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The legal case over plans to put up large statues of two Catholic saints — St. Michael the Archangel and St. Florian — outside a public safety building in Quincy reached the highest court in Massachusetts yesterday. The statues cost $850,000, and Mayor Thomas Koch commissioned them without public input.
GBH’s Adam Reilly reports that justices appeared skeptical of the city government’s argument that the statues represent more than just the Catholic faith. But they also noted that if the case were appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, those justices might see the case differently.
“The U.S. Supreme Court is really concerned about government action that appears to be hostile to religion … We can’t allow more hostility to religion than the Supreme Court would tolerate, and they have very low tolerance,” Associate Justice Scott Kafker said. Justices usually release their decisions within 130 days.
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Four Things to Know
1. Three people have collected enough signatures to run for Suffolk district attorney, the role that handles criminal prosecutions in Boston: incumbent DA Kevin Hayden, former DA Rachael Rollins and Linda Champion, an attorney and law professor who also ran for the job in 2018. Each had to submit at least 1,000 signatures.
Rollins has not yet formally said she will run. She was first elected in 2018 and left the role when then-President Joe Biden nominated her for a U.S. attorney post overseeing federal prosecutions in Massachusetts. Rollins resigned as U.S. attorney, and two investigations later found she attempted to use her office to influence the election to replace her.
2. The major rivers around Boston — the Mystic, Neponset and Charles — earned B and C grades for cleanliness from local watershed associations. More rain and aging infrastructure have combined to make it harder to keep the rivers clean, the groups said.
“Protecting our rivers and streams is only possible if we know where the problems are,” said Patrick Herron, executive director of the Mystic River Watershed Association. “The next step is finding solutions, which we look forward to collaborating on with our wonderful partners in city, town and state government.”
3. The state’s biggest nurses’ union, worried about violence that nurses experience at work, is asking lawmakers to pass a bill requiring hospitals to better protect them. “This bill is not complicated,” Massachusetts Nurses Association President Katie Murphy said. “It’s not extreme. It simply requires healthcare facilities to take preventative measures against workplace violence, to track violence when and where it occurs and to support victims.”
Nurse Liz Taranto said patients threatened her or tried to harm her on multiple occasions. Those days stick with her, she told GBH News. “Even at home, I felt on edge, wired, stressed, constantly looking over my shoulder,” she said. “And it would take me a full day after every shift to feel like myself again. Experiences like these have lasting effects, and they change the way we practice.”
4. Barney Frank, who represented Massachusetts in Congress for 32 years, spoke to GBH News reporter Adam Reilly about where he sees the Democratic party going. Frank has congestive heart failure and is in hospice care in Maine. “I obviously wish I wasn’t dying,” Frank said. “On the other hand, I am very happy to have the opportunity to make this point, because I think we’re at a cusp.”
“I am optimistic …. about liberal democracy beating reactionary populism, but I’m not convinced,” he said. “I’ve gotten a great opportunity to frankly put my money where my mouth is on that issue.”
Why a Framingham man gave up his American dream
By Emily Judem, senior producer, digital video for GBH News
After three years in the U.S., Anderson Costa is giving up on his American Dream and returning to Brazil.
I spent time filming Costa, 45, during his last week living in Framingham, as he said goodbye to friends that felt like family and to a city that felt like home.
Costa had applied for a visa and hoped to bring his wife and children — still in Brazil — to the U.S.
But after 2 ½ years with no decision on his visa application, he decided to go back to reunite with his family.
“I don’t know how long time I need to wait,” Costa said. “It’s not easy for immigration right now.”
Costa is not alone. There is evidence the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown is driving Brazilians away from Framingham, a community they are widely credited with revitalizing.
I grew up in Framingham in the 1980s and ’90s, and I saw this revitalization with my own eyes.
My earliest memories include driving past the outdated storefronts of downtown Framingham only as a necessary means to get elsewhere — to take the commuter rail to Boston, or to go to the ice skating rink.
As I grew up, my hometown changed around me. My elementary school began to print signs in English and Portuguese. Restaurants popped up and took over the once-blighted spaces. Small business owners renovated storefronts and the sidewalks downtown began to fill again.
Brazilian immigrant families — who I later learned had been coming to Framingham in waves for decades — revived its economy and built a community with the highest concentration of Brazilians anywhere in the world outside of Brazil.
But since the start of President Trump’s second term, ICE has been a regular presence in Framingham, sowing fear among residents regardless of their legal status, said Álvaro Lima, founder of the Instituto Diáspora Brasil.
Most Brazilians today are afraid of going to work, to open their stores, to send their kids to school. They are being hunted in the streets they have revitalized,” Lima said. ”If you have the possibility of leave, you leave.”
Everyone we spoke to for this story says they are worried about Framingham’s future as a result.
“It’s a huge economic development issue,” said Framingham State Representative Priscilla Sousa. “If that person closes up shop and leaves, will there be another business there or will that be a blighted space? Those are the realities that we’re facing right now. And we are so much closer to that coming true than I think people realize.”
Costa allowed me to film him driving to the airport for his flight back to Brazil. He called friends he would miss from the car and fought back tears.
“It’s hard to say goodbye,” he said. You can watch his story here.
Dig deeper:
-They don’t like guns or Trump. Here’s why they’re learning to shoot in Massachusetts
-What’s it like being arrested by ICE? Boston restaurant manager Paul Dama tells his story
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