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Boston Globe Today | December 25, 2023
WATCH: The full episode from Christmas Day. Stories include: The Best TV shows of 2023, How to keep you and your pets warm this winter.

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Boston Globe Today, a half-hour show, can be seen Monday through Friday at 5 p.m. ET on NESN, the NESN 360 app, the Globe’s app, and on Globe.com.
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As I see it

The watch is ending for the country’s last official lighthouse keeper

“As I See It,” a weekly photo column by Pulitzer Prize winner Stan Grossfeld, brings the stories of New England to Globe readers. This week Grossfeld visits with a lighthouse keeper who is retiring after 20 years.

Around New England with Kevin Cullen
In Vermont, the thin blue line cracks
Franklin County Sheriff John Grismore lost his certification as a police officer for kicking a handcuffed and shackled prisoner. But he is resisting calls for his resignation, even from fellow sheriffs.

Patriots 26, Broncos 23

Patriots
The Patriots cut Bailey Zappe in August. Now, he’s proving there’s a place for him in the NFL.
When Zappe's career hit a low point in the offseason, he reached out to someone with a legendary underdog story for advice.

‘That was a wild game’: What Bill Belichick had to say after the Patriots’ dramatic victory
Chad Finn | Unconventional review

The Patriots aren’t quitting, and Bill Belichick isn’t done winning
Ben Volin | Instant Analysis

Imagine where the Patriots would be if they just had a competent kicker and average quarterback play?
Tara Sullivan

Why would the Patriots fight to the end instead of tanking? Their coach would expect no less.
Money, Power, Inequality

Racial Equity Municipal Action Plan aims to address wealth gap at local levels, where it was caused

The Metropolitan Area Planning Council selected six communities in Greater Boston for a pilot to address the area's racial wealth gap.

Biotech bound: For blue-collar apprentices, biomanufacturing can be a ticket to the middle class
Dozens of low-wage workers in the Boston area are training for opportunities in the growing field of drug production. Here are some of their stories.

Egypt proposes a plan to end Israel-Hamas war as Netanyahu vows to expand Gaza fighting

A proposal by Egypt would end the Israel-Hamas war, even as rescue workers in Gaza removed bodies after a strike that killed at least 106 people, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed the war would not stop.
Pope laments ‘appalling’ loss of life in war in Gaza

Nikki Haley is trying to make a move in Iowa. Is it too late?
The Iowa caucuses are in three weeks, on Jan. 15, and Donald Trump retains a commanding lead in the polls. But Nikki Haley has been gaining ground.

Claudine Gay turmoil forces Harvard’s secretive ‘corporation’ into spotlight

Harvard’s powerful board has backed its president and said little else, yet a member privately said “generational change” may be needed.
Who are the members of the Harvard Corporation?

For these first-time buyers, a new meaning to being home for the holidays
Nate Smith planned to host her first Christmas in a space that is truly her own. She is among more than 230 families and individuals who received assistance from the city of Boston to purchase a home for the first time in 2023.

How wacky was the local business world in 2023? Two words: ‘cop slide’
Even in a year of grim headlines, the wild, weird, and offbeat broke through.

What’s open and closed on Christmas Day

PODCAST

Listen to the podcast

Presented in association with HBO, 'Murder in Boston: The untold story of the Charles and Carol Stuart shooting' is available wherever you get your podcasts.
Read chapter one of ‘Nightmare in Mission Hill’ Read the full series
shirley leung

‘This I became a beggar for’: Millions in donations pour into a Catholic school in Lawrence

Six years ago, the dilapidated school launched a Hail Mary attempt to raise millions of dollars to build a new urban campus. What’s happening now feels nothing short of a miracle.

With new COVID variant on horizon, low vaccination rates and stark disparities could make for a ‘miserable winter’

The updated COVID shots are a good match for the latest variant, JN.1., but relatively few people have bothered to get them.

DraftKings CEO Jason Robins talks about why you’re seeing so many sports betting ads

Robins had plenty to say about why sports betting companies advertise heavily on TV, what’s being done to protect young consumers, and how he explains gambling to his own children.
Beyond the Gilded Gate

The $600,000 problem. Why does it cost so much to build housing in Boston, and what can we do about it?

Many forces drive the housing crisis here, and the sky-high cost of construction is one of the most powerful.
Calculator: How costs affect construction of an apartment building

Explore the project
Opinion
John Wilson

I was unjustly targeted in the college admissions scandal. This is my story.

In the end, was the fight worth it? Absolutely.
Roland Merullo

Why boomers should give Gen Z a break
EDITORIAL

The empty seats at the table
Ethan Carr and Stephen Gray

The Action Plan for Franklin Park offers the best vision for Boston
JEFF JACOBY

The wonderful life of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’

More recent News

A snapshot, a headstone, and a final wish realized
At age 95, Frank Agresti has finally fulfilled a final wish: to have a smiling photo of him and his late wife made into a “porcelain portrait” and permanently fixed to the headstone where he will someday be buried.

Northeastern men hope to represent Hockey East well during nonconference play
Plenty of collegians with Massachusetts ties performed well during tuneup games at the world junior championships, which begins Tuesday.

