Boston Globe: "Ballot stuffer: Mass. officials say record-tying nine questions slated to go before voters in November"

"Massachusetts voters, get ready for a record number of choices this November.

Secretary of State William F. Galvin’s office on Friday said nine ballot questions are certified to appear on this fall’s general election ballot, which would match the single-year high last set in 1994.

Proponents for eight proposals turned in enough signatures ahead of a July deadline, and a referendum to repeal a major state firearms law had previously met the requirements to make the ballot.

The fate of one ballot question is technically still up in the air. Opponents of a measure to repeal the state’s legalization of recreational cannabis have challenged signatures turned in by the petition’s supporters. A state panel is expected to issue a decision on the challenge by Wednesday, a spokesperson for Galvin’s office said."

Continue reading the article - https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/07/17/metro/massachusetts-ballot-questions-certified-galvin/?s_campaign=sharetool_copypaste_view

Boston Globe: "High schoolers are placing sports bets online. Experts warn of growing risks of addiction."

"At Fenway High, Angel Benitez even tried to document the use among classmates. For a humanities project last spring, Benitez and his friends surveyed their classmates about wagering on sports and whether their friends outside of school were also betting.

They spoke to 90 teens and found that 82 of them – more than 90 percent — were gambling on sports.

“I was like, whoa. I didn’t know that many people at our school were gambling,” said Benitez, who graduated and this fall is attending Northeastern University. “Not only is it at our school, but kids our age everywhere are gambling.”

That does not surprise Jennifer Knight-Levine, cofounder of the SAFE Coalition, a nonprofit that supports young people facing mental health and substance abuse challenges.

“Youth gambling on online platforms in school is absolutely happening across the Commonwealth,” Knight-Levine said."

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Boston Globe: "Ahead of World Cup, officials announce safety plans and ask for public’s help"

"Just south of Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, a billboard looms over busy Route 1: “Human trafficking” it says in large bold letters over close-ups of several people’s eyes. “If you see something, say something.”

It’s a public safety awareness push ahead of the World Cup, with a specific focus: Starting when games begin next week in Foxborough, crowds will descend on the area — men looking to pay a fee for sex, and operators of an illicit industry built on exploitation who are looking to capitalize.

“Events like the World Cup can create conditions that attract human traffickers seeking to exploit vulnerable people, regardless of age, sex, race, or ethnicity,” FBI Boston Special Agent in Charge Ted Docks said at a press conference last week in the State House."

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Boston Globe: "Massachusetts cities facing steepest layoffs since the Great Recession, observers say"

"Malden is slated to lay off 29 public employees, including five firefighters. In Somerville, a clinical youth specialist was among the 13 abruptly axed. And in New Bedford, where the exasperated mayor said the financial strife had “reached a boiling point,” the cuts reach deep into the police department ledger with the planned elimination of two dozen vacant positions, all while another 36 employees in city departments are set to be let go and a fire station is on the chopping block.

Across Massachusetts, communities are confronting what some describe as the most intractable budget shortfalls in decades. Exact numbers of people losing their jobs may vary as labor negotiations play out, but the budgets city leaders are putting forward this year have called for a flurry of program cuts and pink slips in these last weeks before the new fiscal year that begins next month.

“We are going to start to see cuts and layoffs that we haven’t seen probably since 2008 and 2009 during the Great Recession,” said Adam Chapdelaine, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, a nonprofit that advocates for local officials.

Explore the MMA’s new report,
"A Perfect Storm: Cities and Towns Face
Historic Fiscal Pressures", to understand why

The organization had forewarned of what was coming as far back as October when it issued a report it called “A Perfect Storm,” that found revenues would not meet the costs of health insurance, utilities, transportation, pensions, and virtually every other line item — all of which have been pushed inexorably higher at a time of significant inflation.

The layoffs arrive at a moment when pandemic-era federal grants have dried up, and unrestricted state aid, adjusted for inflation, is well below what it was 20 years ago, the report said."

