EPA grant "to accelerate adoption of cold-climate heat pumps and water heaters"

"The Environmental Protection Agency is awarding $4.3 billion in grants to fund projects in 30 states to reduce climate pollution. The money will go to 25 projects targeting greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, electric power, commercial and residential buildings, industry, agriculture and waste and materials management.

The grants are paid for by the 2022 climate law approved by congressional Democrats. The law, officially known as the Inflation Reduction Act, includes nearly $400 billion in spending and tax credits to accelerate the expansion of clean energy such as wind and solar power, speeding the nation’s transition away from the oil, coal and natural gas that largely cause climate change.

The latest round of grants includes $396 million to the state of Pennsylvania to reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions from cement, asphalt and other material. EPA Administrator Michael Regan will join Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro in Pittsburgh on Monday to announce grant recipients in his state — a political battleground in the 2024 election — and across the nation.

...

Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine will get a total of $450 million to accelerate adoption of cold-climate heat pumps and water heaters."

Continue reading on the article online ->

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/22/business/epa-awards-43-billion-fund-projects-30-states-reduce-climate-pollution/

heat pump image & info shared from Energize Franklin

Globe All-scholastic for spring 2024 recognize: FHS' Corvi, Deforge, Dumas, Shaughnessy & Travato

In the Boston Globe All-Scholastics announced in today's edition of the newspaper, Franklin High School has several athletes and one coach recognized.

Baseball - Honorable Mention

• Jake Shaughnessy, senior, Franklin

Boys Lacrosse - Honorable Mention

• Matt Corvi, senior, Franklin

Girls Outdoor Track - All-scholastic

• Lily Deforge - FRANKLIN | SENIOR

Also an indoor All-Scholastic, the senior won discus (133 feet, 9 inches) and was third in shot put (41-3) to help Franklin to its first-ever Div. 1 state title. At the Meet of Champions, she was second in discus (123-4).

Girls Outdoor Track - All-scholastic

• Sarah Dumas - FRANKLIN | SENIOR

The Penn-bound senior led Franklin to the Div. 1 state title behind wins in the 400 hurdles (1:03.16), 100 hurdles (14.27), and pentathlon (2,716). At New Balance Nationals, she was third in the heptathlon (4.825) in a personal best.

Girls Outdoor Track - Coach of Year 

• Paul Trovato - DIVISION 1: FRANKLIN

Trovato, who has coached Franklin since 1984, led the Panthers to the program’s first-ever Div. 1 state title behind a group of talented seniors. An MSTCA Coaches Hall of Fame inductee in 2009, Trovato has complied an 188-82 career record.

For the full listing of All-Scholastics (subscription may be required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/high-schools/all-scholastics/

Globe All-scholastic for spring 2024 

Possible questions for November's state ballot

Via the Boston Globe:

"Millions of Massachusetts voters will hit the polls in November to cast a presidential ballot. They also could rewrite state laws in ways unseen in decades.

Possible ballot questions

Unions, advocates, and out-of-state groups are pushing to put five ballot questions before voters this fall, creating what would be the largest single slate in 24 years. The breadth of the lineup appears likely to spur one of the most expensive ballot question campaigns in Massachusetts history, with groups collectively having spent millions of dollars before the ballot has even been finalized.

For voters, that not only could mean enduring an onslaught of political advertising, but also wrestling with weighty policy decisions. Should the state scrap MCAS exams as a graduation requirement, reversing years of educational standards? Should it legalize psychedelic mushrooms? Should ride-share drivers be allowed to unionize?"

Continue reading the article at the Globe -> (Subscription may be required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/10/metro/massachusetts-five-ballot-questions-november-election/

Later this year, the "red book" of information on the ballot questions will be made available by the Secretary of the Commonwealth. 

Ryan Martin: "Fran Bositis takes his final bow after 53 years as Franklin’s boys’ soccer coach"

"As a fresh-faced 23-year-old finding his way after graduating from UMass Amherst, coaching soccer was not on the mind of Fran Bositis in 1971.

