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☁️Clouds and a small chance of afternoon showers, with highs in the 50s. Sunset is at 8:04 p.m.

What’s it like to graduate college in 2025? GBH’s Robert Goulston asked graduates of Quincy College, where more than 400 students — almost half of them the first in their families to get a college degree — were collecting their diplomas yesterday.

“We know that things are kind of in a state of limbo right now,” said Jidalti Soto, who graduated with a business administration degree and a marketing internship she hopes can turn into a full-time job. “Everything’s up and changing. So we’ll see how it moves on in the future.”

Hannah Peyton said she was graduating with her mother; both have earned hospitality management degrees and they plan to start a catering business.

“I’m personally excited to work in the industry,” Hannah said. “I know my mom is too and I just look forward to meeting a bunch of different people. I’m sure that even with all the economic uncertainty happening right now that we’ll still figure something out.”

Four Things to Know

A Supreme Court order yesterday allowing the Trump administration to revoke the legal status of some Venezuelan immigrants – who have been living and working in the U.S. under the Temporary Protected Status program – has raised concern among people in Massachusetts.

“I’m a little sad and very worried too — I’ve only seen the news and haven’t read the decision,” said a Massachusetts resident from Venezuela who is part of a separate lawsuit to keep his legal status. He said he has already filed for asylum and hopes he will be protected from deportation. “I hope this potential protection can help me to keep working legally here.”

The population of Massachusetts grew slightly last year, about a 1% rise, with four of five cities and towns seeing more residents than they did the previous year. Secretary of State Bill Galvin said it was a result of fewer people leaving the state and “record levels of international migration.”

Curious to see how the population in your city or town changed? We have a statewide map here. 

About 125,000 Massachusetts households get federal help to pay for heating oil under a program created in 1981. But last month the Trump administration fired the entire federal staff of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, citing 15-year-old claims of fraud and abuse. 

“Filling our oil tank — that’s about $800 or $900 every time you have to fill it. And then, on average, it’s about three times in the winter,” said Jeanette Cutts of Dorchester. “How are we going to make this happen when we’re already struggling trying to keep afloat?”

Teens in Print, an after-school program for teenagers interested in journalism and writing, is marking 20 years in operation.

“I thought writers had to be these mystical creatures who lived in coffee shops and used words like ‘serendipitous’ in casual conversation,” said Shaniece Clarke, who joined the program five years ago and is now a student at Bowdoin College. “Teens in Print showed me that words have power, that my stories matter, that I matter.”

Merrimack Valley prepares to launch New England’s first zero emission passenger ferries

Let us introduce you to a small project with potentially big implications: ferry service on the Merrimack River for people commuting between Haverhill, Amesbury and Newburyport. The service is on track for launching next year, and leaders of Merrimack Valley Transit promise the ferries will be solar-powered, not diesel-fueled.

That’s notable because diesel ferries can cost us — in multiple ways. Down in Boston, MBTA ferries burn more than 1 million gallons of diesel a year, which costs the agency about $6 million annually, according to records obtained by GBH investigative reporter Chris Burrell. Beyond the monetary cost are the health impacts to people who live near ports and breathe in the pollution large boats emit, as Burrell’s investigation found last year. 

And further south the Steamship Authority, which runs ferries from Cape Cod to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, has ships that ate up 3.3 million gallons of fuel oil last year. People concerned about the environmental and financial costs of that consumption have for years asked the authority to look into electric or hybrid ships, but it’s not so easy.

“We are actively examining alternative fuel opportunities for our ferries,” Steamship spokesman Sean Driscoll said in an email to GBH. “But logistical, financial and technological challenges are infused in nearly every aspect of this work.”

So could small solar-powered ferries that shuttle people down the Merrimack River pave the way for bigger boats? That’s what Merrimack Valley Transit administrator Noah Berger is hoping for. The project’s funding comes from a $4.2 million federal grant, which Berger said has already been distributed and should not be impacted by current federal budget cuts.

“We wanted to venture into zero emissions, but we were not going to be a leader with our bus fleet,” Berger said. “I am convinced we can do it at a small scale on the boat side.”

Speaking of buses: Berger said the agency is looking to connect ferry and bus service, so people can get off the boat and onto a bus to get to their final destination.

“[With] transit operators that have ferry boats, the ferries are kind of an afterthought, viewed as completely separate, so you get off the ferry and you’re on your own,’’ Berger said. “ Our vision is that this will be directly connected to the rest of our system.”

Read more about the project here. 

More from the Poisoned Ports series: 

-Amid criticism, Massport expands climate and environmental staffing

-Massport drastically cut its initial plan to reduce cruise ship emissions

-Full investigative series: How ports affect our health, economy and environment