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.
☀️Sunny and clear, with highs around 80. Sunset is at 8:25 p.m.
You won’t be voting on a ballot measure about rent control come November.
The highest court in Massachusetts tossed out the ballot question seeking to cap rent increases at 5% on a technicality yesterday. Under the ballot measure, religious institutions that rent out property would have been exempt from the rent cap. Supreme Judicial Court justices said that to enforce that, the government would have to determine whether a building is used primarily for religious purposes and also give preferential treatment to religious organizations seeking to raise their rents.
This is the third question the court has ruled shouldn’t go to voters in November — the other two were about decreasing the state’s income tax from 5% to 4% and about how much state lawmakers get paid. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said her office reviewed a “record number of ballot initiatives.” “It was 47 — we reviewed 47 ballot initiatives, we certified 44,” she said on Boston Public Radio yesterday. “Six were challenged. Three were successful in [weathering] those challenges, and three of them were not.”
Four Things to Know
1. It took one statewide vote in 2024 to do away with the MCAS as a high school graduation requirement. But how long will it take to put in new statewide standards to replace it? Members of the state board in charge of educational standards said they’re worried that starting new standards for high school freshmen in 2027 will be too soon. About three in four Massachusetts school systems already meet the state’s requirements for core subjects. Getting the rest up to speed will likely take some time — and money.
“I look at the amount of work that’s going to be involved in getting districts to buy in or pass the legislation and regulations, and then working with the districts to implement MassCore,” said Matt Hills, vice chair of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. “I’m wondering how you’re going to do this in anywhere close to the amount of time that you’re proposing.”
2. Rep. Ayanna Pressley said she thinks that, in light of the Democratic National Committee’s report about why the party lost the 2024 presidential election, her party needs to get more strategic. “I’m rooted in community. I actively listen to the people who sent me to Washington,” she told GBH News Rooted host Paris Alston, speaking about the report for the first time. “What they want is a Democratic Party that is less focused on proving that they are the adults in the room. And much more focused on demonstrating that we are the fighters in the room.”
She also said the argument over whether to focus on identity politics or on economic issues creates a false dichotomy. “Take, for example, reproductive rights and reproductive justice. Determining if, when, and how to grow a family is an economic issue in a country that does not have universal childcare,” she said. You can listen to their full conversation here.
3. The state’s Department of Public Utilities is considering a new rule that would require rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft to make the fleet of cars they rent out to drivers all-electric. That rule wouldn’t apply to drivers’ personal cars or to wheelchair-accessible vans.
Drivers told state officials to consider the unintended consequences. “Drivers lose money during the time we spend charging our cars, because we only get paid when we have passengers,” Uber driver Jim Klot said. “We don’t make enough money to take long breaks from driving, especially when there are not enough charging stations.”
4. Cape Cod Healthcare got a donation of $20 million — its largest ever — from Suffolk Construction CEO John Fish and his wife, Cynthia Fish. CEO Michael Lauf said he’d like to use the money to improve how the hospital system cares for older adults, from small things like getting larger clocks to helping people with medication management.
“We’re going to be working to manage high-risk medications and how some are better suited than others for older adults,” he said. “We want to make sure that we’re also screening for delirium and what role that has in making sure that our patients are safe, and how we can ensure that all of our fall protocols are in place.”
Your World Cup roundup: Sobriety and soccer dreams come true
🇬🇭 Ghana fans galvanize in Worcester: Worcester has the largest Ghanaian population in Massachusetts and one of the largest in the U.S. Ghana tied with England yesterday, finishing the game with a 0-0 score. GBH’s Trajan Warren talked to local fans about what seeing their team on the world stage means. “The World Cup has brought all that euphoria — everybody being so happy,” fan Robert Adu said.
Esther Twumasi works for the Kwahuman Association of Massachusetts, a nonprofit that supports the Ghanaian community in Worcester and in Ghana. She said those strong connections make Worcester feel like home. “For somebody who has been here for 10 years, my children are here,” Twumasi said. “If I go to Ghana, I feel like I’m visiting, and [Worcester] is my home.”
🍻A sober soccer summer: The World Cup has brought later bar hours (until 3 a.m.), zones where it’s temporarily legal to drink in public and a general focus on alcohol. GBH’s Marilyn Schairer talked to people who are in recovery about what it’s been like for them. “For someone struggling with getting sober, sometimes they feel that they might need to use alcohol or other substances as some sort of ‘social lubricant’ to engage with other people,” said Jessica Duenas, a life coach at The Luckiest Club. “So incredibly permissive spaces can make that challenging, for sure, when it’s pretty much everywhere.”
⚽Dreaming big from the stands: About 1,100 children in Massachusetts are getting to attend World Cup games in Foxborough for free because of a ticket donation from Airbnb. That includes the kids from the nonprofit Immigrant Family Services Institute, said Sylviane Jeane Baptiste, the child enrichment and youth empowerment manager there. “Most of our youth, they come from Haiti or other places where they were kicked out of their home, out of their place, city, and then they had to move to the United States,” Jeane Baptiste told GBH’s All Things Considered.
Seeing Haiti play Scotland was huge for them, Jeane Baptiste said. “Throughout this entire year, we’ve put different workshops, different programs to help them with their mental health, to really, kind of give them self-esteem, self-focus, to identify themselves as well within that new culture,” Jeane Baptiste said. “For them, being part of that World Cup actually did that so that they can see they can reach far. It doesn’t matter where they come from, it doesn’t matter their story, as long as they put the effort into it, they put the will into it, they will actually get there. So for them to actually be there — for me to experience that as their manager, as a leader — it’s really awesome.”
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