Happening Today:
9:30 a.m. | Officials announce $1.5 million in maternal health equity grants intended to expand access to "culturally competent" care | Whittier Street Health Center, 1290 Tremont St., Roxbury
10 a.m. | Department of Elementary and Secondary Education hosts a webinar to review updates to English language learner policies that will take effect this school year.
10 a.m. | Boston Parks and Mayor Wu team up to host a free, family-friendly festival featuring music, arts and crafts and giveaways at Franklin Park. | Franklin Park Playstead, Pierpont Road, Boston
Noon | Mass. High Tech Council hosts CNBC's Scott Cohn of the network's Top States for Business rankings.
1 p.m. | Members of the Trader Joe's United union rally at the Boston headquarters is "demanding the reinstatement of Steve Andrade," who they say was terminated in retaliation for his union support.
4:30 p.m. | Boston Mayor Wu gives remarks at City Councilor Sharon Durkan's swearing-in ceremony. | Boston Public Garden, Arlington Street, Boston
When the spread for the neighborhood barbecue is left up to the simple majority, Ed Shoemaker says everyone winds up eating raisins in their potato salad.
The punch line in his analogy explaining the benefits of ranked-choice voting is meant to convey that more people win when weight is given to second- and third-choice candidates.
Three years after a ballot question asking to use ranked-choice voting in statewide elections, Shoemaker, co-chair of Ranked Choice Boston, is leading a new coalition pushing for a switch in how Boston city elections are conducted.
Question 2 failed in 2020 with roughly 55 percent of voters opposed, but Bostonians showed overwhelming support with 62 percent in favor. For proponents like Shoemaker, Boston is seen as a grassroots inroad that could lead to a statewide switch.
“If Boston can do it, that’s the big Domino,” Shoemaker said. “We’ve had a lot of momentum about this question. There’s been a lot of long-simmering and boiling pots and it’s starting to bubble over.”
Ranked-choice voting has voters rank multiple candidates on a ballot in order of preference instead of picking just one. If no candidate wins a majority of ballots cast, votes for candidates with the least support get reassigned in the order of each voter’s ranked choices, until there is a winner.
Proponents behind a renewed push for ranked-choice voting in local elections say it’s a system that encourages more participation, breeds diversity and fosters more collaboration. Opponents argue the system dilutes voters’ true choice.
In recent years the ranked-choice voting debate has turned partisan with a conservative backlash to progressives’ enthusiastic support for the system that’s been proven to draw more women and candidates of color to races. The MassGOP unanimously opposed the ballot initiative three years ago.
Some smaller Massachusetts cities and towns already use ranked-choice voting in municipal elections, including Easthampton as well as Cambridge, where it has been in use since 1941.
Efforts by other cities and towns to adopt the measure have been mixed, as the policy requires legislative approval via home rule petition. Four such petitions — from Arlington, Acton, Concord, and Northampton — are currently before the Legislature.
A pair of bills filed by Sen. Rebecca Rausch and Rep. Smitty Pignatelli would grant a local option statewide and eliminate the need for legislative approval, an effort Shoemaker and supporters back.
In Boston, ranked choice supporters will launch their efforts in a rally on Wednesday, educating voters in a campaign that won’t really take off until after the upcoming citywide election.
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Keller @ Large
Journalists are no strangers to criticism, but when it comes it unfair or flat-out nonsensical commentary, WBZ political analyst Jon Keller puts his foot down. Keller delivers a stinging rebuke to the half-baked criticism of a former MassGOP congressional candidate.
Donald Trump, 18 others indicted in Georgia effort to overturn 2020 election
Donald Trump and 18 allies were indicted in Georgia on Monday over their alleged attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. Prosecutors are using a statute normally associated with mobsters to accuse the former president, lawyers and other aides of a “criminal enterprise” to keep him in power, the Globe reports in a nearly 100-page indictment that details dozens of acts by Trump or his allies to undo his defeat. Alleged evidence points to directing Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to find enough votes for him to win the battleground state; harassing a state election worker who faced false claims of fraud; and attempting to persuade Georgia lawmakers to ignore the will of voters and appoint a new slate of electoral college electors favorable to Trump.
What’s next for the Cape Cod bridges
Gov. Maura Healey this month will begin pursuing federal funds to initially replace just one of the two aging Cape Cod bridges, reports The Globe. Healey has argued that seeking aid this year for only the Sagamore Bridge will maximize the state’s chances to cover the larger project’s ballooning price tag. The Democratic governor also said her administration remains committed to replacing the 88-year old Sagamore and Bourne bridges.
Foiled by prosciutto at Eataly
A New Hampshire woman and her husband have taken legal action against Eataly Boston LLC for an ankle injury that she says she suffered from slipping on a piece of meat in the Italian market, NY Post reports. The prosciutto-related fall occurred roughly 10 months ago as they visited the market, according to the complaint.