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/06/05/metro/massachusetts-layoffs/?s_campaign=sharetool_copypaste_view

The Perfect Storm report link was shared here in October - 

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2025/10/explore-mmas-new-report-perfect-storm.html

Boston Globe: "another example of local leadership combining neighborliness with civic boosterism"

Via the Boston Globe

"This Saturday, at least four Massachusetts communities will host a Porchfest of their own, including Newton, Medford, Franklin, and Dorchester (“Dorchfest”). Arlington and the Fenway neighborhood are coming up on June 20, and the second annual Cambridge Porchfest is set for July 11.

....

In Norfolk County, the Town of Franklin (as it’s officially known, though it now has city government) will host its third Porchfest this weekend. Mixing private residences with municipal spaces in Franklin’s Cultural District, this Porchfest is another example of local leadership combining neighborliness with civic boosterism.

“What’s unique about us is we’re not only on porches but on town property,” said John Lopresti, chair of Franklin’s Cultural District Committee. They’ll have music on the Franklin Town Common, at the Historical Museum, and on the steps of the Franklin Public Library, the nation’s first.

“We wanted to expand it, really bring the beauty of Franklin [by] showcasing these historical assets,” Lopresti said."

Continue reading the article with this shared link - 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/06/04/arts/porchfest-editions-massachusetts/?s_campaign=sharetool_copypaste_view

Franklin PorchFest schedule can be found - https://franklin.porchfest.info/map/#schedule

Boston Globe: "Some parents are revolting against classroom screen time"

"How much screen time is too much? Especially at school?

Many parents fretting about the hold technology has over their kids’ every moment now say the less, the better.

In Cambridge, where debate over the merits of screens has been especially pitched this year, school officials have batted around the idea of a ban, at least until third grade.

Now a new study offers a glimpse, however limited, at the role screen time is playing in a child’s life during the hours when they’re at school, be it 6-year-olds tapping away on math games during class, or teenagers hacking their Chromebooks to text their friends.

It is just a small portion of the life of a child, who may spend hours a day engaging with a screen of one kind or another. It did not, for example, address the use of cellphones, a primary way many kids absorb screen-based content. Nor did it assess the district’s decision last year to ban the use of the phones during school days — and what impact that might be having on how kids use, or misuse, school-issued devices."

Continue reading the article online with this 
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/05/28/metro/cambridge-screen-time-report/?s_campaign=sharetool_copypaste_view

FIFA licensing delays threaten Massachusetts’ World Cup party plans

Another "first" (of a few in this case) as Franklin, through the MetroWest Boston Visitors Bureau is one of the 2 FIFA permits authorized for a "watch party", currently scheduled for June 24 & June 25 for the Town Common. 

"This spring, the Healey administration awarded $10 million in grants to support World Cup celebrations in more than two dozen communities, hailing them as an opportunity for more people to share in the excitement without having to buy tickets to Gillette Stadium.

The party planners got to work: They imagined parks and town greens packed with soccer-crazed crowds, lined with food vendors, and anchored by towering screens broadcasting live World Cup matches in real time. The grants were intended to support World Cup-related celebrations in 25 cities and towns through June and July.

There’s just one bottleneck: FIFA, soccer’s powerful global governing body, has so far granted public viewing licenses to just two of the 17 organizations planning viewing events and other festivities, and with the start of the games fast approaching, it is unclear whether many of them will take place at all. Two municipalities have decided not to go forward with plans.

Without those approvals, municipalities cannot legally show the matches in public, leaving many local organizers frozen in place — unable to lock in vendors, rent giant screens, hire security, or recruit volunteers."

Continue reading the article on line: 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/05/13/metro/its-maddening-fifa-licensing-delays-threaten-massachusetts-world-cup-party-plans/?et_rid=1745607262&s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter

More about the watch party or fan zone on the Town Common 

https://www.franklinmatters.org/2026/04/metrowest-regional-fan-zones-announced.html

Boston Globe girls lacrosse top teams references Franklin

Via the Boston Globe:

"For the first time this season, there is a new No. 1 in the Globe’s girls’ lacrosse Top 20 after previously-unbeaten Concord-Carlisle fell to both Hingham and Reading in the past week.

Walpole had a chance to assume the top spot, but a setback against Notre Dame (Hingham) means both the defending Division 1 and Division 2 champions descend slightly.