But then Franklin High athletic director Jerry Leone had limited options for Bositis, the new physical education teacher at the middle school next door.

Bositis wanted to join the coaching staff of the school’s well-established football team. But Leone could only offer Bositis the lead on boys’ varsity soccer, which was in its second year of existence.

Fifty-three years, 532 career wins, and countless athletes impacted later, Bositis recently stepped down as coach.

“It’s time to move on and start a new chapter,” said the 76-year-old Bositis. “It was never a job to me, it was my hobby because I’m not a golfer and I don’t fish.”

Continue reading the article at the Boston Globe (subscription maybe required)   https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/06/25/sports/fran-bositis-takes-his-final-bow-after-52-years-franklins-boys-soccer-coach/

https://x.com/GlobeSchools/status/1805727908872286307

Ryan Martin: "Fran Bositis takes his final bow after 53 years as Franklin’s boys’ soccer coach"

Boston Globe: "The beginners guide to celebrating Juneteenth"

"For more than one-and-a-half centuries, the Juneteenth holiday has been sacred to many Black communities.

It marks the day in 1865 enslaved people in Galveston, Texas found out they had been freed — after the end of the Civil War, and two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation.

Since it was designated a federal holiday in 2021, Juneteenth has become more universally recognized beyond Black America. Many people get the day off work or school, and there are a plethora of street festivals, fairs, concerts and other events.

People who never gave the June 19 holiday more than a passing thought may be asking themselves, is there a “right” way to celebrate Juneteenth?

For beginners and those brushing up on history, here are some answers:"

Find the answers in the Boston Globe article (subscription may be required) -> 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/06/18/nation/juneteenth-celebration-guide/

Dancer Prescylia Mae, of Houston, performs during a dedication ceremony for the massive mural "Absolute Equality" in downtown Galveston, Texas, Saturday, June 19, 2021.STUART VILLANUEVA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Boston Globe: "Franklin’s Marcella DiChiara showcases Sicilian culture, cuisine on new season of ‘The Great American Recipe’"

"When Marcella DiChiara was 10, the “typical ‘80s latchkey kid” would come home from school and start cooking.

In her family’s Connecticut kitchen, young Marcella would pretend she was on a cooking show while making anything from Sicilian sauces to stuffed artichokes for family dinner. “I would act it out,” she said with a laugh.

Marcella DiChiara

Now a Franklin-based marketing director and mother of two, DiChiara was on the beach in her parents’ native Sicily last summer, when she got an Instagram alert. A casting director wanted the self-taught @bostonhomecooking to be on a cooking competition show.

Growing up, DiChiara and her three siblings spent every summer in Sicily, visiting family. While she showcases recipes on Instagram — from cooking linguine alle vongole or making homemade pasta with her mother, to sharing her tips for Sicilian fried zucchini — she’d never cooked competitively (or professionally) in her life."

Continue reading the article in the Boston Globe (subscription may be required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/06/14/lifestyle/franklin-marcella-dichiara-pbs-sicilian-recipes/

Listen to the audio interview with Marcella -> https://franklin-ma-matters.captivate.fm/episode/fm-1207-marcella-dichiara-talks-about-the-great-american-recipe-season-3-05-17-24

The first show of Season 3 of the PBS show “The Great American Recipe” is scheduled for Monday, June 17 at 9 PM Eastern.

Full interview article with Marcella can be found -> https://www.franklinmatters.org/2024/05/marcella-dichiara-talks-about-her.html

"There’s a secret for Mass. cities and towns to win big bucks from Washington: Invest in sustainability"

Via the Boston Globe: 

"In three years, when the Bennett-Hemenway Elementary School in Natick is outfitted with air conditioning and staff and students will no longer wilt on the hottest days, it will be thanks to two things: a $2 million grant from the US Department of Energy, and Jillian Wilson Martin.

