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Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Health
- Boston Globe
New Englanders clash over Trump's sweeping health reforms
And he is not alone. In a recent Globe survey of 11 New Englanders across the political spectrum, all seven respondents who voted against Trump said they worry that basic health insurance and many vaccines will be harder to obtain for those who need them if the Big Beautiful Bill becomes law. The four respondents who voted for Trump, despite being unfamiliar with many of the legislation's specifics, said they support changes to health care programs to repair what some of them called a broken, bloated system. Advertisement The voters were surveyed as part of an ongoing Globe series on their views on the first year of the Trump administration, with previous installments centered on The cost of health care has been a major focus for Trump, who has said he wants to eliminate waste and fraud from programs such as Medicaid. The president has said he wants the legislation passed before July 4. But along with savings, Trantham noted, many experts predict that more Americans will end up uninsured if Trump's vision becomes the new landscape of national health care. Advertisement 'There will be more people who can't afford their medications. There'll be more people who avoid going to the doctor because they don't have the money,' said Trantham, who is an unenrolled voter and voted for former vice president Kamala Harris in 2024. 'And then they'll end up needing a higher level of medical care, which then puts a broad burden on the rest of us,' he added. Related : Trump's passed by the House, many The agency also predicted that 4 million people could see their access to food stamps reduced or eliminated. In addition to benefit cuts, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the House bill would increase the US deficit by $2.4 trillion over the next decade. And on Thursday, Joann Flaminio, 69, a retired Democrat from Providence, said she is concerned that few people are aware of the myriad dangers tucked into the sprawling bill. 'The devil really is in the details. And one of the proposals in the Big Beautiful Bill — that requires Medicaid recipients to re-enroll every six months — is a draconian measure designed to deny services to those most in need,' said Flaminio, who served as retirement administrator for the state of Rhode Island. Advertisement 'My sister was on Medicaid in the final years of her life, and I know what the application process is like in order to get somebody approved. Many people hire a lawyer in order to do that, but it can be arduous, and it certainly is,' she added. The president's bill also would impose work requirements on Medicaid recipients, from ages 19 to 64, who would need to work at least 80 hours per month if they did not qualify for exemptions. From her experience, Flaminio said, linking benefits to work requirements is impractical. 'We tried to mandate work requirements ... for those people who are on disability benefits,' Flaminio said. 'And I would say, for the most part, it's a waste of time and effort. The vast majority of recipients, an estimated 96 percent, cannot work, which is the reason why they apply for Medicaid in the first place.' But for the survey's Trump supporters, trimming the Medicaid rolls is worthwhile if it rids the system of fraud and abuse. Seth Sole-Robertson, a 45-year-old Republican from Medway, was asked if Medicaid cuts concern him. 'I'd be concerned if I was an illegal alien,' Sole-Robertson answered, 'and I'd be concerned if I were committing fraud.' The goal is to strip benefits from 'people who are ineligible or taking it in two different states,' said Sole-Robertson, who owns a marine repair business. 'There's lots of hoopla or fake news about what's going on with Medicaid.' Karen Sysyn, 54, an unenrolled Trump supporter from Londonderry, N.H., said she wasn't sure where the bill was headed or what was in it. 'I hear a lot of rumors that they're looking at cutting Social Security and disability and stuff like that,' she said. Advertisement If people are able to work, taxpayers should not bear their burden, said Sysyn, who is searching for work after losing her job as a housing inspector. But if people are genuinely in need of support from Social Security or Medicare, they should receive support, she added. Another unenrolled Trump supporter, 56-year-old Brian Jankins of Sutton, was asked what he knew about the bill. 'Full disclosure, very little,' said Jankins, who works in banking. However, he added, 'our current health care system is broken and dysfunctional ... I'm not versed in what this bill does to address that, but it is broken.' Related : Respondents' opinions about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health and human services secretary, also were sharply divided, with Trump supporters endorsing his stance against vaccines, among other initiatives, and the president's opponents saying Kennedy was endangering lives. 