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☁️Foggy morning and cloudy day, with highs in the 70s. Sunset is at 8:13 p.m.

We’re expecting a rainy Saturday, but the sun should come out by Sunday afternoon. If you’re thinking of hitting the beach this weekend, you’re in luck: GBH’s Morning Edition asked Kate Fox, the executive director at the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, for recommendations of the best beaches for wildlife lovers, kids, and people seeking slightly warmer waters. 

What are your favorite beaches in Massachusetts, and for whom would you recommend them? Hit reply to this email or send a note to daily@wgbh.org and we may feature your answer next week.

Four Things to Know

1. Massachusetts’ top public health official said a report from Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again Commission “leans on reports that don’t go through the scientific method, but rather reports that were cherry picked to make a specific point of the secretary or specific points of the commission.”

“I worry when health and science get turned into politics and words that aren’t necessarily true, but words that can definitely confuse and misdirect the work that we’re trying to do to protect the health of children,” said Dr. Robbie Goldstein, the commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.

2. On the student visa front: people at local colleges are keeping an eye on Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s announcement that the Trump administration will “aggressively” revoke visas of Chinese students connected with the Chinese Communist Party or studying in “critical fields.” There are about 277,000 Chinese people in the U.S. on student visas. “The devil’s going to be in the details,” said Nicholas Burns, a current Harvard professor and former ambassador to China under President Joe Biden.

And: a federal judge extended a block on the Trump administration’s attempt to ban Harvard from enrolling international students, meaning the university can keep those students enrolled as the lawsuit proceeds.

3. Federal prosecutors are accusing five MBTA employees — four track inspectors and one supervisor — of falsifying Red Line track inspection reports in the fall of 2024.The five were arrested Thursday and are accused of falsifying records and lying to investigators.

Investigators found surveillance video of the workers showing them working on their personal cars, hanging out in an MBTA garage and sitting in a car by the tracks, prosecutors said.

4. Boston had 169 people die of opioid overdoses in 2024 — the lowest number in nine years and down 38% from the year prior, in line with national numbers. Part of the reason: researchers who study Boston’s illicit drug supply found that opioids sold here contain less fentanyl than they used to, likely because of higher production costs and more limits on chemicals used to make it. But the same researchers are also seeing more drugs mixed with xylazine, a veterinary sedative.

“It’s really too soon to celebrate because, despite the significant drop in overdose deaths, there are still thousands of Americans dying every year from an opioid overdose,” said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, a medical director at a Brandeis University research collaborative who studies opioid use. “We still have a very long way to go. But the steep decline in overdose death is certainly very promising.”

Renters find relief at Worcester legal clinic after clearing their eviction records

Tina Baygboe wants her own apartment. One where she doesn’t have to sleep on the couch, and where she can give her two kids their own room. But even though she has enough money to cover rent and move-in fees, she’s been living with her mother in Worcester for the last two years. Landlords won’t approve her for a lease because of evictions on her record — two of which are more than 20 years old.

“I’ve been praying for something to happen,” Baygboe told GBH’s Sam Turken.

Earlier this month, a social worker told Baygboe that a new Massachusetts law could help her: her 20-year-old eviction cases could be sealed, meaning they won’t be visible to landlords checking eviction records. And a more recent eviction from 2023, when she missed a few rent payments while looking for a job, could be sealed if she paid her former landlord the backdue rent.

“I actually have the money today to make the payment,” she said. “I’m very thankful, and I’m hopeful.”

More than 2,000 new eviction cases have been filed in Massachusetts every month since 2022, Housing Court data show. Those cases can stay on people’s records and keep them from getting approved for new apartments, even if the case was dismissed, or they were on the wrong end of what’s called a no-fault eviction.

Blair Komar Bates, a senior supervising attorney with Community Legal Aid, said landlords can still run credit and income checks on their prospective tenants. She said the old system left people more vulnerable, potentially making the state’s housing and homelessness crisis worse.

“I have been practicing landlord-tenant law in the Central Housing Court for about 10 years,” she said. “I can say almost every one of my clients has been harmed by having evictions on their record.”

Here’s what the law says: eviction cases which judges in housing court have already dismissed can be sealed right away. So can no-fault eviction cases, in which landlords simply wanted tenants out without claiming the tenants violated their leases — say, because they were selling the property, had just bought it, or wanted someone else to move in.

If landlords claimed the tenants did violate their leases, tenants can apply to seal the evictions after seven years. Tenants can also apply to seal evictions in cases where they did not pay rent after four years, or sooner if they pay back the money they owed. People can start the sealing process on the state’s Housing Court website.

Read the full report from GBH’s Sam Turken here.