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.
☀️Sunny day with highs around 37. Sunset is at 5:31 p.m.
It’s been a long and snowy week. If you’re looking for things to do indoors this weekend, GBH’s Jared Bowen has you covered. His recommendations include a novel with “a beautiful examination of life,” an art exhibition in Watertown by a hugely influential Armenian-American abstract expressionist and the campy, dramatic flair of “The Traitors.”
And as a special gift to GBH Daily readers, we’ve got free tickets to GBH Shorts Fest, a film festival we’re hosting at our Brighton studios tomorrow from 2 to 5 p.m. We’ll screen short documentaries about Boston’s Great Molasses Flood, the legacy of busing and an intimate look at housing for LGBTQ+ seniors. You’ll also have an opportunity to meet the filmmakers and the real people featured in the films. Use the code DAILY at checkout for free tickets. Let’s get to some news.
Four Things to Know
1. A federal judge in Boston ruled against the Trump administration’s practice of deporting people to countries they did not come from without giving them a chance to appeal. “It’s not fine, nor is it legal,” Judge Brian Murphy wrote. “These are our laws, and it is with profound gratitude for the unbelievable luck of being born in the United States of America that this Court affirms our nation’s bedrock principle: that no person in this country may be ‘deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law.’”
Attorneys representing the Trump administration have argued that the practice should be allowed as long as the governments in the countries to which the U.S. is deporting people promise not to torture them. “So long as the Department doesn’t already know that there’s someone standing there waiting to shoot ... that’s fine,” an attorney said. The Department of Homeland Security will likely appeal the order, and a spokesperson noted that the Supreme Court has already sided with the administration on the case twice.
2. UMass Memorial Health in Worcester has a new surgical team that will provide gender-affirming care to trans patients whose vaginoplasties were abruptly canceled without explanation a month ago. The hospital has only said that Dr. Ashley Alford, the first surgeon in Massachusetts to perform a vaginoplasty (also known as bottom surgery) outside of Boston, is on a personal leave of absence.
Patients said they’re wondering what exactly happened, and why there wasn’t more transparency when appointments they had waited for — sometimes for months — were canceled. “I feel like the hospital has a long way [to go] to re-earn that trust,” said Kara Earp, who was supposed to have surgery in April. “Having that surgery ripped out from under me when I was so close to getting it was so devastating.”
3. Google is offering Massachusetts residents certificate courses to teach them how to use AI products, Gov. Maura Healey announced yesterday. The course usually costs $49 a month, but Google is offering it to Massachusetts residents for free. This follows another Healey initiative to give state employees access to ChatGPT, an AI product from the company OpenAI.
“Making Massachusetts the applied AI capital of the United States — that’s what we’re driving for, every single day,” Healey said. “The more of us that know AI, that understand AI, that work with AI, the safer I believe we’re going to be.”
4. A group in Roxbury is collecting the stories of older adults by pairing them with young people who ask about their lives and record the conversation. “It’s a two-way street,” said Karen Craddock, co-founder of the Wellness Collaborative and director of the Roxbury Oral History Project: young people are encouraged to listen, but also to share their own experiences with the older adults.
“Our narrative, our story, is the first element that we carry with us. It’s how we make meaning of life, and so being able to frame and understand it internally and then be able to offer and express it outwardly… Sharing our personal narratives absolutely has an impact on our physical, emotional and mental well-being,” Craddock said.
Tariffs. Loans. ICE. Immigrant business owners face plenty of hurdles under Trump administration
Flor owns a bakery in Chelsea. She makes elaborate fondant-covered cakes and baked goods like empanadas, croissants and quesitos. She came to the U.S. from Mexico when she was 17, learned culinary skills, applied for a green card and opened a business. She has three daughters — one wants to be an architect and one a psychologist.
But the last year has been difficult. Ingredients have gotten more expensive with rising inflation and tariffs, Flor told GBH’s Sarah Betancourt: five pounds of fondant used to cost $15 and now go for $30. Condensed milk for tres leches cakes is more expensive too. Her workload doubled when an employee quit because she was worried federal immigration agents would detain her on the way to or from work. And ICE agents detaining people in the neighborhood means more people are afraid to leave their homes, so foot traffic to the bakery is down.
“We closed our doors early for two days because everyone was terrified,” Flor told Betancourt.
Betancourt talked to other immigrant business owners who shared similar struggles: a skin care entrepreneur from Senegal whose customers are afraid to come to her business near Boston’s City Hall, even if they have legal immigration status. A Palestinian lawyer who came to the U.S. and started running a pizza place and market in Mission Hill, and who now doesn’t go to sleep until he knows that all his employees — who all have legal status — have left the business safely. And a restaurateur in East Somerville who had to close his doors in a neighborhood where 70% of businesses are owned by immigrants.
Dig deeper:
-Scientists, professionals from 'high-risk’ countries forced to pause careers during benefits ban
-Some local police, sheriff and DA offices are communicating often with ICE, records show
-Company lays off Haitian caregivers despite court order protecting work authorization
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