Missing Russian dissident Navalny located in penal colony in Siberia
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was located in a penal colony in Russia's far north, his team said Monday, after a span of nearly three weeks when the imprisoned dissident politician's whereabouts were not known to his aides, lawyers and family.

The secret life of gift cards: Here’s what happens to the billions that go unspent each year
Americans are expected to spend nearly $30 billion on gift cards this holiday, according to the National Retail Federation.

Clemency was a political third rail for decades. Healey and other governors are starting to embrace it.
Governor Maura Healey's move to pardon 13 people is positioning Massachusetts among a growing number of states where chief executives are again embracing clemency.

LOVE LETTERS
Can I follow them on social media?
We never made it to a date.

Globe Santa

Half a century of remembering Globe Santa
Joseph A. Milano, president of Boston’s Union Oyster House, has many titles and many interests, but an initiative that’s particularly close to his heart is Globe Santa.

Donate to Globe Santa

Globe Santa is a program of the Boston Globe Foundation and exists solely to deliver joy to children.

Recommended reads

The MBTA’s new Green Line extension has a long history of trouble. It’s still not fixed.

“There’s a lot of hiding at the T, of keeping secrets, of not passing along bad news,” said Thomas P. Glynn, the chair of the T's oversight board. “It’s part of the culture.”

BEST BOOKS OF 2023
Here is a list of 55 books we loved in 2023
Boston Globe book critics give us their favorites from a year of great titles

Painkillers without addiction? Vertex hopes its experimental pill can be first in a new class of drugs.
Vertex wants to interrupt pain signals before they reach the brain, and because its non-opioid drug would bypass the central nervous system, it would provide pain relief without the risk of addiction.

‘Bernard was the very best of Cambridge’: The bond between the Palestinian family behind Brookline Lunch and their Jewish lawyer
A pivotal meeting in Central Square was the start of a lasting friendship, one that would unite two families — one Palestinian and one Jewish — in affection and now in grief.

Culture & Lifestyle

From screen to stage and back to screen, this time trying to carry a tune

In Michael O’Donnell’s debut novel, a father and son hide from danger in the White Mountains

Boston Music Awards show dazzles with diverse, dynamic, and defiant performances

The Velvet Underground, Nirvana, Stax soul, and more: 9 great album reissues of 2023

Special Projects

Boston thrives off the dreams of young people. But can they make it here?

Baby boomers and Gen Xers benefited from economic conditions that do not exist for millennials. And by many measures, the path ahead for Gen Z is even more fraught.

Boston doesn’t work if the T doesn’t work

With the MBTA engulfed by issues, everyday riders are feeling the pain.

How the missing become the uncounted

Inside the government’s flawed approach to finding missing persons.

Two Weeks in America

We sent a dozen journalists on the road across this complex country. They found it’s better than you think.

Opinion, ideas, and commentary

EDITORIAL

Massachusetts should ban PFAS in consumer products
RENÉE GRAHAM

At this year’s holiday table, heated debates will be on the menu

IDEAS | OMER AZIZ

What Christmas means to me as a Muslim
ALEX BEAM

Vibe check on 2023
WARD SUTTON

Worst Santa ever!
Ernesto Barbieri and Jess Ruliffson

When accidents happen: True stories from an ICU nurse

Metro

Money, Power, Inequality

Racial Equity Municipal Action Plan aims to address wealth gap at local levels, where it was caused

The Metropolitan Area Planning Council selected six communities in Greater Boston for a pilot to address the area's racial wealth gap.
Around New England with Kevin Cullen

In Vermont, the thin blue line cracks

Franklin County Sheriff John Grismore lost his certification as a police officer for kicking a handcuffed and shackled prisoner. But he is resisting calls for his resignation, even from fellow sheriffs.
As I see it

The watch is ending for the country’s last official lighthouse keeper

“As I See It,” a weekly photo column by Pulitzer Prize winner Stan Grossfeld, brings the stories of New England to Globe readers. This week Grossfeld visits with a lighthouse keeper who is retiring after 20 years.

Mildred Miller, stalwart of the Metropolitan Opera, dies at 98

Mezzo-soprano Mildred Miller Posvar sang opera’s so-called trouser roles so many times that one of her daughters once told a friend, “My mommy is a boy.”

Sports

Men's College Basketball Notebook

Quinten Post heads three Boston College players in our list of top 10 male collegians in the state

Harvard was the only other Massachusetts program with more than one player on the list.
Raiders 20, Chiefs 14

Chiefs miscues lead to a pair of defensive scores by Raiders in loss on Christmas Day

The Chiefs allowed the Raiders to score defensive touchdowns 7 seconds apart, committed a slew of penalties, dropped more passes and were generally inept on offense.
men's college hockey notebook

Northeastern men hope to represent Hockey East well during nonconference play

Plenty of collegians with Massachusetts ties performed well during tuneup games at the world junior championships, which begins Tuesday.
Patriots

The Patriots cut Bailey Zappe in August. Now, he’s proving there’s a place for him in the NFL.
HIGH SCHOOL BOYS' BASKETBALL NOTEBOOK

In his first season as coach at Newton South, Corey Lowe points to the winning culture he learned at North as his compass
Chad Finn | Unconventional review

The Patriots aren’t quitting, and Bill Belichick isn’t done winning

Business

podcast | say more with shirley leung

DraftKings CEO Jason Robins talks about why you’re seeing so many sports betting ads

Robins had plenty to say about why sports betting companies advertise heavily on TV, what’s being done to protect young consumers, and how he explains gambling to his own children.

