. State Lottery winner: Man wins $4M; to donate part to Animal Rescue League

A Massachusetts man who won $4 million playing the lottery is truly letting some of his prize go to the dogs. Paul Riley, of Peabody, was the winner of a $4 million prize in the Massachusetts State Lottery’s “100X Cash” scratch ticket game. He claimed his prize on Tuesday, Jan. 16. Riley brought along his dog Raven when he claimed his $4 million ticket. Riley chose to receive his prize in the form of a one-time payment of $2.6 million before taxes. The Peabody man told the lottery he’s an animal lover, and that he’s going to donate some of his prize to the Animal Rescue League. Riley also said he plans to buy a new car for his wife. Riley bought his winning ticket at Summit Variety, located at 145-A Summit St. in Peabody, which will receive a $40,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket.

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4politics

New York City migrant refugees to be evicted from shelters after 60-day stay limit

A roundup of conversations we're having daily on the site. Subscribe to the Reckon Daily for stories centering marginalized communities and speaking to the under-covered issues of the moment. New York City’s 60-day shelter stay limit goes into effect this week amid outcry from advocates who say migrants will now have to navigate a complicated system in the middle of winter to find a safe place to stay. The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) and its allies held a rally on Monday, protesting the shelter limits one day before the rule’s implementation. Demonstrators chanted, “We are here in love” and “We will not throw people out of shelters.” Officials said 4,400 families received 60-day notices. City officials announced in October that migrant families would need to leave shelters after 60 days in an attempt to speed up the resettlement process and reduce the strain on emergency services. The city said then it was “full and past its breaking point” due to an “unsustainable” spike of migrants in recent years. “New York City is facing a humanitarian disaster that demands real solutions, not policies like the 60 Day Rule, which harasses families and forces them out of shelter every two months, rips children from their schools, disconnects asylum seekers from the support networks they’ve built and pushes them onto the streets — all during the coldest months of the year,” said Christine C. Quinn, the president and CEO of New York City’s largest shelter for families, Win. Dr. Ted Long, the senior vice president of population health at NYC Health + Hospitals, said during a press conference Monday that the stay limit is “not just” the amount of time given to a family before they need to move out, but is also a deadline for authorities to identify possible barriers that prevent migrants from finding a stable home. Officials said families facing evictions would be provided “intensified casework services” to find alternative housing before they are removed. Since August 2022, New York City has welcomed about 126,700 refugees. Last year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent more than 33,600 migrants to New York City. By October, 64,100 asylum seekers were still in the city’s care, with thousands more arriving each week. Deputy Mayor Anne Williams‑Isom on Monday said New York City officials “want to do what our sister cities are doing” to address the high numbers of new arrivals. She said Chicago, Denver and Massachusetts have already implemented time limits at their shelters to move people quicker. “We’re running out of space, we’re running out of personnel and we certainly are running out of funds, and so we really have to move from an emergency to managing this in the way that makes sense,” she said. Advocates said the 60-day notice would have evicted families around Christmas, but Mayor Eric Adams’s administration postponed the expected start date to Jan. 9. A 30-day limit was enacted in November for single adults in shelters, leading to long lines of people waiting in the cold to reapply for a place to stay, according to the NYIC. The coalition said the shelter limits will displace families, causing major disruptions for children attending New York City schools. “These children were just able to settle down in schools, parents were able to seek work all because of the small modicum of stability shelter provided as they worked to get on their feet,” said Comptroller Brad Lander in a statement. “City Hall must reverse its 60-day shelter policy, one of the cruelest policies in generations, in the greatest immigrant city the world has ever known.” New York City Comptroller Brad Lander on Tuesday announced an investigation into the “poorly communicated” 60-day rule to review the plan’s process, how case management resources are being distributed and the social effects and financial impacts of the policies. Officials will investigate if evictions and shelter relocations impact migrants’ immigration status or their ability to obtain work permits. The comptroller’s office requested a response from Adams by Jan. 15 and asked to receive information from the city by Jan. 22. Lander also asked for weekly updates beginning in late January. Long said about 40 families with children at the Row Hotel checked out on Tuesday. He said the families met with case workers to determine their next destination. The city will prioritize placing remaining families with small children in Manhattan, where they’d ideally stay in a hotel near their school, Long added. “This is not going to be a city where we’re going to place children and families on the street,” Adams said. He said New York City has helped “normalize and stabilize” about 57 percent of people who go through the shelter system. Officials did not comment on how long it takes for migrants to access stable housing. Advocates say the 60-day rule puts unneeded stress on families and puts them at risk of homelessness in direct opposition to New York City’s right to shelter order, which was enacted in 1979. “The City’s Right to Shelter mandate keeps tens of thousands of people — men, women and children — from sleeping out on the street. It is that simple,” said New York City Councilmember Sandy Nurse in a statement. “And while shelters will never be the solution to homelessness, we must defend the right to shelter both as a legal right and moral obligation.” Migrant advocates called for politicians to develop permanent pathways to housing, enhance legal services and remove obstacles to obtaining a bed and shelter. The eviction notices come days after New York City announced a lawsuit against Texas charter bus companies seeking $708 million to cover the cost of caring for migrants sent from the southern border.