Wilson Martin is the sustainability director for Natick, one of dozens employed by cities and towns across the state. They don’t always do the most exciting work. Increasingly, the job description includes hours of writing grant applications, trying to get a piece of the billions of federal dollars for climate and infrastructure projects pushed by the Biden administration.

But the payoff can be huge.

“You guys. I literally almost passed out when I found out,” Wilson Martin wrote last summer in a joy-filled newsletter announcing the Energy Department grant, as well as a separate $250,000 grant from the state aimed at helping communities adapt to climate impacts. “Those hand cramps paid off!”

Continue reading the Boston Globe article ->  https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/06/08/science/sustainability-officers-help-deliver-federal-funding/

"There’s a secret for Mass. cities and towns to win big bucks from Washington: Invest in sustainability"

Boston Globe: "Median home sale prices have risen across Mass. since 2018"

"It’s no secret that home prices have soared to new heights in Greater Boston. But most of the towns in Massachusetts that have seen the fastest rise in home prices in recent years aren’t actually inside Route 128.

Town-by-town median home sale price data provided by The Warren Group, a real estate information firm, offer a bird’s eye view of recent trends. The data show that in the past five years, prices have risen the most in towns outside Greater Boston.

Just west of Worcester, Spencer saw its median home sale price go from $225,000 in 2018 to $407,500 in 2023 — an 81 percent increase. The median price in nearby Charlton went from $284,900 to $499,950 over the same time period, up about 75 percent. The dataset includes only towns where there have been 25 or more transactions in 2023."

Continue reading the article online -> 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/06/03/business/massachusetts-cape-cod-median-home-price-increase-map-greater-boston-real-estate/

Boston Globe: "Median home sale prices have risen across Mass. since 2018"

null

FHS girls outdoor track team captures MIAA D1 State Meet

Entering second day of the MIAA Division 1 track & field championship meet with a three-point lead, Franklin’s historic senior class could feel the state title within their grasp.

On Friday’s opening day of competition, star Sarah Dumas achieved the rare feat of winning the pentathlon and 400-meter hurdles on the same day. Her fellow senior teammates had risen to the occasion in the shot put and discus throw.

With one final afternoon to finish the job as a group, the seniors delivered.

Behind victories Sunday from Dumas in the 100 hurdles (14.29) and senior Elizabeth Hopkins in the javelin (137 feet, 2 inches), Franklin tallied 74 points at Westfield State to top runners-up Lowell and Westford (62 points each) and capture the program’s first Division 1 title.

“Winning a Division 1 championship has been a goal of ours since freshman year. And we’ve been working so hard, especially the senior class, for four years to make this happen,” said Dumas, who will run next year at Penn. “I sensed early in this season we had enough to do it … This ultimately is the culmination of all that hard work.”

D1 state meet article from Boston Globe ->

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/05/26/sports/miaa-division-1-state-track-championship-franklin-acton-boxborough/

The FHS boys finished 15th.

Complete performance results for FHS athletes can be found in the PDF

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LaCIKvnl17rQ-K6zMknFTKo79OZLr31q/view?usp=drive_link 

The Franklin girls' track team poses with the Division 1 state trophy after taking the program's first title Sunday at Westfield State. MATTY WASSERMAN FOR THE GLOBE

Hurricane season approaches, is your name on this list?

"What do the names Beulah, Andrew, Camille, Felix, Katrina and Hugo all have in common? They were all names given to some of the most deadly and destructive hurricanes in US weather history and whose names have since been retired.

Over the years, new names have been added in their place and still many others have emerged as candidates for lists maintained by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season officially starts June 1 and this year is forecast to be an exceptionally active season."

