Massachusetts
WATCH: Harris pledges to defend reproductive rights at campaign event in Massachusetts
PITTSFIELD, Mass. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris used her first fundraiser since becoming the Democrats’ likely White House nominee to excoriate the Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as determined to roll back Americans’ freedoms.
Watch Harris’ remarks in the player above.
Harris traveled to Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on Saturday where she was expected to raise more than $1.4 million, her campaign announced, from an audience of hundreds at the Colonial Theatre. That would be $1 million-plus more than the original goal set for the event before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
She told an excited group of supporters that she entered the race as an “underdog,” while expressing confidence that her surging campaign could defeat Trump.
“I will fight to move our nation forward,” Harris said. “Donald Trump intends to take our country backwards.”
WATCH: Brooks and Capehart on Harris’ appeal and the new race for the White House
Harris also poked at Trump, and his running mate Sen. JD Vance, for lobbing peculiar attacks at her and other Democrats. The vice president appeared to be alluding to a 2021 interview with Vance in which he slammed some prominent Democrats without biological children, including Harris, as “childless cat ladies” with “no direct stake” in America.
“You may have noticed Donald Trump has been resorting to some wild lies about my record and some of what he and his running mate are saying, it is just plain weird,” Harris said. “I mean that’s the box you put that in, right?”
Harris’ branding the Republican ticket as “weird” appears to be part of a concerted effort by her campaign to spotlight some of Trump and Vance’s rhetoric as questionable. Earlier this week, the Harris campaign on the social media site X called Vance “weird and creepy” for some of his stances on women’s reproductive rights. Trump, meanwhile, has raised the fictional serial killer Hannibal Lecter from the film “Silence of the Lambs” in stump speeches.
“These guys are just weird,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat who is on Harris’ shortlist for vice president, said in an MSNBC interview earlier this week. “They’re running for He-man women-haters club or something.”
Supporters for the fundraiser included musician James Taylor and many of the state’s Democratic heavyweights, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, former Gov. Deval Patrick and Rep. Richie Neal.
Harris took in more than $100 million in donations in the first 48 hours after Biden quit the race, a presidential record, and aides said she has continued to raise money at a steady clip.
“This is a people-powered campaign,” Harris said. “And we have momentum.”
Harris, a former prosecutor in her home state of California, also derided Trump for his legal troubles. She noted his recent conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records in New York, a jury finding the former president of being liable for sexual abusing advice columnist E. Jean Carroll in 1996, and a $25 million settlement paid to attendees of the now-defunct real estate seminar called Trump University.
WATCH: Harris courts key voting blocs as Trump shifts strategy following Biden’s exit
“I’ve been dealing with people like him my entire career,” Harris said. She added, “So in this campaign, and I say in all seriousness, I will proudly put my record against his any day.”
Harris began her remarks with praise for Biden, who opted to end his reelection bid and endorse Harris last weekend after his campaign fell into a tailspin following his disastrous June 27 debate performance against Trump.
She called Biden’s legacy of accomplishment over the past three and a half years “unmatched in modern history.”
Trump denigrated Harris as a “radical left lunatic” who wants to defund the police during a keynote address at a bitcoin conference in Nashville on Saturday.
He said she was worse than Biden but was probably his second preference for a candidate to run against after Biden.
Trump told the crowd of bitcoin supporters that he would embrace the cryptocurrency more than the Biden-Harris administration has and vowed to “replace the Biden-Harris economic stagnation” with an economic boom.
The vice president told supporters at her Massachusetts fundraiser that her economic agenda would sharply contrast with Trump’s, who she claimed is squarely focused on lowering tax rates for wealthy Americans and improving the bottom lines of corporations.
“Building up the middle class will be the defining goal of my presidency,” Harris said. She added, “Let us make no mistake, this campaign is not just about us versus Donald Trump. Our campaign has always been about two very different visions for our nation.”
Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.
Massachusetts
5 firearms seized from Massachusetts home after report of second grader bringing gun to school
Five firearms were seized from a Swansea, Massachusetts home after police investigated a report that a second-grade student may have brought a handgun to an elementary school.
On Monday night, Swansea police were notified that the student may have brought a gun to Mark G. Hoyle Elementary School and showed it to at least two other students on a previous day.
After an investigation, officers developed probable cause to get a search warrant for the student’s home in Swansea, which was issued by the court and executed Tuesday afternoon.
During the search of the home, police said they found five firearms and ammunition. The guns were not registered and were stored unsecured, police said. No one who lives in the home had a valid Firearms Identification Card, according to police.
“The firearms were seized as part of the investigation, and Swansea Police plan to file an application for criminal complaint in Fall River District Court on Wednesday charging two residents with weapons-related offenses,” Swansea police said in a press release Tuesday night.
The names of the residents have not been released by police.
Police and Swansea Public Schools took additional safety precautions at the school Tuesday morning while officers investigated the report. After the firearms were discovered in the home, a police K-9 unit trained in firearms and ammunition detection swept the school Tuesday night, but nothing was found.
