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Its a Game Show!

Are you even in the holiday spirit if you’re not watching cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies every night in December? This season, Hallmark has a handful of new films dropping, including “My Norwegian Holiday” on Friday, Dec. 1 at 8 p.m. ET. Fans looking to check it out can do so for free (Christmas came early?) by going to fuboTV and signing up for a free trial or by going over to Philo for their free trial. From Hallmark’s website: “JJ, grieving the loss of her grandmother and seeking dissertation inspiration, stumbles upon an unexpected holiday destiny. Meeting Henrik, a Norwegian from Bergen, their connection deepens when he discovers she has a troll figurine from his hometown. To explore the troll’s history and her grandmother’s ties, JJ agrees to join Henrik on a journey to Norway. In Bergen, they’re drawn into Henrik’s family Christmas and wedding traditions, with his sister’s wedding the day before Christmas Eve. JJ embarks on a holiday adventure, uncovering the troll’s origins and finding her own path to healing, love and family. Starring Rhiannon Fish and David Elsendoorn.” Hallmark is also promoting three other new Christmas movies this holiday season, in addition to “My Norwegian Holiday”: “A Not So Royal Christmas” staring Brooke D’Orsay and Will Kemp; “Christmas With a Kiss” starring Mishael Morgan, Ronnie Rowe Jr. and Jaime M Callica and “Magic in Mistletoe” starring Lyndie Greenwood and Paul Campbell.

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Hit song writer who rose to fame as a child country music star has died

There’s a coastal flood warning for the entire coast of Rhode Island and Massachusetts on up to Maine. Some locals in New Hampshire and Maine are forecast to see some of the highest water levels on record. Although water levels will be higher, the wave action will not be as bad as in some severe nor’easters or other storms. The damage, therefore, will not be as extensive as the Blizzard of ‘78 or the Perfect storm in 1991, even though the water level itself will be higher. More rain was pelting against the windows early this morning as a new storm system impacted New England. The storm is bringing gusty winds, heavy rain along with river, stream, basement and some coastal flooding. Advertisement Record high tides are forecast in Portland this afternoon during high tide. NOAA Closer to home, our rivers and streams are running really high. This has resulted in flood warnings being issued. I took a look at just one river gauge in Dover of the Charles River. You can see the peak that happened back on Wednesday during that storm and that the water never really receded, and now we’re going up from there. This is why our rivers are running so high — they just haven’t had a chance to fully return to where they were. Another interesting note is to see where the rivers were a year ago, and we are more than 3 feet higher in this location. Remember that flooding has different categories, so although rivers are in flood it can be minor, moderate or major. Most of the flooding in this case is going to be minor to moderate. The Charles River at Dover was running more than twice as high as a year ago at this time. NOAA Data The good news is that the storm system is moving quite quickly and is what we call progressive. It will continue to move northeast, and the rain will shut down late this morning. There may even be some clearing this afternoon. Winds will continue to be gusty but not as strong as the last storm and therefore power outages are likely to not be as extensive. Advertisement In Rhode Island, nearly 10,000 customers were without power as of Saturday morning, with most of the outages concentrated in South Kingstown (4,000) as well as in Charlestown, North Kingstown, Narragansett, Richmond and Exeter. You can track all current power outages throughout New England using our interactive map here. Low pressure was going to rapidly move through New England Saturday afternoon and into Canada. NOAA The loop below shows the strongest winds exiting the region between about 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. moving into Northern New England and then heading out to Eastern Canada. Conditions will remain breezy the rest of the day and also on Sunday. The strongest wind was forecast to move east of New England late Saturday morning. WeatherBELL Along the South Coast the peak surge is occurring as I write this but for Eastern Massachusetts the surge will comes later between about 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. this afternoon. That surge will move up the coastline and that is where those record high water levels are likely. Temperatures will be very mild, reaching into the ‘50s to near 60 today, perhaps closing in on a record but likely remaining just shy. Saturday’s highs will reach the 50s after the rain ends late in the morning. TropicalTidbits Sunday will see a mix of clouds and sunshine and another little weather system. This one will bring some rain or snow showers in the afternoon before clearing takes place. Temperatures will be notably colder, in the ‘30s and feeling in the ‘20s with the wind. A small batch of rain and snow showers is forecast to move through the region Sunday afternoon. TropicalTidbits For the Martin Luther King holiday, temperatures are near 30 with sunshine. We will then have to wait on whether a storm system brings snow or stays out to sea on Tuesday. Advertisement A storm threat Tuesday may miss southern New England if it stays further out to sea. WeatherBELL

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entertainment

UFC 292 start time, TV schedule for Aljamain Sterling vs. Sean OMalley

The UFC 292 start time and TV schedule for the Sterling vs. O’Malley event at the TD Garden in Boston, Mass., on Saturday night is below. The fight card is broken into three different parts and airs on multiple mediums. This post helps explain which fights are airing where and at which times. The event kicks off with a three-fight early preliminary card at 6:30 p.m. ET on ESPN+ and UFC Fight Pass, headlined by a welterweight fight between Andre Petroski and Gerald Meerschaert. Andre Petroski vs. Gerald Meerschaert Andrea Lee vs. Natalia Silva Karine Silva vs. Maryna Moroz Related Get Latest UFC Odds on DraftKings Sportsbook The prelims then switch over to ESPN2/ESPN+ at 8 p.m. ET. A middleweight contest between Chris Weidman and Brad Tavares headlines this portion of the card. Chris Weidman vs. Brad Tavares Gregory Rodrigues vs. Denis Tiuliulin Austin Hubbard vs. Kurt Holobaugh Brad Katona vs. Cody Gibson The ESPN+ pay-per-view will be at 10 p.m. ET and is headlined by a much-anticipated bantamweight title clash between Aljamain Sterling and Sean O’Malley. UFC strawweight champion Zhang Weili will put her belt on the line against Amanda Lemos in the co-main event. Aljamain Sterling vs. Sean O’Malley Zhang Weili vs. Amanda Lemos Ian Machado Garry vs. Neil Magny Da’Mon Blackshear vs. Mario Bautista Marlon Vera vs. Pedro Munhoz

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entertainment

Best Comedy of 2023

Editor’s Note: How can a dining program that serves tens of thousands of students and staff each day churn out award-winning cuisine that has been recognized by Princeton Review for having the best campus food for seven years in a row? MassLive visited the UMass Amherst campus, interviewed chefs, tasted the food and toured the kitchens to find out how the UMass Dining program became a dining dynasty. One of the hottest spots in the No. 1 ranked UMass Amherst dining program is the Blue Wall dining area located within the university’s campus center, which offers about one dozen flavorful food concepts spread out across the main concourse. A popular pedestrian thoroughfare and crossroads in the heart of campus for students, staff and visitors alike, Blue Wall’s flavor profiles range from savory to sweet and incorporate global cuisines from Latin America, to the Mediterranean, to East Asia. The sleekly designed Blue Wall — called so due to the blue lights reflected on the walls around the space — is currently open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., but its diverse food installations offer varied opening and closing times depending on if they cater to breakfast, lunch or dinners crowds, or all of the above. Different than the four dining commons on the UMass campus — Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire and Worcester — those who dine here pay at the counter for ready-to-go or dine-in meals either with cash, card or allocated meal plan dollars instead of a typical meal swipe to tap into a cafeteria space. Nevertheless, those passing through or coming for a bite to eat will catch students gathering, chowing down and studying across its eclectic seating arrangements much like any dining hall or café across the university. However, like all the dining halls, guests to campus are just as welcome as these students and school faculty to stop by and dine, according to Lynn Pelkey, the UMass location manager for Blue Wall. Feeling like a sweet treat? Stop by Yum! Bakery with glass cases displaying its many sweet treats from éclairs, to macarons, whoopie pies, cannolis, cookies, cakes, cupcakes and even cheesecake — with a separate glass case set aside for those with gluten sensitivities, Pelkey noted. Cookie Monster Galeto sold by Paciugo inside Blue Wall at UMass Amherst. (Hoang 'Leon' Nguyen / The Republican)Leon Nguyen Right next to the bakery, Blue Wall patrons can sample small spoonfuls of Italian gelato before they order a cup or cone at Paciugo, where, according to Pelkey, all the gelato is made in house, fresh and by hand daily. Flavors here range from “raspberry coconut milk,” to “lavender,” “turtle cheesecake,” “dulce de leche,” and “Cookie Monster,” among others. International flavors abound at spots like Tavola — a Mediterranean concept which offers lunchtime crowds hummus or pasta bowls, pizzas, and wraps and salads that can come with beef, skewered lamb or chicken or vegetarian friendly alternatives like falafel. A poké bowl made at Wasabi in the Blue Wall dining area of the UMass Amherst campus center.Chris McLaughlin Across the way at Tamales, authentic Mexican cuisine from burritos, to quesadillas to rice bowls are offered — and those waiting in line can even peer to the kitchen from behind a glass wall, where a tortilla press churns out tortillas for preparation and consumption. For varied Asian flavor profiles, try Wasabi or Star Ginger. At Wasabi, which Pelkey said offers “fresh” and “hearty” meals, menu items include sushi rolls, poké bowls, spicy tuna or salmon bowls. Over at Star Ginger, recipes originate from celebrity chef and cookbook author Mai Pham and are based on meals Pham ate growing up in Vietnam and Thailand. Staples here include Vietnamese pho noodle bowls, curries and entree meals such as Mongolian beef and lemongrass chicken. For more general tastes, spots like Deli Delish offer handmade sandwiches at lunch, while The Grill sizzles up burgers and grilled sandwiches, with the “Hatch Burger,” made with grass-fed beef, fried egg, bacon, cheddar cheese, lettuce and garlic aioli, being a best selling specialty, according to Pelkey. A plate of mixed salad sold by Green Fields inside Blue Wall at UMass Amherst. (Hoang 'Leon' Nguyen / The Republican)Leon Nguyen And if you’re in the mood for some vegetables, Green Fields offers a range of set salad and wrap recipes. Customers can also customize their own wrap or salad, with different add ins from the greens, to the toppings, cheese and protein options. Pelkey noted Green Fields’ crispy breaded chicken is a signature menu item add on for salads and wraps. UMass Dining on MassLive TikTok: Additionally, if it’s too early for most Blue Wall spots to be open just yet, Campus Center denizens can stop by People’s Organic Coffee for a cup of joe or tea along with other café-style menu items. Or patrons can swing into Harvest Market, which offers cold and hot bar items priced by the pound, including breakfast, or stop by any time of day to pick up different snacks, drinks or pre-packaged meals ready to go at one’s convenience. Items from the breakfast selection at the morning hot bar from Harvest Market in the UMass Amherst campus center.Chris McLaughlin And just like all operations under UMass Dining, Pelkey noted Blue Wall’s food items list different potential allergens and nutritional informational on small placards. These signs also indicate full ingredients and factors like if a food is considered halal or vegan.

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entertainment

These are the best Christmas movies of all time, according to Rotten Tomatoes

It’s that time of year again where we can slide on over to the couch and curl up with a cup of hot chocolate while watching our favorite Christmas movies. In celebration of the holiday season, Rotten Tomatoes made a list — and checked it twice — of The 100 Best Christmas Movies of all Time. The list aims to check everything off everyone’s Christmas list from such nostalgic classics as “It’s A Wonderful Life” and “Holiday Inn” to contemporary hits like “Elf” and “Home Alone.” The movie review-aggregation website even packed some comedy and horror films in its merry and bright bag like “Black Christmas” and “Gremlins.” For those feeling super this holiday season, consider watching “Batman Returns,” which also made the final cut. So without further ado, here are the best Christmas movies guaranteed to help you sleigh this holiday season. Meet Me in St. Louis (100% rating) The Shop Around the Corner (99% rating) The Holdovers (96% rating) Tangerine (96% rating) Miracle on 34th Street (96% rating) The Nightmare Before Christmas (95% rating) Little Women, 2019 (95% rating) Klaus (95% rating) Carol (94% rating) It’s a Wonderful Life (94% rating) Click here to check out the full list.

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entertainment

How The Nutcracker Has Been Reimagined, for Better and Worse

Brian Setzer’s career has been defined by a revivalist energy. First, his rockabilly group Stray Cats looked back to the rock ’n’ roll of the 1950s through the eyes of the 1980s. After the group split, he founded the Brian Setzer Orchestra, a boogie-woogie, jump blues band straddling originals and jazzed-up covers. “The Nutcracker Suite,” originally arranged for Les Brown and his Band of Renown by Frank Comstock, wasn’t the only time that the Brian Setzer Orchestra dabbled in classical rearrangements. In the 2007 album “Wolfgang’s Big Night Out,” Beethoven’s “Für Elise” became the Django Reinhardt pastiche “For Lisa,” and Johann Strauss II’s “The Blue Danube” became the bluesy swing chart “Some River in Europe.” An unlikely source brought the group’s take on Tchaikovsky into holiday tradition: Buddy, in the movie “Elf.” As the lights dim in Gimbels, the store that Buddy (Will Ferrell), has tasked himself with redecorating overnight, the Brian Setzer Orchestra trumpets strike up, playing the fanfare call from “March of the Toy Soldiers.” But what follows is not the impish, pizzicato response that usually accompanies the toys’ jolting movements: A drum kit crashes in, and snarling, swinging saxophones accompany Buddy’s commando rolls across the aisle behind a security guard. The whole arrangement pits clipped precision against swirling chaos. Drew McOnie and Cassie Kinoshi: ‘Nutcracker’

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entertainment

How to watch the new episode of Bravos Below Deck Mediterranean for free

The new episode from season 8 of Bravo’s “Below Deck Mediterranean” will air on Monday, Jan. 8 starting at 9 p.m. EST. For those without cable, the show can be streamed on platforms like FuboTV and DirecTV. Both platforms offer a free trial for new users interested in signing up for an account. Sling is available as well for streaming. You can also stream it the next day on Peacock. “Between friends with benefits and open relationships, there’s no shortage of boat-mances and boat break-ups. When disagreements impact productivity and former friendships start to implode, Sandy is faced with a wave of difficult decisions,” Bravo wrote about the show. In the new episode, “the bosun’s texting with a familiar chief stew turns into a damage control crisis; the chef faces a culinary challenge with a blindfolded dinner; Illness strikes the lead deckhand.” How can I watch the newest episode of “Below Deck Mediterranean”? 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. You can also stream it the next day on Peacock. 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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Concerns about Biden's age are 'universal': Sarah Bedford

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Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny' now streaming on Disney Plus; How to watch

If you want to get 2024 off to a distinctive musical start, Springfield Symphony Hall has a perfect concert for you. On Jan. 13 at 7:30 p.m., the venue will hold a “Classics and Jazz – Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration,” featuring Mebrakh Haughton-Johnson on clarinet and Jason Flowers on piano. The evening’s music will be conducted by Damien Sneed. The concert will showcase several orchestral pieces composed by Black Americans, starting with works by two women composers, Florence Price (1887-1953) and Margaret Bonds (1913-1972). The first part of the night will feature Price’s “Colonial Dance” and “Concert Overture No. 1,” along with “Bond’s Montgomery Variations.” The second half of the concert will focus on the indigenous American musical genre, jazz, with music written or arranged by James P. Johnson (1894-1955), William Grant Still (1895-1978), David Baker (1931-2016), Duke Ellington (1899-1974) and the conductor, Sneed. The latter half will feature Baker’s “Jazz Suite for Clarinet and Orchestra: Three Ethnic Dances,” a fusion of jazz and classical music, “Yamekraw” (originally composed by highly influential jazz pianist James P. Johnson) which was later orchestrated by Still, and the world premiere of Sneed’s “A Symphonic Homage to The Duke,” a tribute to Ellington. Tickets range from $25 to $75 and are available on Springfield Symphony Hall’s website.

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entertainment

Doctor Who Welcomed Its 15th Doctor. Heres How He Stacks Up.

With most TV shows, a major casting change is a dreaded event. But for fans of the long-running British series “Doctor Who,” big casting changes are expected, even anticipated. With the show’s latest Christmas episode, which premiered Monday on Disney+, we got acquainted with the newest Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa (“Sex Education”) — the 15th Doctor and the first Black, openly queer one in series history. The arrival of a new Doctor, the show’s titular time-traveling, space-wandering alien, is always a buzzy occasion. But although the Doctor typically dies and is regenerated in the final minutes of some climactic episode, it is the one immediately following that truly establishes the new incarnation and what kind of flavor he or she will offer. These first full episodes with a new Doctor, including this year’s Christmas special, “The Church on Ruby Road,” can reveal a lot about how that Doctor’s tenure will go. Here’s a look back at the first post-regeneration episodes of every Doctor since the show’s 2005 revival.

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How to watch Celebrity Jeopardy! semifinal episode on Jan. 9 for free

“Celebrity Jeopardy!” continues on ABC with a new episode this Tuesday, Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT — its second semifinal for the season. For those without cable who want to watch the new episode, they can do so for free through either FuboTV and DirecTV Stream. Both platforms offer a free trial for new users. You can also watch the series the next day on Hulu, which offers a free first month when you sign up, followed by payments as low as $7.99 per month thereafter. FuboTV said in a description of the second semifinal episode for the show’s second season that celebrity contestants include Steven Weber, Katie Nolan and Dulé Hill. How can I watch “Celebrity Jeopardy!″ for free without cable? The new episode is available to watch through either FuboTV or DirecTV Stream. Both offer free trials to new users. You can also watch the series the next day on Hulu, which offers a free first month when you sign up, followed by payments as low as $7.99 per month thereafter. 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. DirecTV also offers a free trial for any package you sign up.

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How to watch The Real Housewives of Miami new episode free Jan. 10

Season 6 of “The Real Housewives of Miami” continues on Bravo this Wednesday, Jan. 10 at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT with a new one-and-a-half-hour-long episode. The show can be streamed on platforms like FuboTV and DirecTV Stream for free, if you can’t watch the new episode with cable on TV. Both platforms offer a free trial for new users interested in signing up for an account. Sling is available as well for streaming. You can also stream it the next day on Peacock. “This entry in the ‘Real Housewives’ franchise sticks to the tried-and-true formula that has made other incarnations a staple on the Bravo schedule,” FuboTV said in a description of the series. “The women featured on the series are at the center of the Miami housewife universe, though not all are actually wives at the time of the show’s filming,” it added. “Among the women are Adriana De Moura, known as the Brazilian bombshell of Miami’s art scene, and Texas native Lea Black, a committed philanthropist who is married to one of America’s top criminal defense attorneys.” The new episode is titled “Invite Only″ and in a description FuboTV said “Marysol hosts a shopping spree luncheon; Nicole is brought to tears after learning she is being iced out from the group; Julia forces Adriana to come clean; Alexia and Lisa’s bickering brings Guerdy to a breaking point.” You can watch sneak peek for the new episode below or by clicking here to watch on Bravo’s YouTube channel. How can I watch the newest episode of “The Real Housewives of Miami” for free? Viewers looking to stream can do so by using FuboTV, Sling or DirecTV Stream. Both FuboTV and DirecTV Stream offer free trials when you sign up, and Sling offers 50% off your first month. You can also stream it the next day on Peacock. 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. DirecTV also offers a free trial for any package you sign up.

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entertainment

Winter Solstice 2023: The Shortest Day of the Year

On This Week’s Episode: Something “This American Life” had never done before: true stories told in the form of a game show. This is a rerun of an episode that first aired in December 2022.

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entertainment

The Musicians We Lost in 2023

4. Dusty Springfield: “(They Long to Be) Close to You” Burt Bacharach, who died on Feb. 8 at age 94, wrote a seemingly infinite number of perfect pop songs, like this one that the Carpenters made a No. 1 smash in 1970. Dusty Springfield’s earlier version, recorded in 1964, isn’t as well known, but it’s every bit as stirring, thanks in large part to the emotional acuity of Bacharach’s timeless composition. (Listen on YouTube) 5. Wayne Shorter: “Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum” Until his death on March 2 at 89, the saxophonist Wayne Shorter was considered by many to be the greatest living jazz composer. His singular, expressive playing on this highlight from his 1966 album, “Speak No Evil,” is one of many recordings that suggest why. (Listen on YouTube) 6. Yellow Magic Orchestra: “Technopolis” The pioneering Japanese electronic group Yellow Magic Orchestra lost two of its three principal members this year: the drummer and vocalist Yukihiro Takahashi on Jan. 11 and, a little over two months later, the keyboardist Ryuichi Sakamoto. Both had long and varied solo careers as well, but their work in Y.M.O., like on this leadoff track from the 1979 album “Solid State Survivor,” is still enduringly influential and instantly recognizable. (Listen on YouTube) 7. Harry Belafonte: “Jamaica Farewell” “Calypso,” the blockbuster 1956 release by the Jamaican American singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte, helped bring Caribbean sounds to the masses: It is said to be the first LP by a solo artist to sell over a million copies. This wistful West Indian folk tune was the album’s lead single, and it long remained a signature song for Belafonte, who died on April 25 at 96. (Listen on YouTube) 8. Gordon Lightfoot: “Sundown” The Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot, who died on May 1 at 84, was a familiar presence on AM radio in the early 1970s, when he scored hit after unlikely hit. None charted higher than the infectious “Sundown,” the title track off his 1974 album and his only song to hit No. 1 in the United States. The track’s buoyant rhythm and lush harmonies contrast with its lyrical preoccupation with jealousy, inebriation and mistrust, creating an alluringly dark pop song. (Listen on YouTube) 9. Tina Turner: “What’s Love Got to Do With It” Talk about a comeback. The mighty Tina Turner hadn’t had a Top 10 hit in the U.S. in more than a decade when in 1984 she returned with a vengeance, belting out this anthem and strutting down the streets of New York in its unforgettable music video. “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” released when Turner was 44, was her long-awaited liberation, and the force of her vocal delivery tells you how much life — and rock-star attitude — she had in her. She died May 24 at 83. (Listen on YouTube)

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Jennifer Lawrence mouths audacious message into camera at the Golden Globes

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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:

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entertainment

2023 in Retrospect: 59 Photographs That Defined the Year in Arts

“There is a moment in the production when Greg Tannahill, who played Peter Pan, goes ‘flying’ with intentional haphazardness through the air while harnessed in a flying rig. This skillfully performed moment of planned chaos goes by in the blink of an eye, so I took advantage of every single frame before, during and after the scene. The show is about chaos, so I had no choice but to embrace it and try to anticipate and chase this moment. It all happened so fast I didn’t have time to think, I had to just shoot.” — Dolly Faibyshev

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Mass. State Lottery winner: $1 million ticket sold at Cheshire package store

A Massachusetts State Lottery player in Berkshire County struck it rich on Thursday with the purchase of a $1 million winning ticket. The ticket was sold at Green Acres Package & Variety in Cheshire on Thursday in the game “$1,000,000 Snow Much Money.” The $5 scratch ticket of “$1,000,000 Snow Much Money” sports four winning numbers and scratch-off prizes are displayed in the middle of the ticket. There started with three $1,000,000 winners, two of which have been claimed, according to the lottery. Overall odds of winning are 1 in 4.14 while odds of winning the $1,000,000 prize are 1 in 3,360,000. Overall, there were at least 622 lottery prizes worth $600 or more won or claimed in Massachusetts on Thursday, including seven in Springfield and 18 in Worcester. The Massachusetts State Lottery releases a full list of all the winning tickets each day. The list only includes winning tickets worth more than $600.

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entertainment

Westfield City Clerk announces winner of Top Dog Contest

WESTFIELD - On Jan. 1, Westfield City Clerk Kaitlyn Bruce announced that the winner of the Westfield Top Dog Contest is “Walter,” a search & rescue Doberman owned by Trish LaBelle. Westfield’s first annual Top Dog contest was launched in August 2023 to encourage residents to license their dogs. All participants had to have a current dog license. At the time, Bruce said licensing helps prevent rabies outbreaks by requiring a certificate of vaccination for all dogs. “It also increases the chance that you will be reunited with your pet in the unfortunate event they are lost. If we can bring safety and fun together with a little friendly competition, it’s a win-win.”

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entertainment

David Soul, a Star of the Hit Cop Show Starsky & Hutch, Dies at 80

David Soul, the doleful-eyed blond actor and singer who rose to fame portraying half of a cagey crime-fighting duo on the hit 1970s television show “Starsky & Hutch,” and who also scored a No. 1 hit single in 1977 with “Don’t Give Up on Us,” died on Thursday. He was 80. His death was confirmed in a statement by his wife, Helen Snell, who did not specify a cause or say where he died. Mr. Soul had been living in Britain since 1995 and became a British citizen in 2004. A Chicago-born son of a Lutheran minister, Mr. Soul had spent nearly a decade appearing on television shows like “Star Trek” and “I Dream of Jeannie,” and also had a regular role on the ABC western comedy series “Here Come the Brides,” before he won his career-defining role of Detective Ken Hutchinson, known as Hutch, also on ABC. The part would make him a regular presence in American living rooms, as well as a recognized heartthrob, from 1975 to 1979. As Hutch, Mr. Soul played the coolheaded Midwestern sidekick to Detective Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser), a savvy Brooklynite given to wearing chunky cardigan sweaters. The two tooled around the fictional Southern California burgh of Bay City in a red Ford Gran Torino emblazoned with a giant Nike-esque swoosh running down each side as they cracked open cases with the help of their streetwise informant, Huggy Bear (Antonio Fargas).