2024 Hurricane Names

Alberto        Beryl

Chris            Debby

Ernesto        Francine

Gordon        Helene

Isaac            Joyce

Kirk             Leslie

Milton         Nadine

Oscar           Patty

Rafael          Sara

Tony            Valerie

William        

Shared from -> https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/05/03/metro/hurricane-names-2024-heres-the-list-for-storm-season/

For more about the names for hurricanes -> https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml

National Hurricane Center

Boston Globe recognizes O'Leary, Neeley, Paterson, DeForge & Dumas for WINTER 2023-24 ALL-SCHOLASTICS

The Boston Globe has published their All-Scholastics selection for the Winter Sports season 2023-2024. The FHS selections are captured here.

Boys basketball

Sean O'Leary, FRANKLIN | SENIOR

O’Leary fueled Franklin’s march to the Division 1 final, tallying 16 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 assists per game during a 25-2 season. The two-time All-Scholastic forward repeated as Hockomock League MVP and will play at Bates.

Coaches of the Year

CJ Neely, DIVISION 1: FRANKLIN

In his 10th year at the helm, the Bates College and Oliver Ames alum led the Panthers to a 25-2 record and a third D1 state finals appearance since 2017. Neely holds a 249-136 career record, including a 187-47 mark at Franklin.

Boys hockey

Ben Paterson, FRANKLIN | SENIOR

The two-time Hockomock MVP and two-time Globe All-Scholastic dazzled once again, posting 28 goals and 28 assists to lead the Panthers in scoring. The high honor roll student recorded 119 career points and will do a post-grad year at Deerfield.

Girls Indoor Track

Lily Deforge, FRANKLIN | SENIOR

The Holy Cross-bound senior followed up an undefeated regular season by placing second in the shot put (40-06.5) at All-States and 15th at New Balance Nationals. This season, she set school records in both the shot put and weight throw.

Sarah Dumas, FRANKLIN | SENIOR

The Penn-bound senior won the 55-meter hurdles (8.44) at the Division 1 championships and placed third in the pentathlon at the New Balance Nationals. She earned Hockomock League MVP honors and was an All-American selection for the third time.

For the full listing by the Boston Globe -> (subscription may be required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/high-schools/all-scholastics/

Boston Globe recognizes O'Leary, Neeley, Paterson, DeForge & Dumas for WINTER 2023-24 ALL-SCHOLASTICS

Chapter 60 “in its present form, is untenable and requires legislative correction”

"For the first time, a Massachusetts court has ruled that the way some municipalities pursue tax-taking cases against homeowners — a practice critics call “equity theft” — is unconstitutional.

The ruling comes in the wake of a unanimous US Supreme Court decision last year that said municipal and county governments may only recover the taxes owed, and not seize the remaining equity in the property.

Massachusetts is one of only a handful of states that presently allow local governments to take not only the taxes they are owed (plus interest and fees) but also the rest of the equity in properties.

Most often, the cases involve people who have inherited real estate and own it without a mortgage but lack the income to pay the taxes. In some instances, property worth hundreds of thousands of dollars is taken by municipalities when the amount owed in taxes is a small fraction of that.

...... 

Massachusetts law is mostly silent on the question of equity, and in the absence of an explicit prohibition, some municipalities have assumed the right to keep the full equity, with few safeguards for property owners.

Callan, in his ruling, said the state law used by municipalities in tax-taking, known as Chapter 60, does not provide a recovery process and therefore is “unconstitutional as applied in circumstances, such as here, where the tax debt is less than the value of the property.”

Chapter 60 “in its present form, is untenable and requires legislative correction,” Callan wrote in his 19-page ruling."

Continue reading the article online (subscription maybe required) 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/21/business/massachusetts-court-property-unpaid-taxes-equity-theft/

In 2017, the City of Greenfield targeted Stephen Woodbridge’s property for unpaid taxes of a little less than $6,000. Four years later, the city succeeded in gaining legal ownership of a property that had been in the Woodbridge family for 70 years. MATTHEW CAVANAUGH/FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Boston Globe: "Massachusetts commits $1 billion to move thousands out of nursing homes in wake of lawsuit settlement"

"Nursing home residents should find it dramatically easier to return to their communities after Massachusetts committed to spending $1 billion over the next eight years for new housing and community support for people seeking to leave long-term care facilities.

