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.
🌡️Very hot, with highs topping 100 degrees. Sunset is at 8:24 p.m.
Despite the scorching temperatures, this weekend will probably be the biggest Fourth of July celebration in Massachusetts history. Fun fact: It will also be the most expensive (not really a fun fact — excuse the false advertising).
For the debut episode of our statewide news show In Common, I dug into the dollar signs behind Independence Day and found that prices for virtually everything involved in putting together a Fourth of July celebration — from burgers and hot dogs to sparklers and fireworks — are higher than they’ve ever been. The one silver lining is that, if you factor in rising wages, the dent in your wallet isn’t too bad, especially if you opt for chicken or pork (up 2% to 3% year over year) rather than beef (up more than 10%) when you get your grill going.
Because of the steep costs, some cities and towns across Massachusetts, including Framingham and Rutland, have canceled or put their fireworks celebrations on pause this year. Other places, like Bridgewater, have had to work overtime to raise the funds needed to make their big shows happen. The biggest fireworks show in the state — the Boston Pops July 4th Fireworks Spectacular — is doubling down this year, dropping roughly $8 million on its annual fireworks show and concert along the Charles River, which is twice as much as in years past.
Tune into GBH Saturday at 2 p.m. to ring in America’s 250th birthday, public-radio style, with In Common! We’re not just talking about the cost of the Fourth of July, but also the fascinating history of revolutionary ideas in Massachusetts — and what patriotism means to today’s high school students learning about the Revolution. Join us on 89.7 FM tomorrow or listen wherever you get your podcasts.
—Jeremy Siegel, host of In Common
Programming note: We’ll be off tomorrow and back in your inbox on Monday. Wishing everyone a safe and relaxing Independence Day weekend!
Four Things to Know
1. Extreme heat can be especially dangerous for people with disabilities, who are two to four times more likely than people without disabilities to die during very hot weather or natural disasters. GBH’s Meghan Smith spoke with people in the disability community and asked what people can do to help them through the heat wave.
“One of the other very real things is isolation and loneliness,” said Ali Rheaume, chair of the Commission on Disability in Franklin. “Remembering that even just a phone call with someone, a text with someone, walking next door and going to play cards with someone — anything matters just to check in with that person and let them know that they’re being thought of.”
2. The question of why the Boston Symphony Orchestra decided to part ways with Music Director Andris Nelsons has been hanging over the city’s classical music scene. BSO President and CEO Chad Smith told GBH’s The Culture Show this week that he believes the orchestra needs to “attract more audiences” and said he didn’t see Nelsons as aligned with that goal. He added that the orchestra will continue playing classical music (no pivot to pop here).
“We were seeing significant declines across a number of areas at the BSO, and the only way for us to move forward was to think differently about what it is that we put on our stages, whose voices get to be heard, whose stories get to be told ... how do we do that in a way which can continue to center and anchor the great canon of classical music?” he told GBH’s Jared Bowen. You can listen to the full interview here.
3. About 140 bus drivers and mechanics working for Merrimack Valley Transit went on strike yesterday morning, which means if you’re waiting for a MeVa bus, it’s not coming. Older adults and people with disabilities can still get some rides through the on-demand service miniMeVa, which is making urgent medical trips for things like chemotherapy and dialysis a priority.
MeVa and Teamsters Local 170 are bargaining over how to fill Saturday shifts. Those shifts used to be optional, but MeVa wants to require them, paying drivers their regular rate plus $3 an hour.
4. The Massachusetts Historical Society has a tiny sample of the Liberty Tree, likely an American Elm that used to stand next to what is now the Chinatown MBTA stop. It was a meeting spot and a location of protests that British loyalists cut down more than 250 years ago during the siege of Boston.
“You could say that it’s just a bunch of twigs,” said Kanisorn Wongsrichanalai, chief historian at the Massachusetts Historical Society. “But ... it has power because it’s what we believe it is, right? It’s what we endow it with: this mystical memory.” You can see the sample here.
Brighton mom from Honduras forced to self-deport with U.S. citizen daughter
What is it like for people who spend years trying to find a path to stay in the U.S., but are forced to self-deport?
For Margarita Melgar, 12 years of living in the U.S. culminated in a 72-hour deadline: ICE agents told her she had to leave the country on a flight to Honduras, where she is from, or be detained.
So she made the choice to leave the U.S., packing up the family’s apartment in Brighton and heading back to a small village more than 2,000 miles away.
“I’m really upset,” she told GBH’s Sarah Betancourt, who was there for her final hours in the country. “These are the only two options they gave me. They would not give me the option to fight my case while free.” Melgar said she worried about her three daughters, two of whom are 17 and 20 and will remain in the country for school. The youngest, Katherin, is 10 and a U.S. citizen. She’s never been to Honduras, but is going with her mother.
Melgar left Honduras in 2014, fleeing gender-based violence. She came with her older two daughters and claimed asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border. A court eventually rejected that claim years later. Files show, and advocates say that her former attorney didn’t meet filing deadlines and didn’t even tell her she had lost her case. But she got connected with a new lawyer and kept trying, regularly checking in with ICE agents as she was required to.
In early June she got some news: an immigration court rejected one of her appeals and, though she still has a motion pending, Department of Homeland Security agents told her she may have to get on a flight out of the country.
“I was in shock. I thought we had time until the judge made the decision,” she told Betancourt.
Betancourt was there when Melgar and her daughters spent their final moments together before her departure. You can read about it here.
Dig deeper:
-Why Brazilians are leaving Framingham
-How to deal with ICE: Mass. governor issues guidance for hospitals, schools, churches
-Poll: The majority of Americans are proud but worry about direction of the country
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