Boston Globe: Is it Time to Wear a Mask Again?

As new COVID variants gain traction, reinfections become more common and cases climb in certain areas, a few schools and businesses are reinstating mask requirements. Experts say it makes sense to increase precautions, including turning back to masks.

“I tend to say, if you’re going to go out, make sure you have a mask in your car, a couple masks at home or at work, so you always have something available to put on,” said Andrew Pekosz, a professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Here’s a refresher on where, when and how to mask.

Everyone’s risk tolerance varies, Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, said. But particularly if you are 65 or older, have an underlying condition that makes you more vulnerable to severe disease or are pregnant, he recommends wearing a mask whenever you are in a relatively confined, crowded indoor space. That can include stores, offices and public transportation.

“Certainly every time you add another person to the room, particularly people who are within 3 to 5 feet of you, that increases your chance of getting infected, exponentially,” Pekosz added.

Washington Post: Child Care is about to Get More Expensive, as Federal Funds Dry Up

With her toddlers’ day care closing in weeks, Lexie Monigal is back in a familiar bind: desperately searching for child care while contemplating quitting her full-time job as a surgical nurse in Menasha, Wisconsin.

It’s the second time this year her twins’ day care has suddenly announced plans to shutter — both for financial difficulties — leaving her without someone to watch her two-year-olds and exacerbating a long-standing shortage of child care in this stretch of Wisconsin.

“I’ve called around, searched and searched and searched, and so far, nothing,” said Monigal, 27, who is eight months pregnant with her third child. “I’m getting to the point where I’d rather quit my job and really struggle financially than keep having to worry about finding care.”

Millions of parents — mothers, in particular — could soon be making similar calculations, as states run out of $24 billion in stimulus money Congress had set aside for child care during the pandemic. That record investment has helped keep the industry afloat by propping up workers’ salaries, boosting training programs and waiving family payment requirements.

MassInc: Massachusetts Residents Support Revamped Child-and-Family Tax Credit

New polling finds that three-quarters (77%) of Massachusetts residents support a revised Child- and-Family tax credit currently under consideration in the Legislature. Majorities support the tax credit across demographics, but “strong support” is highest among Democrats and Democratic leaning Independents (49%), Black residents (48%), residents making less than $25,000 annually (45%), those living in Western Massachusetts (54%), and parents of children under age 18 (47%).

These results are based on a survey of 1,013 residents of Massachusetts. Responses were collected online August 7-16, 2023, in English and Spanish. Results were weighted to known and estimated population parameters on age, gender, race, party identification, education, and geography. The credibility interval is +/- 3.4 percentage points for the entire sample, including the design effect. These questions were sponsored by the Economic Security Project.

Washington Post: Workers Cash in on a New Flexibility: Leaving the Office after a Few Hours

White-collar workers are back in the office. Just don’t expect them to stay for eight hours. As more companies tell American workers to return to their cubicles for two, three or even four days a week — part of a new wave of return-to-office mandates kicking in this fall — one thing is clear: The era of sitting at your desk from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. is over.

Instead, in a transformative shift to the workday, employees are cashing in on an unspoken new flexibility. They are returning to the office on their own terms, coming in late after a workout, or leaving early to grab groceries or pick up their children before logging back on.

And while many employers are now asking people to come in for a certain number of days a week, hardly any are tracking exactly how long they stay. In most of the country, only about half of office visits now last for at least six hours at a time, according to WiFi data from Basking, a workplace occupancy analytics firm. That is in stark contrast to before the pandemic, when a majority of visits, 84 percent, lasted six hours or more.

State House News: Driscoll Discusses Transportation Secretary Resignation, Delayed Tax-Relief Package

Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll made a rare visit to Berkshire County last week. In Stockbridge, the Democrat announced $31.5 million in municipal climate resiliency grant disbursements. In Pittsfield, the former mayor of Salem toured Berkshire Community College as part of the MassReconnect rollout – a new program that will allow Massachusetts residents over 25 without a college degree and anyone seeking a nursing degree to attend community college for free.

On the way from Boston, Driscoll spoke with WAMC about a slate of other issues, ranging from negotiations over a tax relief package to the resignation of Transportation Secretary Gina Fiandaca after just eight months on the job.

Boston Herald: Healey Activates National Guard to Help Shelter Hotels without Providers

Gov. Maura Healey issued an executive order Thursday activating up to 250 members of the National Guard to provide basic services at emergency shelter hotels that do not currently have a contracted service provider.

