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.
☀️A pleasant, mostly sunny day, with temperatures peaking around 63 degrees in the afternoon. Sunset is at 7:44 p.m.
Today, we’ll hear from Kirk Carapezza about the important — and perhaps misunderstood — role the nine colonial colleges played in the United States’ tumultuous path to self-governance. There’s a tendency to assume that college campuses were a hotbed of revolutionary ideas, but think again: the faculty weren’t offering lessons on rebellion, and the students were just as likely to complain about the food as they were to bemoan British rule. Find out more in the latest installment of our From Colony to Commonwealth series ahead of the America 250 milestone later this summer. But first, a few headlines.
Four Things to Know
1. After weeks of delay, the House voted yesterday to fund much of the Department of Homeland Security, excluding its immigration enforcement operations, and send the bipartisan package to President Donald Trump to sign, ending the longest agency shutdown in history. The White House had warned that temporary funding Trump used to pay Transportation Security Administration and other agency personnel would “soon run out,” raising new threats of airport disruptions. DHS has been without routine funds since Feb. 14, causing hardship for workers, though much of Trump’s immigration agenda that is central to the dispute is being funded separately.
2. In the past week, the average price of a gallon of gas in Massachusetts hit $4, the first time since 2022. Within state borders, there’s a wide range of gas prices depending on where you’re filling up. As of April 30, the cost of a gallon of gas in the three counties south of Boston — Bristol, Plymouth and Barnstable — ranged between $4.07 and $4.11. Bristol County, which stretches from Easton to the southeastern border, has the lowest average of all, at $4.07 per gallon.
3. Beacon Hill leaders took bold steps this month aimed at tackling what they call an “out-of-control” youth social media addiction problem, comparing their efforts to the fight against Big Tobacco. The Massachusetts House voted 129-25 to ban children under 14 from having social media accounts and to require parental consent for 15- and 16-year-olds. Gov. Maura Healey followed up with her own bill that would impose a default set of restrictions for minors’ social media accounts, including a two-hour-per-day limit and the disabling of features — such as auto-playing videos — that encourage users to stay online.
4. MBTA leaders have launched a new “fatigue awareness campaign” targeting the transit agency’s bus operators amid a recent spike in dangerous incidents involving buses across Greater Boston. Last month, an MBTA bus crashed into several parked cars and two homes in Medford. The crash remains under investigation. Transit police said in the aftermath of the incident that the bus’ operator showed signs of being drowsy or asleep before the crash. The Medford incident was one of 15 “major safety events” on the T’s bus network in March, Chief Safety Officer Tim Lesniak said during an MBTA board meeting Thursday.
The colonial campus where it happened? Not exactly.
By Kirk Carapezza
The story Americans have long told of their nation’s founding has a familiar cast and setting: young, white men in powdered wigs, alight with Enlightenment thought, pacing college greens and tavern floors, arguing their way toward independence.
In an artistic, modern retelling, a band of racially diverse young immigrants rap their grievances under stage lights in a Broadway-burnished hip-hop version of rebellion.
In both renderings, the colonial colleges are portrayed as hotbeds of revolutionary fervor.
It’s a compelling, dramatic narrative that largely credits these institutions with the ideas that fueled the fire of self-governance. It’s also not entirely true.
Hear why — and the real-deal history — as part of our From Colony to Commonwealth series.
Dig deeper:
- Harvard graduate student union strikes as negotiations hit a wall
- The first secretary of war’s books are in Boston. What was he reading?
- Despite scrutiny in life and death, Phillis Wheatley endures as a trailblazing poet
GBH Daily
Your essential daily newsletter delivering trusted news, local insights, ways to connect, and can't miss programs from Boston and beyond.