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Where to go for trivia every night of the week in Greater Boston

Readers Say Where to go for trivia every night of the week in Greater Boston Readers shared the trivia events that keep them coming back every week. Indie trivia at Aeronaut Brewing. Aeronaut Brewing Looking for a fun way to spend the evening? Get a group of friends together for some friendly competition at a local trivia night. Last year, Boston.com readers shared their favorite trivia nights, with suggestions including Mighty Squirrel Brewing Co., The Pickled Onion, and more. We’ve added to that reader-recommended guide to highlight more than 40 different options for trivia including Stump!, Ponder, Family Feud-style, and more. Sasha S. from Needham said she loved her weekly trivia game at The Biltmore in Newton so much that she decided to become a trivia host at Grainne O’Malleys in Brookline. Both trivia nights made it onto our reader-recommended guide. Advertisement: “I’ve gotten to know so many cool people and it’s such a tight little community that has become the highlight of my week. In a world where technology has taken over in a sense, putting your phone away, communicating as a team, and using the knowledge we have on hand instead of Google is more important than ever. It’s what makes us human so to see everyone come together and bond is truly a beautiful thing,” she told Boston.com. “I look forward to playing and hosting all week!” Below, you’ll find a guide to local trivia events and a map of all the bars and restaurants featured on this list. A 🏆 means that this trivia night was one of the top recommendations from readers. Monday Howling Wolf Taqueria (76 Lafayette St., Salem) When: Mondays at 7 p.m. “This Mexican restaurant in Salem has great food and drinks and trivia every Monday night,” said Allen from Salem. The Castle (240 Rantoul St., Beverly) When: Mondays at 8 p.m. “The Castle has excellent trivia. I especially like their themed trivia nights, such as Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Christmas movies. If you are a superfan of something, The Castle trivia will actually challenge you. The competition is fierce. They also have fun rules that allow you to double your score for a round or take a minimum score if you’re not too confident. The trivia is done on paper or through an app, so it’s not just a test of who can blurt out the answer fastest,” said Jessica from Peabody. The Haven (284 Amory St., Jamaica Plain) When: Every other Monday at 7 p.m. “The Haven has great food, drinks, and atmosphere,” said one reader from Jamaica Plain. The Quiet Few (331 Sumner St., East Boston) When: Mondays at 8 p.m. “Solid trivia at a fantastic bar,” said Adam from East Boston. “What else is there to say?” Warren Tavern (2 Pleasant St., Charlestown) When: Mondays at 8 p.m. “Great atmosphere in a historic tavern with good food and drink. Each question also has an accompanying song that gives a subtle, sometimes very subtle, clue,” said Mike G. from Charlestown. Tuesday Ashland Ale House (23 Pond St., Ashland) When: Tuesdays at 7 p.m. “Host is awesome, funny, keeps it going quickly. Not just questions, he does a name that tune round, a picture round, a ‘Family Feud’ style round. Food and staff are on point, great beer selection. It’s a blast there,” said Dan K. from Ashland. Bit Bar Salem (278 Derby St., Salem) When: Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. Not Your Average Trivia at Bit Bar is frequented by one reader because it’s “unique trivia that is active and fun.” Advertisement: “Dance rounds, limbo, scavenger hunt, and beer tastings!” Coolidge Corner Clubhouse (307 Harvard St., Brookline) When: Tuesdays at 8 p.m. “Milo does a phenomenal job running Tuesday night Trivia. He comes up with his own questions,” said one reader. “Always a fun time.” Eugene O’Neill’s (3700 Washington St., Jamaica Plain) When: Tuesdays at 7 p.m. “The host is fantastic! Gabby keeps everyone engaged and makes sure everyone has a great time,” said Shelley H. from Jamaica Plain. Irish Village (224 Market St., Brighton) When: Tuesdays at 7 p.m. “Trivia lasts the perfect amount of time. The quizmaster looks like he came straight out of Ireland and he’s so loud he can be heard at the pizza place next door,” said Blair from Acton. When: Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. “Good friends, good times and keeps the brain active. And sometimes you learn a thing or two,” a reader from Braintree said. “We’ve been doing it for so long we can’t remember.” 🏆 Minglewood Harborside (25 Rogers St., Gloucester) When: Tuesdays at 7 p.m. “The trivia guy, Brian, is funny and engaging. He makes the whole game so much better. More than just a question asker. Great music, too,” said Julianna from Gloucester. “Minglewood’s prizes are GREAT, compared to other bars and restaurants I’ve played at. The food is great too.” Old Court Irish Pub and Restaurant (29-31 Central St., Lowell) When: Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. “Frank is a great host! Come for the questions, stay for the Guinness!” Jack from Lowell said. 🏆 Remnant Brewing (877 Cambridge St., Cambridge) When: Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. “It’s always packed here, trivia starts at 7, but you have to get a table at 6. The host encourages people to mix and mingle so it’s a great place to actually meet people, especially if you’re an introvert. Plus, killer beer and playlist. The playlist has clues to the answers!” Celina C. from Somerville shared. Advertisement: Remnant Brewing’s Cambridge trivia night was recommended by readers but the brewery also does trivia on Mondays at 6:30 p.m. at its Bow Market location, 2 Bow Market Way, Somerville. Shamrock Pub (501 East 8th St., South Boston) When: Tuesdays at 7 p.m. “The Shamrock Pub is the only place I go for trivia. They have the best steak tips in town and the coldest beer this far south from the North Pole,” said Chris C. Stats Bar & Grille (77 Dorchester St., South Boston) When: Tuesday at 8 p.m. “The questions are clever and and the host is amazing!” Ray B. from South Boston shared. 🏆 The Biltmore (1205 Chestnut St., Newton) When: Tuesdays at 7 p.m. “I’ve been going to Biltmore for a while and have been playing trivia for 6 months now and I have been absolutely loving it. I’ve brought my family and friends to play with me but I do play alone to decompress after work. Trivia has given me a new outlook on my information intake and I’ve become more aware of my surroundings on the off chance that something I observe or learn will be a trivia question,” said Sasha S. from Needham. Wednesday Boston Ale House (1885 Centre St., West Roxbury) When: Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. “Great variety of questions, excellent music. Awesome vibes,” said Josh N. from West Roxbury. When: Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. and Thursdays at 8 p.m. “Great host and great food,” said Mark M. When: Wednesday at 8 p.m. “Chill place with a great host. Have a fun rivalry with other teams,” said Andy from Cambridge. When: Wednesdays at 8 p.m. “It is a family-friendly fun atmosphere,” a reader shared. “Trivia is wonderful as are the libations!” Dorchester Brewing Company (1250 Massachusetts Ave., Boston) When: Wednesdays at 7 p.m. Dugout Cafe (722 Commonwealth Ave., Boston) When: Wednesday at 8 p.m. “It’s a nice break from law school and very fun!” Sam from Fenway shared. When: Wednesdays 7:30 p.m. “It’s a very welcoming place with great hosts and people. Always great variations of questions and always full to capacity every week,” said Jim L. 🏆 Hopothecary Ales Brewery and Kitchen (303 Main St., North Reading) When: Wednesdays at 7 p.m. “Great vibes, drinks, and food!” MaryAnne R. from Wilmington shared. Jeanie Johnston Pub and Grill (144 South St., Jamaica Plain) When: Wednesdays at 8 p.m. “Paper-based trivia game. Great atmosphere and a fun crowd. Best bartenders!” Christine G. from Jamaica Plain said. 🏆 Joe Sent Me (849 Main St., Waltham) When: Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. “The atmosphere here is awesome. Erin does an amazing job hosting and making it so much fun. The food here is unbelievable as well as the drinks,” said Olivia from Waltham. “I highly recommend playing here!” Advertisement: Joe Sent Me’s Waltham location was recommended by readers, but the bar also does trivia on Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. at the Cambridge location, 2388 Massachusetts Ave. 🏆 Mighty Squirrel Brewing Co. (411 Waverley Oaks Rd., Waltham) When: Wednesdays at 7 p.m. “Hands down the best brew in Boston. The Cloud Candy is best paired with trivia. It’s a friendly vibe that’s perfect for get-togethers with friends and some trivia,” said Michelle from Newton. 🏆 Portico Brewing (101 South St., Somerville) When: Wednesdays at 6 p.m. “It’s awesome because the host is great, the atmosphere can’t be beat, the beer is amazing, and it’s from six to eight so you can have a blast and be home before bedtime!” Diana from East Cambridge shared. When: Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m. “Great reason to get together with friends after work and it’s always a great vibe,” said Agnes from the North End. The Cherry Tree (1349 Washington St., Newton) When: Wednesdays at 7:30 “The questions aren’t complicated (most of the time). The explanation of the rules is very easy to grasp. On top of that, the host pulls a rabbit out of a hat every game by making the game fun and thrilling. He doesn’t waste time trying to tell stories but simply entertains the room by asking and answering trivia. Bartender usually adds bits and jokes after a question which is just the cherry on top!” Amanda from Jamaica Plain shared. The Derby (189 Washington St., Salem) When: Wednesdays at 7 p.m. “Great staff, excellent host, plus great signature cocktails. And the largest prizes that I know of — $50 for first, $25 for second,” said Susan D. from Salem. The Hill Tavern (228 Cambridge St., Beacon Hill) When: Wednesdays at 7 p.m. “Host Ryan is great. Every song he picks is either a pun or a clue to the questions. Makes it so much more fun than a random playlist!” John from Beacon Hill shared. The Square Root (2 Corinth St., Roslindale) When: Every other Wednesday at 8 p.m. “Pub quiz is more complex than regular trivia and so fun! The guy who runs it asks the best questions,” said Liz from Roslindale. 🏆 The Squealing Pig (134 Smith St., Boston) When: Wednesdays at 7 p.m. “The questions are a good mix of reachable and challenging. It’s a great place to get a drink, catch up with friends, and have a grand time playing trivia,” said Michael A. from Mission Hill. Advertisement: The Squealing Pig also has trivia on Wednesdays at 6:30 p.m. at the Provincetown location, 335 Commercial St. Warp and Weft (197 Market St., Lowell) When: Wednesdays at 7 p.m. “It’s not really difficult. There are a few audio categories and musical bingo before trivia starts. The host is really fun and a lot of the same folks each week creates a good rivalry,” Karen M. from Lowell. “It’s rated R and sometimes on the verge of more than that.” Thursday Corrib Pub (2030 Centre St., West Roxbury) When: First Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. “The trivia moves along. There’s a visual component. The host is great and engaging. Good variety of questions,” a reader said. “Good food and great waitstaff!” When: Thursdays at 7 p.m. “Echo Bridge is just a happy place to be and the food is excellent. Trivia host Mike ‘Sarge’ Riley is an affable host who strikes the right tone and keeps things moving with solid trivia questions. Mike does trivia on Thursdays. I also frequent his always-fun Music Bingo on Tuesdays,” said Ken L. from Canton. SandBar Hull (297 Nantasket Ave., Hull) When: Thursdays at 7 p.m. “An entertaining evening of trivia that starts at 7 p.m. and is done by 8:30. You can go out for a drink and trivia and not have to make a whole night of it if you choose not to,” said Rob H. from Hull. Seapoint Bar & Grill (367 E 8th St., South Boston) When: Thursdays at 8 p.m. 🏆 The Pickled Onion (355 Rantoul St., Beverly) When: Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. “I love going to the Pickled Onion every Thursday for trivia! The trivia guy Tim has the BEST voice for trivia! And everyone is always so into it and makes it so competitive and fun,” said Hannah from Beverly. Friday Shovel Town Brewery (50 Oliver St., North Easton) When: Fridays at 8 p.m. “The food is good and the trivia host is knowledgeable and very fun! The layout of the game is great too,” said Dorothy P. from Easton. Saturday The Puddingstone Tavern (1592 Tremont St., Mission Hill) When: Saturdays at 7 p.m. You can go to this trivia night with a team or join an open table when you arrive. Pair your night of fun with a pick from their wide beer selection or a fun cocktail. Sunday An Sibin (1193 Cambridge St., Cambridge) When: Sundays at 8 p.m. “Brennan the trivia host is the best in the game! His questions are well-written and researched and are guaranteed to inspire discussion (and often debate!) within our team. His polished yet casual hosting style creates a friendly and fun atmosphere, even when things get competitive,” said Jennifer O. from Quincy. “In addition, An Sibin’s delicious food and drink menu and friendly bar staff make it a great place to spend a night out.” Advertisement: Responses have been lightly edited for grammar and clarity.

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How to watch Celebrity Jeopardy! semifinal episode on Jan. 16 for free

“Celebrity Jeopardy!” continues on ABC with a new episode this Tuesday, Jan. 16 at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT — its third semifinal for the season. For those without cable who want to watch the new episode, they can do so for free through either FuboTV and DirecTV Stream. Both platforms offer a free trial for new users. You can also watch the series the next day on Hulu, which offers a free first month when you sign up, followed by payments as low as $7.99 per month thereafter. FuboTV said in a description of the third semifinal episode for the show’s second season that celebrity contestants are Rachel Dratch, Mo Rocca, and Heather McMahan. How can I watch “Celebrity Jeopardy!″ for free without cable? The new episode is available to watch through either FuboTV or DirecTV Stream. Both offer free trials to new users. You can also watch the series the next day on Hulu, which offers a free first month when you sign up, followed by payments as low as $7.99 per month thereafter. 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. DirecTV also offers a free trial for any package you sign up.

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It was a good day: Ice Cube Impact Award unveiled at Hall of Fame

SPRINGFIELD — When he was O’Shea Jackson in South Los Angeles, he never thought he would become a nationally known rapper, but he did. Later as Ice Cube, he never thought he would star in over 40 movies and dozens of television programs, or have his star on the Walk of Fame, but he did.

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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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Boston native Ayo Edebiri wins Golden Globe for performance in The Bear

BOSTON — Boston native Ayo Edebiri won her first Golden Globe on Sunday night for her leading performance in the second season of the hit Hulu show “The Bear.” Edebiri, 28, who has played chef Sydney Adamu in the comedy-drama since 2022, won the Globe in the category “Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series.” After earning the big win, Edebiri thanked the assistants of her agents and managers. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 22 81st Golden Globe Awards - Press Room Jeremy Allen White, from left, Ayo Edebiri, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach pose in the press room with the award for best television series, musical or comedy for "The Bear" at the 81st Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, Jan. 7, 2024, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) (Chris Pizzello/Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP) “To the people who answer my emails, you’re the real ones,” Edebiri said. Edebiri is also known for her roles in “Bottoms,” “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem,” and “Big Mouth,” among many other credits. Edebiri attended the Boston Latin School before moving on to New York University. 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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From Detroit to The Color Purple premiere: How a call from Oprah made dreams come true for this child Instagram star

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. Kenya White (left), her oldest daughter A'Blesyn Davis (middle) and youngest daughter Rosie McKee (bottom right) were invited by Oprah Winfrey to attend the World Premiere of Warner Bros.' "The Color Purple" at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on December 06, 2023 in Los Angeles.Getty Oprah Winfrey isn’t the first celebrity to praise Rosie McKee for her acting skills, but the producer and media titan is now one of the Instagram star’s loudest cheerleaders. At just eight-years-old, McKee and her family walked the red – or actually purple – carpet during the premier of “The Color Purple” in Los Angeles on Dec. 6. Winfrey invited the Detroit natives after being stunned by McKee’s performance in a skit that reenacted an emotional scene from the 1985 version of the film Winfrey starred in as Sofia. RELATED: Oprah invites Detroit family to premier of ‘The Color Purple’ thanks to viral video This opportunity wasn’t the result of sudden stardom. The joy of acting – or as McKee calls it “pretending” – family support and a love of Black excellence is what forged McKee’s path to Hollywood. Her journey has given McKee some insight into what it takes to bring visions to reality. “Just be patient because it’s gonna happen,” McKee says as her advice to other kids who have big dreams. “Or rather keep the faith because it is happening.” McKee’s love of acting started blooming at three years old, when her mother, Kenya White, read aloud a pamphlet about Rosa Parks as part of a homework assignment from her Head Start class. White didn’t think McKee was listening. She was just a child after all. But when White asked McKee what she learned, McKee repeated back what her mom read word-per-word. This taught White to throw away her assumptions about her child’s abilities, and start nurturing her daughter’s gift by giving her permission to play. She saw potential in McKee, and started running around the house for items to dress her daughter up like Rosa Parks. She recorded McKee reciting the words again and posted the video for family and friends. That first post White made of McKee went viral. McKee’s success quickly became a family affair. McKee may be the star, but big sister A’Blesyn Davis is the magic behind the camera who films, directs and edits the videos. Mama White gathers the wardrobe and chooses the scenes. Collectively, the trio calls themselves The Big Three as a nod to their hometown’s automotive legacy. Since then, McKee and her family have posted more than 100 videos on her Instagram Go Rosie Grow and many of them have received star-studded attention for her impersonations of famous Black actresses, politicians, singers and other icons in honor of Black History Month. McKee makes sure to have fun with it. Her sparkly dress and long wavy tresses swayed as she reenacted Diana Ross. She brought the sass when she educated viewers about the accolades of Stacey Abrams and Good Morning America anchor Robin Roberts.She exuded soulful, spiritual vibes while impersonating Erykah Badu, or as McKee called her Erykah BaDOULA in a nod to the singer’s dedication to help Black women safely bring life into the world. No matter who she is portraying, the videos are a fun way to commemorate an important time of year for McKee. “The Black History Month magic is that you can do anything you put your mind to,” McKee said. Rosie McKee attends the World Premiere of Warner Bros.' "The Color Purple" at Academy Museum of Motion Pictures on December 06, 2023 in Los Angeles, California.Getty Images As for White, the opportunity to play with her child gives her a chance to portray Blackness from a positive lens. “When I was growing up at Rosie’s age, Black history was kind of intimidating because it was always about the slaves getting beaten,” White said. “So my version of teaching her Black history is about success to let her know that whatever she wants to be she can be because Black is it.” Celebrities quickly started to notice McKee’s knack for acting. Roberts shared McKee’s skit on her Instagram story with a message saying, “Have you seen my mini-me?” Badu invited McKee and her family to a concert on her dime. One of McKee’s favorite celebrities, Whoopi Goldberg, not only gave her a personal video shoutout, but she also gifted McKee a case of books. Actress and author Viola Davis is a follower of her account. Rosie even got praise from the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Tina Turner. “Wow! Look at this talented girl,” Turner said in an Instagram post two years before her passing. “You are fantastic. Go for your dreams. Big hugs, Tina.” McKee’s love for singer and actress Halle Bailey is what inspired the skit that made Winfrey proud. This past summer, White took McKee to see the live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” to see Bailey frolic in the sea as Ariel in the Disney film. McKee’s face lit up when she recognized Bailey in “The Color Purple” trailer. That’s when White knew they had to try out the Thanksgiving dinner scene from “The Color Purple” for their followers to enjoy. McKee’s skit has since received almost 4 million views on Instagram. The comments were overflowing with compliments, calling McKee’s work Oscar-worthy and their favorite rendition of the scene. One commenter tagged filmmaker and actor Tyler Perry telling him they found his next star. Then Winfrey entered the comments giving McKee a “Standing O” for her performance and insisted she be her guest for the premier. White was in disbelief until she saw the blue checkmark verifying Winfrey’s account. A call from Oprah Daily requesting a video call interview solidified the reality that Winfrey was interested in learning more about McKee. Oprah Daily told White that they were going to be interviewed along with multiple super fans of “The Color Purple.” So McKee and her mother arrived on the call dressed in all purple. White noticed only Oprah Daily’s associate producer Annastacia Gladston was on the screen. While the producer inquired about McKee’s love for the movie, White asked herself why she couldn’t see the rest of the fans chosen for this opportunity. The producer then asked if they had heard from Winfrey since she commented on the video. White said no, but they weren’t worried. They knew Winfrey would be true to her word. Winfrey considered that her cue to join the call and sang, “Oprah’s true to her word.” McKee and White’s jaws dropped when Winfrey’s face appeared on the screen. It was there that Winfrey extended a formal invitation for McKee and her family to join her for the premier – all expenses paid by Winfrey, of course. McKee deserved it. “I saw you, Miss Rosie, and all of your wonderful portrayals,” Oprah said. “The whole dinner table scene, which is the hardest scene in the movie to do.... When I did it years ago, it took us three days to do that scene—and you nailed it!” A few weeks, a shopping spree and a flight later, McKee, White and Davis were at the premier receiving so much love. Author and Black feminist Alice Walker, who won the Pulitzer Prize for writing “The Color Purple” book in 1982, hugged and stamped McKee’s head with forehead kisses as if she were her grandchild. Blitz Bazawule, director of the 2023 version of the film, high-fived McKee and repeated the comments he left on her video. “You are brilliant. You’re a genius,” Bazawule said. “And I meant what I said. I do want to work with you someday.” Oprah Winfrey and Rosie McKee at the premiere of "The Color Purple" held at The Academy Museum on December 6, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Variety via Getty Images)Variety via Getty Images McKee squealed when Halle Bailey complimented her sparkly purple jacket and layered tulle skirt, which was assembled by Detroit fashion designer Alexandra B. “Oh my God, I actually started crying when she came up to me,” McKee said. “It was the best moment ever. I got to meet my favorite favorite celebrity.” McKee’s older sister Davis stumbled over her words when actress and singer Amber Riley spoke to her as if she was a friend. Being among the energy of such powerful celebrities encouraged Davis to keep pushing for her dreams to be a filmmaker. “It felt really comfortable,” Davis said while holding back tears. “I still felt starstruck, but at the same time seeing everybody there and how it feels to be there made me want to be there but not as a guest but because I invited you here because it is my movie.” White was expecting a more uppity vibe from Hollywood. But “The Color Purple” cast gave McKee the family treatment by filling her spirit with affirmations: “You’re so precious,” singer and actress Fantasia Barrino said. “You’re special.” “You’re so talented,” actress Danielle Brooks said. “You’re such a princess,” actress Phylicia Pearl Mpasi said. “I’m so happy you’re here.” The whole occasion still feels like a fever dream to White and her family. But they are trying to stay focused and keep up with the tidal wave of popularity Winfrey created for them. McKee’s Instagram following skyrocketed from 30,000 in September to more than 97,800 as of Thursday. White said the family is hoping that someone will invest in their work by providing better studio-quality equipment. White is overwhelmed with pride thinking about how far they’ve come as a family. “This taught me you never know who is watching,” White said. “Prior to this, we were making videos for family fun because we noticed Rosie’s talent early on…We weren’t doing this for Rosie to get roles or to get picked up on movie screens or even make movies. This was something we enjoyed doing and to help her to be more confident about what we saw in her early in life.” The comment White sees the most on McKee’s Instagram videos come from people who believe their lives would be different if they’d had a mother like White who spoke life into their dreams instead of fear. White said it’s a common issue she sees with parents – and it is a problem that should end. “Instead of telling your kids to sit down when they’re dancing too much or hush up when they’re singing too loud or ‘don’t do that’ when they’re drawing, nourish that because you never know what’s growing inside of them,” White said. Be sure to keep an eye on the Go Rosie Grow Instagram account for this year’s Black History month videos from the family.

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All of Us Strangers: Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott play two Londoners alone, together, in haunting tale

Director Andrew Haigh’s camera lingers on that closed door for a moment, allowing us to contemplate whether it will reopen. It doesn’t, and there’s a sense of regret on Adam’s part. Until the interruption, he’d been puttering around his apartment, putting off working on his latest screenplay. Loneliness hangs on his countenance, highlighted by the surreal glow emanating from his apartment windows and the oddness of living in a high-rise with only two residents. Adam (Andrew Scott) is a gay screenwriter living in what appears to be an empty apartment complex in London. The plot of “All of Us Strangers” begins with a knock at his door. It’s Harry (Paul Mescal, memorable as always), the building’s only other resident. He’s tipsy, thanks to the half-empty bottle of booze in his fist. He’s also quite flirtatious, offering Adam a swig of his liquor and a bout of casual sex. Stunned, Adam declines and closes the door on him. A mild sense of unease permeates these early scenes, though it’s not due to Harry’s appearance. I thought that Adam closing the door on Harry felt more like an involuntary reflex than a thought-out decision. Growing up in the AIDS era has made Adam more cautious, a fact he will discuss with the much younger Harry once they meet again and start a halting and tender romance. Advertisement Paul Mescal in "All of Us Strangers." Searchlight Pictures Meanwhile, Adam occasionally takes the bus to his childhood home to visit his parents, played by Jamie Bell and Claire Foy. These scenes are shot in Haigh’s own childhood home, the first sign the director is working through some of his own feelings and memories. I should mention that Adam lost his parents in a car accident when he was 12. So, when he visits them, they haven’t aged; he’s now older than they are. Advertisement Are Mum and Dad ghosts? Figments of Adam’s imagination brought about by the unresolved shock of losing his parents at such a young age? Is Adam dead, or in some kind of limbo? “All of Us Strangers” provides no answers, and the ambiguous ending is divisive enough to sink the film for some viewers. You are on your own here, and it’s that freedom of interpretation and emotional response that makes the film so powerful and haunting. Haigh’s screenplay is an adaptation of Taichi Yamada’s 1987 novel, “Strangers,” which was made into the horror film “The Discarnates” by Japanese director Nobuhiko Ôbayashi. Note the genre of that film. “All of Us Strangers” isn’t a horror movie in a conventional sense — or maybe not at all, depending on your take — but this is your warning that the film has the power to stun, even shock. Jamie Bell and Claire Foy in "All of Us Strangers." Searchlight Pictures I’ve seen “The Discarnates,” which is as gloriously bonkers as Ôbayashi’s most famous movie, 1977′s ghost story “Hausu.” I’ve also read the English translation of the novel. So I walked into this movie with an idea of what I was going to see, which may have influenced my own interpretation. What weighed far more heavily on my thought process, however, is Haigh’s decision to replace the novel’s heterosexual hero with a gay one. Though the central question “All of Us Strangers” asks is universal — that is, what would a second chance to talk to someone who died feel like? And what would you tell them? — the material lends itself to being viewed through a queer lens. Adam’s journey will resonate strongly with LGBTQ+ audiences. I saw it as a metaphor for the closet, a forced trauma we can escape but never forget. Advertisement Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal in "All of Us Strangers." Parisa Taghizadeh/Searchlight Pictures Movies like Francis Ford Coppola’s “Peggy Sue Got Married” (1986) have addressed the notion of reconnecting with one’s past armed with knowledge obtained since then, but this is the first movie I can remember that does so from a gay perspective. For example, Adam never had the opportunity to come out to his parents. When he does, Mum reacts the way a Thatcher-era mother would. Watch how Scott plays this scene with Foy. You can see Adam regress to his 12-year-old self. When Mum says she worries his life will be lonely, Adam snaps back to the reality of his current existence, which, despite his new love interest, shows his mother’s words have a sting of truth to them. Scott is in almost every frame of this movie, and his work is Oscar-worthy. In his scenes with Foy and Bell (who are also excellent), he’s as joyous as he is melancholy. The conversations between Harry and Adam deftly navigate how different generations of gay men perceive themselves; they reminded me of the discussions between the lovers in Haigh’s “Weekend” (2011), another example of the director’s penchant for investigating the highs and lows of intimacy. Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott in "All of Us Strangers." Chris Harris/Searchlight Pictures Additionally, Haigh’s staging of the first meeting between Adam and his father plays as if Adam were cruising him; at the time, we don’t know their familial connection. On my second viewing, I noticed the physical similarities between Harry and Adam’s father, which makes sense. Conventional wisdom says that a straight man would go for someone who reminds him of his mother, so why wouldn’t a gay man favor a reminder of his father? Advertisement Another scene between father and son, beautifully played by Bell and Scott, ripped my heart out. Adam’s father tells him he wishes he had gone into his room to comfort him when he heard his son crying after being bullied at school. He also tells Adam that, had they been classmates, he probably would’ve been one of those mean kids tormenting him. When I attended a reception for this film that included Haigh, Scott, and Bell, I watched several of my gay colleagues approach Bell to tell him how that scene destroyed them. I told him that it got to me as well. Such is the power of “All of Us Strangers.” It’s simultaneously cathartic and heartbreaking. ★★★½ ALL OF US STRANGERS Written and directed by Andrew Haigh. Based on the book “Strangers” by Taichi Yamada. Starring Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, Claire Foy. At Coolidge Corner, AMC Boston Common. 105 minutes. R (sex, language, themes of suicide) Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.

