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🌥️Partly sunny, with highs in the 60s. Sunset is at 6:05 p.m.
Nurses at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have a contract to vote on and will not be going on strike this week, their union said. The hospital’s 4,000 nurses now have to tell their union, the Massachusetts Nurses Association, if they want to approve or reject that contract. The vote will likely come in the next two weeks, and the indefinite strike scheduled to begin Wednesday morning is averted — at least for now.
The nurses were seeking pay raises, limits on their health insurance premiums and on how often the hospital uses temporary travel nurses over staff nurses. Massachusetts Nurses Association said the hospital did not agree to “cost of living wage increases,” though a hospital spokesperson did say the proposed contract includes unspecified pay increases. You can read more about the 13-hour negotiation session here.
Four Things to Know
1. Radio silence on traffic stops: Massachusetts hasn’t released data about racial profiling in traffic stops in two years, and data from the report released in 2024 was from stops in 2021 and 2022. That’s partially because the state law requiring the state to release this data said they should give it to a local university or nonprofit for analysis — and that’s gotten more expensive. The first reports cost the state $300,000 for three years of services. Research teams are now asking for $600,000 to $1 million.
“There’s not really a clear, one way of analyzing the data,” Massachusetts Public Safety Secretary Gina Kwon said. “When the initial report was issued, there was a lot of criticism in the methodology that the research partner used.”
2. Protesting Cornell on the Common: About 200 people came to the Boston Common last week to show support for the former Cornell student known as Jane Doe, who is suing the university, alleging it failed to adequately protect her after she reported that seven fraternity brothers raped her.
“I think we know Jane Doe’s story is not unique,” said Sasha Goodfriend, executive director of Mass NOW. “When stories like this take over the news, it can be really triggering and hard to go about our daily life as business as usual. So this is a really great way for us to know we’re not alone and we actually have so much power when we are able to stand up together in solidarity.”
3. Staying dry: Despite a few deluges of rain, particularly last month’s nor’easter, Cape Cod and Nantucket are still in a severe drought. Eastern Massachusetts is in a mild drought, along with the Connecticut River Valley region.
Groundwater levels just take time to shift, State Hydrologist Viki Zoltay said. “That good soaking from the nor’easter is still yet to be seen,” she said. “A few days is not nearly enough for this region. It will take weeks, if not a month or more, to see that improvement.”
4. Boston runs on women: About 7,000 runners came to Boston this weekend for the Boston 10K for Women, the largest all-women running race in New England. It started in 1977, when organizers planned for about 200 runners and instead had 2,000 show up.
“When we did the first 10K, I mean, there wasn’t even a line of active wear that women had,” said Dusty Rhodes, founder of the Boston 10K for Women. “We had women running in the race in heels, or sandals. There was something very new about it.”
A community for Alzheimer’s patients and caregivers — at the Cape Cod Mall
In the Cape Cod Mall, in a space between a Macy’s and a Men’s Warehouse, is a storefront that’s been renovated into a support center for people with dementia and their families, free of charge.
The Alzheimer’s Family Support Center offers activities including mall walking, mindfulness exercises and support groups for people with dementia as well as their caregivers.
CAI’s Mindy Todd and Amy Vince created an hourlong audio diary of their tour of the center. They spoke with staff, volunteers, and visitors who rely on the center for help.
“We help each other, and these wonderful people here help us every day,” one of the participants said. “It’s like home.”
You can listen to the whole thing here.
Dig deeper:
-Memory cafés serve up joy to people living with dementia
-Sight-impairing glasses. Oven mitts. Firefighters learn what it’s like to live with dementia
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