Sign up for the Today newsletter
Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.
Boston, MA
Boston City Council deadlocks on push to reject Mayor Wu’s $4.9B budget
The Boston City Council deadlocked on a call to reject Mayor Michelle Wu’s proposed $4.9 billion budget, killing a bid from some councilors to put pressure on Wu to increase spending in a way that would prevent painful cuts.
Councilor Brian Worrell, the Ways and Means chair last term, called for the Council to reject the mayor’s budget on Wednesday — going against the recommendation of Councilor Ben Weber, the Ways and Means chair this term, who sought to keep the budget in committee for further discussion.
“For me, this is about whether the Council will use all the tools that we have before us to fight for what we’ve heard over the course of a month and a half,” Worrell said. “Residents have been clear they do not want fewer youth jobs, less housing support, or cuts to food justice, arts and culture, veteran services, age strong or the complete defunding of human rights.
“While services are being cut, homeowners are still facing double-digit property tax increases. People are being asked to pay more and get less, and that is a hard message to defend,” Worrell added. “The public came here asking us to use our power today. Using our power means sending this budget back and asking for a stronger one.”
Worrell’s call came after Mayor Wu issued a rebuke to councilors considering voting down her budget last Thursday, saying she would not increase spending and that requests for her to do so were “fiscally irresponsible.”
Weber, an ally of the mayor, cited the mayor’s comments when speaking against the effort to reject the budget, saying that the Council risks having Wu come back with a reduced spending plan due to lower state aid projections than initially anticipated, and losing its ability to amend the mayor’s budget.
The Council has the authority to amend, but not increase the overall budget, by moving money around between or within departments. Weber said the Council should stick to the amendment process, rather than look to “artificially inflate” revenue or spend from the city’s $1.7 billion reserve fund.
“The mayor’s made it clear that she will just resubmit the budget or a smaller one because state aid is less than expected,” Weber said. “Unlike under Menino or Flynn or White, the mayor doesn’t need our support. It is our job, if we have a problem with the budget, to amend it and override her vetoes if we have nine votes.
“So, a rejection now would be a gesture, just one with potentially serious consequences, and the hard work will still remain for us to do one week from now,” Weber said. “I deeply respect the advocates who have helped come up with these ideas, and I share the same goal — restore as much of the grant funding as possible — but I don’t want that to come at the expense of our financial future.”
Worrell argued that rejecting the budget early on would still allow the Council to go through the amendment process, given that the body has until June 10 to submit its amendment package to the mayor for consideration.
“We don’t lose anything by rejecting this budget,” Worrell said. “I don’t know what the mayor will do, but there’s an opportunity for all of us working together to make this budget better, and the only way that the mayor can help out in that process is if we send it back.”
Ultimately, Worrell’s call for a vote to reject the budget failed, as he needed a two-thirds majority, or nine votes, to allow the matter to be taken up.
The Council deadlocked, 6-6, to allow Worrell’s motion to reject the budget to come to a vote, in a split that’s become common this term, between Wu’s council allies and others who are either critics of the mayor or aren’t necessarily Wu allies.
Lining up behind Worrell were Councilors Miniard Culpepper, John FitzGerald, Ed Flynn, Julia Mejia, and Erin Murphy. Backing Weber were Council President Liz Breadon and Councilors Sharon Durkan, Ruthzee Louijeune, Enrique Pepén, and Henry Santana. Gabriela Coletta Zapata was absent.
The vote to block the matter from official consideration came after more than an hour of debate.
All councilors, depending on where they stood on the vote, expressed concern about the cuts that have been proposed in the mayor’s budget, which Worrell cited when urging his colleagues to vote it down.
“No one has got up and said this is a good budget, but we can’t get to nine to reject what everyone has said,” Worrell said.
Durkan said her vote was about “fiscal responsibility.”
“I can see places for cuts, and I can see places for restoration,” Durkan said.
FitzGerald, on the other hand, said his vote was about looking out for the financial future of the city.
“The City of Boston is on shaky financial ground, and the projections that we see … show even less and less growth and even less and less revenue,” FitzGerald said. “It is our duty to apply pressure to the administration when we see that the City of Boston is trending in the wrong direction.
“I’m taking a long-term view here and saying that if we don’t put the pressure to change the underlying things, we will continue to deal with this,” Fitzgerald added. “The amendment process is only going to get harder in years to come, because every department is going to be on life support and pulling from one might actually kill it, and that’s what this body is tasked to do.”
Weber said the Council should find a way to make the mayor’s budget work, with the funding that’s already been proposed.
“We all have tough choices to make,” Weber said. “If the mayor on her own was trying to increase revenues artificially and spend down the reserves, I hope we would do everything we could to stop her from doing that. Just asking her to do that is not what I want to see in our city.
“We have $4.9 billion,” Weber said. “Let’s use it to provide the benefits our residents are asking for.”
Local News
Healthcare, life sciences, and finance companies dominated this year’s list.
LinkedIn has released its 2026 top companies list for Boston, highlighting the employers it says offer workers the strongest opportunities for career growth in the region.
The annual ranking, based entirely on LinkedIn data, evaluates companies on factors tied to career advancement, including skill development and promotion. To qualify, companies needed at least 250 global employees with at least 100 located in the city as of Dec. 31, 2025.
Healthcare, life sciences, and finance companies dominated this year’s list, underscoring the industries that continue to shape Greater Boston’s economy.
CVS Health claimed the top spot on the ranking, followed by Mass General Brigham and Boston-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals.
Financial firms Fidelity Investments and State Street also landed in the top 10, alongside healthcare and research institutions including Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
-
Fidelity reorganizes its workplace with new hires — and a few cuts
LinkedIn said the rankings reflect Boston’s status as a major hub for biotech and healthcare innovation.
