Councilor Ricardo Arroyo put forward a hearing request at the body’s Wednesday meeting, where he discussed the potential for a pilot district in Roslindale Village, a shopping and dining area where parking meters will soon be added by the city.

“If we are going to create meters, which I think help move traffic along and do help, they should also take that money that comes from those meters — that are coming from folks frequenting that area or those businesses, and reinvest them into beautification projects within those areas,” Arroyo said.

If a pilot program were to be established, it could then be implemented in other districts, according to Arroyo, who represents Roslindale on the City Council and learned of the concept from Roslindale Village Main Streets representatives.

While the state authorized the use of parking benefit districts through the Municipal Modernization Act in 2016, the City of Boston has chosen not to move forward with the concept, which advocates describe as a type of parking reform that frees up high-demand curb space and benefits people paying the meter fees.

The districts have been “effectively utilized” by three other Massachusetts communities, Arlington, Brookline and Reading, “to manage parking supply and generate resources for commercial area improvements,” Arroyo said.

The bodies typically designated to manage the parking districts include main streets organizations, community planning groups and business improvement districts, he said.

“Folks in the neighborhoods who put more money into these meters should see that money directly benefit the areas in which they are placed,” Arroyo said. “The goal for this hearing is to figure out how we go about setting this up around the city, so it’s not just thrown into the … general fund and sent in different directions.”

The hearing request was largely supported by the rest of the City Council, and referred to the Committee on City Services and Innovation Technology after a brief discussion.

Councilor Gabriela Coletta, who represents East Boston, Charlestown and the North End, said her constituents often talk to her about the concept when mentioning ways to solve the “perennial issue of parking in the city.”

Councilor Liz Breadon said the districts have already been discussed as a possible parking solution in the two neighborhoods she represents, Allston and Brighton.

The matter “merits a discussion” around ways to maintain, upgrade and revitalize city streets, Breadon said, and free up curb space to ensure “someone doesn’t park their car in the main street district and leave it for the whole day.”

NEW YORK — Cher will come out of “retirement” to perform in this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, appearing in the lineup just before the only star big enough to have the “Believe” singer as an opener: Santa Claus.

The Grammy-, Emmy- and Oscar-winner will perform at the end of the 2023 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan, thrilling the audience before the man of the hour closes the festivities.

Timing will be perfect for the 77-year-old superstar, who just released her first new album in five years, “Christmas.” She’s also expected to drop a 25th anniversary edition of 1998’s “Believe” on Friday.

This year’s parade will begin 30 minutes earlier than usual, at 8:30 a.m., to accommodate a packed schedule of performers and celebrities, Macy’s announced Wednesday.

“Our talented team of Macy’s Studios artisans and production specialists work year-round to deliver the nation’s most beloved holiday event, live on Thanksgiving morning,” parade producer Will Cross said in a statement.

Grammy winner Jon Batiste will open the parade. Other performers include Pentatonix, Manuel Turizo, Chicago, Brandy and Jessie James Decker, among many more.

This year’s parade will include 5,000 volunteers, 16 featured character balloons, 26 floats, 32 heritage and novelty balloons, 12 marching bands and nine performance groups. One of the marching bands will come from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, site of a mass shooting in 2018.

Olympic gymnastics silver medalist Jordan Chiles, Paralympic swimming gold medalist Jessica Long and 2023 Miss America Grace Stanke will be in attendance, with parade organizers teasing “additional stars to be announced.”

There will be seven new massive balloons this year, including Po from “Kung Fu Panda” and the Pillsbury Doughboy. Classics including SpongeBob, Ronald McDonald and Pikachu will return as well.

Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Al Roker from the “Today” show will host the festivities on NBC.

In recent years, Macy’s has sought to have superstars perform near the end of the parade to signal Santa’s entrance. The “Queen of Christmas,” Mariah Carey, got the honor last year.

©2023 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Suffolk Superior Court Judge Katie Rayburn on Wednesday ordered the alleged shooter, Patrick Mendoza, 54, to remain behind bars until next May, a day after the suspect pleaded not guilty to charges related to the July 12 shooting outside of Modern Pastry on Hanover Street.

The incident allegedly involved a man Mendoza is said to have had a long-simmering relationship with. While no one was injured, Modern sustained damage to its window.

Mendoza, whose family owns Monica’s Trattoria on Prince Street, has been held without bail since late July after he was charged with assault by means of a dangerous weapon, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, and assault and battery.

The long-time North End resident also faces charges of carrying a firearm without an FID card or license, possession of ammunition without an FID card, witness intimidation, and possession of a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling.

Rayburn took the bail status under advisement Tuesday after hearing debate from a prosecutor and his attorney over whether Mendoza should be released.

District Attorney Kevin Hayden, in a statement, said Rayburn made the right decision to keep Mendoza barred for at least the next half year, as the bail status will continue until May 1, 2024.

“This is an appropriate ruling given the extreme danger of Mr. Mendoza’s actions, which occurred in one of the city’s busiest areas and on one of its busiest streets,” Hayden said. “To fire shots on any Boston street is intolerable, but add the fact that this area is packed with tourists, diners and residents at all times of the year – and even more so during the summer season – and the danger level ratchets up even higher.”

Mendoza’s attorney Rosemary Scapicchio asked Rayburn on Tuesday to set a “reasonable bail” and to release him to the custody of his family on conditions that would “protect the public.” She argued that prosecutors have not provided sufficient evidence that Mendoza even fired a gun at all.

Assistant District Attorney Daniel Nucci pointed out the “craziness of this shooting,” with it happening on a busy Hanover Street and on the same day Mendoza’s probation for an assault case involving the other man in 2022 expired.

Nucci said, “The Commonwealth contends that alone shows there are no conditions of release where it can say ‘That won’t happen again if Mr. Mendoza is released today, tomorrow, the next day.’ “

The ruling sides with the state’s housing department, which argued through lawyers Tuesday that it had no more funds — and is on track to run into the red — to continue expanding shelter capacity in the face of surging demand partly fueled by the number of migrant arrivals this year and suffocating housing costs.

Suffolk County Superior Court Judge Debra Squires-Lee handed down her ruling a day after the Healey administration issued emergency regulations that call for a waitlist once capacity is reached and potentially limit the amount of time families can stay in shelters.

In her ruling, Squires-Lee said the Healey administration did not violate a provision included in the state’s fiscal 2024 budget that calls for a 90-day notice to the Legislature before making any changes to emergency shelter eligibility requirements.

The notice, Squires-Lee wrote in court documents, is intended to afford the Legislature the opportunity to appropriate funding for the shelter program.

“The evidence before me, however, is clear — more than a month ago, the governor specifically requested additional appropriations for the emergency assistance program and the Legislature has failed to act,” the judge wrote. “In these circumstances, the predicate purpose of the 90-day proviso has been fulfilled; and, in all events, it is for the Legislature and not clients of the program to enforce any claimed non-compliance.”

The ruling all but guarantees uncertainty for families who apply for emergency shelter after the 7,500-family shelter cap is reached, something the administration has said could happen within days. There were 7,388 families in the system as of Tuesday, according to state data.

Lawyers for Civil Rights, the group behind the lawsuit, laid out a grim picture of what would happen if a temporary pause on the capacity plan was not put in place — migrants and homeless families could end up sleeping outside as cold weather sets in.

“Without an injunction, families, children, and pregnant women who are entitled to emergency shelter under the law will be denied a roof over their heads — forced to sleep on the streets, in cars, and in other unsafe situations. There is no other way to put it. That is the grim reality,” Attorney Oren Sellstrom wrote in court documents. “The harms that will befall them are harsh and irreparable.”

A spokesperson for the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities said the department believes “an appropriate outcome was reached.”

“The state does not have enough space, service providers or funding to safely expand shelter capacity,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Attorneys on both sides of the issue spent much of the court hearing Tuesday focused on the 90-day requirement, which says the executive branch must provide notice to the Legislature that they are making any regulatory, administrative practice, or policy changes that would “alter the eligibility” of emergency shelter benefits.

Sellstrom said emergency regulations partially outlining what happens when the shelter cap is reached were “rushed” at the eleventh hour only after the Healey administration was sued to challenge their compliance.

“Defendants are rushing drastic and material changes to the state’s long standing emergency assistance program into place, disregarding well-established laws that require an orderly process — in particular, a mandate that requires defendants to give the Legislature a 90-day period to weigh in and potentially forestall the changes altogether,” Sellstrom wrote in court documents.

But Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office argued that provision “is not privately enforceable” into a 90-day delay of emergency measures to address budget shortfalls.

Squires-Lee sided with state lawyers, writing in her ruling that Lawyers for Civil Rights provided “no case in which a court has ever held that an agency that fails to comply with such a proviso may be barred from taking action within the ambit of its statutory and regulatory authority.”

Healey has requested additional funding for emergency shelters beyond the $325 million allocated to the program in the fiscal 2024 state budget. In a separate bill closing out the books on fiscal 2023, Healey asked lawmakers to approve $250 million in additional funding.

Squires-Lee points to that request in her ruling, and notes the Legislature has not moved forward the extra dollars.

“The failure to give notice has not injured plaintiffs where notice is intended to permit the Legislature to act or not act, and the Legislature, having actual notice of the fiscal crisis, has failed to act,” Squires-Lee wrote.

Squires-Lee also agreed with a state-backed argument that she does not have the power to force the Healey administration to spend money the Legislature has not appropriated.

“As much as I wish that I possessed the power to ensure that all families who need housing have it, and that all families who require safe emergency shelter are given it, I am persuaded that it would be inappropriate to order EOHLC to continue providing emergency shelter it does not have the resources appropriated by the Legislature to fund,” the judge wrote.

How many of us have wanted a reliable, evidence-based guide to aging that explains how our bodies and minds change as we grow older and how to adapt to those differences?

Creating a work of this kind is challenging. For one thing, aging gradually alters people over decades, a long period shaped by individuals’ economic and social circumstances, their behaviors, their neighborhoods, and other factors. Also, while people experience common physiological issues in later life, they don’t follow a well-charted, developmentally predetermined path.

“Predictable changes occur, but not necessarily at the same time or in the same sequence,” said Rosanne Leipzig, vice chair for education at the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. “There’s no more heterogeneous a group than older people.”

I called Leipzig, 72, who works full time teaching medical residents and fellows and seeing patients, after reading her new 400-plus-page, information-packed book, “Honest Aging: An Insider’s Guide to the Second Half of Life.” It’s the most comprehensive examination of what to expect in later life I’ve come across in a dozen years covering aging.

Leipzig told me she had two goals in writing this guide: “to overcome all the negatives that are out there about growing older” and “to help people understand that there are lots of things that you can do to adapt to your new normal as you age and have an enjoyable, engaged, meaningful life.”

Why call it “Honest Aging”? “Because so much of what’s out there is dishonest, claiming to teach people how to age backwards,” Leipzig said. “I think it’s time we say, ‘This is it; this is who we are,’ and admit how lucky we are to have all these years of extra time.”

