“Today we mark a long-overdue new chapter in Boston’s growth — grounded in affordability, resiliency, and equity,” said Wu. “This ordinance is the biggest step Boston has taken in 70 years to finally begin untangling a system of development rooted in an outdated ideology that left scars in our communities.”

The ordinance, which was filed by the mayor in January and passed by the City Council last Wednesday, would create a Planning Department, operational as of July 1.

Under the ordinance, the department will “will house planning, zoning, development review, urban design, and real estate staff” and is included in the city budget, the city said in a release. It also includes the transfer of support staff from the Boston Planning and Development Agency (BPDA).

The purpose of the department, the city said, is codified as planning for development, use of public land, predictable zoning codes, development processes and urban design standards.

The measure was contentious during debate in the City Council, which will have budgetary oversight of the department. Critics have noted it falls short of the Wu’s initial plans to abolish the BPDA. Department staff will support the BPDA, which will remain the city’s Planning Board, on development and public land projects and planning and zoning initiatives, according to the city.

The city release cited other ongoing proposals to transform Boston’s planning and development, including a home rule petition to end urban renewal and citywide zoning reform.

The new department will be led by Chief of Planning Arthur Jemison, who said the move is a step to “truly transform planning and development in Boston and ensure we are speaking to residents with one voice as the City of Boston.”

An estimated $1.09 billion prize is now on the line for Wednesday’s drawing, which can be paid out in an annuity over 30 years or as a $527.3 million cash payment. Both are subject to state and federal taxes.

“As this jackpot climbs toward a record level, we remind people to keep the experience of playing the Lottery enjoyable by playing responsibly and within their means,” said Mark William Bracken, Executive Director of the Massachusetts State Lottery.

Wednesday will mark the 40th drawing since a Michigan ticketholder last hit the Powerball jackpot on New Year’s, winning $842.4 million.

If won, the $1.09 billion prize would be the fourth largest in the game’s history and the ninth largest in U.S. lottery history. The last record topping jackpot was a $1.765 billion prize won in California on Oct. 11, 2023.

The odds of winning the Powerball’s grand prize are 1 in 292.2 million. The odds of winning any Powerball prize, starting at $4, are about 1 in 38.

In the Powerball drawing on Monday, players won $50,000 Quick Pick prizes from a 7-Eleven in North Reading and a Stop & Shop in Saugus.

Just one week ago, a player in New Jersey won a $1.13 billion Mega Millions jackpot, the 8th largest in U.S. lottery history.

Powerball drawings are held every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. Tickets can be purchased for $2 at Massachusetts lotter retailers until 9:50 p.m. ahead of the drawing on Wednesday.

Steward Health Care, which owns nine hospitals in Massachusetts, announced that their plans to close New England Sinai to the state in December. Steward’s ongoing financial distress continue to threaten other Massachusetts hospitals, and with a strong push from the state, the company is looking to sell their remaining facilities in the state.

The closure will remove 39 rehabilitation service beds, 119 chronic care service beds, and all ambulatory care services at the hospital, Steward wrote in a 90-day notice to the Department of Public Health in January.

The notice noted New England Sinai’s financial performance has decreased by more than 1,600% over five years, citing the “chronic under-reimbursement rates through public programs like Medicaid,” increased labor and material costs and lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The hospital was operating at about 40% capacity in 2024, the notice said, the hospital “does not anticipate a significant impact on patient access following the closure,” listing other rehabilitation and specialty care facilities in Stoughton, New Bedford, Braintree and Boston. All the patients were discharged ahead of the closure on Tuesday, Steward said previously.

Stoughton residents noted the impact of the closure Monday, noting family members, friends and neighbors treated.

“This is definitely a loss for the community,” said Leslie Baker, a long-term resident of the Stoughton area. “I haven’t been myself, but I know people who’ve been treated. And I knew a nurse who worked there. It was definitely an important place for many people.”

The Stoughton-based hospital traces its roots to 1927, when it opened as the nonprofit hospital Jewish Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Rutland, Massachusetts, according to the hospital site.

“Good Samaritan (Hospital in Brockton) is pretty close,” said Josh Miller. “But you can tell we can use more health care around here. For sure.”

The future of the facility is not yet certain, town officials said.

“Sinai Hospital has been a long term Corporate partner and a valuable contributor to our tax base,” Stoughton Town Manager Thomas Calter said Monday. “While they have kept us informed of their plan to close, they have provided no additional insight into their plans for the building. It is our hope that the real estate will remain a facility where Stoughton residents can benefit from their services and whereby it will continue to be a valuable asset benefiting the town of Stoughton.”

“On Easter morning, Trooper Peter Spinale happened upon this injured owl on Rt 1 North in Danvers,” the Massachusetts State Police posted on X, formerly Twitter, just before 11 a.m. Sunday, posting photos of a seemingly-hunched owl with prominent ear tufts on the side of the road and in a crate for transport.

Spinale stood on the side of the road and set up flares to protect the bird until the Massachusetts Environmental Police arrived. The Environmental Police transported the bird to a wildlife rehab facility.

The police did not initially offer any information on the condition or species of the bird.

State Police said they did not have any updates on the owl as of 5 p.m. Sunday.

No one has won the Powerball jackpot since New Year’s Day, when a Michigan ticket holder collected a $842.4 million prize. If won, the nearly $1 billion jackpot could be collected in an annuity paid out over 30 years or as a $471.7 million cash option, with both subject to state and federal taxes.

After Saturday, there have been 38 drawings with no winner, nearing the all-time record for winnerless Powerball drawings streaks. The current record was set in 2021 and 2022 at 41 consecutive drawings without a winner.

The Powerball jackpot has broken $1 billion only four times in the game’s history. The largest Powerball prize — and largest lottery prize ever won — was a $2.04 billion jackpot on Nov. 7, 2022, sold to a resident in California.

The Powerball jackpot would be the 10th largest lottery prize in U.S. history if a ticket holder gets lucky on Monday’s drawing.

The whopping Powerball prize continues to grow just days after a ticket sold in New Jersey won a $1.13 billion Mega Millions jackpot, the eighth largest prize in the country’s history.

The odds for Saturday’s Powerball drawing were were 1 in 292.2 million.

Powerball is played in 45 states plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Drawings are held on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays at 10:59 p.m., and tickets can be purchased for $2 Massachusetts lottery retailers up to two hours before each drawing.

“Harvard Library acknowledges past failures in its stewardship of the book that further objectified and compromised the dignity of the human being whose remains were used for its binding,” the university library said in a statement Wednesday night. “We apologize to those adversely affected by these actions.”

“Des destinées de l’âme,” or “Destinies of the Soul,” has been in the Harvard collection since 1934 and was confirmed to be bound in human skin belonging to an unknown woman by forensic testing in 2014, Harvard stated.

The French book, written by Arsène Houssaye and published in 1879, is a study on the soul and life after death, Harvard Library states on a page dedicated to the book. The author gifted the book to a friend and book collector Dr. Ludovic Bouland, a physician who took skin off of a female body at a French psychiatric hospital where he studied as a medical student and used it to bind the copy.

In a handwritten note, Harvard Library said, the doctor describes how he bound the book and writes “a book about the human soul deserved to have a human covering.”

