Massachusetts
Massachusetts Top Cop Off the Hook for Secret Recording Program
The head of the Massachusetts State Police can’t be sued for an alleged program that secretly recorded officers’ phone conversations with civilians and used them to bring criminal charges, the First Circuit said Thursday.
A group of Massachusetts residents filed a putative class against against Superintendent Geoffrey Noble, as well as Motorola and other companies, over the secret recordings, which were used to propose criminal charges in at least 181 cases without prosecutors’ knowledge, the three judge panel said.
The opinion by Circuit Judge Seth Aframe said the residents, led by Jason Courtemanche, failed to show how they’d be directly …
Massachusetts
Is it really going to snow in New England tomorrow? Here’s what to expect from storm
We’re still on the good side of the forecast today. We’ll see a good supply of sun to start, then the clouds will increase and a few showers will sink down from the north in the afternoon. We still manage to make it near 70. (Yay.)
Tomorrow’s high temperatures, however, comes after midnight tonight — before falling toward Saturday morning. If you think that’s confusing, try explaining the snow that’ll be flying in the higher elevations across New England (with solid accumulation above 4k feet).
Yes, the weather is upside down for late May.
We can blame an intense, compact upper-level pool of cold air that broke loose from a larger pool near the Arctic Circle days ago.

The pattern across North America has dropped it in our laps for a day, with cold, rainy, windy consequences.
Rain, wind and… snow?
This will be a sneaky storm. Early on, there might even be a calm, bright sky (very) early Saturday morning. Then the clouds move in and the wind intensifies from the northeast. Gust will briefly peak at 50+ along the coast (40+ inland).
Rain will mix with snow in northern New England, and perhaps in the highest elevations of southern New Hampshire and central Massachusetts.
This also depends on the intensity of the precipitation. Heavier bursts of rain can drag down colder air aloft, helping the snowflakes make it from cloud base to your home place (if you live above 1k feet).
Ironically, we’re not expecting a deluge from this storm. Most spots keep near a half inch, with higher amounts near an inch in northeast Mass./southern NH.
And then just like that, it’s over. The storm pulls away Saturday evening, the skies clear and we’re back to sun Sunday. Highs recover to near 70 with the slightest chance for a shower late day.
Better chances – and cooler temps – come both Monday and Tuesday.
Will summer ever take hold? We know from past years that June can really struggle. It appears that the start of the month may not live up to expectations. Although we are at least climbing back to the 80s late next week.
Have a good weekend.
Massachusetts
How Hard Health Care Hits MA Family Budgets
Massachusetts families are spending 8% of their monthly income on health care, according to a new study. That puts the Bay State toward the higher end of the scale, coming in at No. 12 in the country.
The analysis from personal finance website WalletHub examined where people are spending the most and the least on health care.
Alaska was No. 1 in the U.S., spending over 10% of their income on health care. On the other end of the scale, Utah residents spend 5% of their income on health care.
“Sharp increases in health care costs in recent years have made it difficult for some people to seek essential care,” WalletHub Analyst Chip Lupo said. “Even in states with lower-than-average health care prices, residents’ incomes may not be enough to keep up with the cost, especially since virtually every part of Americans’ budgets have been impacted by inflation over the past few years.”
To determine how much families are spending, WalletHub analyzed the prices of five key health care components across all 50 states, then combined those costs and compared them with each state’s median household income.
Read more: 1 MA Town Among 250 Best Places To Live In US News Ranking
Massachusetts spends the most on health care compared to other states in the region, according to the study. Vermont is the next-highest state in the Northeast, ranking at No. 14 with residents spending 7.98% of their income on health care.
Here are the top 10 states where people are spending the most on health care:
- Alaska
- Oregon
- Maine
- Mississippi
- West Virginia
- New Mexico
- North Carolina
- Montana
- South Dakota
- Louisiana
Check out the full study at WalletHub.
Massachusetts
‘I just don’t feel it here in New England right now’: Immigrants say World Cup excitement is lacking – The Boston Globe
Humayun Morshed, a Medford resident who is originally from Bangladesh and a regular at the pickup games, has fond memories of the Cup. His ninth-grader son, Ariq, is a huge fan of soccer and really wants to go to a game.
But Morshed has struggled to make the prices work.
“Don’t know if we can afford it. It’s a shame,” he said. “Especially since the games will be right here in our backyard and we may not have a chance to watch.”
