The Mass Brief — Monday, July 06, 2026

        July 6, 2026, 10:05 a.m.

    The Mass Brief — Monday, July 06, 2026

        Mass Brief

        THE MASS BRIEF

        Monday, July 6, 2026

      Good morning. Hope your long weekend involved fewer illegal fireworks than Boston's did. Let's get into it.

        THE LEAD

The Merrimack Valley bus strike is now in its second week, and it's not just an inconvenience — for some riders, it's a crisis.
      Roughly 114 drivers with Teamsters Local 170 have been picketing around the clock outside Merrimack Valley Transit's Haverhill headquarters since before the holiday weekend, leaving the free MeVA bus system — which serves 16 cities and towns including Lawrence, Haverhill, and North Andover — completely dark. For riders like Martin Leahy, a 61-year-old formerly unhoused Lawrence resident who depends on the bus to reach his caseworker and doctors' appointments, the strike isn't an abstraction. It's a wall between him and the services keeping his life stable.

      The dispute boils down to scheduling: MeVA wants to fold Saturday shifts into drivers' regular schedules instead of keeping them optional overtime, a system that's been in place since 1976. The agency has offered a 25 percent raise over three years as a trade-off, but the union isn't biting yet. Both sides talked Sunday and were set to continue Monday morning, and MeVA administrator Noah Berger says he's hopeful a deal is close. But "hopeful" doesn't get anyone to a dentist appointment in Haverhill.

      Watch this one closely — not just because thousands of low-income, elderly, and disabled riders in the Merrimack Valley have no other way to get around, but because it's a preview of a fight playing out at transit agencies statewide as they try to control costs while keeping workers from walking. If MeVA and the union don't settle soon, expect state officials to start feeling pressure to intervene.
      Full story at Boston Globe →

        WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW

Boston's bloody Fourth. Five separate shootings left 13 people injured and two dead over the holiday weekend, including back-to-back incidents on Blue Hill Avenue and George Street in Roxbury early Sunday morning. Police Commissioner Michael Cox blamed the violence on large gatherings mixing illegal fireworks, alcohol, and firearms, warning "it's a long summer" ahead.
      WBZ / CBS Boston →

Cambridge's algebra experiment hits a wall. The district's move to put every eighth-grader into Algebra I this year — meant to open doors to advanced math tracks — backfired for many: more than 60 percent of rising ninth-graders will have to retake the class in high school. Teachers who spoke anonymously called the rollout rushed and poorly planned, a cautionary tale for other districts eyeing similar universal-algebra pushes.
      Boston Globe →

The MBTA still won't say what it did about Phil Eng. More than a month after acknowledging that General Manager Phil Eng pulled an employee's hair at a work dinner, the T has refused to answer basic questions about whether it investigated the incident at all. Employment lawyers say that silence is unusual for a case involving an agency's top official.
      Boston Globe →

GOP civil war intensifies as Minogue surges. A new poll shows businessman Mike Minogue building a commanding lead in the Republican primary for governor, but the more interesting story is the party infighting escalating around him.
      MassLive →

Your grocery bill might be about to get more expensive — for the state. A rising SNAP error rate could shift more of the program's cost burden onto Massachusetts taxpayers, a wonky-sounding development that could mean real budget pressure and possibly tighter eligibility rules down the line.
      MassLive →

Marshfield puts opioid settlement money to work. The Select Board unanimously approved a $32,000 grant from the town's opioid settlement fund to Plymouth County Outreach, part of a $1.8 million pipeline of settlement dollars the town will receive through 2039 to fund recovery coaching and post-overdose care.
      South Shore News →

        WORTH YOUR ATTENTION

Flooding risk today and tomorrow. A flood watch stretches from Rhode Island and Connecticut into Plymouth, Bristol, and Barnstable counties through Tuesday afternoon, with some spots possibly seeing over three inches of rain.
        WCVB →

WGI's expansion meeting in Southwick. After winning Town Meeting approval for a tax increment financing deal, WGI Inc. is holding a community outreach session to gather feedback on its planned 68,000-square-foot facility as it seeks a special permit.
        MassLive →

Senate social media bill takes shape. State senators unveiled a proposal targeting "addictive design" features in social media platforms rather than the outright ban the House already passed — expect a conference committee fight this session.
        WWLP →

FY2027 Budget Tracker

      Current stage: Sent to Governor

Governor 
House 
Senate 
Conference 
Desk 
Signed
Governor's Budget (H2) — filed
House Budget (H5500) | 1744 amendments filed — house_floor
Senate Budget (H5501) | 1 amendments filed — conference
Conference Budget (H5555) — governor_desk
✅ [July 01] Emergency preamble adopted

Full budget details →

💰 Money Watch

Big Spending This Week

$34,615.40 Michael Minogue paid RJKPayServiceFee — WEB PMTS [Bank Reported Expenditure]
$32,100.00 Michael Minogue paid MAXWELL LUCIANOS BANQUET CENTER — EVENT EXPENSE: FACILITY & CATERING [Bank Reported Expenditure]
$26,582.58 Michael Minogue paid GUSTO — NET  [Bank Reported Expenditure]
$18,244.16 Brian Shortsleeve paid GUSTO — NET [Bank Reported Expenditure]
$10,617.69 Michael Minogue paid GUSTO — TAX  [Bank Reported Expenditure]
$10,000.00 Andrea Joy Campbell paid 4C PARTNERS, LLC/SALE [Bank Reported Expenditure]
$8,117.57 Brian Shortsleeve paid GUSTO — TAX [Bank Reported Expenditure]
$7,456.66 Shannon Teabo paid CONNOLLY PRINTING — ATM POS DEBIT [Bank Reported Expenditure]
$6,500.00 Latoya Gayle paid MALLON BONNER — CONSULTING [Bank Reported Expenditure]
$6,000.00 Nicholas P. Collins paid RESTAURANT CES — DBT PURCHASE           [Bank Reported Expenditure]

      Data from the
      MA Office of Campaign & Political Finance

This Week on Beacon Hill

Tuesday, July 07, 1:00 PM
Senate Committee on Juvenile and Emerging Adult Justice
Topic: Informational Hearing on Juvenile Justice Policy and Data Board 2025 Annual Report
Location: 222           , Boston
Tuesday, July 07, 2:00 PM
Senate Committee on the Census
Topic: Census Racial Categorization and Redistricting
Location: A-1  , Boston
Tuesday, July 07, 2:00 PM
Massachusetts Data Privacy Act
Topic: Data Privacy Conference Committee Initial Meeting
Location: A-2                                                                                                                                                                                    , Boston

Full hearing schedule →

New on the Ballot

      Recent filings with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance:

Change of Purposes

Ana Levy — City Councilor, Lawrence → House, 16th Essex — Filed: 6/30/2026

OCPF →

              ONE MORE THING

              For 141 years, observers at the Blue Hill Observatory south of Boston have recorded the exact day the first berry ripens on a single wild blueberry bush that's been growing there since 1885. Back at the turn of the last century, that day fell in late June; now it's arriving a full week earlier on average — a tiny, delicious data point in a very big story about a warming New England.
              WBUR →

      The Mass Brief publishes every morning. Forward this to someone who still thinks "MeVA" is a typo.

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