The Boston Globe

Public school enrollment falls in Mass. amid pandemic, high housing costs, and aging suburbs

Some of the greatest declines have occurred in Greater Boston, where school systems in Marblehead, Rockport, Wellesley, Wilmington, Brookline, and Amesbury saw enrollments drop more than 10 percent.

With Manchin on board, spotlight turns to Sinema — and COVID
The party-bucking Democrat left the Capitol on Thursday without disclosing whether she’d support Joe Manchin’s sweeping deal with Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer. Democrats also expressed concern about having their 50 senators able to vote, with COVID keeping some out of action.

Democrats’ new spending deal would be a ‘gamechanger’ for the climate, but not without setbacks Larry Edelman: The US is not in a recession. But we’re getting uncomfortably close.

In a surprise, Baker says taxpayers could receive ‘north of $2.5 billion’ in tax relief under little-known law

With state coffers overflowing, Massachusetts taxpayers could receive billions in tax help under an obscure 36-year-old law, Governor Charlie Baker announced. His office estimated taxpayers could get back roughly 7 percent of the income taxes they paid in 2021.

Baker signs $52.7 billion budget into law Bringing happy hour back to Mass.? A skeptical Charlie Baker is ‘a hard sell’

Biden administration plans to offer updated booster shots in September

The Biden administration now expects to begin a COVID-19 booster campaign with retooled vaccines in September because Pfizer and Moderna have promised that they can deliver doses by then, according to people familiar with the deliberations.

Town-by-town COVID-19 data in Massachusetts See the latest COVID-19 data from Mass.

What's left of the Long Island Bridge that connected Long Island to Moon Island in Boston, as photographed in 2020.

In the Long Island Bridge legal saga, another victory for Boston

Thursday brought the City of Boston a second legal victory this week in its long-running battle with Quincy over rebuilding Long Island Bridge, a piece of infrastructure many see as a key element in building an addiction recovery campus on the island and alleviating the local opioid epidemic.

Red Sox 4, Guardians 2

Xander Bogaerts, Kutter Crawford lift Red Sox to series split with Guardians
The Sox had no offensive firepower until Bogaerts’s go-ahead three-run shot in the sixth inning.

Chad Finn: These hopeless Red Sox should be ready to trade players — but which ones? Christopher L. Gasper: Chaim Bloom’s balancing act has the Red Sox teetering and toppling over

Drier and drier: Severe drought area in Massachusetts expands
The rain has been a no-show and the parching persists. The area of Massachusetts experiencing severe drought conditions has expanded south from the northeastern corner of the state, according to the latest report from the US Drought Monitor.

Forecasters warn of possible severe thunderstorms in Western, Central Mass. These photos show the effect of the drought in parts of Massachusetts Study: Climate change made UK heat wave hotter, more likely Most of Rhode Island now facing ‘severe drought’ conditions

Kate Price remembers something terrible

An authority on child sex trafficking, she spent decades trying to understand whether the unthinkable happened to her, too.

Read the story Watch the video Event: Join Kate Price and Janelle Nanos for a conversation about this project

Technicians wearing personal protective equipment suits worked inside a molecular laboratory facility set up to test for the monkeypox disease during its inauguration at the King Institute in Chennai on Thursday.

It’s unlikely that you’ll catch monkeypox on the T: Answering questions about the virus

The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak a public health emergency. We spoke to experts to find out who’s most at risk, where to get tested, and what else the public needs to know.

Officials confirm 36 new monkeypox cases in Mass.

People embraced Thursday near the home of a 15-year-old boy who was fatally shot on Ellington Street in Boston.

Teen’s killing on a Dorchester street brings calls for action

Chris Sanders was in the living room of his home on Ellington Street in Dorchester on Wednesday evening when he heard gunshots. He stepped outside and looked toward adjacent Erie Street — and spotted a teenager collapsed in the street.

TRAVEL TROUBLESHOOTER

My Turo rental was repossessed with valuable items inside

After Michelle Marshall’s Turo rental got repossessed, the car-sharing company offered her a partial refund. But what about her son’s expensive epilepsy medication? Is Turo responsible for that?

Staycation Nation: How to capture that resort-y vibe — in Cambridge. For real.

Opinion

It's possible for policymakers to embrace the red-hot labor market rather than undermine it.

IDEAS | ABDALLAH FAYYAD

A recession, if we choose

An obsession with tamping down inflation at any cost will hurt low-wage workers the most.

Any prosecution of Donald Trump must be viewed as warranted, above board, and nonpolitical

Kimberly Atkins Stohr

Presidents have always been above the law. AG Merrick Garland must change that.

