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.”

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.

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.”

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

Suffolk County Judge Debra Squires-Lee did not make an immediate ruling on a request to temporarily halt Gov. Maura Healey’s shelter capacity plan, and is now weighing whether those seeking housing should be placed on a waitlist or if the state should temporarily be forced to spend money it argues it does not have to expand the system.

Squires-Lee said she expected to issue a decision Wednesday on Lawyers on the call for a preliminary injunction just as the state inched closer to Healey’s 7,500-family-limit. More than 7,330 migrant and homeless families were in the system as of Monday, according to state data.

Lawyers for Civil Rights filed a lawsuit last week asking for the preliminary injunction as housing and homeless advocates rallied against the governor’s threshold and the administration moved to make the matter permanent through emergency regulations.

In court Tuesday, lawyers largely focused on a 90-day notice requirement in the fiscal 2024 state budget that directs the executive branch to produce a report for the Legislature before making any regulatory, administrative practice, or policy changes that would “alter the eligibility” of emergency shelter benefits.

The report needs to justify any changes, including with any determination that available funding “will be insufficient to meet projected expenses,” attorneys argued.

Lawyers for Civil Rights Attorney Jacob Love said the administration did not meet that requirement as it moved forward with the shelter capacity plan or when it issued emergency regulations only hours before the court hearing.

“In the absence of immediate intervention by this court in the form of a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction, homeless families with children will be denied immediate shelter placement and left out in the cold,” Love said. “At a minimum, we’re asking for a temporary restraining order to preserve the status quo until the court can schedule a full preliminary injunction hearing.”

But Healey and the state’s housing department argued Massachusetts has neither the funds, capacity, nor personnel to keep expanding the emergency shelter system with migrant arrivals still surging and housing costs pressuring local residents.

Assistant Attorney General Kimberly Parr said “there is no money” to expand the system and there is debate “about whether or not the notice provision applies in these circumstances.”

“To start with the facts on the ground, this is no surprise to the Legislature or the people in Massachusetts. The executive branch has emphasized the financial constraints and the acute spike in shelter demand many times in recent months and weeks,” Parr said.

Squires-Lee questioned Parr on how long it would take for the administration to fully run out of money for emergency shelters “if we were to put a short stay in place, for example, to allow the plaintiffs to deal with this … emergency regulation” and bring forward other arguments.

Parr said she could not estimate the timeline but “what we can say is, any delay in implementing these measures will drive the line item further into deficiency.”

“It may seem as though, put a pause on this, wait another week or two,” Parr said. “But given the number of people who are entering the shelter system each day, which seems to be between 20 or 50 families each day, that’ll add up very quickly. And it’s very expensive to find these units, and to shelter these families.”

The fiscal 2024 budget allocated $325 million for the emergency shelter system, and Healey asked earlier this fall for an additional $250 million to help maintain services. But lawmakers have so far sat idle on the spending bill that includes those shelter dollars.

In their lawsuit, Lawyers for Civil Rights argued the Healey administration planned to “artificially cap” the emergency shelter system, place families on a waitlist rather than find them accommodations, and prioritize families with “certain yet-to-be-defined ‘health and safety risks,’” the lawsuit said.

“These changes will necessarily delay the provision of benefits to shelter-eligible families, such as plaintiffs and those similarly situated, thereby denying them shelter and perpetuating the myriad harms caused by homelessness,” the lawsuit said.

The court hearing concluded what had become a busy afternoon by the time lawyers filed into the Suffolk County Superior Courthouse. Only hours before, the Healey administration released emergency regulations that outlined the process for implementing an emergency shelter cap.

The regulations called for a written declaration that identifies the maximum capacity for the emergency shelter system, which Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus released shortly after the rules were on file with the secretary of state’s office.

Augustus said the emergency shelter system had $535 million in “commitments” to pay through the end of the fiscal year, which would bring it into the red by about $210 million if it did not receive a cash infusion.

“The current rate of expansion in the emergency assistance program is unsustainable,” Augustus wrote.

The regulations were filed with Secretary of State William Galvin’s office by the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, according to a Galvin spokesperson.

The proposed update adds a new section to emergency shelter regulations that details what would happen if the “shelter system is unable to serve all eligible families,” according to a copy provided to the Herald.

The suggested rules change call for a “written declaration” that “in light of legislative appropriations, the shelter system is no longer able to meet all current and projected demand for shelter from eligible families considering the facts and circumstances then existing in the commonwealth.”

The declaration would need to identify a maximum program emergency shelter system capacity “which the director (the secretary) determines the shelter system can attain and that the shelter system shall not be required to exceed during the term of the declaration.”

“The declaration shall have an initial time limit of 120 days after it is issued but may be extended for additional periods of up to 120 days if the Director (the Secretary) determines that the shelter system is still unable to meet all current and projected demand for shelter from eligible families in light of legislative appropriations,” the proposed regulations said.

The regulations also outline the process of administering and maintaining a waitlist for families looking to access emergency shelter.

The Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities filed the regulations only hours before lawyers were scheduled to attend a court hearing where a judge could rule on a request to temporarily pause a plan to limit capacity in the emergency shelter system.

Lawyers for Civil Rights filed a lawsuit last week and requested a preliminary injunction on the self-imposed emergency shelter capacity limit, a move that riled homeless and housing advocates who say it will force some families to live outside as colder weather sets in.

But Gov. Maura Healey and the state’s housing department argue Massachusetts has neither the funds, capacity, nor personnel to keep expanding the emergency shelter system through a sweeping network of hotels and motels. State officials projected capacity could be reached as early as Wednesday.

During a radio interview, Healey said her administration filed emergency regulations Wednesday pertaining to the waitlist and emergency shelter operations, an apparent move to combat arguments from Lawyers for Civil Rights who said the state did not follow proper procedures to change emergency shelter rules.

“I continue to call for relief from the federal government. We need help with staffing. We need help with funding. And again, it’s a federal problem that we’re having to deal with as states,” Healey said on WBUR.

Some shelter providers have backed the emergency shelter cap, saying a system designed to handle about 3,000 families each year has been pushed to its limits by a surge of migrant arrivals from other counties.

