The Boston Globe

New Mass. laws could affect everything from your paycheck to your vacation

A cascade of changes awaits the average Massachusetts taxpayer in 2019, thanks to a mixture of a tax cut, a tax hike, new fees, and a slowly rising minimum wage.

Should drug users be treated like dealers? A fatal overdose raises that question

Jesse Carrillo?s lawyer argues that his client ? an addict ? should not be treated the same as drug dealers selling heroin for profit.

NASA spacecraft dashes by world beyond Pluto

NASA?s New Horizons spacecraft has survived humanity?s most distant exploration of another world.

Cambridge, Ma., 12/31/2018, Senator Elizabeth Warren and her husband Bruce and dog Bailey greet the media outside her home after announcing she has launched an exploratory committee for President 2020. Suzanne Kreiter/Globe staff

Warren sticks to her talking points as she steps forward

Elizabeth Warren met with reporters outside her Cambridge home after announcing that she had taken the expected step of forming an exploratory committee.

House Democrats have a plan to fund the government ? but not a wall

A week and a half into the shutdown, President Trump is struggling to find leverage to break the stalemate before the GOP?s monopoly on Washington power ends.

Man shot, killed in Dorchester in city?s first homicide of the year

A man in his 30s was shot and killed in Dorchester early on New Year?s Day in what officials say is the city?s first homicide of 2019.

Love Letters

The most popular Love Letters of 2018 were about nude pictures, group texts, and lack of marital sex

By far the most popular letter of the 2018 inspired readers to give practical, empathic advice ? and lots of it.

HELP DESK

Here are small, realistic ways to start eating healthier

Here are some (rational, actionable) tips from experts on how to eat well all year long, no matter what your dining persona.

Judge denies Kevin Spacey?s request to skip Nantucket arraignment

The actor plans to plead not guilty to a felony charge he faces for allegedly sexually assaulting an 18-year-old man at a Nantucket bar in 2016.

Officials await autopsy results for Cohasset man who died after being tasered by police

Erich Stelzer died Thursday night after he was tasered while allegedly attacking a woman he met on the dating app Tinder.

South Boston, MA, 01/1/2019 -- People run into the water during the L Street Brownies annual New Year polar plunge. (Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff) Topic: 02plunge Reporter: — Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff

Photos from the annual L Street Brownies? polar plunge

With temperatures in the 50s, the L Street Brownies held their annual New Year?s swim in South Boston ? one of the country?s oldest and most popular.

What?s open and closed on New Year?s Day

How will the holiday affect your routine?

Where to eat brunch on New Year?s Day

Start off 2019 with a ?recovery brunch? ? or maybe a brunch you?ll need to recover from.

2019 begins with a blast of wind and warm temperatures

Especially north and west of Boston, wind gusts will be strong enough to bring down limbs or cause power outages, forecasters said.

Garbage, bad behavior take toll on national parks amid shutdown

Human feces, overflowing garbage, illegal off-roading and other damaging behavior in fragile areas were beginning to overwhelm some of the West?s iconic national parks.

Ty Burr

Louis C.K.: This is funny?

A recent routine, heard on a YouTube audio, is often painfully clueless.

Live updates from the Winter Classic: Bruins vs. Blackhawks

The puck drops on the NHL?s annual New Year?s Day outdoor game at Notre Dame Stadium at 1 p.m.

Bruins revel in rare chance to play at Notre Dame Stadium

Boston has hosted two previous Winter Classics; beating the Flyers in 2010 at Fenway Park and falling to the Canadiens in 2016 at Gillette Stadium.

CHAD FINN

The Red Sox will repeat, and other Boston sports predictions for 2019

The Red Sox will become the first team since the 1999-2000 Yankees to win back-to-back World Series.

The preferred matchup for the Patriots is Houston, which means it probably will happen. — matthew j. lee/globe staff file

DAN SHAUGHNESSY

No reason the Patriots won?t march straight to another Super Bowl

If form holds ? and it always does when it comes to the Patriots ? they won?t have to worry.

JOAN VENNOCHI

Elizabeth Warren persists, but rough tackling lies ahead

?Pocahontas? is just the start of it for Elizabeth Warren, as she forms an exploratory presidential committee.

Michael A. Cohen

Globe editorial board?s resolutions for Congress, Beacon Hill, City Hall, and beyond

To ring in 2019, we?ve crafted resolutions that will help us stay on top of Congress, Beacon Hill, and City Hall. As always, we invite you to be part of the debate.