Cohasset and NDA have each only lost once, to each other, and the Skippers claim the top spot because their loss came when their four seniors were on a school trip.

NDA also doubled up Chelmsford, which means Sandwich and Duxbury leapfrog the Lions. Undefeated Franklin has only faced tests against Foxborough and Westwood so far, but upcoming games with Medfield and Bishop Feehan will offer a glimpse into the Panthers’ long-term potential."

Continue reading the article with this shared link

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/05/12/sports/girls-lacrosse-top-20-poll/?s_campaign=sharetool_copypaste_view

MARK STOCKWELL FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Boston Globe: "Anti-Chromebook movement sweeping schools"

via the Boston Globe:

"As Beacon Hill wrestles with a school cellphone ban, local leaders have already launched a more aggressive fight against digital distractions in classrooms.

Across Massachusetts and the country, communities are taking aim at school-issued laptops, ipads, and more. The technology once heralded as the savior of education during the COVID-19 pandemic is now in the crosshairs.

Call it the anti-Chromebook movement.

The push comes more than a decade into a nationwide achievement decline and a surge in youth mental health challenges like anxiety, depression, and difficulty concentrating. While there are other potential explanations, many point to screen time as an obvious culprit."

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Boston Globe: "Mass. sheriffs pitch budget fix after spending scrutiny"

via the Boston Globe:

Boston Globe: "Mass. sheriffs pitch budget
fix after spending scrutiny"

"Massachusetts’ county sheriffs are conceding what lawmakers and a state watchdog have been warning for months: The system used to fund and oversee their offices is “opaque, chaotic, and deeply flawed” — and they have their own suggestions for how to change it as the annual budget debate gets underway.

In a letter sent last week to top budget writers, the 14 sheriffs outlined a series of reforms they said would begin to address the “real problems” that Inspector General Jeffrey Shapiro flagged in the review published earlier this year of their budgeting practices.

“We recognize that the current budget process is not working for our Offices and for the Legislature. This letter is our commitment to change that,” the sheriffs wrote in the letter sent to Senate Ways and Means chair Michael Rodrigues and House Ways and Means chair Aaron Michlewitz last Thursday and obtained by the Globe."

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Boston Globe: "US reclassifies state-licensed medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug"

Via the Boston Globe:

Boston Globe: "US reclassifies state-licensed medical
marijuana as a less-dangerous drug"

"President Donald Trump’s acting attorney general on Thursday signed an order reclassifying state-licensed medical marijuana as a less-dangerous drug, a major policy shift long sought by advocates who said cannabis should never have been treated like heroin by the federal government.

The order signed by Todd Blanche does not legalize marijuana for medical or recreational use under federal law. But it does change the way it’s regulated, shifting licensed medical marijuana from Schedule I — reserved for drugs without medical use and with high potential for abuse — to the less strictly regulated Schedule III. It also gives licensed medical marijuana operators a major tax break and eases some barriers to researching cannabis.

The Trump administration also said it was jump-starting the process for reclassifying marijuana more broadly, setting a hearing to begin in late June."

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Greater Boston Food Bank and Mass General Brigham report shows food insecurity rising in Mass

"As prices continue to climb on everything from gas to energy to groceries, a record 40 percent of Massachusetts households are now reporting food insecurity, according to a new study from the Greater Boston Food Bank and Mass General Brigham.

The report found that 1.12 million households didn’t have reliable access to food last year, a rate that’s up from 37 percent in 2024, and more than double pre-pandemic levels.

“It’s been a very difficult year for people across the Commonwealth,” said Catherine D’Amato, president and chief executive of the Greater Boston Food Bank, which partners with 600 agencies across 190 towns in New England and serves 600,000 people each month."

Continue reading the article - https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/04/07/business/food-insecurity-massachusetts-greater-boston-food-bank/?s_campaign=sharetool_copypaste_view

Go directly to the report - https://foodaccessreport.gbfb.org/

Video link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSjVhJY2BjI

Boston Globe: "That pot of money has pretty much run out"

"Communities across the state are facing intense financial pressure this spring, as inflation causes expenses to surge.