The commitment was part of a settlement in a lawsuit filed in US District Court by the Massachusetts Senior Action Council and seven nursing home residents who wanted to return to their communities but could not find housing to accommodate them. The plaintiffs had physical or mental disabilities but could live outside a nursing home setting with some supports, said Steven Schwartz, a lawyer from the Center for Public Representation and one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs. He estimated that a majority of the state’s 21,000 Medicaid recipients receiving long-term care at nursing facilities would be eligible to leave for community settings.

“Our very value as individual citizens [comes] from a set of community activities, working, voting, going to school, going to a baseball game,” Schwartz said in an interview. “None of these things we think of as valued experiences in our life are available living in nursing homes.”

The settlement would apply to all nursing home residents on Medicaid, who make up the vast majority of those in long-term residential care, Schwartz said."

Continue reading the article online (subscription maybe required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/21/metro/nursing-home-settlement-disabled-massachusetts/

A hallway at Blaire House nursing home in Tewksbury. JIM DAVIS/GLOBE STAFF

2024 election: What misinformation trends to watch out for

"The voice in the robocall sounded a lot like President Joe Biden. Days before the New Hampshire primary in January, the message told voters their “vote makes a difference in November, not this Tuesday.”

It wasn’t Biden. The call was created by a magician in New Orleans, who reportedly said he used an artificial intelligence program on behalf of an operative working for a rival Democratic candidate.

Misinformation, having played a major role in both the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, now threatens to erupt more than ever this cycle, as the rise of generative AI and the erosion of social media controls add fuel to campaigns’ distortions. At stake is the outcome of elections up and down the ballot this November as Biden once again faces off against Republican candidate, former president Donald Trump.

“On the one hand, it feels the same,” said Claire Wardle, cofounder of the Information Futures Lab at Brown University’s School of Public Health in Rhode Island, of this election. “But actually, I think the world looks quite different four years later.”

Continue reading the article online at the Globe (subscription maybe required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/16/business/misinformation-2024-election-deepfakes-ai/

Misinformation threatens to erupt more than ever this cycle as the rise of generative artificial intelligence and the erosion of social media controls fuel campaigns’ distortions. ADOBE, ALLY RZESA/GLOBE STAFF/BLACKZHEEP - STOCK.ADOBE.COM

Boston Globe: "Spotting a deepfake: Eight tips and tells"

"Deceptive deepfakes seem to be everywhere these days, making it harder than ever to sort the true from the false. While there’s no silver bullet to address the threat posed by generative AI, here are a few techniques to guard against disinformation.

1. Take your time, look closely

As humans, we are hardwired to focus on the face. But while many of today’s AI-image generators can create lifelike faces, it pays to spend a little time looking at other aspects of an image. AI is apt to cut corners and that’s where things can get weird. Look at the background. Does it make real-world sense? Does everything line up? How about people other than the image’s primary subject? Is there a phantom limb? Maybe a sixth finger?"

Continue reading the tips on how to detect deep fakes! (subscription maybe required)  https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/04/11/arts/how-to-spot-deepfake-tips-ai/

Visitors can watch videos and guess if the images are real or fake. The MIT Museum's exhibit "AI: Mind the Gap" looks at deepfake video technology. LANE TURNER/GLOBE STAFF

“Sports betting has become so normalized that it’s viewed as harmless play"

THANK YOU The Boston Globe for inviting SAFE Coalition and CEO Jennifer Knight-Levine to participate in this conversation.

At SAFE, we have seen a significant increase in our youth engaging in online sports betting...or are a student athlete and feel the impact of betting on their athletic experience.

Don’t have access to the Globe article? Below is the SAFE segment!

