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☂️Cooler, with a chance of showers and highs in the 40s. Sunset is at 7:11 p.m.
Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order trying to eliminate birthright citizenship. NPR’s Nina Totenberg broke down the arguments, and the Associated Press reported on the justices’ questions and what they might mean for the court’s eventual decision. In Massachusetts, Sarang Sekhevat, chief of staff at the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy coalition, said he thought about how eliminating the 14th Amendment right under which anyone born in the U.S. is given citizenship would affect his life and the lives of others around him. Sekhevat was born in Brockton to parents who immigrated from Iran.
“If this executive order had been in place when I was born, I wouldn’t be a U. S. citizen,” he told GBH’s Sarah Betancourt. “Taking away or watering down the 14th Amendment is gonna mean there are children all over this country who aren’t going to have those same opportunities — somehow they’re going to be treated differently because of their parents.”
Oren Sellstrom, litigation director at the Boston group Lawyers for Civil Rights, told Betancourt he saw Supreme Court justices “pointing out just how chaotic the situation would be if the executive order ever went into effect, that the bright line rule that we all know today and that has existed in this country for the last 150 years — that any child born here, is an American citizen — would be undermined at that point.”
Four Things to Know
1. Twenty-seven group leaders and volunteers with the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, also known as SNAP, resigned from the organization last week because they are concerned about how the group is handling survivor support leadership and accountability issues. They’re starting their own group, which they’re calling the Abuse Survivors Coalition, to keep supporting people survivors of clergy sexual abuse. They said they wanted more transparency about the board’s practices and issues from a 2024 conference in Texas, which had meet-ups in bars despite some members’ concerns about alcohol.
“We had two different ideas of what helping survivors was, and they had erased us from the website,” said Myra Russell, a survivor who now lives in Waltham. “If a survivor went to the website to try and look for a group, they weren’t even up there or the schedule wasn’t up there. You couldn’t even figure out what leaders were even there anymore.”
2. The price of a gallon of regular gas in Massachusetts sits at $3.84 this week, significantly higher than before the U.S. and Israeli war in Iran began at the end of February. Prices were about $2.90 a month ago. The state average is still lower than the national average of about $4 per gallon.
“How bad could it get? The sky is the limit,” said Mark Schieldrop, a spokesperson for AAA Northeast. “I wouldn’t be surprised at all if we cross over $4 a gallon [in Massachusetts] in the next couple weeks. But I’m cautiously optimistic that we will level off right around the $4 a gallon mark, and hopefully don’t go too much higher.”
3. Massachusetts’ ban on conversion therapy is getting another look after the U.S. Supreme Court issued an 8-1 decision ruling that a Colorado law banning the practice for LGBTQ+ kids is unconstitutional. State Sen. Julian Cyr, co-chair of the LGBTQ+ Legislative Caucus, said he’s prepared to make changes necessary to keep the state’s ban in place.
“While initially my heart sank — once again — to see another defeat at the Supreme Court, the reality is this decision is much, much more narrow,” Cyr said. “It’s too soon to tell what we may do here. I can assure you that once we figure this out, and once we understand the implications of this ruling ... if we need to make tweaks and changes to our law here in Massachusetts, we’re going to do everything we can to do that and to move swiftly.”
4. Malden city officials said they expect to cut 60 jobs across city departments, including schools and public works, after voters rejected proposed property tax hikes. With turnout at about 15% of registered voters, a measure that would have raised taxes citywide by $5.4 million failed by 124 votes. A second proposal to raise taxes by $8.2 million failed by a wider margin, with 3,224 votes against and 2,523 in favor.
City officials will still raise property taxes, but only to the level allowed under the 1980s-era Proposition 2 ½. “It’s a very disappointing result. It was a very close vote —only 2% across the city,” said Malden City Councilor Carey McDonald. “But the outcome of this vote means we’re going to have to make some really painful cuts… So we will find the path forward.”
‘The opportunity is here’: Inside the state effort that’s transforming Gateway Cities
Does your community have a downtown area with vacant storefronts and struggling businesses? That’s what Revere’s Shirley Avenue looked like for a while. The street stretches from Bell Circle Rotary to Revere Beach and used to be known for some gritty dive bars.
But that’s not the case anymore.
“The Shirley Ave. neighborhood is probably one of the most transformed neighborhoods, certainly in Revere, in the last decade,” Revere Mayor Patrick M. Keefe Jr. told GBH’s Trajan Warren.
So how did Revere do it? With some help from the state’s Transformative Development Initiative, a program launched in 2014 to help Gateway Cities. The program mixes state funds and money from private organizations to help communities change their neighborhoods.
The program came to Shirley Avenue in 2022. It has since built a $122,000 pilot program to help businesses already in the neighborhood pair up with local entrepreneurs and community groups. Revere chipped in another $560,000 for things like public art and green spaces, and the state provided a grant for housing.
One of the beneficiaries is F&J Juice Bar Cafe, where Juliana Agudelo and her business partner sell smoothies, toasts, sandwiches and salads. The owner of their one-story building told them he was selling, and Agudelo said she worried that would mean she’d have to close the business and leave.
The TDI program gave F&J Juice Bar Cafe a $25,000 state grant and some advice and support. Now Agudelo and her business partner own their building.
“When I go out, I see behind me [and] I say, ‘Oh my God, that’s mine,’” Agudelo told Warren.
Trajan Warren has more examples from across the state: a historic theater in New Bedford, a bakery and cafe in the Merrimack Valley and a look ahead at some planned projects. You can find the full story here.
Dig deeper:
-Gateway to prosperity: What’s next for Massachusetts’ Gateway Cities?
-From churches to banks, urban school districts find creative ways to update facilities
-Come meet our reporters at a listening session
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