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6sports

New Mexico State vs. Fresno State: How to watch the New Mexico Bowl

FOXBOROUGH — After Jerod Mayo was introduced as the 15th Patriots head coach in the G-P Atrium at Gillette Stadium, both he and owner Robert Kraft read excited opening statements on Wednesday afternoon. Kraft is optimistic about the path ahead and Mayo is eager to get to work. When the time came for questions, the first one was among the most pressing: Who will have final say on Patriots personnel? For the past two decades, that power had belonged singularly to Bill Belichick, who earned total control over New England’s roster after winning his third Super Bowl in 2004. So with Belichick out the door, who will get to make the ultimate decision when the Patriots are on the clock at No. 3 overall in next spring’s NFL Draft? BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. Kraft began by saying this was a day to celebrate Mayo, but then offered a winding and open-ended response. “What we know: We have a lot of people internally who have had a chance to train and learn under the greatest coach of all time and a man who’s football intellect is very special,” Kraft said. “So in the short term, we’re looking for collaboration as our team has a tremendous opportunity to position itself right. Given our salary cap space and in my 30 years of ownership we’ve never been drafting as (early) as we’re drafting. So we’re counting on our internal people whom we’re still learning and evaluating. So we’re going to let that evolve and develop, and before the key decisions have to be made, we will appoint someone. “At the same time, we’ll probably start doing interviews and looking at people from the outside. But my bias has always been, in all our family companies, to try to develop a culture from within where we understand each other. I’ll just give you a little factoid: In the 30 years that we’ve owned the team, this is the third coach that our family has hired. In that period, there have been 244 coaches hired in the NFL. Which means an average of roughly eight coaches per team, which means there’s a turnover every three and a half years in the teams. We like to get continuity in our company. Get the most competent people and then try to build stability. So before we just rush and hire people, we want to understand what we have internally.” Internally, those high-level candidates would be Matt Groh (director of player personnel), Eliot Wolf (director of scouting), Steve Cargile (pro scouting director), Camren Williams (college scouting director) and Patrick Stewart (senior personnel advisor), but it remains to be seen if any of them will leave to join Belichick at his next landing spot. The 71-year-old coach has already interviewed in Atlanta, and will likely be a serious candidate if the Cowboys or Eagles jobs open after embarrassing wild card losses.

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6sports

PWHL Bostons Monday game with Ottawa postponed

The Professional Women’s Hockey League game between Boston and Ottawa scheduled for Monday night has been postponed. Boston was set to host Ottawa at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell. The inclement weather that hit the northeast Saturday into Sunday, though, impacted player travel. The teams have not rescheduled the game yet. Tickets purchased for Monday night’s game will be honored at the rescheduled game. The game was Boston’s second of the new league’s season. It opened up its schedule on Jan. 3 when it hosted Minnesota. Boston will now head out on the road where it will face Montreal at Verdun Auditorium on Saturday, Jan. 13 with a 3:30 p.m. puck drop. Related Content

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1crime

Man arrested at MBTA station after harassing others with rats, police say

MBTA Transit Police arrested a man Sunday evening at a Boston T station after receiving a report that he was “harassing” other passengers with his two pet rats, according to police. Officers responded to Haymarket Station around 7 p.m. and found the man with “Tom and Jerry,” police wrote on social media. Police said the man had several warrants out for his arrest on charges such as disorderly conduct, making criminal threats and failure to register as a sex offender. Officers arrested the man and turned the rats over to Boston Animal Control. It is unclear what will happen to the rats, and Boston Animal Control did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday. Police did not identify the suspect, but said he is “well-known” to them. No further information about the incident has been released.

