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It’s Friday and — as of 10:46 a.m. today — the start of astronomical spring. A quick heads up that all commuter rail trains into North Station are partially suspended today through the weekend for a recently expanded signal project. That means you’ll have to switch onto the subway or take a shuttle bus, depending on your line.
Now to the news:
Good bill hunting: Gov. Maura Healey loves deer. She loves Massachusetts. But she does not love ticks, or local hunters going up to New Hampshire on the weekend, when they could be spending their money here in Massachusetts. So yesterday, Healey announced a bill to ease some of Massachusetts’ hunting laws, including ending the state’s centuries-old outright ban on hunting on Sundays. Maine is the only other state in the country with such a ban. “I love Massachusetts,” Healey said. “One of the funky things about Massachusetts is we have these blue laws that go back to the Puritan times. Now we’ve been able to overcome some of them through history. … But we still have a Sunday ban on hunting. It doesn’t make any sense.” (Fun fact: over a hundred years ago, Massachusetts also briefly had a ban on fishing on Sundays.)
- The case for lifting the ban: Healey’s proposal comes a day after the state’s wildlife board announced support for the changes. Healey argued lifting the ban would help address increasing rates of disease from ticks, which some studies have linked to overabundant deer populations. (Experts say climate change is also a big factor.) She also pitched the change as good for local small businesses: “the sporting goods stores, the game processors and the butchers,” to name a few. “I don’t want hunters going up to New Hampshire on Sundays and spending their money there and supporting New Hampshire businesses,” Healey said.
- The case against it: The MSPCA has long opposed efforts to lift the Sunday hunting ban. The group points to instances of people accidentally getting shot and argues that “non-hunting nature lovers not only outnumber, but also outspend” hunters by a wide margin. “Repealing the Sunday hunting ban would prioritize the demands of a small minority over the clear preferences of the majority,” the MSPCA says on its website. (The Healey administration says 70% of the public input it recently solicited supports lifting the ban.)
- What else? Healey’s proposal also includes lifting a ban on crossbow hunting, which is currently only allowed for hunters with disabilities. ( ”Crossbows are for everyone,” she said.) And it would reduce the required 500-foot minimum setback from dwellings for bowhunting to 250 feet, which Healey’s office says would bring Massachusetts into alignment with neighboring states. The governor said she will include the three changes as part of a larger upcoming spending bill.
- Separately, the state’s Department of Public Health is declaring the tick-borne alpha-gal syndrome a reportable condition, meaning health providers and labs will be required to report identified cases to the state. ”These announcements are about solving problems, making life better and improving things for everyone — except maybe the deer,” Healey said. “I love deer.”
In court: A Boston police officer is facing manslaughter charges for shooting a man suspected of carjacking in Roxbury last week. As WBUR’s Eve Zuckoff reports, investigators said there’s probable cause 33-year-old Nicholas O’Malley “was not acting in proper self defense or defense of another” when he shot Stephenson King three times as the 39-year-old tried to flee the scene in his car.
- O’Malley pleaded not guilty Thursday, and allegedly claimed over the radio that King “tried to run us over.” But investigators said body camera footage showed “that statement was not factually true” and that neither of the responding officers were in danger of being hit by the car when O’Malley fired his weapon.
Back on track: CRRC, the Chinese company manufacturing the T’s new Red Line cars, said yesterday that the Trump administration has released the car shells it held at customs over concerns about forced labor. The news comes just days after about a third of the workers at CRRC’s factory in Springfield were officially furloughed due to the holdup. With the release of the shells, a spokesperson for CRRC said work will “gradually resume with the goal to recall affected employees from furlough.”
- The backstory: Rep. Richard Neal said he personally pressed President Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, to end the “stalemate” during a chance encounter at a St. Patrick’s Day lunch on Capitol Hill this week. “I think eye contact is still much more effective.” Neal, who represents Springfield, told WBUR’s Andrea Perdomo-Hernandez: “This notion that there are still personal relationships that can sometimes overcome the severe political differences that now plague the country, it’s important.”
P.S. — What Revolutionary War milestone did Boston mark this week? Take our Boston News Quiz and test your knowledge of our recent stories.