“The list is more than a ranking — it’s a snapshot of the world of work in Boston right now,” LinkedIn wrote in the report.
The company said its methodology measures workplace growth using data on employee advancement, skill growth, external opportunities, and company stability. Unlike LinkedIn’s national Top Companies ranking, the Boston list focuses specifically on activity within the local metro area.
Several companies on the list stood out for specialized skills in growing industries.
At Vertex Pharmaceuticals, the most notable employee skills included pharmaceutical manufacturing, pathology, and nanotechnology, while Liberty Mutual Insurance highlighted expertise in artificial intelligence engineering and software development.
Amazon, which rounded out the list at No. 10, was recognized for skills tied to AI engineering, mobile application development, and linguistics.
The report also identified some of the most common jobs at each company. Research roles were among the most common positions at Mass General Brigham, while software engineer positions appeared frequently at Fidelity Investments, Liberty Mutual, and Amazon.
Here are LinkedIn’s top 10 companies in Boston for 2026:
- CVS Health
- Mass General Brigham
- Vertex Pharmaceuticals
- Fidelity Investments
- Sanofi
- The TJX Companies
- Liberty Mutual Insurance
- State Street
- Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
- Amazon
An unresponsive teenage boy was pulled from a pond in Andover, Massachusetts on Tuesday afternoon. It happened at Field Pond in Harold Parker State Forest at about 4:30 p.m. near Farrwood Drive.
When Andover Police officers and firefighters arrived, they found several boys who were on the opposite shoreline yelling to them. They were attempting to direct them to where the boy was last seen before he went underwater.
First responders went into the water with a paddleboard and made their way out to the area where the boy was last seen. The boy was found about 25 feet from shore, submerged in about 10-12 feet of water.
The boy was pulled from the pond and taken back to shore on the paddleboard. Andover Police said they immediately began lifesaving procedures. The boy was transported to Lawrence General Hospital and then to a Boston hospital by Medflight.
The news was shocking to fisherman Fred Menis. He said the pond has, “a lot of weeds, a lot of rocks, a lot of debris underneath.
He said that while swimming is common in some areas of the pond, it is typically busy and filled with boats. “Usually, there should be enough kayakers and surfboards out here that somebody should have been around to help out,” Menis said.
Many of the teen boys were still on Farrwood Drive Tuesday evening in a very emotional state. Many of them were still wearing swim trunks as they spoke to police, before being picked up by parents.
The incident remains under investigation, and no other information has been released.
A first-of-its-kind remote airport terminal is set to launch in Massachusetts next month, giving some travelers flying out of Boston’s Logan International Airport the option to complete TSA screening nearly 25 miles away before heading straight to their gate.
Starting June 1, the Massachusetts Port Authority will open the Logan Airport Remote Terminal at 19 Flutie Pass along Route 9 in Framingham. Passengers will be able to check in for their flights, drop off luggage and complete TSA screening before ever reaching Logan Airport. After that, they will board a dedicated shuttle bus driven by Massport operators that takes them directly to their airside gate.
“It’s going to be more seamless, more convenient for the passengers and the traveling public,” Massport Deputy Director of Roadway Management Peter Howe told CBS News. “We want to see how this pilot goes to see what we can learn from it and how we can expand.”
During the pilot phase, the service will be limited to Delta Air Lines and JetBlue passengers traveling on flights scheduled between 5:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Shuttle buses, which hold about 55 passengers each, will run hourly from 4 a.m. to 1 p.m., with tickets costing $9 each way. Buses are scheduled to arrive at Logan at least 45 minutes before departure.
The Framingham site also includes about 400 parking spaces priced at $7 per day, which is significantly cheaper than parking rates at Logan.
Security remains a central focus throughout the new process, according to Massport. After passengers check their bags, those items stay secured for transport and contingency plans are in place to handle any unexpected issues along the route.
“You’ve got state-of-the-art equipment, this is all regulated just as if you’re flying to an airport,” Daniel Blake, the VP of Airport Experience for JetBlue, told CBS News. “Those of you who like aviation, you’re going to be [dropped off] ramp side, so you’ll be among the airplanes walking up – it’s going to be a pretty cool sight.”
The concept is modeled in part on similar systems operated by The Landline Company in cities like Philadelphia and Chicago, where passengers are bused from regional locations directly to major hub airports for connecting flights.
“The magic of this is that the stress and the headache that you experience when you’re pulling up to a big airport, you’re wondering how long the baggage line is, how long the security line, all these kind of anxieties that come to your mind. We take care of all those up front,” Landline CEO David Sunde told CBS News.
Framingham passengers can already begin booking shuttle tickets, which are available from 90 days up to 90 minutes before departure. However, Massport is encouraging travelers to book early, since seating will be limited during the pilot phase and adjustments are expected as the program gets underway.
-
Los Angeles, Ca53 minutes agoSouthern California jeweler accused of stealing $1.5 million from customers through Rolex watch scam
-
Detroit, MI1 hour agoAir France flight bound for Detroit diverted to Canada over passenger from Congo, officials say
-
San Francisco, CA1 hour agoCaltrans considering 140 mph bus that would take passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles
-
Dallas, TX2 hours agoDallas police seek two people of interest seen leaving Deep Ellum shooting that injured five
-
Miami, FL2 hours agoInter Miami nearing deal to bring in Brazilian star Casemiro to pair with Lionel Messi
-
Denver, CO2 hours agoDenver weather: More rain to end the week
-
Seattle, WA2 hours agoSeattle leaders’ proposed one-year ban on data centers met with strong support
-
San Diego, CA2 hours agoTeacher’s assistant at San Diego mosque recalls students’ bravery as gunmen banged on doors