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entertainment

Lee Sun-kyun, Parasite Actor, Found Dead at 48

Lee Sun-kyun, the award-winning South Korean actor who rose to international fame after starring in the Oscar-winning film “Parasite,” was found dead in Seoul on Wednesday. He was 48. Mr. Lee had recently been under police investigation on suspicion of illegal drug use, and he denied the accusations. The police said they were investigating the death as a suicide. The police found Mr. Lee’s body in a parked vehicle in central Seoul just before 11 a.m., said Jeon Yu-deung, the chief detective at Seongbuk police station, which is investigating his death. After Mr. Lee’s manager reported him missing earlier in the day, the police found his body using the location signal from his phone. Mr. Jeon said that Mr. Lee had also left what appeared to be a suicide note.

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politics

Teachers have been outed for posting on OnlyFans. Is that legal?

At a small rural Missouri high school, two English teachers shared a secret: Both were posting adult content on OnlyFans, the subscription-based website known for sexually explicit content. The site and others like it provide an opportunity for those willing to dabble in pornography to earn extra money — sometimes lots of it. The money is handy, especially in relatively low-paying fields like teaching, and many post the content anonymously while trying to maintain their day jobs. But some outed teachers, as well as people in other prominent fields such as law, have lost their jobs, raising questions about personal freedoms and how far employers can go to avoid stigma related to their employees’ after-hour activities. At St. Clair High School southwest of St. Louis, it all came crashing down this fall for 28-year-old Brianna Coppage and 31-year-old Megan Gaither. “You’re tainted and seen as a liability,” Gaither lamented on Facebook after she was suspended. Coppage resigned. The industry has seen a boom since the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is now believed 2 million to 3 million people produce content for subscriptions sites such as OnlyFans, Just for Fans and Clips4Sale, said Mike Stabile, spokesman for the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association for the adult entertainment industry. “I think that there was a time prior to the pandemic where the idea that someone might become a porn star was akin to saying that someone might be abducted by aliens,” Stabile said. “I think that what the pandemic and the sort of explosion of fan content showed was that a lot of people were open to doing it.” It frequently proves risky, though. A recent report from the trade association found 3 in 5 adult entertainment performers have experienced employment discrimination. The report, based on a survey of more than 600 people in the industry, said 64% of adult creators have no other significant source of income, while there were no details on the occupations of those who did. In St. Clair, Coppage was the first to be outed after someone posted a link to her OnlyFans account on a community Facebook group. Superintendent Kyle Kruse said Coppage was not asked to resign, but she did anyway. “I do not regret joining OnlyFans,” Coppage told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in September. “I know it can be taboo, or some people may believe that it is shameful, but I don’t think sex work has to be shameful. I do just wish things just happened in a different way.” Gaither, who also coached cheerleading, said she used her account to pay off student loans. She also was outed, although she wrote that she had an alias and did not show her face. Neither teacher responded to phone or email messages from The Associated Press seeking comment. But both women told other news outlets that their OnlyFans earnings soared from the publicity. Read more: Longmeadow preschool para fired after taking explicit OnlyFans photos in school The district said little, but parents and even some students voiced concerns. “As a society, if we’ve come to it to think that it’s OK for children to be seeing their teacher having sex, that’s outrageous,” said Kurt Moritz, the father of a 7-year-old boy in the district. “We shouldn’t be giving children an extra reason to fantasize over their teachers.” Moritz and a former student said they were particularly alarmed when Coppage did a YouTube interview with an adult content creator and said she would be willing to film with former students. Moritz said the remark went too far, and 17-year-old Claire Howard, who moved out of the district midway through last school-year, agreed. “That’s something that shouldn’t be sexualized,” Howard said. Whether fired adult content creators have a legal recourse is unclear. Employers have wide latitude to terminate employees. The question is whether firing people moonlighting in the adult entertainment industry has a disproportionate effect on women and LGBTQ+ people, said attorney Derek Demeri, an employment law expert in New Jersey. Both groups are protected, and data from the Free Speech Coalition shows they are the ones who overwhelming produce adult content, he noted. “If you have a policy that on its face is not about discrimination but ends up having a disparate impact on a protected community, now you’re crossing into territory that may be unlawful,” Demeri said, adding that this applies even in cases where the day job involves working with children. Attorney Gregory Locke, who was fired in March as a New York City administrative law judge after city officials learned about his OnlyFans account, was contacted by a handful of adult content creators who were terminated from their day jobs. He hasn’t yet sued but said he agrees with Demeri’s legal reasoning. Locke’s termination followed an online spat over drag queen story hours in which he used a profane remark in response to a councilmember who opposed the events. Locke, who is gay, said people need to stop treating sex work like such a big problem. “We’re a gig economy now and millennials have more student debt than we know what to do with,” he said. “There’s all sorts of reasons why people would reach out for outside income like sex work, like OnlyFans.” At least one lawsuit has been filed in a similar situation. Victoria Triece sued Orange County Public Schools in January, alleging she was banned from volunteering at her son’s Florida elementary school because she posts on OnlyFans. “When you start getting the moral police involved in it, where does it stop? At what point does the school have the right to intervene in one’s private life?” asked her attorney, Mark NeJame. In South Bend, Indiana, 42-year-old Sarah Seales said she was fired last year from her job teaching science to elementary school children through a Department of Defense youth program called STARBASE after she began posting on OnlyFans to make more money to support her twins. A Department of Defense spokesperson said it was inappropriate to comment on matters of pending litigation. Attorney Mark Nicholson, who specializes in revenge porn cases, interviewed Seales and hired her to work on his firm’s podcast. They ultimately decided against suing the blogger who drew attention to Seales’ side gig, he said. “If we pay our teachers as much as we pay athletes,” Nicholson said, “maybe she wouldn’t have had to open up an OnlyFans.”

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politics

Opinion | The Supreme Court Should Overturn the Colorado Ruling Unanimously

When Donald Trump appeals the Colorado decision disqualifying him from the ballot in that state’s Republican primary, the Supreme Court should overturn the ruling unanimously. Like many of my fellow liberals, I would love to live in a country where Americans had never elected Mr. Trump — let alone sided with him by the millions in his claims that he won an election he lost, and that he did nothing wrong afterward. But nobody lives in that America. For all the power the institution has arrogated, the Supreme Court cannot bring that fantasy into being. To bar Mr. Trump from the ballot now would be the wrong way to show him to the exits of the political system, after all these years of strife. Some aspects of American election law are perfectly clear — like the rule that prohibits candidates from becoming president before they turn 35 — but many others are invitations to judges to resolve uncertainty as they see fit, based in part on their own politics. Take Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which blocks insurrectionists from running for office, a provision originally aimed at former Confederates in the wake of the Civil War. There may well be some instances in which the very survival of a democratic regime is at stake if noxious candidates or parties are not banned, as in West Germany after World War II. But in this case, what Section 3 requires is far from straightforward. Keeping Mr. Trump off the ballot could put democracy at more risk rather than less. Part of the danger lies in the fact that what actually happened on Jan. 6 — and especially Mr. Trump’s exact role beyond months of election denial and entreaties to government officials to side with him — is still too broadly contested. The Colorado court deferred to a lower court on the facts, but it was a bench trial, meaning that no jury ever assessed what happened, and that many Americans still believe Mr. Trump did nothing wrong. A Supreme Court that affirms the Colorado ruling would have to succeed in constructing a consensual narrative where others — including armies of journalists, the Jan. 6 commission and recent indictments — have failed.

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politics

State closes overflow shelter. Homeless migrant families moving to Quincy

QUINCY − Homeless migrant families housed in downtown Boston are being moved to Eastern Nazarene College, according to officials. The overflow shelter at the state transportation building, which opened at 10 Park Plaza in mid-November after the state capped its emergency family shelter system at 7,500 families, has housed up to 25 families in conference rooms where they slept on cots, as reported by WCVB. Gov. Maura Healey's administration announced that the overnight shelter at 10 Park Plaza would close Friday and families will be transferred to the shelter at Eastern Nazarene College. At the Eastern Nazarene shelter, which opened in July, families can stay throughout the day rather than being limited to evenings and overnight hours, which was the case at the transportation building. The scale and nature of operations at Eastern Nazarene will not change, said Chris Walker, chief of staff to Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch, in a phone interview with The Patriot Ledger. "(There will be) no major change in the operation from how that facility has been running since day one," Walker said. "It's still temporary, it's still for high-priority folks. (There is) no alteration in the overall operation at ENC." Eastern Nazarene Vice President of Academic Affairs Bill McCoy also said there will be no dramatic changes. "The operational structure of our Family Welcome Center and temporary shelter ... has remained largely unchanged," he said in a statement. "Over the past four-plus months of the shelter's operations, we have seen the population ebb and flow due to a variety of factors. ... There have been times when the shelter has been near or at capacity, but the operation has proven well able to manage those shifts over time." Eastern Nazarene will now serve as overflow shelter for families on waiting list Kevin Connor, press secretary for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, said Eastern Nazarene hosts one of two family welcome centers in the state which have provided services to newly arriving families for the past several months. “(Eastern Nazarene) also had capacity for short-term stays for families who came to the welcome center, received services, but weren’t immediately placed into shelter because there are logistical challenges to placing people immediately.” More recently, the temporary shelter at Eastern Nazarene has served “high-priority” families on the state’s waitlist for placement in its emergency shelter system. Now, Connor said, Eastern Nazarene will “provide shelter to other families who are on the waitlist as well.” The state groups families into four categories of prioritization for placement, Connor said. Criteria for the highest prioritization group include vulnerability to domestic violence, health issues and the presence of very young children, ages 0 to 3. How long a family remains on the waiting list depends on its priority level and how quickly families currently in the shelter system can transition to permanent housing, Connor said. The temporary shelter and family welcome center at Eastern Nazarene The shelter at Eastern Nazarene, which can house up to 58 families, provides two distinct but related services. Operated by Bay State Community Services, the family welcome center provides families with a health screening and needs assessment, connecting them with other service providers. A temporary family emergency shelter run by AMI Expeditionary Healthcare, provides food, basic medical care and transportation while the families are on campus. In September, Secretary of Housing and Human Services Kathleen Walsh told a large group of Quincy residents assembled in a school auditorium that most families only remain on campus for five to seven days. With shelter system maxed out, families are staying in emergency rooms and at Logan Airport In a Thursday press briefing, Secretary of the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities Ed Augusts said that migrant families continue to arrive in Boston, though at a slightly slower pace than this summer and fall. "In terms of demand, it's going down a tiny bit," he said. "We haven't seen a drastic drop off." With state's shelter system overwhelmed, families have had to find other options. "A lot of families have been staying, sometimes at Logan, sometimes in some emergency rooms, but we've tried to create these overflow opportunities," Augustus said. "We're going to continue to work on that now that we have some additional dollars to do that with the supplemental funding. We're looking to expand those opportunities so that people aren't out on the street." Augustus was referring to $250 million for the emergency shelter system included in a long-stalled supplemental budget bill signed by Healey on Dec. 4. Thanks to our subscribers, who help make this coverage possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider supporting quality local journalism with a Patriot Ledger subscription. Here is our latest offer.

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politics

GoFundMe for family of dead Harvard staffer, wife of firefighter raises nearly $100K

A mother of three who lived in Hyde Park and staff member at Harvard University for 15 years died last week. A GoFundMe page created for her family has raised nearly $100,000 of its $150,000 goal since she died. “On Tuesday, December 12th, the Pease Family suffered the tragic loss of Katie, loving wife and mother of three,” the GoFundMe description reads. “The Pease Family have been instrumental in the lives of their families and friends, and have made a significant impact at Boston EMS, Harvard University, the Needham Fire Department, the Boy Scouts, and the Hyde Park community.” As of Monday at 9 a.m., nearly $97,000 had been raised through more than 700 donations. The money raised will be used for Christmas gifts for the children, funeral costs and ongoing family expenses, the GoFundMe description read. Katharine Pease was the wife of Needham firefighter Gregory Pease. Her children are 9, 7, and 3 years old, according to her obituary. Pease was born in Boston and grew up in Wellesley, according to her obituary. She earned a bachelor of science from UMass Amherst, majority in environmental studies and minoring in computer science. She worked at Harvard and was most recently the associate director for university leasing and space planning, her obituary said. Her passions included travel and the outdoors — and especially scuba diving. “Kate and Greg have been married for 10 plus years,” Pease’s obituary read. “Theirs has been a beautiful and loving marriage. They coached sports teams, drove to many dance lessons, horseback riding lessons, spent many hours at ice rinks, traveled to scuba destinations and participated in scouting.”

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politics

Biden wasnt aware for days that Defense Secretary Austin was hospitalized

CNN — President Joe Biden was not aware for days that Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was hospitalized, a source familiar with the matter told CNN. National security adviser Jake Sullivan ultimately informed Biden late Thursday afternoon, soon after Sullivan himself learned that Austin had been hospitalized, that source said. Austin was admitted to the hospital on New Year’s Day due to complications from an elective surgery. The Pentagon announced the hospitalization Friday. Austin issued his first statement Saturday, five days after being admitted to the hospital, saying he could have done a “better job” of notifying the public. Austin offered no details about his condition, nor did he say exactly why he was hospitalized on January 1. As of Saturday evening, he remained in the hospital, according to a defense official. On Saturday evening, Austin thanked the “amazing” staff at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center for the care he has received and said he is “on the mend” and looking forward to returning to the Pentagon. He acknowledged “media concerns about transparency” and said “I commit to doing better” in the statement, which totaled seven sentences. But he did not apologize for failing to notify the public or the press in a timely fashion. Senior administration and military officials who are hospitalized normally put out a statement within 24 hours. Senior administration officials said they were shocked to learn of Austin’s hospitalization and the delay in informing the White House. The overriding reaction has been one of concern for the well-being of Austin, who is generally well-liked within the White House. Still, officials acknowledged the situation was highly unusual and were surprised at the delay in informing the president and senior National Security Council leadership. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks periodically assumed the duties of the defense secretary while she was on vacation in Puerto Rico during the time Austin was hospitalized, two US officials said. Hicks had arrived in Puerto Rico prior to Austin’s hospitalization. Austin has since reassumed his full duties. The congressional oversight committees were not notified of Austin’s hospitalization until Friday night, according to three congressional aides familiar with the matter. Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, said Friday evening that Austin was “recovering well.” NBC and Politico were first to report some of the details. This story has been updated with additional information.

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politics

When Will New York Solve Its Housing Crisis? Probably Not This Year.

It seemed like 2023 would be the year New York did something big to help solve its housing crisis. As skyrocketing rents punished residents, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party rallied around new safeguards for tenants. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a centrist Democrat, vowed to build more homes in the suburbs. The real estate industry seemed open to revamping a coveted tax break for developers in ways that would make new apartments more affordable to rent. Instead, lawmakers went home without doing much at all. Now, state leaders will get another try. The 2024 legislative session, set to begin on Wednesday, will again test New York State’s willingness to tackle one of its most debilitating problems. The context this year is in some ways worse than it was in 2023. A surge of migrants arriving in New York City has overwhelmed its homeless shelter system. High interest rates and the expiration of the tax break, known as 421a, have slowed apartment construction to a trickle, threatening to deepen the city’s housing shortage. Rents and home prices remain among the highest in the nation, straining everyday life for the lowest-income New Yorkers and driving the middle class away in droves. Yet interviews with state and city officials, housing experts and advocates suggest the chances of a major deal in Albany are mixed at best.

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politics

White House staff 'relocated' after pro-Palestinian rioters damage anti-scale fencing, hurl objects at cops

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. Anti-Israel protesters and rioters gathered outside the White House on Saturday night, with some demonstrators damaging security fencing and hurling objects at police. The demonstrators were heard chanting "Ceasefire Now" and "Free, Free Palestine," with many waving Palestinian flags. "Yemen, Yemen make us proud / Turn another ship around," was also recited at the demonstration, hours after strikes were launched against the Houthis in Yemen. The U.S. Secret Service told Fox News Digital that some fences were damaged outside the White House, and that staff members and journalists were "relocated" as a result. "During the demonstration near the White House complex Jan. 13, a portion of the anti-scale fencing that was erected for the event sustained temporary damage," the statement read. "The issues were promptly repaired on site by U.S. Secret Service support teams." PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTERS SHOUT ‘ALLAHU AKBAR’ OUTSIDE WORLD TRADE CENTER SITE "As a precaution, some members of the media and staff in proximity to Pennsylvania Avenue were temporarily relocated while the issue was being addressed," the statement continued. "The Secret Service made no arrests associated with the march and there was no property damage to the White House or adjacent buildings." Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela A. Smith blasted illegal behavior from protesters in a press release on Saturday night. "The right to peacefully protest is one of the cornerstones of our democracy, and the Metropolitan Police Department has long supported those who visit our city to demonstrate safely," Smith's statement read. "However, violence, destructive behavior, and criminal activities are not tolerated." PRO-PALESTINIAN CARAVAN SNARLS NEW YORK TRAFFIC AROUND JFK, LAGUARDIA AIRPORT The police chief added that some officers were assaulted by the demonstrators in Lafayette Park. "While a majority of today’s demonstration remained peaceful, there were instances of illegal and destructive behavior in Lafayette Park, including items being thrown at our officers," Smith explained. "We are supporting our partners at the United States Park Police as they investigate and hold those found responsible accountable for their actions." CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

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Lawyer Tapped to Prosecute Trump in Georgia Is Now Under Scrutiny Himself

The papers did not include any proof of the relationship between the two prosecutors, but said that they had been seen “in a personal relationship capacity” around Atlanta and that people close to both prosecutors had confirmed their relationship. Mr. Wade was appointed by Ms. Willis on Nov. 1, 2021, to lead the investigation into Mr. Trump’s and others’ efforts to overturn his election loss in Georgia. A day later, he filed for divorce from his wife of 24 years. Many documents in Mr. Wade’s divorce case are sealed. But the available documents show that a judge cited him for contempt in August, saying he had not provided certain information during the discovery process despite being ordered to do so. Mr. Wade’s wife, Joycelyn Wade, has asked the court to order Mr. Wade to give her money, for legal and other expenses, while the divorce case proceeds. She has also accused him of withholding information about his finances. This week, lawyers for Ms. Wade subpoenaed Ms. Willis to answer questions under oath in the divorce case. It is unclear if she will do so or what she would be asked. Neither Ms. Willis nor Mr. Wade has responded to the allegations. A spokesman for Ms. Willis has said only that her office would respond in court. The allegations form the basis of a motion by Ms. Merchant to have the charges against her client thrown out, something that legal experts have said is unlikely.

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politics

Claudine Gay resignation provokes strong reactions from critics and supporters

Lawrence Bacow, who served as president of Harvard from 2018 until Gay succeeded him in July, described her as “a person of great intellect, integrity, vision and strength. She had much to contribute not just to Harvard, but to all of higher education. I regret that she will not have that opportunity.” Critics cheered Claudine Gay’s resignation as Harvard University’s president Tuesday amid allegations of plagiarism and her equivocal answers to a congressional committee on campus antisemitism, while supporters of the Ivy League school’s first Black leader said they were saddened to see her step down. Advertisement By contrast, Representative Elise Stefanik, a New York Republican, appeared to see Gay’s resignation as a personal victory. “I will always deliver results,” tweeted Stefanik, a Harvard graduate whose questioning last month of Gay and the leaders of the University of Pennsylvania and MIT produced awkward exchanges, with the campus leaders offering legalistic responses about whether calls for the genocide of Jews violated their schools’ codes of conduct. “The resignation of Harvard’s antisemitic plagiarist president is long overdue,” Stefanik wrote. “Claudine Gay’s morally bankrupt answers to my questions made history as the most viewed Congressional testimony in the history of the U.S. Congress.” Stefanik’s words were echoed by fellow Harvard graduate Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate for this year’s Republican presidential nomination. He wrote on X that Gay’s resignation was “better late than never” and claimed that her selection as president in December 2022 was a “thinly veiled exercise in race & gender.” But Gay’s supporters, including Joseph Rezek, an English professor at Boston University, were vocal in their disappointment over her resignation. “Terrifying and horrible what the right-wing mob did to Claudine Gay,” Rezek wrote on X in a post that was later deleted. “These words in her resignation letter are chosen carefully, she faced ‘personal attacks and threats’ — she doesn’t deserve any of this. It’s a dark day that will reverberate in our profession.” Advertisement Harvard Law School graduate Keith Boykin, an author and former aide in the Clinton White House who co-founded the National Black Justice Coalition, wrote on X that he felt Gay was being treated unjustly. “Conservatives will use Claudine Gay’s resignation at Harvard to launch new racist attacks on affirmative action and DEI,” Boykin wrote, using the acronym for “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” “But when white men face controversy, the same conservatives don’t attribute failure to the person’s race or gender.” He said scrutiny of academics’ past scholarly work shouldn’t be limited to Gay. “If we’re going to start scrutinizing every detail of college presidents’ past writings for technical attribution issues, then let’s do it,” Boykin wrote. “Let’s go look at everyone’s past writings, not just Claudine Gay at Harvard. Let’s put them all under a microscope and see how they hold up.” The allegations of plagiarism spanned Gay’s doctoral dissertation and later academic papers, with reports from the conservative Washington Free Beacon flagging dozens of instances in which she appeared to closely copy passages from other scholars without proper attribution. Harvard officials have said they became aware in late October of “allegations regarding three articles” by Gay. An independent review found “no violation of Harvard’s standards for research misconduct,” but revealed “a few instances of inadequate citation,” officials have said. Gay was requesting four corrections to two of her academic articles “to insert citations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications,” officials said last month. Advertisement On Dec. 19, the Free Beacon reported that a 37-page anonymous complaint had been submitted to a Harvard research integrity officer. Harvard acknowledged receipt of the complaint, which described dozens of instances of alleged plagiarism in Gay’s academic publications, including peer-reviewed articles and her dissertation. In a three-page summary released to the Globe on Dec. 20, Harvard said a recent review had discovered additional “examples of duplicative language without appropriate attribution” in Gay’s dissertation, “Taking Charge: Black Electoral Success and the Redefinition of American Politics,” which she completed in Harvard’s government department. “President Gay will update her dissertation correcting these instances of inadequate citation,” the summary said. Harvard said the anonymous complaint included “allegations of plagiarism by Gay that were previously reviewed by the subcommittee of the [Harvard] Corporation” and an independent panel, as well as four new allegations the subcommittee had found to be without merit. “The Corporation concluded that Gay’s inadequate citations” in her dissertation and published works “did not constitute research misconduct,” the summary said. Rabbi Shmuel Reichman, a Harvard graduate and author, said Gay’s resignation was welcome news to him and all “of my Jewish colleagues who have attended Harvard as well.” Whether “it was the blatant antisemitism, the endless plagiarism, or any of the other countless issues involved, one thing is clear: Moral clarity for the win!” he wrote on social media. Advertisement But where Reichman saw moral clarity, some of Gay’s supporters, including Janai Nelson, president and director counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, saw moral posturing designed to “foment” hatred. “Attacks against Claudine Gay have been unrelenting & the biases unmasked,” Nelson said. “Her resignation on the heels of Liz Magill’s [at UPenn] set dangerous precedent in the academy for political witch hunts. The project isn’t to thwart hate but to foment it thru vicious takedowns. This protects no one.” Don Moynihan, a policy professor at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy, wrote that attacks against Gay were fueled by opposition to efforts to diversify academia. “The campaign to remove Gay was about opposition to DEI, not academic misconduct, and depended upon the participation of media like the NY Times to keep treating it as a national story until her position was no longer tenable,” Moynihan wrote on X. Not so, according to Representative John James, a Michigan Republican who also questioned Gay and the other university presidents on Dec. 5. “The news of Claudine Gay’s resignation as Harvard’s President comes after I questioned her just last month about what actions she’d take to combat anti-semitism,” James wrote on X. “Her failure to address this matter is the reason I welcome the news that she has resigned.” Author and scholar Ibram X. Kendi, the director of Boston University’s Center for Antiracist Research, wrote on X that Gay’s resignation was prompted by the work of “racist mobs.” Advertisement “Racist mobs won’t stop until they topple all Black people from positions of power and influence who are not reinforcing the structure of racism,” said Kendi, who has faced scrutiny for the financial management of his center after laying off more than half the staff in the fall; an internal audit found no evidence of financial mismanagement. “What these racist mobs are doing should be obvious to any reporter who cares about truth or justice as opposed to conflicts and clicks,” Kendi wrote. Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report, and Hilary Burns, Shannon Larson, and Jenna Reyes of the Globe Staff contributed. This breaking news story will be updated. Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.