The Healey administration said there are about 40 emergency shelter hotels where displaced families — including migrants — are staying that Guard members could be deployed at. But state officials said they will evaluate which sites require members and deploy them this week.

“Massachusetts is in a state of emergency, and we need all hands-on deck to meet this moment and ensure families have access to safe shelter and basic services,” Healey said in a statement. “… While we work to implement a more permanent staffing solution, the National Guard will provide an efficient and effective means of delivering these services and keeping everybody safe.”

The mobilization comes weeks after Healey declared a state of emergency in Massachusetts because an influx of migrants started to crowd the already burdened emergency shelter system. The increase in new arrivals along with surging housing costs here has put a strain on the emergency shelter system.

Massachusetts is a right-to-shelter state, which guarantees shelter and subsistence for eligible displaced families, including newly arrived migrants who are fleeing unstable conditions in their home counties.

State House News: Bond Bill Shaping Up as Next Housing Battleground

It’s now eight months into Gov. Maura Healey’s administration and the wait continues for major proposals from the Corner Office to address perhaps the governor’s signature issue: housing affordability and production.

Some people in the advocacy world feel that’s going to change soon and want the governor to “go big” to address the state’s housing crunch.

“We have been hearing that the housing bond bill could show up some time this month,” Phil Jones of the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization told the News Service on Tuesday. “We are expecting the governor to make her proposal first.”

Jones said he’s not heard what’s in the bill and said some legislators have said that they’re waiting for Healey to make the first move – the executive branch oversees state capital spending, putting it in a good position to understand which programs may be running low on available funds.

Housing activists have been pressing the idea of enabling cities and towns to assess fees on real estate transactions to raise money for affordable housing and Jones said administration officials “spoke positively” about that idea at a recent GBIO event, but the organization is unsure if Healey will actually propose it.

State House News: Utilities Outline Plans to Handle More Electricity

Massachusetts is aiming to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 largely by electrifying things currently powered by fossil fuels. While the region’s electrical grid is not ready to serve that heightened demand, the Bay State’s utility companies late last week rolled out their plans to upgrade the grid, so it doesn’t impede the state’s clean-energy transition.

The scale of the challenge is massive. National Grid said its plan looks ahead to how it will meet peak customer demand more than twice as high as it is today and “connect at least twice the amount of energy storage, 10 times the amount of renewable energy, 75 times the number of EVs, and 100 times the number of heat pumps than we see today.”

Massachusetts’ 2022 climate law required the three utility companies — National Grid, Eversource and Unitil — to detail their plans for modernizing the grid to accommodate the significant shift from fossil fuels to electricity generated by cleaner sources that the state is counting on.

Those plans, known as Electric Sector Modernization Plans (ESMPs), were filed with the state Friday afternoon. There will be public input sessions this fall as the Grid Modernization Advisory Council reviews the plans until Nov. 20, and final versions are to be submitted for Department of Public Utilities approval in January.

“The Future Grid plan begins to define the scope and scale of what we collectively must do over the coming years and decades to combat climate change and enable a more electrified future, and the policy and regulatory changes needed to make it happen,” Nicola Medalova, chief operating officer of National Grid New England, said. “This is a holistic plan that identifies the system investments and changes needed in the local electric distribution grid, its operations, and how it must perform to benefit all.”

Health Care

Reuters: Novartis sues US government over Medicare drug price regulation

Swiss drugmaker Novartis on Friday said it had sued the U.S. government to halt the Medicare drug-price negotiation program, which includes Novartis’ top-selling heart-failure medicine Entresto.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Jersey, is the first since the Biden administration released its list of 10 prescription medicines that will be subject to price negotiations by the Medicare health program, which covers 66 million people.

Other drugs selected were Bristol Myers Squibb and Pfizer’s blood thinner Eliquis, Merck’s diabetes drug Januvia, and Eliquis rival Xarelto from Johnson & Johnson.

The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden last year, allows Medicare to negotiate prices for some of its most costly drugs. The pharmaceutical industry says the program will curtail profits and compel it to pull back on developing new treatments.

State House News: Updated COVID Boosters to be Available Mid-September, White House Says

Updated COVID-19 booster shots will be available in mid-September — the start of what is expected to be an annual booster campaign against the illness, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday.

In a virtual press conference, CDC director Dr. Mandy Cohen said the shots are a critical step to reducing what are likely to be several circulating respiratory illnesses this winter.

While the FDA has yet to approve the boosters, the expectation is that the shots will likely be available for individuals six months and older, and given the ongoing changes in the virus and decreases in immunity over time, the federal government expects to make an updated COVID booster available annually.

