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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Maine does not have a “red flag” law which may have prevented a mass shooter in Lewiston from accessing the gun he used to kill more than a dozen, according to gun control advocacy groups, as early reporting indicates the shooter made specific threats of violence.

“The state does not have an Extreme Risk law, also known as a ‘red flag’ law, to empower families and law enforcement to prevent tragedies before they happen,” Everytown for Gun Safety, a gun control lobbying group, writes of the state.

A “yellow flag” system used in the state, that would have required the intervention of a medical professional and sworn testimony from a law enforcement official in order to remove the guns used in Wednesday’s shooting from the alleged killer’s possession, may have been helpful if implemented.

“Though Maine has taken some steps to keep guns out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have them, state leaders must do more to prevent gun violence,” Everytown writes.

Since 2015 Maine has been among the more than half of U.S. states that allows adults over the age of 21 to carry concealed handguns without a permit. Reporting indicates the shooter was armed with a long gun.

Gun sellers are not required to perform background checks for sales beyond those performed to comply with federal laws, which check mostly for criminal findings, and there is no waiting period required to take possession of a new gun.

There are no restrictions on the possession of popular shooting platforms like the AR-15 or magazine size.

Despite these apparently lax laws, according to data provided by the CDC, Maine also ranks fairly well when held against other states when it comes to gun violence. At a rate of 11.2 per 100,000, Maine’s yearly gun deaths are well below that 38 other states. Of 163 people shot and killed there annually, almost 90% die by their own hand.

“As a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless acts of violence,” the president has declared flags should be “flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government.”

Biden’s order stands until Oct. 30.

The proclamation came Thursday morning, as the country began another, now all too familiar, collective mourning period after 18 were slaughtered and 13 more injured by an eruption of gunfire, this time in a quiet corner of Maine.

As of this writing the hunt for a lone shooter continues, with agents from the FBI, ATF, TSA assisting the Maine State Police and local law enforcement with the search.

According to the White House, the president spoke with Maine Gov. Janet Mills, U.S. Sens. Angus King and Susan Collins, and U.S. Rep. Jared Golden in the hours after the shooting, offering the federal government’s full support in the investigation.

Gov. Maura Healey said she has also spoken with Mills and local hospitals are assisting victims with medical care.

“Our hospitals are treating patients transferred to Massachusetts. New England is a close-knit community, and we are coming together to support our neighbors during this heartbreaking time,” Healey said.

The governor also ordered flags on state properties lowered “to express our deep sadness and sympathy for the victims, their families, and all those impacted by the mass shooting in Maine.”

Legislative leaders, who are considering changes to Bay State gun laws, reacted with sadness at the violence, but expressed resolve to take steps to prevent a similar incident in Massachusetts.

“On behalf of the MA House, I want to offer my sincerest condolences to everyone in Lewiston, ME who lost loved ones during yesterday’s horrific mass shooting. I know we join folks from across the country in grieving the lives lost to yet another tragic act of gun violence,” House Speaker Ron Mariano offered on Twitter.

“I am absolutely sickened to know that yet more innocent lives have been lost to gun violence, which has touched too many of us. I’m heartbroken for the victims in Lewiston and their families, friends and loved ones who now know firsthand the raw pain of having their lives devastated by a mass shooting. Today my heart is with each of them, and all our neighbors to the north,” Senate Pres. Karen Spilka said in a statement.

Spilka went on to say that the senate is “firm in our resolve to pass a comprehensive gun safety and violence prevention bill this session.” The House passed such a bill just this month.

The Gun Owners Action League, a Massachusetts-based Second Amendment advocacy group, lamented that the shooting was entirely preventable.

“Since the Newtown massacre in 2012, GOAL has adamantly fought to get our government officials, and the general public, to acknowledge the number one common denominator involved in these tragically preventable events – Severe Mental Health Issues,” the group wrote on their website.

“According to reports, the killer may have been involuntarily committed to a mental health facility and released even after admitting that he wanted to cause serious harm. This automatically made him a prohibited person from possessing a gun. The fact that he was released is simply unconscionable,” they continued.

The 45th president was in a New York court Tuesday when news broke that Mark Meadows, the former North Carolina representative who served as Trump’s last chief of staff, had apparently met with Special Counsel Jack Smith’s legal team several times in connection with Trump’s election denial.

According to ABC, citing “sources familiar with the matter,” Meadows met with government lawyers three times, once in the presence of a grand jury. Citing the same sources, the news organization claims that Meadows was offered limited immunity in order to reveal potentially incriminating information about Trump’s efforts to see the presidential election overturned.

Meadows apparently told Smith’s team he rebuffed his bosses’ claims of election fraud, and that the former president’s assertion he won the 2020 election was “dishonest.”

Trump responded to the news with disbelief.

“I don’t think Mark Meadows would lie about the Rigged and Stollen 2020 Presidential Election merely for getting IMMUNITY against Prosecution (PERSECUTION!) by Deranged Prosecutor, Jack Smith,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social media platform, misspelling and capitalization included.

Trump went on to offer a reason as to why Meadows might have worked with Smith.

“When you really think about it, after being hounded like a dog for three years, told you’ll be going to jail for the rest of your life, your money and your family will be forever gone, and we’re not at all interested in exposing those that did the RIGGING — If you say BAD THINGS about that terrible ‘MONSTER,’ DONALD J. TRUMP, we won’t put you in prison, you can keep your family and your wealth,” Trump wrote.

The cooperation of Trump’s former chief of staff would be key to Smith’s prosecution of the former president, who a grand jury has charged with conspiring to overturn the 2020 election and obstruct an official proceeding.

Meadows’ lawyer later told another news outlet that reporting on his client’s time with Smith “was largely inaccurate.”

Trump said that Meadows never told him the 2020 election wasn’t rigged against him, a claim the former president has maintained, without providing any evidence, since the day following the election.

“Mark Meadows NEVER told me that allegations of significant fraud (about the RIGGED Election!) were baseless. He certainly didn’t say that in his book,” Trump wrote.

No court has accepted any of the former president’s assertions of election fraud or any made by lawyers representing his claims. Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden after netting 74,223,975 votes to the now-sitting president’s 81,283,501, and following an electoral college defeat of 232 – 306.

In a letter to the Granite State’s liberal party leaders, Julie Chavez Rodriguez, the 46th president’s campaign manager, said that “while the president wishes to participate in the primary, he is obligated to comply” with the wishes of the national party, which has decided to allow South Carolina to hold the first nominating contest.

“The president looks forward to having his name on New Hampshire’s general election ballot as the nominee of the Democratic Party after officially securing the nomination at the 2024 Democratic National Convention, where he will tirelessly campaign to earn every single vote in the Granite State next November,” Rodriguez wrote to NHDP Chairman Ray Buckley.

Biden’s decision comes as no surprise to party insiders, who knew for months that a state law requiring New Hampshire to hold the first primaries would stand in the way of the Democratic National Committee’s proposed schedule change.

The DNC warned New Hampshire that if they held their primary first they might face sanctions, and potentially see their delegates rejected at the party’s national convention. New Hampshire Democrats, who are not in control of the state government and cannot change the law, have maintained that their hands are tied and they must hold the nation’s first Democratic primary.