How wacky was the local business world in 2023? Two words: ‘cop slide’

Even in a year of grim headlines, the wild, weird, and offbeat broke through.

Iran says Israeli strike killed one of its top officers in Syria

Biotech bound: For blue-collar apprentices, biomanufacturing can be a ticket to the middle class
magazine
Globe Magazine

The 29 best photos of 2023 taken by Boston Globe photographers
CONNECTIONS

Actor Lenny Clarke’s best ever childhood Christmas came unexpectedly
Dinner with Cupid

Blind date: ‘We shared our food, which was a big plus for both of us’
MISS CONDUCT

My relative wants to compare what we all got for gifts. Help!

metro

What’s open and closed on Christmas Day

For these first-time buyers, a new meaning to being home for the holidays

Christmas Eve fire in Roxbury displaces one resident

sports

EMass boys’ basketball: Lawrence rises to No. 5 in Globe Top 20

‘That was a wild game’: What Bill Belichick had to say after the Patriots’ dramatic victory

Imagine where the Patriots would be if they just had a competent kicker and average quarterback play?

business

5 tech startups and apps to watch in Rhode Island in 2024

The secret life of gift cards: Here’s what happens to the billions that go unspent each year

The year of social media soul-searching: Twitter dies, X and Threads are born, and AI gets personal

politics

NIH’s new leader wants to broaden participation in medical research

A North American military command is tracking Santa’s every move and kids can follow along

Trump asks appeals court to toss election case on immunity grounds

Nation

An unhealthy obsession with sickness increases risk of dying, study says

In Los Angeles district attorney race, rhetoric shifts from reform to fear

Metal, fire, ‘hitting stuff hard’: Everybody wants to be a blacksmith now

World

Missing Russian dissident Navalny located in penal colony in Siberia

Ukraine says it downed 5 Russian planes, as Moscow claims it seized a town

Russia sees a Western hand behind Serbian street protests

opinion

Smoking out the truth at the Cannabis Control Commission

I found my muse as a writer at Boston College 70 years ago

In this season of hope, a year of sorrow ends for the trans community

lifestyle

Can I follow them on social media?

Hush Club’s TikTok strategy went viral — it’s anything but cheesy

Dating during perimenopause

food & dining

‘I feel abandoned’: Restaurants remain burdened by Washington Bridge closure in Rhode Island

Scared of the T? Hop aboard Mothership instead

A new Turkish restaurant near Watertown Square is already popular

travel

Busiest holiday travel season in years is off to a smooth start with few airport delays

We took a girlfriend getaway to Savannah. Plenty of other women had the same idea.

This Booking.com reservation is fake! Will the company pay up?

Arts

Banksy stop sign taken from London street soon after it appears

Forgotten women of the American landscape

A model subject gets his close-up in ‘Chuck: Photographs by George Platt Lynes’

Books

For Justin Torres, reading is about finding the sweet spot between poetry and prose

Local bestsellers for the week ended Dec. 17

In Michael O’Donnell’s debut novel, a father and son hide from danger in the White Mountains

Movies

Holidays got you down, Charlie Brown? Take our quiz on classic Christmas specials for a hit of holiday cheer.

Michael Mann’s ‘Ferrari’ fails to rev up

Oscars shortlists revealed: Here are the films one step closer to a nomination

Television

From across the pond, a steady stream of excellence

Minnie Driver remembers Matthew Perry’s ‘wealth of soul’

How Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck’s family situation inspired a new NBC sitcom

music

Before coming to Cambridge, the Felice Brothers hatch a surprise for their fans

Boston Music Awards show dazzles with diverse, dynamic, and defiant performances

The Velvet Underground, Nirvana, Stax soul, and more: 9 great album reissues of 2023

Theater/Dance

A ‘Die Hard’ diehard creates ‘Yippee Ki Yay,’ and the Huntington gets in on the action

There’s life after COVID for Jamaica Plain’s 147-year-old Footlight Club theater

Midwinter Revels serves up a frolicsome ‘Feast of Fools’

Health

CVS to launch new pharmacy reimbursement model aimed at simplifying drug pricing

Many Americans ration insulin to save money. One nonprofit is trying to make the life-saving drug more affordable.

In R.I., there’s a lack of dentists caring for patients with special needs. This program is trying to change that.

Obituaries

Mildred Miller, stalwart of the Metropolitan Opera, dies at 98

Ryan Minor, Orioles 3B who replaced Cal Ripken at the end of his record-setting streak, dies at 49

Influential people we lost in 2023