Tuesday, December 21, 2021 View web version
Today's Headlines
Page one

Health

Omicron is now the dominant variant in Massachusetts and the United States

“We are in the Omicron wave,” said Bronwyn MacInnis, director of pathogen genomic surveillance at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. “It is circulating widely in Massachusetts and appears to be continuing to amplify.” Continue reading →

Health

As coronavirus swirls and the holidays near, COVID-19 tests are in high demand

In the second winter of pandemic discontent, the countdown to Christmas is marked not by frantic searches for the perfect gift, but for tests indicating whether it’s wise to gather or travel at all. Continue reading →

Transportation

This video shows people tumbling down a malfunctioning MBTA escalator. It wasn’t the first time that happened.

After the September incident at Back Bay Station, a Globe review of court documents and news archives found three nearly identical incidents since the mid-1990s, and a fourth alleged in a lawsuit, in which ascending MBTA escalators have suddenly stopped and accelerated backward, injuring dozens of people. Continue reading →

Politics

Mayor Wu announces new vaccine requirements for some indoor businesses, city workers

In an attempt to curb the spread of COVID-19, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu on Monday announced new vaccine requirements for some indoor spaces in the city, as well as a stronger vaccine mandate for the city’s 18,000-strong workforce. Continue reading →

Business

‘It made my job a lot easier.’ Boston businesses react to Wu’s proof-of-vaccine program

From relief to frustration, reaction varies among Boston businesses that will now have to require customers to prove their vaccination status upon entry. Continue reading →

The Nation

Politics

Manchin assails efforts to press him on Biden’s domestic policy bill

A day after announcing that he would not support his party’s signature domestic policy legislation, Senator Joe Manchin, offered an unsparing critique of the efforts by the Biden administration and senior Democrats on Capitol Hill to pass the sprawling $2.2 trillion climate, spending, and tax bill. Continue reading →

Politics

Schumer will try to change Senate rules if GOP stalls voting bill

Stymied by Republicans on voting rights legislation, Senator Chuck Schumer on Monday gave the clearest sign yet that he would try to force a fundamental change in Senate rules if needed to enact federal laws to offset voting restrictions being imposed by Republican-led legislatures around the country. Continue reading →

Politics

Pentagon issues rules aimed at stopping rise of extremism

Warning that extremism in the ranks is increasing, Pentagon officials are issuing detailed new rules prohibiting service members from actively engaging in extremist activities. The new guidelines come nearly a year after some current and former service members participated in the riot at the US Capitol, triggering a broad department review. Continue reading →

The World

World

Church agency: Captive missionaries made daring escape

Captive missionaries in Haiti found freedom last week by making a daring overnight escape, eluding their kidnappers and walking for miles over difficult, moonlit terrain with an infant and other children in tow, according to the agency they work for, officials said Monday. Continue reading →

World

A plan forms in Mexico: Help Americans get abortions

Verónica Cruz spent years defying the law in Mexico, helping thousands of women get abortions. Now that Mexico has declared that abortion is no longer a crime, Cruz and activists like her are planning to bring their mission to a country moving in the opposite direction: the United States. Continue reading →

World

UN chief calls for impartial probe into Beirut Port blast

The Aug. 4, 2020 blast has been described as one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in the world. It devastated the Lebanese capital, killing at least 216 people and injuring thousands. Continue reading →

Editorial & Opinion

EDITORIAL

City’s vaccine mandate a path back to normal

If it takes the incentive of a movie or a burger and a beer for the unvaccinated to comply, then bring it on. Continue reading →

OPINION

For Laura’s Law to succeed, DPH must heed our advice

A working group offer recommendations for hospitals to take to make sure patients can find and get inside emergency departments as quickly as possible. Continue reading →

LETTERS

As some rethink Supreme Court, 9 is not so magic a number

When Republicans control the Senate, they will seek to confirm conservative judges, and when the Democrats are in control, they will endorse liberals. This is not news. Continue reading →

Metro

Metro

A family left in the dark for 45 years

Vincent Palmieri disappeared in 1972. It took 45 years before police finally notified his family, a family that continues to be left in the dark on the circumstances surrounding his murder. Continue reading →

RI HEALTH

R.I. health care system ‘is currently collapsing,’ emergency doctors warn

“No one who is practicing medicine alive in this country right now has ever experienced what we’re going through right now,” the president of the Rhode Island chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians told the Globe. Continue reading →

Metro

Santa Claus (fully vaccinated) is coming to town

When this guy walks into the room, wide-eyed little kids shout, ‘That’s really Santa!’ Continue reading →

Sports

Kevin Paul Dupont | On Hockey

The Bruins are shut down through the holiday break, and now the rest of NHL to follow suit

In the name of not only health and safety, but competitive balance, the NHL could benefit from a league-wide shutdown. Continue reading →

CELTICS NOTEBOOK

New Boston vaccine mandate will apply to fans, but not players

Mayor Michelle Wu requirement of vaccination for those 12 and over entering indoor businesses will apply to fans attending TD Garden, but will not require it of players as New York's mandate does. Continue reading →

SIXERS 108, CELTICS 103

Joel Embiid in charge as undermanned Sixers take down undermanned Celtics

The battle between 15-15 teams dealing with myriad COVID-19 absences came down to the final seconds, but the Sixers came away with the victory via a strong surge late in the fourth quarter. Continue reading →

Business

Business

‘It made my job a lot easier.’ Boston businesses react to Wu’s proof-of-vaccine program

From relief to frustration, reaction varies among Boston businesses that will now have to require customers to prove their vaccination status upon entry. Continue reading →

Shirley Leung

With tents sprouting in Newmarket Square, food businesses face a flood of filth

The encampments began to appear as the city cracked down on tents near Mass and Cass. Now, employees and customers no longer feel safe in the area. Continue reading →

Business

At 81, luxury hotel developer Dick Friedman shows no signs of slowing down, with projects opening in New Orleans and Reykjavik

Our weekly roundup of the people who make Boston's business scene hum. Continue reading →

Obituaries

Obituaries

Roman Kaplan, Restaurateur and Host for Soviet Exiles, Dies at 83

From the time it opened in 1986, Roman Kaplan restaurant, the Samovar., was less a restaurant than a civilization in exile, a refuge for writers, artists, musicians, dancers and poets who, like Mr. Kaplan himself, had either fled from or been banished by the Soviet Union Continue reading →

Arts & Lifestyle

TV CRITIC'S CORNER

Sam Waterston to reprise his role as Jack McCoy in revival of ‘Law & Order’

Word of Waterston’s return follows last month’s announcement that another popular cast member, Anthony Anderson, will again portray Detective Kevin Bernard in Dick Wolf’s procedural about the criminal justice system. Continue reading →

LOVE LETTERS

I have a crush on a younger co-worker

"Obviously, I am older than his mother." Continue reading →

MUSIC REVIEW

A Far Cry makes space for complex grief with ‘Flames to Ashes’

Violinist Jae Cosmos Lee planned a program of three works by composers contemplating racism, intergenerational trauma, and violence. Continue reading →