According to Buckley, even if his name isn’t officially listed on the ballot, a write-in campaign could be enough to get the president over the finish line.

“The reality is that Joe Biden will win the New Hampshire First-in-the-Nation Primary in January, win re-nomination in Chicago and will be re-elected next November. New Hampshire voters know and trust Joe Biden, that’s why he is leading Trump in New Hampshire by double digits,” Buckley said in a statement.

According to the Secretary of State’s office, without Biden — and after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared he would run as an independent — the Democratic ticket in New Hampshire features author Marianne Williamson and nine other comparatively unknown candidates. Williamson, who ran for the party nod in 2020, filed her nomination paperwork on October 12.

“The truth of the matter is that even though the DNC can take delegates from me, it cannot take from New Hampshire the significance of this primary,” Williamson said, according to WMUR.

The Republican ticket could feature 20 names. The filing deadline for major party candidates running in the New Hampshire primary is October 27.

Herald wire services contributed.

MBTA General Manager Phil Eng, during a meeting of the transportation agency’s board of directors Tuesday morning, said a discrepancy in the width of Green Line tracks could be fixed as soon as mid-November.

“It’s not months, it’s not years to address this,” Eng told the Board.

Last week, Eng revealed that previous MBTA officials discovered but did not publicly disclose a problem with the line’s prefabricated railroad ties, leading to tracks that were out of design specifications and not to national rail standards.

“We did a deeper dive into the project to understand why a project that was recently opened, new construction, resulted in conditions that were unacceptable,” he said. “What we identified was that we had tight gauges across significant portions of the GLX project.”

According to Eng, about half of the track along the Union branch of the Green Line Extension and 80% of the Medford-Tufts branch are outside of the industry rail gauge standard — sometimes called the Stephenson gauge — of 56-and-a-half inches. Parts of the track are between an eighth and a three-eighths of an inch too narrow, Eng said, despite the contract calling for no more than a sixteenth of an inch tolerance.

“That does not mean it was unsafe to run trains,” the GM said.

Under a proposed corrective action plan offered by the construction conglomerate that installed the tracks, GLX Constructors, work could begin as soon as next month and would occur overnight, from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Eng said the company’s proposal, which MBTA officials are still reviewing, calls for “10 to 14 nights of work” starting on November 1 to “address and regauge all of the track that needs to be done along both branches.”

To fix the problem, Eng told the board, the pre-installed plates connecting the metal train track to the wooden rail ties will need to be unbolted, the bolt holes filled and re-drilled, and the plates and track reconnected. The procedure is not entirely uncommon in the rail industry, Eng said, and his staff is focused on making sure the solution won’t result in future frustrations.

GLX Constructors — an entity made up of Fluor Enterprises Inc., The Middlesex Corporation, Herzog Contracting Corp. and Balfour Beatty Infrastructure, Inc. — will have to foot the bill for fixing the track problem, according to the GM.

The roughly $2.3 billion Green Line Extension project was completed at the end of last year, with a new branch that starts in Medford at the Tufts/College Avenue station and adds four stops in Somerville. A smaller branch opened in March 2022, adding service at the Union Square station in Somerville.

The problem with the tracks was apparently discovered as soon as April of 2021 — well before the ribbon cutting ceremonies — but never addressed. The board did not seem surprised when Eng told them the time to fix the problem was upon identification, not after service began. The narrow tracks have resulted in trains that move as slow as 3 mph at times, or about the average walking speed for most healthy adults.

Attorney General Andrea Campbell announced she has reached a settlement with the campaigns of Worcester state Sen. Ryan Fattman and his wife, Worcester County Register of Probate Stephanie Fattman, who have agreed to pay almost $200,000 over allegations the senator’s campaign funneled money through the state party that was then used to further his wife’s 2020 campaign.

The campaigns of the senate Republican and his wife will pay the “largest amounts ever paid by candidate committees to the Commonwealth to settle campaign finance allegations,” according to the Attorney General’s office.

“Enforcing our campaign finance laws, and holding those who violate them accountable, are critical functions of our office,” Campbell said Tuesday along with the settlement announcement. “We will continue to hold accountable those who misuse positions of power, break the law and undermine the public’s trust.”

According to Campbell, the settlement comes following an investigation by the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, which showed that Fattman’s senatorial campaign committee sent more than $160,000 worth of contributions to the Republican State Committee and the Sutton Republican Town Committee. That money was then used to fund the production and distribution of 550,000 political mailers pushing for Register Fattman’s election, according to the AG’s office.

Fattman would go on to win her race against Democrat John Dolan 212,264 votes to 178,805.

State law sets a limit of $100 for campaign contributions made by a campaign committee. The cost of more than half-a-million mailers clearly exceeds that, according to officials.

“OCPF will continue its role in educating and informing candidates of their duties and responsibilities under the campaign finance law,” OCPF Director William Campbell said in a statement. “Where apparent violations exist, the agency will take measures to ensure the public’s interest in accurate and timely disclosure of campaign finance activity.”

The Register’s campaign will pay the Bay State $137,000 — $29,000 immediately and $27,000 each following year until 2027 — and the Senator’s campaign $55,000, according to Campbell’s office. Donald Fattman, former Treasurer of the Ryan Fattman Committee, agreed to pay $10,000. The Sutton Republican Town Committee agreed that Chairman Anthony Fattman, the state senator’s brother, would resign and accept prohibition from future chairmanships and to pay over $5,000.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Fattman have also agreed to “retain professional compliance agents” to assist future campaigns with following the state’s campaign finance rules.

According to the settlement, the Fattmans’ campaigns deny any wrongdoing and “make no admission of liability” but wish to “fully and finally resolve these claims to avoid the expense and uncertainty of litigation.” The settlement indicates both politicians believe they were acting within the law.

“By entering into this agreement, they do not admit they have violated any law or other legal obligation,” the settlement reads, in part.

The state Republican party, according to Campbell’s office, agreed to pay $15,000 over the alleged violations earlier this month.

Upon taking office in January, current MassGOP Chairwoman Amy Carnevale warned party membership there would be a number of unusual campaign finance situations to unravel from the previous chairman’s tenure.

When the investigation into Fattman’s finances was first announced in 2021, then party Chairman Jim Lyons called the investigation a “cowardly” act by outgoing Campaign and Political Finance Director Michael Sullivan.

“This is a blatant political hit job,” Lyons said then.

Fattman did not return a request for comment on the settlement.

Herald wire service contributed.

The room where Trump would speak, a gymnasium covered in folding chairs, filled to capacity with “MAGA” bedecked voters well before the 45th president took the stage around 3 p.m. on Monday. Some chanted and danced in the aisles as they waited for the former president.

“Vote for Trump and solve your problems,” Trump told an audience of more than 2,500.

The former president seemed full of energy as he delivered a wide-ranging, nearly two-hour address that brought the crowd to its feet on several occasions. Trump more than once took specific aim at President Biden, who Trump said was left with a roaring economy that the current president has not maintained.

