Good morning. Beacon Hill just wrapped up its final flurry of "major business" for the session, there's a hospital in Norwood the state might just take, and if you're riding in the Pan-Mass Challenge this weekend, godspeed with the humidity. Let's get into it.

The Lead

The state may finally seize Norwood Hospital — and it's a warning shot to every landlord sitting on a broken promise.

Six years after catastrophic flooding shut down Norwood Hospital, and years after Steward Health Care's spectacular bankruptcy left the half-built replacement rotting behind a chain-link fence, the Legislature has had enough. Both the House and Senate passed bills this week authorizing the state to seize the 11-acre site by eminent domain, and Governor Maura Healey says she'll sign it. That's not a formality — it's the Commonwealth telling Medical Properties Trust, the Alabama-based real estate investment trust that's controlled the land since Steward's collapse, that its time to stall is over.

Here's the catch, and it's a big one: taking the land doesn't reopen a hospital. As House Speaker Ron Mariano put it bluntly, "who's going to pay to come in there and make it a hospital and run a hospital? That's going to be the challenge." The state can now force MPT's hand, but it still needs an actual health system willing to build and operate a facility — something that hasn't materialized in six years of negotiations, lawsuits, and false starts. A citizens group has reportedly been trying to broker a deal with MPT directly, which may be why lawmakers gave the company one more chance before threatening to just take the property outright.

For the roughly 1,100 people who used to work there, and for a region of Norwood, Walpole, Canton, and neighboring towns that has gone without a full-service hospital since 2020, this is progress — but not resolution. The real test comes next: will a hospital system actually step up once the state has leverage? Full story at WBUR →

What Else You Should Know

Massachusetts is set to give doctors, not lawmakers, the final call on late-term abortions. The Senate sent Healey a bill Friday that would remove the current 24-week legal framework and instead let physicians use their medical judgment on abortions later in pregnancy — for any reason. Supporters, including state Rep. Christine Barber, say hospitals have been turning away women in dire circumstances, even when a fetus has no chance of survival. Healey is expected to sign it. GBH News →

Boston names a new streets chief after cyclist Louisa Gag's death. Mayor Michelle Wu tapped Chris Osgood — who held the same job under Marty Walsh — to lead the city's Streets Cabinet, weeks after Gag, 36, was killed by a truck driver near Roxbury Crossing while biking to City Hall. Wu says it's the first step in a broader safety push; expect more specifics soon, including a related fight over the $135 million Blue Hill Avenue bus-lane redesign, which gets more public hearings in Dorchester and Mattapan this September. GBH News → | Universal Hub →

Healey talks tough on utility bills, but the Legislature is the one that has to act. With Massachusetts residents facing some of the highest energy bills in the country, the governor spent Friday blasting Eversource and National Grid for "record profits" and calling for caps on the Mass Save program. But the House and Senate bills diverge sharply — one guts Mass Save, the other phases out the pipe-replacement program known as GSEP — and Healey wouldn't say which approach she actually backs. CommonWealth Beacon →

The House just voted, unanimously, to overhaul how Massachusetts pays for primary care. The bill would more than double the share of health spending directed at primary care doctors — the front line that's become nearly impossible to get an appointment with — while also restricting how insurers use AI and pushing more drug-rebate money to patients. A family doctor in Arlington called it potentially the biggest health care law since Romneycare. The House and Senate versions still need to be reconciled. CommonWealth Beacon →

Massachusetts is the only New England state that won't let therapists treat patients across state lines. It's a quiet but real problem: patients who move here, or travel out of state, often have to abandon therapists they've worked with for years because Massachusetts hasn't joined any of the three national licensing compacts for mental health professionals. One Woburn resident spent six months hunting for a new therapist after a routine move from Maine. Boston Globe →

A state prisoner died after being told he was "exaggerating" his symptoms. Rolando "Eloy" Figueredo, 38, repeatedly asked MCI-Shirley medical staff for antibiotics as a cold worsened into fluid draining from his ear, headaches, and fever. He was given Tylenol instead. He was later hospitalized with meningitis and died within a week. The Department of Correction says it's reviewing the case but won't discuss specifics, citing privacy law. Boston Globe →

Worth Your Attention

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Ballot Question Committees

• Massachusetts Single-Payer Ballot Question Committee — N/A, No office — Filed: 7/29/2026

Change of Purposes

• Anne Brensley — Statewide, Lieutenant Governor → Statewide, Secretary of State — Filed: 7/28/2026

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That's it for today. Enjoy the sun before Monday's soggy mess rolls in — see you every morning.

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