Boston Globe: "That pot of money has pretty much run out"

In affluent Marblehead, local officials are even considering closing the town library, just two years after a $10 million renovation, to balance the books.

The coastal town has a $7 million budget deficit, as rising health care and employee pension costs outpace tax revenue, Town Administrator Thatcher Kezer said.

“Marblehead on the revenue side has been relying on so-called free cash, basically savings from the past,” Kezer said. “That pot of money has pretty much run out.”

As a worst-case scenario, officials are considering shutting down five other town departments, the Council on Aging, the Health Department (except the health agent), Community Development and Planning, and Recreation and Parks."

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/17/metro/marblehead-budget-deficit-risks-library-closure/?s_campaign=sharetool_copypaste_view

Follow the Franklin Finance Committee Budget hearings April 6 through 9. Get a good dose of information on the school funding tonight at the joint Town Council and School Committee meeting

Boston GLobe: "With fewer students and higher costs, many Massachusetts districts weigh school closures and mergers"

Franklin has redistricted and closed schools, other communities are facing the same issues.

"As student enrollment drops across Massachusetts and expenses rise, districts are showing a willingness to take on one of the most polarizing issues in public education: closing or merging schools.

The downsizing has popped up in a wide variety of urban, rural, and suburban districts, including Acton-Boxborough and Belchertown in Hampshire County, which are both shuttering an elementary school in June. Boston is also closing three schools this summer as it strives to eliminate nearly one-fifth of its schools.

The impending shutdowns — a trend that is expected to continue in the coming years — add to more than three dozen public schools that have closed or consolidated since the pandemic disrupted classroom learning. That list includes shuttered elementary schools in Cambridge, North Middlesex, and Wellesley, and the closure or merger of several charter schools.

District leaders have pursued the closures and mergers to balance operating budgets amid declining enrollment and rising costs for special education, transportation, utilities, and other expenses, or to curb spending on replacing antiquated school buildings as construction costs have soared."

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/13/metro/declining-school-enrollment-fuels-massachusetts-closures/?s_campaign=sharetool_copypaste_view

Boston Globe: "History is being erased in Lowell"

"The following things happened in Lowell in the 19th century: Girls as young as 10 worked 12-hour days, six days a week, in hot, unhealthy textile mills with little ventilation. The harsh conditions led the mill workers to organize the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association, which pushed for a 10-hour work day. Its newspaper, The Voice of Industry, took strong stands against war and slavery, and many workers stood in solidarity with the enslaved Africans who harvested the cotton spun in those very mills.

Apparently President Trump doesn’t want you to know about all of this, because in accordance with his executive order “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” two videos about the mill workers shown at the Lowell National Historical Park have been removed.

“Lowell: The Continuing Revolution” is one of the two missing films (still available online if not on the park website). It’s a standard overview of the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, mostly supporting the narrative of benevolent mill owners and young women happy to be liberated from farm drudgery to earn their own money. But the film does describe the air in the mills as “swarming with lint, leaving the workers susceptible to lung disease,” and says that owners looking to optimize profits regularly cut wages, leading to strikes. Since the US Interior Department’s directives enforcing Trump’s order compel the National Park Service to “flag for removal” any materials that “inappropriately disparage Americans past or living,” the educational videos had to go.

“Every American should be alarmed that this is happening,” said Kristin Sykes, Northeast regional director of the National Parks Conservation Association, an independent guardian of the parks. “We’re just starting to see this whitewashing, and we could see much more.”

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/06/opinion/lowell-mills-history-erased-trump/?s_campaign=sharetool_copypaste_view

Boston Globe: "The MIAA’s revenue from state tournaments has been dropping steadily over the last several years."

"A downhill ski run best resembles the trend of the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association’s net revenues for its tournaments over the past four years.

Massachusetts Interscholastic
Athletic Association (MIAA)

Dipping a total of 70 percent from $737,040 in fiscal year 2022 to a little less than $218,000 in 2025, the economics of the statewide tournament system implemented by the MIAA five years ago are not adding up.

“Certainly I’m not an alarmist to say that I have a huge level of concern. We have a reality that you can’t just keep slipping down to zero,” MIAA executive director Bob Baldwin said.

