GBH Daily: Kid-aged heroes helping turtles

🌂Warmer, with highs in the 70s and a chance of showers. Sunset is at 6:13 p.m.

Today we have a story on teeny turtles. But first: GBH political reporter Adam Reilly followed Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Minogue on the campaign trail ahead of the Nov. 3 election, when he will face Maura Healey and independent candidate Andrea James. Healey is leading in the polls, sometimes by as much as 20 percentage points.

“We need an outsider to take on the political establishment,” Minogue said. “And this is a time where we need somebody who can balance our budget, create jobs and get rid of the waste, fraud and corruption. And that’s what I’ll do, because I’m not part of the system.” You can read the full story here.

Four Things to Know

1. A mother’s detention and the Boston Trust Act: A group of federal immigration agents detained Melanie Tinoco, a mother of two from Ecuador who had been arrested on suspicion of shoplifting in Boston on Oct. 1. Agents detained her outside a Boston Police station. It’s not clear how they knew she’d be there: the Boston Trust Act says police officers in the city are not allowed to alert federal immigration agents when someone without legal status is in their custody. Federal officials do have access to fingerprinting databases that local police departments use when making arrests.

Tinoco’s husband, Martin Gurfinkiel, said his wife is being held at ICE’s facility in Burlington, where she is experiencing panic attacks and does not have access to medication. “They never show any warrants. They never say anything,” Gurfinkiel said. “They just grab her, put her in a car. She was screaming my name, like saying, ‘My love, my love, help me,’ and ‘Martin, help me, please.’”

2. No crypto ATMs in Newburyport: Newburyport’s city council has banned crypto ATMs, the machines where people can buy and transfer cryptocurrency. That’s because the police department has noted 10 cases in the last five years, where scammers used the machines to defraud people of $135,000.

The handful of crypto ATMs in town will have two months to close up shop. About 20 other cities and towns in Massachusetts have already banned crypto ATMs. “It’s whack-a-mole right now,” Councilor Ben Harman told GBH’s Diane Adame. “As many municipalities as possible that start to band together to prevent the presence of these types of crypto ATMs in their communities, the better.”

3. Cambridge’s tech council: Cambridge’s city council picked 40 residents, half of whom have been affected by gun violence, to advise the city on whether it should use surveillance technology like ShotSpotter.

ShotSpotter is a system that uses microphones at public intersections to detect gunshots and alert police. Cambridge used it for years but stopped earlier this year because of privacy concerns and questions about its accuracy. Then city employee Xavier Bautista was shot and killed in July and wasn’t found until a passerby called for help about an hour later.

4. Small business boost: Ten businesses in Holyoke received state grants to improve their operations and grow. Among them: Old San Juan Bakery on High Street will use $55,237 to improve operations and build an ice cream parlor. OneHolyoke CDC’s $75,000 grant will go toward building 30 new housing units.

And Cornucopia Natural Wellness Market on Dwight Street will use its $100,000 grant to build a commercial kitchen. “We were going to end up with this very bare bones prep food kitchen that was really just for us to be able to properly take care of the fresh produce we want to carry,” co-founder Nate Clifford said. “And now we have this opportunity to do this thing that is just so much more grand and so much more in line with our larger mission of serving the community in a full way.”

Endangered turtles get a boost with the help of Massachusetts school kids

Small Fry (not pictured) is a Blanding’s turtle born in the wild who spent her early days at Alcott Elementary School, where she was cared for by students until she was big and strong enough to be released back into the wild. Researchers who have followed her with a tracking device know that she is now 16 years old and has laid her own eggs in a Concord backyard near the Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.

GBH’s Craig LeMoult was there as Heather Nelson of Zoo New England carefully dug through the dirt and found Small Fry’s nest. Inside were four teeny, tiny hatchlings and two more unhatched eggs. 

“Since this is her first nest, her babies are really small. This is much smaller than a normal Blanding’s turtle,” Nelson said. “But look at that, it’s a successful nest.”

The plan is that these babies, too, will spend their early days at Alcott Elementary School.

“More than half of our native turtles are in trouble and need our help,” Emilie Wilder of Zoo New England told fourth graders at the school the next day. “Do you guys want to help them out?”

“Yeah!” the kids replied.

You can join LeMoult on his trip to the turtle nest and the classroom here. 

Dig deeper: 

-Kids have questions about jellyfish. This ‘jelly lab’ has answers.

-Penguins get creaky in their old age, too. Acupuncture helps.

-Massachusetts is home to just one living elephant. Activists want to send her to a sanctuary.