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.
🌧️On-and-off showers, with highs in the 70s. Sunset is at 7:28 p.m.
This is a busy weekend in Boston, and most of the activities are tied to gearing up for Monday’s Boston Marathon. While we’re excited for the big day, there are also plenty of other fun and interesting things going on — and we’ve pulled together a list of some of them. We’ll get to that after the news.
Four Things to Know
1. Rodney Marshall will be the next commissioner of the Boston Fire Department. Marshall grew up in Grove Hall and joined the fire department in 1991, working his way up through the ranks. He’s the city’s first Black fire commissioner. His predecessor, Commissioner Paul Burke, is leaving the job because of mandatory retirement rules.
“As a proud son of Dorchester, I joined the Boston Fire Department because I wanted to give back to the communities where I grew up, and I’m committed to supporting the firefighters and staff who work every day to keep Boston’s neighborhoods safe,” Marshall said in a statement.
2. The U.S. House voted 224-204 yesterday to extend Temporary Protected Status for Haitians until 2029, meaning about 19,000 Haitian immigrants in Massachusetts (and more around the nation) would be able to keep their legal right to live and work in the U.S. The bill now goes to the U.S. Senate. President Donald Trump’s administration has been issuing orders to end the TPS program for people from around the world, taking away legal status from immigrants.
“The country is destabilized, and sending anyone there, deporting anyone there is a death sentence,” said Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley of Boston, who led the effort to pass the bill. Dr. Geralde Gabeau, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Immigrant Family Services Institute in Mattapan, said she’s been anxiously watching bills and court cases. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case involving Haitian and Syrian TPS holders on April 29. “We know it’s a long fight,” Gabeau said. “However, every step of the way, every single victory is a way to really kind of bring awareness to the entire body of the Supreme Court so that they understand that it’s not just about policies. It’s about people’s lives.”
3. The blue license plates the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles issued to mark the 250th anniversary of the Revolutionary War are becoming the most popular specialty plates in state history. There are about 71,000 cars on the road with the plates, and 44,000 people entered the lottery for a low-number version.
“I think that what has been very interesting to me is [the plate] is on all different types of cars,” RMV Registrar Colleen Ogilvie said. “Whether it is a pickup truck, a passenger car, a sports car — all different socio-economic statuses.”
4. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum donated its nasturtiums — the edible vining plants that hang from its courtyard balconies every spring — to gorillas and lemurs at the Franklin Park Zoo. The museum usually composts nasturtium vines after their peak blooms. But this year, horticulturalist Cass Bidwell, who used to work at the zoo cultivating plants for animal enrichment, came up with the idea to donate them to the animals.
The animals got to smell, play with and nibble on the plants yesterday. “That’s often what happens when we offer something new. It may take a few times for them to get comfortable with it and then maybe get comfortable enough to try it,” said Erica Farrell, an assistant curator at the Franklin Park Zoo.
What to do this weekend (other than get excited for the Boston Marathon)
For the people who love drama: Jared Bowen, host of GBH’s The Culture Show, thinks you should check out a performance of the comedy “When Playwrights Kill” at the Huntington Theatre. It’s based on a true story of Faye Dunaway coming to Boston to star in a play everyone thought would be Broadway-bound — but then it went bust. “This play is a comedy about a playwright who is getting his big break, going to Broadway because he’s got a big star — of Faye Dunaway caliber — starring in his show,” Bowen said. “And then she kind of tanks it with a bad performance — only the bad performance makes him look bad, so he wants to take her out.” Unlike the source material, Bowen said he expects this play to make it to Broadway. Tell your New Yorker friends you saw it here first.
For the action movie lovers (who also love comedy legends): Bowen suggests a trip to the movie theater to see “Normal,” starring Bob Odenkirk, Henry Winkler and Lena Headey. Odenkirk and “John Wick” creator Derek Kolstad wrote the film, in which Odenkirk plays a small-town sheriff in Normal, Minnesota. “He just doesn’t want to care as he’s the interim sheriff in this small community,” Bowen said. “He begins to realize that everything’s a little bit off-kilter, like the millions of dollars that are flowing into this community.”
For the outdoor diners: Meteorologists expect a rainy weekend in Boston before a mostly sunny and cool Marathon Monday. If you catch a break from the rain, Marc Hurwitz, food writer and owner of the Boston Restaurant Talk Blog, has some recommendations for outdoor dining. He suggests Floramos in Revere (“They don’t have a patio, but they’re right across from the beach, great views of the ocean”) and Volante Farms in Needham (“You can sit in the greenhouse and have a sandwich, a coffee, maybe some pastries, and it’s just a really different kind of experience.”) Also the Harvard General Store in the town of Harvard (“A beautiful place to go if you’re looking for a nice drive.”) Check out the rest of his suggestions, from the North End to Maine, right here.
For the runners: The PIONEERS Run Crew is hosting the 26.TRUE marathon starting at 7 a.m. on Saturday. The race, now in its sixth year, takes place entirely within city limits. “That first year there were about 30 people, the second year we had 70-some-odd, and it’s just grown since then,” said Sharon Lee, one of the race directors. “And it’s just something unexpected but so wonderful to see and be a part of.” The race starts and ends on Dale Street behind the Melnea Cass Recreation Center in Roxbury, 120 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. You can find a map of the full route here.
For the dog lovers: Sunday is the 2026 Golden Strong Marathon Weekend Meetup, in which golden retrievers and their owners descend upon the Boston Common’s Flagstaff Hill (139 Tremont St., Boston) in a flurry of fur. The meetup goes from noon to 2 p.m. They’re also raising money for the Morris Animal Foundation’s Golden Retriever Lifetime Study, in which researchers look at golden retrievers’ overall health and cancer risks. They’re also selling merch.