Healey said earlier this month the shelter system can handle no more than 7,500 families, and those who apply for temporary housing after the cap is reached will be placed on a waitlist. She has petitioned the Legislature for an extra $250 million for the emergency shelter system, a request House lawmakers have put on hold as they seek more data.

This is a developing story…

Business is the backbone of our democracy, and neglecting the engine that drives our freedom is irresponsible. Every warning light is blinking, governor, so erase your calendar, roll up your sleeves, and get out your toolbox.

The Tax Foundation ranks Massachusetts as the 5th worst state in its Business Tax Climate Index. New Jersey, New York, California, and Connecticut rank lower — but New Hampshire is in the Top 10. That alone should worry Gov. Healey. Last time when drove north it was a quick trip.

The sad part is Healey doesn’t seem to care. Neither does Speaker Ron Mariano and state Senate President Karen Spilka. Our Democratic-run government is more adept at knocking down entrepreneurs than helping them out.

This Tax Foundation report — showing the Bay State dropping 12 spots in just the past year — should be a wake-up call. Businesses and citizens vote with their feet, and we risk losing both if the status quo remains.

A driver behind the state’s nosedive in tax competitiveness, the Tax Foundation found, is the state’s new Fair Share Amendment – or Millionaire’s Tax – which taxes incomes over $1 million an extra 4%.

“While the $1 million threshold at which the surtax kicks in is indexed to inflation, the surtax imposes a sizable marriage penalty that the Commonwealth lacked previously,” authors wrote in the report which came out last week. “This policy change represents a stark contrast from the recent reforms to reduce rates while consolidating brackets in many other states.”

Paul Craney, a spokesman for Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance and a staunch opponent of the Millionaire’s Tax, called out proponents who pledged that the surtax would strictly apply to individuals with an income of over $1 million.

“With a flip of a switch, the Legislature lowered that threshold to $500,000 for married people and the Tax Foundation is predicting a clear negative outcome from this,” Craney added.

Why should you care?

Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, told the Herald this weekend that people and businesses alike are continuing to leave Massachusetts due to taxation.

His organization represents 4,000 businesses in the state so it’s not wise to ignore his comment.

The Tax Foundation also called out a payroll tax that went into effect this year in Massachusetts’ poor ranking. The organization also found that the state dropped 33 spots from the 11th-best state for individual taxes to the sixth-worst.

Hurst said high unemployment and health insurance costs, both of which are the worst in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation, need to be fixed.

The Healey administration and Beacon Hill lawmakers can not be allowed to go unchallenged. It’s embarrassing to be near last on any list. It’s unacceptable and reflects how out of touch our lawmakers have become.

U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan, late Sunday, ordered Trump not to attack federal prosecutors, court staff and potential witnesses involved in the legal proceedings over his alleged efforts to interfere with the 2020 election.

It’s fair to say the real-estate mogul was not pleased by the order.

“The Obama appointed Federal Judge in D.C, a TRUE TRUMP HATER, is incapable of giving me a fair trial. Her Hatred of President DONALD J. TRUMP is so great that she has been diagnosed with a major, and incurable, case of TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME,” the former president said Monday via his Truth Social platform.

Trump was indicted by a grand jury on four charges after an investigation by Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team allegedly showed he was at the center of efforts to subvert the will of the voters following his defeat by President Biden.

Chutkan had previously issued the gag order, but issued a temporary stay while she considered a motion by Trump’s legal team to dismiss it pending an appeal and on grounds it would violate the First Amendment’s free speech clause.

In a nine-page order denying Trump’s motion, the judge didn’t necessarily disagree, but said those concerns were not valid in this circumstance.

“First Amendment rights of participants in criminal proceedings must yield, when necessary, to the orderly administration of justice,” she wrote.

“This court has found that even amidst his political campaign, Defendant’s statements pose sufficiently grave threats to the integrity of these proceedings that cannot be addressed by alternative means, and it has tailored its order to meet the force of those threats,” she wrote, citing the original gag order.

According to the former president, the charges and subsequent gag order come about at the direction of the man he will most likely face in another general election and in an attempt to prevent Trump from conducting a campaign. Trump warned the sitting president over the precedent he sets.

“The Corrupt Biden Administration just took away my First Amendment Right To Free Speech. NOT CONSTITUTIONAL! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” he wrote.

“You’re setting a BAD precedent for yourself, Joe,” Trump declared.

Within hours of Chutkan declaring Trump is subject to her limited gag order, he took aim at a potential witness, former Attorney General Bill Barr.

“I called Bill Barr Dumb, Weak, Slow Moving, Lethargic, Gutless, and Lazy, a RINO WHO COULDN’T DO THE JOB. He just didn’t want to be Impeached, which the Radical Left Lunatics were preparing to do. I was tough on him in the White House, for good reason, so now this Moron says about me, to get even, “his verbal skills are limited.” Well, that’s one I haven’t heard before. Tell that to the biggest political crowds in the history of politics, by far. Bill Barr is a LOSER,” he wrote.

This, and posts that were still on Trump’s social media pages about his former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, violate the order, according to legal experts.

Trump still has posts about Meadows & Bill Barr on Truth Social–a continuing violation of the reimposed gag order. https://t.co/NSq2KriaRJ

— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) October 30, 2023

“Trump still has posts about Meadows & Bill Barr on Truth Social — a continuing violation of the re-imposed gag order,” former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance wrote.

Council President Ed Flynn and Councilor-at-Large Erin Murphy filed a resolution ahead of the body’s Wednesday meeting, to commemorate Veterans Day. The measure “honoring all those who served our country” is aimed at helping to mend a relationship that remains strained by last June’s budget vote.

Flynn said residents, veterans and military families across the city and country were “shocked and extremely disappointed” at the “disrespect” shown by many members of the City Council, who voted to cut $900,000 from a budget that broadly supports low-income veterans and their families.

“The sacred oath that we have made to veterans has been negatively impacted by the vote of the City Council to cut $1 million,” Flynn, a U.S. Navy veteran, told the Herald. “But I am confident that we learned from this terrible mistake and we’re not going to make that mistake again.”

