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New online portal helps Mass. veterans access earned bonuses
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.
Happy hump day! You're halfway through the first work week of 2026. How are those resolutions going?
Anyway, let's get to the news.
Tech for vets: Massachusetts military veterans have a new way to access the bonuses they’re owed. State Treasurer Deb Goldberg yesterday unveiled a new online portal where veterans can apply for benefits and track the status of their applications. “Bottom line is, it allows for faster processing of the awards to the veterans,” Goldberg told WBUR’s Fausto Menard. “It’s just one more step to ensuring that we as a state and we as state government make sure that veterans and their families know how much we appreciate what they've done for us.”
- Among the benefits veterans can apply for online are so-called “welcome home” bonuses: $1,000 for a deployment to Iraq, Afghanistan or another “imminent danger” location, with lower awards for subsequent deployments or service elsewhere.
- Goldberg said since 2006, more than $41 million has been disbursed to post-9/11 veterans. Users can sign up for the portal here.
We’re gonna need a bigger ballot: There could be a record number of questions on the November ballot, after Secretary of State Bill Galvin certified 11 questions. That's in addition to the gun control law referendum set to go before voters this year. And as WBUR’s Chris Van Buskirk reports, if all of them advance, it could be tough to fit them on the ballot. State officials must print a summary of each question (and in multiple languages) and that takes up a lot of space. Galvin is asking the Healey administration for an extra $5 million to deal with the logistics. “It's very likely there's going to be multiple cards,” Galvin said. “It's going to be difficult for the voter, but it's also going to be challenging for the logistics of the ballot boxes and things like that.”
- Typically, Massachusetts voters only have to decide two to four questions. But states like California, which see dozens of citizen petitions, send out voter guides that can be hundreds of pages long.
- The Legislature now has the ballot questions in hand, and has until May to act on them. Curious what some of the questions might be? Here's a preview.
Bottoms up: There’s a good chance you or someone you know is going alcohol-free this month, part of the growing Dry January trend. Consumer analytics company Circana found that three in 10 people took part last January. McLean Hospital alcohol, drugs and addiction outpatient medical director Dr. Olivera Bogunovic cheers even a temporary break from drinking. “ Just achieving this small goal and being able to stop drinking, it is a very powerful experience because it gives you additional guidance to set up other goals like continuous sobriety and not drinking,” she told WBUR’s Amy Sokolow.
- People are drinking less than they ever have (or at least as long as pollsters have been asking them). A Gallup poll out last year found that only 54% of adults say they drink alcohol. That's the lowest rate in 90 years of the poll's history.
P.S.— If you're one of those January teetotalers (or just sober curious) come join me at WBUR CitySpace this Friday for a NA wine and beverage tasting, along with an expert panel discussing what an alcohol-free lifestyle looks like these days. I'll be joined by author and The Luckiest Club founder Laura McKowen, Mountainside Treatment Center's director of cultural integration Jana Wu, and CJ Mutti, owner and founder of NA bottle shop Dry Humor.