“We think that vaccines are the strongest protection that we can offer folks,” Cohen said.

Even with new boosters about to become available, the virus has continued to evolve. Experts have pointed to a new variant, BA.2.86, that has emerged in recent weeks.

However, Cohen said the new variant accounts for less than 1 percent of the cases the country is seeing, and the shots currently going through FDA regulatory review have been tailored specifically to the dominant circulating variants of COVID-19. Cohen said it was unclear if the forthcoming vaccine boosters are as effective against the new variant in preventing severe illness, though early indications are promising.

Boston Herald: Massachusetts COVID Cases, Hospitalizations on the Rise

COVID cases and hospitalizations are on the rise again, just as the school year kicks off, and as a new variant with “lots of mutations” may lead to more infections in people who previously had COVID or who received vaccines and boosters.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Thursday reported a weekly count of 2,171 virus cases, up 6% from last week’s count of 2,048 COVID cases.

The daily average of virus cases is now up to 310, more than four times the daily rate of 75 cases from the beginning of July.

There are now 342 patients hospitalized with COVID, up 42 patients from last week’s count of 300 patients. Hospitalizations had dipped to 100 patients in July.

In addition to the recent rise in local cases and hospitalizations, the Boston-area COVID wastewater has been ticking up — the first sign of more virus cases at the community level. The south-of-Boston wastewater average has gone up 36% in the last week, while the north-of-Boston average has jumped 55%.

This increase in cases and hospitalizations comes as a new variant BA.2.86 has been detected. The large number of mutations in BA.2.86 raises concerns that the variant will better evade existing immunity from vaccines and previous infections.

WHDH: Overdose Awareness Captured In Field Of Flags

Surrounded by more than 22,000 purple flags on Boston Common representing the lives of Bay Staters lost to the opioid epidemic in the last decade, Kar-Kate Parenteau wore a beaming photo of her husband Marc, who died of an accidental fentanyl overdose in 2017.

In the photo hanging from her lanyard, Marc’s arms are spread wide against the backdrop of the ocean off Martha’s Vineyard. Parenteau, who was joined Thursday by loved ones wearing the same image, said seeing Marc’s smile makes her happy.

But just by looking at him, one would never know that Marc, whom Parenteau described as outgoing and a big sports fan, was struggling with substance use and addiction. He died at age 30.

“He was definitely more than his addiction,” Parenteau told the News Service, as she invoked the epicenter of Boston’s opioid crisis around Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard. “When people think of someone that is struggling with substance use, they have a certain image, and a lot of times they may think Mass. and Cass.”

She added, “But in reality, it’s the people around you that you just don’t know — it affects everyone.”

Boston Globe: This Startup Aims to Delay Menopause and Prolong Fertility with a New Contraceptive

Birth control pills haven’t changed much since their inception in 1960, a state of affairs that Dr. Patricia K. Donahoe calls “almost medieval.” But if her more than 40-year quest to understand a little-studied hormone ends well, that could change.

Donahoe, director of Pediatric Surgical Research Laboratories at Massachusetts General Hospital, believes that the hormone, or drugs that mimic its effects, could slow or even halt the hundreds of eggs that women naturally lose every month — something that current birth control options cannot do. If true, the hormone could prolong fertility and potentially delay menopause.

On Thursday, biotech startup Oviva Therapeutics emerged from stealth mode to begin putting those ideas to the test with $11.5 million in seed funding from Cambrian Biopharma, a New York biotech focused on the biology of aging. Donahoe, her protégé David Pépin, and biotech entrepreneur Daisy Robinton cofounded the startup last year with exclusive rights to patents from Mass. General.

Budget and Taxation

AIM Testimonies on Tax Relief

July 27 | AIM Testimony to conference committee: An Act to improve the Commonwealth’s competitiveness, affordability, and equity

June 30 | AIM Testimony to conference committee: An Act to improve the Commonwealth’s competitiveness, affordability, and equity

AIM Testimony in Support of Tax Relief as part of the FY24 budget debate

Sentinel & Enterprise: School Building Authority Adjusts to Funding Infusion

Officials at the Massachusetts School Building Authority highlighted the resources and flexibility that the new state budget provided for it and its inflation-impacted projects. The authority remains in  conversation about what “even more support” for the agency that helps cities and towns build or renovate their schools could include.

School building projects have become more complicated in recent years amid economic volatility and supply chain issues, and the escalation in construction prices has outpaced the growth in MSBA funding limits. The Senate budget chief said this year that 30 school construction projects around the state entered into arrangements for MSBA support grants and have since seen “COVID-related supply side inflation” push project costs up by more than $300 million.