The book first found its way to Harvard’s libraries in 1934 as a deposit from the American diplomat, businessman and Harvard alumnus John B. Stetson, Jr., according to Harvard. It was stored at Harvard’s flagship Widener Library and then moved a decade later to the Houghton Library, where the university stores rare books. Stetson’s widow, Ruby Stetson, permanently donated the book to the Houghton Library in 1954, where it has remained ever since.

In the statement, the university library said the decision to remove the skin was prompted by recommendations issued in the 2022 Report of the Harvard University Steering Committee on Human Remains in University Museum Collections, a look into the tens of thousands of human remains displayed at the university and the many fraught ways they were acquired.

After “careful study, stakeholder engagement, and consideration,” the library and Harvard Museum Collections Returns Committee stated they concluded the skin does not belong in the library collection “due to the ethically fraught nature of the book’s origins and subsequent history.”

The book has long garnered morbid and disturbing attention at the library. The Harvard Library noted it has in many ways failed to meet “ethical standards” in its stewardship of the book and lent it out to anyone regardless of their stated reasons until “relatively recently.”

While in the university’s care, the statement notes, library lore suggests the book has been used by students to haze other students who did not know it contained human remains.

In 2014, Harvard Library also published blog posts following the forensic testing — using peptide mass fingerprinting — of the book that used “sensationalistic, morbid, and humorous tone that fueled similar international media coverage,” the statement said.

Harvard Library said they are in the process of looking into where the remains belong and consulting with authorities at the university and in France “to determine a final respectful disposition of these human remains,” but expects the process to take months at least.

The physical, disbound book is currently unavailable at the library, but the text can be studied online through the library’s search tool, HOLLIS.

The FY 2025 budget has been heralded by BPS leadership as a “transitional” and “transformational” year. It marks the end of millions in federal COVID-era ESSER funding, the launch of a sweeping inclusive education plan, and initial steps away from the district’s long-held per-pupil funding model to a more targeted “value-based” funding mechanism.

“If we truly want to improve student outcomes, and I know this is central to our district and this committee, we must carefully and deliberately build the foundation of a district that meets the unique needs of every student in every school, no matter how they learn, what language they speak, or what neighborhood they call home,” said Superintendent Mary Skipper on Wednesday. “Creating an equitable, fiscally sound budget is one of our biggest responsibilities as a school district and as a superintendent, and I’m proud of the budget.”

Skipper noted that the city’s $81 million investment in the budget — a 45% increase — puts the district in a better position than other city’s “facing much tougher budgets” in the wake of ESSER and allows for the support of school maintenance and priority investments like inclusive education, universal pre-K and early college and career programs.

Despite funding offset from the city, the budget also includes a controversial swath of staffing and programming cuts called out by parents and educators through the process.

Committee members Brandon Cardet-Hernandez and Stephen Alkins voted against the budget, citing concerns about the budget falling short of “bold” or “aggressive transformative change” the district needs but said they continue to be “allies” as the budget’s initiatives move forward.

Others, including members Rafaela Polanco Garcia and Quoc Tran, emphasized “serious concerns” and the need for oversight as the new inclusion plan rolls out, particularly for multilingual learners.

“To be very frank, I see regurgitation of ideas and projects and initiatives I have seen in the past that failed, but who knows, the current climate of the society may alter these plans and may make them better — I don’t know,” said Tran. … “I will take a position of observing, watching and carefully analyzing everything that you put forward. So for that, I move forward with your budget.”

Parents, educators and school community members have also been critical of the inclusive education plan, along with program and staffing cuts and transparency and outreach throughout the budget process itself.

School budget breakdowns showed a net staffing loss of about 480 positions, or 4% of district-funded positions. Well over half of the 119 schools in BPS will lose staff.

The largest staffing losses within administrators with about 90 positions cut; bilingual education and instructional aides with about 210 positions cut; and bilingual, kindergarten, general education and specialist teachers with nearly 340 positions cut. Other jobs including support, food service and part-time positions also saw net losses.

Supporting inclusive education plans, the budget adds about 220 special education teachers and 140 special education aides.

The Boston Teachers Union released a statement on the budget Thursday, stating cuts that take “needed service, opportunity, or support away from our students is a serious concern to our union.”

“We urge full transparency on any positions impacted by proposed cuts, and will continue advocating for robust funding of our schools at the federal and state levels in addition to the municipal funding currently filling those gaps,” the BTU said.

Several librarians and allies showed up at Wednesday’s meeting to call out the FY 2025 budget proposal’s departure from the 2021 Library Services Strategic Plan, which aimed to provide all BPS students with library services by 2026.

“I understand that budget lines made it difficult to continue to fund programs, but the strategic vision was not through deliberate intention and drawn up through deliberate intention to make our schools a place where students felt represented not only by the books that we maintain in the library’s collection, but by the people servicing them,” said Joseph Lee School librarian Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah.

Skipper said the budget team aimed to not reduce any library positions and “add what we could.” The budget adds funding for about four librarian positions — after the Tynan and Manning Schools each received one in the final budget draft — and cuts about funding for about 12 library aide.

“My team and I appreciate the importance of libraries and librarian paras, and I just really want to stress this: they hold a special place in the lives of our students, and they’re such a resource for our staff,” said Skipper. “We’re deeply committed to continuing our investment from the strategic library plan over the next several years as we get beyond the ESSER cliff.”

“No mother should have to witness her child killed at the hands of police and fight, the way that I have had to fight now for so many years, to gain accountability,” said Hope Coleman, Terrence Coleman’s mother and an advocate for victims of police violence. “Nothing can bring Terrence back, but today at least some measure of justice has been done.”

Terrence Coleman, who was a 31-year-old with paranoid schizophrenia, was shot on Oct. 30, 2016 in the South End, after Hope Coleman called for an ambulance to take her son to the hospital while he was having an episode outside her apartment. Police said the young man attacked officers with a knife, but his mother disputes the allegations and has stated repeatedly there was “no reason for the Boston police to kill my son.”

Hope Coleman filed the federal lawsuit in 2018, claiming police and emergency medical technicians were inadequately trained to deal with people with mental health disabilities and her son’s rights were violated. Coleman was represented by the Lawyers for Civil Rights and Fick & Marx LLP.

Under the settlement, the city will pay approximately $3.4 million to Hope Coleman and Terrence Coleman’s estate and $1.2 million to cover the legal expenses. The settlement does not include an admission of liability.

“This settlement brings valuable resolution to this case after many years and is not the result of the BPD officers’ actions during the incident or legal process,” a city spokesperson said Tuesday. “The City continues to support the officers, who were called into an incredibly difficult situation, and responded to protect the lives of medical personnel on the scene.”

LCR Litigation Director Sophia Hall said it was “shameful that the City of Boston fought a grieving mother tooth-and-nail for so long” and said the settlement will help bring the family closure.

The spokesperson said the city continues “to hold Ms. Coleman and all of Terrence’s family and loved ones in our hearts” and has and will continue to invest in alternative response programs for people experiencing mental health episodes.

LCR said the case has “amplified concerns” regarding police violence toward Black residents and “uncovered grave deficiencies” in how BPD and EMS serve people with mental health conditions.

“More than a decade after a BPD rule designed to de-escalate encounters with emotionally disturbed persons was first proposed, and more than seven years after Terrence was killed, BPD and BEMS remain woefully unprepared to handle such situations safely,” said the plaintiffs’ attorney William Fick.