The doctor was referring to extraordinary gains in life expectancy achieved in the modern era. Because of medical advances, people over age 60 live far longer than people at the dawn of the 20th century. Still, most of us lack a good understanding of what happens to our bodies during this extended period after middle age.

Several months ago, a medical student asked Leipzig whether references to age should be left out of a patient’s written medical history, as references to race have been eliminated. “I told her no; with medicine, age is always relevant,” Leipzig said. “It gives you a sense of where people are in their life, what they’ve lived through, and the disorders they might have, which are different than those in younger people.”

What questions do older adults tend to ask most often? Leipzig rattled off a list: What can I do about this potbelly? How can I improve my sleep? I’m having trouble remembering names; is this dementia? Do I really need that colonoscopy or mammogram? What should I do to get back into shape? Do I really need to stop driving?

Underlying these is a poor understanding of what’s normal in later life and the physical and mental alterations aging brings.

Can the stages of aging be broken down, roughly, by decade? No, said Leipzig, noting that people in their 60s and 70s vary significantly in health and functioning. Typically, predictable changes associated with aging “start to happen much more between the ages of 75 and 85,” she told me. Here are a few of the age-related issues she highlights in her book:

• Older adults often present with different symptoms when they become ill. For instance, a senior having a heart attack may be short of breath or confused, rather than report chest pain. Similarly, an older person with pneumonia may fall or have little appetite instead of having a fever and cough.
• Older adults react differently to medications. Because of changes in body composition and liver, kidney, and gut function, older adults are more sensitive to medications than younger people and often need lower doses. This includes medications that someone may have taken for years. It also applies to alcohol.
• Older adults have reduced energy reserves. With advancing age, hearts become less efficient, lungs transfer less oxygen to the blood, more protein is needed for muscle synthesis, and muscle mass and strength decrease. The result: Older people generate less energy even as they need more energy to perform everyday tasks.
• Hunger and thirst decline. People’s senses of taste and smell diminish, lessening food’s appeal. Loss of appetite becomes more common, and seniors tend to feel full after eating less food. The risk of dehydration increases.
• Cognition slows. Older adults process information more slowly and work harder to learn new information. Multitasking becomes more difficult, and reaction times grow slower. Problems finding words, especially nouns, are typical. Cognitive changes related to medications and illness are more frequent.
• The musculoskeletal system is less flexible. Spines shorten as the discs that separate the vertebrae become harder and more compressed; older adults typically lose 1 to 3 inches in height as this happens. Balance is compromised because of changes in the inner ear, the brain, and the vestibular system (a complex system that regulates balance and a person’s sense of orientation in space). Muscles weaken in the legs, hips and buttocks, and range of motion in joints contracts. Tendons and ligaments aren’t as strong, and falls and fractures are more frequent as bones become more brittle.
• Eyesight and hearing change. Older adults need much more light to read than younger people. It’s harder for them to see the outlines of objects or distinguish between similar colors as color and contrast perception diminishes. With changes to the cornea, lens and fluid within the eye, it takes longer to adjust to sunlight as well as darkness.
• Because of accumulated damage to hair cells in the inner ear, it’s harder to hear, especially at high frequencies. It’s also harder to understand speech that’s rapid and loaded with information or that occurs in noisy environments.
• Sleep becomes fragmented. It takes longer for older adults to fall asleep, and they sleep more lightly, awakening more in the night.

This is by no means a complete list of physiological changes that occur as we grow older. And it leaves out the many ways people can adapt to their new normal, something Leipzig spends a great deal of time discussing.

A partial list of what she suggests, organized roughly by the topics above: Don’t ignore sudden changes in functioning; seek medical attention. At every doctor’s visit, ask why you’re taking medications, whether doses are appropriate, and whether medications can be stopped. Be physically active. Make sure you eat enough protein. Drink liquids even when you aren’t thirsty. Cut down on multitasking and work at your own pace. Do balance and resistance exercises. Have your eyes checked every year. Get hearing aids. Don’t exercise, drink alcohol, or eat a heavy meal within two to three hours of bedtime.

“Never say never,” Leipzig said. “There is almost always something that can be done to improve your situation as you grow older, if you’re willing to do it.”

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We’re eager to hear from readers about questions you’d like answered, problems you’ve been having with your care, and advice you need in dealing with the health care system. Visit kffhealthnews.org/columnists to submit your requests or tips.

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(KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2023 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Why spend the time and expense to get a second opinion if your doctor recommends surgery or they diagnose a serious disease? After all, you’ve been examined, tested and evaluated by an expert with many years of training.

But the harsh reality is that misdiagnosis happens a lot — and sometimes with the gravest consequences. Each year, approximately 371,000 people in the U.S. die because of diagnostic error, according to a July 2023 study in the medical journal BMJ Quality & Safety.

A medical second opinion can increase the chances that you get the correct treatment from the start, saving money, distress and maybe your life.

“Second opinions are probably the single fastest way to address diagnostic errors today,” says Dr. David Newman-Toker, director of Johns Hopkins Medicine’s Center for Diagnostic Excellence.

Seeing the right specialist or subspecialist can make all the difference. “We know [from research] that if a patient with sarcoma is seen at a sarcoma center, their survival is longer,” says Kristen Ganjoo, a medical oncologist who teaches at Stanford University’s School of Medicine.

What is a second opinion, and why is it valuable to you?

Second opinions — whether to review a surgery recommendation or a cancer diagnosis — typically require a step-by-step reexamination of a patient’s case.

The first step is to review the existing diagnosis, according to Ganjoo. For example, patients may need a pathology review at an institution that has experts in sarcomas, she says. “We have a hundred different types of sarcoma, and they’re all treated differently. If a pathologist is not familiar with sarcomas, they may make a mistake in diagnosing patients.”

Next, Ganjoo determines whether the patient needs more tests, such as a scan or an assessment of a tissue sample for genetic mutations.

Finally, she reviews the treatment plan and makes any necessary changes to it, based on all test results and her diagnosis.

But second opinions aren’t only about coming to the correct diagnosis. They can be about “what’s the best possible treatment for this particular patient at this point in their life,” says Caitlin Donovan, a senior director at the nonprofit Patient Advocate Foundation, which works to educate and empower health care consumers.

“How can you incorporate quality-of-life concerns and still get the result you want?” says Donovan. “Physicians may differ on that.”

What does a second opinion cost, and does insurance cover it?

Charges for a second opinion vary widely, as does insurance coverage.

Some major medical centers offer a second opinion service at a fixed price. A virtual second opinion at the Cleveland Clinic costs $1,850. Stanford Medicine charges $700 for an online second opinion. The package of services provided — and the medical staff’s knowledge of particular specialties — vary by institution.

If you are insured by an employer or through a state or federal health insurance marketplace, contact your insurer to ask about your coverage for second opinions for people with your diagnosis.

Medicare may pay at least some of the cost of a second opinion when surgery is recommended. Medicaid offers some coverage of second opinions; call your state’s Medicaid office for details.

You may be able to pay any out-of-pocket costs of a second opinion through your health savings account (HSA) or flexible spending account (FSA).

Financial assistance for second-opinion expenses for certain diagnoses may be available through a variety of organizations, including the Patient Advocate Foundation and the Sarcoma Alliance.

If you are shy about asking for a second opinion

Some patients are embarrassed to let their doctor know that they’d like to get a second opinion. But if you do encounter resistance, know that you’re pursuing a reasonable course of action.

“Any good physician is going to encourage you to explore your treatment options,” says Donovan.

“Sometimes you just have the wrong clinician,” says Newman-Toker. “They’re overconfident or they’re not interested in asking deeper questions or hearing your concerns as a patient. Then, you just need a new doctor.”

Avoiding misdiagnosis

Newman-Toker offers these tips:

• Come to your appointments prepared with a simple, printed summary of your timeline of symptoms and problems, to leave more time for discussion and questions.
• Ask hard questions, such as, “What’s the worst thing that this could be, and why is my condition not that,” says Newman-Toker. If the doctor bristles, consider going to another. “You have to rely on asking probing questions to see if your physician is committed to getting it right.”
• After treatment begins, remain vigilant, Newman-Toker says. “Don’t assume that if you don’t get a good result, your treatment needs to be adjusted, rather than your diagnosis reevaluated. Maybe it’s time for a second opinion.”

The article Getting a Second Opinion Can Help Ward Off Misdiagnosis originally appeared on NerdWallet.

When Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis announced his presidential campaign in May, he proudly told the nation that Florida’s crime rate in 2021 had reached a 50-year low.

But really, DeSantis couldn’t say for sure.

That’s because fewer than 1 in 10 law enforcement agencies in his state had reported their crime statistics to the FBI. In fact, more than 40% of the Sunshine State’s population was unaccounted for in the data used by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement in its 2021 statewide crime report.

In Wichita, Kansas, Democratic Mayor Brandon Whipple claimed in May that violent crime had decreased by half during his term. But Whipple’s source, the FBI’s Crime Data Explorer, missed half the violent crimes recorded by the Wichita Police Department, possibly because the agency couldn’t mesh its system with the FBI’s recently revamped system.

Across the country, law enforcement agencies’ inability — or refusal — to send their annual crime data to the FBI has resulted in a distorted picture of the United States’ crime trends, according to a new Stateline analysis of the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting program participation data.

“We have policymakers making policy based on completely incomplete data. We have political elections being determined based on vibes rather than actual data. It’s a mess,” said Jeff Asher, a data analyst and co-founder of AH Datalytics, a data consulting firm.

Experts warn that some policymakers, knowingly or unknowingly, use those flawed statistics to tout promising crime trends — misleading voters. The inaccurate data also can affect efforts to improve public safety and criminal justice, potentially leading policymakers to miss the mark in addressing real community issues.

“The problem for voters is that they don’t have very good information about what levels of safety actually are,” said Anna Harvey, a politics, data science and law professor at New York University. Harvey also is the director of the university’s Public Safety Lab and the president of the Social Science Research Council.

“They’re a little bit vulnerable to politicians who are kind of throwing around allegations and claims about crime that may or may not be accurate,” she told Stateline.

DeSantis faced criticism for repeating the incomplete numbers, and NBC News this summer reported that law enforcement rank-and-file had warned that the statistics weren’t correct.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement defended the numbers to NBC News, saying, in part, that “criticism about FDLE’s robust data collection methods is unfounded.”

FBI’s switch to a new system

A year ago, when the FBI initially released its 2021 national crime data, there wasn’t enough information to tell whether crime went up, went down or stayed the same. The FBI had estimated results for areas that declined to submit data or were unable to do so.

That’s partly because the FBI had rolled out a new reporting system. The data collection system, called the National Incident-Based Reporting System, or NIBRS, gathered more detail on individual incidents but also required training and tech upgrades by state and local policing agencies.

For the first time in two decades, the national law enforcement reporting rate fell below 70% in 2021, primarily due to the FBI’s transition. In 2022, many law enforcement agencies across the country were not NIBRS-certified in time to submit their 2021 crime data, which contributed to lower reporting rates.