“I will end Joe Biden’s inflation disaster and we will quickly rebuild the greatest economy in the history of the world,” he said.

According to the former reality TV star, the war Israel is waging against Hamas and the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian military could have both been avoided, had Trump been elected to a second term in 2020.

The Associated Press reports more than 1,400 Israeli citizens were killed when Hamas launched a surprise attack against the U.S. ally on October 7. The Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza claims over 4,300 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Defense Force’s response, though those numbers have not been independently verified.

Russia has been waging a stalled war in Ukraine for more than 18 months.

Both conflicts would end swiftly if he returned to the White House, Trump told the Granite State crowd.

“I make this promise to you: as president, I will restore peace through strength,” he said. “Crooked Joe is not feared, he’s not respected, and he’s regarded by our enemies as a joke.”

Trump is by far and away the leading contender for the Republican nomination. According to recent polling he leads the closest contender, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by about 50 points.

The 45th President officially added his name to the New Hampshire ballot on Monday, joining the likes of DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

The State’s Democratic leadership responded to Trump’s visit, the third to the first-in-the-nation primary state in as many weeks, with a morning press call in which they decried his brand of politics as at odds with voters in New Hampshire.

“At a time when our country confronts significant problems at home and around the world, and when our global leadership is as indispensable as ever, we need to be united. But Trump is incapable of bringing us together,” U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan said. “We are the Live Free or Die State: we have no use for a man who would overturn our elections or praise dictators. I know that as Granite Staters and Americans, we will reject Trump and we will win next November.”

The weekend’s cold will linger into Monday morning, according to forecasters with the National Weather Service. After that, warm weather will settle over the region for the remainder of the work week.

“Basically a warming trend all week,” NWS Meteorologist Kyle Pederson told the Herald.

Pederson said the recent wind and rain will wrap overnight Sunday and, though there is a chance for the Cape and Islands to see some scattered showers, otherwise the week will be dry for most of the region.

“We’re not detecting any rain this week,” he said.

The weather service predicts temperatures will be in the 40s for early morning commuters, but by the end of the day Monday things could warm close to the 60s under partly sunny skies and a 10 mph breeze blowing in from the north.

Overnight Monday may be the coldest night of the week, Pederson said, with the higher elevation regions of the state potentially seeing freezing temperatures. Boston, because of the nearby still somewhat warm ocean water, should stay in the mid-40s overnight, he said. Further inland and across much of the Bay State the temps will likely be in the mid-30s.

On Tuesday, the winds will calm further and the sun shine through fewer clouds, with temps again pushing toward or into the 60s, Pederson said. Overnight temperatures will likely fall back into the mid-40s.

Mostly sunny skies on Wednesday could send the mercury into the 70s, especially further inland from the coast, Pederson said. The wind may also pick up slightly, according to the NWS, potentially reaching 15 mph.

Overnight temperatures heading into Thursday should stay in the low-to-mid 50s.

Thursday may be the warmest day of the week, according to the weather service, when parts of the region could see temperatures in the mid-70s under mostly sunny skies and a slight breeze. Temperatures should stay the low-to-mid 50s overnight, when more clouds are expected to roll in.

Thursday is also, according to the fall foliage map maintained by Yankee Magazine, when the majority of the Bay State will move from “early” to “mid” leaf peeping season. Parts of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont will be in “late” season approaching “peak.”

Friday could be another dry, 70-degree day, Pederson said, with comfortable dew points, very little wind, and partly a sunny sky. Overnight temps fall back into the mid-50s.

As of now, the weather service is predicting similar 70 degree temperatures on Saturday, but chillier highs in the upper 50s on Sunday.

General Manager Phillip Eng revealed last week that MBTA officials knew as far back as April 2021 that large swaths of Green Line Extension tracks were defective and about an eighth-of-an-inch too narrow. Despite allegedly knowing this, the former managers of the beleaguered transportation agency opened the lines anyway.

During a television appearance that aired Sunday, Healey said all indications are that the problem was never divulged to former Gov. Charlie Baker, who attended ribbon cuttings for the completed $2.3 billion expansion in March and December of 2022.

“I have no information suggesting that he knew,” Healey told WBZ.

Healey said she is “really upset” over revelations the newly installed tracks are significantly out of gauge with the rail industry standard and causing tortuous slow-travel zones for commuters, many of whom waited years to access the expanded transit system.

The opening of the Green Line Extension was supposed to bring the mass of Somerville residents to within a 12-minute walk of an MBTA station. The five GLX stops could serve 50,000 riders each day and take about 45,000 car trips out of traffic, according to the MBTA.

Healey’s assertion confirms one made by a Baker spokesperson, who told the Herald the former governor was never made aware of a problem which, according to Eng, “could have been and should have been more proactively investigated prior to opening.”

The current governor credits Eng, whom she appointed, with “identifying the issue, disclosing it and taking steps to address it.” The governor also said that problems with the MBTA, whoever may have caused them, are now her responsibility to see fixed.

“I took this job understanding that the T was going to be a major, major issue,” she said. “As governor I have accepted the task of making sure we are doing everything we can to address years — years — of mismanagement and underinvestment.”

The blame is not on the workers who installed the tracks, Healey said, but their bosses who “knew information, didn’t disclose it, and most importantly didn’t address it.”

“This is on management,” she said.

The Green Line is “entirely safe” despite the slow zones, according to the governor.

“I do want the public to know that,” she said.

Standard rail gauge is four feet and eight-and-a-half inches. According to Eng, it would be unusual for the tracks to narrow once they are in use, as they typically widen slightly when trains traverse newly installed rail.

Eng said he has already received a proposal from the GLX contractors on how they will go about fixing the problem. The GM says tax payers will not be on the hook for the cost of repairs, which may take weeks.

Powell, of “unleash the kraken” fame, pleaded guilty to six misdemeanor charges in connection with the wide ranging criminal conspiracy case centered around the 45th President playing out in the Peach State. On Sunday, Trump used his social media platform to declare that Powell was not his attorney, but rather was serving as legal counsel for his disgraced former National Security Advisory, Michael Flynn.

“Sidney Powell was one of millions and millions of people who thought, and in ever increasing numbers still think, correctly, that the 2020 Presidential Election was RIGGED & STOLLEN, AND OUR COUNTRY IS BEING ABSOLUTELY DESTROYED BECAUSE OF IT!!! Despite the Fake News reports to the contrary, and without even reaching out to ask the Trump Campaign, MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS,” Trump wrote.

The former president’s effort to put distance between himself and the Texas attorney comes after Powell agreed to serve six years of probation, pay a $6,000 fine, and to testify truthfully regarding the activities of her co-defendants. Powell had been charged, along with Trump and more than a dozen others, for their alleged efforts to interfere with elections in Georgia.

Trump’s assertion Powell did not serve as part of his legal team is at odds with previous declarations made by the former president. In November of 2020, Trump wrote on X, the social media platform then known as Twitter, that Powell would join a team spearheaded by his personal attorney, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

I look forward to Mayor Giuliani spearheading the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS! Rudy Giuliani, Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis, a truly great team, added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2020

“I look forward to Mayor Giuliani spearheading the legal effort to defend OUR RIGHT to FREE and FAIR ELECTIONS! Rudy Giuliani, Joseph diGenova, Victoria Toensing, Sidney Powell, and Jenna Ellis, a truly great team, added to our other wonderful lawyers and representatives,” he wrote then.