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4politics

The House Authorized Its Impeachment Inquiry Against Biden. Now What?

The system is expected to arrive shortly after midnight Saturday and persist into daytime hours, forecasters at the weather service office in Norton wrote Friday morning. “A robust winter storm will impact southern New England late this evening throughout the overnight,” forecasters wrote Friday. “Strong wind gusts are expected along the coast, which enhances the coastal flooding potential, fresh water/river flooding, and dangerous marine conditions.” Another wave of rainfall is expected in Massachusetts and Rhode Island early Saturday that could lead to more flooding along rivers and streams and in coastal communities -- and more snow in Northern New England, the National Weather Service said Friday. Advertisement But before the rain comes, winds will strengthen and gusts between 35 and 55 miles per hour are possible until the system fades away on Saturday, forecasters said. A flood warning is in effect for 11 rivers and streams in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, including the Charles River in Dover, the Pawcatuck River in Westerly, the Pawtuxet River at Cranston and the Assabet River in Maynard, forecasters wrote. “Another powerful storm system then impacts the region tonight into Saturday, bringing a renewed or worsened risk for areal and river flooding, strong southeast winds and coastal flooding,’' forecasters wrote Friday. A flood warning is also in effect for coastal Massachusetts and Rhode Island timed to the 10 a.m. high tide on Saturday. The NWS said 2- to 3-foot surges will cause waves to wash onto shoreline roads. The stormy weather comes just days after the region endured a major rain event that generated flooding in some coastal communities and in Rhode Island. The new wave of rain means that rivers and streams already above flood stage or nearing flood stage won’t be easing, forecasters wrote. Ferry service could be impacted The Steamship Authority on Friday issued a travel advisory warning of possible service cancellations on its Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard ferries Saturday and Sunday due to expected wind gusts of over 40 miles per hour. The authority said it would waive change and cancellation fees for travel scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. Advertisement “Please continue to monitor the forecast if you are traveling with us,” the authority said. It advised those using the ferries to check the authority’s website for updates, the latest cancellations or to change a reservation. New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine About 3 to 8 inches of fresh snow is expected from this storm in ski country up north. “Once again enough cold air looks to be in place for most areas to start as snow, with a wintry mix more likely in southern New Hampshire and the far southern Maine coast, but these will quickly transition to rain from north to south before sunrise,” NWS meteorologists in Gray, Maine said. Expected snowfall for New Hampshire. NWS A winter weather advisory has been issued for portions of New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine from Friday night until noon, Saturday. Parts of central and northern New Hampshire and central and western Maine are forecast to see between 4 and 8 inches of snow while sections of eastern Vermont are expecting about 3 to 6 inches with a “light glaze” of ice accumulations, according to forecasters at the NWS. Up to a foot of snow is anticipated in the higher elevations. Expected snowfall for Vermont. NWS The forecast for Sunday calls for a cold and breezy day. Advertisement This is a developing story. John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe.