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politics

U.S.-Led Strikes Spark Outrage in Middle East

Many in the Middle East, including some U.S. allies, condemned the American-led airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Friday and warned that they risked causing a broader conflict in the region. The strikes came after a series of Houthi attacks against ships in the Red Sea. The Houthis have said they are targeting Israeli ships and vessels headed to Israel in an effort to support Palestinians in Gaza, who have been under relentless Israeli bombardment for nearly 100 days, although some Houthi targets have had no clear connection to Israel. Israel’s military offensive in Gaza since Oct. 7 has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians, according to the Gazan Health Ministry. The Israeli war came in response to the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, the armed group that controls Gaza, that left some 1,200 people dead, according to Israeli officials. A Houthi spokesman, Mohammed Abdul Salam, said on social media that the group would remain by Gaza’s side. He said there was no justification for the strikes on Yemen because its actions do not threaten international shipping, and vowed that the group would continue to target Israeli ships and those heading to Israel. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Mr. Abdul Salam signaled that Houthi forces would retaliate for the U.S. strikes, saying, “Now, the response no doubt is going to be wider.” Hamas and Hezbollah, which like the Houthis are backed by Iran, also condemned the strikes. Hamas called them an “act of terrorism,” a violation of Yemens sovereignty and “a threat to the security of the region.” Nasser Kanani, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, denounced the strikes as “a violation of international laws” and said they “will have no result other than fueling insecurity and instability in the region.” Even close U.S. ally Oman, which often mediates between the Houthis and international parties, expressed concern, a reflection of the fear that the American-led action would not deter the Houthis but would only inflame regional conflict. “It is impossible not to denounce that an allied country resorted to this military action, while meanwhile, Israel is continuing to exceed all bounds in its bombardment, brutal war and siege on Gaza without any consequence,” Oman’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. In Bahrain, another U.S. ally, people took to the streets on Friday to protest their country’s involvement in the military coalition, according to Bahraini activists who shared pictures of the demonstrations. Amid popular anger over its participation in the coalition, the Bahraini government has not independently acknowledged its role, but was named in the joint statement announcing the strikes. Vivian Nereim and Leily Nikounazar contributed reporting.

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Ukraine Targets Russian Oil Plants, Aiming to Disrupt Military Operations

Ukraine hit an oil depot in Russia in a drone attack on Friday, officials on both sides said, the latest in a series of recent assaults targeting Russian oil facilities as Kyiv increasingly seeks to strike critical infrastructure behind Russian lines. Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of the Russian region of Bryansk, which borders Ukraine, said oil tanks in the town of Klintsy had caught fire after a drone dropped munitions on the depot. The drone, he added, was brought down by electronic jamming. A Ukrainian intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military matters, said Ukraine was behind the assault. Friday’s attack was the fourth on a Russian oil facility in the past three weeks, in what experts say is an effort by Ukraine to deliver setbacks to Russia’s military capabilities by targeting the facilities that supply fuel to tanks, fighter jets and other critical military equipment. “Strikes on oil depots and oil storage facilities disrupt logistics routes and slow down combat operations,” said Olena Lapenko, an energy security expert at DiXi Group, a Ukrainian think tank. “Disruption of these supplies, which are like blood for the human body, is part of a wider strategy to counter Russia on the battlefield.”

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What you need to know about the MBTA Green, Orange Line closures

Much of the MBTA’s Green Line, as well as one Orange Line station, closed Monday. Here’s a rundown of these service changes. Full Green Line closures From Nov. 27 to Dec. 3, Green Line service will be suspended on the B branch between North Station and Babcock Street, on the C and D branches between North Station and Kenmore, and on the E branch between North Station and Heath Street Station. On Dec. 4 and 5, these closures will extend to Lechmere. During the closures, shuttle buses will be available from Babcock Street to Copley on the B branch and from Kenmore to Copley on the C and D branches. From Copley, the MBTA suggests, riders can walk to Back Bay Station to access the rest of Boston. Additionally, B branch riders can take the 57 bus between Kenmore and Babcock streets. During the closure, the MBTA recommends that E branch riders use the 39 bus route, which begins at Heath Street and runs along Huntington Avenue to Back Bay Station. They can then travel to the rest of Boston from Back Bay via the Orange Line. The 39 and 57 bus routes, as well as the Commuter Rail between South Station, Back Bay and Landsdowne, will be free during the closures. According to the MBTA, the closures will allow repairs at Boylston, track reconstruction throughout the line, and will allow for the eventual removal of a speed restriction on Commonwealth Avenue in Allston. Other current closures From Nov. 27 to Dec. 16, Orange Line trains will bypass Haymarket Station to allow for more work to be done on the Government Center Garage demolition project. The MBTA advises riders who regularly use the station get on and off at State or North Station instead. From Nov. 27 to Dec. 10, trains on both Green Line Extension branches will stop running from approximately 8:45 p.m. through the end of the day. Shuttle buses will replace trains from North Station to Medford/Tufts, and on Dec. 4 and 5, they will replace trains from North Station to Lechmere all day. Read More: Springfield factory repairs MBTA rift with deliveries of Orange and Red line cars The MBTA recommends riders trying to get to Union Square take bus routes 86, 87, 91 or CT2. Upcoming closures The Commuter Rail’s Newburyport-Rockport Line will close from Dec. 2 to 10, with trains being replaced by shuttle buses. Additionally, there will be no service to River Works or Chelsea stations. The MBTA recommends riders who normally get on and off at Chelsea use the Silver Line 3 route to get to and from Boston. This closure will allow crews to install Automatic Train Control systems, the MBTA said. These are federally-mandated safety systems that send signals to trains about unsafe conditions and can automatically slow or stop a train if necessary. Shuttle buses will also replace Green Line D branch trains between Kenmore and Riverside stations all day from Dec. 11 to 20. According to the MBTA, this will allow them to remove speed restrictions on the branch. Riders can keep up-to-date with the latest MBTA service changes and closures by visiting mbta.com/alerts.

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Iowa caucuses: Trump wins Iowa, with DeSantis holding second

Three years after Trump lost reelection to President Biden, touching off a turbulent period in which he sought to overturn the 2020 election, was widely blamed for his party’s underperformance in the 2022 midterms, and then was indicted four times, his win in conservative Iowa is concrete — if unsurprising — evidence of his dominance of the GOP base that seems intent on making him his party’s presidential nominee. DES MOINES, Iowa — Former president Donald J. Trump claimed his crown in Iowa on Monday night, with early returns showing about half of the voters who trudged to their caucus sites in frigid weather had handed him his first victory of a campaign with no historic parallel. Advertisement In the closely watch contest, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida muscled his way to a second-place finish, according to the Associated Press, a result that may give a second wind to his fledgling campaign and could blunt the momentum of former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who has climbed the polls here in recent weeks. With 95 percent of the vote in late Monday, DeSantis had 21 percent to Haley’s 19 percent. Get Today in Politics A digest of the top political stories from the Globe, sent to your inbox Monday-Friday. Enter Email Sign Up But neither came anywhere near Trump’s decisive lead — a fact the former president seemed to acknowledge in his victory speech. ”I want to congratulate Ron and Nikki for having a good time together,” Trump said. Haley is expected to make a stronger showing next week in moderate New Hampshire, raising the possibility that the first two states will deliver a split verdict on the top alternative to Trump and further muddle the effort to defeat him. Overall, the turnout was low, with less than 100,000 ballots counted as of late Monday night. In Iowa, the conversation around the Republican field has turned less on policy disagreement or substance than on the outsize presence of Trump. Once seen as vulnerable to younger figures including DeSantis, Trump has used his indictments to stoke grievance among Republican voters who have rallied to his side. His campaign, which has almost completely eschewed the retail politics that used to lift candidates in sparsely populated states like this one, has told a story of victimhood and retribution that captivated his base. Advertisement “Remember, I think MAGA is almost ALL of the Republican Party,” he bragged Monday on his social media website, TruthSocial. “The days of the RINOS and non-AMERICA FIRST candidates are OVER!” All of the candidates — including lower-polling contenders entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson — have been skating across this state in the closing days of a contest whose main uncertainties have come from the weather. By Monday night, Ramaswamy had dropped out, having garnered about 7 percent of the vote. The temperatures dipped perilously low Monday night, with voters braving minus 10 degrees as they ventured to high school gyms, churches, and civic centers to hold their caucus. The treacherous cold followed the second-snowiest week in Iowa’s recorded history, with some 22 inches falling between Monday and Friday in Des Moines. In recent days, the weather has forced campaigns to cancel events, left operatives to obsess over how to get their voters to the polls in dangerous conditions — and injected more unpredictability over the question of who will emerge as number two. Advertisement DeSantis, who seemed like a fearsome potential candidate after his landslide reelection in 2022 but wobbled under national scrutiny, has visited every one of Iowa’s 99 counties in an effort to depict himself as a tenacious and effective heir to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement. His allies have long touted their expansive, and expensive, ground game, an operation that included organizers at precincts wearing orange hats and T-shirts, and may have help him hold his lead over the less-organized Haley effort. DeSantis’ second-place finish here could help him compete with Trump in the conservative states, including South Carolina, that pave the way toward Super Tuesday on March 5. Haley, a former Tea Party up-and-comer in South Carolina politics who served in Trump’s administration as the ambassador to the United Nations, has positioned herself as something of a moderate in a party changing around her. Iowa has never been central to her campaign strategy. Her support appeared to have grown here in recent weeks, with a highly respected weekend poll from the Des Moines Register/ NBC News/Mediacom showing her with a narrow lead over DeSantis. It is not clear where either alternative could actually beat Trump, however, when his hold on the base is so strong. Trump’s looming criminal trials, however, will add an extra layer of unpredictability to the contest that could encourage both of the southerners to stay in the race. On Monday, both Haley and DeSantis hit the road to to make their final appeals to voters, with DeSantis lashing out sharply at both Haley and Trump. Advertisement “They threw everything but the kitchen sink at us,” DeSantis said Monday night, shortly after his second place result was called. “We got our ticket punched out of Iowa.” Haley, who largely avoids commenting on her rivals except to say that she would be a stronger general election candidate, held classic retail stops across the state. And a revolving cast menagerie of Trump surrogates — including Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Matt Gaetz of Florida — were posting videos from snow banks or phone banks encouraging people to vote. The Iowa caucuses are generally a low-turnout affair. In 2016, 187,000 people participated — less than a third of eligible voters. But in the lead-up to Monday, supporters of all of the candidates insisted the cold would not keep them away. Indeed, the parking lot of the Christian Life Center at Ankeny First United Methodist Church was ringed with snowbanks and choked with cars well before the caucus kicked off at 7pm. It was 7 degrees below zero, with a wind chill of minus 28. Just the walk from the parking lot to the front doors left people’s cheeks and foreheads in agony. Trump won 80 votes here, while Haley and DeSantis practically tied with 59 and 58 votes, respectively. The easy Trump win, in a precinct of a well-heeled Des Moines suburb, helps to explain how he has taken over his party. Janet Tracy, a travel agent wrapped up in a scarf and heavy coat, made her way inside and tried to shake off the cold. She had considered voting for DeSantis, she said, but ultimately decided to back Trump, as she had in 2016 and 2020. Advertisement “You have to look past the stuff, you have to look past the tweets in the old days, and you have to look past the grumpiness sometimes,” she said. “We need to get past what things were like under him.” Brian Glanz, a banker, said he was likely to vote for Trump, although he did have one reservation. “The only problem I have with Trump is that probably 30 percent of the people in the nation won’t vote for him right off the bat because of the negative press,” Glanz said. That had led him to consider supporting Ramaswamy. “He doesn’t have the negative connotation yet, but I’m sure you guys will work on that if he does start making progress,” he said. Even some voters who chose other candidates were anticipating victory for Trump. Tim McGrath, 62, who works in sales, said he planned to back DeSantis because he liked the policies he has pursued in Florida. “I think he’s got a calmer head than Trump does … less drama,” McGrath said. “But do I think he’s going to win? No.” But others were eager to move on. Mitch and Teresa Dawson, 66 and 62, said they had both supported Haley after twice backing Trump. “I could not at this point in my life vote for him again — he’s not electable, he has a tendency of trying to run people down,” Mitch Dawson, who recently retired after a career in agriculture, said. “What I want to see is somebody who can work across aisles.” “She would be a whole lot less chaotic than some of the other ones,” Teresa said. Lissandra Villa de Petrzelka of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Jess Bidgood can be reached at Jess.Bidgood@globe.com. Follow her @jessbidgood.

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A plane flying over Harvards campus pulled banner that said Harvard Hates Jews with Palestinian flag

The Globe could not immediately confirm who organized or funded the plane, nor who sent the release. Harvard did not respond to a request for comment. A news release shared with the Globe on Thursday morning said the plane would “circle the college’s campus over the next few days,” to condemn and respond to “runaway antisemitism” on Harvard’s campus, including “shocking support for Hamas terrorism,” since the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel. CAMBRIDGE — On a cold afternoon in Harvard Square, people stopped what they were doing to look at a low-flying plane dragging a banner that read, “Harvard Hates Jews,” with a Palestinian flag. Advertisement The plane circled Harvard two days after the university’s president, Claudine Gay, and the presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, testified before a Republican-led congressional committee about a purported rise of antisemitism on their campuses. Some of their remarks provoked denunciations and calls for their resignations, including one controversial exchange with Representative Elise Stefanik in which the three presidents said that calls for genocide of Jews would not necessarily violate their schools’ rules. Gay and UPenn president Liz Magill later expanded on their remarks. The news release about the plane mentioned the controversial testimony. “This rise of antisemitism has been either ignored or even endorsed by the universities’ leaderships, as was witnessed at the Congressional hearing held on December 5th,” the release said. The release said the plane is dragging a Palestinian flag because it “has become the symbol of . . . violent Jew hatred in America.” It also said the plane will visit other “Ivy League campuses.” Nick Kowalske, a Harvard junior, saw the plane pulling the banner as he walked through a campus gate into Harvard Square. “I think describing opposition to settler colonialism as antisemitism is dangerous and wrong,” he said, while wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional Palestinian scarf. “I think people need to recognize that you can stand with the Jewish people while opposing actions by the Israeli government that are in violation of international law.” Advertisement A young woman who identified herself as a Harvard student stopped to take a photograph of the airplane as it flew over Cambridge Common. “It’s very disrespectful to associate the Palestinian flag with hate,” she said. “Supporting Palestinians does not equal hating Jews.” (She declined to give her name.) A plane pulled this banner over Harvard's campus on Thursday. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff A nearby street pole was covered with flyers, including a “Kidnapped” poster referring to hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, which was ripped in half. Another flyer, labeled with the logo of a group called Harvard MIT UPenn Jews for Palestine, said that criticism of Israel does not equal antisemitism. A middle-aged man with a megaphone in front of the university’s Science Center ranted about hedge fund billionaire and Harvard alum Bill Ackman, who called for Gay’s resignation earlier this week. For some, the plane brought to mind an October stunt by a conservative group that sent trucks to Harvard Square plastered with the photos and names of students believed to be involved with pro-Palestinian advocacy. “Harassment of college students is not helpful to either side and it needs to stop,” Kowalske said. The plane circled Harvard at a time of elevated campus tensions over the Israel-Hamas war. Reports of antisemitism and Islamophobia have been on the rise since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack in Israel, which killed around 1,200 people, mostly civilians. Campus protests have intensified in recent weeks as Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip have killed more than 16,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian authorities. Advertisement Twenty-three Harvard students are facing disciplinary action for behavior related to campus tensions over the Israel-Hamas war, according to a Harvard spokesperson. The controversies at Harvard began on Oct. 7 when the Palestine Solidarity Committee, a student group, issued a statement blaming Israel for “all unfolding violence.” Critics saw the statement as justifying Hamas’s attack. The PSC said it was meant to put the attack in the context of a long-running conflict. On Thursday, the PSC posted on social media: “We reject the racist weaponization of the Palestinian flag to create hate and fear on Harvard’s campus.” At the Tuesday congressional hearing, Stefanik, a New York Republican, asked Gay: “Dr. Gay, at Harvard, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard’s rules of bullying and harassment, yes or no?” Gay answered: “It can be, depending on the context.” She added that such speech would violate Harvard’s policies if it was “targeted at an individual.” On Wednesday, she issued a statement expanding on her remarks. “There are some who have confused a right to free expression with the idea that Harvard will condone calls for violence against Jewish students,” she said. “Let me be clear: Calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community, or any religious or ethnic group are vile, they have no place at Harvard, and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account.” Advertisement The Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce, which held Tuesday’s hearing, said Thursday it is opening “a formal investigation” into Harvard, UPenn, and MIT after members found the presidents’ testimonies earlier this week to be “absolutely unacceptable,” Representative Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican, said in a statement. “Committee members have deep concerns with their leadership and their failure to take steps to provide Jewish students the safe learning environment they are due under law,” Foxx said, adding that the investigation will include document requests and, if needed, subpoenas. Shortly before 1 p.m. on Thursday, Harvard graduate student Michael Zhang skateboarded past the man with the megaphone at the science center, while the plane circled overhead. “Crazy world we live in,” Zhang said. Hilary Burns can be reached at hilary.burns@globe.com. Follow her @Hilarysburns. Mike Damiano can be reached at mike.damiano@globe.com.

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What the Houthis Really Want

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music Attacks by Houthi militants on shipping in the Red Sea, a crucial global trade route, once seemed like a dangerous sideshow to the war in Gaza. But as the attacks have continued, the sideshow has turned into a full-blown crisis. Vivian Nereim, the Gulf bureau chief for The Times, explains what cause is served by the Houthis’ campaign.

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The Iowa Caucuses, and 100 Days of War in Gaza

The New York Times Audio app is home to journalism and storytelling, and provides news, depth and serendipity. If you haven’t already, download it here — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter. The Headlines brings you the biggest stories of the day from the Times journalists who are covering them, all in about five minutes.

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Republican Debate Takeaways, and Hunter Biden on Capitol Hill

The New York Times Audio app is home to journalism and storytelling, and provides news, depth and serendipity. If you haven’t already, download it here — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter. The Headlines brings you the biggest stories of the day from the Times journalists who are covering them, all in about five minutes.

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Trump beating Biden among Hispanics and voters under 35, new poll shows

The first national presidential poll released in the new year is out and it doesn’t look particularly good for anyone not named Donald Trump. According to a Suffolk University/USA Today poll released Monday, the former president not only leads the entire field of Republicans ahead of the soon-to-start primary season, he’s also out-polling President Biden among groups the presumptive Democratic nominee won in 2020 and will need again in order to keep his job beyond next January. “President Joe Biden heads into the election year showing alarming weakness among stalwarts of the Democratic base, with Donald Trump leading among Hispanic voters and young people,” pollsters wrote. The survey of 1,000 likely voters, conducted via landline and cell phones during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, apparently shows that Biden’s support among Black voters has slipped from the over 90% who voted for him in 2020 to just 63% who say they will vote for him again in 2024. As if that weren’t bad enough news for the 46th President’s re-election bid, in a reversal of their last match up the poll also shows Trump beating him among polled Hispanic voters by five points, 39%-34%, and among surveyed under-35 voters by four points, 37%-33%. Biden beat Trump among Hispanic identifying voters in 2020 by a 2:1 margin and won the under-35 voting with nearly the same spread. The difference between now and then, according to the polling, is the interest polled likely voters are showing in any flavor of politician not previously offered. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., formerly a Democratic contender but now running as an independent, pulls about 10% of the vote when included in the survey. Even when no third party candidate’s name is mentioned, pollsters say, 16% of those polled indicate they will vote for someone other than 77-year-old Trump or 81-year-old Biden. In other words, Biden’s loss of support has not necessarily translated into a Trump gain. “Although Trump hasn’t grown support among Black voters, he has closed the deficit because third-party voters come off of Biden’s support among Blacks,” David Paleologos, director of Suffolk’s Political Research Center, told USA Today. “A young voter or a person of color voting ‘third party’ is a vote away from President Biden, and a vote away from President Biden is a vote for Donald Trump.” Trump may not need those Biden votes, however. The poll shows he beats Biden by 2% among those surveyed when no third party candidate is named. When third party candidates are mentioned by name, Trump’s lead jumps to 3%. Of course, Trump’s eventual appearance on November’s general election ballot isn’t a foregone conclusion, unless you trust the polling. The same poll shows Trump’s national lead over his Ambassador to the United Nations, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, stands at 49 points, 62% – 13%. Trump has maintained this lead since the start of the primary cycle over a year ago and as other candidates failed to find traction among the conservative base. He has done so despite his arrest in multiple jurisdictions following grand jury indictments on a total of 91 felony-level charges, findings his business empire was engaged in widespread financial fraud for decades, and a judge making it abundantly clear that he did, as a matter of fact, “rape” author E. Jean Carroll as that word is commonly understood. Florida Gov Ron DeSantis, once firmly in second place and nipping at Trump’s electoral heels, has seen his polling numbers collapse over the last several months, with the Suffolk poll showing him at 10% and national polling averages putting him at just 11.2%, tied with Haley. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie comes in behind businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who both average less than 5% nationally and under 7% in Monday’s poll. The only real primary competition Trump is seeing is in New Hampshire, where the first ballots will be cast on January 23 and where other recent surveys show Haley may be just 3 points behind him. According to Haley’s campaign, she will be in the Granite State to “kick off the New Year in New Hampshire style” on Tuesday and Wednesday, with town halls scheduled in Rye, Kingston, and Milford, and a meet and greet planned in Londonderry. Christie, who is polling third in New Hampshire, will be in Hollis on Thursday. Herald wire services contributed.

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Ukraine Hits Major Russian Warship, but Loses Ground in the East

Ukraine scored a major success on Tuesday when it struck a Russian warship at port in Crimea, one of the most significant attacks against Moscow’s Black Sea Fleet in months. But in another setback for their ground campaign, Ukrainian officials acknowledged that they had all but retreated from the eastern city of Marinka after a monthslong battle to defend it. The two developments underscored the diverging fortunes of the two combatants this winter in a war that has largely settled into a deadlock: Ukraine racking up naval successes in the Black Sea and Crimea, where it is putting Russia on the defensive, and Russia pressing its attack on battlefields in the east after blunting a Ukrainian counteroffensive. A day after Russia said it had taken complete control of Marinka, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s top military commander, spoke in sober terms about the fight, comparing it to the scorched-earth battle for Bakhmut, the eastern city that fell to Russia in May. Like Bakhmut, Marinka held limited strategic value, but is now a trophy in ruins for Moscow. “The situation is exactly the same as it was in Bakhmut,” General Zaluzhny said at a news conference. “Street by street, block by block, and our soldiers were being targeted. And the result is what it is.”

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Why a Faculty Strike Looms at the State University System

Faculty members at the California State University system, the nation’s largest four-year public university system, are planning to cancel classes and strike next week as they demand higher pay and better benefits. The California Faculty Association, which represents 29,000 professors, lecturers, librarians, counselors and coaches, says it will begin a five-day strike on Monday, the first day of the spring semester for most students. Walkouts are planned at all 23 campuses, from Humboldt to San Diego, which together serve nearly 460,000 students. The strike was set after university officials ended contract negotiations last week, having offered 5 percent raises; the union is seeking 12 percent pay increases. University leaders said they were grappling with a huge budget deficit and could not afford to meet the union’s demands without resorting to layoffs and other cuts. “We have been in the bargaining process for eight months and the C.F.A. has shown no movement, leaving us no other option” but to break off the talks, Leora Freedman, the university system’s vice chancellor for human resources, said in a statement. She added that the system had recently agreed on 5 percent pay increases with five other labor unions.

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Don't compare me to the almighty.' The origin of Biden's saying.