The LCR release pointed to “long-needed” efforts to reform police procedures — calling out a failed City Council proposal to develop a crisis response system that would divert nonviolent 911 calls away from police. The release also cited a 2023 Boston Globe report concluding the rate of police shootings of people with mental illness has risen since 2016.

“Police departments throughout the country must reform the way they handle 911 calls and divert medical calls away from police,” said Hall. “Otherwise, we will continue to see more tragedies like the death of Terrence Coleman. Hopefully, today’s settlement will lead to more much-needed reforms, in Boston and beyond.”

On March 26, 2014, Fire Lieutenant Edward Walsh, 43, and firefighter Michael Kennedy, 33, of Ladder Company 15 responded to a 9-alarm fire at a four-story brick row house at 298 Beacon Street in Back Bay.

Both Kennedy and Walsh tragically died in the blaze. Eighteen others were injured.

The families of Kennedy and Walsh were in attendance Tuesday to remember their loved ones and advocate for safety measures. Kathy Crosby-Bell, Kennedy’s mother, founded the Last Call Foundation to raise money and promote education for firefighter safety needs following her son’s death.

“May they rest in peace and never be forgotten,” the Boston Fire Department posted to X of the two firefighters.

“This year marks the 50th anniversary of Massachusetts introducing the industry’s first instant ticket, and next summer will mark the 50th anniversary of the theatrical release of ‘Jaws,'” said Mark William Bracken, Mass Lottery Executive Director. “What better way to celebrate these milestones than by giving our players the opportunity to win a once-in-a-lifetime experience where the iconic summer blockbuster was filmed.”

Lottery retailers across the state began selling the themed tickets — modeled after the original “Jaws” movie poster — for $10 on Tuesday. Through the “Winning Numbers” game, players may win between $1 million, divided into $50,000 a year for 20 years, and $10 off tickets. The odds of winning a prize are 1 in 3.43.

Non-winning tickets may be entered into a Second Chance drawing for the Martha’s Vineyard trips and additional cash prizes. There will be five of the drawings, with six trip winners each. Drawing dates have not yet been released.

The thirty Second Chance winners will be selected to participate in a Jaws-themed game show, in which one participant will win $1 million. All the other contestants will win between $500 to $10,000.

Trip winners will receive a 3-night stay for two at Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown; $1,000 in spending money; transportation; meals; and a “Jaws” island tour, movie screening, and theme party.

“When you say ‘Jaws,’ the Vineyard immediately comes to mind,” said Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, Chair of the State Lottery Commission. “So who else should have the first JAWS ticket? Massachusetts of course. People are already excited about the chance to take a BITE out of the winnings.”

“Today, our healthcare system is at risk,” said Health Care Financing Committee co-chair Sen. Cindy Friedman. “The recent events concerning Steward Health System have exacerbated a crisis that has existed and exists across all aspects of healthcare delivery in the Commonwealth, from primary care to hospital systems to long-term care. And while there are many factors that are destabilizing the delivery system, the entry of profit-driven entities in healthcare has and does play a key role.”

The Joint Committee on Health Care Financing held a nearly five hour hearing with panelists from researchers to health care professionals Monday to discuss the growing role of private equity in funding health care — meaning companies who fund hospitals and health facilities and make profit by selling stock to private investors. Panelists discussed what role the state policy may be able to play in the management and oversight of the companies to protect against future collapses like Steward’s.

Steward, the third largest hospital system in Massachusetts, admitted to being millions in debt in rent, with unpaid contracts and other expenses in early 2024. Following ultimatums from state leaders, the company is looking to sell off all their hospitals in the state, but the future of all nine hospitals remains uncertain.

Current data suggests over 400 hospitals in the country are owned by private equity firms, said Zirui Song, associate professor at Harvard Medical School. Song cited a broad research study of looking at over 600,000 hospitalizations at private equity hospitals compared to over 4 million at other hospitals.

Hospitals acquired by private equity firms had a 5% rise in “hospital acquired complications or adverse events for patients” in their first three years, Song said, driven by a 38% increase in bloodstream infections from central lines and a 27% increase in patient falls. Surgical site infections doubled compared to the control, he continued, even though there was a decrease in surgeries done.

Similar negative health outcomes have occurred in nursing homes, said Robert Tyler Braun, health sciences researcher at Weill Cornell Medical College

While health risks increase, more panelists said, further research shows prices at the private equity hospitals are surging and staffing levels are suffering.

While many private equity firms pose themselves as “saviors” for struggling hospitals, Song said, many of the promised benefits just “haven’t panned out.”

“Let’s ask ourselves: does the saving of a hospital with private capital either necessitate or justify the staffing reductions or the patient harms that we found?” Song said.

David Seltz, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Health Policy Commission, said private equity can be particularly destabilizing in the health care industry because of the model’s “focus on short term return and the leverage of debt.”

The “pressure to produce high investment returns in a short time” can incentivize companies to take riskier options, Seltz said. The complex private model can allow the companies to avoid financial disclosures and transparency and insulate investors from legal liability, among other issues, he said.

Steward has been court ordered to turn over financial documents, a representative from CHIA and the HPC noted, but is currently appealing the decision.

Policy recommendations focused in on giving state agencies like the Attorney General and HPC greater enforcement, regulatory and oversight powers regarding mergers and transactions, measures to require greater transparency and disclosure from private equity firms, and others.

Sarah Jaromin, a policy associate at the National Conference of State Legislatures, noted a number of bills and policies in other states aimed at the issue.

“There are a variety of policy levers that states are using relating to private ownership and healthcare,” said Jaromin. “These include but may not be limited to the general regulating mergers and acquisitions, increasing transparency of ownership, either for private equity for entities, and lastly related efforts like study committees, cost control measures, anti-competitive contracting provisions.”

“The need for urgent action cannot be greater,” said Seltz, noting the HPC has pledged to work with the committee to ensure legislative solutions this session.

U.S. Sen. Ed Markey has also scheduled a congressional hearing to explore the for-profit health care company model issue on a national level next month and has called on Steward CEO Ralph de la Torre to testify.

The eclipse is set to plunge a long arc of North America into darkness on April 8, including a stretch of the Northeast from New York to Maine. It is expected to be another 20 years before another total eclipse passes through the contiguous U.S., according to NASA.

The path of “totality,” where the sun will be completely blocked, is 115 miles wide, according to NASA. This path includes swaths of New York, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Areas in states including Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island will see a partial eclipse.

Weather will be a major factor for those looking to plan how they’ll view the eclipse — and is so far uncertain. The biggest concern for many in April is the higher probability of clouds, in addition to potentially wet, snowy and muddy seasonal weather for the area.

“There’s not really much to say about what specific viewing conditions can be like yet, but we can talk about it climatologically for April, and it’s kind of a 50-50 split,” said Stephen Baron, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Maine. … “Looking at cloud climatology, for a lot of those towns, there’s really two options: its going to be overcast, or its going to be clear. And obviously we hope for the clear day.”

The Gray – Portland, Maine office of the National Weather Service has launched a page dedicated to tracking weather updates around the eclipse. The page includes seasonal averages for towns along the eclipse path and will be updated with forecasts as the eclipse nears.

