Boston Globe Today | April 8, 2024

WATCH: Monday's show. Stories include: Red Sox hall-of-famer Pedro Martinez reminisces on the 2004 team and what that championship meant to the city of Boston. Watch →

Is the Red Sox hot start sustainable?

WATCH: Reporter Alex Speier analyzes the good, the bad, and the ugly ahead of the home opener. Watch →

Triston Casas' secret tools for success

WATCH: The Red Sox first baseman talked to NESN’s Jahmai Webster about what’s in his bag and the best dugout snacks. Watch →

Nation

Paying off people’s medical debt has little impact on their lives, study finds

“We were disappointed,” said Ray Kluender, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School and coauthor of the study. “We don’t want to sugarcoat it.” Continue reading →

Politics

Biden announces student debt relief for millions in swing-state pitch

Lawyers for those who oppose the latest approach are likely to argue that waiving the debt is unfair to those who already paid back their loans or never took out college loans in the first place. Continue reading →

Politics

Ex-officials urge curbing presidential power to deploy troops on US Soil

The weakness of existing constraints on the Insurrection Act has taken on new salience in the era of former president Trump, who has vowed to unilaterally send troops into Democratic cities if he wins the 2024 election. Continue reading →

World

Israel’s troop drawdown in south leaves Gaza with no active battles

Analysts say the redeployment means the war is entering a new phase, one in which Israeli forces, will mostly mount brief raids into the territor rather than lengthy ground maneuvers involving large numbers of troops. Continue reading →

World

When home is now the front line

Buoyed by volunteers who deliver aid and their own battle-hardened survival instincts, those who refuse to leave their Ukrainian homes carry on with their lives in an unending test of endurance. Continue reading →

World

Vatican document casts gender change and fluidity as threat to human dignity

The sex a person is born with, the document argued, was an “irrevocable gift” from God, and “any sex-change intervention, as a rule, risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception.” Continue reading →

OPINION

The strange tale of a former Holyoke city councilor

It’s striking that he got into office in the first place, but his brief political career is a symptom of problems in Massachusetts politics. Continue reading →

EDITORIAL

We need to start worrying about the bomb

The horror of a nuclear attack would be unimaginable. The impact would last generations. And all of it is eminently feasible with only a fraction of the weapons that already exist in the world. Continue reading →

LETTERS

Have our doctors become just another commodity?

Have our doctors become a commodity to be bought and sold by the teams that own them, like baseball players? Continue reading →

Weather

On Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine, it’s dark side of the moon

The late-season skiing at Sugarloaf Mountain in Maine on Monday was really secondary to the main event: They came for the show in the sky. Continue reading →

Politics

After warning of ‘political theatre,’ Goldberg to close hearing to determine cannabis regulator’s fate

Shannon O’Brien, the state's top cannabis regulator, is scheduled to appear in a two-day administrative hearing on Beacon Hill, during which she can challenge state Treasurer Deborah Goldberg’s decision to suspend her. Continue reading →

Politics

Wu proposes $4.6 billion budget for next fiscal year

The plan prioritizes ‘improving existing processes,’ and represents an eight percent, or $344 million, increase from the previous year. Continue reading →

AS I SEE IT

How 2004 Red Sox fans helped break the curse (or at least believed they did)

Several of these devotees returned to the ballpark last week to wax nostalgic about the magical season. Continue reading →

RED SOX

‘We know people are upset’: How the Red Sox marketing machine plans to fill Fenway Park

Since they know puffery and lipstick won’t fool anyone, the team essentially acknowledges it hears the boobirds, but is trying to tune them out. Continue reading →

CELTICS NOTEBOOK

Jaylen Brown takes pause to be grateful for 10,000 points with the Celtics

“To be honest, it speaks for itself,” Brown said after hitting the mark Sunday. “Just coming from my background, a single-parent household. Just my family, being able to have an opportunity to change things.” Continue reading →

Healthcare

Lawmakers press US regulators to scrutinize Optum plan to acquire Steward’s physicians network

“I approach this with a deeply skeptical eye,” Senator Elizabeth Warren said in an interview. Continue reading →

bold types

Factorial Energy prepares for big move, as battery maker makes tracks for Methuen

Bold Types is our weekly roundup of movers and shakers on the Boston business scene. Continue reading →

AI/Robotics

Amazon debuts $400 million robotic warehouse in North Andover, biggest in the state

The nearly four-million-square-foot fulfillment center on the site of a former telephone company factory will employ 1,500 people — and thousands of robots. Continue reading →

Obituaries

Rev. Cecil ‘Chip’ Murray, voice of calm during L.A. riots, dies at 94

For nearly three decades, Rev. Murray presided over the city’s oldest Black congregation, the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Los Angeles, turning a struggling community into an 18,000-member powerhouse that channeled millions of dollars into surrounding neighborhoods. Continue reading →

Obituaries

Rev. Cecil ‘Chip’ Murray, voice of calm during L.A. riots, dies at 94

For nearly three decades, Rev. Murray presided over the city’s oldest Black congregation, the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Los Angeles, turning a struggling community into an 18,000-member powerhouse that channeled millions of dollars into surrounding neighborhoods. Continue reading →

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LOVE LETTERS

Saw my friend’s wife on a dating app

Do I tell him she’s on there? Continue reading →

STAGE REVIEW

A comic feast in Lyric Stage’s ‘Drowsy Chaperone’

“The Drowsy Chaperone” doesn’t just invite hammy excess. This utterly bonkers musical demands it, and the Lyric Stage Company of Boston’s 16-member cast are only too happy to oblige. Continue reading →

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