Massachusetts officials weigh aid options
Massachusetts residents have jettisoned support to people of Maui following August’s deadly wildfires, reports WBUR. Volunteers from the American Red Cross in Medford and two members of Beverly’s Massachusetts Task Force One Urban Search and Rescue Team have gone to Maui to help nearly a week after a state of emergency was declared.
Nantucket fisherman’s messages in bottles wash ashore up around the world
Pennel Ames threw hundreds of messages stuffed in bottles into the Great South Channel, mostly between 2000 and 2006, when he was an offshore commercial fisherman. Those bottles are still being found to this day around the world, and so far, he’s heard back from around 80 people, reports GBH. The bottles don’t travel below the equator. That’s because they’re moved by ocean currents that follow a clockwise, circular path around the North Atlantic Ocean.
State, BMC to host meeting on Shattuck Hospital expansion
The state, which owns the current Shattuck Hospital off Morton Street and Boston Medical Center are holding a Zoomed meeting on Tuesday to discuss their plans to replace the current hospital with new buildings and up to 405 apartments and new beds and clinical services for people with substance-abuse issues and the homeless, including families, Universal Hub reports. Both Pine Street Inn, currently building an apartment building on Washington Street, and the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corp. are also involved in the project.
Blame inflation as Boston home prices keep going up
Home prices in Greater Boston continued to trend upward in July, the Globe’s Andrew Brinker reports, hitting a new record high for the second time in three months. The median-priced single-family home in the region sold for $910,000, an 8.3 percent increase from the same month last year, according to figures out Monday from the Greater Boston Association of Realtors. Unrelenting demand from buyers and high mortgage interest rates are keeping would-be sellers on the sidelines as supply remains low in Greater Boston.
Nantucket fisherman’s messages in bottles wash up around the world
Pennel Ames threw hundreds of messages stuffed in bottles into the Great South Channel, mostly between 2000 and 2006, when he was an offshore commercial fisherman. Those bottles are still being found to this day around the world, and so far, he’s heard back from around 80 people, reports GBH. The bottles don’t travel below the equator. That’s because they’re moved by ocean currents that follow a clockwise, circular path around the North Atlantic Ocean.
State, BMC to host meeting on Shattuck Hosptial expansion
The state, which owns the current Shattuck Hospital off Morton Street and Boston Medical Center are holding a Zoomed meeting on Tuesday to discuss their plans to replace the current hospital with new buildings and up to 405 apartments and new beds and clinical services for people with substance-abuse issues and the homeless, including families, Universal Hub reports. Both Pine Street Inn, currently building an apartment building on Washington Street, and the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corp. are also involved in the project.
Blame inflation as Boston home prices keep going up
Home prices in Greater Boston continued to trend upward in July, the Globe’s Andrew Brinker reports, hitting a new record high for the second time in three months. The median-priced single-family home in the region sold for $910,000, an 8.3 percent increase from the same month last year, according to figures out Monday from the Greater Boston Association of Realtors. Unrelenting demand from buyers and high mortgage interest rates are keeping would-be sellers on the sidelines as supply remains low in Greater Boston.
Holyoke Soldiers’ Home breaks ground on new dorm
A groundbreaking ceremony held Monday for a new Holyoke Soldiers’ Home to replace current facility where a deadly COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 killed nearly 80 veterans drew Gov. Maura Healey and a slew of local and federal officials, NEPM reports. The COVID tragedy led to a push for a new state-run home for veterans to replace the current one, which opened in 1952. Advocates for the new facility said the old building no longer meets the needs of its residents.
NEPM | State House News Service
State expands scope of program few profiting from
The Boston Business Journal reports that In three years, only two properties have taken advantage of MassDevelopment’s PACE program. Officials are hoping a new rule will change that.
Saddle up: Dunkin to release boozy versions of beverages
Capitalizing on the current market, Dunkin’ officially announced on Monday the debut of Dunkin’ Spiked Iced Coffees and Iced Teas, which are both scheduled to roll out in the coming weeks, WHDH reports. The two malt-based beverages, scheduled for an early September release, will feature eight flavors between them, all based on the chain’s iced coffee and tea flavors.
On the move: Amid removal calls, Charlemont Indigenous statue finds new home
From Route 2 to Route 66. An imposing Native American statue that has greeted visitors to Charlemont on Route 2 since the early 70s is on the move following weeks of talks about whether it should be removed after some indigenous people called it offensive. The Recorder’s Chris Larabee reports the display outside the Native and Himalayan Views souvenir shop has been sold to the owners of another roadside attraction–along Route 66 in Oklahoma.