Administrative costs have climbed more than 50 percent over the four years while revenues from the fall, winter, and spring tournaments combined have dropped more than 20 percent."

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/03/03/sports/miaa-state-tournament-revenue/?s_campaign=sharetool_copypaste_view

Boston Globe: "Massachusetts is national outlier in how it funds special ed transportation, report says"

OIG report on funding special ed transportation

"Massachusetts makes it difficult for local schools to pay for transportation for special education students because the state relies on an overly complicated reimbursement system that ties up funding, according to a study released this week by the state inspector general.

The report described Massachusetts as a national outlier that is one of only six states that uses this funding formula, which places a significant financial burden on local school districts.

The state requires local schools to pay upfront for special education transportation costs and then seek to be partially reimbursed by the state the following year.

At a time when school budgets are tight and inflation is soaring, a year’s delay in repayment leaves school districts without funds “for other critical uses,” the report said."

Continue reading the article with this "share link"

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/24/metro/inspector-general-massachusetts-special-ed/?s_campaign=sharetool_copypaste_view

You can go directly to download the report (PDF)

https://www.mass.gov/doc/special-education-transportation-study/download

Boston Globe: "Homeland Security wants social media sites to expose anti-ICE accounts"

"The Department of Homeland Security is expanding its efforts to identify Americans who oppose Immigration and Customs Enforcement by sending tech companies legal requests for the names, email addresses, telephone numbers and other identifying data behind social media accounts that track or criticize the agency.

Boston Globe: "Homeland Security wants
social media sites to expose anti-ICE accounts"

In recent months, Google, Reddit, Discord and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, have received hundreds of administrative subpoenas from DHS, according to four government officials and tech employees privy to the requests. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

Google, Meta and Reddit complied with some of the requests, the government officials said. In the subpoenas, the department asked the companies for identifying details of accounts that do not have a real person’s name attached and that have criticized ICE or pointed to the locations of ICE agents. The New York Times saw two subpoenas that were sent to Meta over the past six months."

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/14/business/social-media-expose-anti-ice-accounts/?s_campaign=sharetool_copypaste_view

Boston Globe: "The budgets for the bus go up and up"

"Massachusetts is set for another year of statewide municipal budget strain. With high inflation pushing up costs, and Prop 2½ constraining how much cities and towns can raise taxes, this spring will likely lead to tense town hall meetings across the state.

One budgetary strain stands out in particular: the skyrocketing cost of transporting schoolchildren. There are steps the state could take to ease this growing burden, and as more towns renegotiate their bus contracts and face massive jumps in costs, lawmakers should take a closer look at remedying this fiscal land mine.

FPS buses in the Holmes yard on Panther Way

In Fall River, school bus transportation costs ballooned from $8 million a year in 2021 to nearly $16 million in 2025. In 2024, Dartmouth was hit with a 26 percent increase in school transportation costs, with only one company bidding for the work. Last year, despite cutting eight buses from its fleet, Marlborough paid 8 percent more in the first year of its new transportation contract.

First: The industry of school bus transportation has changed dramatically since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Rich LaBrie, a consultant at Alliance Education Associates who specializes in school transportation. Pre-pandemic school bus drivers were, on average, older than other trucking professionals, rarely afforded health benefits, and generally worked only part-time."

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Boston Globe: "Somerville’s secret weapon against snow"

"After 23.2 inches of snow, what’s a senior or person with heart problems supposed to do?

Somerville has figured out an answer, with a city program that matches homeowners in need with kids looking to make a few bucks by shoveling sidewalks, steps, and driveways. 

Boston Globe: "Somerville’s secret weapon against snow"

The city lets seniors and people with disabilities request help, and pairs them with a snow-shoveler between the ages of 14 and 19. The homeowner pays the shoveler in cash, at rates the city sets in advance.

For instance, clearing a sidewalk and steps is $25. Compare that to TaskRabbit, a site many people use to hire people for short one-off jobs, which says the cost of an average snow removal task arranged through the site is $118."

Continue reading the article at the Boston Globe ->

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/02/01/opinion/somerville-snow-shovel-teens/?s_campaign=sharetool_copypaste_view