The cut was included as part of a 7-5 vote to approve a $4.2 billion operating budget for this fiscal year. Flynn and Murphy were among the five councilors who voted against the cut, which was quickly vetoed by Mayor Michelle Wu.

Ricardo Arroyo, Liz Breadon, Tania Fernandes Anderson, Kendra Lara, Ruthzee Louijeune, Julia Mejia and Brian Worrell voted to pass a budget with the $900,000 cut. Frank Baker, Gabriela Coletta and Michael Flaherty voted against it.

Tony Molina, president of the Puerto Rican Monument Square Association and a Purple Heart veteran, said he was “very upset” that city councilors who have never served the country were “trying to harm veterans” with their budget vote.

“I’m happy that it didn’t happen, but I’m still upset, and my relationship with some of the city councilors who voted against (the veterans) is no longer a relationship,” Molina told the Herald Monday.

“I viewed it as a slap in the face,” added Tom Lyons, who chairs the South Boston Vietnam Memorial Committee.

Lyons, a Marine veteran who served in Vietnam, said several months have gone by and veterans are moving on from the budget vote as they look forward to a “celebration of their service and sacrifice of the men and women who have worn the uniform for this country,” on the Nov. 11 holiday.

“Hopefully, moving forward the City Council will take care of veterans versus going there for the first place to cut,” he said.

While Lyons said he would have been furious that a city official would have to put forward a resolution that celebrates veterans in his younger years, the “older, mature” version of himself appreciates the gesture made by the council president.

“At the same time, it’s kind of sad that he has to do that,” Lyons said.

Going forward, Molina said he thinks the relationship between the Council and city veterans is repairable, but urged councilors to contact veterans’ services before making “ignorant decisions” about cutting from their budget.

“The cuts never should have been made in the first place, and frankly, I think the city owes our veterans an apology,” Murphy told the Herald. “They stood up for us, and the least we can do as a community is support them.”

During the week of Nov. 13, officials from the Department of Homeland Security and the Bay State will host a “work authorization clinic” for migrant families currently living in state-provided housing. The state will arrange appointments and transportation to the clinic, to be held in an as-yet-unnamed location in Middlesex County, while DHS staff help eligible families with paperwork.

“We are glad that the Biden-Harris Administration is hosting this clinic with us, which will help process work authorizations as efficiently as possible. Many shelter residents want to work but face significant barriers to getting their work authorizations,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a Monday morning statement.

According to the Healey Administration, as of Monday there are 7,319 families temporarily housed in the state’s shelter system, which can handle as many as 7,500.

So many have arrived that in August Healey declared a state of emergency existed in the state. The governor has warned that as of Nov. 1, the commonwealth will have to turn additional families seeking shelter away, a declaration that prompted a lawsuit against her administration for allegedly undermining the state’s right to shelter law.

Many of the sheltered residents are newly arrived to the state and the country, and some are barred by federal law from legally working for months after their cases enter the immigration court system. The governor has been pleading with the federal government to help new arrivals get through the system and to work.

“This clinic will be critical for building on the work that our administration has already been leading to connect more migrants with work opportunities, which will help them support their families and move out of emergency shelter into more stable housing options,” she said.

Immigration advocates praised the partnership announcement, but also called on both levels of government to do more.

“It’s time to slash the red tape and make it easier for new arrivals to obtain work permits so they can provide for themselves and their families in the long term,” Elizabeth Sweet, the executive director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said in a statement.

“Beyond this clinic, we urge Healey and Biden administrations to partner so we may ease work access for the thousands of arrivals in Massachusetts eager to utilize their knowledge and skills to contribute to the state’s economy,” she continued.

Healey is planning to stop admitting migrants and the homeless to motels and shelters on Wednesday but faces a legal challenge from a civil rights group.

Liberal-on-liberal crime can get especially ugly.

Healey is staring down a lawsuit from the Boston-based group Lawyers for Civil Rights, which argues that the state must give the Legislature 90 days’ notice before changing the state’s shelter system of handling migrants and homeless.

“The idea that the state would want to turn its back on children in desperate situations, forcing them to live in the streets, in cars, and in unsafe situations is appalling to many in the state,” Lawyers for Civil Rights litigation director Oren Sellstrom told WBUR.

Pretty tough words for a Democratic governor to hear – that you’re forcing homeless and migrant children to live on the streets.

Healey is so desperate not to appear tone-deaf to the migrant crisis that her office on Sunday night put out an “embargoed” press release announcing that the administration was partnering with the Office of Homeland Security to host a work authorization clinic for migrants in two weeks.

The non-news announcement was withheld from public release until 6:30 a.m. Monday so as to get a better bounce from the morning media. But Healey was nowhere to be seen on Monday because she had no public schedule. That way she could avoid pesky questions about the lawsuit or swelling numbers of migrants who are about to be turned away from shelter.

“We are glad that the Biden-Harris administration is hosting this clinic with us, which will help process work authorizations as efficiently as possible. Many shelter residents want to work but face significant barriers to getting their work authorizations,” Healey said in the statement. “This clinic will be critical for building on the work that our administration has already been leading to connect more migrants with work opportunities.”

You get it. A lot of self-congratulating.

Wu faces similar backlash from some liberals for passing an ordinance clearing out the encampments from the drug-ravaged Mass and Cass zone. Her administration will be sending in police on Wednesday to remove tents and clean up the open drug dealing that has been going on – hopefully to arrest a few criminals as well.

The city has reserved extra beds to house the homeless living at Mass and Cass but won’t let them build any new tents.

Several progressives on the council voted against the ordinance but not enough to block it.

But civil rights advocates will be watching closely to see that police don’t go over the line or simply push people out onto the streets. Wu will face stiff blowback from her progressive friends if that happens so she’s hoping for a smooth transition.

He’s seen the Shrine’s good works. The faith, the women’s clinic, the food pantry, counseling services, and respite offered to CEOs to the downtrodden.

“They do so much for people,” he said of his neighbor. “They have dedicated their life to others.”

He likened them to “first responders” for the soul.