For most of the area, the average seasonal temperature for the day is in the 40s, Baron said, and snow and mud are among a variety of factors people may want to consider in their plans.

In the 10 day window, Baron said, there will be “a lot more confidence” in the forecasts.

“The biggest tip I can can give everyone is just keep an eye on on the forecast for the area you’re planning on visiting,” Baron said. “So you have the latest information on what to prepare for.”

Many of the cities and town along the route are planning for events and festivals to mark the eclipse, including many listed on the dedicated pages on sites for the Maine Office of Tourism, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Eyewear is also an important element to planning to see the event. Eclipse glasses can be found at many online retailers ahead of the event.

The American Astronomical Society provides a list of retailers that sell reliable glasses options to see the eclipse safely. Glasses may also be available at eyewear stores and other retailers, but are prone to sell out closer to the event.

“Our hearts go out to the family who lost a loved one today,” said Mayor Ruthanne Fuller and Chief Gregory Gentile. “This is the third fatal fire in our community since December. We want to urge all our residents to have working smoke alarms on every level of your home. And if you hear those alarms sound, please — get out, stay out, and close the doors on the way out.”

At about 8:30 a.m. Sunday morning, the state Department of Fire Services release said, the Newton Fire Department responded to 911 calls to the duplex at 1243 Walnut St.

Responders found “heavy fire venting through the first floor windows” at the scene and learned that one person was still inside, the release said.

Firefighters entered the building through the front, locating an adult on the first floor. The man’s injuries were fatal, and he was pronounced dead on the scene, according to officials.

The man was not identified by the department Sunday afternoon.

One firefighter’s gear sustained significant thermal damage from the heat and flames during the recovery, the department said.

The other occupant of the unit escaped without serious injury, the release said, and multiple residents of the second unit also made their way out of the building. Firefighters rescued a cat inside.

The fire was brought under control within about 30 minutes, the release said.

The cause of the fire “does not appear suspicious, but the exact cause has not yet been determined,” the department said.

The Newton Fire and Police Departments, with state police and fire investigators, are actively investigating the origin and cause of the fire.

“The current process for presenting the Boston Public Schools budget is woefully inadequate,” the BMRB report reads. “It is crucial that the Superintendent and her team be forthright throughout the budget process so the School Committee, City Council, families, and the general public understand the proposed budget and its impact on students.”

The current BPS budget proposal for the fiscal year is $1.53 billion dollars, the largest single expenditure in Boston’s proposed operating budget, the report notes. The proposal was first presented at the Feb. 7 School Committee hearing and reviewed over several meetings and working sessions.

The upcoming budget marks the cut off of federal COVID-era funding and a 45% increase in city funding to partially offset the loss. The “transitional” budget, BPS staff said previously, includes cost-saving “trade-offs” — largely focused on staffing cuts — on a school-by-school basis, broad inclusive education investments, and first steps away from funding schools in a per-pupil enrollment basis.

The School Committee will vote on the budget proposal at their March 27 meeting.

The report critiqued the budget process so far this year, noting that School Committee members and the public have been given three PowerPoint presentations and a single Excel workbook.

“As they try to understand the budget, the public and School Committee members are left to interpret row upon row of spreadsheet data with little narrative to guide them,” the report reads. “The Superintendent presented the budget at a School Committee meeting during which committee members were not permitted to ask all their questions, being told to submit them in writing. Answers to those written questions have not been provided to members or the public.”

The report landed on a number of recommendations, centering on transparency and additional working and review mechanisms.

Under the recommendations, the district would resume releasing “budget books” every year, which were published every year up until FY 2020. The book would give a more comprehensive look at the proposal similar to the City’s budget proposals, providing “greater detail on funding, the rationale for proposed expenditures, and how it connects to district goals,” the report states.

The recommendations call for the School Committee to be allowed to ask all questions publicly and for public release of the district’s answers; more working sessions to allow for the Committee to provide oversight direction and vote throughout the process, not only at the end; more information from the superintendent on how the proposals “clearly connect” to things like district goals and initiatives; and for the Committee to take a more active role in budget review and approval.

BMRB also included a number of recommendations for questions School Committee members could ask. These touched on several current contentious issues, including giving numbers and details to the layoffs next year and clarifying the timeline for upcoming school mergers and closures.

The “urgently needed improvements,” BMRB wrote, aim to allow stakeholders to “be better informed about district priorities, the tradeoffs inherent in any budget and how the budget will lead to better student achievement.”

The renowned hospital Mass General Hospital announced Thursday the world’s first successful transplant of a genetically edited pig kidney into a 62-year-old Weymouth man living with end-stage kidney disease.

“Nearly seven decades after the first successful kidney transplant, our clinicians have once again demonstrated our commitment to provide innovative treatments and help ease the burden of disease for our patients and others around the world,” said Anne Klibanski, MD, President and CEO, Mass General Brigham.

On Saturday, a team of transplant surgeons at the teaching hospital completed a four-hour operation transplanting a genetically modified pig kidney into the human patient, identified as Richard “Rick” Slayman, doctors from MGH said at a press conference Thursday morning.

MGH said Slayman is “recovering well” and expected to be discharged soon.

The cutting-edge CRISPR technology was pivotal in this operation.

The pig kidney was provided by eGenesis of Cambridge from a pig donor that was “genetically-edited using CRISPR-Cas9 technology to remove harmful pig genes and add certain human genes to improve its compatibility with humans,” the hospital added in a release.

“We are committed to revolutionizing the treatment of organ failure and transforming transplantation to a system that is more equitable for patients, where supply is no longer a barrier to access,” Mike Curtis, eGenesis CEO, said during the press conference.

Cross-species transplantation, Curtis said, is the “most scalable and sustainable approach” to delivering organs to every patient who needs one. The company’s vision is “a world in which no patient dies waiting for an organ,” the CEO said.

The breakthrough is critical to addressing “unequal access for ethnic minority patients,” who face systemic barriers resulting in wide health disparities in kidney transplants, said Winfred Williams, Associate Chief of the MGH Renal Division.

According to a 2023 review published in the National Library of Medicine, the incidence of end-stage renal disease, being put on the transplant waitlist and receiving a living donor transplants were lower for Black patients than White and other.

Slayman is a system manager at the Department of Transportation who has worked throughout his battle with diabetes and kidney failure, said Williams, who said he has gotten to know and treat the patient for over a decade. Slayman has had diabetes and hypertension for 30 years and received a human kidney transplant in 2018, which eventually failed.

“The real hero today is the patient, Mr. Slayman, as the success of this pioneering surgery, once deemed unimaginable, would not have been possible without his courage and willingness to embark on a journey into uncharted medical territory,” said Dr. Joren C. Madsen, director of the MGH Transplant Center.

“As the global medical community celebrates this monumental achievement, Mr. Slayman becomes a beacon of hope for countless individuals suffering from end-stage renal disease and opens a new frontier in organ transplantation,” the doctor added.

The Weymouth man said in a statement he had the “highest level of trust” in MGH.

“When my transplanted kidney began failing in 2023, I again trusted my care team at MGH to meet my goals of not just improving my quality of life but extending it,” Slayman said. “My nephrologist, Dr. Winfred Williams, MD and the Transplant Center team suggested a pig kidney transplant, carefully explaining the pros and cons of this procedure. I saw it not only as a way to help me, but a way to provide hope for the thousands of people who need a transplant to survive.”