Even before the new system launched, there was a gap in reporting nationwide. Prior to 2021, 23% of U.S. law enforcement agencies on average did not report any crime data to the FBI. In 2020, 24% of agencies did not report, and in 2021, it surged to 40%.

Inconsistent reporting not only hampers the ability to draw comparisons over time and across state lines, but also injects uncertainty into discussions about crime, said Ames Grawert, senior counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice’s justice program. The Brennan Center is a left-leaning law and policy group.

“Issues like that are invariably going to lead to some people having a misunderstanding of crime data — makes it harder to talk about crime in some states, especially given the low participation rate in Florida, for example,” Grawert said in an interview with Stateline.

The FBI’s latest crime report, released earlier this month, offers a glimmer of progress toward transparency: Seventy-one percent of law enforcement agencies nationwide submitted data through NIBRS or the FBI’s previous reporting system, up 11 percentage points from last year. About 60% of participating law enforcement agencies submitted their data exclusively through NIBRS this year. The FBI accepted data through both NIBRS and the older system this year, a change from last year’s NIBRS-only approach.

According to the incomplete numbers, violent crime in the U.S. dropped last year, returning to pre-pandemic levels, while property crimes saw a significant increase.

While crime data reporting to the FBI is optional, some states, such as Illinois and Minnesota, have laws requiring their local law enforcement agencies to report crime data to their state law enforcement agencies. State law enforcement agencies often serve as clearinghouses for local crime data, and in some states, they are responsible for sharing this data with the feds. Some local agencies also may send their data directly to the FBI.

But some states lag.

Florida, Illinois, Louisiana and West Virginia, for example, all remain below the 50% reporting mark, which means less than half of the police departments in their states submitted 2022 crime data to the FBI. Despite these reporting rates, the data shows that greater shares of these state’s populations were represented in last year’s data than in 2021.

Florida has had the lowest reporting rate two years in a row — 6% in 2021 and 44% in 2022 — partly because of the state’s ongoing transition to NIBRS. For 2021, the FBI did not accept Florida’s data through the previous data collection system, which would have represented about 58% of the state’s population, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Public Information Office.

“It’s a problem in both red and blue states, it’s also a local issue,” Kylie Murdock, a policy adviser with Third Way, a left-leaning national think tank, said in an interview with Stateline.

“When people use this data to back up tough-on-crime approaches, and say, ‘Our approach in this state is working’ — when in reality, that’s not necessarily the truth because you don’t know the full scope of the problem,” said Murdock.

Roughly a quarter of the U.S. population was not represented in the 2022 federal crime data, according to a Stateline analysis. More than 6,000 of 22,116 law enforcement agencies did not submit data.

Major police departments, including those in big cities such as Los Angeles and New York, did not submit any data in 2021. NYPD said it couldn’t submit summary statistics in 2021 as it had previously because of the FBI’s change in requirements, but was NIBRS-certified this year. Both cities’ departments did submit summary data to the FBI in 2022 through the old reporting system.

The FBI’s 2021 agency participation data shows that the 10 states with the lowest reporting rates included a balanced mix of both blue and red states, while last year’s data shows more red states among the 10 states with the lowest reporting rates.

Political and social consequences

The gaps in the FBI’s crime data create significant challenges for researchers and policymakers attempting to make sense of crime trends. As elections draw near and crime has reclaimed the spotlight, these challenges become increasingly pressing.

During last year’s congressional elections, 61% of registered voters said violent crime would be very important when making their decision about whom to vote for, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center.

While the overall violent crime rate has steadily declined on average over the past 20 years, the Pew Research Center suggested that voters might be reacting to specific types of violent crime, such as homicide, which saw a 30% increase between 2019 and 2020 — one of the largest year-over-year increases on record.

A lack of accurate, real-time crime data leaves voters vulnerable to political manipulation, said Harvey, the New York University professor.

“Voters tend to not have that kind of access. Politicians then try to play on voters’ concerns about crime, but without giving voters the information that will actually be useful for them,” Harvey said.

Experts expect that the challenge of incomplete national crime data — and the incomplete picture it presents — will persist for years because many law enforcement agencies still are working to adopt the new reporting system.

That could affect how policymakers allocate money for law enforcement, crime prevention programs and other public safety initiatives. With crime data, it’s important to know what types of crimes are included and to avoid narrow timeframes when describing trends, said Ernesto Lopez, a research specialist for the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan research think tank.

“Oftentimes relying on the FBI data, which tends to be outdated, really allows politicians to sensationalize a few news stories. Without having more up-to-date data, it may not be accurate,” Lopez told Stateline.

“Politician or otherwise, when we talk about crime, it’s really important to have a larger context.”

Federal assistance

Law enforcement agencies nationwide have received over$180 million in federal funding to help with the transition since the FBI’s switch to its new NIBRS reporting system was announced in 2015. Many law enforcement agencies are still working to fully transition to the new system.

For example, in Louisiana, the agencies serving some of the state’s most populous cities, including Lafayette, New Orleans and Shreveport, did not report any data to the FBI last year because they were implementing new records management systems, according to Jim Craft, the executive director of the Louisiana Commission on Law Enforcement.

Louisiana’s low reporting rate may be due to smaller law enforcement agencies reporting crime statistics through their local sheriff’s office, which makes it look like fewer agencies are reporting, Craft wrote in an email.

In Hawaii, the police departments serving Maui and Hawaii counties were not certified in time to submit data through NIBRS to the FBI last year, according to Paul Perrone, the director of the Hawaii Uniform Crime Reporting program. Last month, Hawaii became one of the few states where all law enforcement agencies are NIBRS-certified, Perrone wrote in an email.

Meanwhile, even as more law enforcement agencies submit data in coming years, experts warn that the FBI’s database accounts only for crimes reported to the police. And according to the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, over 50% of violent crimes and about 70% of property crimes are never reported.

Stateline is part of States Newsroom, a national nonprofit news organization focused on state policy.

©2023 States Newsroom. Visit at stateline.org. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

The return of federal student loan payments in October threatens to derail prospects for graduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities, a cohort already facing steep economic disadvantages.

Aid makes college possible for many HBCU students: 85% of their graduates in 2020 used federal loans, versus 59% of non-HBCU students, according to the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, with HBCU graduates and their parents on average holding almost $21,000 more in federal loan debt.

The nation’s more than 100 HBCUs, including Spelman College in Atlanta and Howard University in Washington, D.C., serve more low-income and first-generation students than traditional schools and aim to help close the wealth gap between Black households and their white counterparts.

Parents of HBCU students are also more likely to take on loans to support their kids, on average. With payments resuming amid high prices and mortgage rates, entire families are forced to cut back.

Jasmine Payne, a 2015 graduate of Spelman who took on $36,000 in federal undergraduate debt, said the pause allowed her to pay off her car. Now, she faces a $342 student loan bill each month — a burden she said has forced her to delay plans to buy a new car and house and rethink traveling.

Andre Perry, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, said the pause allowed Black borrowers like Payne to both invest in and save for their futures.

“When students have to repay these loans, it also throttles our ability to own homes, to purchase cars, to start businesses,” Perry said. “We’re also going to see those issues come about.”

Underfunded

From 2019 to 2022, the wealth of Black families grew faster than that of white families, according to the Federal Reserve, but that was thanks to temporary, pandemic-era government aid and lower interest rates. And while that helped narrow the ratio of Black wealth to white wealth, Black household wealth still lags far behind that of their white counterparts.

Helene Gayle, the president of Spelman, said that nearly half the school’s students in any given year are eligible for a Pell Grant, a need-based aid reward — meaning half the student body has high financial needs.

Despite all this, HBCUs do not receive the same levels of government aid and endowments that other institutions do. These funds would enable them to provide scholarships and grants. “We have to continue to do more with less,” Gayle said.

In one vivid example, non-HBCU land-grant schools have received $12 billion more in government aid than HBCU land-grant schools, according to letters sent by the Education Department to 16 governors that urged them to address the issue.

Despite the funding shortfall, HBCUs continue facilitating upward economic mobility for the Black community. HBCUs support more low-income students in earning their way into higher income categories later in life than the national average for colleges, according to a 2021 United Negro College Fund report.

“Even with all of those factors that work against us,” Gayle said, “we still are able to provide students with an economic foothold that they wouldn’t have otherwise.”

‘No extra money’

To help pay for her daughter’s tuition, Payne’s mother, a preschool teacher, took out about $15,000 in Parent PLUS loans, federal loans issued to parents of dependent undergraduate students.

The downside is these loans come with higher interest rates and origination fees than loans issued directly to the student. They’re also ineligible for repayment plans based on the size of one’s income, such as the Biden administration’s new SAVE plan.

Deanna Folefac, a graduate of Bowie State University, said she is focused on paying back the $8,000 Parent PLUS loan her mother took out before turning to her own $25,000 in loan debt.

While some 13% of all 2020 college graduate families took out Parent PLUS loans, HBCU graduates make up 42% of those borrowers. Of Spelman graduates who used these loans, the median size of the loan to fund their undergraduate career is almost $106,000 — among the highest in the nation, according to the Education Department.

Due to a lack of financial aid, Dyonne Diggs, a 2017 graduate of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, an HBCU, went on a two-year leave from her education. Ultimately, she took on $58,000 in debt. Her stepfather also took out an additional $3,000 in Parent PLUS loans.

She said she will utilize the Biden administration’s 12-month payment on-ramp and hold off on paying her $400 monthly student loan bill. “I’m an educator so there’s literally no extra money,” Diggs said.

‘We’re used’

In June, the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden’s plan to cancel as much as $20,000 in federal student loan debt per borrower for those making under $125,000 a year.

Though Biden will reportedly unveil a new forgiveness plan next year, his options to help student borrowers — and HBCU students, in particular — remain limited.

He could broaden his SAVE plan to help lower payments and make Parent PLUS loans eligible for this plan, Perry said, but the Supreme Court’s ruling likely spoils any further broad-based forgiveness.

Diggs said she voted for Biden in 2020 after he promised to forgive some student loan debt, but plans to sit out in 2024.

“Every four years, we’re used as a scapegoat,” she said. “We’re used as, you know, ‘vote for your lives and all of these things are going to happen.’ And they don’t happen.”

___

©2023 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

I’d say it is one of the top questions readers ask. Today I’ll help answer that one as best I can:

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I dug up the four-page edition of the Nov. 1, 1848, evening edition of the Boston Herald. That year is as far back as our archive goes. We don’t have every month from back then, but we sure do have Nov. 1.

It’s a fascinating read from this day back then. Here are some photos from this date in history.

Salem Police found Beliard inside a vehicle suffering from gunshot wounds several blocks away from campus. They responded to a report of a shooting in the area of 22 Forest Ave., at about 1:24 a.m., just hours after Halloween festivities had concluded.