IDEAS | ANA TASIC AND MATJAž KRIVIC

Otherworldly beauty in the balance in the Galapagos of the Middle East

Pike project, Harvard agreement signal big changes ahead for Allston

Centering critical voices, debates, and evidence-based opinion to reframe the national conversation on racial equity and hasten a more racially just society.

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150 years of The Boston Globe

Scenes from a century and a half, as covered by the Boston Globe.

More recent stories

Jan. 6 texts missing for Trump Homeland Security’s Wolf and Cuccinelli

This discovery of missing records for the senior-most homeland security officials increases the volume of potential evidence that has vanished regarding the time around the Capitol attack.

Mass. Senate president won’t voluntarily recognize staff union effort, doesn’t ‘see a path forward’
“The Senate does not at this time see a path forward for a traditional employer-union relationship in the Senate as we are currently structured,” Senate President Karen E. Spilka wrote in a staff email on Thursday evening. A piece of state law carves out legislative staff from the definition of public employees who may collectively bargain.

KEVIN CULLEN

Will the next member of “The Squad” come from Vermont?
Becca Balint is racking up big endorsements and big PAC backing as she seeks to become the first woman to represent Vermont in Congress.

‘Please do not erase’: A treasured whiteboard at Boston Children’s Hospital has not been touched for 15 years
Preserved for posterity on the 12th floor of a research building, the board captures notes from the former chief of surgery’s transformative cancer research.

Trader Joe’s in western Mass becomes first company store to unionize
Employees turned in a 45-31 vote on Thursday to join Trader Joe’s United, an independent bargaining unit not affiliated with a larger labor union.

A nice chunk of change: Mega Millions jackpot rises to $1.1 billion
Feeling lucky? The Mega Millions jackpot has increased to an estimated $1.1 billion, the third largest US lottery jackpot ever.

Recommended reads

Jose Gonzales shut his eyes while he waited for the Orange Line to arrive at Downtown Crossing on June 20.

‘For a major city to not have reliable public transportation is a huge problem.’ Rider frustration with T cuts is palpable.

The MBTA slashed service on the Blue, Red, and Orange lines last month by more than 20 percent in response to safety edicts from the federal government.

Over three-quarters of Massachusetts residents say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, poll finds
In the new Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll, 78 percent of Massachusetts respondents said abortion should be legal in all or most cases, a decisive majority that substantially exceeds the national trend.

YVONNE ABRAHAM

Don’t mess with us, Texas
The throwback justices on the US Supreme Court and rabid anti-choicers in half the country may have reversed Roe and enacted a mountain of state laws restricting abortion access, but this isn’t 1972.

THE PRICE YOU PAY

Dunkinflation: Even Boston’s go-to breakfast spot has gotten pricier
You’re not imagining things. Your coffee and hash browns cost more than they used to.

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Culture & Lifestyle

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Back to Boston

Welcome Back to Boston

Consider this our love letter to the city, a celebration of all it has to offer visitors and locals alike.

Top Spots to Live in Greater Boston in 2022

A guide to 36 Greater Boston communities where demand — and prices — are surging.

Jeneé Osterheldt

A Beautiful Resistance

Black joy, Black lives, as celebrated by culture columnist Jeneé Osterheldt.

‘On the Street’: The changing face of Greater Boston neighborhoods

The changing face of Greater Boston neighborhoods.

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Opinion, ideas, and commentary

An athlete completes an exercise during a FHSAA Girls Weightlifting Championship in New Port Richey, Fla.

Who needs Title IX now?

Daisy Edgar-Jones in West Hollywood, Calif., on June 7.

Why ‘it’ matters

Members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the US Capitol look out from the dais during a July 12 hearing.

Lawmakers shouldn’t wait for history to judge Trump

Javari Toney, 15, enjoys jumping on his pogo stick by his home on Dorchester Ave. on July 6th, after a weekend of multiple shootings in the city.

Eugene F. Rivers III

Boston Black leadership has a problem

WORCESTER , MA - 12/29/2021 Christine Little, Registered Nurse and Nurse Education Safety Specialist, cracks open the door to request more supplies while helping to put in a dialysis line for a patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at UMass Memorial Medical Center. As COVID-19 cases spike and the pandemic ravages on, hospitals are faced once again with a shortage of ICU beds.

Nurses are in short supply. The Legislature can do something about it.

IDEAS | Sheldon Himelfarb and Phil Howard

Global information wars are a threat to the planet. This is how we could broker peace.