Druker is president of the Druker Company, known for the mixed-use developments throughout the city, from Heritage on the Garden, The Colonnade Hotel and Residencies on Huntington Avenue and Atelier/505 in the South End, bios declare. He also helped found the Downtown Crossing Business Improvement District.

He’s long been quietly behind the city’s arts and cultural life scenes, too, and now he’s the recipient of the Shrine’s Pope Francis Award.

The Pope Francis Award is presented to an individual whose lifework “mirrors the charism and mission of St. Francis of Assisi, lover of the poor and the alienated. It honors one who embodies the Franciscan values of humility, compassion, respect and dignity of all people, and lives out the Gospel,” the Shrine states.

Druker joins the fraternity of Boston’s big-hearted donors who help keep the doors open at the Shrine. It’s a group that gives back for what makes this city unlike any other around.

The gala is Wednesday night at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. For those who can’t attend, the Shrine takes donations by phone or online.

The friars at the Shrine work in the shadows of all the skyscrapers.

Br. Paul O’Keeffe runs the counseling center for couples, families or anyone struggling with relationship or mental health issues.

There’s more: the Emmaus Ministry for Grieving Parents, the Father Mychal Judge Recovery Center, Haitian Ministry, Franciscan Spiritual Companionship, the Seniors Program and the Lazarus Ministry — a special service that provides funerals and burial for the homeless and abandoned, “the poorest of the poor.”

It’s an oasis of faith just off Downtown Crossing. Now, Ronald Druker is part of that family. But, he says, he’s always been a charter member.

“St. Anthony’s can turn people’s bad news into better news,” he said. “They work very hard and all are welcome” in this downtown.

A massive moose was seen strolling by a central Massachusetts elementary school during morning drop-off.

“Special visitor in the Naquag Elementary School drop-off line this morning!” the Rutland Police Department posted, along with a photo of the moose on Monday.

The moose has since left the area, the police department added.

Police gave out tips from the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife about how to prevent conflicts with moose.

If you are lucky enough to see a moose, stay a respectful distance away.

“Never try to approach or pursue a moose,” MassWildlife posted. “Pursuit not only stresses the animal, but it adds the risk of having a moose chased out into traffic or into a group of bystanders. Wildlife professionals recommend letting the moose find its way out of populated areas and into nearby forested areas.

“However, when too many people congregate around the moose, it can become stressed and feel cornered,” MassWildlife added. “Occasionally, trained staff from MassWildlife and/or the Environmental Police may need to use immobilizing drugs to take a moose out of a dangerous public safety situation.”

Moose fall breeding season is September and October. Moose will step out onto a road without the slightest concern for oncoming traffic, officials warned. Their dark body is difficult to see and their eyes are much higher than those of white-tailed deer, so they’re often not reflected back from headlights.

Because they’re so heavy and have long legs, their body will often come through the windshield and onto the driver, making collisions extremely dangerous. Swerving to avoid a moose can be equally dangerous, so drive slowly and hit your brakes if you see a moose.

If a moose is in a densely populated area, leave the moose alone and contact the nearest MassWildlife District Office or the Environmental Police to report the sighting and get advice.

The Environmental Police Radio Room can be reached 24/7 at 1-800-632-8075.

NEW YORK (AP) — Robert Brustein, a giant in the theatrical world as critic, playwright, crusader for artistic integrity and founder of two of the leading regional theaters in the country, has died. He was 96.

Brustein died on Sunday at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, according to an emailed statement from Gideon Lester, the artistic director and chief executive of the Fisher Center at Bard University and a decades’ long family friend. Lester said he heard the news from Brustein’s his wife, Doreen Beinart.

Known as a passionate and provocative theater advocate who pushed for boundary-breaking works and for classics to be adventurously modernized, Brustein founded both the Yale Repertory Theatre and the American Repertory Theatre at Harvard.

Some of the works he championed upset critics and playgoers unused to nontraditional productions, but he was unapologetic. “I know I’m out of step,” he told The New York Times in 2001. “I’m so out of step I’m almost in step.”

Even in his 80s, Brustein continued offering his opinions on everything from art to politics, lashing out at the Tea Party and describing the pain of breaking ribs on his own blog. He was a distinguished scholar in residence at Suffolk University, a professor of English emeritus at Harvard University and longtime critic at The New Republic.

Born in New York City, Brustein earned a bachelor’s from Amherst and a master’s and Ph.D. from Columbia. A Fulbright scholar, he taught at Cornell, Vassar and Columbia, where he taught drama. He was dean of the Yale School of Drama from 1966-1979 and during that time founded the Yale Repertory Theatre.

Yale Rep, a champion of new work, has produced several Pulitzer Prize winners and nominated finalists. Many of its productions have advanced to Broadway and together have garnered 10 Tony Awards and more than 40 nominations.

“The goal is to try and have people in the audience take away something that lasts and will haunt them, be it either a subject for debate or of their dreams,” he told the Los Angeles Times in 1997. “They’ll have an unresolved experience.”

After a painful, highly publicized dismissal from Yale, Brustein in 1979 switched to Harvard, where he taught English and founded the American Repertory Theatre in 1980. Then in 1987, he founded the Institute for Advanced Theatre Training, a two-year graduate program. He retired as artistic director from A.R.T. in 2002 but continued serving as its founding director.

A.R.T. has grown into one of the country’s most celebrated theaters and the winner of numerous awards, including the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize. In 2003, it was named one of the top three regional theaters in the country by Time magazine.

Over the course of his long career as director, playwright, and teacher, Brustein aided the artistic development of such theater artists as Meryl Streep, Christopher Walken, Cherry Jones, Sigourney Weaver, James Naughton, James Lapine, Tony Shalhoub, Linda Lavin, Adam Rapp, William Ivey Long, Steve Zahn, Wendy Wasserstein, David Mamet and Peter Sellars.

At both Yale Rep and A.R.T., Brustein told The Boston Globe in 2012, he embraced popular theater with a nationalistic streak: “We were trying to liberate American theater from its British overseers. We were trying to find an American style for the classics,” he said.

“I was looking for the energies of popular theater applied to traditional work. I was also looking for new American plays. This was a very important function of ours, to encourage and develop new American playwrights.”