Beliard was taken to Salem Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Authorities arrested the suspect, Missael Pena Canela, 18, of Salem, on a murder charge Wednesday evening, Essex County District Attorney Paul Tucker and Salem Police Chief Lucas Miller announced at a news conference.

Canela will be arraigned Thursday at Salem District Court.

Authorities have not released a cause behind the shooting, but investigators said the incident did not appear to be a random act of violence and that there wasn’t an ongoing threat to the Salem State community.

In a letter to the campus community, Salem State President John Keenan, writing with a “broken heart,” said Beliard was shot and killed while driving his car on Forest Avenue.

“As both the Salem State president and a college dad, this tragedy is heartbreaking for all in our community and every parent’s worst nightmare,” Keenan said in a statement.

Beliard lived on campus and was preparing for his first season on the university’s varsity basketball team, Keenan said.

Beliard helped guide the Worcester North High’s boys’ basketball team to a state championship, defeating Needham last March. The team finished the season 24-2, becoming the first public school from Worcester to win a Division 1 state title, according to the Telegram & Gazette.

“We have a lot of chemistry on the team and that’s how we got so far, that’s why we’re here right now,” Beliard told the Worcester newspaper at a championship celebration. “We hang out outside of basketball. We’re all playing basketball. It’s really like a brotherhood.”

Beliard, a 6 foot 5 forward, began studying sport and movement science at Salem State this fall and had his eyes set on gaining a doctorate in physical therapy.

Tragically, the “wonderful young man” will not get to live out his dream.

A Facebook fan page for the Worcester North Polar Bears basketball teams posted photos in memory of Beliard, including one from when Mayor Joe Petty awarded him a “key to the city” after they won the championship.

“Carl was a wonderful young man who was continuing his education at Salem State and joined the Salem State Vikings basketball team after a summer of enjoying all the accolades of his championship status,” the post reads. “We are processing this all and his teammates are currently with appropriate professionals considering the gravity of this news.

“We love you, Carl. RIP and Godspeed young man,” the post continues. “If you pray, please pray for his mother and family.”

Tucker said in a statement, “This senseless gun violence is tragic not only for the victim’s family but for the SSU community and beyond. State Police detectives assigned to my office are working closely with the Salem Police Department and Salem State University officials to identify and bring the person responsible to justice.”

City resident Alyssa Jackson, who lives near campus, told WCVB that she often hears noises from parties and other activities at the university, “but we don’t hear gunshots around here.”

“I heard the car alarm that was going off, so I thought somebody was just breaking into a car,” Jackson said, “and then my mom went out front, thought the same thing at first, and then after a while saw the bullet hole in the back of the window.”

Worcester Superintendent Rachel H. Monarrez and North High principal Sam FanFan, in a letter to the school community, said counselors were available to talk and support anyone affected by the incident.

“Carl was an accomplished athlete whose life ended just as it was just beginning,” Monarrez wrote. “I cannot imagine the pain of the student’s family.”

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hundreds of dual passport holders and dozens of seriously injured Palestinians were allowed to leave Gaza on Wednesday after more than three weeks under siege, while Israeli airstrikes destroyed apartments in a densely populated area for the second straight day.

The group were the first people to leave Gaza — other than four hostages released by Hamas and another rescued by Israeli forces — even as bombings have driven hundreds of thousands from their homes, and food, water and fuel run low. It remained unclear whether more people would be allowed to leave Gaza in coming days.

Al-Jazeera television, one of the few media outlets still reporting from northern Gaza, aired footage of leveled apartments in the densely populated Jabaliya refugee camp near Gaza City, and of several wounded people, including children, being brought to a nearby hospital. The Hamas-run government said airstrikes killed and wounded many people, but the exact toll was not yet known. Hamas has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, Canada and the European Union.

The Al-Jazeera footage showed nearly identical scenes as the day before; dozens of men dug through the gray rubble of demolished multistory buildings in search of survivors.

The toll from Tuesday’s strikes was also unknown, though the director of a nearby hospital said hundreds were killed or wounded. Israel said those strikes killed dozens of militants, including a senior Hamas commander who was involved in the terrorists’ bloody Oct. 7 rampage that ignited the war, and destroyed militant tunnels beneath the buildings.

In a sign of increasing alarm over the war among Arab countries, Jordan on Wednesday recalled its ambassador from Israel and told Israel’s ambassador to remain out of the country. Jordan, a key U.S. ally, signed a peace deal with Israel in 1994, the second Arab country after Egypt to do so.

Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister, Ayman al-Safadi, said the return of the ambassadors is linked to Israel “stopping its war on Gaza … and the humanitarian catastrophe it is causing.” He warned of the potential of the conflict to spread, threatening “the security of the entire region.”

ISRAELI ARMY ADVANCES DEEPER INTO GAZA

Israeli ground forces pushed to the outskirts of Gaza City, days after launching a new phase of the war that Israel’s leaders say will be long and difficult. Internet and phone service was cut for several hours Wednesday, a replay of the temporary communications blackout when Israeli ground troops first advanced in large numbers into Gaza over the weekend.

Over half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have fled their homes, and supplies of food, medicine, water and fuel are running low. A territory-wide blackout has left hospitals reliant on generators that could soon be forced to shut down.

The strikes in Jabaliya underline the anticipated surge in casualties on both sides as Israeli troops advance toward the outskirts of Gaza City and its dense residential neighborhoods. Israeli officials say Hamas’ military infrastructure, including hundreds of kilometers (miles) of underground tunnels, is concentrated in the city, which was home to some 650,000 people before the war.

BORDER OPENS TO ALLOW SOME PEOPLE OUT

Six buses carrying 335 foreign passport holders left Gaza through the Rafah crossing into Egypt as of mid-afternoon Wednesday, according to Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority.

The authority said the plan was for more than 400 foreign passport holders to leave for Egypt. Egypt has said it will not accept an influx of Palestinian refugees because of fears Israel will not allow them to return to Gaza after the war.

Dozens of people could be seen entering the Rafah crossing — the only one currently operating — and ambulances carrying wounded Palestinians exited on the Egyptian side.

Egypt had earlier said that more than 80 Palestinians — out of many thousands wounded in the war — would also be brought in for treatment. But Dr. Mohamed Zaqout, a Health Ministry official in Gaza, told The Associated Press that 10 of the patients died before they could be evacuated to Egypt. The criteria for medical evacuation were not immediately clear.

LACK OF POWER, COMMUNICATIONS CAUSES HARM

Those who remain behind are contending with multiple crises, made worse Wednesday by the communications blackout. The Palestinian telecoms company Paltel said internet and mobile phone services were gradually being restored in Gaza following a “complete disruption” that lasted several hours.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said such blackouts make it harder for civilians to seek safety. “Even the potentially life-saving act of calling an ambulance becomes impossible,” said Jessica Moussan, an ICRC spokesperson.

The Palestinian Health Ministry, meanwhile, said that the Turkish-Palestinian Hospital, Gaza’s only facility offering specialized treatment for cancer patients, was forced to shut down because of lack of fuel, leaving 70 cancer patients in a critical situation.

DEATH TOLL KEEPS RISING

More than 8,700 Palestinians have been killed in the war, mostly women and minors, and more than 22,000 people have been wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Wednesday, without providing a breakdown between civilians and fighters. The figure is without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Over 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during Hamas’ initial attack, also an unprecedented figure. Palestinian militants also abducted around 240 people during their incursion and have continued firing rockets into Israel.

Fifteen Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the start of the ground operation.

Israel has been vague about its operations in Gaza, but residents and spokesmen for militant groups say troops appear to be trying to take control of the two main north-south roads.

An estimated 800,000 Palestinians have fled south from Gaza City and other northern areas following Israeli orders to evacuate, but hundreds of thousands remain in the north.

Israel has allowed international aid groups to send more than 200 trucks carrying food and medicine to enter from Egypt over the past 10 days, but aid workers say it’s not nearly enough.

AFTER WAR IN GAZA, THEN WHAT?

Israel has vowed to crush Hamas’ ability to govern Gaza or threaten it, while also saying it does not plan to reoccupy the territory, from which it withdrew soldiers and settlers in 2005. But it has said little about who would govern Gaza afterwards.

In congressional testimony on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested that “at some point, what would make the most sense is for an effective and revitalized Palestinian Authority to have governance and ultimately security responsibility for Gaza.”

Hamas drove the authority’s forces out of Gaza in a week of heavy fighting in 2007, leaving it with limited control over parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Palestinian support for the President Mahmoud Abbas has plunged since then, with many Palestinians dismissing the PA as little more than Israel’s police force because it helps suppress Hamas and other militant groups.

In other developments:

— In the West Bank, Israeli forces raided the Jenin refugee camp Wednesday morning, killing three Palestinians, local health officials said. The Israeli military said it carried out a drone strike in the camp, hitting several militants. Since the war began, 130 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank, either by Israeli forces or by Jewish settlers.

— In northern Israel, mortars and anti-tank rockets were fired from Lebanon toward several Israeli communities, causing no injuries and prompting Israeli strikes on the launch sites, the military said. Hezbollah and Palestinian militants in Lebanon have exchanged fire with Israeli forces on a daily basis over the border.

___

This story has been updated to clarify that, in addition to four hostages released by Hamas, a fifth was rescued by Israeli forces.

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writers Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, and Amy Teibel in Jerusalem, contributed to this report.

Full AP coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war.

In a signed affidavit filed in Suffolk County Superior Court, Administration and Finance Assistant Secretary Aditya Basheer laid out the projected cost as a judge weighed whether to put a hold on a plan to cap the number of families in emergency shelter, which has swelled this year partly because of a surge in migrant arrivals.

“If family shelter net caseload continues to expand at a rate consistent with the activity of the last several months, the state projects a shelter caseload of approximately 13,500 families by the end of (fiscal year 2024),” Basheer wrote. “This would represent a 187% increase over the caseload contemplated in the FY24 budget. This projected caseload would result in family shelter and associated programs costs of approximately $1.1 billion in FY24.”

Lawmakers on Beacon Hill shuttled $325 million to the emergency shelter program in the fiscal 2024 state budget to support 4,100 families, and Gov. Maura Healey has asked the Legislature for $250 million more in a budget that closes the books on the previous fiscal year.

But state lawyers have said the emergency shelter program has $535 million “in contract commitments” to shelter and other service providers through the end of fiscal 2024. The program is expected to quickly run out of money, and even into the red.

The state’s housing department is attempting to limit the number of families in emergency shelter to 7,500, a move that has drawn a legal challenge from Lawyers for Civil Rights, which argues the Healey administration did not follow proper procedures laid out in state law.

There were 7,388 families in emergency shelters as of Tuesday, according to state data, with 3,687 in hotels and motels, 3,683 in traditional sites, and 63 in temporary shelters like Joint Base Cape Cod and a Quincy college dorm building.

Graphs included in Basheer’s affidavit also show the state expects about 1,000 families to enter emergency shelter each month through the end of fiscal 2024 — assuming the system was constantly expanded.