The new annual state budget raised the annual cap on the amount of grant money the MSBA can approve in a fiscal year to $1.2 billion and increased the rate at which that cap can grow from a maximum of 4.5% annually to 6.5% annually. It also excluded grants under the MSBA’s accelerated repair program from the annual cap calculation and directed $100 million towards MSBA capital supports for districts facing high project costs due to inflation.

“The Legislature has provided the MSBA resources and flexibility to assist districts partnering with the MSBA. We are very appreciative of the work done to bring this legislation forward. Based on the increase in the annual cap from approximately $890 million to $1.2 billion, staff are planning on recommendations for the October board [meeting] that include a number of items,” MSBA Executive Director Mary Pichetti said at a meeting Wednesday.

Energy and Environment

Sentinel & Enterprise: Fitchburg Awarded $1 Million in Grants for Climate Resilience

The city last week was awarded more than $1 million in grants from Gov. Maura Healey’s administration in an effort being made to provide funding for climate resilience planning and implementation.

During an announcement last Wednesday, $28.5 million in MVP Action grants were awarded to 56 different individual cities and towns, 16 regional groups, two water districts – one being the Nashua River Watershed – and one tribe.

The Healey Administration also awarded $3 million in MVP Planning 2.0 program grants. They went to 28 individual municipalities, one regional group, and one tribe. The total awarded Wednesday was $31.5 million, all for climate-related projects.

“As we work to address the climate crisis, we have an opportunity to right historical wrongs,” said Gov. Healey, referencing the grants given to two Massachusetts Native American tribes.

Two of the MVP Action grants received by Fitchburg include $365,000 for producing a climate adaptation action plan and $293,000 for generating and measuring the resiliency of “nature-based solutions” in downtown Fitchburg.

Boston Globe: This Watertown Company Wants to Charge Your EV Wirelessly

Electric car owners constantly fret over keeping their vehicle’s battery charged. In Alex Gruzen’s world, they won’t even think about it.

Gruzen is chief executive at WiTricity, a Watertown company that designs wireless charging systems. Like Wi-Fi, which delivers internet data without wires, WiTricity uses magnetic fields rather than cables to give batteries a boost. Millions of people already recharge their smartphones this way, by placing them on a charging pad. Now, several Asian carmakers are using the WiTricity system to let drivers recharge their electric vehicles the same way: Just park the car directly above a charging pad at night, and forget about it.

“I park it, I walk away, I come back to a fully charged car,” said Gruzen. “It’s like having an infinite-range car.”

Early adopters include South Korean giant Hyundai, which offers the Genesis GV60 electric car with WiTricity wireless charging through a rental car company in its home market. Two major Chinese automakers, FAW and IM Motors, are also offering cars with wireless charging. Another Chinese firm, YuTong Bus, is building self-driving shuttle buses with the WiTricity system included. Gruzen said he’s working with other major automakers who plan to bring the technology to American drivers, and enable hands-off recharging for homeowners, apartment dwellers, and commercial fleet operators.

WHAV: New Federal Rules Aim to Prevent Repeat of 2018 Merrimack Valley Fires, Explosions

Federal pipeline overseers last week introduced new safety regulations for the more than 2.3 million miles of distribution lines that carry natural gas to and around communities, rolling out new rules that the U.S. Department of Transportation said put into practice lessons learned from the 2018 Merrimack Valley gas explosions and fires.

Almost five years ago, on Sept. 13, 2018, high-pressure natural gas was released into a low-pressure gas distribution system, leading to a series of fires and explosions that leveled buildings in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover. The gas disaster killed one teenager, Leonel Rondon, injured 22 other people, damaged more than 130 homes and businesses, and forced the evacuation of about 50,000 residents.

Columbia Gas, the natural gas provider in the area, pleaded guilty to a federal felony charge of violating a minimum safety standard in the federal Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act and saw its assets in Massachusetts sold off to Eversource Energy.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration formally began the process of implementing new rules that are meant to “improve safety and mitigate risk through the improvement of emergency response plans, integrity management plans, operation manuals and more.”

Boston Globe: Summer of 2023 Goes Down as Second Rainiest on Record in Boston

The only summer it rained more than this one, a pair of hurricanes inundated southern New England in rapid succession and Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock” topped the pop charts.

