This is a web edition of GBH Daily, a weekday newsletter bringing you local stories you can trust so you can stay informed without feeling overwhelmed.
🌬️Windy and slightly cooler, with highs in the 40s.
🕛Don’t forget: Clocks spring forward this weekend.
Let’s zoom in on a cancelled USAID contract with local ties: It went to a Waltham-based nonprofit called Education Development Center, which was providing lessons in job skills, teacher training, health education, and more to young people in South Sudan.
“With the sudden termination of our program, we’ve had to walk away from these thousands of young people who are in the middle of training programs and employment support,” Director of Global Health Alisha Keirstead told GBH’s Craig LeMoult.
Alisha questioned what consequences taking away those services will have.
“How many young men end up getting pulled into militias because our support to find a good job suddenly disappeared? Or how many young women end up in exploitative situations because they never developed the literacy and entrepreneurship skills we were going to provide them?” she said. You can read more about it here.
Four Things to Know
Sanctuary city hearing fallout: The U.S. Small Business Administration leadership announced that the federal agency will be moving its offices out of Boston and five other cities which they said “do not comply with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.” The announcement came one day after Boston Mayor Michelle Wu testified in front of a House committee about how Boston police officers can and cannot cooperate with federal law enforcement agents.
Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria says he won’t return $180,000 he received in “longevity payments” without due process and a chance to challenge the findings of a state investigation. He did, however, approve a $150,000 audit into all payments he’s received from the city since 2016. The city council is planning to hold a largely symbolic “no confidence” motion on Monday. “This will involve a long and drawn-out legal process, which is understandably frustrating for our community,” City Councilor Katy Rogers said.
Audit fight: One week after State Auditor Diana DiZoglio told GBH News she’s exploring strategies to get Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s help with auditing the legislature, Campbell said DiZoglio hasn’t completed a preliminary inquiry that Campbell’s office requires of all state offices seeking legal assistance. “There’s a long list of questions and work we have to do; she has not provided that,” Campbell said. “To get out here and suggest that we are standing in the way of transparency … is unfair.” DiZoglio ran on promises of auditing the legislature and, in November, a majority of Massachusetts voters said they’d like to give her office the power to do so.
ICE in East Boston: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in civilian clothes went to a few East Boston businesses last month, asking people about their immigration statuses and their work — without warrants. “I remembered my rights and told the man, 'I’m not obligated to respond to your questions,'” said Yhoana Zapata, who was approached while working alone in Orient Heights. She and her boss later reviewed security footage and saw agents trying to open doors at their business without authorization.
Scratch & Win: The Dirtiest Race in the Commonwealth
Ian Coss here from the Scratch & Win podcast. I’ll admit to a little nostalgia when it comes to local politics. Maybe it’s because I’m a storyteller, and figures like Bill Bulger and Bob Crane are just great characters. Back then, when they hosted the annual St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast, it was actually funny. When politicians got up to roast each other, the jokes actually stung, and in the footage you can see people keeling over with laughter, almost choking on their corned beef and cabbage.
When I met reporter Frank Phillips, who did stints at both Boston Herald and the Boston Globe, he compared local politics in the 1980s to ‘Toontown’ from the movie “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.” Everything, he said, was a little cartoonish.
And maybe that’s why I keep circling back to this era — first with The Big Dig, then with the story of the state lottery: I can’t resist the cartoons. In episode seven of Scratch & Win, we tell the story of a brutal election season that fell as that whole era began to pass into history. We look at the time’s absurdities and its flaws — captured perfectly in the person of Treasurer Bob Crane. It’s called: “The Dirtiest Race in the Commonwealth.”
—Ian Coss, host of the The Big Dig and
Scratch & Win
podcasts
