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.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

BOSTON_HERALD_November_1_1848_p1

BOSTON_HERALD_November_1_1848_p2

BOSTON_HERALD_November_1_1848_p3

BOSTON_HERALD_November_1_1848_p4

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.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

St. Anthony Shrine jumps in to Mass and Cass mess

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It’s good for business – monkey business.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — When the Las Vegas Raiders hired Josh McDaniels in January 2022, he said he had learned from his first stint as an NFL head coach.

But McDaniels’ record actually was worse the second time around than it was with the Denver Broncos in 2009 and 2010, and late Tuesday night, the Raiders announced that owner Mark Davis fired McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler.

McDaniels became the first non-interim coach in the Super Bowl era to be fired by two franchises before the end of his second season.

“After much thought about what the Raiders need to move forward, I have decided to part ways with Josh and Dave,” Davis said in a statement. “I want to thank them both for their hard work and wish them and their families nothing but the best.”

The Raiders announced linebackers coach Antonio Pierce will take over as the interim coach. His first game will be Sunday at home against the Giants. He played for New York from 2005-09.

Las Vegas also announced assistant general manager Champ Kelly will be the interim GM.

The team will conduct searches for replacements for McDaniels and Ziegler after the season.

McDaniels was the Raiders’ play caller, so offensive coordinator Mick Lombardi might take over those duties.

Davis had hoped to bring the New England’s success westward when he hired McDaniels, the longtime Patriots offensive coordinator. Ziegler worked in New England’s front office, and between the former teammates at John Carroll University, they transformed the Raiders into Patriots West by signing several players with ties to that organization.

But despite taking over a team that made the playoffs in 2021 before losing to the Cincinnati Bengals in the wild-card round, the success Davis so badly wanted never made its way to Las Vegas.

The Raiders under McDaniels went 6-11 in 2022 and are 3-5 so far this season for a .360 winning percentage. His record at Denver was 11-17 (.393 percentage).

Even so, Davis has stood by McDaniels, and the timing of this dismissal is surprising. McDaniels met with the media early Tuesday afternoon and was scheduled for another news conference Wednesday morning to discuss facing the Giants.

But McDaniels had some things working against him. The Raiders have failed to score at least 20 points in eight of their past nine games dating to last season, and offense is his specialty. The one game Las Vegas reached that figure came because of a fourth-quarter safety in a 21-17 victory over the Patriots on Oct. 15.

Perhaps just as damaging was the public displeasure some of his players have shown. Star wide receiver Davante Adams, in particular, has been vocal since the offseason about his concerns regarding the direction of the franchise. Running back Josh Jacobs when asked after Monday night’s loss to the Detroit Lions about what might spark the offense, said, “I don’t know, that ain’t my job.”

McDaniels was hired following the 2021 season when Davis opted not to keep interim coach Rich Bisaccia on for the full-time job even after he led the team to a surprising playoff run.

McDaniels and Ziegler were aggressive in their first offseason, trading first and second-round picks for Adams, giving a big free agent contract to defensive end Chandler Jones and extending the contracts of Derek Carr, Maxx Crosby, Darren Waller and Hunter Renfrow.

But those moves didn’t lead to positive results on the field as McDaniels never was able to build the high-powered offense Davis expected when he hired him and struggled to win games.

The Raiders lost a record-tying five games after taking double-digit leads, including blowing a 20-0 halftime lead in his home debut against Arizona for the biggest collapse in franchise history. Las Vegas lost to Indianapolis in the Colts’ first game with Jeff Saturday as interim coach after he had never coached above high school level and then lost to Baker Mayfield and the Rams two days after Mayfield joined his new team.

McDaniels benched Carr late last season and eventually cut him in the offseason, giving the Raiders no return for a starting quarterback who ended up getting a $150 million contract from New Orleans.

McDaniels brought in his former pupil in New England, Jimmy Garoppolo, as the new starting quarterback and the offense severely regressed, becoming the first team since 2009 to score less than 20 points on offense in each of the first eight games of the season.

The last two weeks were particularly humbling as Las Vegas lost 30-12 to Chicago and undrafted rookie former Division II quarterback Tyson Bagent and then looked completely inept in a 26-14 loss at Detroit on Monday night.

McDaniels finished his tenure with the third-worst record of any Raiders coach with at least 25 games.

___

AP Pro Football Writer Josh Dubow contributed to this report.

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

DM frontman Gahan captured everyone’s attention at the packed TD Garden on Tuesday. The singer, in perfect impassioned and overwrought voice, moved around the stage like a flamenco dancer, a ballerina, a stripper, a devilish imp, and a kindly guide across the void and into a throbbing discotheque.

The band’s first Boston concert in more than half a decade had the makings of a goth prom  — Depeche Mode on Halloween, c’mon, sublime! But Depeche Mode’s art is both too monolithic and personal, too absolutely connected to the broken parts of the world, the broken parts in us, to have even a whiff of kitsch.

Gahan and Martin Gore started the show by chanting to the crowd, to the world, into that void: “No rain, no clouds, no pain, no shrouds, no final breaths, no senseless deaths.” A new song, “My Cosmos Is Mine” is a glitchy, eerie anthem, a song that — as much as any in the band’s catalog — speaks to being crushed (it also contains the lyric: “Don’t stare at my soul, I swear it is fine.”)

The boldness and genius of the band is its constant attention to the damaged, an investigation of the existential set to electric, melodic and industrial clicks and beeps (something drawn into harsh light since the sudden passing of founding member Andy Fletcher last year). Gore wrote “My Cosmos Is Mine” right after Russia invaded Ukraine, and while the song rages against war, it also speaks to the intimate, unrelenting relationship with death we carry around.

But in this darkness, despite the confrontational lyrics and moody sonics, Depeche Mode remained a flicking candle in gloom, and that played out song after shattered-and-sharp song.

The band spent a nice amount of time with new LP “Memento Mori,” and got intense (“Wagging Tongue,” “My Favourite Stranger”). And so poppy — new tune “Ghost Again,” a clear meditation on life and death, had such a bright, buoyant hook.

But the now duo (rounded out brilliantly by the amazing drummer Christian Eigner and multi-instrumentalist Peter Gordeno) also resurrected a ton of old existential — and sexual — jams, those hits goth kids and goth adults made rock standards in the ’80s and ’90s.

Gahan, intensity and playfulness positively oozing from him, took control of the audience over and over again. That big voice, those grandiose movements and his indomitable charisma, stomped and crept through the crowd for “Walking in My Shoes” and “I Feel You” and “Never Let Me Down Again” and “Personal Jesus” and…

Beside him, Gore was an ideal foil with his high harmonies, jagged guitar, vintage and modern synth pulses. And when alone — Gahan left the stage so Gore could front the band for “A Question of Lust” and a piano ballad version of “Strangelove” — he provided all the wounded tenderness and intimacy Gahan doesn’t have.

In the wake of Andy Fletcher’s death, the band may have not carried on. It would have been another loss. Without Gahan and Gore around, who will lead us into the heart of darkness and the heat of the discotheque? Who will ask big questions you can dance to do and shout along with?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MAY:

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

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

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

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

JULY:

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

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

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

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

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

AUGUST:

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

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

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

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

SEPTEMBER:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

OCTOBER 2023:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.”