'I think more Americans are going to die under some of the changes that he's making around vaccinations,' said Vanessa Coppola, a 42-year-old Democrat from North Yarmouth, Maine. Over the administration's first five months, Kennedy became a lightning rod for controversy because of his antivaccine stance, his references to autism as a preventable disease, and his ouster and replacement of the entire immunization advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Coppola, a job coach and consultant, is particularly worried about Kennedy's proposal to eliminate the COVID vaccine recommendation for healthy pregnant women. Those vaccinations provide coverage for newborns, who are particularly vulnerable to respiratory disease, she said. Anand Sharma, 53, a Democrat from Shrewsbury and electrical engineer, called the rolling drama at the Department of Health and Human Services part of 'the chaos [that] is everywhere right now.' Advertisement And Justina Perry, a 37-year-old Democrat from New Bedford, denounced Kennedy's antivaccine agenda. 'Viruses are going to love this,' said Perry, who runs a physical therapy clinic. 'They're going to be able to spread and spread, and they win in this situation because we're pulling back vaccine access. So the only one who should be excited about this is a virus.' But Darryll White, an unenrolled Trump voter from Skowhegan, Maine, supports Kennedy's efforts to change government guidance on vaccines. Kennedy's work is 'a long-haul scenario — to make America healthy again,' said White, 66, who added that efforts by the news media to 'demonize' the secretary have made his job harder. 'People have to understand that Robert Kennedy is under intense pressure,' added White, the director of a nonprofit community park. White said he supports Kennedy's proposal to upend the government's vaccine guidance. 'That's exactly what needs to happen,' said White, who believed the government was not transparent during the pandemic about possible adverse effects of the COVID vaccine. The respondents were sharply divided yet again about the administration's drastic cuts in medical research grants, and those views aligned with whether they had voted for the president. The cuts have had an outsize effect on universities and other research institutions in the Boston area, particularly at Harvard University, where the government has canceled about $2.6 billion in awarded grants. 'He's cutting off his nose to spite his face,' Rosemary Shea, 62, an unenrolled voter from Hampton, N.H., said of Trump, who she voted against. 'I mean, Harvard is not just doing this research for themselves. They're doing it for the world.' Advertisement 'These universities are doing great research for diseases that are still out there that we have not cracked yet — Parkinson's, cancer, all different types of cancers," Shea added. 'He's just decided 'nope.' And I haven't even heard a logical explanation for it.' Sole-Robertson, the Medway Republican, offered a sharply different take on the government's role in funding medical research. 'A lot of this needs to be shifted back to private industry and raising funds in the private sector,' he said. 'I think a lot of it is just pure nonsense.' Brian MacQuarrie can be reached at
Boston Globe
10 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
In ‘Kill the Lax Bro,' Charlotte Lillie Balogh asks whodunit — and who let it happen
The aftershock of this betrayal was one of several personal heartbreaks that fueled Balogh's debut YA novel, is actor Chris Evans — Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'Almost everything in this book really happened in some way,' Balogh tells the Globe. 'There were quite a few Easter eggs of my exes sprinkled throughout.' Advertisement The murder, she assures, is strictly fictional. The mystery is set in the fictional Massachusetts town of Hancock during the 1990s, where star lacrosse player Troy Richards is the target of four students' attempts to ruin his reputation. But when Troy winds up dead during Hancock High's Lock-In Night, Andrew, his former teammate/best friend; Stassi, his straight A ex-girlfriend; Naomi, the shy but observant freshman; and Tatum, the burnout with a secret grudge, must unravel the whodunit before the crime is pinned on them. Advertisement With and commentary on toxic sports culture, status quos, and self-discovery. While Troy is the doomed, titular 'lax bro,' the sometimes-negative impact of student athlete culture and toxic masculinity are Balogh's real targets. She had been a member of her high school's rowing team and later rowed for Syracuse University as an undergrad. As a student athlete, Balogh observed the different coaching approaches for girls vs. boys team sports firsthand. 'I know a coach who told me it's easier to coach boys because they're very competitive,' says Balogh, who coaches a youth team in Los Angeles, where she now resides. '[While], girls are not encouraged to be as ferocious so quickly in life.' She was especially inspired by 'New England life'; in particular, her high school alma mater's boy's lacrosse team — Troy and Andrew are amalgamations of the memories of her classmates and her own. While Balogh describes Andrew as 'the boy next door,' his increasingly volatile actions reveal his more vengeful underbelly. Troy, though (dead and) the antagonist, becomes more sympathetic as his backstory is uncovered. The intention was to 'flip archetypes. 'They both have their own ways in which they're perfect and idolized by their classmates. And it's like, which of them is better?' she says. 