“Along with the explosive growth in shelter demand over the past year, there has been a widening gap between ‘entries’ (the number of families entering shelter each month) and ‘exits’ (the number of families exiting each month,” Basheer said. “This means that the current levels of pressure on the emergency assistance program are trending to be long-term in nature, with the families entering shelter today expected to remain until at least FY25.”

The Healey administration informed state lawmakers of that projection earlier this year in a series of meetings on migrant arrivals and the emergency shelter system.

Lawyers argued in court Tuesday over whether the state has enough money to continue funding shelter expansion — often through the use of hotels and motels — if a pause was put in place, with state attorneys pointing to the likelihood of a deficit.

“What they ask is not a preservation of the status quo, but, instead, the continued procurement of EA shelter placements to meet new entrants numbering between 20 and 50 additional families per day, despite insufficient appropriations to do so,” Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office wrote in court documents.

Lawyers for Civil Rights laid out a grim picture of what would happen if a temporary pause on the capacity plan was not put in place — migrants and homeless families sleeping outside as cold weather sets in.

“Without an injunction, families, children, and pregnant women who are entitled to emergency shelter under the law will be denied a roof over their heads — forced to sleep on the streets, in cars, and in other unsafe situations. There is no other way to put it. That is the grim reality,” the group wrote in court documents. “The harms that will befall them are harsh and irreparable.”

Mayor Michelle Wu said at a press conference from the street Wednesday that enforcement “has been months in the process”  — which took coordinated efforts to figure out the treatment and shelter needs for each person living there. Two city officials confirmed to the Herald a little after 5:30 p.m. that the few tents that had remained were cleared.

While she said the goal was to have Atkinson Street cleared by the afternoon, she did not commit to the idea that “this is the end to the encampment at Mass and Cass.” She said completely turning the area around “will take a tremendous amount of sustained effort.”

But her tone was hopeful: “Even though we know it will not be fixed overnight, I feel very grateful and confident that the coordination that we’ve seen is unlike ever before in the city.”

Just before 8 a.m., a few Boston Police sergeants started walking down the short street that has served as a tent city serving the denizens of the Mass and Cass area, the center of Massachusetts’ opioid epidemic. About 30 minutes later, 13 cops were being briefed by three BPD captains at the end of the street.

The presence of the police, as well as the contingent of patrolling Ware Security guards — a firm retained by the Boston Public Health Commission — didn’t seem to distress the people inhabiting the remaining 14 tents.

There had been more than 50 tents densely packing Atkinson from Southampton Street and Bradston Street, according to Tania Del Rio, the director of Wu’s Coordinated Response Team for the area’s plight.

Del Rio said that by Tuesday, 52 of those who had been living there had already moved, 25 had accepted a city offer for finding them shelter and services and another seven people would be “provided a placement setting today.”

While the Roundhouse hotel, the former Best Western location that housed 60 from Mass and Cass, shut down in September, Wu said almost 200 units had been created, with another 30 more “low-threshold beds” at the new shelter two blocks away “to help absorb and manage the disruption of this transition.”

A tall man reeled, barely holding on to his balance, on the sidewalk behind them. A long-haired man in a green hooded sweatshirt energetically danced around the first tent as others mulled about near him. A blonde woman recognizable from previous Herald photos of the encampment paced back and forth with what appeared to be a McDonald’s frappe in her hand.

Marie Ann Ponti, director of outreach programs at St. Anthony Shrine, and another woman tried to speak with the woman about her plans for shelter, but she waved them away with her straw and continued pacing. While this woman wasn’t receptive, Ponti told the Herald that she had been having a successful morning working with others on finalizing their housing plans.

St. Anthony Shrine jumps in to Mass and Cass mess

Across from them a tent had a homey decoration that said “Fall, Sweet Fall” on a pumpkin plaque.

The third tent down Atkinson from Southampton was partially deconstructed by 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, and while its tarps were bundled, the remnants of the people who had left it remained: an empty basic tool case shell, a mess of plastic utensils, aromatic candles, single shoes without their mates, the novel “Perfect Liars” by Kimberly Reid — the end of her last name ripped from its cover — and a NERF gun were some highlights. A woman with a collection of syringes in a Coke bottle found the NERF gun and put it in her purse.

“Once the last tent does come down, we will make sure that the street is cleaned and that there's some more of those services just to ensure that this area is how it should be, but that won't be the end of our efforts by any means,” Wu said.

During the clean-up in January of last year, Wu said, the city hauled away some 44 tons of trash, with much of that weight made up of rigid shelters, which were not as prevalent these days. On Tuesday the city took away two tons with what remained on Wednesday expected to be no more than three tons.

When it’s done, Wu said that “here, as in anywhere across the city, the laws will be enforced” and that the police will maintain a presence there.

City Council President Ed Flynn said he was there to “thank the police” and the other workers helping people get into shelter and treatment. A later statement added, that it is important “our city continues to show that we are serious in maintaining a zero tolerance policy moving forward when it comes to the public safety issues that occurred partially due to the tents and encampments in the area.”

By 11 a.m., the first half of the street’s tents and debris were clear, but the people who left had not disappeared. Instead, many could be seen gathering in nearby alleys, others picking through bushes, and a contingent of 14 — two of whom, like was seen all morning on Atkinson Street, were visibly shooting up — grouped up in the McDonald’s parking lot.

If, on the other hand, you are somewhat less than ecstatic about outrageous taxes, hordes of illegal aliens on welfare, the Legislature’s impending gun grab, the fifth or sixth highest utility rates in the US, the utter breakdown of law and order and not just in Boston either….

If any of this concerns you, you might want to… send them a message, as they used to say.

Next Tuesday, you can do just that by voting for a Republican in the special election to replace a Democrat who resigned to grab a $117,000-a-year hack job from Gov. Maura Healey.

Only three of the 39 current members of the state Senate are Republicans. The GOP could literally caucus in a telephone booth. That’s how far the party has fallen, and it’s why a Republican victory might actually mean something.

Rep. Peter Durant is running in a semi-rural central Massachusetts district that includes one city (Gardner), a couple of Worcester wards, and 19 towns, all but one of them in Worcester County.

A Durant victory would be the first Republican takeaway of a Democrat seat since 2018. That’s how long the party’s tailspin has been going on.

Despite their iron grip on power, the Democrats are pulling out all the stops to defeat Durant. They want Massachusetts to be even more of a one-party state than it already is.

The Democrat candidate is another state rep, a 33-year-old named Jonathan Zlotnik. He seems to be rather a nonentity, but all that matters is that “D” after his name.

By his campaign contributors, ye shall know him, and you should see the collection of hacks who’ve ponied up big time for Mr. Z.

First, Marty Meehan, the career coat holder who is now the $697,076-a-year president of hack-infested UMass. Ya think Marty could afford that $200 he sent the Democrat?

Marty has an “assistant to the president” named David McDermott. He makes a mere $350,000 a year. At ZooMass this is called a starting wage. McDermott gave $250.

More interesting, though, is the $200 contribution Zlotnik pocketed even before this current election, from one Ken Halloran. Does that name ring a bell? Probably not, but keep your eyes on this payroll patriot.

Halloran is the “partner” of Tara Healey, the younger sister of Maura Healey. Partner – that’s how Tara is described in the obituary for Halloran’s mom, and in the pages of a local state-run media outlet, the Globe.

He was basically a state-paid lobbyist for the State Police during the very ethical era of Leigha Genduso, Troop E organized racketeering, tubby corrupt union boss Dana Pullman and a cast of dozens of other unspeakably corrupt troopers.

Halloran retired in January 2022, after it became clear that the sister of his “partner” was going to be the next governor. He pocketed his $90,451-a-year pension.

Now he’s in a new lobbying firm with, among others, ex-Sen. Henri Rauschenbach, age 76. Republican Rauschenbach has a nickname – Kickenbach – from his corruption trial in 1995 on conflict-of-interest and conspiracy charges. He beat the rap. It always helps to be tried by a Suffolk County jury.

Like all the other ancient lobbyists I wrote about on Sunday, Kickenbach last won an election in the 20th century – in 1996.

But now Kickenbach is living large, partnered up with the governor’s almost brother-in-law. Ya think that connection helps when you’re soliciting business on Beacon Hill?

It’s only natural that Halloran would be funneling cash to Rep. Peter Durant’s opponent. Democrats, you know.

Many of the ancient lobbyists I wrote about in my Sunday column want to keep the party going. The state is imploding, but they’re getting filthy rich on their way out the door.

Zlotnik’s lobbyist contributors include all the old Boston glad-handers, with names like Joyce, Delaney, Malloy and Hickey. From the Worcester forgotten-but-not-gone brigade, he’s grabbed cash from Joe Ricca and Paul Giorgio.

He’s also collected from most of the furthest-left state senators in the far, far left state Senate: Pat Jehlen, William Brownsberger, Susan Moran, Jason Lewis et al.

But the lobbyists’ showering of cash to Zlotnik is the most telling. These slugs run everything on Beacon Hill. As a group, they’re not terribly swift, but in the kingdom of the blind, the one-eyed man shall lead.

When they write another billion-dollar blank check for their bundlers and advocates and brothers-in-law, all the lobbyists do is scrawl a few words at the top of the legislation:

“Notwithstanding any general or special order to the contrary….”

And that is exactly the reason there should be at least a handful of Republicans up there to yell: “Stop thief!”

Perusing the list of greed-crazed hacks who are spending thousands to defeat Rep. Peter Durant, I keep asking myself one question.

Is there a single ex-legislator over the age of 75 — indicted, convicted or otherwise — who isn’t riding off into the sunset pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from “lobbying” at the State House?

I just came across two more of the erstwhile solons approaching the checkout counter yesterday.

One was an ex-state rep named Steve Karol. He last won an election in 1992. Now, at age 75, he has a lobbying firm with a 78-year-old ex-state senator named W. Paul White. White’s name most recently appeared on the ballot in 1996.

But when the Democrats blew the hack dog whistle, these two old-timers raised their snouts from the trough and came hobbling back to the crime scene. Because they want to keep the dumpster fire that is Massachusetts state government going.

It’s good for business – monkey business.

If you agree with all the above tax-fattened Democrat millionaires that happy days are here again in Massachusetts, you should definitely not vote for Peter Durant in the special state Senate election next Tuesday.

Durant wants to be that guy yelling, “Stop thief!”

(Order Howie’s new book, “Paper Boy: Read All About It!” at howiecarrshow.com or amazon.com.)

“We’re going to get people into programs and change their lives,” said Fr. Thomas Conway, executive director of St. Anthony Shrine. “They just need a trained social worker to give them a little push.”

That’s where the Shrine’s Mary Ann Ponti, director of outreach programs at St. Anthony Shrine, goes to work.

“God bless Mary Ann,” said Conway. “She’s working on the mayor’s teams and is spending part of the week over on Mass and Cass.”

The Shrine, located in Downtown Crossing on Arch Street, has been a respite for the soul and for the hungry for decades. The friars and staff hold their annual fundraising gala tonight and donations go to missions like the one along Mass and Cass.