No court accepted any of the arguments made by Powell or any other lawyer representing the former president’s claims the election was rigged or stolen. Trump lost the 2020 election to President Joe Biden after netting 74,223,975 votes to the now-sitting president’s 81,283,501, and following an electoral college defeat of 232 – 306.

Powell is listed, though not named, as one of six unindicted co-conspirators in Special Counsel Jack Smith’s federal case charging Trump with plotting to overturn the 2020 election.

The D.C. grand jury indictment charging the former president indicates Trump told others that Powell’s unfounded claims of election fraud were “crazy” while simultaneously promoting a lawsuit that Powell filed seeking to overturn the election results in Georgia.

Herald wire services contributed.

The House suspended their rules, passed the bill by a vote of 120-38, and will send it to the state Senate.

Lawmakers said they aim to reduce gun violence by strengthening laws around firearms licensing, and carrying and by going after so-called ghost guns.

“While the Commonwealth annually ranks as one of the safest states in the entire country from gun violence, the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision nullified existing components of our gun laws, threatening the safety of the Commonwealth’s residents. With the passage of this legislation, the House has once again displayed an unwavering commitment to ensuring that Massachusetts remains one of the safest states in the country,” House Speaker Ron Mariano said.

This summer, a year after the high court decided in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen that most extraordinary licensing requirements were at odds with the Second Amendment, Stoneham Rep. Michael Day filed the gun reform bill as HD.4420. The bill has since gone through two further iterations and was finally passed as H.4135.

Gun rights groups responded to the entire proposal with alarm, claiming that upon passage it would make felons of otherwise lawful gun owners and that it wouldn’t actually address criminal use of firearms. The House adjusted the bill in response to their complaints, but by and large not enough to convince Second Amendment advocates they weren’t being directly targeted.

“This bill simply cannot be fixed … or exorcised,” Jim Wallace, the Executive Director of the Gun Owners Action League, said in an email to his membership.

Licensed gun owners’ assertion the bill would only impact them, not those looking to break the law, was backed by the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, representing all 351 cities and towns and more than 100 hospital police departments.

Executive Director Mark Leahy testified at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing that the organization had polled its membership, and received an “unprecedented” unanimous vote to oppose the bill.

“Although disappointed in this very predictable vote — in a proceeding where the House failed to follow their own rules — we applaud those Legislators who recognized that this bill makes no one safer. As we’ve said, the answer lies in the vigorous prosecution of criminals, who have no regard for gun laws, whether old or new. We look forward to addressing this matter with our Senate,” Leahy told the Herald after Wednesday’s vote.

The bill, according to the Speaker’s office, “cracks down on the sale of ghost guns; strengthens the Commonwealth’s red flag laws; updates the definition of assault weapons; and limits the carrying of guns into schools, polling places, government buildings and the private residences of others.”

The legislation would also outlaw the sale or purchase of rifles styled like Armalite‘s AR-15, the most popular shooting platform in the country. As the bill is currently worded, those who own potentially prohibited guns would be allowed to keep firearms already in their possession.

The House moved the measure through the Ways and Means committee after replacing the language in H.4090, which had been offered by Gov. Maura Healey as the state’s fiscal 2023 close-out budget, with the language of the gun bill.

According to a report prepared at the request of U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey and U.S. Rep. Bill Keating, the 90-year old Bourne and Sagamore Bridges are already costing Cape businesses money and impacting quality of life for the people who live and visit the region.

“Failure to replace the bridges would be catastrophic,” the report reads.

The federally owned bridges are the only roads for the 260,000 residents and the about 5 million annual tourists heading to or leaving the Cape. The State has been working with the Army Corps of Engineers since 2020 to secure funding for their replacement, expected to cost upwards of $4.5 billion. That process is ongoing.

However, due their age and small size, coupled with frequent lane closures for maintenance, the time to replace the busy spans has already arrived, according to the report.

“Cape Cod residents and businesses rely on the Sagamore and Bourne bridges for almost every aspect of their lives. The current state of disrepair of the Bridges is already negatively impacting the communities that live and work on and around the Cape – making access to education, medical care, emergency services, and reasonably-priced goods and services increasingly out of reach,” the report says.

In July, the lawmakers sent letters to dozens of Cape Cod community stakeholders — state elected officials, local elected officials, Tribal leaders, and community organizations — asking them to share their thoughts on the impact the bridges have on their lives and businesses. Their responses were used to compile the report, Cape Cod Bridges Replacement: An Urgent Need, which the lawmakers released this week.

“Inaction is untenable. The Cape Cod bridges replacement project is at a pivotal moment, and federal and state actors must come together to secure the funding needed to carry out the replacement and alleviate the current situation that is negatively impacting thousands of residents and millions of visitors annually,” the elected officials said in a joint statement.

Efforts to fund replacement of the bridges, which USACE determined must occur, have not been moving quickly.

Last year, a request for grant funding from the federal government was passed over.

The Biden Administration later awarded the state a $1.6 million project planning grant through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and the president’s fiscal 2024 budget proposal calls for sending $350 million of a $600 million commitment to the Commonwealth.

However, the President’s 2024 budget is still stuck in a divided congress, and that still leaves billions left to fund on a project that hasn’t started.

In August, Gov. Maura Healey announced the state would seek grants for about $1.5 billion to move forward with a “phased approach” to replace at least one of the two bridges.

In the meantime, according to the report, things will get worse.

“Without federal funding to replace the bridges, the situation will continue to deteriorate, causing potentially catastrophic results,” the report reads.

On Tuesday, the House Ways and Means Committee polled its membership on whether they might vote in favor of recommending “H.4090 ‘An Act making appropriations for fiscal year 2023 to provide for supplementing certain existing appropriations and for certain other activities and projects’ in part, as amended; see attached.”

Attached to that bill, which was submitted in September by Gov. Maura Healey with an aim toward closing the books on the state’s fiscal 2023 budget, was the third version of the House’s gun legislation. All mentions of the budget were removed.

Originally proposed by Stoneham Rep. Michael Day as HD. 4420, or An Act modernizing firearms laws, gun owners met the first draft bill with alarm at many of its provisions. As written, according to opponents, the bill would make many otherwise law-abiding gun owners into felons overnight and restrict them from participating in constitutionally protected activities.

After hearing the complaints of Second Amendment activists, lawmakers released HD. 4607, a bill of the same name, and held a hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee. Gun rights groups were still displeased, openly wondering why the lawmakers were making it harder for people to lawfully keep firearms while ostensibly chasing after criminal use of guns.

The Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association polled its membership on the bill, resulting in an unprecedented unanimous rejection of the proposed legislation. The bill, according to the organization’s executive director, would not actually impact crime.

On Tuesday, without much notice on the matter, the House Ways and Means delivered H.4135, also called “An Act modernizing firearms laws,” and quickly appended portions of it to H.4090, the close-out budget.

