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.
🥵Hot, with highs in the 90s. Sunset is at 8:24 p.m.
In light of yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling, which held, 6-3, that all babies born on U.S. soil should be American citizens despite President Donald Trump’s executive order stating otherwise, let’s go back to the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause. It reads: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
“The framers of the 14th Amendment extended that promise to every freeborn person in this land, and we keep that promise today,” Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, told GBH’s Sarah Betancourt. “I mean, can you imagine if they’d ruled the other way? It would have created a permanent class of stateless people in this country, sort of an apartheid system.” Sarah Betancourt has more local analysis here. You can check out NPR Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg’s piece on the ruling here.
Four Things to Know
1. The heat won’t break until Sunday or Monday, GBH meteorologist Dave Epstein says. We might see some rain later today, “but it’s going to be so hot on Thursday and Friday that the atmosphere will be ‘capped.’ That means the air will have less of an opportunity to rise, limiting clouds and any shower activity,” he writes.
It’s also going to be very humid. “The forecast right now shows that the danger of heat-related illness will be high Thursday and Friday, especially in the afternoon,” he said. In short: stay hydrated, stay in the shade, be ready to give your pets and plants extra water, and avoid strenuous outdoor exercise — especially during the day on Thursday and Friday. Epstein’s full forecast is here.
2. Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling upheld laws in 27 states that ban transgender girls from participating in public school sports that align with their gender identity. But trans athletes in Massachusetts can still join teams that fit their gender identity.
“We want all people who are playing sports to be safe, to play sports in a way that’s done safely. I also think this whole case came about because of [President] Donald Trump’s continued effort to politicize transgender people,” Gov. Maura Healey said. “And transgender people in Massachusetts will continue to see the full protections of anti-discrimination law.”
3. About one in eight Massachusetts residents has some medical debt, and a new proposal from the state’s Department of Public Health would keep that debt from affecting credit scores.
When former President Joe Biden’s administration tried to implement a similar rule on the federal level, it was struck down by courts. Matt Selig, from the nonprofit Health Law Advocates said he thinks a state version won’t face the same challenges. “They’re tying the regulations to providers’ licensure, which is so clearly within the state’s purview to license health care providers,” Selig said. “We think that that should provide them with all the authority that they need to enforce these regulations.”
4. Community health centers are preparing for the start of next year, when changes to Medicaid brought on by last year’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill take effect” — and could mean that an estimated 200,000 people in Massachusetts lose coverage through MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program.
What that means at the Franklin County Community Health Center in Western Massachusetts is that staff will likely have to spend more time helping people with paperwork to prove their eligibility for Medicaid, CEO Allison Van Der Velden said. That work is time-consuming, and the center will not be paid for it, she said. The center may also have to cut back on dental programs and transportation services that help people in rural areas get to and from their appointments.
North Shore sewage spills trigger swimming bans at beaches
A sewer main break in Haverhill could not have come at a worse time: it’s almost the Fourth of July, temperatures are approaching 100 degrees, and sewage is leaking into the Merrimack River and flowing to North Shore beaches. Swimming at beaches along the North Shore, in Newburyport, Newbury, Salisbury and Ipswich, is prohibited because of high bacteria counts.
“I’d rather deal with a man-eating shark,” Alicia Raymond, a manager and chef at Riptide Café & Bar on Plum Island, told GBH’s Chris Burrell. (Ba-dum. Baaa-dum.)
The sewer main ruptured Friday, and officials are still figuring out how to fix it. In the meantime, the sewage system is dumping about 8 million gallons of wastewater a day into the Merrimack, Burrell reports.
On Plum Island, Renee Karp had a different take: “The beaches are not closed. The water is closed,” she told Burrell. “The beaches are open. People could still come to the beach. How many people actually go in the water? The water is freezing.”
Check if your local beach is open on the state’s dashboard here, and see more of Burrell’s reporting on this story here.
Dig deeper:
-Barriers at the Beach: State law and town rules keep most of Massachusetts’ shoreline off-limits
-People tussle over scarce access as sea levels and property values rise
-Martha’s Vineyard reflects on ‘Jaws’ impact, 50 years after the iconic film’s release
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