It's official: Rep. Seth Moulton is taking on Sen. Ed Markey. After weeks of speculation, Moulton announced his primary campaign this morning against the sitting Democratic senator, with a pitch built around the notion that it's time for a new generation of leaders. "I just don’t believe Sen. Markey should be running for another six-year term at 80 years old,” the Salem congressman, who turns 47 next week, said in his announcement video. Read more about Moulton's decision and watch the video here. And stay tuned; we'll have much more coverage on this race today and beyond. Now to the rest of a busy news day: Wave goodbye to waiving the inspection: Starting today, people in Massachusetts can no longer offer to skip the inspection when making an offer on a new home. The new rule — which was among the changes packed into the housing law signed by Gov. Maura Healey last summer — bans homeowners and realtors from selling a house on the condition that the inspection is waived. And perhaps more significantly, it prohibits buyers from offering to waive the inspection to get ahead of the competition. - Why? The idea is to prevent scenarios in which homebuyers feel pressured to forgo an inspection to get their offer considered — something Healey's office says was happening "too often" in the state. Officials say the rule will help buyers avoid unexpected expenses and create a more even negotiating field. "Homebuyers must have the ability to make informed financial decisions and be given a clear picture of needed repairs or safety issues that could arise,” Ed Augustus, the state's housing secretary, said in a statement when the rule was finalized in June.
- How it works: The rule doesn't mean homebuyers are required to get an inspection. However, they can only waive it after an offer is accepted. " They do have the ability to do so, but it will no longer be used as a differentiating factor when presenting an offer to a seller," Sarah Gustafson, the president of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, told WBUR's Dan Guzman.
- Are there exceptions? Yes. To encourage housing production, pre-sales of newly constructed homes are excluded from the rule, as long as they come with at least a one-year warranty. It also exempts certain types of transactions, like sales between family members or as part of divorce orders or estate planning.
- On the ground: Gustafson said Massachusetts homebuyers were waiving inspections at a "high rate" when the housing market was at its hottest a few years ago. But as home sales (if not prices) have cooled off more recently, so too has the rate of waived inspections, she said. " The market has actually already begun to self-correct for this regulation on its own," Gustafson said.
Federal fallout: A leading LGBTQ+ health center is no longer offering gender transition medical care for patients aged 18 and younger in Massachusetts. WBUR's Martha Bebinger reports the announcement yesterday by Boston-based Fenway Health amounts to the first major erosion of care for trans children in the state. - Why? The Trump administration has pressured hospitals and clinics across the country to stop offering care such as puberty blockers and hormone transition drugs to minors. In a notice on its website, Fenway Health cited new federal rules that took effect this month for federally qualified health centers like itself. "This change in position is a response to a shifting federal landscape that requires us to adapt in order to remain compliant, sustainable, and able to provide healthcare, support, and services to all our patients and the community," the center said.
On the docket: The effort by a group in Quincy to put their mayor's massive pay raise on the ballot heads to court today. As WBUR's Simón Rios reports, Quincy Citizens For Fair Raises delivered more than 7,000 signatures last month to put the question to voters. However, the city clerk rejected more than a third of them on the basis they were illegible (even though the signers' names were printed in an adjacent column). So the group raised $20,000 to hire a lawyer — and sued. - A Norfolk Superior Court judge will hear arguments in the case this afternoon. Quincy Citizens For Fair Raises said more than 1,800 of the signatures that were thrown out are verifiable voters. " I’ve never seen people who took such care to make sure that they could reduce the number of uncertified signatures as well as this group did," said the lawyer, Gerry McDonough. "To see them rejected on such an arbitrary and baseless grounds is a matter of concern."
P.S.— Today marks 125 years to the day since Boston's Symphony Hall first opened its doors. If you haven't already, check out this story by WBUR's Andrea Shea on what that first concert was like and how the BSO is paying tribute to its history today. |
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