“Don’t compare me to the almighty,” White said in launching his bid for a fourth mayoral term. “Compare me to the alternative.” His impromptu statement didn’t last long and wasn’t captured on audio or video. But a bit of it still echoes in American politics and voters could hear it often this year. WASHINGTON — The TV camera crews had departed Boston City Hall after a news briefing on May 21, 1979, when Mayor Kevin H. White surprised a clutch of lingering reporters and his own aides with an announcement that wasn’t expected for weeks: He was running for reelection that fall. Advertisement President Biden adopted the saying years ago and sometimes attributed it to the late White, a fellow Irish-Catholic politician whom he admired, while other times he cites his father, or no one at all. Ascertaining its true source is complicated, but determining its meaning is not. It neatly defines Biden’s political persona — at once religious, pragmatic, self-effacing, and pugnacious — and succinctly frames his challenge in overcoming low approval ratings to win a second term in a likely rematch against Donald Trump. Get Today in Politics A digest of the top political stories from the Globe, sent to your inbox Monday-Friday. Enter Email Sign Up “It is actually the antithesis of the Trumpian statement, ‘I alone can fix it,’ " said former Biden speechwriter Jeff Nussbaum. “Trump says, ‘I alone can fix it,’ and doesn’t. Joe Biden says, ‘Don’t compare me to the almighty’ and comes pretty damn close to getting everything done that people hoped for him to do.” Biden’s frequent use of the almighty comparison has pushed it into the political lexicon, with other politicians picking it up and some citing him as the source. But as with many political sayings, its origin is unclear. Boston Mayor Kevin White and his wife, Kathryn White, stand on stage during his victory party at the Copley Plaza in Boston on Nov. 6, 1979, after White won a fourth consecutive term for mayor. David L. Ryan White himself in 1979 attributed the phrase to the Canadian prime minister at the time, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, according to the Globe’s story on his announcement. But there’s no record in the Canadian media of Trudeau saying it himself and it appears to have first been said about him. Advertisement “We don’t have to compare him to the ideal,” Finance Minister John Turner said of Trudeau days before Canada’s 1972 elections, according to The Montreal Star. “We don’t have to compare him to the almighty. We just have to compare him to the alternative.” Other members of Trudeau’s Liberal Party adopted the saying, and it was used in a party election strategy document reported in news stories in April 1979, just weeks before White quoted it in Boston. Trudeau used a bland variation in a 1978 press conference, “Considering the alternatives, I’m the best man,” according to his biographer, John English. But English said in an email that he wouldn’t be surprised if Trudeau adopted it and failed to cite Turner. “The two of them came to dislike and distrust each other, and Trudeau would never give him credit for the origins of his comment,” said English, a retired history professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario and former Liberal member of the Canadian Parliament. “He undoubtedly knew of it. In fact, Trudeau had a remarkable memory and drew upon it for quips that became identified with him.” Trudeau was known for his eloquence, as was White, who was Boston mayor from 1968-84. The trait helped make White a finalist to be the running-mate of Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern in 1972. Advertisement White’s former press secretary, Boston public relations executive George Regan, who was his aide for 11 years, said he had never heard him use the almighty comparison before the 1979 reelection announcement. Neither had Micho Spring, his chief of staff from 1978-84. “He thought it captured the essence of what an election is — a choice between two actual candidates — not between an incumbent and an ideal,” Spring, now a reputation strategy consultant, said in an email. But Ira Jackson, who was White’s chief of staff from 1972-75, said he remembered White using it earlier than 1979. “I think it’s very much the way he viewed himself,” Jackson, who now teaches a course on leadership and social change at Harvard. “Just the fact that he would say, ‘Don’t compare me to the almighty’ suggested that might be a reference point that people had in mind, himself included. But it was a wonderful way of Kevin positioning himself: a little bit of humility, a little bit of humor, a lot of Irish and very competitive.” Those characteristics, particularly the Irish part, help explain the connection to Biden, who also leans into that heritage. “He was a very big fan of Kevin White’s. They just really hit it off,” said Ted Kaufman, a longtime Biden aide who was appointed as his Senate replacement when he became vice president. “He was always really respectful of mayors and how difficult that job is.” Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and President Reagan, in Ottawa during an international summit on July 18, 1981. GEORGES BENDRIHEM/AFP via Getty Images As Biden told it during a 2011 forum in Washington, he was in Boston for a Democratic Party event during his first year in the Senate in 1973 and heard White use the slogan as reporters were hounding him. Advertisement “And the gaggle of press got him as he came out of the mayor’s office and basically said, ‘Well, wise guy, hot shot ... how do you feel now?’ " Biden said. “And he looked at them. I’ll never forget what he said. He said, ‘Look, don’t compare me to the almighty. Compare me to the alternative.’ ” Biden was at a Democratic event in Boston in 1973, according to the Globe archives. He was the luncheon speaker at a political seminar at the Sheraton Boston Hotel on Dec. 8, 1973, sponsored by the Democratic State Committee. But White, “who was invited and listed as a panelist, was conspicuous by his absence,” the article said. A search of the Congressional Record, news archives, and White House transcripts indicates Biden first began using the almighty comparison in public while campaigning for Democrats ahead of the 2010 midterm elections. “You know, there used to be a mayor of Boston ... this is way back in ‘72. His name was Kevin White. He said, ‘Don’t compare me to the almighty; compare me to the alternative,” Biden told the Democratic National Committee’s summer meeting in St. Louis on Aug. 20, 2010, drawing laughter and cheers before repeating the saying for emphasis, according to a transcript. But Biden, typically careful to attribute other people’s words after a 1987 plagiarism scandal derailed his first White House bid, has shifted the attribution from White to his father over the years. Advertisement “My dad used to have an expression. He’d say, “Joey, don’t compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative.” Biden told a Democratic National Committee fund-raiser in Boston on Sept. 12, 2022. And sometimes Biden doesn’t attribute the saying at all. Kaufman said Biden used it well before he became vice president in 2009, the point when almost all his public comments were chronicled by the White House and news media. “He doesn’t always attribute it to his father, but that’s how I remember it, especially when he first got started,” Kaufman said. “His father was good at this kind of stuff, so it wouldn’t surprise me that his father told him that.” A Biden campaign spokesman declined to comment on the origins of the saying. Kaufman said Biden primarily uses it when campaigning. Biden and White have similarities that would lead both to embrace the almighty comparison, said Nussbaum, who researched a speech White almost gave, defying Boston’s court-ordered school busing, for his 2022 book, “Undelivered: The Never-Heard Speeches That Would Have Rewritten History.” “Look at [White’s] old speeches, they were this wonderful combination of progressivism, civic hope, good governance, and idealism, combined with a real political savvy. And, of course, the Irishiness of it all,” said Nussbaum, who was Biden’s speechwriter from February 2021 to May 2022 and now is a partner at the Washington public affairs firm Bully Pulpit International. “I think a lot of that is in Biden’s DNA. And White was a peer of a lot of the people who Biden admired and modeled himself after.” Former Boston mayor Martin J. Walsh said the saying is a perfect fit for Biden. “It’s coming from his heart, it’s coming from his gut,” said Walsh, who is close to Biden and served as his labor secretary before stepping down in March. “He wouldn’t be running for president if the alternative was stronger, and he’s concerned about the alternative.” For Jackson, White’s former chief of staff, the almighty comparison indicates Biden is willing to take the fight directly to Trump. And it’s an ideal way to sum up the choice facing Americans next fall, as it was for Bostonians in 1979. “It’s so useful. It’s so memorable. It’s so penetrating. It’s so simple,” Jackson said. “It’s wonderful that Biden occasionally attributes it to Kevin White. That’s a sign of his humility and that sort of fraternity of Irish pols who respect one another. But it’s not necessary. And I don’t think Kevin White thought it was necessary to always refer to Pierre Elliott Trudeau. And who knows where Trudeau got it, if he got.” Jim Puzzanghera can be reached at jim.puzzanghera@globe.com. Follow him @JimPuzzanghera.

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politics

The GOP has given up on climate change

Sign up for The Meltdown, a weekly newsletter highlighting the latest apocalyptic dramas, debunking climate myths, and sharing sustainability hacks, all while arming you with information to hold polluters and the government accountable. Enter your email to subscribe. On a blustery nor’easter night in New York City many years ago, I was overcome with a case of cabin fever. I wrapped myself in layers and braved the swirling snow, wandering aimlessly down the ghostly, white-veiled Bleecker Street. Without a plan or destination, fate led me to the glowing marquee of a neighborhood cinema just as it was about to screen its final movie of the night: Casablanca. I hesitated – a 1942 black-and-white film wasn’t exactly what I had in mind to cure my restlessness. But what else was I going to do? In the solitude of the cinema, I perched my feet up for my premiere. I laughed and cried, completely enraptured by the timeless tale unfolding before me. I’m so glad I watched it. What I did learn when in doubt, was to do the thing. That approach was a good one until, stuck at home with COVID-19 (again), I decided to brave the Republican primary debate between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. It felt like walking through an awful storm, but instead of finding a cute movie to watch, I fell into a seemingly endless hole of garbage. Do not play it again, Sam. This week on The Meltdown, we’ll briefly discuss some of the climate issues mentioned in the debate before delving into some healthy New Year’s resolutions and why America can’t and won’t step away from the world. Before you read on, please feel free to follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. And share this newsletter with your friends if you think they’ll enjoy it. Drizzle Former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, right and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, left, pointing at each other during the CNN Republican presidential debate at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)AP In short, Gov. DeSantis and Gov. Haley want to rip up all of Biden’s green policies. No surprise there. DeSantis, who doesn’t believe humans cause climate change, said the U.S. shouldn’t have to reduce its fossil fuel emissions until nations like China and India do the same. For a man who thinks the country should be more isolationist, you have to wonder why China and India matter to him at all. This seems more like a strawman argument. Indeed, it’s easier just to let us all know which oil and gas companies are funding his campaigns. While it’s true that China and India are significant producers of greenhouse emissions, they are also enormous developing countries that support billions of people and are called on to produce 30% of the world’s manufacturing output. Ya know, all that crap you buy from Amazon. Imagine if the U.S. was asked to stop using fossil fuels during the industrial revolution. Unemployment would soar, manufacturing output would flatten, and I imagine it would lead to a humanitarian crisis. I have no doubt India and China would like to avoid this. That’s partly why nearly every country (not the United States or China) committed to collectively providing $100 billion to developing countries to mitigate the high emissions associated with developing countries and supporting huge populations. That commitment was agreed upon in 2009 and was due to start in 2020. While some wealthy nations have claimed the goal was met, some say there’s no evidence to support the claim. I don’t understand why U.S. climate action is predicated on what China and India do or don’t do. Wouldn’t it be unusual if New Orleans refused to solve its high murder rate until Chicago did? To her credit, Gov. Haley took a more moderate approach by pointing out that we all want clean air, clean water, and a healthy world to hand to our grandchildren. Agreed. And yet, she also wants to rip up Biden’s green policies. Of all the gin joints… Touch Grass Spiritually-minded percussion revellers celebrate the summer Solstice (mid-summer and longest day) at the ancient late-Neolithic stones of Stonehenge, on 21st June 2023, in Wiltshire, England. (Photo by Richard Baker / In Pictures via Getty Images)In Pictures via Getty Images When thinking about your New Year’s resolutions, you probably weren’t thinking about how to deal with political malaise or incompetence, given that it’s been a part of our lives for so long. But here are five ways you can block out the nonsense and focus on yourself more. Welcome life’s twists and turns: Treat each change in your life as a golden ticket to personal growth and new adventures. Shedding your old skin and stepping into the unknown is like opening a treasure chest of fresh experiences and insights, enriching your journey with unexpected gems. Anchor your day with gratitude: Bookend your days with a moment of gratitude. Whether celebrating a big win or savoring the joy of a perfect cup of coffee, this ritual of appreciation infuses your life with a positive glow, influencing how you see the world and connect with those around you. Think mindfulness: Weave mindfulness into the fabric of your daily routine. Whether through a quiet meditation session, savoring each bite of your meal, or fully immersing yourself in the here and now, these practices build a deeper bond with your inner self, cut down stress, and enrich your interactions and life experiences. Non-Negotiable self-care: Elevate self-care to a non-negotiable status in your life. Carve out time for activities that replenish your spirit, like a rejuvenating jog, getting lost in a good book, or unwinding in a bubble bath. Remember, refilling your cup is essential to pour into the lives of others. Empathy as a Superpower: Cultivate empathy by making a conscious effort to feel and understand the emotions of others. This skill strengthens your relationships, nurtures compassion, and broadens your perspective, allowing you to appreciate the rich tapestry of human experiences. Compost Dump LONDON - MARCH 22: Sabrina Ibrahim works with her team in an attempt to break their teams previous Jenga record of 30 levels in 11 minutes and 55 seconds at The Walkways, Tower Bridge on March 22, 2005 in London. (Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images) Getty Images While globalization may have downsides, isolationism is not a solution for the United States or our climate change woes. It may not even be possible. I recently came across the global risk society theory. Imagine the world is like a giant Jenga game. Each block is a different country doing its own thing, building up technology and businesses to improve life. This is what we call modernization or globalization — when countries grow and connect more and more. But, like in Jenga, the higher you build, the riskier it gets. This is where the theory comes in. It says that as countries build and grow, especially with factories and development (the modernization part), they accidentally create problems that affect the whole world, not just one country. A big example is climate change, where the Earth gets warmer because of all the pollution we create. The tricky part is that these problems don’t care about borders; they’re like clouds drifting over all the countries. That’s why every person and every country around the world needs to work together to solve them. This theory points out that our old ways of doing things aren’t good enough to fix these new, big problems. We need to think differently, like focusing on caring for the environment and working together more as a global team. It’s like realizing in Jenga that you must be careful and think about every move so the whole tower doesn’t come crashing down. And as long as the U.S. keeps polluting the Earth, it doesn’t get to quit this game of Jenga. Hey, at least we’ll always have Paris (the agreement). *** Thanks for reading The Meltdown. Please sign up, share, and be super kind to everyone in 2024. Send tips to: charress@reckonmedia.com See you next week. Christopher Harress (Read my work here)

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Late Boston Mayor Menino's family marks 30th Xmas toy giveaway

The family, including the late mayor’s wife, Angela, welcomed more than 370 families to the Catholic Charities’ Teen Center at St. Peter’s Parish to celebrate the holidays and receive necessities such as winter coats and boots as well as fun presents, Samantha Menino said. On Christmas Eve, for the 30th year in a row, the Menino family gave these gifts to families in Dorchester’s Bowdoin-Geneva neighborhood to carry on the legacy of the former mayor, who cared deeply about the well-being of the community, according to his 25-year-old granddaughter Samantha Menino. The family of late Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino spends the weeks leading up to Christmas playing Santa Claus — poring over wish lists, pushing carts full of toys at Walmart, and filling up bags for families who could use a little extra cheer. Advertisement Angela Menino chats with Rev. Jack Ahern, former pastor of St. Peter’s, at the 30th Menino Family Christmas Eve Toy Distribution on Sunday. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff “We are those crazy people that hold up the lines at Walmart because we take lists and have five or six carts at a time full of toys,” Samantha Menino said. “Then the toys are in our garage, and we as a family ... with friends and volunteers, everyone shows up to our house and we put the toys in trash bags by family.” In addition to the Mayor Thomas M. Menino Fund for Boston and Catholic Charities, many donors, such as Amazon and the Red Sox Foundation, give money and time to allow the distribution to run smoothly, according to Kelley Tuthill, president of Catholic Charities Boston. The Meninos send interest forms to families in the neighborhood so they can receive clothes that fit and toys they’re excited about. “It’s really tailored to make sure the kids get what they want. They let ‘Secret Santa’ know, and that ‘Secret Santa’ is the Menino family, and they make these wishes come true,” Tuthill said in a phone interview. “It’s really important to the Menino family that the kids get what they most want. That’s the joy of it.” Advertisement Lots of bicycles were given out on Sunday, Tuthill said. Sansa Sweene, 11, scans the parking lot after emerging with a bike at the 30th Menino Family Christmas Eve Toy Distribution in Boston. Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff Some children needed a new bedspread, but the Meninos made sure that those receiving bedspreads also received a toy because they believe it’s important for kids to receive something fun in addition to necessities, Samantha Menino said. “Today, there was a little girl who was taking a picture with Santa as the volunteers were getting her bag, and they brought up a bike and her whole face lit up,” Menino said. “She nearly leaped out of Santa’s arms and got on her bike to ride away. She was so excited and she was probably no older than four years old. That’s really why we do it.” Boston Mayor Michelle Wu made an appearance at Sunday’s event to support the cause, bringing her sons Blaise and Cass, Tuthill said. “The big, important part to this whole thing is that it’s all about keeping [Mayor Menino’s] commitment to the community alive,” the late mayor’s son, Thomas Menino Jr., said in a phone interview. Bailey Allen can be reached at bailey.allen@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @baileyaallen.

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Migrants Sleep in the Snow in Desperate Wait for ID Cards

As snow swirled down after midnight on Tuesday, about three dozen migrants, including two families with children, huddled on the sidewalk under thin blankets outside a city office in Brooklyn. They had temporarily left their homeless shelters to spend the night camping in the 20-degree wind chill for a chance at a prize whose significance was not quite clear: a New York City-issued identification card called IDNYC. Some said they had been told by shelter workers that the card was a necessary step on the road to legal employment. One woman who was six months pregnant said she had heard she needed the card to get seen at a public hospital. As winter settles in, the situation faced by the 68,000 migrants in city shelters has grown more precarious and left many eager to find their way to self-sufficiency but confused about the many rules that govern the steps to get there.

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politics

Trump Makes Another Pitch to Appeals Court on Immunity in Election Case

Lawyers for former President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday made their final written request to a federal appeals court to grant Mr. Trump immunity to charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, arguing the indictment should be tossed out because it arose from actions he took while in the White House. The 41-page filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit was the final step before the defense and prosecution debate the issue in front of a three-judge panel next Tuesday. The dispute over immunity is the single most important aspect of the election interference case, touching not only on new questions of law but also on consequential issues of timing. The case is scheduled to go to trial in Federal District Court in Washington in early March, but has been put on hold until Mr. Trump’s efforts to have the charges tossed on immunity grounds are resolved. In their filing to the appeals court, Mr. Trump’s lawyers repeated some of the arguments they had made in earlier submissions. They claimed, for instance, that a long history of presidents not being charged with crimes suggested that they all enjoyed immunity. They also said that prosecuting Mr. Trump now could unleash a chain reaction of other presidents being indicted.

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politics

Donald Trump firms up N.H. lead in new primary poll; Nikki Haley in second

Less than a week before Granite State voters head to the polls, New Hampshire appears to be Donald Trump’s to lose, according to a new poll. The former president takes 50% support in the Suffolk University/NBC10 Boston/Boston Globe tracking poll released Wednesday. Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley trails in second place at just shy of 34%, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis finishes a distant third with 5.2%. The poll of 500 likely Republican voters comes as the second-tier candidates blanket New Hampshire in a search for every available vote. As was the case with Monday’s Iowa caucus, where Trump won handily, the new poll results underscores Trump’s hold on the GOP primary electorate. The canvass was conducted on Monday and Tuesday, with an overall margin of error of 4.4% Ninety percent of respondents of Trump’s backers said they’d be casting their ballot in favor of the twice-impeached former president, who also faces four criminal indictments, and other civil court actions, compared to the less than 5% who said they’d be voting against Haley. About 54% of Haley backers, meanwhile, said they’d be casting their vote for the former South Carolina governor, compared to the slightly more than 37% who said they’d be voting against Trump. Fifty-six percent of the poll’s respondents described themselves as either conservative or very conservative, putting them squarely in Trump’s wheelhouse, compared to the nearly 36% of respondents who described themselves as moderate. Nearly 30% of respondents said DeSantis, who has struggled to gain ground in the early going, would be their second choice, compared to 10% who said they’d choose Haley second, the poll showed.

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politics

Iowas Generation Z rises up as caucus looms, demanding a voice in the political process

If SCOTUS’ recent ruling striking down President Biden’s relief plan still has you reeling, then the Broke & Bothered newsletter is for you. Join Reckon’s Alexis Wray as she questions the legitimacy of student loans, gives you tools to take action and shares stories from real people most impacted: Enter your email to subscribe. Growing up, Waverly Zhao went to the Iowa caucus every four years with her mother and watched as politically engaged Iowans wrote their desired presidential candidate on paper. Both then as a little girl and now at 19 years old, Zhao feels like the presence of the everyday voter and worker is missing across caucuses and within policies. Almost three years ago, Zhao and young Iowans across the state started IowaWTF, a progressive youth activism group, to fight discriminatory legislation. “IowaWTF is more than the name of an organization, it’s a movement for young people — giving us permission to be upset and channel that anger into taking action and using our voices to change things,” Zhao told Reckon. With the Iowa Republican Presidential caucus amidst today, IowaWTF has worked to engage and inform some of the youngest voters in the state by building a coalition of high school and college students and mobilizing them through informative Instagram and TikTok content on crucial issues as well as political leaders to watch. This election year, Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012) will make up over 40 million potential voters. Many young people – one-fifth of the American electorate – from this generation will be first-time voters in the presidential election, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE). While it will be the first time that many young voters like Zhao cast their ballot for president, IowaWTF recognizes that not every youth will have that opportunity at the polls, like the activism group’s 19-year-old director, Nicko Dacre. “I am an immigrant, so I can’t vote,” Dacre said. “But as a constituent, my perspective matters and I plan to support a candidate that aligns with my views and is going to most directly impact me and the people closely around me.” Issues the young Iowan cares about most According to CIRCLE, issues like climate change, abortion rights and gun violence are top concerns and play a large role in how young people vote. “I think that a lot of youth are trying to find somebody who will actually get work done, pass common sense gun laws and respect basic human rights,” Zhao said. With more than 630 mass shootings across the country in 2023 and a recent shooting at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa, young people are irate and demanding action on gun laws immediately. One student was killed and five others were injured in the Jan. 4 shooting. On Jan. 8, IowaWTF, March For Our Lives — an organization in support of gun control legislation — and several other student-led groups joined at the state capitol in Des Moines to rally and protest an end to gun violence. With the recent shooting in Iowa and a lack of gun laws across the country, Dacre feels, “as a young person and something I see a lot of other young people saying is that we are tired of seeing no action taken on the issues we care about.” While the Iowa Democratic Presidential caucus isn’t until March 5, Zhao and Dacre believe that progressive young people across Iowa will lean toward President Biden and that conservative youth will likely vote for Donald Trump today at the caucus. Similar to the presidential election four years ago, many Americans share the same sentiment that they must pick the “lesser of two evils.” IowaWTF agrees and also offers another way to get politically engaged in 2024. “I sort of agree that people have to go with the ‘lesser of two evils’ [President Biden], but more importantly we have to think about what will affect our day-to-day lives, which is less of the president and more of state legislatures, school boards and city councilors,” Dacre told Reckon. “I want to tell people and young voters to look more closely at their local elections and candidates than anyone else.” For IowaWTF, they want to do more than educate young people on the issues but also the candidates by showing them the relevance of the caucuses. Modernize caucuses = engaging young voters Historically, caucuses are less of a multigenerational event and more of a space for Baby Boomers (born between 1946 to 1964) with regular and active political engagement, not leaving much room for the presence of young people. According to CIRCLE, 57 percent of youth ages 18-34 say they’re “extremely likely” to vote in 2024. IowaWTF believes young people want to be involved in more political processes but things need to change. “This system [caucuses] needs to be updated and modernized so young people can feel connected,” Dacre said. Dacre points to 2020, when the Iowa Democratic Party used an app by Shadow Inc., a for-profit technology company, to gather votes for the Democratic presidential caucus. He appreciated that the app was built to meet voters and everyday Americans where they were even though there were inconsistencies and delays in votes due to inadequate app testing. While the process and method of conducting the Iowa Democratic presidential caucus wasn’t seamless in 2020, Zhao and Dacre felt it was a good attempt at reaching younger voters. Today, the Iowa Republican Presidential caucus will collect votes at different precincts across the state by paper, where only Iowa residents who are registered Republicans may participate. In 2020, Iowa overwhelmingly voted for Trump in their Republican presidential caucus and the Presidential election, this vote was expected by many political experts. Though youth across the country overall prefer a Democratic candidate, according to CIRCLE, not all Iowan youth share the same sentiment. Regardless of who Iowans ultimately vote for in November, on Monday all eyes are on the first-in-the-nation caucus. The country often looks at the state as the start of the campaign trail and so does IowaWTF. “The caucuses are important because they put us on the map as a relevant state; while they might not be as popular as they once were, I believe they can one day be a place where every voice is heard,” Zhao told Reckon.

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politics

Crisis in the Red Sea, and Epstein Files Unsealed

The New York Times Audio app is home to journalism and storytelling, and provides news, depth and serendipity. If you haven’t already, download it here — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter. The Headlines brings you the biggest stories of the day from the Times journalists who are covering them, all in about five minutes.

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Wus eloquent apology about the Stuart case can be the start of healing

Or maybe 400 years, to count another way. For this unhealed scar is as old as this town. How do you heal an open wound that’s been festering for 34 years? One way to start is where Mayor Michelle Wu did Wednesday, surrounded by victims of the Charles Stuart murder case as she attempted to address precisely those questions, and to atone. Prompted by the Globe’s re-investigation of the case — an undertaking produced in partnership with HBO — Wu issued something none of her predecessors had been able to muster: an eloquent, full-throated apology to Willie Bennett and Alan Swanson, the men wrongfully identified as suspects in the killing. Advertisement “What was done to you was unjust, unfair, racist, and wrong and this apology is long overdue,” Wu said to a packed room in City Hall, as Swanson and the Bennett family stood behind her. “To every Black resident — I am sorry not only for the abuse our city enacted, but for the beliefs and the bias that brought them to bear.” Get Nightmare in Mission Hill A limited-series newsletter about the untold story of the Charles and Carol Stuart case. Enter Email Sign Up The Stuart murder was one of the most notorious crimes in the city’s history. On Oct. 23, 1989, Charles Stuart called 911 to report a shooting. He claimed that — moments after he and his wife, Carol, left a birthing class at Brigham and Women’s Hospital — a Black man jumped into their car, forced them to drive to Mission Hill, and robbed and shot them. The Stuarts were white; Mission Hill was predominantly Black and brown. Carol Stuart died hours after the shooting, after giving birth to a son, Christopher, who survived a mere 17 days. Charles Stuart, badly wounded, survived. Police responded to the crime by laying siege to Mission Hill in a search for the made-up Black gunman. Among other outrages, they searched Black and brown men, many of them outside the Tobin Community Center — the heartbeat of the Mission Hill community. Advertisement By the time Stuart’s story unraveled the following January — culminating in his suicidal jump off the Tobin Bridge — thousands of Black residents had been subjected to terror and trauma that have never gone away. (The Globe has produced an eight-part series along with a nine-part podcast: “Murder In Boston” as well as collaborating on an HBO documentary with the same title. I was part of the reporting team and host the podcast.) The raw emotion this case still prompts ran throughout Wu’s announcement event Wednesday. Willie Bennett’s family and Alan Swanson stood behind her, vindicated at last. Speakers such as former city councilor Tito Jackson — himself searched and frisked as a teenager, at the height of the hysteria after the murder — choked back tears as they tried to capture what this moment meant to them. “Today is not about politics,” Jackson said. “It’s about righteousness, truth, and healing.” Wu deserves credit for confronting the issue head-on. Not least because this is a story Boston immediately did its level best to forget and diminish. The message from Boston’s civic leadership back then was basically, let’s move on. Mayor Raymond Flynn, elected as a racial healer, stopped talking about it as soon as possible. Easy for them. Impossible for Boston. Advertisement It shouldn’t be lost on any of us that the first elected mayor of color and the first Black police commissioner, Michael Cox, were apologizing for the sins of white predecessors from a generation ago. People then may have wanted to move on, but moving on has never been possible for the Bennetts, or for Swanson, or for many others whose stories have been largely ignored until now. Bennett’s family eventually received an insulting $12,500 settlement from the city, along with the barest of apologies from Flynn. Swanson didn’t even get that. “There is no world in which a piece of paper undoes the harm of this part of our history, but it is my hope that you will accept this letter of apology as a step toward accountability for the damage done by our City,” Wu said. “If nothing else, please take this as evidence of our ongoing determination to build the Boston our Black residents deserve.” But Wu’s gesture, however gracious, doesn’t answer the question that still hangs out there: What does justice look like now? Leslie Harris, who represented Swanson, said apologies are due from all of Boston, from City Hall to the Police Department to the media, including the Globe, that covered the case. He also called for reparations for the Bennetts and for Swanson. (Indeed, when I asked Alan Swanson what the day meant to him, he said: “I’m still broke.”) That plea was echoed by other speakers as well. Louis Elisa, NAACP president during the racial storm the Stuart murder unleashed, said real justice would mean addressing the ills that continue to plague Black Boston, starting with the public schools. Advertisement During our team’s two years of reporting for the recent series and podcast, we kept returning to the question of whether something like the Stuart case could happen today. And an uncomfortable truth is that Stuart’s lie was believed because people — white people — were conditioned to believe it. As Wu put it: “At every level and at every opportunity, those in power closed their eyes to the truth because the lie felt familiar. They saw the story they wanted to see.” Who’s to say that couldn’t happen now? But Wu’s apology told a different story Wednesday, a story of a city that’s changed. A Boston in which Michelle Wu can be mayor is not the Boston of 1989. But this is no time for congratulations. The hard work of reconciliation has barely begun. Adrian Walker is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at adrian.walker@globe.com. Follow him @Adrian_Walker.

