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Boston's Morning Newsletter
7 notable Massachusetts guests at tonight's State of the Union
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The steady rain should die down by the afternoon commute, but you’ll want a rain jacket this morning (or you’ll end up as waterlogged as the U.S. women’s soccer team’s pitch last night). To the news:
Be our guest: President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address is tonight, and you may see a few local faces in the crowd, in addition to Massachusetts’ congressional delegation. As has become tradition, the state’s 11 members of the House and Senate are bringing guests to the speech — often to make a point about a particular policy or priority. As WBUR’s Max Larkin reports, Rep. Ayanna Pressley is bringing Boston Public Schools teacher Priscilla Valentine to highlight Biden’s recent tweaks to the federal student loan forgiveness programs. For 20 years, Valentine juggled student-loan payments with daycare costs and rent. As of last year, the amount she owed had only grown. However, all $117,000 of her debt was canceled after the Biden administration expanded a forgiveness program for public service workers. Scroll below for more notable local State of the Union guests:
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren is bringing fellow Cantabrigian and former BPS teacher Benadette Manning, who also got college debt forgiven thanks to the new federal loan forgiveness program.
- Sen. Ed Markey is bringing local union leader Lou Antonellis, who Markey says has helped position the commonwealth to be at the “forefront” of creating green union jobs and transitioning to sustainable construction practices. (Coincidentally, Antonellis was also at the forefront of former Rep. Joe Kennedy’s bid to unseat Markey.)
- Rep. Seth Moulton is bringing Oleksandra Kovalchuk — a Ukrainian museum director and former elected official who fled to his hometown of Salem — to raise awareness of the “profound human and cultural costs of Russia’s war.”
- Rep. Lori Trahan is bringing Dr. Pietro Bortoletto, a top doctor at the local in vitro fertilization practice where she underwent treatment for “five long years” to have her two daughters. She’s hoping to promote her push to codify the right to IVF at the national level.
- Rep. Jake Auchincloss is bringing Brookline resident Myrieme Nadri-Churchill, the leader of the anti-extremism group Parent for Peace, to promote his new bill to require social media companies to increase privacy and age verification protections for kids.
- Bonus: Massachusetts native Elizabeth Carr, the U.S.’s first IVF baby, is the guest of Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, who quoted Carr’s recent Cognoscenti essay during a Senate floor speech this week.
250 years later: Crispus Attucks could get his own statue in Boston honoring his contributions to the American Revolution. Attucks was shot and killed by British soldiers on March 5, 1770 during the Boston Massacre. The Boston City Council yesterday said it will hold a hearing in the near future on the possibility of installing a statue commemorating him.
- City Councilor Brian Worrell, the main backer of the effort, said although Attucks was born into slavery, he was recognized as a patriot and advocate for human rights at the time of his death. “This is all part of recognizing the rich history of Black Boston and the tremendous impact our ancestors had on the rich American history our city boasts,” he told WBUR’s Fausto Menard.
- The Council also passed a resolution declaring every March 5 as Crispus Attucks Day in Boston (which it sorta already was).
Under the dome: The Massachusetts House passed their proposal yesterday to limit how long individuals can stay in the state’s family shelter system, in order to keep the strained program sustainable. The bill would also earmark another $245 million for the system.
- Next up: The proposal now moves to the Senate. (Leaders in the upper chamber have yet to say whether they support the time limits.)
Love that dirty water: Maybe stay out of the Charles River by the Needham-Newton line for a little bit. For the second time in less than a week, magnet fishermen have pulled an old (potentially WWII-era) bazooka round out of the water near the Kendrick Street Bridge. WBZ has photos of the since-detonated round here.
P.S.— The first two episodes of our new podcast Beyond All Repair are officially out! Hosted by WBUR’s Amory Sivertson, this 10-part true crime investigation looks back on an unsolved murder case and a family torn apart. Subscribe here, or wherever you get your podcasts.
