The first few days of January have been anything but slow when it comes to the news. Even the race for Boston's City Council presidency is making waves: Just last night, District 1 Councilor Gabriela Coletta Zapata announced she would no longer seek the nomination, leaving District 4 Councilor Brian Worrell as the last man standing. That vote is set to take place later today, after councilors are sworn in for their new terms. Speaking of which ... Another one: Boston Mayor Michelle Wu will have her second inauguration ceremony at 10 a.m. today at Symphony Hall. WBUR's Chris Van Buskirk reports that Wu says she'll focus on housing and education in her second term, but she has yet to lay out specific goals for her administration. Measuring loss: There were 44 people who died in fires in Massachusetts last year, according to state fire officials. That's a 12% decline from 2024's death count, which had been the highest in seven years. "2025 was kind of a return to the average," said Jake Wark, spokesperson for the Department of Fire Services. - One devastating fire: The 2025 count includes 10 people who died in the Gabriel House fire in Fall River in July. "The Gabriel House fire was really an aberration," Wark said. "We hadn't seen a loss of life that great in decades in Massachusetts." Had the Gabriel House fire not been so devastating, Massachusetts would have had its lowest fire death count in 15 years.
- Prevention is possible: Nearly half of the fire deaths in 2025 were caused by the unsafe use or disposal of smoking materials, Wark said. That includes fires started by people smoking in bed, smoking while using home oxygen and throwing smoking materials out the window. (The Gabriel House fire was accidentally caused by smoking materials used near oxygen.) Wark also stressed the importance of making sure smoke alarms are working properly. "Smoke alarms are just like any other appliance," he said. "They don't last forever."
Voices on Venezuela: Members of Massachusetts' congressional delegation have sharp questions for the Trump administration following its capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and its claims that the U.S. will now "run" the country. Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. is planning to keep up a military presence in the region, and Trump himself told reporters he is not ruling out the deployment of troops to Venezuela. - What they're saying: Sen. Elizabeth Warren wants to know what it would mean for the U.S. to "run" Venezuela, while Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Seth Moulton both expressed concerns over the possible outbreak of war. Moulton, a Marine veteran of the Iraq war, says what's happening in Venezuela seems all too familiar. "We've seen what happened when we try to take over government with a minimum of force with no plan," Moulton told WBUR's Paul Connearney. "It's a disaster." Rep. Jake Auchincloss, a Marine veteran who served in Afghanistan, said that Congress should have been involved before the government carried out any military action in Venezuela. He's questioning what the next steps will be. "There is no strategy laid forth for a democratic transition in Venezuela that prevents chaos and upholds U.S. interests," Auchincloss told Paul.
Brrrr: You weren't imagining it; This past December was much colder than normal. The National Weather Service says December's monthly average temperature was 31.3 degrees. That's 4.5 degrees below the typical average. - Blame it on the wind: National Weather Service meteorologist Andrew Loconto told WBUR that prolonged periods of colder air from the north caused the sub-freezing temperatures. "Typically that's a colder, drier kind of wind direction for us," he said. "That led to shots of colder air from from Canada and, in some cases, up near the North Pole." High winds — regularly 25 to 35 miles an hour or more — dropped the windchill and made it feel even colder outside.
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