Brustein’s own full-length plays include “Demons,” “The Face Life” and “Spring Forward, Fall Back” and “Nobody Dies on Friday,” based on the real-life relationship between Lee Strasberg and his student Marilyn Monroe.

His work has been produced at the Vineyard Playhouse on Martha’s Vineyard, at Theater J in Washington, D.C., and the Abington Theatre in New York. “Playwriting is not so much a craft as an obsession,” he once observed.

His trilogy on the life and work of William Shakespeare includes “The English Channel,” which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; “Mortal Terror”; and “The Last Will,” a witty play which takes place inside a tavern on the eve of Shakespeare’s theater career and presents the young poet as an intellectual kleptomaniac. Brustein published his first book on Shakespeare, “The Tainted Muse: Prejudice and Presumption in Shakespeare and His Time,” in 2009.

Brustein was a staunch believer that theater should be first and foremost an art form, not just a political platform. He once criticized the African-American playwright August Wilson for declaring that Black people should not participate in colorblind casting but should form their own separatist companies. The pair then aired their differences in 1997 in a high-profile confrontation at New York’s Town Hall.

Brustein, a tall man with a deep voice, also wrote “Shlemiel the First,” based on the stories of Isaac Bashevis Singer and set to traditional klezmer music. The light, absurd comedy, which gently mocks the lavishness of other musicals, premiered in 1994 at the American Repertory Theatre and was close to making it to Broadway. It was revived in 2011 by Theatre for a New Audience.

“I think the greatest theater is that which combines the low and the high,” he told the Globe. “One thing I can’t stand is the middle.”

His short plays include “Poker Face,” “Chekhov on Ice” and “Airport Hell.” His other books include “Revolution as Theatre,” “Letters to a Young Actor” and multiple volumes of his essays and criticism.

He won multiple honors, including the George Polk Award for Journalism and an award for distinguished service to the arts from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was also inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame. In 2010, he was awarded the Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama at the White House and hailed as “a leading force in the development of theater and theater artists in the United States.”

He is survived by his wife, who ran the human rights film program at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School of Government; and a son, Daniel. His first wife, the actress Norma Brustein, died just after he was let go from Yale.

Brustein was asked in 2012 what he thought of the current state of American theater and said tickets were too expensive and the work often failed to find a deep resonance.

“I love entertainment, but entertainment has got to be a serious effort to investigate the American soul through its theater. Novelists understand this, poets understand this, and for a while the playwrights really understood it,” he told the Globe. “We don’t have that anymore. And if we do, it’s not making it on the stage.

___

Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

The Gaza Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas, said the death toll among Palestinians passed 8,000, mostly women and minors, as Israeli tanks and infantry pursued what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called a “second stage” in the war ignited by Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 incursion.

The toll is without precedent in decades of Israeli-Palestinian violence. Over 1,400 people have died on the Israeli side, mainly civilians killed during the initial attack, also an unprecedented figure.

Communications were restored to most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people Sunday after an Israeli bombardment described by residents as the most intense of the war knocked out phone and internet services late Friday.

Israel has allowed only a trickle of aid to enter. On Sunday, 33 trucks carrying water, food and medicine entered the only border crossing from Egypt, a spokesperson at the Rafah crossing, Wael Abo Omar, said.

After visiting the Rafah crossing, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court called the suffering of civilians “profound” and said he had not been able to enter Gaza. “These are the most tragic of days,” said Karim Khan, whose court has been investigating the actions of Israeli and Palestinian authorities since 2014.

Khan called on Israel to respect international law but stopped short of accusing it of war crimes. He called Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack a serious violation of international humanitarian law. “The burden rests with those who aim the gun, missile or rocket in question,” he said.

Trick or treaters may need to have extra layers on under their costumes when they start stalking about the neighborhoods for candy, as they will be greeted with highs only in the upper 40s in the Boston region.

Parts of western Massachusetts could even see snow overnight on Halloween, according to Alan Dunham, a meteorologist with the NWS.

“There is just a chance of some snow Tuesday night and Wednesday out in the Berkshires,” Dunham said.

To start the week, “rain is likely,” Dunham said, and the weather service predicts an 80% chance of showers for Boston from Sunday evening until early Monday afternoon.

Clouds will clear by Monday night, but temperatures won’t make it out of the low-50s through the day and will fall into the mid-30s heading into Tuesday.

On Tuesday, it will be cold despite “some sunny skies,” Dunham said. There is a slight chance of showers late in the evening, but well after the candy has been collected and the sugar has worn off.

Low temperatures overnight Tuesday are expected to be just above freezing, according to the NWS.

The chance of rain jumps to 50% by Wednesday due to a “little pressure well offshore,” Dunham said, but otherwise the day should be mostly sunny throughout the region. Temperatures Wednesday will stay in the mid-40s but fall below freezing overnight, according to the weather service.

Rain clears by Thursday, Dunham said, when the temperatures are expected to return to around 50 degrees under sunny skies. Lows will drop into the 30s overnight but should stay above freezing.

Slightly warmer weather returns for Friday, when it will be mostly sunny and in the mid-50s through much of the region. Overnight temperatures could stay close to 40 degrees.

A dry weekend is expected, Dunham said, with temperatures in the upper 50’s both Saturday and Sunday, but some clouds.

Not every neighborhood in Boston holds its trick or treating on Halloween night. For a long list of spooky offerings available in the city this week, visit https://www.boston.gov/news/bcyf-halloween-activities.

Residents there now have been notified of the new rule in several languages, according to the Mayor Michelle Wu. Any newcomers will be met by a coordinated team of social workers and law enforcement who will inform them new tents “won’t be able to go up.”

“And if it is up, it will be asked to be taken down,” Wu told WCVB.

The tent and tarp shelters now set at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard, also known as Methadone Mile, will be struck starting November 1, when an amended version of Wu’s anti-camping ordinance takes effect.

The plan is not to leave the dozens of people living there now, many of whom are struggling with drug or alcohol addictions or mental health conditions, with nowhere to go, Wu said. With city staff on the ground at Mass and Cass for 24-hours a day for months now, they know precisely who needs help, she said.