“My head is spinning,” Dave Wallace, the executive director of the Gun Owners Action League, told the Herald.

According to Wallace, the “fast-paced, sleight of hand, Houdini-like procedure” is a “twisted end-run around the normal process.”

“In order to avoid the normal bill process, the Speaker had House Ways & Means add the current gun bill language to an existing budget bill, H.4090. Then House Ways & Means, with no public vote record, conjured and released what amounts to a “ghost bill”, H.4135, in order to get it to the House floor for a vote on Wednesday,” Wallace warned his group’s membership in an email.

“This bill simply cannot be fixed … or exorcized,” he wrote.

House Speaker Ron Mariano, after caucusing with fellow representatives Tuesday, said that he expects Wednesday’s House session to include some “spirited debate” on the matter. According to the Speaker, moving the legislation through the budget bill is the best path forward.

The push for stricter laws comes following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last summer in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, in which the high court determined that most extraordinary gun licensing requirements are at odds with the Second Amendment.

According to the report by Drivers Demand Justice, after accounting for time spent waiting and vehicle maintenance costs, drivers in Massachusetts earn less than the $15 per hour minimum established in state law.

“Ridehail drivers in Massachusetts grapple with a harsh reality – promised earnings often fall significantly short of actual compensation. Drivers routinely discover their earnings to be substantially lower than expected, largely attributed to unaccounted-for work time and the substantial burden of work-related expenses. Analysis of ridehail data shows that the net earnings for a majority of drivers in the industry fall below the state’s minimum wage,” the report reads.

The “median Massachusetts ridehail driver” makes just $12.82 an hour and a full three out of five drivers learn less than the minimum wage, the group says.

“Almost half (48.9%) of the typical driver’s gross ridehail earnings are wiped out by driving expenses,” the report reads, in part.

On Tuesday, hundreds of Uber and Lyft drivers rallied at the Massachusetts State House to share the results of their report and push for the passage of HD.1099 or SD.666, or An Act establishing collective bargaining rights for TNC drivers.

The bill, according to advocates, would allow rideshare drivers to unionize and demand both better pay and benefits from app based transportation network companies.

“We provide an essential service, yet Uber and Lyft pay us poverty wages while they rake in billions,” Uber driver Cletus Awah said in a statement shared by the group. “We deserve a living wage and basic protections like the freedom to join a union. But these companies will keep exploiting us until legislators step up and pass the Rideshare Driver Justice Bill.”

A ballot question pushed to the tune of tens of millions of dollars by the ridesharing businesses, but rejected by the state’s highest court last year, aimed to classify rideshare drivers as independent contractors by law, preventing them from organizing or holding the companies liable for work related damages. Advocates for the change said then that most drivers preferred the independence of a contract work arrangement.

In 2020, rideshare companies spent more than $200 million to successfully get a similar law passed in California.

A new version of last year’s rejected ballot question could appear before Bay State voters in 2024, alongside an effort by Drivers Demand Justice to ask voters to allow them to unionize. In the meantime, drivers are hoping the Legislature can act first.

“We have a narrow window to do right by drivers before Uber and Lyft spend millions undermining us like they did in California,” Boston state Rep. Christopher Worrell, a former rideshare driver, said in a statement. “We won’t stop fighting until drivers have rights, respect, and a real voice on the job through a union.”

About a dozen masked members of the group NSC-131 stood across the street from the governor’s Arlington home on Saturday night, holding a protest that resulted in no arrests and no physical violence, but spreading a message of hate that Gov. Maura Healey said does not fly in the Bay State.

“These Neo-Nazis and white supremacists are trying to scare people from exercising their rights and standing up to their hate. We won’t tolerate it in Massachusetts,” she said in a written statement. The governor did not mention the protest during a Monday press availability.

Local CBS affiliate WBZ was the first to notice the gathering outside the governor’s home over the weekend, reporting a gathering of men chanting anti-immigrant slogans and holding a sign that read “New England is ours, the rest must go.”

Healey’s staff confirmed the protestors were members of the group National Socialist Club-131.

The Anti-Defamation League describes the organization as “a neo-Nazi group based in the New England region.”

The group’s name is a play on the official title of the ruling party in Germany during what that regime called the Third Reich. More commonly known as Nazis, Adolf Hitler came to power in 1930s Germany after taking control of what was officially known as the “National Socialist German Workers’ Party.”

The 131 in the group’s name, according to the ADL, “is alphanumeric code for ACA, Anti-Communist Action and Anti-Capitalist Action.”

In a January complaint filed against the group in New Hampshire Superior Court for their alleged violation of that state’s civil rights laws, Granite State Attorney General John Formella said the group describes itself as “a pro-white, street-oriented fraternity dedicated to raising authentic resistance to the enemies of our people in the New England area. This takes the form of networking, training, activism, outreach, and above all action.”

The neo-Nazi gathering comes as the state is dealing with a genuine migrant crisis, and just days before the governor declared that the Commonwealth’s shelter system is nearly full.

Nevertheless, according to Healey, the group won’t be allowed to intimidate Bay State residents or change how the state responds to the influx of new arrivals.

“Local, state and federal law enforcement will hold accountable perpetrators of violence and those who threaten violence and will keep our communities and residents safe,” she said.

The local chapter of the ADL condemned the group’s actions.

Our joint statement with @BostonJCRC : Whether it is where newest arrivals are sheltered or our elected leaders live, in the strongest possible terms, we denounce extremist, anti-migrant demonstrations of hate. We are committed to working with @MassGovernor to welcome the…

— ADL New England (@ADL_NewEngland) October 16, 2023

“Whether it is where newest arrivals are sheltered or our elected leaders live, in the strongest possible terms, we denounce extremist, anti-migrant demonstrations of hate,” the group wrote the the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “We are committed to working with (Healey) to welcome the families that make our Commonwealth stronger.”

On Monday, Gov. Maura Healey announced that the tens of thousands currently living in state-provided housing may be among the last the state can afford to shelter. Without intervention by the Biden Administration, Healey said, the system will not be able to help any further.

“For months now, we have been expanding shelter capacity at an unsustainable rate to meet rising demand. Despite the heroic work of public officials, shelter providers and the National Guard, we have reached a point where we can no longer safely or responsibly expand,” Healey said.

According to the governor, as of October 16 there are 7,000 families — 23,000 individuals, she said, half of whom are children and all of whom are here legally — using the state shelter system. Massachusetts is alone among the 50 states in guaranteeing women with children and families access to shelter by law.

That “right to shelter” provision has run up against a migrant influx the state was never prepared to handle on its own, Healey said. The state is not, she stressed, doing away with the right to shelter law, but after the end of the month families in need of shelter may have to wait for space to free.

In light of the migrant crisis slowly building in the Bay State, Healey announced on Monday she would appoint retired Lt. Gen. Scott Rice as the Emergency Assistance Director. Rice previously served as the Adjutant General of the Massachusetts National Guard and will coordinate the state’s response to the crisis going forward.