Conway said there’s no one answer to the opioid epidemic — seen in its raw reality in the encampment — but you have to begin with each individual.

“The answer is walking into a group of people and talking to each person. One you tell to ‘go home.’ Someone else needs help with heroin addiction or needs Alcoholics Anonymous; some need to go to Pine Street while others who have a warrant out on them need to go to court,” he added.

Conway said while the rest of Boston networks, some aren’t that adept at asking for help or seeing there’s a way out off the streets.

The Shrine is one place that has always been a beacon for those who don’t get much light in their life. Today will be a difficult transition for some along Mass and Cass — and the Shrine will once again be part of the solution.

To donate to the Shrine, go their website at stanthonyshrine.org.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve kept its key short-term interest rate unchanged Wednesday for a second straight time but left the door open to further rate hikes if inflation pressures should accelerate in the months ahead.

The Fed said in a statement after its latest meeting that it would keep its benchmark rate at about 5.4%, its highest level in 22 years. Since launching the most aggressive series of rate hikes in four decades in March 2022 to fight inflation, the Fed has pulled back and has now raised rates only once since May.

The central bank’s latest statement noted that the economy “expanded at a strong pace” in the July-September quarter and that job gains “remain strong.” And it reiterated that future rate hikes, if the Fed finds them necessary, remain under consideration.

But it also acknowledged that recent tumult in the financial markets has sent interest rates on 10-year Treasury notes to near 16-year highs and contributed to higher loan rates across the economy — a trend that helps serve the Fed’s goal of cooling the economy and inflation pressures.

At a news conference, Chair Jerome Powell suggested that the Fed was edging closer to the end of its rate-hiking campaign. He noted that the sharply higher longer-term rates could help lower inflation without necessarily requiring further rate hikes from the Fed. And he highlighted a steady decline in pay increases, which tends to ease inflation because companies may find it less necessary to offset their labor costs by raising prices.

The Fed chair expressed confidence that inflation, despite some signs of persistence in the most recent monthly data, is still heading lower even as the economy is still growing.

“The good news,” Powell said, “is we’re making progress. The progress is going to come in lumps and be bumpy, but we are making progress.”

The Fed chair said the central bank’s policymakers recognize that the effects of their rate hikes have yet to be fully felt in the economy and that they want to take time to assess the impact, another reason why the Fed may not feel compelled to raise rates anytime soon.

“Slowing down” the rate increases, Powell said, “is giving us a better sense of how much more we need to do, if we need to do more.”

Stock prices rose and bond yields fell as the Fed chair spoke to reporters, as investors interpreted his remarks to mean that the Fed may be done hiking rates.

“The (stock) market is convinced that the Fed is done,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors. “That may in fact be true, but they haven’t said that yet.”

Arone noted that hiring remains robust, that inflation remains persistently above the Fed’s 2% target and that the economy is still expanding at a healthy clip.

In his remarks, Powell cautioned that the central bank isn’t yet confident that its own key rate is high enough to reduce growth over time.

“The Fed,” Arone said, “continues to give themselves plenty of wiggle room in terms of what they’re going to do next.”

Powell himself suggested that Fed officials remain unsure about whether further rate increases might still be needed to defeat inflation. That stance marks a shift from earlier this year, when the policymakers had made clear that they leaned toward pushing rates higher.

“That’s the question we’re asking: Should we hike again?” Powell said.

Long-term Treasury yields have soared since July, the last time the Fed raised rates, swelling the costs of auto loans, credit card borrowing and many forms of business loans. Nationally, the average long-term fixed mortgage rate is nearing 8%, its highest level in 23 years.

Economists at Wall Street banks have estimated that recent losses in the stock market and higher bond yields could have a depressive effect on the economy equal to the impact of three or four quarter-point rate hikes by the Fed.

Those tighter credit conditions, though, have yet to cool the economy or slow hiring as much as the Fed had expected. Growth soared at a 4.9% annual pace in the July-September quarter, powered by robust consumer spending, and hiring in September was strong.

Consumer inflation has dropped from a year-over-year peak of 9.1% in June 2022 to 3.7% last month. But recent data suggests that inflation remains persistently above the Fed’s 2% target.

Market analysts say an array of factors have combined to force up long-term Treasury yields and couple with the Fed’s short-term rate hikes to make borrowing costlier for consumers and businesses. For one thing, the government is expected to sell potentially trillions of dollars more in bonds in the coming years to finance huge budget deficits even as the Fed is shrinking its holdings of bonds. As a result, higher Treasury rates may be needed to attract more buyers.

And with the future path of rates murkier than usual, investors are demanding higher yields in return for the greater risk of holding longer-term bonds.

What’s important for the Fed is that the yield on the 10-year Treasury has continued to zoom higher even without rate hikes by the central bank. That suggests that Treasury yields may stay high even if the Fed keeps its own benchmark rate on hold, helping keep a lid on economic growth and inflation.

Other major central banks have also been dialing back their rates hikes with their inflation measures having appeared to improve. The European Central Bank kept its benchmark rate unchanged last week, and last month inflation in the 20 countries that use the euro fell to 2.9%, its lowest level in more than two years.

The Bank of England also kept its key rate unchanged in September. The Bank of Japan, meanwhile, is inching toward higher borrowing costs, as it loosens control on longer-term rates.

The Herald has learned that enforcement will begin at 8 a.m., a police crackdown that follows a week’s worth of city efforts to connect the area’s homeless and drug-addicted individuals with a pathway off the streets.

Boston police officers will begin taking down tents and tarps, and moving people out of the area, an effort that city officials expect will result in a “very significant reduction” in the number of tents by the end of the day, and last through Nov. 30.

“It’s about time,” said Larry Calderone, president of the Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association, the city’s largest police union. “This was long overdue.”

The union supported the mayor’s ordinance and understood the police commissioner’s point of view on the matter, he said, but he emphasized that the department has “always had the power to move the tents.”

“I understand the need for the ordinance,” Calderone said. “Maybe this gives us some type of superpower or better protection, but we’ve always had the ability to move the tents. So, we’re happy this day has finally come.”

City officials have stated efforts were taken to ensure the new ordinance complies with constitutional requirements, providing more protection against a potential legal challenge than what was already on the books for clearing encampments.

Police are able to take down tents and tarps, provided that individuals are offered shelter, transportation to services and storage for their belongings.

Ricardo Patrón, a spokesperson for Mayor Michelle Wu, said outreach workers and provider partners have been at Mass and Cass since the City Council passed the ordinance last Wednesday, alerting individuals about the pending enforcement and connecting the ones who live there with shelter and treatment options.

As of Tuesday afternoon, 56 people have agreed to leave the Atkinson Street encampments, out of the 80 to 90 who have been sleeping there on a daily basis, Patrón said.

Thirty-five people have moved on to their next destination, whether it be relocation to a shelter, treatment center or low-threshold housing, or reunification with their families. Another 21 have accepted placement at one of those destinations, but are waiting on transportation and storage of their belongings, he said.

For the homeless individuals who refuse those options, or the people who come to the area to engage in criminal activity, law enforcement will begin Wednesday.

A memo was sent out to Boston Police officers Tuesday evening, detailing that enforcement, which begins at 8 a.m.

Four police officers and one supervisor from each police district in the city will be  deployed to Newmarket Square to start the day. Officers will then be staged at different locations, with deployments to Atkinson Street taking place at 8 a.m., 4:30 p.m. and 12:15 a.m. each day, through Nov. 30, per the memo.

While some of those officers will be tasked with taking down tents and working with city officials on enforcement of the ordinance, other response squads will be available, should there be resistance that gets out of hand, according to the memo.

City Council President Ed Flynn told the Herald last week that he expects some people may keep coming to Mass and Cass once enforcement begins, to test how serious city officials and police are about eliminating the area’s open-air drug market and violence.

Patrón said Tuesday, however, that the Wu administration isn’t expecting any resistance, physical or otherwise, on the first day of enforcement. He noted that there were no arrests the last time the mayor tried to clear out tents, shortly after taking office in January 2022.

Calderone said police are cautiously optimistic as well, stating, “We’re hopeful that there will be no resistance and that it will be peaceful compliance.”

Whitman Police sent out an alert Tuesday afternoon after the town’s police department received a report of a black bear.

While responding to the area of Commercial Street between Linden Street and Dyer Avenue, a Whitman police officer also reported seeing the bear in the Plymouth County community.

Whitman Police ended up boosting its police presence throughout the evening’s trick-or-treating hours.

“We are monitoring this situation as closely as possible. Brigham St, Winter St, Franklin St, & Kendrick St. neighborhoods should be on high alert and use caution,” Whitman Police posted.

“Please take in your pumpkins and don’t leave candy out unattended,” the department added.

The same black bear was spotted in town earlier in October.

“Over the past several weeks, the Whitman Police Department has received reports of bear sightings throughout town, however, none of the reports we received stated that there has been contact between humans or pets and bears,” Chief Timothy Hanlon said in a statement.

“Out of an abundance of caution and with community members participating in trick-or-treating tonight, we will have an additional police presence throughout town to ensure everyone’s safety,” he added. “As always, if you do see a bear avoid any contact with it.”

Whitman Police added that anyone with questions or concerns may contact the Massachusetts Environmental Police at 800-632-8075. If there’s any emergency, contact police immediately at 911.

Maine State Police documents released Tuesday shed light on why a delusional U.S. Army reservist who killed 18 people at a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston may have targeted those locations.

Robert Card, 40, was found dead Friday, two days after a rampage that also wounded 13 people and shut down multiple communities during a massive search on land and water.

Three hours after the shooting began, state police interviewed a woman who said Card believed the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley, Schemengees Bar and Grille and several other businesses were “broadcasting online that Robert was a pedophile.”

The woman said Card had been delusional since February after a break-up, had been hospitalized for mental illness and prescribed medication that he stopped taking, according to a police affidavit filed in support of an arrest warrant request.

Police also spoke to Robert’s brother, who said Card had been in relationship with someone he met at a cornhole competition at the bar. Another man said the same thing to a different officer, according to an affidavit filed in a request to access Card’s cell phone records.

That man told police he had been to both the bowling alley and bar with Card, and that Card knew people at both locations. He said Card’s girlfriend had two daughters that he would take out to eat at Schemengees, “and that is where the pedophile thing in Robert’s head came from as Robert was there with (his girfriend’s) two daughters on occasions and felt that people were looking at him.”

The man said Card also mentioned bar manager Joey Walker was one of the people who Card thought had disparaged him. Walker was among those killed.

Card’s son also told police that paranoia about strangers calling him a pedophile had become a recurring theme for his father since last winter.

He also accused fellow members of his Army reserve unit of calling him a pedophile in an incident in July that prompted Army officials to have him undergo a mental health evaluation. He then spent two weeks at a private psychiatric hospital in New York.

