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🥵Hot and sweaty, with a chance of showers and highs in the 80s. Sunset is at 8:20 p.m.
Every few years there’s a story about a legislator in Massachusetts making the case for legalizing happy hour — in layperson’s terms, making it legal for bars and restaurants to discount drinks for some part of the day. But just as we stretch our hands out, reaching for those less-expensive margaritas, they turn out to be a mirage, slipping through our fingers as we trudge on through the dry, Puritan-era blue-law landscape.
But this week there are some actual changes in the liquor law world here in Massachusetts, albeit temporary. First, the Legislature passed a law to let bars and restaurants stay open until 3 a.m. on World Cup game days if the cities or towns they’re in allow it — keep reading for more on that. Then Gov. Maura Healey said she’d “personally” support removing the ban on happy hour.
“I really want 20-somethings — 18- to 35 year-olds — staying in Boston; staying in Massachusetts. And it’s really important that we create spaces for them to hang out and socialize,” Healey said, adding that she’d like to see cities and towns be able to make their own choices. So will the happy hour ban fade away? We’ll have to wait and see, like watching the achingly slow process of condensation on a cold pint glass drip onto the bartop.
Four Things to Know
1. Hampshire College in Amherst has raised enough money to stay open through the end of 2026. In April, Hampshire’s board chair said the college will close at the end of the fall 2026 semester. Then last week, the school’s President Jennifer Chrisler said they might have to shut down earlier due to a lack of funds. Now classes are back on for this fall.
The about-face might seem chaotic, but David Chard, the former president of Wheelock College and author of “When Colleges Close,” said keeping students in the loop is the right move. “What you don’t want to do is then find out that you don’t have enough cash flow to actually keep the college open and have students who are left in the lurch,” Chard said.
2. A federal judge in Boston ruled that the Trump administration cannot charge companies $100,000 for each H-1B visa. Those visas are for companies looking for highly skilled workers, and tech companies in the U.S. often use them to hire engineers and developers. About three-quarters of H-1B visas go to workers from India.
“The Court finds that the Policy imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress,” U.S. District Court Judge Leo Sorokin wrote. But the case before him, one brought by the attorneys general of Massachusetts and 19 other states, is not the only one focusing on this fee. In Washington, D.C., a federal court declined to put the new fee on hold while a case the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is bringing goes to court. And there’s another case in San Francisco, this one from religious groups and labor organizations.
3. The Shared Seas Lab, a new research unit at UMass Dartmouth, is looking at how different interests can affect the ocean through ecology, biology and social science. Assistant Professor Melissa Cronin said her lab is looking at manta rays caught in commercial tuna catches and studying how lobster fishers are getting displaced due to higher home prices and costs of living.
“I noticed every year there would be fewer lobstermen and more new vacation homes, and fewer families too,” she said of Bailey Island in Casco Bay in Maine. “People would be leaving the island because it’s so expensive to live there. … It just creates this environment where we have a coastal economy dependent on tourism, rather than on connection with the ocean, on food provisioning from the ocean. And in my opinion, it really … decouples the community from the land.”
4. About three-quarters of public pools in Boston — 16 in total — are open for anyone to swim in for free. That’s a change from three years ago, when about half of city pools were closed because of renovations, repairs or a lack of staffing.
One of the newly reopened pools is at the Hennigan School on Heath Street in Jamaica Plain. That’s where 21-year-old Danny Vargas learned how to swim, and he said he’s glad younger kids will have the same opportunity. “I learned how to swim at a young age — and for the newer generations, or the kids who go to the Hennigan, for them to not be able to learn how to swim is frustrating to me. Because I’d like the same opportunity to be presented to other people,” Vargas said. “It’s not fair for those who live around there.” He said he’s hoping for a pool party to celebrate.
Behind the Bill: How a 3 a.m. last call law sped through the legislature
By Katie Lannan, State House reporter, GBH News
When Massachusetts hosts its first World Cup match this weekend, fans — and everyone else — could be served a little later, taking advantage of a new state law that will temporarily allow bars to stay open an extra hour through the end of July.
The new later last calls are part of a bid to make sure the state’s hospitality industry can fully capture the benefits of the influx of international visitors. The law that Gov. Healey signed Monday creates a pilot program allowing businesses with valid liquor licenses to both stay open and serve alcohol an hour later than usual — as late as 3 a.m.
It’s not automatic, and there is still some bureaucracy: cities and towns will need to decide if they want to allow those later hours.
Cities could also opt in to what lawmakers have been calling social consumption districts — think New Orleans, where you can buy a drink and have it while walking around a street or in a park, in a designated area. At the end of the tryout period, state officials will pull together a report on how it went, focusing on economic impacts, revenue and public safety.
This law seems to have moved really fast. State lawmakers just started moving a bill last week, and the governor has already signed it into law. The time crunch comes from the World Cup, and the idea that international visitors are used to being out much later, making this an opportunity to take advantage of the unique tourism moment.
Even though big, permanent policy changes typically take years, this shows that Beacon Hill can move quickly when it wants to — especially up against a deadline. This law passed without any “no” votes in the Legislature.
Dig deeper:
-‘We want to show that ... we’re fun, too’: Mass. bar, restaurant owners cheer 3 a.m. closing time
-Boston’s cultural identity shines through World Cup poster and sonic ID created by local artists
-Lainey Wilson, Chance the Rapper, Trombone Shorty to perform at Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular
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