“General Rice has extensive experience leading large scale emergency management operations, and we are confident he is the right person to lead us through this new phase of the emergency shelter system,” Healy said.

Healey also announced that the administration will connect migrants in shelters with job training through a partnership with Commonwealth Corporation Foundation while they wait for work authorization.

When asked if her message should serve as a warning to migrants that Massachusetts is full, the governor said that, at the very least, shelter may not immediately be provided to anyone who arrives.

“It’s certainly a communication that we are reaching capacity and therefore don’t expect to be able to house people the way we’ve been able to house people in the existing infrastructure,” she said.

The Healey Administration and leaders in the Legislature have been pleading with the President Joe Biden and his staff to intervene in Massachusetts. Last week, officials from the Department of Homeland Security were in the Bay State to survey the situation on the ground.

So far, however, it seems the Commonwealth is on its own.

“It’s now time for the state to approve more funding for shelters and for Congress to get its act together and pass immigration reform that allows immigrants to work,” Elizabeth Sweet, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, said after the governor’s announcement.

According to a statement by U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group will join the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group off the coast of Israel in an effort to prevent further escalation of the conflict by third parties.

“The increases to U.S. force posture signal the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security and our resolve to deter any state or non-state actor seeking to escalate this war,” the retired four-star general said.

Announcements of U.S. military movements toward the Middle East came after more than 1,000 Israeli civilians and military personnel were killed when Hamas launched a surprise attack from Gaza last Saturday. Israel’s Security Cabinet declared war with the group, which the United States, Canada, and the European Union have officially designated a terrorist organization, in the following hours.

The death toll of U.S. citizens rose to 30, Sunday, with 13 still missing.  The militants also kidnapped at least 155 people — a number that includes babies and the elderly — and are holding them hostage in Gaza. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, speaking with CNN on Sunday, said the U.S. is not currently in talks with Hamas to negotiate the release of the hostages.

The nuclear-powered Nimitz-class Eisenhower carrier group includes the Ticonderoga-class USS Philippine Sea, a guided-missile cruiser, the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Gravely and USS Mason, and the nine aircraft squadrons of Carrier Air Wing 3.

Along with the Ford, the U.S. Navy’s largest and newest carrier, they join the Ticonderoga-class guided missile cruiser USS Normandy and the Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers USS Thomas Hudner, USS Ramage, USS Carney, and USS Roosevelt.

To put the level of naval power contained in the modern-day armada currently on station or steaming toward the region into perspective: there are now more nuclear-powered U.S. Navy carriers assigned to the Mediterranean than there are active among the rest of the world’s navies, combined.

The U.S. Air Force has sent F-35, F-15, F-16, and A-10 fighter aircraft squadrons in the region, according to Austin.

The deployments, according to the Secretary of Defense, are “part of our effort to deter hostile actions against Israel or any efforts toward widening this war following Hamas’s attack on Israel.”

As a show of support for the only democratic ally in the region, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was in Tel Aviv on Sunday along with Republican Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and Democratic Sens. Jacky Rosen of Nevada and Mark Kelly of Arizona.

“They must be stopped,” Schumer said of Hamas during a press conference. “We cannot let this evil continue to prowl the earth. So, in the face of this horrific attack, we’re here to share a message of resolute solidarity. We say to Israel, America will stand with its ally Israel.”

According to the New York Democrat, the bipartisan visit was briefly interrupted by terrorist rocket fired out of Gaza.

“While in Tel Aviv today, our delegation was rushed to a shelter to wait out rockets sent by Hamas. It shows you what Israelis have to go through. We must provide Israel with the support required to defend itself,” Schumer shared via the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

While in Tel Aviv today, our delegation was rushed to a shelter to wait out rockets sent by Hamas. It shows you what Israelis have to go through. We must provide Israel with the support required to defend itself. pic.twitter.com/wS3kq6xFVJ

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) October 15, 2023

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to visit Tel Aviv on Monday, his second trip to Israel during a now week-long whirlwind tour of the the region.

“Israel has the right, indeed it has the obligation, to defend itself from these attacks,” Blinken told reporters in Cairo. “The way that Israel does this matters.”

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the wartime government he’s formed with opposition leader Benny Gantz have called up more than 360,000 Israeli Defense Force reservists in preparation for a ground, air and sea invasion of the Gaza Strip.

Residents of northern Gaza have been warned to flee to the south ahead of the impending assault, where they are finding it impossible to leave the territory at a closed Egyptian border. The U.N. has said that Israel’s demand is unworkable.

“The United Nations considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences. The United Nations strongly appeals for any such order, if confirmed, to be rescinded avoiding what could transform what is already a tragedy into a calamitous situation,” Stéphane Dujarric, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement.

President Joe Biden took to social media Sunday morning to remind observers that the people of Palestine are not synonymous with the terrorists that have ruled the Gaza Strip for more than a decade.

We must not lose sight of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians had nothing to do with Hamas’s appalling attacks, and are suffering as a result of them.

— President Biden (@POTUS) October 15, 2023

“We must not lose sight of the fact that the overwhelming majority of Palestinians had nothing to do with Hamas’s appalling attacks, and are suffering as a result of them,” the 46th President wrote.

Herald wire services contributed.

Forecasters with the NWS station in Norton predict weather around Boston will be mostly calm and seasonal through the workweek, with just a slight chance of sporadic rain to start but potential for more through the weekend.

Monday will include some “very widely scattered showers,” according to NWS meteorologist Bryce Williams, who said a 30% chance of rain is possible through most of the day. Temps will be in the mid-40s when the commute begins before climbing toward the 60s through the day, he said. The weather service expects more of the same overnight into Tuesday, when temperatures will drop back into the mid-40s.

More scattered showers are possible Tuesday, coming mostly between the morning and afternoon commutes. NWS is again expecting a 30% chance of precipitation around Boston, Williams said. Winds aren’t expected to top 10 mph for the first two days of the week and become still-to-variable going into Tuesday evening, when a low of 44 degrees is possible.

A mostly-sunny forecast for Wednesday won’t bring the temperatures out of the lower 60s, Williams said, though with no chance of rain and a slight breeze the weather will be right where it should for this time of the year.

“It is quite seasonable. The average high is 63,” he told the Herald.

Clouds should clear overnight into Thursday under a light breeze and temperatures return to the mid-40s, according to the weather service.

Thursday will likely be the warmest rain-free day of the week, when sunny skies send the mercury into the mid-to-upper-60s through much of the region and the wind stays light. Overnight temperatures may remain in the lower 50s.

Friday morning is expected to be dry, Williams said, though by the early afternoon some of the area may be looking at rain clouds and see mid-60s temperatures. The weather service is currently forecasting a 30% chance of rain for Boston, climbing toward 60% by Friday evening, though that may change.

“There is still a lot of uncertainty about the weekend weather,” Williams said.

What isn’t likely, Williams said, is a sudden patch of warm weather. The last vestiges of summer, he said, are probably behind us.

“That summer heat is probably done. With the weather game we never say never, but as of now there are no signals pointing to any big warmth,” he said.