'Are either of them better?' Balogh also drew from 'cinematic perfection' that is 'John Tucker Must Die,' the early-2000s teen dramedy about a group of girls who, upon finding out they're dating the same guy, team up for revenge. Advertisement Spoiler: John Tucker does not die — it's more social sabotage than murder — but Balogh, a TV writer by trade, had wondered: But what if they actually killed him? 'Kill the Lax Bro' started as a 50-page TV pilot script in 2020, but eventually caught the eye of Balogh's literary agent, with whom she had previously worked on another manuscript. (That story — about a Boston high school rowing team, ahead of the Head of the Charles Regatta — will be the basis for her second novel, slated for fall 2026.) When the manuscript was put out on submission, an editor at Penguin found a video of a table read of 'She watched this video and was like, 'I want to buy that as a book instead,'" says Balogh. Charlotte Lillie Balogh will celebrate the release of 'Kill the Lax Bro' at the Natick Barnes & Noble, July 12, 6 p.m. 1324 Worcester St., Natick. Marianna Orozco can be reached at
Boston Globe
10 hours ago
- General
- Boston Globe
Archbishop Henning to receive special vestment from Pope Leo XIV Sunday in Rome
Henning will be one of eight archbishops from the United States, and 48 from around the world, who will receive the pallium from the pope during a 9:30 a.m. Mass in St. Peter's Square, the archdiocese said. CatholicTV will air the Mass live at 3:30 a.m. Boston time and then rebroadcast it on Sunday at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m., according to the statement. The pallium, a narrow white band with black crosses, is mostly worn when an archbishop is principal celebrant of a Mass for a special occasion, such as ordinations, confirmations, and church dedications, among other events, the archdiocese said. Separately, the archdiocese announced a special concert series starting on Sunday to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Advertisement Gavin Klein, a junior organ scholar at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, will perform the first concert at 3 p.m. Sunday, the archdiocese said. Built by the prominent 19th-century Boston firm E. and G.G. Hook & Hastings, the cathedral's organ is the largest surviving instrument from the company, according to the church's Advertisement Its 5,292 pipes — ranging from pencil-thin flutes to bass pipes over 32 feet tall — fill a large room at the rear of the cathedral, according to Richard Clark, music director at the cathedral. Though the organ has been updated to operate electronically rather than manually, the historic instrument has been tonally preserved, meaning 'the people who hear the organ now are hearing the same beautiful sounds that people heard when the cathedral first opened in 1875,' Clark said in an email to the Globe. Other recitals to celebrate the organ's milestone will feature performances by Leo D. Abbott, former director of music at the cathedral, who was instrumental in the organ's restoration; James Kennerley, municipal organist of Portland, Maine; and Rosalind Mohnsen, organist at Immaculate Conception in Malden, the archdiocese said. The dates and times of those concerts will be announced later, the archdiocese said. A view of some of the pipes inside the organ that was built in 1875 for the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in the South End. David L. Ryan/Globe Staff Rita Chandler can be reached at
Boston Globe
18 hours ago
- General
- Boston Globe
MFA returns two Benin Bronzes to Nigeria
'As custodians of these exceptional objects for the past 12 years, it is deeply gratifying to see them returned to their rightful owner,' he said in a statement. Advertisement A ceremony at the Nigeria House in New York, pictured from left: Ambassador Abubakar Jidda, consul general of Nigeria; Victoria Reed, the MFA's senior curator for provenance; Pierre Terjanian, the MFA's chief of curatorial affairs and conservation; Ambassador Samson Itegboje, of the Nigerian embassy; MFA Director Matthew Teitelbaum; Prince Aghatise Erediauwa; Dr. Arese Carrington. Andy Henderson/Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The restituted works, a 16th or 17th century Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The plunder quickly made its way to the art market and scores of museums across Europe and (to a lesser extent) the US. The bronzes, viewed by many as an exemplar of colonial-era excess, have become a cause célèbre in recent years, with many museums returning or pledging to return them to Nigeria, where the palace has called for their return. (The Benin kingdom is distinct from the modern country of Benin, which borders Nigeria). Advertisement The collection has been That put the MFA in the difficult position: It only had clear title to five of the artworks, so it was trying to negotiate an agreement with the palace for a collection the vast majority of which it did not yet fully own. 'It's really not appropriate for us to bring them into the collection,' Victoria Reed, the museum's senior curator for provenance, told the Globe earlier this year. 