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.
⛅Clouds coming in, with highs in the 50s. Sunset is at 6 p.m. Today is day 16 of the federal government shutdown.
What could the campaign look like between Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Seth Moulton, who yesterday announced his intentions to run against him in the 2026 Democratic primary?
It might not resemble the 2020 race, when Markey beat then-Rep. Joe Kennedy III, said Ray La Raja, a political scientist at UMass Amherst. “[In] 2020, it was easier to mobilize people who usually don’t turn out,” La Raja said. “2026 is a midterm; youth are less likely to show up, and these are the folks who supported Markey in the past. And even the young folks might be tired. Markey, again, is six years older; he’ll be 86 at the end of his term [in 2032].”
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Markey said the senator is busy in Washington. “While Congressman Moulton is launching a political campaign during a government shutdown, Senator Markey is doing his job — voting against Trump’s extremist agenda and working to stop the MAGA attacks on health care so that we can reopen the government,” campaign spokesperson Cam Charbonnier told POLITICO’s Massachusetts Playbook.
Four Things to Know
1. Think of it as being back on the market after a dramatic split: the Massachusetts Department of Transportation is once again looking for a company to run its 18 highway service plazas — those familiar stops for gas, food and bathroom breaks along the state’s major highways.
If that news gives you a sense of déjà vu, it’s because the state had already awarded the contract to an Irish company called Applegreen. But Applegreen backed out of contract negotiations after a local company, Global Partners, lobbied lawmakers, government officials and the press to block the deal — arguing that the contract had been unfairly awarded. This process likely won’t affect your next commute or road trip: Highway Administrator Jonathan Gulliver said the state is talking to the people currently running service plazas to extend their contracts while everything gets sorted out.
2. Lawmakers in the Massachusetts House said they’re holding off on giving local sheriffs’ offices $162 million. House Speaker Ron Mariano said the sheriffs asked for an increase in funding three times as large as they did last year. “Wouldn’t you question what’s going on, to create a jump that big? And that’s what we’re doing. We’re concerned. Where is this going to end?” he asked.
The state’s inspector general is looking into the sheriffs’ spending practices, an investigation the Massachusetts Sheriffs Association says its members welcome. That investigation should be done by February.
3. How did a 13-year-old in Everett end up arrested and in federal immigration custody? Mayor Carlo DeMaria said police officers got a tip that the boy had made a “violent threat” against another Everett Public Schools student and arrested him at a bus stop near the Alfred N. Parlin School. “Once your fingerprints are taken, it goes to ICE and they determine if you’re an illegal entry,” Everett Police Chief Paul Strong said. “More often than not, they’ll call and say we’re sending a detainer over for this individual.”
The case has made national news: Tricia McLaughlin, a senior U.S. Department of Homeland Security official, posted on social media that the boy had a gun — DeMaria said police found a knife, but no gun. Everett resident Lau Gonzalez said the city should rethink its funding and move money away from the police department if those dollars lead to residents in ICE custody. “We would love more funding for public programming. We know that the working class right now is suffering,” Gonzalez said. “We should not be collaborating with ICE and taking away public funds from the public.”
4. It was thanks to a happy accident that Stacey Sparrow became the only Massachusetts art instructor certified in Bob Ross’ signature style. She started teaching Bob Ross classes at Art on the Rocks, her Leominster art studio, playing his Joy of Painting episodes and pausing to act as a co-instructor. Then came a call from Bob Ross Inc., asking her to cease and desist using his name without permission — so she figured, why not go for the official certification?
“The trees get easier every time. The mountains get easier every time,” she said. “It’s very little techniques and motions that, when built up together, you’re like, oh, no kidding, look what I just made.” You can watch her teach GBH’s Edgar B. Herwick III how to create a Northern lights scene with happy little trees here.
At the Head of the Charles, this rowing couple defies age and expectations
Here’s one boat to keep an eye on during this weekend’s Head of the Charles Regatta: husband-and-wife duo Carlo Zezza, 89, and Margarita Zezza, 67, rowing with the Cambridge Boat Club. They met through rowing, got married, and have competed all over the world.
Margarita grew up rowing in Latvia, then part of the Soviet Union.
“There was this Iron Curtain. You couldn’t travel,“ she told GBH’s Esteban Bustillos. “But when you were a good rower, and I discovered first you traveled for rowing camps all around the Soviet Union. But then, if you are good, you actually [could] go across the border and compete in western countries.”
Carlo started rowing when he was 14, joined the rowing crew at Harvard as a student, and then quit the sport — until a dream he had in his 60s made him want to get on the water again.
“I was asleep dreaming that I was rowing in the basin in the dark with other boats which I could see by their lights,” he told Esteban. “And when I woke up enough of that dream stuck with me and I said to myself, ‘I should start rowing again.’”
He’s one of 25 rowers over the age of 80 in this year’s Head of the Charles. Carlo will be competing in the men’s Grand Veteran II (85+) singles race and Margarita in the women’s Veteran II singles category. They’ll row together in the directors’ challenge mixed doubles.
“There are rowers older than me,” Carlo said. “I don’t know of any who are faster, who have been faster. You never know.”
Read more about them (and hear their story) here.
More off-the-beaten-path sports stories:
-100 years ago, a soccer team from Andover was the best in the country. Then it disappeared.
-The 'Octogenarian Eight’ takes on the Head of the Charles
-Arlington-Belmont crew team receives outpouring of support after alleged boat theft
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