Swansea police do not believe there is an active threat to the school community, but there will be an increased presence at the Hoyle Elementary School on Wednesday. The investigation remains ongoing.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts food insecurity hits record, annual report finds
Food insecurity is rising in Massachusetts while assistance programs are falling short, according to the latest annual report from the Greater Boston Food Bank and Mass General Brigham. The sixth annual Massachusetts Food Access Report finds that a record 40% of Massachusetts households experienced food insecurity during 2025. According to the authors, that equates to 1.1 million households across the Bay State. Additionally, the report finds that 25% of households report regularly missing meals or going hungry. Their conclusions are based on a survey of more than 3,000 adults across the state. The authors said the survey was conducted from October through December in three languages. “Our results are sobering: more people are struggling, and while they report accessing food and nutrition assistance programs like food pantries, SNAP, and WIC, they also say these programs are not enough. Every population—from families with young children to seniors—is struggling to afford food,” Dr. Lauren Fiechtner, who advised the research, wrote in a statement. Affordability remains a key challenge, with 88% of food-insecure households reporting difficulty paying for at least one basic expense and needing an average of $500 more per month to meet basic needs, according to the report. The report found 75% of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants said they still need additional food support, while 78% receive less than $300 per month in benefits, according to the report. Meanwhile, the authors state that charities are playing an “increasingly essential role,” serving more than half of the state’s food-insecure households. “The call to action is clear: we must continue to invest in our emergency food system to meet this urgent and growing demand. And we must work together on implementing long-term solutions to poverty to empower everyone to live better, healthier, and more productive lives,” the Greater Boston Food Bank’s outgoing CEO, Catherine D’Amato, wrote in a statement. Among the recommendations included in the report are calls to increase state funding for nutrition programs, strengthen food insecurity screenings through the health care system, investments in local food systems and legislative changes to address societal issues that contribute to hunger, including income and housing inadequacy.WCVB partners with the GBFB for an annual day of giving.
Food insecurity is rising in Massachusetts while assistance programs are falling short, according to the latest annual report from the Greater Boston Food Bank and Mass General Brigham.
The sixth annual Massachusetts Food Access Report finds that a record 40% of Massachusetts households experienced food insecurity during 2025. According to the authors, that equates to 1.1 million households across the Bay State.
Additionally, the report finds that 25% of households report regularly missing meals or going hungry.
Their conclusions are based on a survey of more than 3,000 adults across the state. The authors said the survey was conducted from October through December in three languages.
“Our results are sobering: more people are struggling, and while they report accessing food and nutrition assistance programs like food pantries, SNAP, and WIC, they also say these programs are not enough. Every population—from families with young children to seniors—is struggling to afford food,” Dr. Lauren Fiechtner, who advised the research, wrote in a statement.
Affordability remains a key challenge, with 88% of food-insecure households reporting difficulty paying for at least one basic expense and needing an average of $500 more per month to meet basic needs, according to the report.
The report found 75% of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program participants said they still need additional food support, while 78% receive less than $300 per month in benefits, according to the report. Meanwhile, the authors state that charities are playing an “increasingly essential role,” serving more than half of the state’s food-insecure households.
“The call to action is clear: we must continue to invest in our emergency food system to meet this urgent and growing demand. And we must work together on implementing long-term solutions to poverty to empower everyone to live better, healthier, and more productive lives,” the Greater Boston Food Bank’s outgoing CEO, Catherine D’Amato, wrote in a statement.
Among the recommendations included in the report are calls to increase state funding for nutrition programs, strengthen food insecurity screenings through the health care system, investments in local food systems and legislative changes to address societal issues that contribute to hunger, including income and housing inadequacy.
WCVB partners with the GBFB for an annual day of giving.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts landscapers may be charging more this spring due to rising gas prices
The increasing gas prices are having an impact on landscaping businesses in Massachusetts, and it may mean customers have to pay more.
Gas prices continue to climb across the country, and the average price of a gallon of regular in Massachusetts was $3.93 on Monday, according to AAA. That is up 13 cents from last week and 78 cents from one month ago.
It’s an extremely busy time for landscapers. Spring cleaning is underway, which means lawnmowers, blowers, weedwhackers and trimmers are in overdrive. Andrew Pecorella runs his own landscaping business serving areas like Natick, Framingham, Brookline and Newton. He says the increasing cost of gas prices is impacting the industry.
“Everybody wants their properties looking well so if it has to go up, then my prices are going to have to go up a little bit,” Pecorella said.
He uses diesel for his truck and premium fuel for his landscaping equipment. He goes to the pump every day to fill up. He’s noticed a big increase since last spring, which is why he has to charge his customers more.
“Mostly been saying to them that prices are going to have go up a little bit, mainly because of my cost of fuel and cost of materials,” Pecorella said. “Because the materials have to get to the yard and that costs more money for them to ship it to the yard and make the mulch and make all the products. It costs money. It costs fuel.”
He says fuel, materials and equipment costs are making it challenging, which is why he’s cutting it close to make sure he’s being fair to his customers and also being business savvy. He says if he has to drive further, it will cost more.
He’s been in the landscaping business since 2010 and started his own business in 2018. He says he loves his job even when it’s hard to predict how much things will cost each year.
“It’s just one step at a time, do the best that you can, and try to make sure all your customers are happy,” Pecorella said.
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