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| ☀️ Sunny, with a high near 72. |
The Red Sox season is over, largely thanks to a kid from Walpole and some mistakes in the field. The injury-depleted Sox fell 4-0 last night to the Yankees. However, the team has reasons to keep their heads up going into next season, after battling into the playoffs without several of their top young stars. Until then, let's get to the news: 'Tis the (spooky) season: This is the first weekend of the busiest month for the city of Salem. The Witch City is gearing up for more than 1 million people to visit over the course of October for its annual Haunted Happenings festivities. Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo told WBUR's Stevee Chapman that the notorious crowds shouldn't deter people from visiting. However, he suggests taking public transit if you're coming over the weekend, due to heavy traffic, street closures and limited parking. "Our downtown is historic, charming, quaint and small," Pangallo said. "So it's walkable, but it's also going to be filled with people." Here are three options for getting there: Heads up: Somerville is tightening its rules on condo conversions. Starting this month, property owners have to give two years' notice to the city's Condominium Review Board before getting a permit to convert a vacant rental unit into a condo. (The previous requirement was a one-year heads up.) The new rules also require landlords to pay tenants who are forced out due to a condo conversion $14,000 to cover relocation expenses, nearly double the previous amount. That number is even higher — $18,000 — for seniors, disabled and low-to-moderate-income renters. - Why? Mayor Katjana Ballantyne says condo conversions aren't necessarily a bad thing. But the new rules are intended to help existing renters stay in the high-cost city if their apartment is slated for conversion. The new two-year requirement for vacant apartments specifically takes aim at a suspected trend of landlords who were trying to avoid covering renters' relocation expenses by emptying out an occupied apartment and then declaring it vacant. " Somerville has a rental vacancy rate that fluctuates between 1% and 2%, but units seeking conversion, in 2024, for example, are 80% vacant," Ballantyne told WBUR's Amy Sokolow.
- Zoom out: What are the condo conversion protections in your community? The Massachusetts Legal Assistance Corporation has a town-by-town guide.
Speaking of Somerville: The MBTA is shutting down Green Line service north of North Station tonight at 8 p.m. through the rest of the weekend for work on a new safety system (topical). That includes the entire Green Line Extension. - Free shuttle buses will run from North Station to Medford/Tufts — but not between Lechmere and Union Square. T officials suggest taking regular ol' buses (that you have to pay for) or walking to a nearby T stop if you'd usually travel via Union Square. Click here for more details on the alternative transportation options.
Back on the North Shore: The Topsfield Fair opens this afternoon, featuring music, livestock shows and — of course — the annual giant pumpkin contest. The fair dates back about 200 years, developing out of the Essex Agricultural Society in the early 1800s. Fair organizers expect about 500,000 visitors over its 11-day run. P.S.— What is the proposed future salary for Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch if reelected? Take our Boston News Quiz and test your knowledge of this week's stories. |
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| | | Nik DeCosta-Klipa Senior Editor, Newsletters | | |
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If you ride the MBTA, chances are you’ve seen an alert about a signal problem delaying your train. The T is in the middle of a project to improve the signal system on the Red and Orange lines so it can react to problems faster. Read more. |
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President Trump is meeting with his budget director, Russ Vought, about what additional cuts to make during the shutdown, and the president says his targets are partisan. Read more. |
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The proposed agreement asks universities, including MIT, Brown and Dartmouth, to accept the government's definition of gender and apply it to campus bathrooms, locker rooms and women’s sports teams. It also asks colleges to stop considering race, gender and other demographics in the admissions process. Read more. |
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A new study from Boston University researchers found that the city's oak trees have more pathogens and plant decomposers. With fewer "good" microbes, experts worry about how that might impact ecosystem and human health. Read more. |
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Drugmaker Evita Solutions announced on its website that the Food and Drug Administration signed off on its low-cost form of the pill, which is approved to end pregnancies through 10 weeks. Read more. |
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- Taylor Swift's 12th album "The Life of a Showgirl" dropped last night at midnight. NPR music critic Ann Powers writes that the album sounds like Swift is having fun, even as her lyrics paint a picture of a star both chasing the spotlight and trapped by it.
- The Church of England has its first female leader. Sarah Mullally, a former nurse and member of the United Kingdom's House of Lords, was announced this morning as the new Archbishop of Canterbury.
- Massachusetts state senator and "son of Lowell" Ed Kennedy has passed away at the age of 74. Kennedy began his political career in the 1970s as a city councilor and went to work in county and state government, as well a mayor of Lowell for a couple years. "Ed's legacy is written into the very fabric of our community," Rep. Lori Trahan, who represents Lowell in Congress, said in a statement.
- Fred D. Ledley first encountered Jane Goodall in 1964 at a lecture hosted by the National Geographic Society when he was 9 years old. As he writes in this Cognoscenti essay, Goodall inspired him to see wonder "not only in the great majesty of the mountains, but also in the salamanders and tadpoles that I collected from the stream."
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- Lawsuit alleges secretive plot to evict King Richard’s Faire, start rival kingdom by former landlord (The Boston Globe)
- Federal agency says it will investigate Mass. gender-identity policy for foster families (Worcester Telegram & Gazette)
- Nearly 250 patients at top Mass. hospitals say they were abused by a renowned doctor. Why wasn’t he stopped sooner? (The Boston Globe)
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Maine Needs started as a Facebook group out of a garage in 2019. Now, it's a nonprofit in a 16,000-square-foot facility fueled by more than 3,500 volunteers that serves the entire state. Read more. |
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