“There is no magic wand in a very complex, long-standing challenge that cities around the country are facing with the opiate crisis, homelessness, mental health, but we know that in Boston we have a very good sense of, not only who it is that needs services, but also how to most effectively connect people with those services,” Wu said.

The rampant drug use, violence and homelessness plaguing the intersection has been a blight on Wu’s administration that she inherited from former Mayor Marty Walsh. The problem persisted despite efforts to connect people living there — between 80 and 90 on any given day, down from close to 200 — with social services.

Wu’s plan to solve the problem is three-pronged. The ordinance allowing police to remove tents and tarps is the first step, followed by connection them with housing and other services.

The last is what Police Commissioner Michael Cox described as a “heavy” police presence.

“We want to make it clear to the people who come to the city with a different intent, whether it’s to sell drugs or criminality, or to victimize the people that are in these areas, we’re not going to allow that,” Cox said.

People at Mass and Cass will be offered a ride to temporary housing, but will not be allowed to camp there any longer. The tents and tarps they use for shelter, Wu’s team said when announcing the ordinance, are also used to hide drug use and other crime.

City Council President Ed Flynn told the Herald he has communicated with the Mayor over his desire to see a “zero tolerance” approach at Mass and Cass.

“We have rules in place, and people need to follow the rules,” Flynn told the Herald Friday. “If they break criminal laws, they need to be arrested and prosecuted.”

Brian Kane, the executive director of the T’s advisory board, said problems popping up across the system aren’t the kind of news he wants to hear, but at least MBTA General Manager Phil Eng seems to know what he’s doing.

“Eng has been here six months,” he told WBZ. “I think folks are really starting to see a sea change. I mean, I, as someone who was inside the T, and plays very close attention to it, am starting to see things that I just haven’t seen in the last decade.”

In the wake of revelations that the multi-billion dollar Green Line extension was opened despite previous MBTA officials knowing the tracks were too narrow for trains to move at full speed, Kane said that Eng has been the silver lining. The former New York transportation executive has made some high level leadership changes that speak to how seriously he takes the problems he faces, Kane said.

“He’s brought in serious experts from outside the state and outside the MBTA — industry professionals — to begin to run things, and you are starting to see changes happen internally because of that,” Kane said.

“It’s the adults in charge,” Kane said later.

A fix to the Green Line’s tracks to widen them to industry standard could begin as soon as November and will require about two weeks of overnight closures.

The fact the public even knows about the problem, which previous MBTA officials apparently discovered in the spring of 2021, well before the extension project opened to riders, is because of Eng’s disclosures about the issue. Larger concerns with the system — ridership, employment, revenue — these will take time to address, Kane said.

“It’s only been six months, this stuff will take time. We had decades of underinvestment in the T and it’s not going to be fixed in six months,” he said.

Eng, the former President of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s Long Island Rail Road and interim president of New York City Transit system, joined the MBTA in April. He makes $470,000 per year.

Massachusetts had the steepest fall from last year in the nation, dropping 12 spots to 46th for overall taxation in the 2023 State Business Tax Climate Index, a ranking published by the Tax Foundation that compares state tax systems.

“That means we are overtaxing our employers and our residents, both,” said Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts. “To be in the bottom five states, it’s not a good sign to either our tax-paying families or to employers, current or prospective. We’ve got to work on this.”

A driver behind the nosedive in tax competitiveness, the Tax Foundation found, is the state’s new Fair Share Amendment – or Millionaire’s Tax – which taxes incomes over $1 million an extra 4%.

“While the $1 million threshold at which the surtax kicks in is indexed to inflation, the surtax imposes a sizable marriage penalty that the Commonwealth lacked previously,” authors wrote in the report which came out last week. “This policy change represents a stark contrast from the recent reforms to reduce rates while consolidating brackets in many other states.”

The crumbling tax system should not be a surprise, said Paul Craney, a spokesman for Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, a staunch opponent of the Millionaire’s Tax. He called out proponents who pledged that the surtax would strictly apply to individuals with an income of over $1 million.

“With a flip of a switch, the legislature lowered that threshold to $500,000 for married people and the Tax Foundation is predicting a clear negative outcome from this,” Craney said in a statement.

Hurst, whose organization represents 4,000 businesses in the state, told the Herald on Friday that people and businesses alike are continuing to leave Massachusetts due to taxation.

Massachusetts is the fourth worst state in the country when it comes to out-migration, behind only California, New York and Illinois, according to data gathered earlier this year by Pioneer Institute, an economic policy think tank.

The Millionaire’s Tax has exacerbated the years-long problem, and former Celtics player Grant Williams used it as motivation to sign a four-year, $54-million contract with the Dallas Mavericks over the summer. If he stayed in Boston, the surtax would’ve reduced that amount to $48 million over the four years, he told The Athletic.

The Tax Foundation also called out a payroll tax that went into effect this year in Massachusetts’ poor ranking. The organization also found that the state dropped 33 spots from the 11th best state for individual taxes to the sixth worst.

Two glaring challenges facing small businesses across the Bay State, Hurst said, are its high unemployment and health insurance costs, both of which are the worst in the nation, according to the Tax Foundation.

Hurst is calling on state lawmakers to create more flexibility for small businesses on health insurance instead of imposing mandates and restrictions so they can be competitive with “big, self-insured businesses.”

Gov. Maura Healey signed a $1 billion-a-year tax relief bill earlier this month that Hurst believes will only go so far.

The package cuts the short-term capital gains tax from 12% to 8.5%, a business-backed move that has riled progressives who argue it gives a break to the wealthy. The compromise will cost the state $561 million in fiscal year 2023 and $1 billion a year starting in fiscal year 2027.

It also includes boosts to the rental deduction cap, a tax credit for a dependent child, disabled adult, or senior, and the statewide cap for a housing production program. The bill excludes estates valued up to $2 million from the estate tax by allowing for a uniform credit of $99,600.

“It’s going to help,” Hurst said, “but frankly, I think it’s a down payment on more action that has to come to make Massachusetts welcoming to investment, welcoming to entrepreneurs and to make sure that small businesses and consumers alike can be prosperous in the Commonwealth.”