If you have the opportunity to take advantage of the dry warm days midweek, the Bay State is in the midst of prime apple and pumpkin picking seasons, according to the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources

To find which of the state’s over 60 P-Y-O pumpkin patches and over 80 apple orchards is nearest to you, visit https://www.mass.gov/guides/pick-your-own-farms.

It’s best to call a farm or check its social media accounts to make sure they are offering picking before driving there, according to the state, as some farmers may have had poor summer seasons after this year’s rain soaked July.

According to House Speaker Ron Mariano, the gun control bill, also known as  An Act modernizing firearm laws, which last week was the subject of a Ways and Means Committee hearing, will have the support required to head for the state Senate when he brings it to the floor this week.

“We’ve talked to the members. We had two meetings with the members in the committee. We aired all of the questions that were posed around the first bill,” Mariano said.

Offered by Stoneham Rep. Michael Day, the bill would broadly expand a list of banned firearms, adding most popular AR-15 styles to a list of “assault style weapons.” It would also require licensed concealed carry holders to secure permission before entering another’s home with a firearm and require additional training for license holders. The bill would expand the number of people allowed to activate the state’s so-called red-flag laws and expand the state’s firearms registration requirements.

The push for stricter gun laws — in a state known for some of the nation’s most stringent ownership and concealed carry requirements — comes following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last summer in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, a decision which found most extraordinary gun license requirements were at odds with the 2nd Amendment.

During last week’s hearing, lawmakers learned from Mark Leahy, former chief of the Northborough Police Department and the executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, that his organization strongly opposes the bill. It simply won’t reduce crime, Leahy told the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday.

“Earlier today our membership met. We ultimately polled our members concerning HD.4607 and the result was an unprecedented unanimous vote to not support this bill,” Leahy said.

Speaking with WCVB for their weekly political show, On the Record, Mariano said the bill is necessary for the state to combat an increase in gun violence and to protect law enforcement officers.

“I do think and I do believe that it will make the streets safer. As a law enforcement officer goes into a domestic violence situation, why wouldn’t he want to know how many guns are registered in the household, why wouldn’t he want to know what he was walking into?” he said. “To have the chiefs blatantly pan this bill, and say there is nothing in the bill they can live with other than ghost guns is a bit troubling to me.”

“I think they should be worrying about the safety of the guys on the street,” Mariano said.

What happens when the bill hits the state Senate is anyone’s guess. Almost half of the upper chamber’s 40 members have offered legislation touching on firearms this session, none of which match precisely the plan apparently pending House approval.

Mariano thinks his colleague’s will see the need for action, however.

“My hope is they see the urgency,” he said. “Everyday, there is a headline of someone getting shot or shooting someone else.”

“The tragedies continue, let’s put some urgency into this and get it done,” he said.

When announcing the bill at the start of the month, legislative leaders acknowledged it probably would not pass both chambers this year.

Nearly every one of the more than half a dozen candidates seeking the Republican Party’s nomination for 2024 gathered in southern New Hampshire to close the week with a two-day “First in the Nation Leadership Summit” sponsored by the New Hampshire GOP .

“We’re going to fight on principles: small government, lower taxes, individual freedom and responsibility and local control. That’s what we’re all about,” New Hampshire GOP Chairman Chris Ager said to start the summit.

Scheduled to speak Friday were former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, businessman Perry Johnson, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and businessman Ryan Binkley are scheduled to speak Saturday.

Candidates were joined on stage by Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin, former Trump Administration Press Secretary Sean Spicer and former New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who is running to replace outgoing Gov. Chris Sununu.

Former President Donald Trump is not scheduled to appear in Nashua this weekend, but was in Wolfeboro, N.H., on Monday.

Christie was the first candidate to take the stage, when the former federal prosecutor said he’s running for president because President Biden isn’t doing the job for which he was elected and Trump isn’t fit for the office he once held.

The two-term governor was loudly booed by some members of the audience but applauded by others when he stated that the 2020 election was not stolen but simply lost by Trump. One man shouted for the next speaker to be brought out.

Christie responded by saying that it’s okay for people to have disagreements when it comes to politics.

“We can have differences of opinion. And I’m going to argue my side of the argument. That’s what this democracy was set up to do. So I don’t hold any grudge against anybody who has a different opinion than me, even though they hold a grudge against me for having a different opinion. I’m fine with you having a different opinion about the 2020 election,” he said.

“But what I’d like to do is not argue about it emotionally, but argue about it based on facts, because everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but they’re not entitled to their own set of facts,” he continued.

Trump lost the 2020 election to Biden after netting 74,223,975 votes to the now-sitting president’s 81,283,501, and following an electoral college defeat of 232 – 306. Trump has produced no evidence to back his claims his loss was due to malfeasance or interference, Christie said.

“I’ve known Donald Trump for 22 years, believe you me, if he had the evidence to prove the election was stolen, we would have seen it years ago. And he hasn’t presented it because he doesn’t have it now,” Christie said.

According to polling aggregator RealClearPolitics, Christie is currently polling at under 3% nationally, a full 55 points behind the 45th president. He’s doing better in New Hampshire, where he nets 9% of polled conservatives.

DeSantis, who filed his nomination paperwork with the New Hampshire Secretary of State on Thursday and took the stage Friday evening following an appearance at Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, polls in second nationally and third in New Hampshire, behind Trump and Haley.

Burgum and Johnson, who are both polling at less than 1% nationally, came on after Christie and spoke to comparatively smaller audiences.

Johnson’s speech partially coincided with a Christie press gaggle, which drew the majority of the media attention out of the room.

Burgum started speaking as the venue, Nashua’s castle-esque Sheraton hotel, began its happy hour cocktail service and started serving dinner, drawing many audience members away from the stage.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, arguably the second-most-popular conservative in the country, was just a few hours behind North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum in meeting with New Hampshire’s Secretary of State on Thursday to declare he would seek the Republican nomination in 2024.

“Now is the time for leadership,” DeSantis said when signing, surrounded by press and supporters.

“Live free or die,” he added to his signature, quoting the New Hampshire State motto.

DeSantis is currently polling in second place nationally behind former President Donald Trump, a position he has maintained for months despite a slowly slipping lead in the Granite State and elsewhere. In a theoretical matchup against President Biden, the likely Democratic nominee, the former Navy JAG officer polls a few points behind or even.

The Sunshine State’s twice-elected governor shrugged off the falling poll numbers when asked to reflect on his second-place position during a brief press conference he held at the New Hampshire State House, pointing to his favorability ratings among the conservative electorate and to the work he has done to share his message in Iowa, which will caucus before the party primaries, and New Hampshire.

He went on to aim at his chief rival in securing the nomination, saying that if Trump is elected, he will begin his second term in office at a steep disadvantage unique to the former president.

“He’d be a lame duck on day one — even if he could get elected — he would be a lame duck. I don’t know how as a lame duck president, with all of the stuff he’s dealing with, you can go in and actually get the job done that we need to get done,” he said.

The “stuff” Florida’s governor references are 91 felony charges levied against the 45th President by four different jurisdictions and a recent civil case which may spell the end of the real estate mogul’s sprawling business empire. Trump will need to skip between court appearances and campaign stops frequently as the election season carries on, with some cases potentially carrying through to the next presidency.

