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Forbes magazine released its annual list of the 400 richest people in the United States this week, and this year seven of them live in Massachusetts.
All seven Bay Staters who made the list increased their wealth in the past year. According to Forbes, the nation’s super-rich lost a collective $500 billion in 2022.
Overall, it seems 2023 has been a windfall year for America’s wealthiest. Together, Forbes reported, they are worth $4.5 trillion, tying a record set in 2021. The magazine credited “rebounding technology stocks” for their financial success.
Forbes says in determining net worth, it considers all types of assets, including stakes in public and private companies, real estate, high value possessions, and more.
Abigail Johnson, the CEO of Boston’s Fidelity Investments, was crowned the richest person in Massachusetts on this year’s Forbes list. She is the 29th richest person in the U.S., according to the magazine.
Johnson owns an estimated 28.5% of the firm and is the granddaughter of Edward Johnson, II, who founded Fidelity in 1946, Forbes reported.
The CEO has “embraced cryptocurrencies,” according to Forbes. She got her start working at Fidelity when home from college during summers, and joined as a full-time analyst in 1988.
The CEO lives in Milton and is married with two children, according to Forbes. She has a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.
Robert Kraft is the CEO of Kraft Group and the owner of the New England Patriots since 1994. According to Forbes, he is the 62nd wealthiest person in the U.S.
Kraft has a master’s in business administration from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University, Forbes reported. In addition to the Patriots, he also owns the New England Revolution professional soccer team.
The CEO lives in Brookline and has four children.
Another grandchild of Fidelity Investments founder Edward Johnson II, Edward Johnson, IV is current Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson’s brother. According to Forbes, he is the 64th richest person in the U.S.
Johnson is the president of Pembroke Real Estate, which is owned by FMR, Fidelity’s parent company. He lives in Boston and has a bachelor’s degree from Northeastern University, Forbes reported.
Another member of the Johnson family, Elizabeth Johnson, is also a grandchild of Edward Johnson, II and is Abigail Johnson’s sister. She is the 99th wealthiest person in the U.S., according to Forbes.
In 2013, Johnson founded a Florida-based show horse stable called Louisburg Farm. She lives in Boston and has a bachelor’s degree from New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce University, Forbes reported.
Robert Hale Jr., CEO of Granite Telecommunications, founded the company in 2002, according to Forbes. He is the 203rd richest person in the U.S.
Hale founded Granite less than six months after his previous company, Network Plus, filed for bankruptcy, Forbes reported. Granite boasted over $1.8 billion in sales in 2022, and claims that more than two thirds of the 100 largest companies in the U.S. are clients.
The CEO has donated more than $270 million to cancer researchers, educational institutions, and other charitable causes, according to Forbes. He is married, lives in Boston, and has a bachelor’s degree from Connecticut College.
Jim Davis, chairman of New Balance, bought the Boston shoe company in 1972 and turned it into a powerhouse, with yearly sales in the billions, Forbes reported. He and his family took the 215th slot in the magazine’s list of the wealthiest people in the U.S.
Davis’s wife Anna joined the company in 1977 and is now the vice chairman. New Balance is still a privately held company, and the Davis family owns 95%, according to Forbes.
Davis has two children, lives in Newton, and has a bachelor’s degree from Vermont’s Middlebury College.
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Amos Hostetter Jr. made his fortune as a pioneer in cable television in the 1990s, according to Forbes. He is the 326th richest person in the U.S.
In the 1960s when Hostetter got his start, he had little besides a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard University, Forbes reported. He invested in a cable TV company that eventually became Continental Cablevision, and in 1996, he sold it for $11 billion.
Hostetter currently leads Pilot House Ventures, an early-stage investment firm, according to Forbes. He has a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and a master’s in business administration from Harvard University.
He lives in Boston and is married with three children.
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Originally Published:
Senatory Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is planning to introduce legislation to extend the TikTok ban deadline by 270 days. TikTok has warned of a looming shutdown in just five days, but the new legislation, officially called the Extend the TikTok Deadline Act, would give TikTok more time to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance, if approved by Congress.
TikTok is currently expected to “go dark” on January 19, unless the Supreme Court intervenes to delay the ban. The Supreme Court is weighing the ban, and is expected to decide sometime this week whether the law behind the ban violates the First Amendment.
“As the January 19th deadline approaches, TikTok creators and users across the nation are understandably alarmed,” Markey said in a Senate floor speech on Monday. “They are uncertain about the future of the platform, their accounts, and the vibrant online communities they have cultivated. “These communities cannot be replicated on another app. A ban would dismantle a one-of-a-kind informational and cultural ecosystem, silencing millions in the process.”
Markey noted that while TikTok has its problems and poses a “serious risk” to the privacy and mental health of young people, a ban “would impose serious consequences on millions of Americans who depend on the app for social connections and their economic livelihood.”
Markey and Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), along with Congressman Ro Khanna (CA-17), recently submitted a bipartisan amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to reverse the D.C. Circuit Court’s decision that upheld the TikTok ban. The trio argued that the TikTok ban conflicts with the First Amendment.
WELLESLEY – A Wellesley father of three and his dog are home safe after first responders rescued them from a freezing lake on Sunday.
Dramatic drone video shows the daring rescue on Sunday as a first responder crawls on thin ice to help Ed Berger struggling in a frigid icy Lake Waban. But it wasn’t just Ed in the water, his 8-year-old Cockapoo Tommy had fallen in the lake first.
“It was definitely a pretty traumatic experience,” said Ed Berger. “I think anybody who owns a pet would do the same thing, I just knew I had to do something.”
It began on a walk when Tommy saw birds, then ran off, but tumbled into the freezing lake.
As fast as Ed could act, he grabbed a boat from Wellesley College, then went after Tommy, putting his Mass. Maritime cold-water training to the test.
“I did a couple of things right and I did a couple of things wrong because obviously becoming part of the problem was not my intention,” said Ed Berger. “I knew the first thing I needed to do was control my breathing and not panic and I had the boat.”
But boat tipped over. Within minutes, firefighters and police teamed up to first pull the father of three out of the water. Then they got Tommy out too.
“I kept telling the fire department, ‘I’m fine I’m totally fine go save the dog,’ but they said ‘no sir, people first, it must be people first,’” said Ed Berger.
Tommy was taken to the Veterinary Emergency Group where Dr. Allan Heuerman treated the dog.
“Our first concerns are hypothermia,” said Dr. Heuerman. “Tommy’s a fighter, that definitely helped him stay alive and breathing and fighting throughout this whole process, so definitely lucky.”
It’s a dangerous time on the ice that can lead to tragedy, like in Atkinson, New Hampshire where a 56-year-old mom fell through ice and drowned over the weekend.
In Wareham, first responders found a man clinging to a kayak after he had fallen through an icy pond.
“Even though we’ve had cold temperatures. We don’t really recommend going in there at all because you never know if the water is moving, if there’s a pocket of warmer water underneath,” said Wellesley Fire Chief Matthew Corda.
What could have ended in tragedy, became a happy ending for Ed and Tommy, and for that they’re so thankful to the first responders and medical staff who made it happen.
“The fact that they got me, and they got him was just absolutely amazing, so incredibly thankful,” said Ed Berger.
First responders say the lesson here is to keep your dogs on leashes and if they go out into the ice, don’t follow them, just call 911.
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