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3entertainment

And the winner is... | Black Joy December 22, 2023

Sign up to get positive Black news stories, words of affirmation and weekly curated playlists delivered to your inbox twice a week: Enter your email to subscribe to Black Joy. When you were asked what you wanted to be when you grew up, how did you answer? When I chat with Black creatives about this question, many of them say they felt unsupported when they talked about being an artist, singer, or poet. I felt hurt when people predicted that I wouldn’t make it as a reporter. Luckily, my passion for writing outweighed other’s opinion of both the journalism field and my capabilities to navigate it. There’s a magical element to writing that I just couldn’t let go of. I was a fiction reader back then and I admired how writers could transcend time and space with words. How the literary chemistry of a paragraph could set the mood and pace of an entire story. I wanted to make a career out of writing, and journalism seemed like a way in. I was also a hyper-aware child with big feelings, which I later learned are reactions to abuse. But I’m proud of my younger self for subconsciously transforming remnants of trauma into tools of fulfillment. My hypervigilance allowed me to observe the environment around me. My big feelings gave me the ability to emphatically connect with people. Both of these traits became superpowers when you’re interviewing someone. May 2024 will mark 10 years of journalism for me. A decade’s worth of having the honor of connecting with people and the privilege to tell their stories to the world. I believe that when we disarm ourselves of our egos and dive into the depths of someone’s story we will emerge as our better selves because all of us have some wisdom we can share. I hope you take the time to connect to the stories you haven’t read yet as we celebrate the winners of the inaugural Black Joy Awards. Also, don’t forget to slip this newsletter to your friends and fam’s inboxes so they can join this masterclass of life as well. – Starr Griot of the Gospel: Juiccy Misdemeanor Colorado drag queen Juiccy Misdemeanor saw the need for Black queer spaces in her area Turn to your neighbor and say, “The sanctuary is for er’body!” And Colorado drag queen Juiccy Misdemeanor is your griot in the church of Black Joy. Griots safeguard our identity through multiple mediums of performance: music, dance, poetry, oral history, drama, etc. Nearly all of those elements were used during Juiccy’s Gospel drag brunches. Her genius to use praise music – a celebration of Black spirituality – helped Black Pride Colorado build a sense of community and refuge for queer folks who find relief in the Gospel bops. Funny how those who were once chastised out of the church are now creating these powerful spaces. Only God can do it! *bust out in a praise dance* Read Juiccy’s story here. Cultivators of community: Fennigan’s Farms Amanda Brezzell and Claire Austin of Fennigan's Farms Speaking of powerful spaces, we gotta send gratitude to the real ones who got our backs during good times and bad. This year, the Cultivator award goes to Fennigan’s Farms. Sisters Amanda Brezzell and Claire Austin are truly standing on business when it comes to increasing food access in Detroit. They not only help their neighbors build their own gardens or greenhouses in affordable ways, they also teach their community how to live a healthy lifestyle off the land. Let me grab me some overalls and get to work, sis! Read more about Fennigan’s Farms here. Healing collectives: Afro Mermaid and Fight Through Flights A group of Black and brown mermaids gather for the 2022 Afro Mermaid Summit in Miami. Life be life-ing sometimes. Which is why Black-centered organizations are a must for our livelihoods! We’re celebrating two winners in the collective category: Afro Mermaid and Fight Through Flights. Folks got big mad when a Black woman was picked to be Ariel in the live action remake of “The Little Mermaid.” But what haters don’t know is that professional Black mermaids like Carrie Wata are healing Black folks’ relationship with water while empowering their imaginations. Don’t know about y’all but I wanna get under the sea with Carrie! Founded by two women who lost their beloved sister to breast cancer, Fight Through Flights is a nonprofit helping Black women who have survived or are living with breast cancer live their best life through wellness retreats. Sometimes traveling is the best therapy and it’s even better when you got your girls. Read more about Afro Mermaid here. Read more about Fight Through Flights here. Fight Through Flights Leadership Retreat in Caye Caulker, Belize. Brilliant visionary: Maori Karmael of BlackStar Film Festival Maori Karmael Holmes, BlackStar Film Festival founder. Visionaries reimagine the past, present and future for our betterment. And Maori Karmael understood the assignment well when she founded Philadelphia’s BlackStar Film Festival. Known as the “Black Sundance,” BlackStar has given Black and indigenous filmmakers space to stretch their creative muscles without censoring the authenticity of their stories. Listen to Maori’s story as she kicks off the second season of our Black Joy Archive podcast. Read more about Maori here. Nurturer of the youth: Akiea Gross Akiea Gross founder of Woke Kindergarten The kids really are alright under the care of abolitionist Akiea Gross. A tough stint in the education field and the murder of George Floyd pushed Akiea to go all in for their pedagogy, Woke Kindergarten. Parents and teachers can use Woke Kindergarten’s online portal to access mini lesson plans that break down big concepts like colonialism and anti-capitalism for our youngest minds. When it comes to the revolution, class is always in session no matter the age. Read more about Akiea Gross here. The Playful Healer: Ghrey Mbenza Ghrey Mbneza, a queer occupational therapist, poses for a photo. As an occupational therapist in Seattle, people like Ghrey Mbenza are important — when we heal ourselves, we heal our lineage. Ghrey is proud to be a person who plays too much (in a good way!). Their greatest personality trait led to a career rooted in joy and radical imagination. Ghrey helps neurodiverse children meet their cognitive and behavioral goals through their practice Play With Ghrey. We love an adult who lets children’s wonder thrive without limits. Read more about Ghrey here. All the kids win at Black Joy Keith Griffith III, the 16-year-old award-winning entrepreneur who started a honey bee business called Beeing2gether in Louisville, Ky., holds up a honeycomb he pulled out of a nuc box. Let’s sing together in the key of Whitney Houston: I believe that children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way! Which is why all the nominees in our Babies category are winners. Yes, we are those people because all of these kids are doing incredible things for their communities. We got Keith Griffith III, a teen entrepreneur who started his community-based beekeeping business in Kentucky. Then we have Ohio teen philanthropist Logan Williams who helps the homeless through her nonprofit Blanket Blessings. And Sailor Kinsley is making sure to spread positivity with laughter on social media. Read more about Keith here. Read more about Logan here. Watch Sailor Kinsley on our Instagram. Disney Dreamer Logan Williams smiles for the camera. Monumental memory-keepers: Hess Love and Andrea Walls Hess Love in a flower crown. The last is definitely not least when it comes to our memory-keepers. These folks use their gifts to preserve our history, traditions and heritage. Hess Love does this through Hoodoo, archiving, environmental science and storytelling. Founder of the Chesapeake Conjure Society, Hess expresses the importance of reclaiming Hoodoo as a Black practice and not a demonized one. As the founding archivist of Philly’s Museum of Black Joy, Andrea Walls pushes against the European standards of preservation. She taps into community organizing and other experimental forms of collecting to properly portray our culture in a world that wants our joy to be invisible both in history and in the present. Read more about Hess Love here. Read more about Andrea Walls here. Black women archivists: Andrea Walls, keondra freemyn, Zakiya Collier And that’s all folks! This is my last newsletter of 2023. I wanna thank y’all for helping me close out the year with some celebratory energy in my bones. See ya in 2024 to the stage to spread more Black joy.