DeSantis took the time to broadcast his support for Israel as they battle a Hamas led insurgency from the Gaza Strip which has claimed more than 1,000 Israeli civilian lives. He said Trump’s response to the sudden war in the middle east isn’t helping the situation, which could well explode into a wider conflict.

“Given the situation there, now is not the time to be doing what Donald Trump did by attacking Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, attacking Israel’s defense minister, saying somehow that Hezbollah were very smart. We need to all be on the same page,” he said.

DeSantis said that he is the candidate for those who are sick of Trump’s drama and ready for a new generation of conservative leadership.

“If the former president is the nominee, then the whole election will be about him and this and that, it wouldn’t be about the issues that people are concerned about,” he said. “We do need to pass the torch here.”

The pair of governors will soon be joined on the New Hampshire ballot by former Vice President Mike Pence, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, all of whom are scheduled to be in Concord at some point on Friday to file their own paperwork.

Former Gov. Chris Christie’s campaign did not return a request for comment on when the ex-New Jersey governor would file his paperwork.

The mass of Republican candidates will also appear at a summit hosted by the NHGOP both Friday and Saturday in Nashua, New Hampshire.

Trump, who was in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, on Monday, is not scheduled to attend.

Vigorous voices on both sides of a debate on sexual education curriculum in Massachusetts were heard by a committee of the Legislature on Wednesday, as state House members consider a bill aimed at bringing all of the state’s schools on board with a newly updated sexual education “framework” for the first time in more than two decades.

Appearing before the Joint Committee on Education advocates pushing for updates to the state’s K-12 curriculum so that it includes information regarding consent, gender identity, sexual orientation, and preventing sexually transmitted diseases or unwanted pregnancies told lawmakers that their reasoning is based in science and data that show students armed with age-appropriate knowledge experience better health outcomes.

“Our children can’t risk another 24 years before the framework is updated again or risk that sex and relationship education stops being consent focused or LGBTQ+ inclusive,” Lowell Rep. Vanna Howard said of her bill, H.544, or An Act relative to healthy youth.

The bill, according to lawmakers testifying in support of its favorable report out of committee, would enshrine into law a set of standards that the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education unanimously approved earlier this year and which the governor’s office described as “inclusive, medically accurate and developmentally and age-appropriate.”

The policy — and the bill before lawmakers — would begin consent education at the kindergarten level and introduce more complicated sexual development questions as children age.

“It outlines standards for what a comprehensive and LGBTQ+-inclusive health and physical education program should include: mental and emotional health; personal safety; physical health and hygiene; healthy relationships; nutrition and balanced eating; physical activity and fitness; substance use and misuse; sexual health; and public, community, and environmental health,” Gov. Maura Healey’s office said in a mid-September announcement.

It’s not the first time lawmakers have attempted to bring sex education into the current century, Worcester Rep. James O’Day told his colleagues on Wednesday, and now that the Healey Administration has taken action he thinks the House should follow suit. If they don’t, then school districts can, for the most part, ignore the governor’s updated health education framework, he said.

“I have been speaking on behalf of this bill or some iteration of this bill for the past ten years — ten years!” O’Day said. “Without the passage of this bill, we could continue to have many of our schools continue with a framework developed in 1999.”

Several parents and organizations spoke against the bill, some leaning on their faith to explain their positions.

“I came here today because I care about each and every one of you, I care about your families, I care about your eternal destiny,” Debbie Dugan, who spearheaded an effort to overturn the state’s gendered preference protective bathroom laws in 2018, told lawmakers. “Each and every one of you have constituents that are crying themselves to sleep every night because of what is being taught in our schools. It is wicked, evil, and God sees all, knows all. I ask you not to pass this favorably out of committee.”

“(Parents) seek an end to government actors promoting books and teaching plans with graphic sexual content that groom children to adopt gender ideology and explore themes of sexual identity,” Lou Murray, a Catholic-radio host and Republican ward chairman, told the committee. “You are going to harm a lot of Catholics in this state.”

State Sen. Sal DiDomenico, who has offered the upper chamber a version of the same bill, pushed back on those sorts of assertions and the people making them, saying they were sowing fear where science and reasoning should prevail. The bill would require school districts to inform parents of exactly what their students are being taught and provide them an opportunity to opt out, he said.

“Our children deserve this education and we’re not going to fall for all of the inaccuracies that have been put out in the public,” he said. “They are not doing a service to our children by doing this. They are creating animosity and controversy were there is none, in my mind, or in the general public. 92% of the general public feels we should teach this education in our schools. They are not with the consensus in our communities. The consensus says pass the youth health bill.”

State law requires Massachusetts schools to teach health and physical education, though at current districts are free to implement their own standards for those programs and parents are allowed to excuse their students from sex education related material and coursework.

According to the state’s Education Secretary, Patrick Tutwiler, the new framework is the result of “contributions and feedback from educators, parents, community members and health and physical education content experts.”

Mark Leahy, former chief of the Northboro Police Department and the executive director of the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association, said his organization recently met and voted to come out against Bill HD.4607, or An Act modernizing firearm laws.

The bill simply won’t reduce crime, Leahy said.

“Earlier today our membership met. We ultimately polled our members concerning HD.4607 and the result was an unprecedented unanimous vote to not support this bill,” Leahy told the House Ways and Means Committee Tuesday.

Representing all 351 Bay State cities and towns and more than 100 university police departments, the law enforcement organization was joined by dozens of gun rights advocates and constitutionalists in opposing the gun control bill during a hearing held Tuesday.

Through most of a full day of testimony, the committee heard from those speaking both for and against the bill, which would make the state’s already notoriously strict gun laws all the more rigid.

“The Massachusetts League of Women Voters supports HD.4607,” Art Desloges, speaking on behalf of the group, told the committee. “Statistically we have the lowest gun death rates nationwide, but gun violence archive reports 83 people killed by firearms in the Commonwealth through July of this year. We must get to zero. Even one person lost to gun violence is too many.”

Offered by Stoneham Rep. Michael Day, the bill would broadly expand a list of banned firearms, adding most popular AR-15 styles to a list of “assault style weapons.” It would also require licensed concealed carry holders to secure permission before entering another’s home with a firearm and require additional training for license holders. The bill would expand the number of people allowed to activate the state’s so-called red-flag laws.

The push for stricter laws comes following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last summer in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. Gun rights groups are not the least bit pleased with what they say is the state’s “tantrum” response to the court’s decision.

“HD.4607 is a massive, anti-gun bill that aims to greatly infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Massachusetts citizens,” Justin Davis, speaking on behalf of the National Rifle Association, told the committee.

Supporters of the bill, point to a recent spike in violence as the need to act. Paula St. James said her work as a psychologist has shown her the impacts of gun violence on Massachusetts communities.

“Feeling safe is a basic need for children. If this is not met it greatly affects their ability to learn and grow. The proliferation of guns and the resulting effects on our children is an urgent issue that we in the Commonwealth must address,” St. James said, speaking as a volunteer for the group Moms Demand Action.