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.
☀️Another hot and sunny day, with highs in the 80s. Sunset is at 8:22 p.m.
After some confusion over an interview at the Boston Globe’s Tech Innovation Summit, Gov. Maura Healey said she still supports an extra tax on income over $1 million, which voters had approved in 2022. On Tuesday, the Globe had quoted Healey saying she wanted to look at whether high earners had moved out of state after the Fair Share Amendment passed.
“I don’t remember exactly how that was phrased,” Healey told the State House News Service. “Nobody’s made more effective use of the revenues from the surtax than our administration; investments in transportation and education that are transformational, that are really important for our economy, that are supported by business, and that make us a stronger, more affordable, more competitive state.”
Meanwhile, a report released by a progressive think tank in April shows the number of millionaires in Massachusetts grew in the two years after the Fair Share Amendment passed. The state had 441,610 people with a net worth of $1 million or more in 2022 and 612,109 people in 2024, according to the Institute for Policy Studies. (Possibly related: the median sale price of a single-family home in Greater Boston sits at $988,000, according to the Greater Boston Real Estate Board.) The state also saw the number of people with a net worth of above $50 million go from 2,060 to 2,939.
Four Things to Know
1. Boston City Hall officials are investigating the city’s Chief of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion Segun Idowu, a top aide to Mayor Michelle Wu. The investigation comes after the city fired two staff members over a domestic disturbance last month; one of them, Chulan Huang, was working for Idowu. The other, Marwa Khudaynazar, recently told the Boston Globe that Idowu had propositioned her at a bar.
“I welcome the opportunity to participate in an additional review and look forward to promptly and thoroughly cooperating with that inquiry, just as I have responded to questions put to me previously within City Hall,” Idowu told GBH News in a statement.
2. Following U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. dismissing every member of the CDC’s main vaccine advisory panel, the top public health official in Massachusetts said the state board responsible for distributing vaccines has been preparing for this moment.
“The future of federal vaccine policy is unclear,” Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein said. “Starting in November, we’ve been analyzing the legal and regulatory landscape, identifying resources that could be used to guide vaccine recommendations, strengthening our data systems to understand vaccine effectiveness, and building a coalition of like-minded, evidence-based public health organizations in this state and others.” The Massachusetts Vaccine Purchasing Advisory Council has a meeting scheduled today.
3. Worcester’s city councilors adjourned their meeting early Tuesday night after about 50 protestors chanted “ICE out of Worcester now” and “No more ICE” for half an hour. The protestors called for the city’s police department and city manager to answer for officers’ conduct during a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in the city last month, and to drop charges against a city councilor accused of assaulting an officer that day.
“If you represent a group and you don’t help the group, this is what happens. People get mad,” said Worcester resident Casey Rose. “Thankfully, there are people that actually are willing to voice their opinion.”
4. With school summer vacation approaching, the people behind the Dorchester Community Fridge at 110 Claybourne St. have been working to fill some gaps left by the Daily Table, a nonprofit grocery chain that shut down because of rising prices and federal cuts last month. The Daily Table had provided free lunches for kids under the age of 18 during summer breaks.
“We know that a lot of families in our community really depend on a lot of those lunch programs, so summer can be really tough for some of those families,” Community Fridge volunteer Joanna Ruhl said. “We’re really keeping in mind that a lot of folks who used to come to the area for lunch services are going to be looking around for an alternative to help them out, especially over the summer.”
How has the FBI changed under Trump? In Boston, agents are more involved in local actions.
Boston University Professor Nathan Phillips was at work when his spouse sent him a text saying “we need to talk.” Two people who said they were FBI agents had just knocked on the family’s door in Newton and asked where Phillips was.
Phillips is a climate scientist. He has also taken part in non-violent protests over environmental causes like pipeline construction. Concerned about the unexpected visit, he called the FBI’s field office in Chelsea.
“I said, 'Well, today two people came to my house purporting to be FBI agents. I’d like to know if that actually is the case. Am I being sought?’ And they hung up on me,” he said.
He soon learned that he wasn’t alone: other Massachusetts activists who had protested climate policy and participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations also got visits from people saying they were FBI agents.
“This is another level of escalation, of an attempt to intimidate and harass people the Trump administration does not agree with who are engaged in peaceful, nonviolent, First Amendment-protected protest,” said attorney Jeff Feuer, chair of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Committee, who is representing some of the activists involved. “Showing up at peoples’ homes and workplaces and asking questions about them has a significant chilling effect on peoples’ ability to exercise their First Amendment rights.”
FBI officials declined to speak with GBH News, but Boston FBI spokeswoman Kristen M. Setera sent a written statement that said “in keeping with DOJ policy, the FBI doesn’t confirm or deny the existence of investigations.” Setera also said agents are prioritizing “continuing to assist our partners” at the Department of Homeland Security.
The agency’s Boston office seems to be without an in-person leader: Special Agent in Charge Jodi Cohen has been promoted to a job in Washington, D.C., and Kimberly Milka is listed in press releases as “acting special agent in charge” of the regional office overseeing Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Cohen and Milka could not be reached for comment.
At the same time, Boston immigration attorney Matt Cameron said he has seen FBI agents more involved in deportation operations than their regular job of investigating organized crime.
“I’ve had quite a number of people who’ve been detained by FBI agents alongside ICE,’’ Cameron said. “It’s really inappropriate. I mean, this is civil immigration enforcement. This is not what the FBI is supposed to be for. It’s not what they’re trained for.”
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