The task force is supporting students who have experienced “doxxing, harassment, and online security issues” following the widespread backlash they’ve encountered after signing the letter, according to campus newspaper, The Harvard Crimson.

A student reporter accessed an email that Dean of Students Thomas Dunne sent Tuesday to “doxxed students,” outlining the purpose of the task force and how it will be in operation until at least Nov. 3.

“We are truly grateful for all the tremendous work that students have put forth in supporting each other through this most difficult time,” Dunne wrote, “and we appreciate the collaborative spirit in which students, faculty, and staff have come together to repel this repugnant assault on our community.”

The task force will serve as a single point of contact and communicate frequently with students to make sure they have resources and services to help them through their concerns, the article states.

Harvard students who blamed Israel after Hamas’ terrorist attacks say they’ve been afraid for their safety, as a truck revealing the names and faces of those who signed the letter had circled around the Cambridge campus, the Herald has reported.

On Wednesday, the “Harvard’s Leading Antisemites” truck went off campus and parked outside the homes of some student leaders who signed the letter, the New York Post first reported.

Accuracy in Media deployed the truck because, “in addition to educating their colleagues and neighbors on campus, everyone in their community should learn who the antisemites are among them,” group President Adam Guillemette told the Post.

Columbia University is the the next campus Accuracy in Media is bringing the truck to, the group posted on X, the former Twitter platform, Thursday.

Harvard police has stepped up its security presence on campus and continues to monitor online activity for the potential of any threat to the campus community or individuals on campus, according to university officials.

The fallout from the letter, and the response by Harvard’s President Claudine Gay that critics are saying was weak, continues to reverberate on the Cambridge campus, making it more divided than in recent memory.

Sounds just like New England.

After temps soared to record-highs in the 80s on Saturday, a major cool down is coming to the region over the next few days.

The National Weather Service forecast shows that in parts of Massachusetts, temps may be cold enough for the area’s first chance of light snow of the season on Wednesday and Wednesday night.

It appears that there could be some snowfall across the higher elevations of central and western Massachusetts.

“There is only a 10-30 percent chance of snowfall over an inch,” the National Weather Service’s forecast discussion reads. “Given the time of year and the anticipated strength of the lift, snow would be most likely during the nighttime hours, especially towards the Berkshires. As previously mentioned, it is still way too early to pinpoint snowfall totals and timing for specific locations.”

Ahead of the cool down coming, people got to enjoy some unseasonably warm temps on Saturday.

Boston hit 81 degrees — tying its record-high for Oct. 28 with 1919 and 1927. Both Hartford and Providence set new records for Oct. 28; Hartford hit 84 degrees, and Providence reached 82 degrees.

That’s how ex-pols are often described at the State House after they leave elective office. But after checking out the latest Beacon Hill lobbying reports, that old saw needs to be updated.

Forgotten, but not gone – and filthy rich!

It is astonishing to see how much some of these ancient shiftless hacks are grabbing, especially when you consider how long it’s been since any of them ever won an election.

Let’s start with 79-year-old ex-Lt. Gov. Tommy O’Neill – “Thomas P. O’Neill da Turd” as the sergeant-at-arms used to describe him when he entered the House chambers for the annual State of the State address.

Da Turd is the son of ex-House speaker Tip O’Neill, and he was dragged into office twice on the bottom of the Democrat gubernatorial ticket. But on his own Tipleet won just a single election – as a state rep in Cambridge, in 1972.

No problem, though. For the first six months of the year, his firm, O’Neill and Associates, collected $1.89 million from 59 clients. And here I was wondering how he was paying for that swell new waterside mansion in Harwich Port, with the smart Mercedes sports coupe parked outside. Hi Tommy – see ya next summer, pal!

State House hacks usually make their millions the old-fashioned way – with the kiss in the mail. Like Billy Bulger, the Corrupt Midget. Now 89, the CM has been pocketing a pension that is now $273,759 a year for more than 20 years.

At the State House, one of Bulger’s stooges was Chester Greenough Atkins – “Billy Bulger’s butler,” as he was known. Fat and entitled (he was born in Switzerland) Chet served briefly in Congress until he retired due to ill health – the voters got sick of him.

A four-term incumbent, he lost the Democrat primary in 1992, with a miserable 35 percent of the vote. It may have been the worst Congressional primary drubbing ever until Liz Cheney last year in Wyoming.

But no problem – at age 75, Billy Bulger’s butler is now a “partner” in something called Tremont Strategies. According to the State House News Service, Atkins’ crew took in $2.04 million in the first six months of the year.

Another lobbyist in that outfit is one Jason Aluia. He used to be a coat holder for Sal DiMasi, the former House speaker, convicted felon and jailbird.

Given the fact that Sal can list his Bureau of Prisons number – 27371-038 – as a resume enhancer, you’d think he too would be making the big bucks in his post-prison career as a lobbyist. But Sal, at age 78, is not rolling in the dough, maybe because his former street soldiers are cutting in on the take.

Not just Aluia, but Aaron Michlewitz, who went from skipper of Sal’s staff to being current Speaker Ron Mariano’s elected consigliere as Ways and Means chairman. Poor Sal – his payroll Charlies are putting him to shame in the lobbying grift.

Speaking of the Boston boys, how about the East Boston crew? Bobby Travaglini, who’s a young whippersnapper in this mob at a mere 71 years old, made his bones in the 1970s as a precinct captain working for guys named Dee Dee Coviello and Sonny Buttiglieri.

Now Trav, who became Senate president, paid himself $445,000 in the first six months of the year. Trav, you’ve come a long way from Junior’s Trolley!

According to Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s records, Trav is tied for highest-paid lobbyist with another Ward 1 ward heeler – Carlo Basile, the ex-state rep who went to work for then-Gov. Charlie Parker as patronage boss. Now Carlo made just under half a million a year in the first six months of the year.

It’s amazing how well these Eastie guys are doing, especially considering the ruination of Ward 1. In the old days, Eastie pols were strictly small timers, like Pixie Palladino, who definitely wasn’t a pixie, or James Coffey, who was known as “I’ll Take a Buck.” The name said it all.

