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.
Who gets to see footage from the Boston Police Department’s body cameras, how can they get access and how long does it take? After a Boston police officer was arrested on manslaughter charges for shooting and killing a man while on duty — a shooting captured on video, which investigators reviewed but which has not been made public — the city’s elected officials are taking a closer look at their protocols. (The officer has entered a plea of not guilty in the case.)
“Right now, there’s still a lack of clarity about how and when body camera footage is released, especially in cases involving the use of deadly force,” Councilor Miniard Culpepper said. “Does the Boston Police Department have policies or protocols in place for releasing body cameras? If so, what are they? If not, why not? These are the questions that must be asked by the City Council.” Read more on the discussion from GBH’s Saraya Wintersmith here.
Four Things to Know
1. With World Cup games coming to Gillette Stadium in June, state officials said they’re taking precautions in case the games bring more human trafficking to the area. The state is getting $76 million in federal funding for security, and local law enforcement officials are making plans for managing crowd control and cybersecurity.
“I just want to assure every family, resident and visitor that no stone’s been left unturned to make sure that this is a safe and secure and successful World Cup event,” Gov. Maura Healey said.
2. About 120 Jewish Harvard professors and staff members signed an open letter opposing the Trump administration’s lawsuit against the university. The federal lawsuit, filed last week, accuses Harvard of “discrimination against Jewish and Israeli students.” Now the group of Harvard faculty and staff is accusing the administration of using antisemitism as an excuse to attack the university.
“Although we hold a range of views about Israel, Gaza, and pro-Palestinian protests on campus, we stand united in the belief that this lawsuit can only harm Harvard’s Jewish community,” the group wrote. “In our view, the Trump administration does not aim to protect Jewish people at Harvard. It cynically exploits concerns about antisemitism to justify what can only be described as an authoritarian assault on institutions of higher education.” You can read the full letter here.
3. State Attorney General Andrea Campbell said she thinks there’s “a pathway forward” for Auditor Diana DiZoglio to audit the state legislature after DiZoglio said she has “only asked for financial receipts and state contracts.” “She said she was wanting to do more of a financial audit,” Campbell told GBH’s Boston Public Radio yesterday. “I called her, I’ve not heard back, to say to her, ‘I think there’s a pathway forward.’”
DiZoglio, meanwhile, said she still wants a more wide-ranging audit and said it isn’t appropriate for Campbell to try and contact her while the Attorney General’s Office represents the legislative leaders DiZoglio is suing. “My position has not changed and what I want to audit has not changed,” DiZoglio wrote in a statement. “I will not participate in dark, shadow conversations with the AG about this lawsuit.”
4. All aboard: the Massachusetts Department of Transportation wants to add train service between Boston and Springfield, with service extending all the way out to Albany, N.Y.. The department is hoping the first trains on the route could run by 2030, said MassDOT’s rail administrator, Meredith Slesinger.
There’s already some train service between Boston and Springfield through Amtrak’s Lake Shore Limited route, which only runs once a day in each direction. “We’re undertaking a major effort in Springfield to reconfigure track alignments, switches, train signals, station platforms and layover and servicing facilities to expand capacity and reduce trip times,” Slesinger said.
What is kratom, and why is Boston considering a crackdown on the drug?
The Boston city council is interested in proposing a ban on kratom, commonly found in convenience stores and gas stations. Companies sometimes market it as a natural substance that can help with energy, anxiety and pain, though the FDA does not regulate it and says that they don’t recommend using it to treat any medical conditions or as a dietary supplement. There’s natural kratom, derived from the kratom tree and long found in Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia. There’s also synthetic kratom, which contains much higher amounts of a psychoactive chemical called 7-hydroxymitragynine, or 7-OH.
GBH’s Saraya Wintersmith spoke with doctors, politicians and advocates about the proposed ban. Here’s what they told her.
Dr. Sarah Wakeman, medical director for substance use disorder at Mass General Brigham, said she’s seen people using kratom to try and manage addiction withdrawal symptoms on their own: “Kratom is really dangerous and harmful and there are case reports of people dying from it. At the same time, for someone who has severe addiction to fentanyl or heroin or oxycontin, kratom is actually a much safer substance, and people are sort of self-managing their withdrawal and their addiction because they can’t access treatment; with this substance that is less risky.”
“It’s a little hard to hold both those truths at the same [time],” she said. Wakeman said she sees kratom as “incredibly problematic,” but “for my patients that come to me and have been using illicit opioids and have switched to kratom, they are reducing their risk. Then my job is to try to help make treatment welcoming and available so we can actually treat them with effective therapies that they don’t need to self-manage on their own.”
Holly Trouville of Dracut, whose son Tyrell died of mitragynine (a compound found in kratom) toxicity in 2024: “If Boston did ban all kratom, I think that would be huge,” she said. “If you’re a larger city with almost a million people in it saying it’s a problem … I think a lot of other towns and cities would look at [Boston] and say, ‘Why are they banning?’”
Boston City Councilor John FitzGerald, who wants to propose a ban: “Anything like that that’s sold over the counter, unregulated and without the need for proper identification, in my eyes, I see that as a harm to the public good,” said FitzGerald.“It’s caused overdose, death, sickness, hospital visits from people thinking that this is marketed as an energy drink or [something to] help you with aches and pains.”
FitzGerald also said he hoped a ban in Boston would move the state to regulate kratom. The state’s top two legislative leaders, Massachusetts State Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano, did not respond to Wintersmith’s request for comment.
You can find Saraya Wintersmith’s full reporting on this issue here.
Dig deeper:
-How outlawing flavored tobacco saved Massachusetts $70 million in health care costs
-Most people getting abortion services in Massachusetts don’t live here
-Should you add gratitude to your wellness routine?
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