“This shift represents a clear move away from expanding access to instruction in the students’ native languages and highlights a fundamental divide between EL Task Force leaders and BPS leaders that we no longer feel can be bridged,” the members wrote in a letter to the School Committee sent Tuesday. “For this reason, we write to you today to resign from the EL Task Force of the Boston School Committee.”

Under the Inclusive Education Plan — presented at the Oct. 18 School Committee meeting — English Learners (ELs) and ELs with disabilities would be integrated in General Education classrooms with English as a Second Language (ESL) support rather than being taught in separate classes in their native languages.

The EL Task Force was appointed in 2009 to support EL education in the district after the U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into the district’s ELL offerings and is made up of educators, parents, researchers and others.

The eight resigning members — more than half the task force — include co-chair Suzanne Lee; ELL policy researchers Maria Serpa, Rosann Tung and Miren Uriarte; local advocates John Mudd and Paulo De Barros; former SpEdPAC Chair Roxanne Harvey; and Gaston Institute leader Fabián Torres-Ardila.

“Although the district will maintain its dual language programs (serving 7% of ELs), the vast majority of ELs will be enrolled in General Education starting in the fall of 2024,” the task force members noted Tuesday.

In a statement, BPS spokesperson Max Baker said the district “thank(s) the members for their years of service” but evidence and DESE guidance makes clear the “status quo is not working for our multilingual learners.”

“Our District is committed to adopting inclusive practices so multilingual students have access to native language services, and receive their required services, while also engaging in learning alongside their peers,” Baker said, calling the Inclusive Education Plan a “roadmap for making these long-overdue systemic changes.”

In the recent Multicultural and Multilingual Education Strategic Plan, BPS set goals also altering educational services for multilingual learners including increasing bilingual programs by 25 the end of the 2024-25 school year and increasing bilingual paraprofessionals by 15% by the end of 2023-24.

The members’ letter argued the transition to teaching ELLs in classes primarily taught in English is not supported by research.

Evidence shows, they said, citing studies supporting bilingual education, the change may result in “poorer student outcomes, more disciplinary challenges in schools, and increased drop-out rates for the one-third of BPS students who are classified as English learners.”

While BPS previously expressed concern separate classes “segregate” ELL students and cut them off from social interaction with other students, the letter said, they argue there are better ways to address the issue.

The members suggested a reconsideration more moderately blending classes and other steps to expand multilingual education, but stated if the planned changes occur they “urge” members to track and publicly report data on outcomes of the shift.

“We all agree that profound changes are needed to EL education in the Boston Public Schools. MCAS results show that current programs are failing to prepare over 90% of ELs and ELs with disabilities to achieve at passing levels and to graduate ready for college and career,” the letter said. “But the change that BPS is proposing is ill-advised and will be harmful to ELs.”

Cambridge Police on Monday arrested Eliza Sathler, 26, of Revere; Pearl Delaney Moore, 29, of Boston; Calla M. Walsh, 19, of Cambridge; Sophie Ross, 22, of Housatonic; Vera Van De Seyp, 30, of Somerville; Michael Eden, 27, of Cambridge; Evan Aldred Fournier-Swire, 19, of Bristol, R.I.; Willow Ross Carretero Chavez, 21, of Somerville; and Molly Wexler-Romig, 33, of Boston.

They were each arraigned Tuesday morning in Cambridge District Court. All had charges of disorderly conduct, but some were also charged with vandalizing property and resisting arrest. Moore and Sathler were also charged with assault and battery on a police officer, with Sathler also charged with possessing and throwing an incendiary device.

“Starting at 10 am, Cambridge Police officers were monitoring a protest outside Elbit Systems, an Israeli defense contractor, whose office has been the site of numerous protests and acts of vandalism and property destruction in recent weeks,” a Cambridge Police spokesman wrote in a Monday evening statement.

Those alleged acts of vandalism since the start of the Israel-Hamas war include police-documented instances of spray painting the sidewalk, locking themselves to the front of the building, breaking off a communications box on the exterior of the building and, according to the police report filed in this most recent incident, the spraying of insulation into exterior doors “in an attempt to prevent them from opening.”

The Monday protest began around 10 a.m., according to the report, when roughly 200 participants gathered at the corner of Bishop Allen Drive and Prospect Street — a major artery that police say the protestors completely blocked. While police say it was “initially peaceful,” they said they soon found cartons of eggs, glass bottles and more paint that they wrote were likely instruments of planned vandalism.

The confiscations did not go well, as reports from multiple officers at the scene state many in the crowd, starting at around 11:15 a.m., “breached metal barricades” and “began throwing eggs at Elbit’s office building.” As officers moved in, they report the crowd “became increasingly hostile and violent — they threw eggs, smoke bombs, and other projectiles at officers.” So the cops called in backup.

“Officers provided ample space and opportunities for the protesters to engage in freedom of speech, however, officers were forced to intervene when the group’s conduct became violent and felonious,” Sgt. Michael Levecque wrote in his report.

Elbit Elbit Systems Ltd., based in Haifa, Israel, describes itself as an “international high technology company engaged in a wide range of programs throughout the world, primarily in the defense and homeland security arena.”

Its wholly owned American subsidiary, Elbit Systems of America, LLC, is headquartered in Texas and opened its Cambridge Innovation Center in December of last year to host 60 software, mechanical and electrical engineers, the company wrote in a press release then, to take advantage of the “the region’s vibrant Life Sciences Corridor” and proximity to MIT and Harvard.

Nilo, 35, a New York City corporate attorney who lives in New Jersey, was arrested at the end of May and charged with a series of rapes in the Terminal Street area of Charlestown in 2007 and 2008. He was charged a month later with another series of rapes over an 18-month period between January 2007 and July 2008. He pleaded not guilty to each charge and has been out on a combined bail of $550,000.

On Tuesday, prosecutor Lynn Feigenbaum and defense attorneys Rosemary Scapicchio and Joseph Cataldo met briefly in Suffolk Superior Court in Boston before Clerk Magistrate Edward Curley to argue over the prosecution’s proposals for a buccal swab from Nilo and to redact court documents provided for him.

“The Commonwealth is only seeking that the names and identifying information — names, addresses — will not be provided in writing to the defendant at this time,” ADA Lynn Feigenbaum said of the motion that had not yet been filed with the court but had been shared with the defense, adding that the prosecution would provide the defendant with redacted forms of the documents. “I don’t think that that’s an unreasonable request.”

Scapicchio made sure that redacting the names and addresses was the only thing the prosecution wanted to redact from her client’s copy of court documents and that she would want to see that in writing. She added, “I never want my clients to have contact information. I don’t think it’s a good policy.”

Scapicchio asked that Feigenbaum’s motion for a buccal swab — which is a cheek swab for genetic testing — be filed well ahead of the next date so that she could file her own response to oppose it.

Curley said that the prosecution’s motion should be filed by the end of the day on Nov. 30 and set the next motions hearing for Dec. 21, 2 p.m. The presumptive trial date is June 25, 2024.

Researchers with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy and Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries will be heading to Australia for the White Sharks Global conference — where they’ll be sharing their Cape white shark discoveries with scientists from other shark hotspots around the world.

Some of the Cape white shark research that will be presented includes: a white shark population estimate for the region; the nearshore predatory behavior of white sharks; shallow water movements of white sharks; and how white sharks impact the movements of Cape gray seals.

“A few of us will be heading to an international white shark symposium in Australia, with people studying white sharks all over the world,” said Megan Winton, a research scientist with the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy.

“We’ll be presenting our research results, and form some new collaborations,” she added.

Winton recently finished working on a study with Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries marine biologist Greg Skomal to find out how many sharks have visited the Cape in a recent 5-year period.

The scientists now estimate that 800 to 900 individual sharks have recently visited the Cape’s waters — making the Cape one of the largest and potentially densest area for great whites in the world. Winton will present this research at the conference in Australia.

“In this study, we present the first estimate of abundance for the white shark at a new aggregation site in the western North Atlantic,” the conference program reads.

Skomal will present their research findings about the great white sharks’ nearshore predatory behavior.

The apex predators hunt for gray seals close to the Cape shoreline during the summer and fall. That has led to some shark bites on humans over the last decade.

“The nearshore proximity of predatory sharks, their natural prey, and humans has become a public safety issue, and the number of reported white shark sightings and negative interactions between white sharks and humans has been on the rise,” the conference program reads.

Cape white sharks spend 95% of their time in depths less than 100 feet, and 47% of their time overlapping with recreational water users in depths less than 15 feet.

“… It appears that white sharks exhibit a variety of predatory behaviors off Cape Cod, ranging from explosive attacks on seals in the surf zone to demersal predation on spiny dogfish during excursions into deeper water,” the program reads. “Using these observations, our ultimate goal is to identify areas and time periods during which hunting white sharks may overlap with recreational water users so as to provide a science-based strategy for mitigating this conservation conflict.”

The White Sharks Global conference will take place in Port Lincoln, South Australia, from Nov. 12 to 17.

In making the announcement, Gov. Maura Healey also said she would recommend two more people for pardons on top of the 11 people she has already caused to be granted clemency with the consent of the Advisory Board of Pardons.

“Clemency is an important executive tool that can be used to soften the harsher edges of our criminal justice system. I am proud to release these new clemency guidelines that will center fairness and equity by taking into consideration the unique circumstances of each individual petitioner and the role of systemic biases,” Healey said along with the announcement.

According to the governor’s office, for the first time in state history, the governor’s clemency guidelines for petitioners will include her explicit language acknowledging “unfairness and systemic bias in the criminal justice system.”

Going forward, when reviewing a petition for clemency, the governor will consider “factors such as the petitioner’s age at the time of the offense, health, post-offense behavior, race, ethnicity, gender and sexual identity, as well as whether they are a survivor of sexual assault, domestic violence or human trafficking,” according to her staff.

The guidelines are meant to help petitioners who are considering applying understand what will be reviewed and assist the Advisory Board of Pardons with review of petitions.

Though it is not unheard of, it is unusual for a governor to consider, let alone recommend, as many pardons as Healey has in the first year of her administration. According to Healey’s staff, it has been 30 years since a governor issued pardons in the first year of their first term, and none in 40 years have issued as many so soon as Healey.

“We’re grateful that Governor Healey sees clemency as a means to address injustices in the criminal legal system. Pardons and commutations are an important tool to not just improve individual lives but also to right historic wrongs, remedy racial inequities, and fix systemic failures,” ACLU of Massachusetts Executive Director Carol Rose said in a statement.

Former President Donald Trump is still the dominant force in conservative politics and it shows in national polling, where he continuously demonstrates majority support among Republican voters. Haley, however, has been steadily gaining ground on her ex-boss where others are flagging.

“With Nikki Haley in second place in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, the presidential race is now a two-person race between one man and one woman,” her campaign said Tuesday morning.

In most national surveys, Trump leads the full field of Republicans by 46 points while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis still holds second place. Haley has occasionally tied the Sunshine State’s governor in those polls, but averages under 9% to DeSantis’ about 12.5%.

