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.
❄️Snowy and windy, with a high around 30 and a low of 9 degrees. Sunset is at 4:50 p.m.
Good morning. It’s still snowing on and off in Boston, with another 1-3 inches expected across the region today, GBH’s meteorologist Dave Epstein said. Most public schools cancelled classes today, and Logan’s flight tracker has 504 cancellations listed.
Once the snow stops tonight, expect some serious cold: temperatures will drop into the single digits and the wind chill will make it feel like it’s below zero, Epstein said. There’s no more snow in the forecast this week, but we will see highs in the 20s and lows in the single digits every day through the weekend. Bundle up.
Four Things to Know
1. Jodi Rymer was one of hundreds of people who joined a rally at the South Bay shopping center in Boston to say they want ICE out of cities and towns nationwide. “I’m from Minnesota, my loved ones are in Minnesota, and I wake up in a, like, anxious sweat every morning cause I am fearing for my loved ones’ lives,” Rymer, who has lived in Massachusetts for the last 20 years, told GBH’s Meghan Smith.
Cindy Luppi said she came to support friends in Maine, which is in the middle of a surge in ICE detentions. “I have some dear friends who live in Lewiston who are new Mainers and new Americans who came here. My particular friends came here from the Congo to avoid persecution there, and are worried about their safety now in the place they had to escape to,” Luppi told Smith.
2. The Patriots are heading to the Super Bowl for the first time since 2019 — yes, there are first-graders in New England who have not seen a Patriots Super Bowl in their lifetimes. The Pats beat the Denver Broncos 10-7 in Colorado yesterday.
Head coach Mike Vrabel, who won three Super Bowls as a Patriots player, told reporters he’s excited for his team. “I’ve been in their position, I have, I’ve been there. And it’s amazing,” he said. “I want other people to feel that feeling. And it’s for our families who make a lot of sacrifices and the excitement and the joy that they have.” They’ll face the Seattle Seahawks, which beat the LA Rams to cinch their spot in the big game.
3. A Boston-based federal judge’s ruling last week means that immigrant college students, graduate students or faculty members can sue if the federal government takes away their visas or green cards because they were involved in a lawsuit challenging the government’s alleged retribution over pro-Palestinian activism.
“First, Judge [William] Young affirmed unequivocally — without a doubt — that non-citizens lawfully present here in the United States have the same free speech rights as everyone else,” said Kirsten Weld, a history professor at Harvard and president of the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors. “The second reason is that Judge Young established that the federal government clearly and unconstitutionally pursued a policy of viewpoint discrimination against pro-Palestinian speech in particular.”
4. Gov. Maura Healey last week promised to do something about the slow, creeping, air-clogging, soul-draining traffic that plagues Massachusetts. “We fixed the slow zones on the T. We can fix these pinch points that cause congestion on our highways,” Healey said in her State of the Commonwealth address.
GBH’s Adam Reilly and Morning Edition host Mark Herz dug into that promise a bit more: “The problem with making the roadways clearer is that when driving becomes more appealing, more people start to drive, and you’re stuck with the same bad traffic you tried to alleviate,” Reilly said. You can hear their full conversation here.
Scientists, professionals from 'high-risk’ countries forced to pause careers during benefits ban
Last month the Trump administration announced that it would pause green cards, work authorizations, asylum applications and citizenship naturalizations for all immigrants from a list of 39 countries that the administration considers “high risk.” When Dr. Marjan Azin heard the news,she “just cried,” she said.
“This pause would affect my medical career, and it’s caused a lots of pressure on me,” Azin told GBH’s Sarah Betancourt. “I would like to go to internal medicine and then go to oncology and serve cancer patients. So that’s my future goal. It is necessary to pass this medical training to be able to see patients.”
Azin is a postdoctoral researcher at Mass. General Hospital, studying cancer development in a lab. She had started applying to medical residency programs with the hopes of going into patient care. But she’s from Iran, one of the 39 countries on the administration’s list. And without a new visa, she can’t become a medical resident.
Curtis Morrison, the attorney representing Azin and more than 30 other people in similar situations, said he doesn’t believe the administration considered what their policy would mean for immigrants already in the U.S. with legal status, and for their ability to work. “I don’t think they considered that. I don’t think they considered the impact on U.S. hospitals,” Morrison told Betancourt.
You can read the full story here.
Subscribe to GBH Daily
Your essential daily newsletter delivering trusted news, local insights, ways to connect, and can't miss programs from Boston and beyond.
