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 with highs in the 50s. Sunset is at 7:15 p.m.
Four Things to Know
1. About 4.7% of the Massachusetts workforce was unemployed in January, a figure higher than the national average of 4.3% but slightly lower than December, when it stood at 4.8%. It was the state’s fourth straight month of job market growth, according to the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development.
The industries that added the most jobs were private education and health services (3,100), leisure and hospitality (about 2,000) and manufacturing (1,100). On the flip side, the industries that lost the most jobs in the state were professional and business services (down 2,900), financial activities (down 500), and trade, transportation and utilities (down 100).
2. Massachusetts is one of 24 states suing the Trump administration over an executive order that attempts to restrict who can vote by mail. You can read the full complaint here. “The president has no right to preapprove the list of citizens who can vote in an American election, nor does he have the right to track their ballots through the mail, or to prevent certain ballots from being delivered,” Secretary of the Commonwealth William F. Galvin said in a statement.
Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell, whose office co-filed the lawsuit, said “mail-in voting is secure, our election laws are strong and there is absolutely no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Though the president may wish he had unlimited power to restrict voting rights, the Constitution gives states – not the White House – the authority to oversee elections,” she added.
3. Health researchers are seeing a slight increase in HIV cases in communities such as Lawrence and Lowell, particularly among people who inject drugs. One reason for the new clusters may be funding cuts to needle exchange programs, said Brown University epidemiology professor Katie Biello, who is also a researcher with the Fenway Institute. Programs that can reduce risk include access to medication-assisted treatments, needle exchange programs and HIV prophylactics like PrEP.
“Unfortunately, it’s not a surprise to me that we’re seeing a potential new cluster of HIV in the area,” Biello told GBH’s Meghan Smith. “We have some really great syringe service programs throughout the state, but you know, as resources diminish, we’re going to sort of see struggles. … In general over the last decade there’s been somewhat of a drop in HIV infections but that drop has not been seen in the same way in minoritized populations.”
4. Yesterday marked 50 years since Boston photographer Stanley Forman captured the image known as “The Soiling of Old Glory.” The photo shows a white teenager, Joseph Rakes, using an American flag on a pole to assault a Black man, Theodore “Ted” Landsmark, during a protest against school desegregation outside Boston City Hall.
“Many of the issues that were raised by that photo remain salient issues, and unfortunately, [are] unresolved today,” Landsmark said. “My hope would be that looking back at it a half century later, we would reflect on the amount of work that remains to be done in order to achieve racial equality in the United States in this year.”
Play ball!
Did you sense that sign of spring on Lansdowne Street? The Red Sox played their home opener Friday, beating the San Diego Padres 5-2 — and GBH reporters were on the scene to capture moments from around Fenway Park. (The Padres beat the Sox in the last two games of the series this weekend. The Sox are back at Fenway tonight playing the Milwaukee Brewers.)
Van Baburins of West Medford, who goes by “Van The Guitar Man,” and his dog, JoJo.
A street vendor sold programs ahead of opening day.
Mack Barrero sold peanuts ahead of the game.
Check out more Opening Day photos here.
Dig deeper:
-Brewers visit the Red Sox to open 3-game series
-Sunday: Machado and Merrill homer for Padres in 8-6 win over flailing Red Sox
GBH Daily
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