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Critics see double standard in Harvards handling of plagiarism allegations

The controversy began with a conservative activist circulating the first allegations online, and entered new territory this week when a Republican-controlled congressional committee demanded Harvard turn over all documentation related to its review of Gay’s writings. The collision of partisan politics with a question of academic integrity has left some Harvard faculty members conflicted, and added to a sense of deep anxiety at a university that for two months has been roiled by debates and protests related to the Israel-Hamas war. But Harvard’s response addressed only a portion of the allegations against her, leading to an awkward second round of correctives to her academic writings this week that, far from settling the matter, brought new scrutiny and criticism to the revered school. More than a week ago, Harvard’s top board sought to quell a building controversy over plagiarism allegations against its new president, Claudine Gay, saying an independent review found several instances of inadequate citation in her writings but no violations of the university’s research misconduct standards. It also comes on the heels of another controversy, over Gay’s equivocal answer at a congressional hearing on campus antisemitism about whether calls for genocide of Jews would violate Harvard’s rules. Advertisement On Wednesday, Harvard announced newly discovered instances of “duplicative language without appropriate attribution” in Gay’s PhD dissertation completed at Harvard in 1997, but said she had not committed “research misconduct.” That left some on campus grumbling that a student found to have committed the same infraction might face suspension, in part because students and faculty are generally judged according to different rulebooks. “I think there’s a clear double standard,” said Shabbos Kestenbaum, a Harvard graduate student who has sharply criticized Gay’s handling of reports of rising antisemitism on the campus in the midst of the war. Students are sometimes suspended for plagiarism, he said. But in Gay’s case, he said, “not only is there no discipline, but on the contrary the board unanimously expressed their approval and confidence in her.” Advertisement On Dec. 12, following Gay’s congressional testimony and after the plagiarism allegations began circulating widely online, Harvard’s top board, known as the Corporation, publicly backed Gay. “Our extensive deliberations affirm our confidence” in her, the board said in a statement. It also acknowledged several instances of “inadequate citation” in Gay’s writings and stated that she was requesting corrections to two journal articles. The public backing seemed to end a period of debate, including calls for Gay’s resignation, over whether she should remain the university’s president. But the controversy was revived on Tuesday when an anonymous complaint was filed with a Harvard office that investigates research misconduct, raising questions about whether the Corporation’s reviews of the plagiarism allegations were thorough and consistent with the school’s policies. The next day, a Republican-led congressional committee, the same one that convened the Dec. 5 hearing on campus antisemitism, announced an inquiry and demanded Harvard turn over all documentation related to its reviews of the plagiarism allegations. That inquiry adds to another one already initiated by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce into campus antisemitism. “While the antisemitism and plagiarism investigations being conducted by the committee are separate and distinct, they both raise questions of hypocrisy in academia,” said Virginia Foxx, a North Carolina Republican and the committee’s chair. “In this case, how could a serial plagiarizer like Claudine Gay hold a student accountable for plagiarism ever again?” Advertisement The controversy over Gay’s citation practices in the midst of what some see as opportunistic point-scoring by political partisans has left some Harvard professors and students conflicted. “As scholars we need to do our absolute utmost to adhere to the practices that we very clearly tell our students they are to follow,” said Edward Hall, director of undergraduate studies of Harvard’s philosophy department. But the “noise . . . from political actors outside our walls,” he added, “makes it harder to have the right conversation about it.” Hall said he is skeptical of lawmakers’ motives. “There is very little reason to think that prominent people in the Republican Party right now are pushing this issue because they care deeply about the quality of scholarship at Harvard and other universities,” he said. Maya Bodnick, a Harvard sophomore, said she doesn’t have a strong opinion about the plagiarism allegations but insisted that “it’s really important Harvard does not succumb to nefarious right-wing actors.” The plagiarism allegations were first circulated widely by conservative activist Christopher Rufo and amplified by Bill Ackman, a billionaire Harvard alumnus who has sharply criticized Gay in recent months. But other Harvard faculty members say the political context notwithstanding, the substance of the allegations is serious. Some of the accusations look “very credible,” and others “seem serious,” said Brendan Case, associate director of research at Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program, which researches human well-being. He has been embarrassed by the Corporation’s response, he said, because it seems to undermine the school’s commitment to academic integrity. Advertisement “Just speaking from my own corner of Harvard, there is no question in my mind [that] if we uncovered that pattern of academic dishonesty in any of our researchers, including myself, they would be dismissed immediately,” Case said. “It seems unavoidable to me that many people within and outside Harvard will infer they don’t take this kind of thing seriously.” Gay has been accused of copying language from other scholars’ works without placing the words within quotation marks or properly citing the original sources. On Wednesday, Harvard provided the Globe a detailed summary of the Corporation’s reviews of the allegations. The document said that Gay’s alleged conduct was judged against a rulebook that generally applies only to faculty, and has a high bar for a finding of misconduct. According to those rules, a transgression only amounts to research misconduct if it is committed “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly.” That standard must be met by a “preponderance of the evidence.” Referring to those rules, the Corporation concluded that Gay’s “inadequate citations, while regrettable, did not constitute research misconduct,” according to the summary. Students are bound by a different set of rules. “Students who, for whatever reason, submit work either not their own or without clear attribution to its sources will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including requirement to withdraw from the College,” Harvard College’s plagiarism policy says. Five sentences in her 1997 PhD dissertation closely tracked language from a 1996 paper by Bradley Palmquist and D. Stephen Voss with only minor changes of word choice and punctuation. Advertisement In part of the passage, Gay wrote, “The average turnout rate seems to increase linearly as African-Americans become a larger proportion of the population. This is one sign that the data contain little aggregation bias.” In the 1996 paper, Palmquist and Voss had written, “[T]he average turnout rate seems to decrease linearly as African Americans become a larger proportion of the population. This is one sign that the data contain little aggregation bias.” The dissertation will now be updated to add quotation marks or a citation, Harvard said Wednesday. In the acknowledgments of her dissertation, Gay used language that closely tracks that from a book by Harvard scholar Jennifer Hochschild. In the passage, Gay is praising a mentor for reminding her of “the importance of getting the data right and following where they lead without fear or favor.” Hochschild, in her 1996 book, praised another scholar for showing her “the importance of getting the data right and of following where they lead without fear or favor,” according to the anonymous complaint sent to Harvard that compiled dozens of allegations of plagiarism. Some scholars have pointed to a distinction between different types of plagiarism. One kind involves copying without proper attribution. The other includes stealing original ideas, and is much more egregious, several academics said in recent interviews. Gay’s alleged plagiarism, some said, falls into the first, and less severe, category. However, others have taken a more unsparing view. “There are few things more repellent than a top official getting and taking a pass for something they punish underlings for doing,” said Richard Parker, a Harvard Law School professor. He criticized the Corporation’s handling of the allegations as “irregular” and “opaque,” saying it was a departure from a typical plagiarism investigation. “The contrast exudes contempt for our students and faculty and for Harvard itself,” he said. Mike Damiano can be reached at mike.damiano@globe.com. Hilary Burns can be reached at hilary.burns@globe.com. Follow her @Hilarysburns.

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A Trophy in Ruins: Evidence Grows That Russia Controls Marinka

The Ukrainian military said on Thursday that its troops were fighting “in the vicinities” of a village behind the eastern frontline town of Marinka, a strong indication that Kyiv’s forces have lost control of the town, more than a week after Moscow claimed to have seized it. Open-source maps of the battlefield also show that Russian troops have a foothold throughout Marinka. Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s top commander, acknowledged last week that Ukrainian troops had all but retreated to the outskirts, saying that Marinka “no longer exists” because Russian forces had reduced it to rubble with relentless shelling. Several Ukrainian military analysts said that Ukrainian troops had established defensive lines just outside the town and were currently fending off further Russian advances. “It seems that Ukrainian forces are out of Marinka but they continue fighting in defensive positions just outside of it,” said Oleksandr Musiienko, the head of the Kyiv-based Center for Military Legal Studies.

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RMV reports big increase in licensed drivers in first 6 months of new law - Boston News, Weather, Sports

BOSTON (WHDH) - Since a new immigrant license law went into effect six months ago, the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles has seen a large increase in new drivers obtaining driver’s licenses and learner’s permits. The Work and Family Mobility Act allowed residents to obtain a driver’s license regardless of immigration status. The law went into effect on July 1, and since then the RMV has issued 91,961 new learner’s permits and 54,952 new, first-time driver’s licenses to Massachusetts residents. This represents a 244 percent increase in new learner’s permits and a 120 percent increase in new driver’s licenses. “Since the Work and Family Mobility Act was implemented in July, thousands of Massachusetts residents have been able to get licenses helping provide access to friends, families, and their communities,” said MassDOT Secretary and CEO Monica Tibbits-Nutt in a statement. To accomodate this increase, the RMV increased the number of staff, service hours, and testing locations. “The RMV and its employees have worked hard to meet the challenge of increased demand for appointments and credentials under the Work and Family Mobility Act,” said Registrar Colleen Ogilvie in a statement. “We are grateful for the support from advocates and community leaders throughout this process, and we are continuing to improve each step of our process.” (Copyright (c) 2023 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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Sorry for the Delay. The Train Has to Steer Clear of a Bull.

That New Jersey Transit service was delayed was not all that unusual. The reason on Thursday, however, was something out of the wild, wild West. There was a bull — one with long horns, no less — on the tracks. During the waning hours of the morning commute at Newark Penn Station, trains were stopped by the brown bull charging by the passenger platform. When Javier Perez, 54, arrived at Penn Station around 10:30 a.m., he heard that there were delays caused by some sort of obstacle. He scanned the tracks and saw the bull ambling down the train line. “I was like, ‘OK, that’s the obstruction,’” he said. By noon, New Jersey Transit, the state agency that runs trains and buses, said the bull was off the tracks and that service had resumed after a 45-minute delay.

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Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin treated for prostate cancer

Washington CNN — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is being treated for prostate cancer, according to a statement Tuesday from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The statement revealed that the cancer was discovered in early December. He underwent a “minimally invasive surgical procedure” on December 22 called a prostatectomy to treat the cancer. “He was under general anesthesia during this procedure. Secretary Austin recovered uneventfully from his surgery and returned home the next morning. His prostate cancer was detected early, and his prognosis is excellent,” the statement read. It was previously unclear if Austin had been under anesthesia during the procedure, which the Pentagon had not previously disclosed and did not alert the White House to. The Pentagon had been facing intense questions after it was revealed on Friday that he had been admitted to Walter Reed on January 1 and had been hospitalized for days without notifying the public. It was subsequently reported that Biden, senior national security officials and even Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks – who had assumed Austin’s duties – were not aware of the defense secretary’s hospitalization until three days after he was admitted. On January 1, Austin was readmitted to the hospital due to complications “including nausea with severe abdominal, hip and leg pain.” He was found to have a urinary tract infection, the statement said. For the last eight days of Austin’s time at Walter Reed in treating the infection, he “never lost consciousness and never underwent general anesthesia.” This is a breaking story and will be updated.

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Mass. Campbell, state AGs call on feds to speed up work permits for migrants

With its emergency shelter system at capacity, the Bay State’s top lawyer has joined a coalition of 18 other states to call on the Biden administration to speed up work permits for migrants. In a Dec. 21 letter, Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell and state attorneys general around the nation told U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that it’s crucial for the federal government to “promptly take additional steps to bring much-needed relief to families, shelters, and social service programs here in the Commonwealth and throughout the country.” Campbell, who co-led the letter with Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and New York Attorney General Letitia James, noted that while the agency has taken steps to speed up work permits for migrants, moving them out of the shelter system and into the workforce, “new arrivals in Massachusetts and across the country continue to experience delays in being granted work permits to support themselves and their families.” As a result, “our state and our social services continue to bear excessive and avoidable burdens as a result,” Campbell and her colleagues wrote. State attorneys general from Arizona, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington also signed the letter. Federal officials traveled to Massachusetts in November for a legal clinic aimed at helping new arrivals obtain work authorizations. In a year-end interview with MassLive, Healey touted the success of that effort, and continued to call for federal support. “My approach has been ‘Let’s get people housed, let’s get people working,’” the Democratic governor said. “I think 2,000 [people] were processed recently, and that’s going to be really important to exiting people,” from the system. In November, Democratic U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, of Massachusetts, joined by a half-dozen of their colleagues, issued a similar call to the Biden administration, urging officials to improve migrants’ access to the nation’s work authorization system, arguing that it’s “essential to allowing new arrivals to enter the formal labor market.” Federal officials recently announced a series of changes to reduce work authorization processing delays, according to Campbell’s office. They included: Decreasing the average work authorization processing time for certain parolees to 30 days; Increasing the time period during which a work authorization is valid to up to five years for asylum seekers and refugees; Ensuring that the parole period for Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan parolees is generally two years, and Notifying certain parolees of their eligibility to apply for work authorization. In their letter last week, Campbell and her colleagues urged additional steps to expedite the work authorization process, including provisional work authorizations, eliminating fees, and further streamlining the application process to “relieve burdens on migrants and DHS.” As of Wednesday, 7,513 families, roughly half of whom are Massachusetts residents, were enrolled in the state’s emergency shelter system, data showed, with 21 families entering the system within the last 24 hours. A year-end budget approved by lawmakers, and signed by Healey, provided a $250 million infusion of taxpayer cash for the shelter system. It also authorized the creation of an overflow site after the state reached its self-imposed cap of 7,500 families. Healey’s office has estimated that the tab the shelter system will hit as much as $2 billion over the next two years.

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Southwick Conservation Commission approves outlay to acquire Middle Pond parcel

SOUTHWICK — The Conservation Commission approved covering the cost of acquiring a parcel of property its owner wants to donate to the town on the Middle Pond of Congamond Lake at its meeting Monday night. “Here’s my favorite one,” said Commission Vice Chair Dennis Clark about the commission’s agenda item to appropriate the money needed to pay the legal fees and for a survey needed for the town to accept the lot at 13 Berkshire Ave.

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Ann Arbor School Board Set to Vote on Israel-Gaza Ceasefire Resolution

Update: The Ann Arbor school board voted in support of a cease-fire in Gaza. The public school district in Ann Arbor, Mich., is looking to hire a new superintendent. It is building several new schools. And it is revamping how it teaches young children to read. But over the past month, the Board of Education has debated many hours over whether to support a resolution calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Gaza war. The closely divided board is now set to vote on that resolution on Wednesday, and could become one of the first public school systems in the country to pass such a statement. Supporters of the proposed resolution, including the board’s Palestinian American president and a Jewish trustee, have said that the statement is an urgent moral necessity amid a humanitarian crisis. A few opponents of the resolution have said that they oppose a cease-fire because Israel has the right to defeat Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, after the Oct. 7 attacks.

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Even if Nikki Haley Shocks Trump in New Hampshire, It Wont Matter - The New York Times

Nikki Haley did well enough in the Iowa caucuses Monday night to keep her supporters’ hopes alive. But her third-place showing, on the heels of Ron DeSantis and a mile behind Donald Trump, was also just disappointing enough to raise doubts about her candidacy. Her plan coming out of Iowa is a classic underdog strategy: Use strong early results to upend expectations in the contests to come, reshaping the dynamic of the race one upset victory at a time. So, the thinking goes, her solid-enough performance in Iowa will propel her higher in New Hampshire, where she holds a strong second place in the polls. It’s possible. But even if Ms. Haley does well in New Hampshire, it won’t matter. That’s because Ms. Haley is starkly out of step with the evolution of her party over the past decade. The shape of today’s Republican electorate can be seen most clearly in national polling of Republican voters, where Mr. Trump has led by a substantial margin for months. Even in the unlikely event that all the voters who have told pollsters in recent weeks that they support Mr. DeSantis, Chris Christie and the former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson switched over to Ms. Haley, she would reach only the high 20s, placing her more than 30 points behind Mr. Trump, who sits at around 60 percent. (The voters who have said they support Vivek Ramaswamy, who dropped out of the race on Monday night, would likely switch to Mr. Trump.)

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National Bacon Day ushers in Californias new animal welfare standards

Sign up for The Meltdown, a weekly newsletter highlighting the latest apocalyptic dramas, debunking climate myths, and sharing sustainability hacks, all while arming you with information to hold polluters and the government accountable. Enter your email to subscribe. On the first day of the new year, California’s Proposition 12 animal welfare statute will go into effect. The groundbreaking new law, also known as the Farm Animal Confinement Initiative, sets new standards for how certain farm animals are treated. It ensures animals have more space and bans the sale of non-compliant products. In particular, the law will effectively ban California’s pig gestation crates, which are basically cramped areas that confine pregnant sows for months at a time. The law also prohibits businesses from selling eggs, pork, and veal from animals housed in conditions that don’t meet the newest standards. The National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation challenged the law in the U.S. Supreme Court but lost 5-4. However, Congressional Republicans hope to pass the EATS Act, which would likely end Proposition 12 and other animal welfare laws nationwide, not that there are many. The law ensures that businesses can participate in interstate commerce without being hindered by other state laws. The conditions and ways in which pigs are treated are often described by animal rights campaigners as cruel and exploitative. Most don’t live long, and the ones that do spend most of their lives in horrible conditions, especially sows. Multiple undercover investigations have shown the horrific conditions inside multiple types of pig farms, where even the minimal laws and regulations are flouted. Female pigs, or sows, are artificially inseminated and give birth to large litters while confined in small gestation crates that completely restrict their movement for months at a time, according to a report by The Humane League, a Maryland-based animal rights group. The sows will spend most of their fertile lives in the creates, which are just big enough for their bodies. Once they are no longer needed, they are euthanized. The sows exhibited natural maternal instincts, noted the report, yet experienced distress when separated from their piglets at just three weeks, much earlier than the 10-to-17-week period seen among other types of pigs outside of farms. Male piglets undergo painful castrations, often without anesthetic, to alter the smell and taste of their meat. Similarly, pigs’ tails are clipped also without pain relief to prevent tail-biting in cramped conditions. Ear notching is another painful practice used for identification in overcrowded farms. The pigs are bred to grow rapidly, reaching market weight in six months. This fast growth leads to health issues like arthritis, and they often endure long, harsh transport conditions to slaughterhouses without food or water, leading to illness or death. At slaughterhouses, pigs face inhumane killing methods, sometimes remaining conscious during the process. A typical slaughterhouse will kill more than 1,000 baby pigs every hour, according to the Humane League report. Because of the speed at which the pigs are killed, activists say it’s not guaranteed they are entirely dead when lowered into boiling water to remove hair. While the vast majority of Americans eat bacon, approximately 268 million in 2020, many are unhappy about how the pigs are treated. Among pork-buying Americans, 66% found the use of gestation crates objectionable, according to a 2021 study. Over 50% were also not happy about the tails of piglets being clipped. Nearly 80% said they’d instead buy pork from a company that committed to ending the confinement of pregnant pigs. Despite the well-known and awful conditions pigs are forced to live in and the subsequent public disapproval, very few states have pig welfare statutes in place. By 2026, ten states will have a gestation crate ban. That will cover less than 8% of the U.S. hog breeding inventory. But if EATS passes, those bans may be repealed.

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U.N. Says Hundreds of Refugees Are Adrift in Andaman Sea

The United Nations refugee agency said on Tuesday that about 400 people were believed to be stranded on two boats adrift in the Andaman Sea, calling on nearby governments to help rescue them. Most of them are believed to be members of the Rohingya ethnic group, a persecuted Muslim minority, the U.N. agency said. More than a million Rohingya have fled state persecution and massacre in Myanmar in recent years and now live in desperate conditions in refugee camps in Bangladesh. Thousands more have made high-risk journeys across the Andaman Sea in rickety boats, often headed for countries in Southeast Asia. Babar Baloch, a spokesman in Bangkok for the agency, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said the two boats’ precise locations were unknown and that it was not clear which country they had departed from, but that they appeared to have been at sea for at least two weeks. He said the agency knew about the boats based on conversations with relatives of people aboard and human rights workers who had spoken with them by telephone, but that it did not have details about the passengers’ conditions.

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Why Iran Is the Common Link in Conflicts From Gaza to Pakistan

Israel and Gaza. Yemen and the Red Sea. Lebanon, Syria, Iraq — and now Pakistan, too. At every flashpoint in a set of conflicts spanning 1,800 miles and involving a hodgepodge of unpredictable armed actors and interests, there’s been a common thread: Iran. Tehran has left its imprint with its behind-the-scenes-backing of combatants in places like Lebanon and Yemen, and with this week’s direct missile strikes on targets in Iraq, Syria and Pakistan. The Iran connection stems partly from Iran’s decades-long efforts to deter threats and undermine foes by building up like-minded militias across the Middle East. In addition, Iran itself, like neighboring countries, faces armed separatist movements and terrorist groups in conflicts that readily spill over borders.

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Vital Crossing Between Mexico and Arizona Set to Reopen This Week

A remote Arizona border crossing that was shuttered last month to help strained immigration authorities cope with a surge in migrants in the nearby desert will reopen this week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said on Tuesday evening. The agency did not explain why it had decided to reopen the crossing, and it did not say whether there had been any recent shift in the daily arrival of hundreds of migrants who unlawfully slip through gaps in the border wall in the deserts before surrendering to immigration authorities. The crossing in the tiny border town of Lukeville, Ariz., was a legal passage between Mexico and the United States vital to workers, families and businesses. Roughly 2,000 to 3,000 people a day crossed north, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. The next-closest crossing is several hours away by car. The closure of the Lukeville crossing point on Dec. 4 had crippled local economies in Arizona towns that rely on a steady stream of tourists traveling south to the Mexican beach town of Puerto Peñasco, and had drawn condemnations from residents and elected officials alike.

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Opinion | A Warning About Donald Trump and 2024

If in 2016 various factions of the electorate were prepared to look beyond Mr. Trump’s bombast in the hope that he might deliver whatever it was they wanted without too much damage to the nation, today there is no mystery about what he will do should he win, about the sorts of people he will surround himself with and the personal and political goals he will pursue. There is no mystery, either, about the consequences for the world if America re-elects a leader who openly displays his contempt for its allies. Mr. Trump’s four years in the White House did lasting damage to the presidency and to the nation. He deepened existing divisions among Americans, leaving the country dangerously polarized; he so demeaned public discourse that many Americans have become inured to lies, insults and personal attacks at the highest levels of leadership. His contempt for the rule of law raised concerns about the long-term stability of American democracy, and his absence of a moral compass threatened to corrode the ideals of national service. The Republic weathered Mr. Trump’s presidency for a variety of reasons: his lack of prepared agenda, the disruptions of the Covid-19 pandemic and the efforts of appointees who tried to temper his most dangerous or unreasonable demands. Most important, it survived because of the people and institutions in his administration and in the Republican Party who proved strong enough to stand up to his efforts to undermine the peaceful transfer of power. It is instructive in the aftermath of that administration to listen to the judgments of some of these officials on the president they served. John Kelly, a chief of staff to Mr. Trump, called him the “most flawed person I’ve ever met,” someone who could not understand why Americans admired those who sacrificed their lives in combat. Bill Barr, who served as attorney general, and Mark Esper, a former defense secretary, both said Mr. Trump repeatedly put his own interests over those of the country. Even the most loyal and conservative of them all, Vice President Mike Pence, who made the stand that helped provoke Mr. Trump and his followers to insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, saw through the man: “On that day, President Trump also demanded that I choose between him and the Constitution,” he said. There will not be people like these in the White House should Mr. Trump be re-elected. The former president has no interest in being restrained, and he has surrounded himself with people who want to institutionalize the MAGA doctrine. According to reporting by the Times reporters Maggie Haberman, Charlie Savage and Jonathan Swan, Mr. Trump and his ideological allies have been planning for a second Trump term for many months already. Under the name Project 2025, one coalition of right-wing organizations has produced a thick handbook and recruited thousands of potential appointees in preparation for an all-out assault on the structures of American government and the democratic institutions that acted as checks on Mr. Trump’s power.

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Displaced Gazans in the South Facing Dangers They Had Sought to Escape

The Israeli military warned on Friday that it was stepping up operations in the southern Gaza Strip, where hundreds of thousands of people had fled to safety, while hospital officials said Israel bombed an area in the south where it had ordered civilians to seek shelter. At least 18 people were killed and dozens of others injured near Kuwait Specialty Hospital on Thursday, according to hospital staff members, who said the strike had hit a house in Rafah, near the border with Egypt. On Friday, the Israeli military said it had “executed a strike” against a former battalion commander of the militant group the Palestinian Islamic Jihad who was in a structure near the Kuwaiti hospital. An Israeli defense official also said that, as an “essential” stage in the war to eliminate Hamas, the military had carried out a series of attacks over the past day in Khan Younis, the biggest city in south Gaza, using airstrikes, sniper fire and tank rounds.