However when you boil it down to the states which will first hold their primaries — and where the majority of media attention will shift for a few short weeks — voters pick the former South Carolina Governor over DeSantis, if still not as often as Trump.

In Iowa, where the first caucusing will occur, Trump’s polling average stands at just 48% — less than a majority — with Haley in second at 17.3% and DeSantis at 11.5%. That’s an improvement for both Trump and Haley since the start of summer, when she polled just over 5% and he just over 40%, but a huge loss for DeSantis, who is down from 28%.

New Hampshire will hold the first official Republican Primary and Trump’s polling majority again slips away when surveys are limited to just Granite Staters. Voters in New Hampshire, on average, would choose him 46.5% of the time to Haley’s almost 15%. DeSantis polls under 11% in New Hampshire, losing half his support since the summer.

Haley has been endorsed by former New Hampshire Governor and U.S. Senator Judd Gregg.

South Carolina, which Democrats tried to push to the front of the primary schedule, will hold their primary after New Hampshire. Trump has a near majority of support among Republicans in the Palmetto State, polling at an average of 49%. Haley, who spent six years as the state’s governor, polls behind him at just under 19%. DeSantis again draws less than 11%, down from about 20% to start the summer.

DeSantis said the cause of his decline is spending on the part of other candidates.

“Donald Trump is spending a million dollars attacking me in Iowa. Haley’s Super PAC is spending big money to attack me in Iowa. You don’t do that unless you view me as the threat, so I think it’s fine,” he said during a recent radio interview.

Alleged shooter Patrick Mendoza, 54, appeared in Suffolk County Superior Court on Tuesday, pleading not guilty to charges related to the July 12 shooting outside of Modern Bakery on Hanover Street

The incident allegedly involved a man Mendoza is said to have had a long-simmering relationship with. While no one was injured, Modern sustained damage to its window.

Mendoza, whose family owns Monica’s Trattoria on Prince Street, has been held without bail since late July after he was charged with assault by means of a dangerous weapon, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, and assault and battery

A judge took Mendoza’s bail status under advisement Tuesday after hearing debate from a prosecutor and his attorney over whether the long-time North End resident should be released.

Assistant District Attorney Daniel Nucci said he has provided a CD of interviews with the man Mendoza is accused of shooting at as well as footage in the area of Modern from that night, along with other evidence.

But Mendoza’s attorney Rosemary Scapicchio argued those “documents,” including police reports, are not enough to determine whether Mendoza even fired a gun at all. She suggested the man he allegedly shot at should have been brought to court as evidence.

“The Commonwealth has not brought anyone, not even a police officer, to talk about hearsay for an identification,” Scapicchio said. “His liberty is at stake right now, and the idea that the Commonwealth can, by document alone, take away someone’s liberty is contrary to the Constitution.”

Nucci, during an arraignment at Boston Municipal Court in July, presented video depicting the scene of the alleged crime, which shows a man “who the Commonwealth alleges is Mr. Mendoza” on a bicycle firing a gun as many as three times toward another man who dove behind a Jeep.

The evidence of the shooting remained for at least a day as “ballistic evidence” — a bullet hole in Modern Pastry’s front window.

Records indicate at least three previous altercations between Mendoza and the other man whose relationship dates back 20 years.

Nucci pointed out the “craziness of this shooting,” with it happening on a busy Hanover Street and on the same day Mendoza’s probation for an assault case involving other man in 2022 expired.

“The Commonwealth contends that alone shows there are no conditions of release where it can say ‘That won’t happen again if Mr. Mendoza is released today, tomorrow, the next day,’” Nucci argued.

Scapicchio asked the judge to set a “reasonable bail” and to release him to the custody of his family on conditions that would “protect the public.” She pointed out how Mendoza’s family and other community members have attended his previous appearances.

“They’ve been here every single court appearance,” Scapicchio said. “He has a tremendous amount of family support, and these are business owners from the community of the North End who come in support of Mr. Mendoza.”

Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus said the system’s expansion rate is “unsustainable” just as a judge was weighing whether to temporarily pause a Healey administration plan to cap the number of families in shelters at 7,500.

Low turnover rates and the push to find enough units to accommodate everyone is behind the high estimate, he added.

“At current rates of entries into and exits from emergency assistance shelter, the number of eligible families in shelter would continue to increase to more than 13,000 households in shelter by fiscal year end (if sufficient shelter units could be found to accommodate that many households),” Augustus wrote.

He added: “With the average length of stay growing each month (averaging 13.6 months as of the first quarter of fiscal year 2024), the pressure on the emergency assistance program will be long-term in nature, with the families entering shelter today expected to remain through fiscal year 2025.”

Demand for emergency assistance shelter is primarily driven by a surge in newly arrived migrant families, high cost and limited availability of housing, and reduced exists of families in long-term emergency shelters stays, Augustus wrote.

The situation has become so dire, the Healey administration has argued, that not only is funding drying up, but the emergency shelter system is projected to run into the red by roughly $210 million by the end of fiscal year 2024.

“This projected deficiency does not include additional resources needed for wraparound services, school supports, and community supports,” Augustus wrote.

Lawmakers and Healey allocated $325 million for the system in the fiscal 2024 state budget, which was expected to support 4,100 families and 4,700 housing units.

There were 7,389 families in the system as of Tuesday, with 3,671 in hotels and motels, 3,641 in traditional shelters, and 77 in temporary sites like Joint Base Cape Cod and a Quincy college dorm building.

“It is no longer possible to secure additional space that is suitable and safe for use as shelter beyond a capacity of 7,500 families,” Augustus wrote. “The commonwealth does not have enough space, service providers, or funds to safely expand shelter capacity any longer.”

Administration officials previously projected that 1,000 families could enter the emergency shelter system each month.

MAY:

On May 3, Card’s 18-year-old son and ex-wife told a school resource officer in Topsham, about 15 miles (25 kilometers) southeast of Lewiston, that they were growing concerned about his deteriorating mental health.

A Sagadahoc County sheriff’s deputy met with the son and ex-wife that day and the son said that around last January, his father started claiming that people around him were saying derogatory things about him. He said his father had become angry and paranoid, and described an incident several weeks earlier in which he accused the son of saying things about him behind his back.

Card’s ex-wife told the deputy that Card had recently picked up 10-15 guns from his brother’s home, and she was worried about their son spending time with him.

A sheriff’s deputy spoke to a sergeant from Card’s Army Reserve unit, who assured him that he and others would “figure out options to get Robert help.”

JULY:

Card and other members of the Army Reserve’s 3rd Battalion, 304th Infantry Unit were in New York for training on July 15 when he accused several of them of calling him a pedophile, shoved one of them and locked himself in his motel room. The next morning, he told another soldier that he wanted people to stop talking about him.

“I told him no one was talking about him and everyone here was his friend. Card told me to leave him alone and tried to slam the door in my face,” the soldier later told Maine authorities, according to documents released by the sheriff’s office.

New York State Police responded and took Card to a hospital at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point for an evaluation.

“During the four hours I was with Card, he never spoke, just stared through me without blinking,” an unidentified soldier in the unit wrote in a letter to the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office.

Card spent 14 days at the Four Winds Psychiatric Hospital in Katonah, New York, which is a few miles (kilometers) from West Point.

AUGUST:

Card returned home on Aug. 3, according to the Army. At that time, the Army directed that while on duty, he shouldn’t be allowed to have a weapon, handle ammunition or participate in live-fire activity. It also declared him to be non-deployable.

On Aug. 5, Card went to Coastal Defense Firearms in Auburn, next to Lewiston, to pick up a gun suppressor, or silencer, that he had ordered online, according to the shop’s owner, Rick LaChapelle.

LaChapelle said to that point, federal authorities had approved the sale of the device, which is used to quiet gunshots. But he said the shop halted the sale after Card filled out a form and answered “yes” to the question: “Have you ever been adjudicated as a mental defective OR have you ever been committed to a mental institution?”

Card was polite when notified of the denial, mentioned something about the military and said he would “come right back” after consulting his lawyer, LaChapelle said.

SEPTEMBER:

On Sept. 15, a deputy was sent to visit Card’s home in Bowdoin, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of Lewiston, for a wellness check. Card’s unit requested it after a soldier said he was afraid Card was “going to snap and commit a mass shooting” because he was hearing voices again, according to documents released by the Sagadahoc County Sheriff’s Office. The deputy went to Card’s trailer but couldn’t find him.

The sheriff’s office then sent out a statewide alert seeking help locating Card. It included a warning that he was known to be “armed and dangerous” and that officers should use extreme caution.

The same deputy and another one returned to Card’s trailer on Sept. 16. Card’s car was there and the deputy said he could hear him moving around the trailer, but no one answered the door, according to the deputy’s report.

The report included a letter written by an unidentified member of Card’s Reserve unit who described the July incidents as well as getting a call the “night before last” from another soldier about Card. The timing isn’t clear, but according to the letter, the soldier said he and Card were returning from a casino when Card punched him and said he planned to shoot up places, including an Army Reserve drill center in Saco, Maine.

“He also said I was the reason he can’t buy guns anymore because of the commitment,” the soldier wrote.

A deputy reached out to the Reserve unit commander, who assured him the Army was trying to get treatment for Card. The commander also said he thought “it best to let Card have time to himself for a bit.”

On Sept. 17, the deputy reached out to Card’s brother, who said he had put Card’s firearms in a gun safe at the family farm and would work with their father to move the guns elsewhere and make sure Card couldn’t get other guns.

Card didn’t report to weekend Army reserve training activities in September or October, telling his unit that he had work conflicts and was unable to attend, the Army said.

OCTOBER 2023:

On Oct. 18, the sheriff’s office canceled its statewide alert seeking help locating Card.

One week later, shortly before 7 p.m. on Oct. 25, authorities began receiving 911 calls about a gunman at the Just-In-Time Recreation bowling alley in Lewiston. Four local police officers who were in plain clothes at a nearby gun range arrived at the shooting scene a minute and a half after the first 911 call, but the gunman had already left. Other Lewiston officers arrived at the scene within four minutes of the first call.

Twelve minutes after the first 911 call and as the first state troopers began arriving at the bowling alley, authorities began getting calls about a gunman at Schemengees Bar and Grille about 4 miles away. Officers arrived at the bar five minutes later, but again, the attacker had already left.

Seven people were killed at the bowling, eight were killed at the bar and three others died at the hospital, authorities said.

Video surveillance footage from the bar showed a white male armed with a rifle getting out of a car and entering the building, according to Maine State Police documents released Tuesday. Another portion showed a man “walk through the bar while seeking out and shooting at patrons.”

Authorities released a photo of Card an hour after the shootings and his family members were the first to identify him. Residents were urged to stay inside with their doors locked while hundreds of officers searched for the gunman.

Later on the night of the attack, Card’s car was found near a boat launch in Lisbon, about 8 miles (13 kilometers) from Lewiston. During a massive search over the next two days, authorities focused on property his family owns in Bowdoin.

Card was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot Friday night at a recycling center where he used to work.