Metro

Teen’s killing on a Dorchester street brings calls for action

Chris Sanders was in the living room of his home on Ellington Street in Dorchester on Wednesday evening when he heard gunshots. He stepped outside and looked toward adjacent Erie Street — and spotted a teenager collapsed in the street.

Mass. Senate president won’t voluntarily recognize staff union effort, doesn’t ‘see a path forward’

“The Senate does not at this time see a path forward for a traditional employer-union relationship in the Senate as we are currently structured,” Senate President Karen E. Spilka wrote in a staff email on Thursday evening. A piece of state law carves out legislative staff from the definition of public employees who may collectively bargain.

Public school enrollment falls in Mass. amid pandemic, high housing costs, and aging suburbs

Some of the greatest declines have occurred in Greater Boston, where school systems in Marblehead, Rockport, Wellesley, Wilmington, Brookline, and Amesbury saw enrollments drop more than 10 percent.

Should Massachusetts high schools lock student cell phones during the day?

Read two views and vote in our online poll.

Sports

The Franklin American Legion team celebrates its banner achievement after defeating Leominster, 6-2, to win the Massachusetts American Legion Senior Baseball Tournament in Milford on Thursday night.

Massachusetts American Legion Senior Baseball Tournament

Jacob Jette takes charge in Franklin’s American Legion championship victory over Leominster

The eventual tournament MVP fired 71 of his 107 pitches for strikes, racking up eight strikeouts in 6 ⅓ innings.

Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts rounds first base on his way to touching them all after his three-run home run off Guardians starting pitcher Triston McKenzie in the sixth inning.

Red Sox 4, Guardians 2

Xander Bogaerts, Kutter Crawford lift Red Sox to series split with Guardians

The Sox had no offensive firepower until Bogaerts’s go-ahead three-run shot in the sixth inning.

Trevor Story left the game against the Tampa Bay Rays on July 12 after getting hit on the hand by a pitch. He has been on IL since July 16, but the Red Sox hope to have him back soon.

Red Sox notebook

Red Sox second baseman Trevor Story still on IL because of pain in injured hand

Despite leading the team in RBI, Story is missed the most on defense.

Revolution’s Jozy Altidore on loan to Puebla FC in Mexico through January

Trump joins LIV Golf pro-am at his New Jersey course

Baseball notebook

Andrew Benintendi won’t say whether he’ll get vaccinated now that he’s with the Yankees

Business

Feds: $401 million will add high-speed internet to rural US places

The federal government is pledging $401 million in grants and loans to expand the reach and improve the speed of internet for rural residents, tribes and businesses in remote parts of 11 states from Alaska to Arkansas.

The US is not in a recession. But we’re getting uncomfortably close.

The economy shrank for a second straight quarter, the Commerce Department said Thursday.

Trader Joe’s workers in Hadley, Mass. vote to unionize

Fewer Americans applied for jobless benefits last week

magazine

An in-camera double-exposure photograph of Kate Price overlaid with the woods of a Pennsylvania rest area, where she remembers being taken as a child.

Kate Price remembers something terrible

As a senior, I wanted to fight ageism. I had to look in the mirror first.

He wanted a divorce after 26 years of marriage. Now, he wants to reconnect.

Spanish tortilla with roasted red peppers

Recipes: Pull together a tasty dinner of Spanish favorites

metro

Most of Rhode Island is facing "severe drought" conditions, according to the latest US Drought Monitor map.

Most of Rhode Island now facing ‘severe drought’ conditions

The Rhode Island Ukulele Armada Family Band: Vol. 1

Police officers step in and provide roadside assistance

sports

Kyler Murray recently agreed to a $230.5 million, five-year contract extension with the Cardinals.

Arizona Cardinals remove ‘independent study’ addendum from Kyler Murray’s contract

Patriots defense learns a lesson late in practice on Day 2 of training camp

How well has Chaim Bloom done in trading for prospects and depth players?

business

A shopper pushes a cart from the Trader Joe's supermarket on Thursday July 28, 2022, in Hadley, Mass. Employees at the store on Thursday became the latest workers at a major company to approve a labor union.

Trader Joe’s in western Mass becomes first company store to unionize

Cambridge software developer slashes expenses amid sales slowdown

Congress approves bill to aid computer chip firms, counter China

politics

Senator Joe Manchin.