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The Story Ron DeSantis Does Not Tell Is His Own

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida has a classic American dream story. He hardly ever tells it. A middle-class kid, his baseball skills helped take his team to the Little League World Series — not that many Iowans would know it, despite his visits to all 99 of the state’s counties throughout his campaign for the Republican nomination. After graduating from Harvard Law School, he chose to join the Navy and deployed to Iraq, which he usually mentions only in passing. His wife, Casey DeSantis, was diagnosed with breast cancer early in his governorship, but he almost never talks about what it took to support her through it — while raising three young children — or what he learned. And although Mr. DeSantis frequently appears with his children on the trail, he is more likely to describe them by their ages (7, 5 and 3) than their names (Madison, Mason and Mamie). Even Ms. DeSantis, a former newscaster who is seen as providing a human touch, tends to call him “the governor” instead of “Ron” at his rallies. If there were ever a time for Mr. DeSantis to tell more of his bootstrap biography it would be now, as his hopes of a strong finish in the Iowa caucuses, and perhaps his entire presidential campaign, seem to be ebbing away. He trails former President Donald J. Trump by more than 35 points in Iowa and will almost certainly fare worse in New Hampshire on Jan. 23. Former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina has overtaken him in most polls.

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U.S. Missiles Strike Targets in Yemen Linked to the Houthi Militia

In a statement, he warned: “I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary.” But the Houthis have defied earlier American ultimatums, vowing to continue their attacks in what they say is a protest against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. More than 2,000 ships have been forced to divert thousands of miles to avoid the Red Sea, causing weeks of delays, Mr. Biden said. On Tuesday, American and British warships intercepted one of the largest barrages of Houthi drone and missile strikes yet, an assault that U.S. and other Western military officials said was the last straw. Biden officials said they had telegraphed what was coming for weeks. But the strikes, they said, were meant more to damage Houthi capability and to hinder the group’s ability to strike Red Sea targets, rather than to kill leaders and Iranian trainers, which could be viewed as more escalatory. The strikes hit radars, missile and drone launch sites, and weapons storage areas, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said in a statement. Pentagon officials said late Thursday they were still assessing whether the strikes were successful, and emphasized that they had sought to avoid any civilian casualties.

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Allegations Against Prosecutors Bolster Trumps Criticism of Georgia Case

It seemed an unusual choice when Fani T. Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, Ga., turned to a suburban defense lawyer to oversee what seemed the biggest task of her career: building an election interference case against former President Donald J. Trump. Nathan Wade, whom Ms. Willis tapped for the job, had little experience as a prosecutor. But he was a trusted friend and mentor, she said in 2022, willing to take the job when more seasoned prosecutors were not. Now the relationship between Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade has taken center stage in the Georgia case against Mr. Trump, who is awaiting trial along with 14 co-defendants on charges of conspiring to overturn the former president’s 2020 election defeat in the state. On Monday, a lawyer for one of the co-defendants, Michael A. Roman, charged in a court filing that Ms. Willis and Mr. Wade were romantic partners who were “profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers.” Without offering any proof, the filing accused the two of taking vacations together with money Mr. Wade had made while working for Ms. Willis’s office as a special prosecutor. In all, the office has paid Mr. Wade $653,881, according to county records.

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The Supreme Court Helped Trumps Delay Strategy. By How Much Remains to Be Seen.

Here is a look at what’s ahead. What issue is Mr. Trump appealing? Mr. Trump is attempting to get the entire indictment against him tossed out with an argument that has never before been tested by the courts — largely because no one else has ever made it this way. He is claiming that he is absolutely immune to criminal prosecution on the charges of election interference because they stem from acts he took while he was in the White House. Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is handling the underlying case in Federal District Court in Washington, rejected that claim earlier this month in a decision that found there was nothing in the Constitution or American history supporting the idea that the holder of the nation’s highest position, once out of office, should not be subject to the federal criminal law like everybody else. Mr. Trump appealed the decision to the first court above Judge Chutkan’s: the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. But fearing that a protracted appeal could delay the case from going to trial as scheduled in March, Jack Smith, the special counsel who filed the indictment, made an unusual request to the Supreme Court: He asked the justices to step in front of the appeals court and consider the case first to speed up the process and preserve the current trial date. On Friday, in a one-sentence order, the Supreme Court turned down Mr. Smith’s request. Where will the case be heard now? The appeals court in Washington will hear the immunity matter. In fact, the court will do so on a schedule that is extremely accelerated by judicial standards.

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Massachusetts shelter site at state transportation building closing, families transitioned to Quincy

An overnight shelter at the state’s transportation building in Boston shuttered its doors Friday, as officials transitioned local and migrant homeless families staying there to a college dorm in Quincy. The roughly three weeks families stayed in the building marked one of the first times Gov. Maura Healey turned to a state-owned building in downtown Boston to house those waiting for shelter placement. Operations at the transportation building will shift to Eastern Nazarene College, where the Healey administration previously said they contracted Australian-based AMI Expeditionary Healthcare to run a temporary shelter. A contract between the state and the organization obtained through a public records request authorizes up to $11.5 million in spending for two temporary shelter sites, the locations of which were redacted in the document provided to the Herald. Emergency Assistance Director Lt. Gen. Scott Rice said the Healey administration will also open an additional site in Revere where families with children and pregnant people applying for emergency shelter will undergo clinical and safety risk assessments. “We greatly appreciate the collaboration of MassDOT, MBTA, MEMA and other state agencies who stepped up to make sure families had a safe, warm place to stay,” Rice said in a statement Thursday afternoon. The temporary shelter in Quincy can house up to 57 families, and stays will not be limited to overnight as they were in the transportation building, a spokesperson for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities said. The Eastern Nazarene College site first served as a temporary shelter before transitioning to a screening site for families applying for emergency assistance. The Healey administration also set up an intake center at the college that is run by Bay State Community Services. After emergency shelters in Massachusetts reached Healey’s self-imposed limit of 7,500 families, officials turned to the transportation building to temporarily house families and pregnant people overnight. A nearby YMCA offered day services for families staying at the state building. The contract to run temporary shelter services in between the Executive Office of Health and Human Services and Australian-based AMI Expeditionary Healthcare sets a max spending limit of $11.5 million. The agreement runs from June 26 through Dec. 29, with options to extend up to six more months. A spokesperson for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services said AMI Expeditionary Health “has not come close” to spending $11.5 million. The contract lays out two types of shelters, a full-service site with meals, security, transportation, and a limited location with only a fraction of the offerings. The full-service site can run an up to $1.7 million monthly tab, while the limited site can spend up to $196,000 a month, according to the contract. AMI Expeditionary Healthcare is required to provides shelter guests with services like regular housekeeping and cleaning services, laundry services, three meals a day, security, internet access, “specific transportation services,” furniture for rooms, and basic clinical services like health screenings. An AMI Expeditionary Healthcare official referred questions to the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. The Executive Office of Health and Human Services said state officials “negotiated extensively with AMI on costs, which are in line with cost projections from companies who are also able to rapidly expand shelter provider capacity and provide stand-up operations.” The spokesperson said in a statement, “AMI has considerable experience in this field and has worked with multiple federal agencies and international entities engaged in crisis response.”

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War or No War, Many Older Ukrainians Want to Stay Put

They sit in ones and twos in half-destroyed homes. They shelter in musty basements marked in chalk with “people underground” — a message to whichever troops happen to be fighting that day. They venture out to visit cemeteries and reminisce about any time other than now. Ukraine’s elderly are often the only people who remain along the country’s hundreds of miles of front line. Some waited their entire lives to enjoy their twilight years, only to have been left in a purgatory of loneliness. Homes built with their own hands are now crumbling walls and blown-out windows, with framed photographs of loved ones living far away. Some people have already buried their children, and their only wish is to stay close so they can be buried next to them. But it does not always work out that way. “I’ve lived through two wars,” said Iraida Kurylo, 83, whose hands shook as she recalled her mother screaming when her father was killed in World War II.

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Crews respond to water main break in Boston - Boston News, Weather, Sports

BOSTON (WHDH) - An intersection in Boston was blocked off late Friday as crews responded to a water main break. The break near Tremont and Stuart streets left water gushing out of a manhole cover. The cause of the break remains under investigation. This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details. (Copyright (c) 2023 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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When Will New York Solve Its Housing Crisis? Probably Not This Year.

It seemed like 2023 would be the year New York did something big to help solve its housing crisis. As skyrocketing rents punished residents, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party rallied around new safeguards for tenants. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a centrist Democrat, vowed to build more homes in the suburbs. The real estate industry seemed open to revamping a coveted tax break for developers in ways that would make new apartments more affordable to rent. Instead, lawmakers went home without doing much at all. Now, state leaders will get another try. The 2024 legislative session, set to begin on Wednesday, will again test New York State’s willingness to tackle one of its most debilitating problems. The context this year is in some ways worse than it was in 2023. A surge of migrants arriving in New York City has overwhelmed its homeless shelter system. High interest rates and the expiration of the tax break, known as 421a, have slowed apartment construction to a trickle, threatening to deepen the city’s housing shortage. Rents and home prices remain among the highest in the nation, straining everyday life for the lowest-income New Yorkers and driving the middle class away in droves. Yet interviews with state and city officials, housing experts and advocates suggest the chances of a major deal in Albany are mixed at best.

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Israeli Military Releases New Details on Killing of 3 Hostages

New details released by the Israeli military about the accidental killing of three Israeli hostages in Gaza City include that there was a gap of 15 minutes between the fatal shootings of the first two hostages and the third and that a commander had urged the third hostage to come out of hiding just before he was fatally shot. Among other new details were that the lookout soldiers who fired the bullets that killed the third hostage did not hear an order to hold fire. The Israeli army has been under intense pressure from the families of the hostages and the general public to investigate and explain how the three hostages, who had stripped from the waist up to show they were unarmed and were holding a makeshift white flag, could have been shot by Israeli soldiers. The army has taken full responsibility for the Dec. 15 incident and has said that the soldiers involved in the shooting violated the military’s rules of engagement but did not act with malicious intent. The latest account, released late on Thursday, consists of a 10-bullet statement, accompanied by photos from the ground and air and a map showing locations of significance in relation to the spot where the hostages were killed. It offers new details and adds perspective to previous disclosures, portraying the soldiers involved as having been engaged in intense and prolonged fighting and as extremely wary of Hamas ruses. Just days before the hostages were shot, two senior Israeli commanders and seven other soldiers were killed in a Hamas ambush in the same area, Shejaiye.

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Trumps Classified Documents Inquiry

Molly Michael, a former assistant to Donald Trump, told investigators he had instructed her not to tell them about classified files he kept at Mar-a-Lago: “You don’t know anything about the boxes.” By Maggie Haberman and

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Trump Turns on Ramaswamy Just Days Before the Iowa Caucuses

Former President Donald J. Trump attacked Vivek Ramaswamy, who is most closely aligned with him in the race for the Republican nomination, accusing the wealthy entrepreneur of engaging in “deceitful campaign tricks.” "A vote for Vivek is a vote for the ‘other side’ — don’t get duped by this,” Mr. Trump said on social media, adding that “Vivek is not MAGA.” An hour earlier, a senior adviser for Mr. Trump, Chris LaCivita, also attacked Mr. Ramaswamy on social media as a “fraud” in response to a photo showing supporters of Mr. Ramaswamy wearing shirts displaying Mr. Trump’s mug shot that said “Save Trump, vote Vivek.” The attacks from Mr. Trump and one of his top aides in quick succession suggest that the Trump campaign has deliberately shifted toward attacking Mr. Ramaswamy in the final days before Monday’s Iowa caucuses.

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Supreme Court Wont Hear Case on Trumps Immunity Defense for Now

The Supreme Court declined on Friday to decide for now whether former President Donald J. Trump is immune from prosecution on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. The decision to defer consideration of a central issue in the case was a major practical victory for Mr. Trump, whose lawyers have consistently sought to delay criminal cases against him around the country. It is unclear what the court’s order will mean for the timing of the trial, which is scheduled to start on March 4, though it makes postponement more likely. The case will now move forward in an appeals court, which has put it on a fast track, and most likely return to the Supreme Court in the coming weeks or months. In denying review, the justices gave no reasons, which is typical, and there were no noted dissents.

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Springfield has almost fixed water main break-caused washout. But who will pay?

SPRINGFIELD — Work is nearly complete repairing the washout and water main rupture off St. James and Liberty streets. In September, parts of Massachusetts got seven to 10 inches of rain and particularly heavy storms delivered four inches of rain Sept. 11 to 13. The storm washed out a culvert and caused a burst in a 36-inch high-pressure water main in the woods behind the Big Y Plaza on Liberty Street.

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In first State of the Commonwealth, Mass. Gov. Healey goes big. Can she get there? | Analysis

If there’s been a principle that’s guided Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey in the year since she took office, it’s the vision of a commonwealth that’s “more affordable, more competitive, and more equitable.” And as she took the rostrum in the state House chamber for her first State of the Commonwealth speech on Wednesday night, that message had rarely seemed as urgent, but also as difficult to achieve. Which is not to say she wasn’t going to try. “Yes, our economy is strong – Massachusetts has more jobs than ever before, and unemployment has been at all-time lows,” Healey told a joint session of the state House and Senate, along with family, guests, and dignitaries, who had crammed into the ornate room to hear her speak. “But we also know prices are high, and too many families have a hard time making ends meet. Many of us understand what that’s like,” she continued, her voice breaking at points. “I think about my own mom, raising five kids alone. One night, we were sitting around the kitchen table, and I could see she was hiding tears. She quietly asked my brother if she could use his savings from yard work and babysitting to pay the taxes. He was 11. “People do what they have to do, to get by. I get that,” she said in a speech that stretched to a little more than 56 minutes. “As I see it, government should be there to make life easier, not harder.” But as Healey and her allies set about that work, two realities were difficult to avoid. The speech came little more than a week after the Arlington Democrat, confronted with flagging tax revenues, had to trim $375 million from the state budget, implementing a round of reductions that has left few areas of public life untouched. The commonwealth collected nearly $3.8 billion in taxes last month. That’s $82 million, or 2.1%, less than collections at the same time in 2022; and $138 million, or 3.5%, behind official benchmarks, MassLive previously reported. Year-to-date collections totaled $17.86 billion, which was $60 million, or 0.3%, ahead of collections at the same time in 2023, but still $769 million, or 4.1%, behind projections, according to the Revenue Department. Despite those sluggish tax collections, Healey also highlighted the benefits of a $1 billion tax relief bill, which delivers breaks to renters, families, seniors, and businesses across the commonwealth. “You’ll see the savings when you file your returns in April,” Healey boasted. It also came as the Democratic administration and the Legislature contend with the spiraling cost of the commonwealth’s emergency shelter system, which is expected to approach nearly $1 billion a year over the next two years. Healey acknowledged some of those heavy lifts on Wednesday night, telling the audience that she doesn’t “underestimate the challenges we face. Costs are too high for housing and childcare. “Our schools are the best, but not for every student. Congested roads and slow trains steal our time and our joy. It’s frustrating,” Healey continued. “And while many of our industries lead the world, the competition is only getting tougher.” The broad contours of Healey’s remarks were public hours before the Harvard-trained, former state attorney general stepped to the microphone, with schools and the economy expected to feature prominently. And they did, with new initiatives, such as a new state literacy program, increased funding for childcare, expanded mental health funding, and a long-sought and permanent Disaster Relief Resiliency Fund, also making their debut. Healey touted the programs underwritten by the state’s year-old Millionaire’s Tax, the additional 4% levy on anyone making more than $1 million a year. That includes free school meals, reduced-price community college for tens of thousands of students, and tuition assistance at the commonwealth’s public colleges and universities. Roxbury resident Danita Mends, who was in the crowd Wednesday night, was among those who benefited from the state’s community college program, known as MassReconnect. Mends took advantage of the program, enrolling at MassBay Community College. Mends has called the opportunity “life-changing,” Healey said. “Thanks to MassReconnect, student enrollment in public higher education grew last fall for the first time in 10 years,” Healey told lawmakers in remarks prepared for delivery. “That’s a big deal – for students, for employers who will benefit from [a] higher skilled workforce, and for our economy.” The MBTA and transportation In a year-end interview with MassLive, Healey argued that the state could not have “a functioning economy without a functioning public transit system,” as she addressed ongoing maintenance and safety issues at the nation’s oldest subway system. Healey has pointed to her appointment of T General Manager and CEO Phillip Eng as a critical first step toward addressing many of those challenges. Even so, the mass transit agency anticipates an operating deficit running to the hundreds of millions of dollars in the next few years, according to State House News Service. And officials have said it will cost $24.5 billion to make the sweeping repairs needed across the system. On Wednesday, Healey said she would “double [state] support for MBTA operations, and tackle deferred maintenance, to build a system worthy of our economy,” as well as “establish a permanent, reduced fare for low-income T riders; and continue affordable options at regional transit authorities.” Finally, to address the state’s long-term transportation needs, Healey said she planned to “appoint a task force of public and private leaders to chart a course for transportation financing in the clean energy era. “Under my administration, we will not kick this can down the road any longer,” she said. Healey also highlighted the administration’s successful effort to bring back some $3 billion in federal funding for transportation and infrastructure projects across the country. That included $108 million to advance East-West passenger rail in Springfield, Pittsfield, Palmer, and Worcester, as well as $372 million to begin rebuilding the Cape Cod bridges. The budget plan the administration will unveil next week also calls for “transformative investments” in transportation, with “special investments dedicated to rural communities,” the governor said. Housing Healey has said unraveling the housing knot is the administration’s top priority. It also will be the most challenging. Still, lawmakers have been slow to move on the proposal, even though the front office delivered its $4.12 billion housing bond bill proposal to them last fall. “We have to act — and we have to act now — to make it easier for everyone to find an affordable place to live in Massachusetts,” she said. A legislative panel is slated to hold its first hearing on the plan on Thursday, which Healey said will “inject hundreds of millions of dollars into building programs and first-time homebuyer programs.” The proposal also will “reduce barriers to housing production and give communities the tools to develop more housing where they need it,” Healey continued, specifically pointing to a new state law aimed at encouraging new housing development in communities along the T. “The truth is, our housing crisis cannot be fixed by 351 cities and towns each going it alone. We are in this together. That’s also why we’re committed to helping towns meet the MBTA Communities Law,” Healey said. “For Massachusetts to succeed, every community must embrace the opportunity that new housing affords: For the next generation to invest in their hometown,” she concluded. “To help seniors age in place. To keep more talent and customers fueling local businesses. To lower costs and unleash people’s full potential.” Shelters Perhaps no public policy has come to symbolize the challenge Healey has faced in crafting a commonwealth that is both more competitive and more equitable than the state’s emergency shelter crisis, which has seen the Democratic administration struggling to find a way to house and provide services to thousands of families — many of them new arrivals. Healey told lawmakers Wednesday that she’s proud of the way the state has “stepped up with compassion” to approach the crisis, even as she repeated a familiar call for lawmakers on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., to step up and help state governments. “This is a hard issue, with no easy answers. And I want to be clear: Massachusetts did not create this problem. We will continue to demand Congress take action to fix the border and get us funding to cover our costs,” Healey said. She also pointed to legal clinics last fall, held in conjunction with federal officials, that resulted in “nearly 3,000 newcomers” obtaining work permits. As a part of the agreement that led to passage of the supplemental budget, Healey’s office must now provide regular reports to lawmakers on the state of the system. And heading into Wednesday night, one top Democrat already had said the system’s mounting costs were getting harder to support. Speaking to reporters after Healey’s speech, that lawmaker, state House Speaker Ron Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, said Healey delivered a “very enthusiastic, very energetic,” speech with “a lot of great ideas, some things we’ve supported.” Schools and Early Childhood Ed. On Tuesday, Healey announced plans to pursue about $113 million in new child care spending in her fiscal year 2025 budget proposal, which will also request another $475 million in grants to continue supporting early education providers, State House News Service reported. On Tuesday, Healey and other officials traveled to a child care facility in Malden, where she recalled meeting “some dedicated early educators – and some very cute kids – having fun and learning important skills in their pre-K classrooms.” The Democrat also called for universal pre-K access for every 4-year-old in the state, with “access to high-quality, affordable preschool for every 4-year-old in all 26 Gateway Cities,” by 2026. That means “a seat in a classroom for over 23,000 children,” she said. Healey also announced another new program, “Literacy Launch,” that aims to improve childhood literacy by making “the best reading materials available to more districts,” and by “mandating that educator training programs teach evidence-based instruction. “Massachusetts is home to the first public school, first college, and first library. We are going to be first in literacy, too,” Healey said. “Every child in this state needs to be able to read and read well – and we’re going to give them the tools to do just that.” The Republican rebuttal While they recognized Healey’s grand ambitions, legislative Republicans seized on the challenges facing the state and the difficulties Healey will confront when it comes to delivering them. In a rebuttal speech, state Sen. Peter Durant, R-Worcester, playing off a well-worn Republican theme, said citizens and policymakers “find ourselves asking some simple, yet familiar, questions: Are we better off today than we were 12 months ago? And are we headed in a direction that will make us better off? “Unfortunately, for too many families the answer is ‘no,’” Durant said in remarks prepared for delivery on Wednesday night. Durant’s very presence in the Senate, in fact, is testament to the political challenges that Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll have had to navigate, not just among Republicans, but her fellow Democrats as well. A former state House lawmaker, Durant flipped a seat that opened up when Healey convinced former Democratic Sen. Anne Gobi to join her administration last year. Durant’s win energized a state Republican Party that largely had been viewed as moribund, and Republicans ended up playing a key role in untangling the policy knot that was last year’s debate over the $3.1 billion supplemental budget that delivered a badly needed, $250 million infusion (with strings attached) to the shelter system. Republicans, for their part, said they plan to play a vigorous role in the budget debate. “I think it will be, as usual, the interesting interplay between the House and the Senate. ... Maybe it’s going to be a challenge ... the House may like certain other proposals, the Senate may like certain other deliverables,” House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones Jr., R-20th Middlesex, told reporters after Healey’s speech. “And the question is, are they going to be able to control themselves so that they don’t embrace all the proposals in a way that means that it’s unsustainable ... and unaffordable.” Flipping the script on Healey, meanwhile, Durant argued that the commonwealth “has become less affordable, our state finances are in trouble, we have a migrant crisis costing us billions of dollars per year, an educational system that is struggling to meet the needs of our students, and a health care system that has hospitals bursting at the seams.” Policymakers, Durant argued, had to come up with some plausible solutions. “The governor has put some very lofty goals for us to achieve as a Commonwealth. And we are very eager to work on those goals,” Durant offered. “However, we can’t become a competitive state once again if we have a failed policy on one side of the spectrum that requires billions today and billions more tomorrow. “We can have a brighter future in Massachusetts if we come together to solve the financial burden taking over our state,” Durant said. That brighter future also was the one Healey was reaching for Wednesday night. Whether she and lawmakers can get there together, and deliver it to Bay State residents, is an open question.

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Opinion | How Could the Supreme Court Respond to Colorado?