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2culture

Carlos Lyra, Composer Who Brought Finesse to Bossa Nova, Dies at 90

Carlos Lyra, a Brazilian composer, singer and guitarist whose cool, meticulous melodies helped give structure and power to bossa nova, the samba-inflected jazz style that became a worldwide phenomenon in the early 1960s, died on Dec. 16 in Rio de Janeiro. He was 90. His daughter, the singer Kay Lyra, said the cause of his death, in a hospital, was sepsis. Alongside Antônio Carlos Jobim, Mr. Lyra was widely considered among the greatest composers of bossa nova. Mr. Jobim once called him “a great melodist, harmonist, king of rhythm, of syncopation, of swing” and “singular, without equal.” Mr. Lyra was part of a loose circle of musicians who in the 1950s began looking for ways to blend the traditional samba sounds of Brazil with American jazz and European classical influences. They often gathered at the Plaza Hotel in Rio, not far from the Copacabana beach, to discuss music and hash out ideas.

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2culture

Dear Annie: Somehow an offer of beer turned into an unwanted love confession

Dear Annie: I was at home making a sandwich recently when my close friend’s wife from next door came through the back door. She called out and said she just wanted to see how I was doing. I said I was great and asked if she wanted a sandwich and a beer. She said no to the sandwich but yes to the beer, so I got her one and then sat down to enjoy my lunch. She continued standing by the counter while we talked, and then out of the blue she said she wanted to tell me something: that she had been really interested in me for years but never said anything. She then tried to kiss me, and I backed away immediately. I was shocked, surprised and dumbfounded all at once. I didn’t know what to say. But I did turn her down. I couldn’t do that, especially in my home, a home I share with the woman I married when she was 16 because I absolutely loved her and still do. I couldn’t believe what happened, and I sure can’t share it with my wife or her husband. They both would blow a gasket. I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t care to be around my friend and certainly not his wife. This is driving me nuts, and any suggestions would be appreciated. — At Wits’ End Dear At Wits’ End: It sounds like you handled the situation as well as you could have. It’s a shame your friend’s wife had to pull a move like that, because now the dynamic between the four of you will inevitably suffer. You did nothing wrong, though, and you should not let this woman’s misdeed drive a wedge between you and your wife. At this point, honesty is the best policy. If you refuse to see the neighbors and start acting strangely around your friend’s wife, your wife will know something is up and wonder what you are hiding from her. The truth is, you have nothing to hide, because you are innocent. Tell her what happened — you can spare her the details — and then you and your wife can decide together how to proceed. Dear Annie: My friend was VERY upset, and rightfully so, because her best friend committed suicide. But my friend was very angry with me and accused me of being a bad friend when I asked her not to call me every day and expect me to drop everything I was doing to listen. I did listen the first week after it happened and every night when she called me. Anything I suggested to help her with the grieving process was judged as “I didn’t care” and therefore, I was not a good friend. She also did this to her other friend. She wanted to talk about death and suicide every day to us, and her other friend has terminal cancer. I told her to seek some counseling, that I’m not a psychiatrist and am dealing with some health issues myself and can’t deal with more stress. — Struggling to Shoulder the Load Dear Struggling: While your delivery could have been gentler, you did the right thing setting a boundary for yourself and your personal peace. If anything, your friend’s behavior shows just how much she’s hurting. Being there for her doesn’t mean having to bear the brunt of her pain. Continue to support her in whatever way is possible for you and keep encouraging her to seek professional help. Once the initial shock of what happened subsides, I hope she will heed your advice, taking steps to properly grieve her late friend’s death and heal from this tragedy. “How Can I Forgive My Cheating Partner?” is out now! Annie Lane’s second anthology — featuring favorite columns on marriage, infidelity, communication and reconciliation — is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit http://www.creatorspublishing.com for more information. Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM

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2culture

Recovery program absolute game changer for first responders in Massachusetts

First responders devote their lives to helping others, but what happens when they need help themselves? Given their line of work, first responders “share a lot of the same traumas,” Chris Rodriguez, 34, of Springfield, a correctional officer for the state of Connecticut, told MassLive. He said emergency workers are conditioned to bury their feelings and emotions while dealing with tough mental health conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression. Without developing healthy coping mechanisms, first responders are at risk of developing an addiction to drugs or alcohol that is also fueled by their work culture. “It’s very accepted to go to a bar or a hangout after work and not really talk about your feelings, but kind of numb them with substance or alcohol,” Rodriguez explained. To cater to their needs, Recovery Centers of America (RCA) in Westminster has a program that specifically helps first responders who are struggling with substance abuse. The Frontline Program is available to doctors, nurses, therapists, counselors, pharmacists and any other emergency personnel struggling with addiction to drugs or alcohol. The inpatient program lasts 3-4 weeks and focuses on providing trauma care coupled with addiction and recovery education. The program also intentionally places first responders with their peers who are going through similar journeys, which Rodriguez says truly sets RCA’s program apart from those at other recovery centers. “They’re not only in a safe space around people that also do the same work as them, but they’re in a place where they’re going to be expected to do certain things and meet some certain requirements,” said Rodriguez, who went through a 30-day Frontline Program to treat alcohol addiction. “When I was in a place where I could be vulnerable, around people that understood what those situations were like, it made it a place where I understood where I wasn’t unique any longer,” he added. The Frontline Program uses specialized clinical workbooks and the guidance of assigned therapists who host discussions in individual and group sessions, according to the program’s website. Participants are also treated with several evidence-based clinical approaches, including cognitive behavioral therapy, which helps “patients re-conceive distorted and self-defeating patterns in thought, emotion and action, replacing counterproductive with productive ones,” and positive psychology, which “develops a more positive perspective toward life and others, finding more joy, freedom and meaning in the process through community activities and therapy.” “The people we get here that come to RCA are some of the most dynamic, intelligent, resilient people on the planet,” said Dr. Renee DuVerger, who is the clinical supervisor for RCA and runs the Frontline Program. “I think that’s why we do the job is because we see the progress that people make.” DuVerger said first responders need specific care because they are constantly dealing with critical situations and experiencing burnout. “As resilient as the population is, you can only take so much,” she said. “We need to get society to use care along the way, along the job, so that we can be preventative rather than responsive or reactive with addiction treatment.” Therefore, DuVerger credits the success of the Frontline Program to being solely dedicated to emergency personnel and addressing the specific set of issues that are not commonly felt by the general public. “If you haven’t been on the front line, it’s a very different set of issues rather than the general population who are in recovery,” she explained. “You really need to have that safety in a specialized program. Otherwise people can’t relax, can’t heal, and it can’t feel safe enough to really talk about what’s going on.” Additionally, DuVerger said, the program helps to remove the stigma surrounding first responders — or anyone — getting help for their addiction. This was something Rodriguez experienced firsthand. “I tried to break that stigma,” he said. “It was definitely a hurdle I had to jump over. That I knew I wasn’t weak for doing that, and I was actually saving my life.” Recovery Centers of America in Westminster, Massachusetts.Google Maps Street View Rodriguez started drinking at age 13 or 14 and would drink at any chance he could while in high school. He was also surrounded by people who did the same. Rodriguez’s drinking worsened during his college years, where he started to black out on a regular basis. “Drinking made me make a lot of decisions that made my life unmanageable,” he said. “I gave away two full scholarships for football and lacrosse due indirectly to drinking. I neglected my schoolwork and didn’t show up for classes. The consequences didn’t occur to me. I blamed it on everyone else. The truth is it was me. I was the problem.” Rodriguez later enlisted in the Army and left the military in 2010. In 2014, he became a correctional officer and has held the role for the last nine years — but his drinking did not stop throughout. Rodriguez tried getting sober multiple times for three years, but he was in and out of rehab before being directed to the Frontline Program at RCA by his Employee Assistance Program (EAP). RCA’s business office works directly with EAPs to help first responders get treatment, according to DuVerger. Rodriguez joined the Frontline Program, which he said came highly recommended, on June 9, 2022. Rodriguez considers that day his sobriety date. The program proves to first responders that they can keep working while living a life of sobriety. Rodriguez said the program reintroduced a sense of structure in his life, which was ideal for him given his military background. “I was able to translate that from this facility into my life and carry that on and continue on with that regimented schedule,” he said. “This was an absolute game changer for me.” Read More: Major grocery chain becomes first to entirely stop using plastic shopping bags From its strong alumni network to outpatient programs, RCA helps first responders avoid a commonly felt isolation by continuing to offer them resources and support even after they complete the program. “It’s not just a, you know, come and stay for a certain period of time and then you’re on your own, they still make themselves very available and useful in your recovery well after you leave,” Rodriguez said. The 34-year-old has even given back to RCA himself. Rodriguez has participated in outpatient programs and spoken to current and former Frontline patients. He said it all goes back to giving people the motivation to continue their treatment by hearing the success stories of others. “That’s really a part of it is coming back into this facility specifically where I started my journey in trying to help and instill some hope and inspiration into another person, especially in this unit,” he said. “I feel like it’s absolutely essential for me to continue on my road to recovery to now give back what was freely given to me.”

