More than six years after his failed effort to oust Sen. Ed Markey, former Rep. Joe Kennedy III is on the cusp of celebrating a shocking Senate win — but not his own. After leaving office in 2021, Kennedy founded the Groundwork Project and has been quietly organizing and raising money for Democratic candidates in some of the country's reddest states. That includes Mississippi, where Democrat Scott Colom currently leads incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith by just over 2,500 votes in a race that's still too close to call. (Today is the final day absentee votes in Mississippi can legally be received, and it remains unclear how many ballots are left.) In an interview with WBUR's Morning Edition host Tiziana Dearing, Kennedy said he "spent an awful lot of time in Mississippi" (a state his grandfather famously toured) and knew Colom's race would be close. "I wish I screenshotted one of those prediction needles at about 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday evening, because it gave [Colom] a 9% chance of winning, which I keep remember looking at being like, 'That's going to be wrong,' " he said. Here are a few highlights from the interview, edited for clarity: On why he's spending time in Mississippi: "What happens in some of these states doesn't stay there. Roe got flipped out of a court case out of Mississippi. If the Democrats want to try to win the presidency after the next round of redistricting, after the next census, you need to put more places on the map. "And then the last piece, the Democratic Party has prided itself always for saying, 'We see you, we hear you, everybody counts.' And then you just skip over large swaths of the country, and you see the consequence of it." On Scott Colom: "He's a great candidate. I think the best example of it [is] Donald Trump comes to Mississippi to rally to try to rescue Cindy Hyde-Smith, the incumbent senator. Scott went out and shook hands with the folks in line where Donald Trump was speaking. "I asked him, 'What was the reaction of folks, and what did they say when they were shaking hands with you?' Scott's genius here was to say, 'They might be there to support Donald Trump, but that doesn't mean they can't vote for me — and you might learn something.' " You can listen to the full interview here In local news: Sorting it out: The city of Worcester is beginning a crackdown this week on people who recycle incorrectly. Starting yesterday, curbside trash collectors will simply no longer pick up residents' recycling if their bins contain a certain amount of non-recyclable items. Luba Zhaurova, Worcester's director of sustainability projects, told WBUR's Dan Guzman it's the "best way to get people's attention as to what is recyclable." - Why? Zhaurova said Worcester has a "pretty high turnover of renters" from other cities and states with different rules for recycling. She said the biggest issue is people putting their recyclables in plastic bags, which Worcester's recycling contractor can't handle. "If a recycling load is contaminated, the entire load cannot be recycled," she said. "It gets rejected at [the facility] and goes to trash, basically negating the efforts of everyone who recycles."
- The more you know: Zhaurova said other common things that wrongly end up in recycling bins are coat hangers, plastic film, food waste, textiles and construction debris. You can also look up what can and can't be recycled in nine different languages on the city's online "Recyclopedia."
Strike two: Non-tenure track teachers and researchers at Harvard are joining striking graduate students on the picket line. The Harvard Academic Workers union announced last night its 2,500 members will walk off the job at 9 a.m. today, after months of stalled negotiations over what would be its first contract . According to HAW bargaining committee member Greg Given, the two striking groups do the majority of teaching at Harvard. "When we walk off the job, it's going to shut down big parts of that teaching and research," Given told WBUR's Fausto Menard ahead of the strike. (A Harvard spokesperson said the two sides are getting close to a deal and argued the strike is not "warranted.") P.S.— Boston's Citgo sign will be relit next week after the multi-million-dollar effort to slightly relocate and completely rebuild the literal landmark. Officials are planning a two-hour relighting ceremony at 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19. | 