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. david firestone Hi I’m David Firestone, an editor on the editorial board of the New York Times. jesse wegman And I’m Jesse Wegman, a writer on the editorial board, and I cover the Supreme Court, law and politics. david firestone And Jesse, we are going to talk about that rather remarkable ruling that came out of the Colorado Supreme Court. They ruled that Donald Trump is disqualified to be on the 2024 primary ballot in Colorado, which could have national implications. You’ve written a bunch about this. Were you surprised last night when you saw what the ruling was? jesse wegman Absolutely. I actually found out from you. I was getting my daughter ready for her basketball practice and not looking at the news. And I got your text, and it said something like, did you see what just happened in Colorado? And I thought, oh, man, I know what that’s about. And I wasn’t expecting it, I have to say. I just didn’t think a court of last resort anywhere would actually go there. david firestone Let’s step back for just a second and explain exactly what the ruling said and why they made this ruling and what the potential implications are. jesse wegman Right, so the ruling itself is, as you said, that Donald Trump is ineligible to be president because of his role in the insurrection on January 6th. Now where does that come from? It comes from the 14th Amendment — Section 3, in particular — that came about in the wake of the Civil War when there was a concern among the winning side that the former Confederates would try to reenter politics either at the federal or state level. And they didn’t want people who had just fought a war to overthrow the American government to be back inside that government. So they wrote this provision that said, if you engage in or aid and abet an insurrection after having previously sworn an oath to defend the Constitution, you may no longer hold any public office anywhere. The provision has almost never been invoked in the last 170 or so years since the Civil War. But as with so many things about American law and politics, Donald Trump has reintroduced us to features of our Constitution and our political history that we didn’t know about. Cases under the 14th Amendment Section 3 have been brought in multiple states. They’ve been dismissed in many of those states for various reasons. But in Colorado, it went all the way up to the state Supreme Court, and they ruled against Trump. david firestone It is a remarkable moment that this actually happened, that a state Supreme Court has said that a former president engaged in insurrection. jesse wegman It is. And I just think it’s another reminder that Donald Trump so often pushes the boundaries of what we expect from our leaders and brings us to places that we didn’t expect to go. There’s virtually no case law on Section 3 of the 14th Amendment because no prior president has ever tried to do anything like this. So every time a court rules on the issue, it is breaking new ground. And this one, it caught my breath when I saw your text, because I thought, wow, we’ve entered a new moment in American history where a court of last resort in one of the states has determined that a former president and potential future president is ineligible to serve and thus disqualified from appearing on the ballot. I think all Americans should see that and stop and think, is this the kind of debate we want to be having, or do we want to be choosing among candidates who are not testing the outer limits of legality and constitutionality? david firestone But it will go to the Supreme Court. Trump has vowed to appeal it. Do you think there’s any doubt that the US Supreme Court will take it, and what’s your guess about what its standing will be once the court decides to hear it? jesse wegman I think there’s no way the court can’t take this case. Now that said, how the court is going to rule when it takes this case, I think, is very much up in the air. Part of me thinks there’s just no way they’re going to rule in favor of the Colorado Court. They’re not going to uphold the ruling of the Supreme Court, because that would effectively have to tie all 50 states to the same standard and remove Trump from the ballot in all 50 states. I don’t think the Supreme Court is ready to take a step like that. At the same time, I think the legal analysis by the Supreme Court of Colorado is hard to argue with. And I think when you look at the way that this current US Supreme Court likes to talk and think about cases and history with its focus on originalism, the Colorado Supreme Court stayed pretty close to those values. And it’s going to be tough for the Supreme Court to talk its way out of that. david firestone You’ve been so critical in your editorials and essays of the conservative majority on the US Supreme Court. Do you think that they will make this decision based strictly on the legality, or will there be politics and partisanship involved? jesse wegman I think that’s such a hard question. I mean, there’s always politics involved in what the Supreme Court does, right? It’s an institution that exists at this uneasy crossroads of law and politics. And they know it, and we know it, even if it is rarely said. I do think you have several justices on that court who have not hidden their partisan and ideological preferences. And I’m thinking specifically of Justices Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito, who really seem in the tank for Trump. I think Chief Justice Roberts he carries the burden of being the chief of this court heavily, and I think he knows that the institution’s legitimacy is in grave danger right now because of the behavior of the justices to his right. Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh, I think, are also a little less extreme than their colleagues Justices Thomas and Alito. But I think in the end, the most important number at the court, as they say, is five. You need to get five votes. Can the Colorado Supreme Court ruling get five votes to uphold it? I think it’s an open question, and I’m less certain than I might have been in recent weeks or months that the court is just going to strike this down. david firestone Let’s get to the meat of this decision. You’ve in the past been a little ambivalent about whether this is the right way to approach Trump’s re-election. There’s certainly an argument that people have made that this is an anti-democratic move, because it deprives the voters of a choice. Where in the end do you come down on this after seeing this decision? jesse wegman Well, you’re right that I’ve been ambivalent about it in my pieces that have touched on this topic over the last year. Plus I feel like I have been going back and forth, because I think it’s a genuinely tough problem. And I think there’s good arguments on both sides. Let’s, though, dispense first with the anti-democratic argument. There is nothing anti-democratic about imposing qualifications for holding public office of any kind. And certainly the office of the presidency, there are already several eligibility rules in the Constitution that nobody raises a stink about. For example, the president must be 35 or older. The president must be a natural born citizen. These are qualifications that eliminate millions of people from the office of the presidency, and nobody says they’re anti-democratic. And so I think if we’re going to have eligibility rules for the presidency, it’s pretty reasonable to have one that says, by the way, you don’t get to lead a country that you tried to overthrow. These are people who pose a unique threat to the Republic. In a way, a far greater threat than a 34-year-old would or a non-natural-born citizen would. Now in this case, is it the right way to go? And that’s where I think you’re right to point out my ambivalence. I always would prefer to see in electoral politics the results be driven almost primarily, if not exclusively, by what people want. It’s why I argue against the electoral college. And you could make that same argument in this case. You could say when you take Donald Trump off the ballot, you are depriving the people of full and free choice of who they want for president. And that’s true. But the people already had an opportunity to weigh in. They overwhelmingly rejected Donald Trump in 2020. So it doesn’t really bother me in the same way as it did maybe a year ago. david firestone I’m trying to imagine the look on John Roberts’s face when he found out last night that he and his colleagues are going to have to deal with this. They’ve got so much Trump on their plate for the next few weeks and months. This cannot have been something that they were looking forward to. jesse wegman Look, I mean, the court now has three different January 6th related issues before it. I don’t envy the justices right now at all. The country is watching them. There’s three very high profile cases. And they have to be decided very fast. And they implicate the deepest concerns of a representative democracy, which is, who will be the leader of a country of 330 million people? At the same time, I think it’s appropriate that this is where these issues have ended up. The courts are a co-equal branch of government. The courts help us to resolve disputes that can’t be resolved in the political realm. And they’re there as another bulwark against the kind of tyranny that the founders were building a system based on the separation of powers to avoid. So I actually think, as much as I’m been really upset with the way the Roberts court has handled itself and how it was created in the first place over the last eight years with the machinations of the Republican Senate, I actually think this is the right place for these issues to be resolved. And I really hope the court takes them seriously and addresses them as legal issues without dipping too much into the politics that surround them. david firestone That’s right. jesse wegman David, I want to ask you. I mean, you’ve been covering politics for far longer than I have. And the moment this case landed last night, I think you saw the significance of it. I’m curious how you look at it through the lens of your own experience. david firestone I think Republicans are going to actually celebrate this as a useful tool to generate further outrage among their base. And they can count on the fact that there aren’t that many voters who pay attention to the legal details. If you add them up, to many voters out there, it just seems like the entire legal system is going after Trump, and that’s certainly something that he has tried to convince people of. If you start going through each case one by one, it’s an incredibly damning picture of Trump’s behavior. In office, in business, even at his resort in Florida. And if he’s actually convicted on one of these before the election, I think it will have an enormous effect. But for now, voters are not going to understand some of the technical details about why someone can get thrown off a ballot. And I think it’s going to be difficult for Democrats to use this in a way that actually might diminish support for Trump. jesse wegman Well, I would also just point out that this isn’t the legal system coming after Trump. Trump has been asking for all of this. This is how he works, and this is how the legal system responds. All of this is because of things that he did. Right, nobody chose to go after him. Donald Trump sought this out, and he’s now getting what he asked for. And there is a threat of violence underneath all of this. The movement is based on violence if you don’t get your way. And I think, yes, everyone needs to take that seriously. It’s not a joke. But I think that this is how democracies survive, is to confront that threat head on and not to buckle under it or to twist the results in order to appease the threatener. So this is how Donald Trump works. It’s how he’s always worked. It’s how he worked in business. It’s how he worked in TV. It’s now how he works in politics. He can’t be allowed to do this without accountability when it comes to leading the nation. And I think that’s what we’re seeing play out right now. david firestone Well, it all gives us more as journalists a lot to do. And as editorial writers, we’re going to be weighing in on all these cases. For now, though, thanks very much for talking with me. jesse wegman

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MAPC Boston assesses racial equity action plan pilot

The effort quickly spurred reforms. By the next year, the city had created an affordable-housing trust fund that supports income-restricted housing construction and preservation. Then, the City Council approved an ordinance that requires most new housing to include some amount of affordable housing units. LYNN — In February 2021, a coalition of city officials and residents set out on a goal to boost affordable-housing opportunities across this middle-class city to help address wealth disparities. This story was produced by the Globe’s Money, Power, and Inequality team, which covers the racial wealth gap in Greater Boston. You can sign up for the newsletter here . Advertisement The changes were limited to Lynn and are just one small step in a broader goal to close a yawning racial wealth gap. But they could also serve as a blueprint for other municipalities across the state looking to identify strategies to address disparities within their own communities. Get Money, Power, Inequality A weekly newsletter connecting you with news about the racial wealth gap in Greater Boston, along with solutions being proposed to bridge the gap. Enter Email Sign Up Lynn was one of six communities selected three years ago to pilot a Racial Equity Municipal Action Plan, or REMAP, a grant-funded program that aims to help communities tackle deep-rooted inequities and narrow the state’s racial wealth gap through reforms at the most basic levels of local government. “It takes all sectors to address the wealth gap, but government definitely has a role to play directly and indirectly,” said Ryan Curren, the housing, land, and development director for the Government Alliance on Race and Equity, which helped coordinate the pilot. The REMAP program was launched in 2020 amid the racial reckoning that followed George Floyd’s murder by Minneapolis police. And today, advocates say the continuation of such programs is critical amid a political backlash against such initiatives, as conservative lawmakers across the country remove diversity, equity, and inclusion goals from their local bylaws. The success of such programs may be difficult to measure in the short term, advocates say, but a long-term commitment at all levels of government could slowly level the playing field for all residents. Advertisement “Racial equity is not an easy, one-off process,“ said Raúl González, a senior planner for the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, a regional agency that helps coordinate the program. “REMAP is really just the beginning stages of creating that space for addressing issues of inequity in housing, education, employment, criminal justice, and, of course, closing the racial wealth gap.” The measure of success could also depend on the size of the community, and its demographics. In Natick, for instance, one of the six communities selected for the pilot program, most of the employees who were involved in the local initiative when it first began have left town government. The town of 36,000 residents has seen some progress under REMAP — such as the hiring of a new equity, inclusion, and outreach officer, as well as a communications chief — but with a smaller government and town meeting structure, change has come about much slower, said Natick’s town administrator, James Errickson. “Our progress is going to need to be measured in a much longer timeframe,” Errickson said. In other communities such as Lynn, the initiative has led to some effective changes, including in the Police Department, which is requiring police officers to wear body cameras, an effort to address demands for police transparency and accountability. The other communities involved in the pilot are Revere, Framingham, Bedford, and Stoughton. Advertisement Each community received $20,000 in technical assistance over two years, thanks to a mix of state and philanthropic funds provided to the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. For the program’s first year of operation in 2021, each municipality identified root causes of inequities, and then crafted a mission statement for future policies to address. Throughout the process, the Metropolitan Area Planning Council coordinated virtual trainings for municipal employees on subjects ranging from how the racial wealth gap formed to ways to measure equity. The program’s second year focused on how municipal governments can use data such as health equity statistics and demographics to better support its residents. This fall, the municipalities are participating in a “peer exchange and training program,” which González called an opportunity for each municipality to compare their initiatives, so that they can learn from each other. “You’re planting the seeds for having these conversations everywhere,” said Drew Russo, Lynn’s personnel director. In addition to the housing reforms, Lynn also looked at internal changes it could make at City Hall. Then, the city hired translators in Spanish, Haitian Creole, Arabic, and Khmer, and translated job postings into different languages. At Lynn City Hall, signs in English and Spanish direct visitors to different offices. Faustina Cuevas, Lynn’s first-ever director of diversity, equity, and inclusion, said the seemingly small changes such as translation services, help “change our culture so that people know when they come in here, they feel like they belong.” Advertisement And she says she has seen some incremental success: As of September, 62 percent of city applicants were people of color, a jump from previous years. The share of percentage of employees of color has grown, too, from one in 10 employees in 2018 to one in three this year. “Giving people a way to work where they live ... that’s one way” to help close disparities, Cuevas said. Still, some participants, such as Jonathon Feinberg, former organizing director for the New Lynn Coalition, said there’s more work to do. REMAP allowed Lynn to reflect on its policies, he said, but the city needs to be more radical to address inequities. “The stuff that we went in to fight for, we’re still fighting for,” Feinberg said. Russo said progress can be slow, but it is real, saying the city is virtually “building the plan as you fly it.” “We’re going to make mistakes,” Russo said. “But we’re going to continue moving forward so we really can advance a true vision of equity that lifts up everybody in this community.” Tiana Woodard is a Report for America corps member covering Black neighborhoods. She can be reached at tiana.woodard@globe.com. Follow her @tianarochon.

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They dont really care: parents of trans youth slam Ohio lawmakers for anti-trans bill veto override

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. Ohio House Republicans voted 65-28 Wednesday to override Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of a controversial bill targeting transgender youth. House Bill 68 bans transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy and prevents transgender athletes from playing women’s sports. “What annoys me the most is how wrong the sponsors of this bill are,” 10-year-old trans Ohian Astrid Burkle said after Wednesday’s vote. “I’m not a transsexual, scary person who’s going to do these awful things to myself. I’m just a normal 10-year-old girl who’s nervous about a math test at school.” Burkle’s parents, Alicia and Aaron Burkle, said the override dashed the glimmer of hope they had after Gov. DeWine vetoed the bill on Dec. 29. “I had hoped that maybe they would have been able to see the people and set aside the politics and nonsense. But they’ve shown yet again that they don’t really care about the people,” Alicia Burkle said. The Burkles, like many parents of trans kids in the state, worry anti-trans legislation will force their family out of Ohio into states where gender affirming care is accessible and schools that provide a safe and accepting learning environment. Kat Scaglione talked to her two trans children about the possibility of leaving. Last year, Scaglione pulled them both out of one Ohio school district over its anti-trans policies. “My kids are finally away from this legislation looming over them,” she said. “They’re having a really good year and found supportive people. They’re doing well in school and I’d hate to rip all these things away from them again,” she said. The results of Wednesday’s vote fell along party lines, with Republicans voting overwhelmingly in favor of an override. The bill’s primary sponsor, Republican Rep. Gary Click, suggested another executive order be issued to prevent the distribution of HRT and puberty blockers within the next 90 days. Click had anticipated the override. “Today is the day,” he wrote on social media Wednesday, ahead of the afternoon hearings. “My staff just informed me that the calls to override the veto represent the highest organic input that we have ever received. In just over 24 hours, we will fulfill their demands,” he wrote Tuesday. “This is about ideology and giving power to those individuals who think transgender individuals should not have the same rights as the rest of us. The impact of this cannot be overstated,” Democratic Rep. Beth Liston said in hearings preceding Wednesday’s vote. Liston apologized on behalf of her colleagues for not being able to protect trans youth in the state from the impending override. Liston and other house Democrats urged Republicans to stay DeWine’s veto. Several noted that gender-affirming care is life-saving for youth. Wednesday’s override comes on the heels of an executive order and two new administrative rules signed by DeWine. The executive order would require patients of all ages seeking gender-affirming care to obtain the “care and supervision” of a team of medical providers, from endocrinologists and psychiatrists to bioethicists — specialists who are few and far between in the state’s hospitals — as well as undergo “lengthy” mental health counseling. The restrictions also prohibit most primary care providers from providing hormone treatments to transgender people of any age. DeWine’s proposed administrative rules include permission for the collection of non-identifying data of gender dysphoria cases, and a crackdown on “fly-by-night” clinics that don’t provide enough mental health counseling. The ACLU of Ohio described these new rules as a “de facto ban on transgender care.” The bill will now head over to Ohio’s Republican-held Senate. Should both chambers pass the override measure, HB 68 would go into effect 90 days after the final vote. The Senate is in session Jan. 24.

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Highway safety advocates: Mass. traffic laws are improving

Last year, the commonwealth lost 433 people to automobile wrecks on the state’s highways and byways. In Springfield, the city already has four more fatal or serious injury car crashes this year than last, now at 17 crashes, according to data from the University of Massachusetts Amherst Transportation Center. Not only are traffic fatalities a source of grief for thousands of Bay State residents, but these losses also aggrieve taxpayers, totaling about $7.4 billion annually for all needless crashes in Massachusetts. The total cost of crashes per year in the U.S. is $340 billion, according to the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. U.S. taxpayers “essentially pay an annual crash tax of nearly $1,035,” said Catherine Chase, president of the advocacy group, which recently published a 68-page report rating the 50 states on their transportation laws. The ratings come after a countrywide historic high in fatal auto crashes in 2022, the national road safety organization said. In response, the group has identified 16 safety laws that states can adopt to protect drivers, bikers and pedestrians; the group bases its recommendations on state-level data on crashes. In the last year, Massachusetts has improved its scoring from the “danger zone,” or the least provisions implemented, to the “caution zone,” or some provisions implemented, according to the organization’s ratings of laws in place. Safety measures praised The commonwealth has adopted six of the 16 provisions the organization suggests for all state Legislatures: a motorcycle helmet law, a booster seat law, minimum ages for permits and licensing, open container law, texting restriction and a cellphone restriction. Just on Monday, state legislators discussed the possibility of improving several other transportation laws, including seatbelts on school buses and better police detection of impaired drivers. “Distracted driving is one of the leading causes of crashes in the country,” U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., said at a press conference Tuesday about the report. Last week in Andover, a 1-year-old baby died in a single-car crash, in which the driver said she lost control of her car. Police said they are investigating if distracted driving was the cause of the crash. Additional measures for which the group advocates include nighttime driving restrictions and offender ignition locks, among others. Built-in safety Michael Knodler, the director of the UMass Amherst Transportation Center, said that Massachusetts has adopted “safe system thinking” into its transportation legislation. “The state is recognizing the value of human life — in drivers, bikers and pedestrians,” he said. “Equal access to safety is a primary focus for the state.” He credited the state with some of its speed management techniques, but also said, “Like anything, there is always room for improvement.” One piece of legislation that Knodler said he thinks the state is hesitating to advance is speed cameras. It’s one of the laws that advocates recommend, according to Tara Gill, the organization’s senior director of state and federal government relations. Despite this, Knodler said the state is close to achieving a lot of the provisions stated in the report. Six states and Washington, D.C., rank in the “good” zone in the report, including New England states Connecticut and Rhode Island. A majority of states, Massachusetts included, fall into the “caution zone.” Light in the darkness When the Biden administration passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, a promise for “safer people, safer roads” was made, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “But, implementation is slow and stagnant,” said Chase. “No state has all 16 roadway safety measures.” Markey noted, however, that there’s a “glimmer of hope” from within the hard statistics of automobile fatalities. “Traffic safety deaths have now declined for five straight quarters (nationwide),” he said. “The only acceptable number of fatalities is zero.”

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Select Board yet to decide on using outside consultant in police chief search

SOUTHWICK – When Select Board member Jason Perron proposed using an “oral board” to help the board choose a candidate to replace retiring Police Chief Robert Landis during the board’s last meeting, his fellow board members wanted think about it before deciding. And while that didn’t change when the board broached the subject again Tuesday during its weekly meeting, Board member Diane Gale pressed Perron for his reasons for proposing an oral board for the candidates, which is essentially a Q&A conducted by current or retired police chiefs. “Jason, you want to start?” Gale asked Perron after Board member Doug Moglin started the discussion.

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Israeli Women Fight on Front Line in Gaza, a First

When Capt. Amit Busi gets a chance to sleep, she does so with her boots on — and in a shared tent in an improvised Israeli military post in northern Gaza. There she commands a company of 83 soldiers, nearly half of them men. It is one of several mixed-gender units fighting in Gaza, where female combat soldiers and officers are serving on the front line for the first time since the war surrounding the establishment of Israel in 1948. Captain Busi is responsible not just for the lives of her subordinates — search-and-rescue engineers whose specialized training and tools help infantry troops enter damaged and booby-trapped buildings at risk of collapse — but also for the wounded soldiers they help evacuate from the battlefield. She and her soldiers also help scour the area for fighters, weapons and rocket launchers and are responsible for guarding the camp. It can be easy to forget Captain Busi is only 23, given the respect she has clearly earned from her subordinates — among them Jews, Druze and Bedouin Muslim men.

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First of nearly two dozen MBTA Green Line closures begin Monday

BOSTON — A portion of the MBTA’s oldest line will be shutting down Monday for more than a week. The temporary Green Line closure, which includes all of its downtown Boston rails, is the first of nearly two dozen planned closures through 2024. It’s part of the MBTA’s promise to eliminate all “slow zones” as reduced train speeds have plagued riders with frustrating travel for months. Workers will replace rails, fix or replace deteriorated ties, install new ballast, and improve signals and switches. “The Green Line is awful. I’m not gonna lie,” said commuter Justin Hodo. “It’s ridiculous. It sucks, but we’re still riding it.” The MBTA released the following information about the closure that impacts riders in the heart of Boston: Green Line Downtown: No trains between North Station and Kenmore, November 27 – December 5 Green Line B: No trains between Kenmore and Babcock Street, November 27 – December 5 Shuttles are available between Copley and Babcock Street The 57 bus is free to ride between Kenmore and Packard’s Corner Green Line E: No trains between Copley and Heath Street, November 27 – December 5 The 39 bus is free to ride between Copley and Heath Street and runs parallel to the E Line Green Line D and E: No trains between North Station and Lechmere, December 4 – 5 Shuttles are available between Lechmere and North Station Green Line E: No trains between North Station and Medford/Tufts, November 27 – December 10, from 8:45 PM through the end of service each day Shuttles are available between North Station and Medford/Tufts Green Line D: No trains between North Station and Union Square, November 27 – December 10, from 8:45 PM through the end of service each day Shuttles are available between Lechmere and North Station The 86, 91, and CT2 buses run between Union Square and East Somerville. These bus routes also travel to Sullivan Square on the Orange Line. The 87 bus runs between Union Square and Lechmere. 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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Israels Landmark Ruling, and a Mickey Mouse Copyright Expires

The New York Times Audio app is home to journalism and storytelling, and provides news, depth and serendipity. If you haven’t already, download it here — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter. The Headlines brings you the biggest stories of the day from the Times journalists who are covering them, all in about five minutes.

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Chicopee plans further restoration efforts in Szot Park

CHICOPEE – Efforts to restore areas of Szot Park, including Oak Grove, will include attention to its tree canopy. The park’s picnic area, known as “Oak Grove,” has seen ecological decline in the past 20 years, Planning Director Lee Pouliot said. He says the city’s design team has been asked to look at this area, provide recreational amenities at the park and restore some of the lost tree canopy. An evaluation to determine tree canopy decay is underway. In an interview Tuesday, Pouliot said the project will bring benefits from both a maintenance and ecological standpoint. “We look at our urban forests as one component of our comprehensive infrastructure system,” Pouliot said. “Trees help us with our stormwater mitigation (and) produce oxygen.” He added, “When you look at your urban forest as a piece of your stormwater infrastructure and ensuring that you have a dense canopy that’s fully planted, the benefits of that across the scale of the city are significant.” The restoration project will be included in Oak Grove’s master plan, which is in development. On Tuesday morning at Szot Park, city officials held a belated observance for Arbor Day, which celebrates the planting, upkeep and preservation of trees. Chicopee held their annual Arbor Day observance at Szot Park. The event highlighted the planting of 146 trees in 2023. (Don Treeger / The Republican) 12/12/2023The Republican The city was originally going to celebrate Arbor Day alongside the opening of the Service Dog Memorial Park, according to Department of Public Works Superintendent Elizabette Batista. The construction project is not yet complete since there is park equipment that still needs to come in, according to Michael Pise, chief of staff for Mayor John Vieau. To keep its Tree City USA status, the city had to celebrate Arbor Day within the calendar year. Tree City is an awards program that recognizes local commitments to community trees and forests. The city has had 146 trees planted this year by the city’s Forestry Division and the Greening the Gateway Cities Program. Trees were planted around the Willimansett neighborhood by the Gateway Cities Program, while the forestry department planted trees around springtime, per the request of residents, according to Tree Warden Chris Scott. Vieau said every tree planted underscores the city’s dedication to creating sustainability and ecological harmony in Chicopee. “Let’s continue to grow and nurture our beautiful community together,” he said. Pouliot also discussed ongoing efforts related to the Szot Park Bemis Pond Dam Removal Project. He said the lower dam is partially removed, and restoration work is happening there next year. The city began developing a plan to address the park’s dams in 2017 after it was ruled they were in poor condition by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation’s Office of Dam Safety. The city is still in its first phase of removing the two dams that create the upper and lower Bemis Ponds, Pouliot said. He said the second phase includes improving the culvert that runs under Front Street.

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MBTA announces service changes along Green Line in January - Boston News, Weather, Sports

BOSTON (WHDH) - Green Line riders can expect a new series of service changes heading into the new year following a recent announcement from the MBTA. The T previously outlined some of the upcoming changes. With its announcement on Thursday, though, the agency adjusted some of its timeline. The biggest impact will be felt on the C and D branches between North Station and Kenmore station, where service will be suspended for 23 days in January beginning on Jan 3. The stretch will reopen for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday weekend before closing again from Jan. 16 through Jan. 28. Service on the B branch between North Station and Babcock Street and on the E branch between North Station and Heath Street will also be suspended during the same timespan. A series of shorter service suspensions is scheduled on the Green Line Extension throughout January. The T has been overhauling its system, completing maintenance across each of its lines. Approached about this latest round of changes, riders on Thursday shared their reactions. “Unfortunately, not having faith is just a really sad baseline now,” said rider Oren Bazer. “It’s just a part of the mentality going into the Boston commute,” Bazer continued. “I think that’s probably going to inconvenience a lot of people,” said rider Anna Bonazoli after hearing about new changes. The T has apologized to riders for various shutdowns. At the same time, officials have described work as being critical to modernize the system. Rider Koy Zimmermann on Thursday said the system “is a little old.” Zimmermann continued, saying the system “could use some renovation.” “I think it’s needed,” Zimmermann said. “Boston’s old. Everybody knows that. So, you need to shut it down to repair it every once in a while.” The T has said its goal is to eliminate all current speed restrictions for trains by the end of 2024. (Copyright (c) 2023 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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Judge Blocks Iowas Ban on School Library Books That Depict Sex Acts

A federal judge in Iowa temporarily blocked on Friday the enforcement of a law backed by Republicans that banned books describing sex acts from public school libraries. In granting the preliminary injunction, Judge Stephen Locher said that the law “makes no attempt to target such books in any reasonable way.” “Instead, it requires the wholesale removal of every book containing a description or visual depiction of a ‘sex act,’ regardless of context,” the judge wrote. “The underlying message is that there is no redeeming value to any such book even if it is a work of history, self-help guide, award-winning novel or other piece of serious literature. In effect, the Legislature has imposed a puritanical ‘pall of orthodoxy’ over school libraries.” The publisher Penguin Random House and the best-selling authors John Green and Jodi Picoult were among the plaintiffs who challenged the measure on free-speech grounds.

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Hunter Biden Agrees to Deposition in Impeachment Inquiry

Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son, has agreed to sit for a deposition on Feb. 28 in the House impeachment inquiry into his father, relenting after Republicans threatened to hold him in contempt of Congress for refusing an earlier subpoena to testify privately. Representatives James R. Comer of Kentucky, the chairman of the Oversight Committee, and Jim Jordan of Ohio, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, announced on Thursday that they had secured a date for Mr. Biden’s appearance. The House had initially been scheduled to vote on the contempt charges on Thursday. “His deposition will come after several interviews with Biden family members and associates,” Mr. Comer and Mr. Jordan said in a joint statement. “We look forward to Hunter Biden’s testimony.” Mr. Biden and the two committees have been at odds for weeks over the terms of his testimony. The panels initially subpoenaed him to testify in November, weeks before the full House voted to authorize the impeachment investigation into the president.

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Trumps Case for Total Immunity

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music Donald Trump has consistently argued that as a former president, he is immune from being charged with a crime for things he did while he was in office. Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for The Times, explains what happened when Trump’s lawyers made that case in federal court, whether the claim has any chance of being accepted — and why Trump may win something valuable either way.