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), more than 100,000 people in the U.S. await an organ for transplant and 17 people die each day waiting for an organ, MGH said.

A kidney, the hospital added, is the most common organ needed for transplant, and end-stage kidney disease rates are estimated to increase 29-68 percent in the U.S. by 2030, according to literature published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

“When we saw the first urine output everyone in the operating room burst into applause,” saidTatsuo Kawai, Director of the Legorreta Center for Clinical Transplant Tolerance and Slayman’s primary transplant surgeon. “It was truly the most beautiful kidney I have ever seen.”

“We write to urge the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) to seriously consider the harmful economic consequences of maintaining excessively high interest rates for an unnecessarily long period of time,” the congressional Progressive Caucus wrote in a letter to Fed Chair Jerome Powell. “While we understand that you have indicated that the March FOMC meeting will not see the federal funds rate reduced, we ask that you develop a prompt timeline for future rate reductions.”

Powell is expected to announces the council’s decision to raise, cut or maintain interest rates at 2 p.m. Wednesday. Though inflation has returned near to the central bank’s 2% target, Powell has indicated the council is unlikely to reach the “level of confidence” in sustained target inflation to announce rate cuts at the upcoming March meeting.

The central bank is expected to maintain the federal funds rate within the 5.25% to 5.5% range in Wednesday’s announcement, keeping lending rates high for many prospective homebuyers and consumers. However, economists have speculated rate cuts could arrive as soon as the June meeting.

The letter, signed by Massachusetts lawmakers Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, said “today’s excessively contractionary monetary policy needlessly worsens housing market imbalances and the unaffordability of home ownership, creates risks for banking stability, and could threaten the achievements of strong employment and wage growth and its attendant reductions in economic and racial inequalities.”

Warren also argued the high rates are “holding back clean energy projects across our country that will create new clean jobs and cut electricity costs,” in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday.

“It’s time for the Fed to cut interest rates,” the senator wrote.

In Massachusetts, interest rates have played a role in the continued spiking home prices, with the cost of a single family home climbing 10% for February 2024 to a median price of $548,250.

“Housing affordability is the number one issue I’m hearing about from my constituents,” Pressley said, addressing Powell during a House Financial Services Committee hearing in early March. “Families in my district and throughout this country need relief now. I truly hope the Fed listens to them and cut interest rates.”

Vincent Reinhart, chief economist at Dreyfus-Mellon and a former Fed economist, notes that the Fed typically cuts rates quickly as the economy deteriorates in an often-futile effort to prevent a recession.

But this time, the economy is still healthy. The Fed is considering rate cuts only because inflation has steadily fallen from a peak of 9.1% in June 2022. As a result, it is approaching rate cuts the way it usually does rate hikes: Slowly and methodically, while trying to divine the economy’s direction from often-conflicting data.

“The Fed is driving events, not events driving the Fed,” Reinhart said. “That’s why this task is different than others.”

— Herald wire services contributed

“South Boston residents, many seniors and young families, were disgusted with the public intoxication and fights throughout the parade route,” said City Councilor Ed Flynn, a former Chief Marshal of the parade. “We had over a million visitors to the neighborhood, and we can’t sustain this ‘anything goes’ attitude any longer. This neighborhood deserves to be treated with respect.”

Ten people arrested at the celebrations Sunday were arraigned in South Boston Municipal Court on Monday. Two people were brought up on gun charges, two on assault and battery charges, and six on assault and battery on a police officer. There were three charges of resisting arrest and eight of disorderly conduct.

Flynn called for “major changes” including enforcement of a zero tolerance policy for public drinking, fighting and any criminal behavior. The City Councilor noted he has been in contact with Boston Police, parade organizers and residents in the area about changes for future parades.

“It will take cooperation with the police, with the court system, the district attorney and residents, and a public awareness campaign, but we can’t sustain this Mardi Gras atmosphere any longer,” said Flynn.

Event organizers, the South Boston Allied War Veteran Council, estimated the parade drew the biggest crowd since the pandemic. The festivities have long honored the city’s Irish community along with the Suffolk County holiday, Evacuation Day.

South Boston Municipal Court saw another parade of sobered young party-goers facing criminal charges and stressed parents Monday morning. One suspect, charged with assaulting a cop, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, was released on personal recognizance, while the other nine were released on bail from $250 up to $7,700.

One suspect, Joseph Feeney, 26, was taken into custody by transit police at the Andrew Square T stop and charged with carrying a firearm while intoxicated.

“The male subject was unsteady on his feet, necessitating his being supported on both sides by two additional male companions,” the transit police incident report reads. “As the intoxicated male kept his arms over his companions’ shoulders his waistline was visible, where I observed a holstered firearm.”

Another 23-year-old man, Garrett Fisher, was charged with carrying a firearm without a license after a witness reported that he “felt threatened” when Fisher allegedly showed him a gun drunkenly and made him shoot the weapon with no live rounds in a South Boston apartment during the festivities. Fisher did not have the gun on him when police arrived and was arrested while “heavily intoxicated,” according to the police report.

South Boston residents launched a wave of frustration in 311 complaints to the city Sunday and Monday, posting pictures of culprits and destruction and calling the day “gross,” “madness” and “too much.” The complaints included a range from too much broken glass on the sidewalks to walk dogs, to groups ripping out street and stop signs, to trash blanketing M Street Park and the Walgreens and Burger King parking lots.

“This day was a nightmare for residents of South Boston; everyone coming here and quite literally destroying our neighborhood & leaving trash (& vomit!) everywhere,” one resident wrote Sunday evening, reporting a group ripping up the D St. and Bolton St. sign. “Everyone who participated should be embarrassed.”

“Also, can our community work together to get this s**t show of a day moved downtown?” another wrote Sunday, reporting early morning noise. “This is the worst day of the year for lifelong residents of South Boston.”

“It’s a great day for the city,” said Southie resident Judy, who’s come to the parade since the 1960s. “Everybody looks forward to it, and it speaks to the Irish history of South Boston. My mother and her parents were from Southie, so it was my great-grandparents that came from Ireland, like a lot of people. It’s always had a very symbolic meaning to people who live here.”

The parade, put on by the South Boston Allied War Veterans Council, began at 1 p.m. and lasted several hours, looping from the Broadway Station through the neighborhood to the Andrew Square T stop.

Bostonians were the first residents in North America to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, according to the Allied War Veteran’s Council site, with the first parade held in 1737. The parade moved to South Boston in 1901, the center of the city’s Irish community and home of Dorchester Heights where Evacuation Day is commemorated.

The parade also celebrates Evacuation Day, a Suffolk County-specific holiday marking the 1776 evacuation of British forces from Boston after an 11-month siege of the city during the Revolutionary War.

Residents showed up Sunday in everything from kilts and flat caps, to green beards and wigs, to Grinch and Care Bear costumes.

“People just love to show the spirit,” said Jack Kelly, dressed in a giant sparkly leprechaun hat and fake orange beard. “We’re all Irish today.”

The parade featured a wide cast of floats and marchers, including bands bagpiping and belting out songs like “Sweet Caroline,” organizations flinging candy and t-shirts, and union trucks laying on their horns.

