Massachusetts
Could we quit complaining and be Massachusetts boosters … just this once?
Can I hear just a few positive things in 2026? Amanda Gutierres of the new women’s soccer team, Boston Legacy FC, at Gillette Stadium. Boston Legacy
For one year — just one year! — What if we all tried to be Mass. boosters, rather than Mass. criticizers, Mass. fault-finders or plain old Massholes?
What if we made that a New Year’s Resolution that we actually stick with until December?
If you’re a resident of Massachusetts, you can undoubtedly add to this list of problems that our state has: high taxes, pricey housing, unreliable public transit, bad traffic, cold weather, elected officials emitting hot air and residents voting with their feet by moving.
But if there was ever a year to look at the Dunkin’ cup as half full, I’d argue that 2026 is it.
A partial list of good stuff we could be bragging about would include:
• An NFL team that won its first playoff game with a quarterback who could be the season’s MVP, and an NBA team that surprisingly has a solid chance of making it to the playoffs.
• Boston is continuing to get better at enjoying winter, with Frostival and Winteractive. A Ferris wheel on the Greenway? A “street snowboarding” contest on City Hall Plaza? I’ll be there!
• The inaugural season of Boston Legacy FC, our new National Women’s Soccer League team, opens in March.
• Seven FIFA World Cup games will be held in Foxborough in June.
• Marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July and other Revolutionary happenings throughout the year.
• Later in July, a fleet of tall ships from around the world arrives in Boston Harbor for Sail Boston.
• Worcester and Auburn are getting ready to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of modern rocketry, with Robert Goddard’s early tests in 1926. In other nerdy news, the MIT Museum has plans to mark the 50th birthday of the biotech industry in Cambridge. Just two of many major industries born in Massachusetts.
Most residents of other states would view two or three of those things as opportunities to boast or back-pat.
They’d invite friends and relatives from all over to come for a visit, and see it as an opportunity to show off their state’s positives — or at least to appreciate the work it took to bring these things together in a single year.
Maybe we should, too.
Traffic will be bad at times. Hotel and Airbnb prices will skyrocket.
And you could live up to the stereotype by bemoaning that. Or you could see 2026 as a pretty great year to live in Massachusetts.
Several chains and local shops are marking the July 19 holiday with giveaways, rewards offers and limited-time discounts. Some offers require an app or loyalty account, and participation may vary by location.
Here are some deals for National Ice Cream Day in Massachusetts:
New City Microcreamery: The Massachusetts scoop shop is giving away a $25 gift card for National Ice Cream Day. To enter, customers must like the giveaway post, comment with a favorite New City flavor and follow the shop on Facebook and Instagram. You can find the post here.
Following similar legislature in his native Vermont, singer-songwriter supports “The Great Divide Act” combating speculative tickets, resale fees, and more
Noah Kahan has thrown his support behind a new Massachusetts bill aimed at capping ticket resale prices.
Like other states in recent weeks — including Washington, D.C. just a day earlier — Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey has announced “An Act Relative to Closing the Great Divide between Ticket Prices and Affordability” — or “The Great Divide Act,” named in part after Kahan’s latest LP — a bill that would limit ticket resales prices, bar speculative tiket sales, and cut down on some ticket fees.
Kahan, who previously backed a similar bill in his native Vermont and is fresh off four sold-out shows at Boston’s Fenway Stadium, appeared via video at Healey’s press conference Thursday.
“I heard about what you’re announcing today and I just wanted to let you know how excited I am about it,” Kahan said. “The artist community and fans will greatly benefit from limiting ticket scalping and the sales of speculative tickets. I love my fans and want to protect them however I can. Artists alone could not tackle the market manipulation of secondary resellers. So, thank you so much for making this a priority in Massachusetts.”
Under the proposed Great Divide Act, concert tickets on the secondary market would be capped at 110 percent of their original face value, and secondary ticket sites would similarly only be allowed to take a 10 percent cut of resold tickets.
In the aftermath of the World Cup games at Gillette Stadium, where “speculative tickets” — or sellers offering tickets they don’t actually have — resulted in hundreds of people getting turned away from the soccer games, the Great Divide Act will also aim at prohibiting the practice. “Far too many Massachusetts residents have experienced the pain of being excited to buy tickets to see their favorite singer or sports team, only to realize that resale prices and fees have driven up the cost to outrageous levels,” Healey said Thursday.
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – Springfield bankruptcy attorney Andrea M. O’Connor has been named to the 2026 Massachusetts Super Lawyers list.
According to the firm, Andrea M. O’Connor of Shatz, Schwartz and Fentin, P.C., has been named to the 2026 Massachusetts Super Lawyers list in the Bankruptcy: Consumer practice area, marking the fourth consecutive year she has received the recognition.
O’Connor’s practice draws on experience representing both debtors and creditors, serving as a Chapter 7 trustee and clerking for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts. The firm said she develops legal strategies tailored to her clients’ individual needs and goals.
O’Connor graduated magna cum laude from Western New England University School of Law, where she served as editor-in-chief of the Western New England Law Review. She is admitted to practice law in Massachusetts and Connecticut, as well as before the U.S. District Courts for Massachusetts and Connecticut, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Beyond her legal practice, O’Connor serves as chair of the Bankruptcy Section of the Hampden County Bar Association and is co-chair of both the Western Massachusetts Bankruptcy Conference and the MCLE Bankruptcy Conference. She also serves on committees for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Massachusetts.
Before earning placement on the Massachusetts Super Lawyers list from 2023 through 2026, O’Connor was recognized as a Super Lawyers Rising Star each year from 2019 through 2022.
Super Lawyers is a peer-reviewed attorney rating service that recognizes lawyers in more than 70 practice areas. The organization says its selection process includes attorney nominations, independent research and peer evaluations.
Local News Headlines
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