For many immigrants, the tournament can be a time to cheer for their countries of origin, and to celebrate the multiculturalism of the American experience. But some soccer lovers in Massachusetts say the thrill of this year’s games is overshadowed by concerns over pricey tickets, the inability of many communities to host watch parties, and US immigration policies that could dissuade throngs of fans from coming to this country to support their teams.
Massachusetts boasts immigrants from around the world, some of whom have roots in countries set to play at Foxborough. About 45,000 Haitians reside in the state, for example, and they are expected to show up, and show out, when their country plays Scotland in the first match of the tournament at Gillette on June 13. England, France, Ghana, Iraq, Morocco, and Norway are also playing in the Boston group.
Bruno Contreras, director of the nonprofit Soccer Without Borders in Massachusetts, has felt the excitement for the World Cup grow among his players and their parents as the tournament inches closer. The organization, which works to improve access to soccer for underserved youth, will have some of its members accompany players, as volunteers, during the matches.
“They’re eager, they’re planning, like, ‘Where are you going to watch the World Cup? Who are you rooting for?’ ” Contreras said.
Expensive tickets, however, have distanced the “people’s game” from its most ardent fans, he said. Late last week, the lowest-priced tickets for the Scotland-Haiti match were about $800 on Ticketmaster. That’s on top of the $80 round trip it’s costing fans to take the commuter train to the stadium on match day.
Four years ago, Rachid Chakri, a Malden-based physician assistant who is originally from Morocco, flew to Qatar, where he attended the World Cup, watching two games of his beloved Atlas Lions, the nickname for the Moroccan national team. But this time, high prices are making it tough for him to attend their game against Scotland on June 19 at Foxborough.
“The prices were not as high [in Qatar]. Transportation was free,” Chakri said. “Those are definitely some challenges and some drawbacks about this coming World Cup.”
Fans who want to congregate in public with others during the tournament have limited options. Cities and towns have struggled to secure permission from FIFA for official watch parties in their communities.
Lowell native Vaal Thawnghmung, whose family is from Myanmar, is organizing a soccer tournament at the University of Massachusetts Lowell that he says aims to replicate the spirit of the World Cup. Soccer in Lowell has a language all of its own, irrespective of people’s backgrounds, Thawnghmung said.

“We would be speaking completely different languages, but we would just understand how to play football or soccer together. And I just thought it was beautiful,” said Thawnghmung.
Meanwhile, tough immigration policies in the country threaten to undermine the global nature of the World Cup and its multicultural identity, said Contreras from Soccer Without Borders.
“These past years, immigrant communities have been targeted,” he said. “That’s definitely one element we don’t feel like we can go fully celebrating this tournament and all the cultural elements that a World Cup brings to a country.”
It’s a concern that Mohanad Mossalam, a Malden resident who coaches youth soccer, also shares. He grew up in Egypt watching the Cup with his father, a tradition he is trying to replicate with his own soccer-obsessed kids.
Being an American who can also claim roots from somewhere else offers a unique experience for immigrants like him, he said. As an Egyptian fan, he can put on the jersey of Egyptian and Liverpool legend Mohamed Salah and cheer, but also just as passionately support the United States.
“When the US is playing, I go and put my US shirt on and cheer for the US and look around, and I see people from basically all over the world cheering for the same country,” Mossalam said. “Because at the end of the day, we’re all Americans.”
He is concerned that fans who hail from outside the US may struggle to come cheer for their nations.
“Even if they do come, are they going to feel welcome here with the current climate that we have with immigration?” Mossalam said.
But even beyond those obstacles, the World Cup fervor, some say, feels lacking.
“I want to see the Senegal fans paint [their faces] in the colors of their countries. I want to hear the drums. I want to see the people chanting, whether the team is winning or losing or tying,” said Olf Mouyaka, a teacher and soccer coach in Cambridge who founded the soccer nonprofit Football Leadership Opportunity. “I’ve seen that excitement before. I just don’t feel it here in New England right now, and especially being in Boston.”
Contreras hopes that changes once the tournament gets going. One reason he loves the World Cup is the back stories that can emerge about the countries competing. In 2002, when Senegal defeated then-defending champion France, the game had a subtext beyond the pitch. France had colonized Senegal, and there was added significance to that victory, he said.
“At the end, the game has to win,” Contreras said. “We’re going to bring the celebration to the streets. We’re going to have street soccer. We’re going to have tournaments, watch parties. . . . We want to try to shape this opportunity. [It] has to be something inclusive, accessible, for all the communities, not only a few people.”
Omar Mohammed can be reached at omar.mohammed@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter (X) @shurufu.
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