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Provincetown is offering free trips for the next generation of LGBTQ+ tourists
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The alleged gunman at the White House Correspondents' dinner is set to be arraigned in federal court today. Police have not formally identified the suspect, but sources tell NPR he is 31-year-old Cole Allen. Here's what we know about the shooting, and Allen, so far.
Now, to the local news:
Provincetown is facing an age-old challenge: Attracting a younger crowd. According to the Provincetown Business Guild, fewer than 6% of visitors to Cape Cod's LGBTQ+ tourist hotspot are under the age of 35. Vacationing in the area has become more expensive in recent years. So to make visiting Ptown more accessible to young queer people, the guild has partnered up with the Provincetown Pride Center to offer free trips through the new PtownONE Program. Lodging, ferry fees and admission to some local events will be covered for selected applicants.
- Why now? Rachael Brister, executive director for the guild, told WBUR's Amy Sokolow she's hoping the effort will foster the next generation of LGBTQ+ visitors to Provincetown. "Provincetown should be on every queer person's travel bucket list. Because when you come to a place where you are in the majority, it's something you never really get to experience anywhere else, and we think that that's very profound and impactful for people in their twenties," Brister said.
- How it works: The PtownONE Program offers weekend trips in two time slots — Pride Week in early June or TransWeek in mid-October. Applicants must be between the ages of 21-29, having never visited Provincetown in the past. The deadline to apply to visit during Pride Week is this Wednesday, April 29. After that, they'll randomly select 50 LGBTQ+ applicants to go, who are allowed to bring along one guest if they wish.
You're out: After breaking their four-game losing streak with a 17-1 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday, the Boston Red Sox announced that they were firing manager Alex Cora, as well as five of the team's coaches. It's the end of a long journey with the Red Sox for Cora, who was an infielder for the team when they won the 2007 World Series, and, as manager, brought the team to a franchise-record 108 wins (and another championship) in 2018. He will be replaced on an interim basis by Chad Tracy, who had been managing Boston's Triple-A Worcester Red Sox. The Sox won their first game under Tracy on Sunday, beating the Orioles 5-3.
- From the top: Red Sox owner John Henry thanked Cora Saturday for his time with the team. "Alex Cora led this organization to one of the greatest seasons in Red Sox history in 2018, and for that, and the many years that followed, he will always have our deepest gratitude," Henry said in a statement. They also said goodbye to hitting coach Peter Fatse, third base coach Kyle Hudson, bench coach Ramón Vázquez, assistant hitting coach Dillon Lawson, and major league hitting strategy coach Joe Cronin. Red Sox legend and former catcher Jason Varitek, who served as a game planning coach, will be reassigned to an unspecified role in the organization.
- Picture perfect: Hours after his firing, Cora posted a photo of him and his fired staff, smiling arm in arm in front of a plane. (The only sign of discontent seems to be Varitek's thumbs down.) Not long after, Cora posted on X "Happy! 😊"
Commemorating Coretta: Coretta Scott King is being honored on what would have been her 99th birthday this evening in the South End. Embrace Boston, the group behind the Embrace monument on Boston Common, is unveiling a monument dedicated to King at the League of Women for Community Service building tonight at 5 p.m. The building was King's home when she met her husband, Martin Luther King Jr., as a student at the New England Conservatory and still houses a Black women's service organization to this day. After this evening's unveiling, the monument will also become a historical marker on the "Everyone 250" trail, a series of "living history" sites across Boston.
'Tis the season: Turkey hunting season, that is. Massachusetts' spring turkey hunting season kicks off today, running through May 23. At this time of year, hunters can only harvest male turkeys (called toms and jakes), unlike the fall hunting season, where both males and females are fair game. David Scarpitti, a wildlife biologist with the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, says this hunting season doesn't have a huge impact on the state's abundant turkey population. "They occupy a huge range of habitat everywhere from kind of suburban and urban areas, agricultural lands, forests and fields, and a little bit of everything in between," Scarpitti told WBUR's Fausto Menard. "They're very adaptable in terms of their habitat use [and] food resources."
P.S. — King Charles is still planning a royal visit to the U.S. today, despite some security concerns regarding Saturday's shooting. The visit comes at a time of strained U.S.-U.K. relations, and has been criticized by Britons and members of Parliament. During his trip, King Charles is expected to address both houses of Congress, visit the 9/11 memorial in New York and attend a wreath-laying to honor fallen U.S. and U.K. soldiers in Virginia.