Judy noted the parade has changed a lot over the years, getting more rowdy and political, but praised the performers and the bands.

“It’s the kids that love to parade,” she said. “To listen to the music, to be together with family, makes the day.”

“We all love being here together every year,” said Margaret Kelly, standing with a large family on East Broadway as a flock of motorcycles roared by and a man hollered about the “luck of the Irish.” “Everyone’s so excited. This is what Southie’s all about.”

“Hatred and racism have no place in this community,” said Hampden DA Anthony Gulluni. “And where this behavior becomes criminal, I will ensure that we act, and act with swift resolve, as we did here, to uncover it and bring it to the light of justice. There is no question that the alleged behavior of these six juveniles is vile, cruel and contemptible.”

The group chat began on Snapchat in the late evening of Feb. 8, the release said, allegedly created by a group of 8th grade students from Southwick. The ensuing chat involved numerous juveniles, though some exited and entered the chat at various stages.

Sent through Friday, Feb. 9, graphic messages from several students included “notions of violence toward people of color, racial slurs, derogatory pictures and videos, and a mock slave auction directed at two particular juveniles,” the release stated.

That Friday, the existence of the chat was reported to Southwick Regional School authorities.

By Monday, Feb. 12, school personnel had reviewed the messages and suspended several students, including six students criminally charged, immediately as an emergency removal from school. The Juvenile Court Chief of the DA’s Office was also notified by the Southwick Police Department of the incident that Monday.

The students’ suspensions were formalized later in the week, with two students notably removed for 25 days and one removed for 45 days.

On Thursday, Feb. 15, the DA was personally notified of the incident and directed the State Police to launch an investigation.

One students was charged with interference with civil rights, threat to commit a crime and witness interference, and a second juvenile was charged with interference with civil rights and threat to commit a crime. The remaining four were charged with threat to commit a crime. The suspects were not identified because of their ages.

Throughout the investigation, the DA met personally with identified targets of the messages and their families, the release said, and prosecutors and investigators worked to put together the investigation.

Gulluni called seeing the behavior of the middle school students in the community in 2024 “discouraging, unsettling, and deeply frustrating” in the release Thursday.

The DA’s office, Gulluni said, intends to “appropriately punish those whose alleged behavior displayed a capacity for such hatred and cruelty and, ultimately, amounted to chargeable criminal conduct” and deter similar future behavior in the community.

In addition to the charges, the DA said, his office will be delivering curriculum on hate and bullying to Southwick schools; work with the Attorney General’s office on more specific programs to address the issue of bigotry, racism, and bullying in schools; and participate in instruction regarding hate crimes and school bullying for police departments and school personnel across western Massachusetts.

“I hope that our collective efforts to promote empathy, compassion, and tolerance will overcome the forces of apathy, malice, and intolerance,” Gulluni said. “This is not an issue exclusive to a place, or an age group, or a race. This is a universal issue that we must face as one, unified community.”

The Mega Millions jackpot, which if won would be the sixth largest in the game’s history, has been building through 28 drawings since Dec. 8, when two winning tickets sold in California split a $394 million jackpot. The largest Mega Millions jackpot in history was won on Aug. 8, 2023, when a $1.58 billion prize went to a ticketholder in Florida.

There have been 32 drawings since the last Powerball win on Jan. 1, when a ticketholder in Michigan won an $842.4 million jackpot.

The Mega Millions drawing will take place Friday, and players may purchase the $2 tickets up to 10:45 p.m. Friday at Mass Lottery retailers. The cash option is about $381 million.

The Powerball drawing will be Saturday, with an estimated $293 cash option. Tickets can be bought for $2 up to 9:50 p.m. Saturday.

“March is Problem Gambling Awareness Month, and as we do throughout the year, we encourage people to keep the experience of playing the Lottery fun by playing responsibly and within their means,” said Mark William Bracken, Executive Director of the Massachusetts State Lottery.

“It is a big issue, but I would say in particular, it’s a huge issue in nursing because there are very limited nursing placements across the state,” said Department of Public Health Commissioner Robert Goldstein at a virtual Public Health Council meeting Wednesday morning.

“And as everyone knows, we have a nursing workforce shortage,” Goldstein continued. “We would like to make sure that we continue to graduate nurses at the rate that we are — increasing the rate of graduation. And so that means that we need to make sure they have clinical placements.”

Steward Health System owns nine hospitals in Massachusetts, all of which face uncertain futures in light of Steward’s ongoing massive financial crisis. The hospitals teach numerous medical students — largely from the Boston University School of Medicine — medical residents both based at the facilities and transferred in to assist, and nursing students at almost every hospital, Goldstein said.

Steward has announced it’s intent to sell off the remaining Massachusetts hospitals, and St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River received publicized interest from potential buyer Suncoast Health within the last week.

In the meantime, the Department of Public Health (DPH) has established teams at every Steward hospital to communicate with staff and monitor quality and safety standards.

Goldstein said the issue of training placements has been “very much on my mind,” and within the work DPH is doing, staff are identifying the number and cataloguing all the students at each facility as they work on contingency plans for closures. The commissioner did not specify how many students may be impacted at any facility.

Massachusetts Nurses Association Director of Nursing Judith Pare said the issue of nursing student placements “just adds another layer to the crisis.”

Though Massachusetts is small, Pare said, it has more nursing programs than many states and “some of the premium programs in the country” attracting students from all over.

“So we place a lot of students,” Pare said. “And with Norwood (Hospital) been closed now for two years and Brockton (Hospital) being closed because of the fire, we were already struggling for placements. This is just going to make to make matters worse.”

Despite the shortage, she added, the recent crisis and height of pandemic chaos have forced nursing students and infrastructure to readjust and adapt several times already.

“Nurses are nothing if not flexible,” said Pare. “We will have to deal with that if something happens, if these hospitals suddenly closed, which we certainly don’t want to happen. The bigger issue is the impact on this already marginalized community of folks that desperately need these hospitals and desperately need the care.”

Derick Moncion, 22, of Haverhill, was arrested Monday and charged with shooting and killing 21-year-old Jaeby Ortiz Ruiz, also of Haverhill, on Sunday, the DA’s office said in a statement.

Police discovered Ruiz’s body in the area of Riverview Street in North Andover, the release said. A warrant for Moncion’s arrest was issued the next day, and the suspect was taken into custody Monday evening.

Moncion was arraigned on the murder charge in Lawrence District Court on Tuesday morning and ordered held without bail. The judge also ordered the police report impounded.

Moncion will return to court for a pre-conference hearing on April 24.

“Within the next five years, we plan to expand our early college initiatives to serve more than 2,000 high school students and broaden our early college reach to more rural areas of the state,” said Meehan in the video update.

Since last fall, UMass Lowell and UMass Dartmouth partnered with 11 high schools in Massachusetts — two-thirds of which are in Gateway Cities, Meenhan said — to offer 30 college-level courses at the schools. The “Commonwealth Collegiate Academy” program started with 400 students and increased to about 600 in the spring.

In the fall, Meehan said, the program will add new high schools and bring in faculty from UMass Amherst, to start the broader expansion.

UMass Boston also partners with the City of Boston in their own early college program, Meehan said, allowing BPS high schoolers to earn up to 30 college credits.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu announced another early college expansion in partnership with UMass Boston in January, with the planned transformation of the BCLA-McCormack High School into the city’s first University-Assisted Community Hub School.

