Concerned parents are meeting at a Stoneham elementary school Thursday night after police caught an armed man who was previously registered as a sex offender on school grounds.
Parents say they weren’t notified about the incident until days after w…
Massachusetts
MBTA approves low-income fare program, slashing prices for thousands of riders
A big moment at the MBTA on Thursday as a plan for reduced fares for low-income riders was given unanimous approval from the control board.
The action makes it so anyone earning 200% or less of the federal poverty level could see their price for riding the T slashed in half by summer.
“It just means so much to me that we came together for a good cause,” said Malden resident Debra Allen.
“This is everything for me, for my community,” said Roxbury resident Mela Bush.
The move was made possible by $45 million set aside in Gov. Maura Healey’s proposed budget.
“It really goes to show that this is about equity, about access and about options for everyone in our community,” said Secretary of Transportation Monica Tibbits-Nutt.
But there are still a few hoops to jump through, including passage of a final budget keeping those dollars intact and making sure that money is available for years to come.
MBTA officials have estimated the program could cost roughly $25 million in fiscal 2025, then rise to between $52 million and $62 million per year once fully implemented by fiscal 2029. Once demand ramps all the way up, the T projects about 62,000 train, bus and ferry riders will take advantage, plus 28,000 people who use the RIDE paratransit service.
“We look to Beacon Hill to ensure ongoing, consistent revenue support for the low-income fares program through the coming years,” said Transportation 4 Massachusetts spokesperson Reggie Ramos.
Even if all that falls into place, the push for completely free transit fares is unlikely to lose steam.
“We’re really focused on finding revenue streams before talking about any additional services,” Tibbits-Nutt said.
Caveats aside, advocates are calling this a victory and hoping the impact will quell any concern.
“Any little bit of help is really important,” said Lynn resident Kathy Paul.
The program includes all forms of MBTA transit including the RIDE, which allows seniors and those with ADA needs to schedule trips.
State House News Service contributed to this report.
Harvard removes human skin from binding of old book
Harvard University says it has removed human skin from the binding of a particularly rare book that has been in its library for about 90 years.
In a statement posted online, Harvard Library said it pulled the morbid binding from its copy of “…
Sutton magician sentenced on child pornography and illicit sexual conduct charges
A Massachusetts magician has been sentenced to more than six years in prison after pleading guilty to charges of transporting child pornography and illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place.
Scott Jameson, a 47-year-old Sutton man who has worked mo…
Woman seriously hurt at Legacy Place supermarket parking lot, police say
A woman was seriously hurt in an accident involving a car at the Whole Foods parking lot at the Legacy Place shopping center in Dedham, Massachusetts, on Thursday, police said.
The incident outside the supermarket was reported about 10:30 a.m., acc…
MIT scientists want to create a ‘Lyme Block’ with proteins found in your sweat
Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge are dreaming up a potential new way to help prevent a potentially debilitating tickborne illness, and the key to it all is right in our sweat.
Researchers have discovered through years of study that a protein found in our sweat has antimicrobial properties, and can inhibit the growth of the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.
They believe this type of protein could be put into a topical cream to make something called “Lyme Block” — like sunblock, but for preventing Lyme.
“Ideally what we would love to do is give people more control over their own risk,” Michal “Mikki” Tal said, a principal research scientist at MIT and the leader of this study. “And really try to develop this into a possible preventative that you could put on repellant or sunblock to protect against other elements of the outdoors that you could also protect yourself against Lyme.”
Tal explained that while everyone has this type of protein, a secretoglobin called SCGB1D2, some people have a version that is only half as effective at protecting against Lyme-causing bacteria.
“Most people have a version of it that we call the reference version,” Tal said. “Then you have a variant version, or you could call it a mutation, which was found more commonly in people who had had Lyme disease before.”
There’s still a lot that these scientists want to learn, and the study is ongoing, but there’s a lot of excitement around these new discoveries.
“This was like everything we asked,” Tal said. “We’re like, ‘Oh my God. This is amazing. Oh my God, this makes so much sense!’”
Tal’s research group demonstrated to us how the sweat is collected from study participants. A device is wrapped around participants’ forearms, and it is able to stimulate the person’s sweat glands. Then, a special bracelet it put on that is able to absorb the sweat from the person’s arm. Researchers then are able to extract the sweat, after it is dyed blue, from the bracelet using a tube and a syringe. It’s a painless process, the researchers say, but can cause some tingling while the sweat glands are stimulated.
Nearly half a million Americans are estimated to be diagnosed and treated for this tickborne illness annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
“There’s a higher prevalence of Lyme disease in the Northeast in the U.S.,” lab manager Paige Hansen said. “This could have high impact for the population here in this area.”
Lyme disease commonly causes a rash at the site of a tick bite, and can cause other symptoms like fever, fatigue and muscle aches. Some cases, estimated at around 10%, can lead to long-lasting and stubborn complications like memory issues and even arthritis.
Researchers are now focusing on learning whether this protein could also help in a therapeutic sense as well, to aid people already infected with the bacteria — especially in those long-lasting cases that aren’t resolved with traditional antibiotic treatment.
“People are really suffering out there and there haven’t really been answers,” Tal said. “They’ve been really left in this huge mystery about what’s going wrong with their health. What can they do to overcome this and that’s really been the biggest focus currently of our clinical study.”
The clinical study is still ongoing, and researchers at MIT hope to include more people. Among the next steps in all of this is developing a prototype of Lyme Block.
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