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Boston's Morning Newsletter
Gov. Healey's sweeping veterans bill is one step closer to reality
Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from WBUR's daily morning newsletter, WBUR Today. If you like what you read and want it in your inbox, sign up here.
The big, new Back Bay Trader Joe’s opens today at 9 a.m. (Time Out Boston, which got a peek inside the store, reports they’ll have “celebratory free samples” throughout the day.) But first, the news.
Just in time for Memorial Day: Gov. Maura Healey’s sweeping veterans bill is starting to move through the State House. The House passed the “HERO Act” by a 156-0 vote yesterday, sending the bill to the Senate a little over six months after it was first filed by Healey.
- The bill includes 18 different policy changes and tax incentives. Some notable provisions include increasing annual payments to disabled vets, giving tax credits for small businesses that hire veterans, kicking off a study to look at psychedelic therapies for mental health disorders and eliminating the $40 fee for specialty veteran license plates. Read the full breakdown here. (The House also added an amendment allowing certain veterans groups to open up to five slot machines on their property.)
- What’s next: A spokesperson for Senate President Karen Spilka said she is “thankful” to Healey for filing the bill and “looks forward to reviewing” the version passed by the House. “The Senate President is committed to creating services that meet the needs of future generations of veterans,” the spokesperson said.
News about the news: Our public media colleagues at GBH were told yesterday that 31 staff members will be laid off, as the station grapples with a $7 million budget gap. WBUR’s Zeninjor Enwemeka reports the reduction represents 4% of GBH’s workforce.
- What it means for programming: GBH says it will “immediately” cease production of the TV shows “Greater Boston,” “Talking Politics” and “Basic Black” — the latter of which was created in 1968 and is the longest running public television show focused on people of color. GBH President Susan Goldberg told staff in an email that the station will “reinvent” the shows as “digital-first programming.” (The organization also ended its 24/7 online jazz stream.)
On campus: The 13 Harvard seniors who were punished for their roles in a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus will not get their degrees at commencement today. Despite a faculty board vote to let the student’s graduate on time, the Harvard Corporation, which is the school’s highest governing body, voted to uphold the punishments.
- Now what? WBUR’s Carrie Jung reports the decision doesn’t bar students from receiving a degree down the road. However, they must go through a process to return to good standing.
- Bigger picture: The decision also raises immediate questions around today’s commencement ceremony, including the potential for protests. At least one professor told Carrie that “a faculty vote of no confidence in the Harvard Corporation is foreseeable.”
On hold: Boston Public Schools is pausing their sweeping plan to close underutilized schools. Superintendent Mary Skipper told The Boston Globe they do not have the community support needed for such big changes. “In the past, when we’ve done mergers, consolidations, and closures, we’ve created a lot of trauma because we have not done the process well,” Skipper said before a school committee meeting last night. “We haven’t brought the community with us.”
- What’s next: BPS is still planning at least one merger and the closure of the city’s last standalone middle school. Skipper says the district will present a new facilities plan next year.
It’s back: For the first time in over two years, Boston’s West End Museum reopens today. The small museum around the corner from TD Garden closed in January 2022 after a burst pipe flooded its offices and galleries. (Fortunately, most of its archives survived.)
- See inside: A new permanent exhibit will detail the full four-century history of the West End. The diverse, working class neighborhood was infamously leveled in the 1950s so it could be redeveloped. But the exhibit covers everything from the West End’s peach orchard origins in 1625 to its role in the abolitionist movement to lessons from its razing. Museum Executive Director Sebastian Belfonti told WBUR’s Fausto Menard they’ve begun fundraising to add “an interactive map table” and several films to the museum, too.
P.S.— If you’re making the best of today’s summer-y weather and starting your Memorial Day weekend early, traffic experts suggest getting on the road before 11 a.m. Click here for more on the best and worst times to drive to avoid holiday traffic.
