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⛅ Mostly sunny, then a chance of rain, with a high of 60. Thanks to daylight savings, sunset is at 4:33 p.m. It’s day 34 of the federal government shutdown.
It was a whirlwind week for social services, with funding for SNAP, home heating, and Head Start all on the line due to the federal government shutdown. A flurry of court rulings and announcements on Friday means most of those services will stay afloat — for now — leaving local officials and community leaders cautiously optimistic. As we enter the second month of the standoff in Washington, D.C., it’s clear this won’t be the last we hear about funding woes. Get caught up on all the latest below.
Four Things to Know
1. Almost in unison on Friday, two federal judges ordered the Trump administration to keep funding SNAP — the nation’s largest food aid program — using contingency funds during the government shutdown.
Ashleigh Shaw, with the Bread and Roses food pantry in Lawrence, said she was cautiously optimistic after the rulings.
“We know it’s still going to be a hard weekend for a lot of families, people that were expecting to get that funding on Monday, or Saturday and Sunday,” she said. “But hopefully by Monday that can kind of be resolved, and at least the emergency funds can be used up.”
2. Massachusetts residents who can’t pay heating bills can still get help from the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program — for now. LIHEAP is one of many federal programs that have seen stalled funding due to the government shutdown. On Friday, Governor Maura Healey said that the state still has $13 million in unused federal funds from last year’s program, which can be used in the short-term.
“Our message to people experiencing a heating emergency right now is to continue to apply for assistance — we will do everything we can to keep our families warm,” Healey said in a written statement. “But we need the President and Congressional Republicans to do their job and get the government running again so people can continue to heat their homes.”
3. Most of Massachusetts’ Head Start programs are afloat for now, even as funding for some runs out Nov. 1 under the prolonged government shutdown.
But at least one program in southeastern Massachusetts is temporarily closing its doors, furloughing over 200 staffers and leaving nearly 700 kids without a place to learn and eat.
“The 3- and 4-year-olds are really on the front line here in every respect,” John Carlson, who runs four Brockton-area centers through Self Help Inc., told GBH News. “We’re not trying to leave the parents out in the cold. But I guess the bottom line is, we’re doing the best we can under the circumstances.”
4. The wide field of hopefuls once looking to represent District 7 on the Boston City Council has failed to coalesce behind the two remaining candidates. Many say they’re unenthusiastic about the options that emerged from the super-tight preliminary election. District 7 is the only open council seat on the ballot, following Tania Fernandes Anderson’s guilty plea to federal charges of theft and wire fraud.
Tomorrow’s election will determine who represents the bulk of Roxbury, as the neighborhood grapples with safety concerns around the area known as Mass. and Cass, the region’s persistent epicenter of addiction and homelessness. The next councilor will also face ongoing debates over new development, including the controversial reconstruction of White Stadium in Franklin Park.
A Closer Look
New walking tour shines light on Boston’s overlooked abolitionist history
By Trajan Warren
Boston’s Old State House is a landmark that has anchored some of the state’s most significant moments — including the first time the Declaration of Independence was read aloud.
But its connection to slavery is what made it the first stop on the newly created walking tour: “Abolition Acre: A Black Freedom Trail in Boston.”
“The folks who signed that document, the majority, were enslavers, even though what the Declaration of Independence actually says is about equality and freedom, liberty for all,” said Peter Snoad with the nonprofit Beacon Hill Scholars that launched the program. “So that felt like the place to start.”
The 10-stop, self-guided tour launched in October explores Boston’s role in spurring the American abolitionist movement. As stories of diverse history are being erased, Snoad says a tour of Boston’s anti-slavery past offers a much-needed examination of that important history.
“We are in a moment now where our democracy and our freedoms are at risk. And we should remember what they did and be inspired by them, and I think many of us are,” he said.
Learn more — and maybe take the tour for yourself — here.
Dig deeper:
King’s Chapel unveiling first-of-its-kind statue to honor people enslaved by its forebears
Despite DEI pushback, guides along Boston’s Freedom Trail widen the lens of inclusion
Mass. blind community celebrates white cane as a ‘symbol of freedom and independence’
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