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.
Today we have a story about a clammy calamity. But first: fall means it’s the end of the season for cyclospora, the parasite that causes gastrointestinal issues in humans and made headlines this summer because of a massive outbreak in the U.S.
Massachusetts saw 244 reported cyclosporiasis cases this year. It’s a 10-year high, but not a significant outbreak compared with the almost 19,000 cases reported across the country. “This isn’t a big problem in Massachusetts,” said Jerold Mande, a Harvard adjunct nutrition professor and CEO of Nourish Science. “Avoiding produce, even fresh uncooked produce, presents its own risks.” The higher number of cases here might be related to more people getting a formal diagnosis because they heard about the national outbreak and decided to seek medical care for their symptoms instead of treating them at home. You can read more of his thoughts here.
Four Things to Know
1. With Medicaid officials saying they will no longer cover gender-affirming care for transgender minors, Massachusetts and five other states have so far announced they will use state money to cover what federal dollars won’t.
That means counseling, puberty blockers, and hormones will still be available to teenagers on Medicaid not only in Massachusetts, which was among the first to announce such a plan last month, but also in Maine, Vermont, California, New Mexico and Maryland.
2. What happens now that jurors deciding the murder trial of Lindsay Clancy didn’t get a unanimous verdict? The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 29. Then the defense will likely ask the judge to dismiss the case, and prosecutors will tell the court if they plan to bring the case to trial again or if they’ve reached a plea deal.
A lawyer for Patrick Clancy, Lindsay Clancy’s former husband and the father of the three children killed, said “there will never be closure.” “The prospect of reliving this tragedy through another trial is extraordinarily painful — for Patrick, for his family, and for all of us,” said David Meier, who is representing Patrick Clancy in a civil lawsuit saying his former wife did not get the mental health treatment she needed.
3. About 1,300 workers from Encore Boston Harbor in Everett went on strike Friday, asking their employer for higher pay. Their union is asking the casino for pay raises over the next three years of $5 an hour for tipped employees, like servers and bartenders, and $10 an hour for employees who don’t get tips, like warehouse workers and cooks. Currently, wages for hourly employees range from $15 to $32, according to the union.
“I don’t think we’re being greedy. I think we just want to survive out here,” said Kathy Woodard, who works in Encore’s public areas department. “I hope that we can resolve this sooner rather than later. But we’re prepared to be out here as long as it takes for us to get the demands that we’re asking.”
4. A Cape Cod resident and snare drum player was part of a band that won first prize in the World Pipe Band Championship in Glasgow. “It was absolutely electric,” said Sean Ball, 32, from Marston Mills.
He plays with the Ulster Scottish Pipe Band in Pennsylvania, where he travels once a month. You can see and hear the band play here.
Where have all the soft-shell clams gone? Scientists and shellfishers seek answers.
In the 1950s, clammers got 8.9 million pounds of soft-shell clams out of New England shorelines. But by 2024 that number had fallen by about 80%, to 1.75 million pounds, according to data from NOAA Fisheries.
Scientists told GBH’s Hannah Loss that there are a few reasons for this. One reason: there’s evidence that the decline of soft-shell clams is connected to the increase of green crabs, an invasive population that eats them.
“They smash things and they just … crunch. There’s nothing left of the clam after a green crab is done with it,” marine ecologist Brian Beal told Loss.
Beal created a way to try and help: a container about the size and shape of a pizza box, made of wood frames and lined with mesh, that go into the mud where soft-shell clams live. Baby bivalves are small enough to fit through the holes in the mesh. Green crabs are not.
Researchers have found about 450 clams per square foot in the boxes, a vast increase from mud where they haven’t placed boxes, where they find an average of two or three per square foot. That means the clams are still reproducing, but predators (like green crabs) are eating them up before they can grow.
You can see how scientists are using Beal’s boxes in Loss’ full story here.
Dig deeper:
-House votes to extend regulatory pause on lobster fishery, delaying right whale protections
-Fishing News: A large cubera snapper shows up on Nantucket
-Cold-stunned sea turtles return home after six months of rehab
