Mayor Michelle Wu was supposed to return to her alma mater Wednesday to deliver the Class Day address at Harvard Law School — a feel-good homecoming story for a mayor who graduated from both Harvard College and HLS. Instead, she's staying home. Wu pulled out of the ceremony rather than cross the picket line of the Harvard Graduate Students Union-UAW, which has been on strike for five weeks. Her office says they spent days trying to broker a workaround and came up empty.

The optics here cut two ways. For labor, this is a genuine win — a sitting mayor of a major American city choosing solidarity over a marquis speaking slot. For Wu, it's a reminder of how carefully she's threading the needle right now: the same day she skipped commencement, roughly 200 protesters were chanting "Shame on you, Mayor Wu" outside City Hall over her $4.9 billion budget proposal that would cut grants for food pantries, immigrant services, and youth jobs programs. Canceling Harvard earns her goodwill on the left. But the community groups demanding she restore those cuts aren't feeling the love.

What happens next: the budget fight is the real story. The City Council deadlocked last week on a vote to push back on Wu's spending plan, and a marathon hearing stretched late into Tuesday night with over 100 residents signed up to testify. The council has until late June to act, and the pressure isn't going away.

Full story at Boston Globe →

Marlborough bus drivers walk off the job. Teamsters Local 170 members who drive for NRT Bus — which handles transportation for Marlborough Public Schools — went on strike Wednesday morning, forming a picket line outside the company's Hudson yard. The sticking point: affordable health care coverage. NRT says a tentative deal was reached last weekend before the union reversed course; the union says the company's "last and final" offer fell short. The school district says all routes are running as scheduled, suggesting replacement drivers are in play — which means this one could get uglier before it gets better. Boston Globe →

Rachael Rollins is back on the ballot. The former Suffolk County DA — who later became U.S. Attorney before her career imploded in an ethics scandal in 2023 — has officially qualified for the Democratic primary to reclaim her old job. She'll face incumbent DA Kevin Hayden and attorney Linda Champion. Meanwhile, the Norfolk County DA race is shaping up as a wide-open eight-person field after 50-year veteran Michael Morrissey decided not to seek reelection. Primary season just got a lot more interesting. Boston Globe →

World Cup watch parties: full speed ahead (probably). After months of bureaucratic limbo, Governor Maura Healey says more than a dozen Massachusetts communities awaiting FIFA public viewing licenses should have them in hand this week. Some towns had already given up and scaled back their plans — Framingham and Weymouth have bowed out entirely — but Healey's assurance should unblock the rest. The games start June 11. If your town is still planning something big, now's the time to find out. Boston Globe →

Lowell avoids firefighter layoffs — barely. A two-hour conversation at a café between Lowell's firefighter union president and City Manager Tom Golden produced a last-minute deal that preserved all 203 positions in the fire department. The agreement came just weeks after a massive Centralville fire displaced 44 residents and made the prospect of cutting six firefighter jobs politically toxic. Golden acknowledged the budget pressure isn't over, saying he hopes to revisit some cuts after the state finalizes its own budget. Boston Globe →

Cambridge drops ShotSpotter; police push back hard. The Cambridge City Council voted 5-2 last week to end the city's contract with ShotSpotter, the gunfire-detection technology it's used since 2014, citing privacy concerns and worries about federal law enforcement accessing the data. Now the Cambridge Police Patrol Officers Association — representing about 200 officers — is firing back, calling the move a threat to public safety that "sets the city back more than a decade." The vote came just weeks after a shooting on Memorial Drive. Expect this debate to keep going. GBH News →

The Hanscom private jet expansion keeps slipping. The controversial proposal to add 17 new aircraft hangars and fuel storage at Hanscom Field — already sent back for further environmental review nearly two years ago — still hasn't produced its required supplemental environmental impact report. Developers had targeted October 2025, then year-end, then Q1 2026, then "around June." Now that's in doubt too. For the activists and officials who've been fighting this expansion over noise and emissions concerns, delays are a partial win. But the project hasn't gone away. CommonWealth Beacon →

Boston City Council budget hearings are ongoing — if you want to weigh in on Mayor Wu's proposed cuts to community grants, keep an eye on the council's schedule at cityofboston.gov.

The school cellphone ban is now in a House-Senate conference committee; the Legislature's informal deadline is end of July — a key moment to watch for anyone with kids in Massachusetts public schools. CommonWealth Beacon →

June 2 is the deadline for candidates to file nomination papers for statewide races, meaning the ballot picture — including that Rachael Rollins comeback — could still shift before the week is out. Boston Globe →

Full budget details →

Yesterday's Biggest Contributions

Data from the MA Office of Campaign & Political Finance

Full hearing schedule →

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

Candidates

• Corey Lambo — House, 3rd Berkshire — Filed: 5/26/2026

OCPF →

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