Carlo is in the same firm with ex-Rep. Mike Costello. Costello is a second-generation State House hack. His father was another Bulger stooge in the Senate – Nick Costello. Now the son has figured out the racket, and their firm raked in $2.72 million in the first six months of the year. Costello pocketed $335,000 in the first six months of the year.

Another erstwhile Eastie pol living large in his golden years is Dennis Kearney. He last won an election in 1982, and is now 74 years old. Kearney’s lobbying firm collected $1.42 million in the first six months of 2023.

Obviously, even a dunce can make big bucks in the lobbying racket. Consider ex-Rep. Brian Dempsey. He got his B.A. from UMass – Lowell – at age 32.

Like Sal DiMasi, he has what you would consider a stellar State House curriculum vitae. Not only has he been lugged for drunk driving, but Dempsey was also taken into protective custody by the local cops for getting into a brawl with his brother in his mom’s parlor – on Mother’s Day.

Dempsey now has the third highest-grossing lobbying firm in the hackerama. He personally made $300,000 in the first six months of the year.

Then there’s Phil Johnston – talk about forgotten but not gone. He was first elected to the legislature back in the days of the old 240-member House, which was abolished in 1978. Mike Dukakis gave him a hack job in 1984, and Bill Delahunt stole a US House seat from him in a primary recount – in 1996.

But living well is the best revenge, and now, at the ripe old age of 79, Phil Johnston just pocketed $269,600 from his lobbying firm. That is what his old boss Mike Dukakis used to call a “good job at a good wage.”

How ecstatic do you think all the above were last week when Ron Mariano announced he’d run for yet another term as Speaker next year?

He’s from Quincy, which so many of these glad-handers have ties as well. So the gravy train will keep on trucking for a while longer.

And why can’t Mr. Speaker just keep running and running and running? After all, he’s still a young man. Ron doesn’t turn 77 until Tuesday – Halloween.

No wonder he gets along so splendidly with all his fellow ancient hacks.

They’ve all spent a lifetime together – slurping happily at the public trough.

Trick or treat, taxpayers!

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

Maine State Police found Robert Card’s body inside a box trailer parked in an overflow lot across the street from the Maine Recycling Corporation in Lisbon, an area that had not been checked when law enforcement previously searched the site two times.

The discovery of Card’s body brought to an end a massive manhunt that included hundreds of police from around the country canvassing communities around Lewiston, a search operation that kept the cities and towns in the immediate area on edge.

Maine Department of Public Safety Commissioner Michael Sauschuck said police cleared the trailers in the main part of the recycling center but did not know there was an overflow parking lot owned by the business, which had an “employment relationship” with Card.

Only until the business owner informed law enforcement that a parking lot across the street was part of the recycling center did police search the trailer where Card was ultimately found with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“The primary reason that we were back in that location is because, I will say this from a community policing, from a relationship standpoint, the owner of a business calls his police chief and says, ‘Hey, I want somebody to make sure that they’re clearing that,’ ” Sauschuck said.

Lisbon Police Chief Ryan McGee said officers cleared the recycling business at least once on Thursday but did not have the specific timeline of additional searches. The overflow lot had between 55 to 60 trailers full of crushed up plastic and metal, McGee said.

“This isn’t a lot that’s just all empty trailers,” he said at Lewiston City Hall. “I’m not going to get into more of the details on that. I mean, realistically, right now, we should all be really thinking about the victims.”

In the weeks before the mass shooting, police across Maine had been alerted to “veiled threats” by the U.S. Army reservist, the Associated Press reported. A statewide awareness alert was sent in mid-September to be on the lookout for Card after the firearms instructor made threats against his base and fellow soldiers, the AP reported. But after stepped-up patrols of the base and a visit to Card’s home – neither of which turned up any sign of him – they moved on.

It is still unclear what exactly pushed Card to kill 18 people and injure 13 others Wednesday at Just-In-Time Recreation and Schemengees Bar and Grille Restaurant, two local establishments in Lewiston.

There is a “mental health aspect” to the shootings, Sauschuck said, as well as “paranoia.” Investigators have “a lot of work yet to do” on Card’s phone and technology that could give insight into a motive, he said.

“I think of what I’ve read and what I’ve seen is that the individual felt like people were talking about him. It may even appear that there were some voices in play here. And we don’t believe that any of that is accurate. And I think that led him specifically back to those two specific locations,” Sauschuck said.

Authorities said they do not have any information that indicates the shooting was premeditated, with Sauschuck only telling reporters, “We know that there were two specific target locations.”

“He did go one to the other, he ditched his car in a specific spot. Again, maybe we’ll find additional information in one of these devices that says, ‘This is what my plan was.’ All we can do is look at what actually occurred,” he said.

A paper-style note written to a loved one was found at Card’s Bowdoin residence by law enforcement, Sauschuck said. The note included the passcode to Card’s phone and bank account information, authorities said.

The note was written with the “tone and tenor” that the author was not going to be around when it was found, Sauschuck said.

“I wouldn’t describe it as an explicit suicide note. But the tone and tenor was that the individual was not going to be around and wanted to make sure that this loved one had access to his phone and whatever was in his phone,” Sauschuck said.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Special Agent In Charge Jim Ferguson said the multiple firearms that were recovered were purchased legally by Card, including some “days before” the shootings.

“There’s been a number of firearms that have been recovered as part of this investigation and some of them have been purchased very recently and some of them years and years ago,” Ferguson said.

One long rifle was found in Card’s car, which he ditched at a boat launch in Lisbon, and two were located next to his body, authorities said. Officials did not have the exact makes and models of the weapons.

Card’s family was “incredibly cooperative” with police, Sauschuck said.

“Truth be told, I think the first three people that called us to positively identify this individual based on the photos that were released were family members,” he said. “… It would have been detrimental if they didn’t come forward immediately to let us know who this individual was.”

Several vigils were planned for the weekend, including one at 6 p.m. in Lisbon Saturday and another at 6:30 p.m. at the Franco Center in Lewiston.

McGee, the Lisbon police chief, said, “There’s going to be a candlelight vigil being held there in Lisbon to remember the victims that were tragically killed in Lewiston.”