'But that means that we do not own them, and therefore we don't have control over them.' The MFA returned this relief plaque Friday, which can be traced directly to the 1897 raid. Relief plaque showing two officials with raised swords, c. 1530‑1570. Royal Bronze‑casting Guild (Igun Eronmwon) Copper alloy. *Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Robert Owen Lehman Collection. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston But the museum's efforts abruptly ran aground this spring, when Lehman, an award-winning filmmaker, 'We're all sad in contemplating this outcome,' Teitelbaum said at the time. 'There's no moment of celebration or resolution that feels fully satisfying.' Reached by phone Friday, however, he said Lehman's retraction freed the museum's hand. Advertisement 'It opened up another set of conversations,' said Teitelbaum, who described the ceremony as a 'powerful day.' 'This is the result.' The two restituted works can be traced to the 1897 raid, said Reed. The commemorative head is recorded on the London art market in 1899, when it was sold with other looted artworks from the kingdom. The relief plaque passed through the Crown Agent of the Niger Coast Protectorate (the British protectorate state, whose forces led the raid), who sold it in 1898. This commemorative head was sold along with other looted works on the London art market in 1899. Commemorative Head, 16th–17th century. Terracotta, iron. (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston The artworks soon entered England's Pitt-Rivers Museum; Lehman acquired them years later when portions of the collection were sold. 'I'm am never going to say that we have 100 percent certainty about anything,' she said by phone from New York. 'But based on the available evidence, How likely is it that these were not looted? I think very, very small.' Prince Aghatise Erediauwa called the ceremony a great event, adding that the Benin royal court expected other museums 'to do the right thing.' The 'MFA has joined in showing the world that the restitution of looted heritage works is not at the pleasure of whoever is holding them,' he said via WhatsApp. 'It is the ethical and legal thing to do.' Dr. Arese Carrington, a member of the MFA's board of advisors, orchestrated the transfer. Following the ceremony, Nigeria's National Commission for Museums and Monuments plans to take possession of the bronzes and deliver them to Omo N'Oba Ewuare II, Oba, or king, of Benin. Reed is still researching the provenance of the three bronzes that remain in the museum's collection. She said that while they can be traced to the American and European art markets in the second half of the 20th century, it remains unclear when and how they left Africa. Advertisement 'There are large gaps in their provenance,' she said. 'We're going to try to fill' them. Malcolm Gay can be reached at
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Boston Globe
Day and night, Jadu delights
The green salad with avocado at Jadu. Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff What to eat: For breakfast, thick slices of sourdough toast with butter and jam, house-made pistachio butter, or avocado and Indian spices. Oatmeal goes savory with miso and tamari, topped with an egg and chile crisp; there's labneh parfait with strawberries, hemp seed granola, and pomegranate molasses. At lunch, bright, nourishing mezze platters; peanut-ginger chicken and veggies with black rice; and brothy, garlicky white beans with kale plus sourdough toast for dunking. In the evening, green olives are served in glamorous glass dishes for snacking on with a glass of wine. There's a green salad piled high, with avocado and lemon vinaigrette. Roasted cauliflower is served over whipped tahini with dates and pepitas, sprinkled with fresh torn herbs. Tuna tartare is strewn with capers and pistachios; mortadella and fresh mozzarella are sandwiched on focaccia with arugula and pistachio pesto. Tomac Rockstar riesling from Croaita at Jadu. Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff Advertisement What to drink: Daytime brings tea and coffee drinks, including seasonal specials like the orange blossom honey latte. There's masala chai and matcha, hojicha, and turmeric lattes. The iced yuzu matcha sparkler is perfect on a hot summer afternoon. Then the clock strikes wine o'clock: All selections are available by the glass or the bottle, and our server lets us taste a few before we decide. Croatian Riesling, Slovenian furmint, and Balkan orange wine are all wonderful, but in the end, it's hard to resist a fizzy pink Lambrusco. You'll also find sherry, vermouth, amaro, beer, cider, and zero-proof drinks. Advertisement The marinated olives at Jadu. Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff The takeaway: If you're looking for that just-right third space in Jamaica Plain, Jadu is it. By day, new-gen power meetings take place over laptops and parent groups gather with babies. At night, it's tete-a-tetes at tables and run-ins with neighbors, and olives and salads, then back home by bike. There's also a 'secret' patio around the block, open on weekends when the weather's nice. Wine bar reservations highly recommended. 767 Centre St., Jamaica Plain, 617-221-8193, . Coffee shop Thu-Tue 8 a.m.-3 p.m., breakfast and lunch $6.50-$17, coffee, tea, and more $3.75-$6.50. Wine bar Fri-Sun 5-10 p.m., small plates $6-$20, wine $12-$21 by the glass. Devra First can be reached at