More than 20 inches of rain fell in Boston over the past three months, the second-highest total on record, the National Weather Service said Thursday. Only 1955, when two hurricanes passed by the region a week apart in August, saw more rainfall, with nearly 25 inches. The weather service’s rainfall records date back to 1872.

The fourth-highest total came just two years ago, when the city received close to 20 inches of rain. Last year, less than 4.5 inches of rain fell, creating “critical drought” conditions across much of Massachusetts. It was the driest summer in Boston in 138 years.

“We seem to be having pendulum swings from very dry to very wet over the last several years,” said Bryce Williams, a meteorologist with the weather service.

Climate change experts warn that extreme weather is becoming increasingly common. July was likely the planet’s warmest month on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Eagle Tribune: State Grant to Aid Haverhill in Replacing East Meadow River Culvert

As the city continues to focus on protecting East Meadow River — a major source of the city’s drinking water — it plans to use an $87,000 state ecological restoration grant to develop plans to replace a 1932 culvert on Brandy Brow Road that is at risk of collapsing and obstructing the flow of water.

Mayor James Fiorentini said the culvert is critically deteriorated and unstable and has been closed to vehicle traffic for 20 years due to a high risk of collapse, although pedestrians are allowed to cross it. A new culvert would not carry vehicle traffic, but instead it would have a new multi-use pedestrian path.

The mayor said the state funding will pay for design and permitting work and will allow the city to apply for up to $400,000 next year to build the new installation as well as make trail and recreation access improvements in the Brandy Brow area. Various designs are being considered for a replacement culvert, officials said.

Over the past several years the city has been actively acquiring private land bording East Meadow River to prevent housing developments that could threaten the health of the river, which flows into Millvale Reservoir and provides the city with the majority — about 65% — of its drinking water.

Water from Millvale is pumped into Kenoza Lake, where the city’s water treatment plant is located. The treated water is then sent into the city’s drinking water distribution system.

Education

WBUR: More Boston Public School Buildings Will Start the Year with Air Conditioning

For the first time in its 146-year history, the Sumner Elementary School in Roslindale will begin the school year with air conditioning.

“In the past I would have to bring so much water because it would be so hot and humid without the air conditioner,” said Meghan Welch, the school’s principal.

The Sumner school building is one dozens of city buildings that BPS officials have been working to retrofit with window air conditioning units over the last two years, according to a back-to-school memo released last Wednesday.

The Sumner school building received classroom units in June. And as the first day of school nears, Welch is glad that students will be able to learn in a more comfortable setting, especially since temperatures in Boston can remain hot and sticky in early fall and can soar by late spring.

WBUR: As Students Return to Classrooms, Some Newly Arrived Immigrants Have to Wait

The start of a new school year brings particular challenges for the more than 5,000 school-aged children in Massachusetts’ rapidly expanding family shelter system. For some of those children who are newly arrived immigrants, there are additional barriers to overcome — and uncertainty about the first day of classes.

Five-year-old Javier has spent his entire life on the road with his mother, fleeing unrest and a tough economic situation in Haiti. In early May, after traveling through three countries and two U.S. states, they arrived in Boston.

Cherlie Ocean, Javier’s mother, said there were terrible moments on their journey — like when Javier got stuck under a border fence. Watching her son get ready for kindergarten in the Boston Public Schools, she said, makes things a lot better.

And Javier is excited too.

“He can’t even sleep. He’s been like, ‘Mom, when am I gonna go to school? I cannot wait to go to school,’” Ocean said, speaking through a Haitian Creole translator.

Ocean and her son are among tens of thousands of Haitians who have traveled to the United States in recent years with dreams of a better life and an education for their children. Some of these families have made their way to Massachusetts, landing in increasing numbers in the state-funded family shelter system.

MassLive: Free Lunch in Massachusetts Isn’t Always Free. Here’s Why Parents Might be Charged

Massachusetts schools are offering free breakfast and lunch to all students, but some parents might still see some charges.

On Aug. 8, Gov. Maura Healey signed a $56 billion budget, which included $172 million for the permanent universal lunch program for public school students in kindergarten through grade 12.

The free meals program offers one breakfast and lunch at no charge to all students regardless of income, Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said. However, students must take a fruit and vegetable to get the free meal, as the schools will not be reimbursed for the meal without this. That means if a student skips taking the fruit or vegetable that day, they’ll be charged.

At least some schools are keeping fruit and vegetables near the checkout to help remind students.

Also, if a student gets an extra lunch, including a slice of pizza after their first lunch, they will be charged for it. Other a-la-carte items, such as cookies or ice cream, cost money, too.

So, if you see a charge, you mig