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.
☀️Sunny and slightly cooler, with highs in the 60s. Sunset is at 6:11 p.m.
Carlos Maldonado Valle spent 44 hours at Logan Airport this week after border patrol agents detained him when his domestic flight from Puerto Rico to Boston was rerouted into an international flight with a stop in Bermuda because another passenger needed medical help.
“I had to go through customs, and they saw my ID. They asked me if I was a United States citizen,” Maldonado Valle told GBH’s Sarah Betancourt, the first journalist to report on his detention. “I said no. They asked me where I was from. I said I was from Honduras. And then they proceeded to detain me. They brought me downstairs. They started asking questions. And then they put me in a cell and they told me that I was going to go back home, which is Honduras.”
Maldonado Valle was released Thursday after paying $1,020 and having an attorney involved. This detention happened less than a week after Maldonado Valle was approved for a Special Immigration Juvenile Status visa, a form of legal protection for young people abandoned, abused or neglected by a parent. That visa means he is eligible to apply for permanent residency, also known as a green card. He’s studying criminal justice at Cape Cod Community College, has volunteered with the Provincetown Police Department and wants to become a police officer. You can read his full story here.
Four Things to Know
1. Statutes of limitations’ limits: About 84% of Massachusetts voters who participated in a survey from the MassINC Polling Group told researchers they would support getting rid of the statute of limitations in civil cases involving child sexual abuse. Right now, Massachusetts limits such lawsuits to 35 years after survivors turn 18, or until their 53rd birthdays.
“Without the risk of liability, it’s really just the same old fox guarding the henhouse,” said Kathryn Robb, who leads the Children’s Justice Campaign at the advocacy group Enough Abuse in Boston. “Institutions don’t change because we ask them nicely, right? They change when failing a child will cost them something — either their image or their pocket.”
2. On track: The state’s Department of Transportation has an agreement with CSX, the railroad operator, to let the state use CSX-owned tracks for more passenger service in the Berkshires. They’ll also work together to figure out how to keep freight and passenger trains running without disrupting schedules.
In return, the state will pay for new siding and track improvements in Pittsfield and consider how feasible it would be to build a new platform at Pittsfield Station. “We’re taking the next step by making the infrastructure investments needed to sustain this service for the long term while continuing to move our broader passenger rail vision forward for Western Massachusetts,” Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said.
3. Follow the money: The effort behind ballot question 8 to repeal the legalization of marijuana is primarily funded by a nonprofit in Virginia — with a New England connection. The Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts has gotten its money from Smart Approaches to Marijuana, a nonprofit that does not legally have to disclose its funding sources.
Smart Approaches to Marijuana was founded in 2013 by U.S. Representative Patrick Kennedy of Rhode Island and Kevin Sabet, who worked on drug policy in the Clinton, George W. Bush and Obama administrations. “If you look at the New Approach PAC and the different PACs that passed this initiative ten years ago, it’s all dark money,” Sabet said. “There’s zero revealing of things. And unfortunately, with ballot initiatives, that’s often the case.”
4. Healey and Minogue debate: Gov. Maura Healey and Republican nominee Mike Minogue debated last night, making their case to voters before the Nov. 3 election. Healey, a Democrat, said her administration is working on making life in Massachusetts more affordable: “Donald Trump is driving up the cost of everything. And by the way, we have 100,000 homes coming online because I filed and signed the strongest housing law in the country,” Healey said.
Minogue said Healey isn’t doing enough to keep government spending down: “I want to make sure that we focus on stopping overspending, which makes overtaxing happen, and then over-regulating,” Minogue said. “We already have eight taxes. Those taxes continue to go up.” We have a full debate recap here.
Vermont college pioneers effort to let student journalists aid struggling local newsrooms
A lot of cities, towns and neighborhoods have seen their local newspapers shut down in recent decades. The University of Vermont is trying to keep local communities informed with the help of students at the Center for Community News.
“I’ve been to corners of Vermont that I didn’t even know existed this summer,” Erica Tally, a UVM senior who spent her summer as a paid intern at the center, told GBH’s Kirk Carapezza. “I went to a goat farm at the top of a hill in Bethel. I went to some old logging roads down in Greensboro where we were hunting for butterflies. It’s been really cool.”
The center’s director is Richard Watts, the former editor of the family-owned Addison Independent in Middlebury.
“People in communities need access to reliable, authentic, trustworthy information. And universities, of which there are almost 6,000, sit in these communities,” he told Carapezza. It’s a win for the students, too: “They learn about the communities that they live in. They learn about accessing information and they learn how to turn all that into a story that’s accessible and available to people in the public.”
Dig deeper:
-Local editors worry ‘pink slime’ journalism poses real danger
-Families respond online to Springfield schools 'cyber attack’
-Will federal changes to research funding promote ‘accountability’ or politicize science?