A double diagnosis ? cancer when poor

Marie Cajuste couldn?t ignore it any more. She had noticed a hard lump in her left breast about a year before, but kept the discovery to herself. She literally could not afford to be sick.

After suicides in Acton and Boxborough, a communion of sorrow

The unthinkable has been an all-too-common companion in two small neighboring towns, where six young people took their lives in the short span of 30 months. The questions keep coming: What is happening? Why? When will it stop?

Podcasts

Aaron Hernandez and Football Inc.

The story of a profoundly troubled young man and the ugly underside of America?s most popular sport.

The Help Desk

HELP DESK

Yes, you can argue online without going crazy. Here?s how.

Those bunny slippers are dangerously close to the space heater. They should be at least 3 feet away.

HELP DESK

How to safely use a space heater

Newsletters

Court Sense

Follow the Celtics? quest for a title and other NBA news both on and off the court. Sign up here.

Globe must-reads

Fresh Food Generation cofounders Jackson Renshaw and Cassandria Campbell at CommonWealth Kitchen.

At CommonWealth Kitchen, a feast of support and success

After her cancer diagnoses, Marie Cajuste?s life unraveled. She was unable to work during the most intense part of her treatment.

Unhealthy Divide

Battling a double diagnosis ? cancer and poverty

Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga in the Golden Globe-nominated film ?A Star Is Born.?

MATTHEW GILBERT | YOUR TV GPS

Oscar season, ?Twilight Zone,? and New Year?s Eve bashes

Peter DeMarco

Turning tragedy, slowly, into a force for change

As part of a major renovation of Nantucket Cottage Hospital, 83 units of housing are being built to recruit ? and keep ? critical workers.

Hospital hopes new housing can ease ?the Nantucket Shuffle?

A protest by locked-out National Grid workers in Woburn this fall.

Baker signs bill for National Grid workers

An Airbnb ?super host? crashed through a guesthouse window as MDs Chiedozie Uwandu and Jaleesa Jackson slept; the company coughed up an apology and a sizable settlement only after readers blasted it.

Sean P. Murphy

Want corporations to listen? Speak up

Washington Santos and two other plaintiffs were denied Welcome Home Bonus money because they received ?other than honorable? discharges.

Mass. may be forced to give out veterans? bonuses it withheld

Sarah Rapaport made the decision to euthanize PJ, a daschund, this month before heading to LA for Christmas on Dec. 19, for fear he would otherwise need to be put down while the family was away.

?Get ready for an influx of sadness?

Dr. Rafael Campo, creator of eight books of poetry, is editor of the Poetry and Medicine section of the medical journal JAMA.

A son of immigrants, Harvard doctor connects to his heritage through poetry

11/29/2018 Leicester Ma- Leicester Police Chief James Hurley (cq) is retiring after a long career in law enforcement. Jonathan Wiggs /Globe Staff Reporter:Topic:

Leicester police chief leaves legacy for pot industry

Milburn Gomes, who awaited deportation for several months and is now living with his mother in Mumbai, is shown with his son, Ethan. The two speak every day by phone.

Attorneys: ICE struggling to carry out deportations

Sports

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Foxborough MA 12/30/18 New England Patriots Tom Brady scrambles out of the pocket during his 9 yard touchdown reception to Phillip Dorset against the New York Jets during second quarter NFL action at Gillette Stadium. (photo by Matthew J. Lee/Globe staff) topic: reporter:

JIM McBRIDE | PATRIOTS FILM STUDY

Tom Brady certainly didn?t look hurt against the Jets

The way Brady threw the ball showed that his legs are just fine and he can still deliver while on the move.

Metro

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Ipswich, MA - Oct. 25, 2018: Olivier, 16 months, is carried by his mom at the annual Halloween party in the office in Ipswich, Mass., on Oct. 25, 2018. His dad works at NEB. For almost 30 years, New England Biolabs has provided on-site child care. (Michelle Jay) Topic: 111818TPTWMoms

Parents searching for safety info on Mass. child care confront a black hole

Massachusetts recently received a one-year federal extension to post child care safety records online.

Politics

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Outgoing Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in September.

Outgoing Defense Secretary Jim Mattis urges employees to stay focused

Mattis quoted from a letter Abraham Lincoln wrote in 1865 to Ulysses S. Grant reading ?let nothing which is transpiring, change, hinder, or delay your military movements, or plans.?