Meehan cited the early success of the programs, noting over 50 students from the Commonwealth Collegiate Academy were accepted into UMass Lowell or UMass Dartmouth this fall. In the fall semester of the Collegiate Academy, he said, students earned “nearly 1,000 free credits that will help them lower the cost of college.”

This spring semester, students are projected to earn 1,736 credits from UMass Dartmouth and Lowell, the university said.

The UMass early college programs are funded through state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Smith Family Foundation.

“Students who participate in early college are more likely than their peers to attend college, to complete their degree and to realize an increase in the lifetime earning potential,” said Meehan, citing national data from the American Institutes for Research.

Data from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Meehan added, show students of color who are in early college programs are 20-30% more likely to enroll in a four year degree program.

“UMass is demonstrating our deep enduring and mission-driven commitment to accessibility and affordability,” Meehan said. “And in doing so we are ensuring that the greatest tool for social and economic mobility, a four year college degree, remains achievable for students from all backgrounds in Massachusetts.”

“We are happy to report that other than a few miscellaneous items, no other ordnances were located in the vicinity of the Kendrick Street Bridge,” the Needham Police Department reported in a Facebook post Monday afternoon. Ordnance refers to military supplies including weapons and ammunition.

The search, conducted by Massachusetts State Police Underwater Recovery Team and Bomb Squad with assistance from the Environmental Police and Needham Fire and Police Departments, turned up only a “large elongated tank containing an unknown substance,” state police said.

The bomb squad and state hazardous materials specialists analyzed the tank and determined there were no hazardous materials. It was disposed of by the Needham Department of Public Works, state police said.

State police did not release information on what prompted the search Monday or suggest any origins of the explosives.

On March 1, a magnet fisher livestreamed his discovery a live mortar round in the Charles River around Kendrick Street near the Needham-Newton town line on his YouTube page. A second explosive, a hollow bazooka round, was pulled out of the water by another man magnet fishing in the area on Wednesday.

On both occasions, Needham police warned residents the devices would “need to be detonated” and they may hear a noise. The devices were disposed of in unspecified areas.

Large groups of investigators gathered around Kendrick Street throughout Monday morning. Needham police warned residents to avoid the area and try to avoid slowing down traffic, but said there was “otherwise no risk to the public at this time.”

Teams searched the river with “divers and a remotely operated vehicle,” state police said.

State police have not yet released information on whether there may be future searches of the area.

“This tonight brings great relief to Chasity and Zella’s family here, and also that neighborhood, and also to Worcester Public Schools,” said Worcester Mayor Joseph Petty at a press conference Monday night.

Dejan Belnavis, 27, was tracked down Monday in San Diego and taken in on charges of armed assault to murder and carrying a firearm without a license in connection with the double homicide of Chasity Nunez, 27, and her daughter Zella Nunez, 11, said Interim Worcester Police Chief Paul Saucier.

The DA’s office plans to upgrade charges for Belnavis and Karel Mangual, 28, of Sterling Street in Worcester, who was arrested in connection with the shooting Wednesday night.

“The other co-defendant, the charge is going to be upgraded to murder tomorrow,” said Worcester County DA Joseph Early. “And when this defendant is brought back as well, he’s going to also be charged with murder. When we don’t know; that’s gonna depend on whether or not he’s willing to waive extradition. And we’ll let everything else pretty much unfold in the courtroom with regard to both defendants.”

Police upgraded the reward for information leading to Belnavis’s capture to $10,000 on Monday. Belnavis was considered armed and dangerous, police warned.

Chasity and Zella Nunez were found shot in a parked car after police received reports of gunshots in area of Lisbon Street and Englewood Avenue around 3 p.m. last Tuesday. Both were transported to a local hospital before being pronounced dead.

A day later, police reported they arrested Mangual in connection with the shooting. Mangual pleaded not guilty to armed assault to murder and carrying a firearm without a license and was ordered held without bail Thursday.

Belnavis was identified as a second suspect later Wednesday night.

Police obtained surveillance footage showing two people walking towards the Nunezs in their car and start shooting, according to court documents reported by the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. The suspects then run back towards a white sedan police say Belnavis had been borrowing, the documents state, and the vehicle was later found in Hartford, Connecticut.

Saucier praised the collaboration between the Worcester Police Department, U.S. Marshals, Massachusetts State Police and law enforcement in San Diego, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maine, among others.

Police tracked Belnavis across several states with law enforcement technology, tip, communication and “shoe leather police work,” officials at the press conference said.

Officials did not give much detail regarding the arrest, but said the suspect was located in the area of the San Diego Zoo and had an altered appearance from pictures. Though he was “close” to Mexico, the police chief said he couldn’t speculate whether he was trying to flee the country.

The family was notified before the media Monday night, officials said, and were “grateful” for the work put into catching the suspect.

Chasity Nunez was a “force to be reckoned with; incredibly dependable,” an obituary for the mother and daughter reads, and worked with the Connecticut National Guard and as a Patient Safety and Clinical Quality Coordinator at MIT University. Zella Nunez, a sixth grader at Columbus Park School, was an “optimistic and creative soul,” “kindhearted” and did painting, singing, dancing and skating, according to the obituary.

“I’m very proud of all of the men and women in Worcester Police Department, the City of Worcester and all of the agencies for the work that they’ve done,” said Worcester City Councilor Kathleen Toomey. “I think it’s incredibly important now that we pray for the family so that they are able to have some closure, some peace and some healing as we move forward.”

The annual JetBlue Shamrock Splash kicked off at 11 a.m. at Constitution Beach in East Boston, featuring activities like a costume contest and a collective run into the Harbor.

Funds from the event go to Save the Harbor’s Better Beaches Program partnership with the Department of Conservation and Recreation, supporting free events and programs on public beaches stretching from Nahant to Nantasket.

The organization behind the event, Save the Harbor/Save the Bay, is a nonprofit advocating for clean water and public investment in the Boston Harbor, Boston Harbor Islands and public beaches in the region.

The Harbor area reached a high of 52 degrees and a low of 33 degrees Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. The water was predicted to be “a refreshing 40 degrees: perfect weather for some fun in the water,” Save the Harbor advertised.

JetBlue offered up free roundtrip flights to the winners of best costume and biggest fundraiser at the event.

The 2023 program raised over $300,000. The money was distributed in grants to 95 organizations, supporting “free beach festivals, concerts, sailing and kayaking instruction and youth programs in Lynn, Nahant, Revere, Winthrop, East Boston, South Boston, Dorchester, Quincy and Hull,” the organization said.

“This was a very carefully negotiated opportunity over the course of an entire year of conversations and negotiations,” Wu said, visiting the Boston Children’s Museum with her kids Sunday. “And we’re not going to reopen those negotiations just in the middle of the agreed-upon pilot.”

The “BPS Sundays” pilot program was launched in January to allow BPS students free access to cultural institutions on the first and second Sunday of each month up to August. Under the program, BPS students and up to three family members have free access to six museums and cultural institutions around Boston.

The program does not include other school-age children, including public charter school students and METCO students. The exclusion of other students has stirred controversy and led some city councilors to push for an expansion of the pilot.