"The SAFE Coalition is a social services agency that provides mental health and substance use counseling for young people in west-central Massachusetts. Starting last fall, the organization began seeing an influx of children who are struggling in school because they are betting on their phones. In response, the organization has added questions about gambling to its intake process, said Jennifer Knight-Levine, chief executive and cofounder of the nonprofit

Knight-Levine said she has noticed a trend: Many of the children who admit to betting regularly on sports do not view the activity as gambling, even when significant sums of money are involved.

“Sports betting has become so normalized that it’s viewed as harmless play, like video games,” Knight-Levine said. “A teenager will think of someone who is gambling as an old person in a casino or a smoky room, while sports betting is largely viewed as fun, exciting, and socially acceptable.”

Shared from -> https://www.instagram.com/p/C5GquaJrnHF/

Link to Globe article -> (subscription may be required) 

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/03/28/metro/gambling-sports-addiction-sportsbook-betting-massachusetts-gaming/

For more about the SAFE Coalition visit them online at ->   https://www.safecoalitionma.org/

Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell was joined by NCAA president Charlie Baker on Thursday at a panel to announce a gambling prevention program. MATTHEW J. LEE/GLOBE STAFF

Franklin has 2 of the more than 400 Massachusetts bridges rated 'poor' by Feds

"More than 400 Massachusetts bridges, including the largest one in New England, are considered to be in such poor condition that they either need major work or to be replaced outright, according to state and federal data, underscoring the challenges the state faces keeping up with its aging infrastructure.

Franklin has 2 

In all, 450 of the more than 5,280 bridges tracked by the Federal Highway Administration — roughly 8.5 percent — are rated as poor, or, put more bluntly, are “at the end of their useful life,” according to state officials. State data show that 676 bridges in total are considered “structurally deficient,” meaning at least one major component has enough serious problems it needs to be repaired or replaced.

Either designation doesn’t inherently mean the spans are unsafe, transportation officials and experts say. But officials in Massachusetts and elsewhere are taking stock of their infrastructure and safety protocols after a cargo ship rammed into a pillar of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, causing it to collapse. Six construction workers are presumed dead."

Continue reading the article online (subscription maybe required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/03/29/metro/400-massachusetts-bridges-rated-poor/

Franklin Matters Map of the 2 bridges on the listing in past useful life condition

https://maps.app.goo.gl/UGYogWuUGzH9hWNPA

If I read the data table properly, while there are effectively 2 bridges for i495 to cross the MBTA railroad and Summer St, one north bound and one south bound, only one section of each of them is on the listing, not both.

Map view of i495 bridge south bound over MBTA railroad -> 

Map view of i495 bridge north bound over Summer St ->

Massachusetts migrant shelters hardly impact community life, neighbors say

"Perry Eaton’s neighbors warned that migrants moving into Dedham would cause trouble. Last month, someone passed fliers around the neighborhood, which is nestled between a pair of hotels converted into state overflow shelters, warning that expanding services for the migrants would create “catastrophic” traffic and “inevitable” loitering, and leave the community’s security “compromised.”

But weeks later, Eaton and other neighbors said those fears haven’t materialized.

On a recent weekday morning, Eaton said traffic in and around his horseshoe-shaped neighborhood on Robinwood Road has remained consistent since the shelters opened weeks ago.

“It’s hard to tell any real difference in the day to day,” Eaton, 34, said."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required) ->   https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/03/23/metro/massachusetts-migrant-shelters-community/

Five year-old friends who were born in Chile to Haitian parents colored at the Valente branch of the Cambridge Public Library. JESSICA RINALDI/GLOBE STAFF

Migrant crisis: State Senate votes to limit time in family shelter

"As the state burns through the hundreds of millions already set aside to fund Massachusetts’ emergency shelter system, the state Senate late Thursday voted to inject millions more into the system, and limit the amount of time homeless families, including migrants, can stay.

The 32-8 vote, which happened shortly after 9 p.m. Thursday night, sets the stage for what will likely be a contentious debate with the House, which passed its own version earlier this month.

