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.
🌂Cloudy with a chance of evening showers and highs around 80. Sunset is at 7:04 p.m.
Yesterday was the first day of school for about 54,000 students in Boston. And later this month, every public high school in the city will launch an AI literacy curriculum. The money for that curriculum is coming from tech entrepreneur Paul English.
“We know that our kids are going to be out using tools outside of us at home, on their phones and so forth,” Boston Superintendent Mary Skipper said. “We have guardrails for sure, but we believe that giving them the skills up front is going to be an important part of their literacy going forward.” GBH’s Diane Adame and Sara Hassan have more first-day-of-school dispatches here.
Four Things to Know
1. Immigrants who are allowed to legally live and work in the U.S. under programs such as Temporary Protected Status or Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA, said a court ruling last month has left them confused and worried. The nation’s highest immigration court, the Board of Immigration Appeals, ruled that the government can ban immigrants who leave the country from returning to the U.S. for three to 10 years, even if they received federal permission to leave and return.
“It just places more fear in individuals and it makes them want to maybe self-deport or go back to the shadows,” said Estefany, one of 4,000 DACA recipients in Massachusetts. “Personally, it makes me anxious and it’s just a waiting game to see what’s gonna be decided next.”
2. Companies seeking to build data centers in Massachusetts will now have to reach an agreement with the city or town where they want to locate before receiving a state permit. Gov. Maura Healey signed an executive order Tuesday requiring data centers to either generate their own electricity or pay enough to ensure utilities don’t raise rates for other customers.
“We’d like to have data centers be able to provide their own clean energy on day one,” Healey said. “And if they can’t, then they’re going to need to pay ratepayers for the energy that they consume until their own supply is in place.”
3. City councilors in Springfield are weighing how to enforce the state’s temporary ban on kratom sales. Kratom is a psychoactive substance derived from the leaves of the kratom tree or produced synthetically. Springfield city officials are considering revoking the licenses of stores found violating the ban.
“The governor’s office has told us not [to] confiscate — we cannot take the products off the shelf,” Springfield Health Commissioner Helen Caulton-Harris said. “Because they’re advising against that, then the question [becomes], what does the city do to say that we’re serious?”
4. In the coming days, a red booklet explaining the nine ballot questions that will appear on the Nov. 3 general election ballot should arrive in your mailbox. The booklets come from the Secretary of State’s office, and they are thick 88 pages covering nine ballot questions.
“There are simple questions, like Question 1, expanding public records laws, is a simple straightforward thing. But then the other questions like the environmental question, the single primary — those ones are more complex. A lot more detail involved,” Secretary of the Commonwealth Bill Galvin said.
Three generations, one backyard: Why this family built an ADU
By Liz Neisloss, investigative reporter at the GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting
I’ve done a lot of stories about Massachusetts’ housing shortage. Sometimes you yearn for ideas that cut through the clutter.
So when the state said anyone could build an ADU — an accessory dwelling unit, those little homes added to a backyard or to an existing home — I was curious.
The idea isn’t exactly new. Versions of these small secondary homes have been around for centuries (see: dower houses), and California has been allowing them by right for years. But in Massachusetts, known for local control and finicky communities, when the state sweeps in and says “you can’t say no,” it gets interesting.
I’m also intrigued by the design aspect of ADUs. There’s something appealing about the seeming simplicity of the tiny or small home, with just enough space for what you need. And getting to watch one literally dropped into a backyard? That was mesmerizing.
We made a video following the Remage-Healey family in Waltham through their ADU building journey. It took a lot of patience on their part to let us do more than just stop by. We hung around. A lot. Watching the pieces come together, and knowing that, in the end, the grandparents could live just steps from their children and grandchildren, was really fun to watch unfold.
But it’s not all simple, warm and fuzzy. ADUs can still be pricey, and some communities still pile on zoning red tape. And, as you’ll see in the video, sometimes family dynamics are the biggest obstacle to getting one built.
No one should expect ADUs to be a panacea. Instead, it’s just one tool the state has, and when you’re tackling a problem as big and complicated as a housing shortage, with so many different needs and constituencies, it will take a lot of different tools.
You can see that moment when the ADU lands in a backyard: Check out the video on the GBH News YouTube page. And let us know what you think of the idea. Would you build an ADU? Reply to this email or send us a message at daily@wgbh.org.
Dig deeper:
-What happens when you lose your home at 72?
-Why is it so hard to buy a home in Massachusetts?
-Would you live in an old office? Boston is betting the answer is yes.
Subscribe to GBH Daily
Your essential daily newsletter delivering trusted news, local insights, ways to connect, and can't miss programs from Boston and beyond.