Basement talk, virtual handshake led to Manchin-Schumer deal

Biden administration plans to offer updated booster shots in September

With Manchin on board, spotlight turns to Sinema — and COVID

Nation

Democratic Del. Danielle Walker of Monongalia County speaks to a crowd protesting a sweeping abortion ban bill making its way through the West Virginia Legislature at the state Capitol on July 27, in Charleston, W.Va.

After abortion ruling, West Virginia could become 1st to pass new bill

Flooding in central Appalachia kills at least 8 in Kentucky

Man executed despite calls from victim’s family to spare him

World

Rescued migrants walk on the shore off Mona Island, west of Puerto Rico, on July 28.

5 dead, 68 Haitians rescued from waters near Puerto Rico

UN resolution recognizes right to clean, healthy environment

Russia: No deal yet on releasing Americans Griner, Whelan

opinion

Just 16 of the hundreds of moths that alit upon the author's porch this week.

Leave the light on for them

How Biden can act immediately on climate change

Why I love the Tour de France — and why you should too

lifestyle

Years later, I’m still curious about his divorce

Actor Tony Dow, known as Wally Cleaver on ‘Leave It to Beaver,’ has died

Bennifer takes Paris: Romantic strolls, lavish dinners, and Ben Affleck’s most iconic nap yet

food & dining

Spicy chicken karahi at Flavor Boom!

Flavor Boom! puts a global, gourmet spin on fast food

Cheesesteaks come to High Street Place; Boston Public Market gets a beer truck

Something new for travelers is popping up all over

travel

See "the world’s largest rubber duck,” according to organizers of Michigan’s 2022 Fest of Sail, running Aug. 12-14 on the shores of Lake Superior in Marquette. Mama Duck (pictured here) weighs 31,500 pounds and measures 61 feet high, 69 feet wide, and 79 feet long.

Art in Brattleboro, music and laughter in Portland, and the world’s largest rubber duck in Michigan

My Turo rental was repossessed with valuable items inside

Pedaling his message: Conn. cyclist is riding 10,000 miles to raise awareness about distracted driving

Arts

Artist Hunt Slonem poses for a portrait in the music room of his Great Barrington estate.

For artist Hunt Slonem, an estate is ‘a grand, unfolding work’

When Andrew Wyeth imagined — and rendered — his own funeral

An ‘alleged’ Faberge egg was found on a seized Russian yacht. If authenticated, it could be sold with proceeds going to Ukraine

Books

The Boston Common is one popular place to read a book around Boston.

Here are 10 of the best spots to read a book around Boston, according to readers

‘An Honest Living’: A modern noir

He reads poetry to his fiction students

Movies

From left, Chip (voiced by Diego Luna), PB (Vanessa Bayer), Krypto (Dwayne Johnson), Ace (Kevin Hart), and Merton (Natasha Lyonne) in "DC League of Super-Pets."

‘DC League of Super-Pets’: when (guinea) pigs fly

Woods Hole Film Festival spotlights films on science and social justice

Where were you in ’82?

Television

Kate Winslet in "Mare of Easttown."

Kate Winslet and HBO: A marriage made in prestige-TV heaven

Tony Dow’s wife incorrectly reported that he had died, family says

Cancellation of ‘Full Frontal with Samantha Bee’ robs late-night TV of a vital voice

music

Brandi Carlile introduces Joni Mitchell for a special Joni Jam at the 2022 Newport Folk Festival at Fort Adams State Park on July 24.

Why Joni Mitchell’s return at the Newport Folk Festival mattered to so many of us

A glittering goodbye from Elton John at Gillette Stadium

British saxophonist Nubya Garcia’s view from Newport is about to change

Theater/Dance

Taylor Stanley in "Redness," choreographed by Shamel Pitts, performed in "Dichotomous Being: An Evening of Taylor Stanley."

Ballet star Taylor Stanley explores new territory at Jacob’s Pillow

The new Boston Tap Party brings four days of fancy footwork to town

Julianne Boyd is departing Barrington Stage to the strains of ‘A Little Night Music’

globe local

Public school enrollment falls in Mass. amid pandemic, high housing costs, and aging suburbs

Should Massachusetts high schools lock student cell phones during the day?

Police officers step in and provide roadside assistance

Obituaries

Actor and presenter Bernard Cribbins, reads an excerpt from Winnie the Pooh after he received the annual J M Barrie Award for a lifetime of unforgettable work for children on stage, film, television and record, at the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House in central London, on Nov. 13, 2014.

Bernard Cribbins, British actor known for ‘Doctor Who,’ is dead at 93

James Lovelock, whose Gaia theory saw the Earth as alive, dies at 103

Tony Dow’s wife incorrectly reported that he had died, family says