The proposal is part of a spending bill meant to buoy the strained shelter system through the end of the fiscal year, and help fund it into 2025. While the Senate proposal diverges from the House’s bill on some key details, both chambers are now united behind the concept of restricting, for the first time since the inception of Massachusetts’ right-to-shelter law, how long the state should provide a place to sleep for homeless families."

Shared from -> (subscription maybe required) https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/03/22/metro/mass-senate-vote-shelter-limit-on-shelter-stays-migrants/

The Senate legislation differs in many ways from the House’s proposal

"As Massachusetts struggles to find housing for an influx of migrants, a Globe analysis of state data finds that few wealthy communities are hosting emergency shelters for homeless and migrant families while the bulk are in middle-income cities and towns.

Of the 94 communities hosting emergency shelters, more than half have a median household income below $100,000, while just nine of those communities — including Acton, Concord, and Lexington — have household incomes above $150,000.

The state says its process for placing shelters is driven by the availability of space and factors such as their proximity to critical services such as public transportation.

But many communities say they are having trouble providing all the resources people need, such as transportation and translators, and worry the strain on their limited resources will reach a breaking point."

Buried within the Globe article above was this piece which I missed while I was away in February (subscription maybe required) ->   https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/02/09/metro/boston-migrants-globe-analysis/

FHS boys basketball rolls into D1 Final over Catholic Memorial

Via Twitter and our subscription to HockomockSports.com, we share the results of the fall sports playoff competition for Franklin High School on Tuesday, March 12, 2024.

Via Ryan Lanigan -> https://twitter.com/R_Lanigan

• A spot in the Division 1 state championship on the line inside the Rabouin Field House at Taunton High. #3 Franklin (24-1) taking on #2 Catholic Memorial (19-4). #hockomock
• End 1Q: Franklin 21, Catholic Memorial 16. Panthers cash in on some second chance points, Bradley Herndon with two hustle plays that led to a pair of buckets. #hockomock
• Half: Franklin 33, Catholic Memorial 29. Panthers had the lead up to 10 (29-19) before Knights closed strong. Henry Digiorgio with 11 pts, Sean O’Leary 9 pts 3 reb 3 ast. #hockomock
• Bradley Herndon has been incredible this quarter, playing with tremendous confidence. Now Caden Sullivan soars in for a tip in. Franklin up 53-37, 2:08 left 3Q. #hockomock
• End 3Q: Franklin 56, Catholic Memorial 42. Panthers win the third (23-13) by double digits, some massive momentum waves. O’Leary 14 pts, Herndon & Digiorgio 11 pts each, Sullivan & O’Neill 8 pts each. #hockomock
• Franklin had the lead up to 17 (59-42) but the offense has gone cold, missed a couple close ones. Knights with a 10-0 run including a bucket off a missed free throw. Franklin holding a 59-52 left with 2:15 left 4Q. #hockomock
• Final: Franklin 66, Catholic Memorial 52. The Panthers are headed to the D1 state championship game. Sean O’Leary 17 pts 6 reb 5 ast, Bradley Herndon 13 pts 7 reb 6 ast, Henry Digiorgio 11 pts 10 reb, Andrew O’Neill 11 pts (huge 4Q three), Caden Sullivan 10 pts 8 reb #hockomock

The other finalist will be determined by the outcome of their game later today. #1 Worcester North vs. Xaverian. The full MIAA bracket can be found -> http://miaa.statebrackets.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=7008

The full recap by Ryan Lanigan on HockomockSports.com (subscription required) ->

https://hockomocksports.com/franklin-boys-basketball-book-spot-in-final-after-beating-cm/

Photo gallery -> https://hockomocksports.smugmug.com/2023-2024/Winter-2023-2024/Franklin-Catholic-Memorial-Boys-Basketball-03-12-24

Boston Globe coverage -> https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/03/12/sports/franklin-boys-basketball-puts-its-offensive-flair-display-division-1-semifinal-win/

FHS boys basketball rolls into D1 Final over Catholic Memorial