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.
🌤️Mostly sunny and slightly colder, with highs in the 30s. Sunset is at 4:33 p.m.
Today we have a flu season forecast. But first: our colleagues at Under the Radar with Callie Crossley sifted through a year of environmental news to summarize the bad (fires in Los Angeles, flooding in China, India, Pakistan and Texas and strong hurricanes in the Caribbean) and try to find a bit of good. They were encouraged by advancements in clean energy technology like battery storage and by the news that Boston Harbor is (finally!) clean enough that you can officially eat oysters fished from its outer reaches. You can hear Crossley’s full conversation here.
Four Things to Know
1. Massachusetts will use $250 million from a state trust fund to offset lost federal subsidies for 270,000 residents with Affordable Care Act plans whose health insurance subsidies expired after Congress failed to renew the funding.
“We can’t wait for Washington to act, so as governor, in the meantime, I want to do everything that we can to make sure that people can continue to have access to health care,” Gov. Maura Healey said.
2. U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch said he’d like to see more of his colleagues in Congress back a war powers resolution limiting President Trump’s ability to deploy U.S. forces — whether to Venezuela, Greenland, or even within the U.S.
“I’m part of the Litigation Task Force here on the House side, and we’ve got I think over 400 cases right now, probably more … against the administration for the misuse of military resources in a domestic situation,” said Lynch, who represents parts of Boston and the South Shore. “Unfortunately the administration keeps appealing these cases, and so it’s a case of whack-a-mole. You win in one court and they move it to another, and you’ve got to follow through on the appeal. So it’s not as quick, or decisive or final as we would like it to be.”
3. The city of Springfield will pay nearly $15 million to settle civil lawsuits from two former STEM Middle Academy students who, as 7th graders, reported — to their guidance counselors — sexual abuse by a teacher, but were routinely dismissed. The teacher, Robert Gayle, no longer works for the school and is facing criminal charges.
“You have to change your institutions. You have to make it painful for them to not follow rules, because oftentimes they won’t follow. They won’t follow the law. Just like what happened in this case,” said Robert DiTusa, one of the lawyers involved. “But by bringing the civil case and forcing them to take accountability, they have to change. They have to revamp their policies and procedures.”
4. Cannabis sales (puff puff) surpassed $1.65 billion in 2025, nearly flat from $1.64 billion in 2024. Retailers logged 46.3 million transactions last year, up 3.4 million from the year before. Those sales brought in $265 million in taxes for fiscal year 2025.
Up next for the industry: regulators have been working on rules for social use spaces (for example, “bars” that serve marijuana) and lawmakers are thinking about making some big changes to how the state regulates the industry. We’ll keep you posted.
Peak flu season in Mass. still likely ahead of us
Ahem: flu cases across Massachusetts might be down a bit from their peak on Dec. 26, but local doctors told GBH’s Craig LeMoult they suspect the worst of the flu season might still be ahead of us this winter. So far, 66 adults and four children in Massachusetts have died of flu complications.
“To some extent, this is an annual thing,” said emergency physician Josh Baugh, vice chair for clinical affairs at Mass General Brigham. “Every winter we get busier as respiratory viruses circulate, but I would say this year is worse than many because of the particular strain of flu that’s going around. It’s particularly infectious.”
The Mass General Brigham system has seen about 11,000 cases of respiratory illness this season, Baugh told LeMoult. “We definitely have the capacity to take care of people who are truly ill and really need us. We are getting them through and we’re providing them great care,” Baugh said. “But also yes, the wait times certainly today are longer.”
The usual mitigation methods apply: wash your hands regularly, wear a mask in public, get a flu shot if you haven’t already and stay home, if you can, when you’re not feeling well.
Read LeMoult’s full story here.
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