The mayor’s remarks come days after the cancellation of a city council hearing on altering the initiative, with Councilor Henry Santana saying he needed more time to review early data on the program.

“We’re looking to very, very carefully at learn about this program, see exactly the impacts on the finances of these institutions, on the community members and families, so that we can have the best idea about how to turn this into something permanent at the end of the pilot period,” Wu said Sunday.

Wu previously told the Herald there is not funding to expand the program to more students during the pilot period, and the exclusion is not politically motivated.

Regarding the cancelled hearing, the mayor said “the City Council is in charge of their own scheduling. City staff intends to present more data on the subject towards the end of the pilot and analyze how the program is working and can be improved, Wu added.

The city is collecting data on the financial impacts on the institutions, numbers of students and families participating, outreach methods and numbers of first time attendees, Wu said.

“I hope that we can keep the momentum going and make sure that this will be something that’s in place for a long time to come,” Wu said.

“This is a great opportunity for kids to get to visit all these museums that are here and they’ve never been before,” said Zara Abba-Aji, who brought her kids to the Children’s Museum for the first time Sunday. “They love it.”

On Friday morning, the department said, police received a screenshot of a group text in which a sender was warning of a shooting to take place at the middle school. The screenshot cropped the message, but police later learned the texter detailed the event was planned for Monday.

The identity of the arrested student was not released on Sunday. Police said previously over the weekend they did not find the threat credible but would keep police staffed at the school Monday.

The phone number the threat was sent from was unknown, police said, while all the others belonged to students at the school.

The text refenced an “army” and a motive stemming from an unspecified event 17 years ago and warned the phone number couldn’t be traced, Norwood PD said.

Details in the message led detectives to believe the sender was another student, the department said. Police reported they questioned the students on the message and sent uniformed and plainclothes officers to the school for extra security.

Though efforts were made to mask the origin of the phone number, police said, investigators identified and briefly spoke on the phone to the student who sent the threat by 10:30 a.m. Friday. The 12-year-old was reportedly traveling out of state with their family at the time.

Norwood Public Schools families were updated twice Friday morning, and by the afternoon, were told the police “considered the threat not to be credible.” On Saturday, Norwood Police Chief William Brooks said, the department would “release more information prior to the start of school” and keep officers at the school Monday.

“The purpose is not threat-based, but to assure students that they are safe,” Brooks said in the Saturday update.

A second threat directed at the local high school circulated Friday, spoofed to appear as though it came from the same number. Police reported they verified with the provider the second threat was not from the same number and stated they “give no credence to that remark.”

On Sunday, the student and family were back, the report said. Detectives executed a search warrant, seized the student’s phone and arrested the teen.

“The student has confessed in the presence of the family,” Norwood Police said in a Facebook update Sunday. “There were no firearms in the student’s home. The student will not be in school Monday.”

The department stated they are “pleased that we have been able to bring this investigation to a successful conclusion,” in the report Sunday.

Clocks will spring forward an hour at 2 a.m. Sunday, meaning one less hour of sleep for most people across the U.S.

The change also means one more hour of sunlight in the evening. In Boston, this will bump sunrise back to just after 7 a.m. and sunset to about 6:45 p.m. Daylight saving time lasts from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November, just under eight months.

With the promise of another round of jarred sleeping schedules and clock confusion, biannual debates on the subject are again kicking into high gear.

Despite heavy debate on the practice, about 40% of countries worldwide — including much of Europe and parts of Canada and Australia — opt to participate in what Americans call daylight savings time.

The time change practice was first proposed in the 1890s by an astronomer and entomologist — or insect researcher — in New Zealand, but the idea didn’t gain traction until World War I. Germany began adjusting their clocks during the first world war with the idea that the practice would save energy. The U.S., among other countries, soon followed.

The time change, then called “war time,” was more permanently reinstated in the U.S. during World War II and continued on. The practice was formalized across states in the Uniform Time Act of 1966. The Act allows states to opt-out and observe standard time but not to observe daylight saving time year-round. The country briefly adopted year-round daylight saving during an energy crisis in the 1970s, but opponents shut down the change quickly.

Massachusetts is one of many states to take on the debate of whether to ditch daylight saving.

Currently, two bills are circulating the state Legislature to establish “sunshine protection” and place the Commonwealth under Atlantic Standard Time. The bills include provisions that the change should only go into effect if two other states within New England, plus New York, adopt the change.

Congress has also taken up the issue, proposing bills to make daylight saving time permanent — the Sunshine Protection Act, which was approved by the Senate in 2022 — and allow states to opt for permanent daylight saving time.

Currently, Hawaii and Arizona are the only states that elect to remain on standard time all year round. U.S. territories American Samoa, Guam, the North Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands also opt to not fiddle with their clocks twice a year.

Arizona ditched the time change in 1967 to avoid an extra hour in the sun during their hottest months, while Hawaii and territories opted out because the time change has so little effect closer to the equator.

In Massachusetts, both bills to reopen the debate have been delayed until at least July.

After spotting the child strapped to the chair rigged with nylon straps and duct tape on Feb. 14, an educator reported the incident directly to the state Department of Children and Families and skipped over the school, Wu said.

This caused a “lapse” of communication between school educators and the child’s mother, who only heard from the state agency, the mayor added during a “Java with Jimmy” podcast interview Wednesday.

“That chain of who does what when, and how do we make sure that family members are the first to know, that is also a really important part of policy, and I think will be looked at here,” Wu said on the radio show.

The 3-year-old’s mother, Anacelia Cuevas, 30, said the “nightmare” incident was punitive and left her nonverbal son traumatized. She said she was only notified by DCF on Feb. 28, two weeks after the reported incident, and plans to sue the district.

On Tuesday, BPS Superintendent Mary Skipper indicated there was a “failure of communication” involving the BPS central office, the Condon School and DCF, citing the week-long school vacation the week after the incident. Skipper apologized to the mother for the “extremely jarring” way that she was notified.

Asked what policies may be reviewed, Wu said she “didn’t want to jump to conclusions, but it seems like there may have been a breach of existing policy.”

The district and DCF stated they are investigating the incident, and three staff members, including at least one teacher, have been suspended.

“There already are policies as to the very, very limited circumstances where a chair, again, that is designed for that purpose, can be used for that purpose, and that is usually tied to a specific notation and agreement and understanding with the family,” Wu said.

The chair was not designed for that purpose, having been altered with nylon straps and duct tape to resemble a makeshift highchair, Wu said.

A chair designed with straps may be used within schools for mobility or physical stability in certain scenarios specified in a child’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP), Wu said, but a hand-made chair with restraints would not be approved for those uses.

The mayor carefully clarified that the reported use of duct tape in the incident may have led to a misconception of the situation, stating there are images “when you hear certain words what you may imagine in your mind.”

“I just want to also clarify that it wasn’t a situation where duct tape was being applied to the child or arms or anything like that, but not to downplay the seriousness of it still,” Wu said.

Wu acknowledged the seriousness of the “breach of trust” and the need for “serious consequences,” noting as a mother she cried every time she brought her kids to a new daycare or pre-K.

“In some ways, the most sacred kind of care that we perform as a city is taking care of, growing, investing in, loving the children and students of the city as our own,” Wu said. “And so any lapse on this front is just something that’s unacceptable.”