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Single family residence in Belmont sells for $6.8 million

A 5,660-square-foot house built in 2005 has changed hands. The spacious property located at 275 Somerset Street in Belmont was sold on Dec. 20, 2023, for $6,750,000, or $1,193 per square foot. This two-story house provides a generous living space with its six bedrooms and seven bathrooms. The home’s outer structure has a gable roof frame, composed of asphalt. Inside, a fireplace adds character to the home. In addition, the house is equipped with a one-car garage. Additional houses that have recently changed hands close by include:

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Russian missile may have passed through Polish airspace before striking Ukraine: report

Christina Applegate made a rare public appearance to present the first Emmy, for supporting actress in a comedy series. Glamorous in a plunging gown and visibly overcome by the long standing ovation she received, she still made self-deprecating jokes about Ozempic and disability. “You’re totally shaming me with disability by standing up,” she told the crowd. “It’s fine.” Applegate was nominated for best actress in a comedy for “Dead to Me.” (Quinta Brunson won, “Abbott Elementary.”) The Netflix series was a sleek, savage container for Applegate’s gifts, both her forceful PTA Mom prettiness and the darker currents of anger and ambition that swirled just underneath, giving her comedy a whetted edge. She played Jen to Linda Cardellini’s Judy. Jen was a woman unmoored by the death of her husband who found port in a ride-or-die friendship and an escalating series of crimes. Applegate hasn’t announced any new projects since receiving a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis in 2021. (“It’s not like I came on the other side of it, like, ‘Woohoo, I’m totally fine,’” she told The Times in 2022, speaking of that diagnosis. “Acceptance? No. I’m never going to accept this. I’m pissed.”) Applegate is the rare actress to have translated teen stardom (she was Kelly Bundy, long of leg and scant of prefrontal cortex, on “Married With Children”) into a robust career as an adult that includes the sitcoms “Samantha Who” and “Up All Night,” as well as the “Anchorman” and “Bad Moms” film franchises.