☀️ Finally, some good news.

It's Wednesday, Boston.

🌅 Passover begins at sundown today. Chag sameach!

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Mass. agrees to pay up

• Cisco Brewers returns

• A robot soccer dog

Up first...

LOCAL

A splash of goodness

We could all use a little sunshine. If you feel like the news has been pretty intense the past few days (indictments, scathing MBTA reports, etc.), you’re not alone. So here are a few good stories to get you through the second half of the week:

🌤️ Boston will hit 70 degrees tomorrow. Alright, yes, we’ll see some rain, too. But it should be the mildest weather we’ve had this season. Plus, the weekend looks like it’ll be dry and sunny for any holiday plans.

👗 A prom dress drive helped 1,000 local high schoolers. Students who may not otherwise be able to afford dresses got to shop through racks of free gowns and accessories as part of Anton’s Cleaners’ ‘Belle of the Ball’ program. Over 500 volunteers helped out at the event, which marked Anton’s 19th year of donating dresses.

🦉 The Faneuil Hall owl has recovered. Owen, the feathered friend known for living by the marketplace, spent weeks in rehab for secondary rodenticide poisoning. He luckily made a full recovery and was released into the wild last week, according to Cape Ann Wildlife who took care of him.

🤝 Bostonians love their neighbors. At least that’s according to a recent survey from AmeriCorps which found that Boston has the highest rate of “informal helping” among major metros in the U.S. The survey defined “informal helping” as doing favors for friends and neighbors (without anyone making you). Surprisingly, Philly was a close second (we only beat them by one-tenth of a percentage point).

📣 More folks to cheer for on Marathon Monday. With less than two weeks till the Boston Marathon, runners are sharing their stories of honor, hope, and heartbreak that led them to run for Boston.com’s ‘Why I’m Running’ series. These marathoners are running to support causes like cancer research, suicide prevention, and public libraries, to name a few. You can read them all here.

TOGETHER WITH MEET BOSTON

Now hiring

📈 Time to update the resume and dust off the old blazer. From internships to executive positions, you can land your next job at the Meet Boston Regional Career Fair on April 11. The hospitality industry took a massive hit during the pandemic, but it’s now entering a period of growth — and you could be a part of it. There will be a ton of employers from local hotels, restaurants, universities, attractions, event management companies, and more, all looking for their next superstar employee. Register today!

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🛑 Boston is working to reduce gun violence. City officials and community members are taking part in a multi-day workshop run by the Violence Reduction Center from the University of Maryland to develop a focused plan for decreasing shootings. The number of homicides in Boston this year is outpacing last year, according to Police Commissioner Michael A. Cox. Along with the workshop, there are plans to hold a community “healing tour” as a way to help reduce the number of violent crimes in the city.

💵 Mass. has agreed to pay up big time. The state said they’d pay $40 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged discrimination in the state’s police sergeant promotional exam. Black and Hispanic police officers sued the state over a decade ago claiming they were not promoted or had their promotions significantly delayed because of their exam scores. Mass. Supreme Court Judge Douglas H. Wilkins will need to approve the settlement for the money to go to the roughly 600 affected officers.

🏖️ Thinking of drinking? Stay off Cahoon Hollow beach. One of Cape Cod’s busiest beaches is banning alcohol consumption on its sands from May 20 through Sept. 10, following a rise in drunkenness among beach goers. And don’t think about breaking the rule. It could land you fines of up to $5,000 and/or imprisonment of up to six months. That said, other Cape Cod National Seashore beaches will still allow drinking.

🍺 Cisco Brewers is coming back to the Seaport! The pop-up outdoor beer garden will bring a slice of Nantucket to the city six days a week starting April 13. In addition to their classic beer line up, they’ll also offer an updated food menu featuring clam shack bites, a sushi bar, and a taco truck. Plus, there will be live music daily. And if you’re not into beer, they also have wine. The pop-up will run through Oct. 15.

ONE LAST THING

Local robots

If you want to be equal parts impressed and terrified, take a look at these local robots.

MIT’s new “DribbleBot” is the size of a small dog and capable of running and dribbling with a soccer ball. While most robots travel on wheels, DribbleBot has four legs, a potentially life-saving feature that could aid humans during natural disasters.

Boston Dynamics’ humanoid robot, Atlas, on the other hand, feels a little more eerie. Atlas is as human-like as it gets, capable of jumping, picking up items, and doing a backflip (which I can’t even do). Like DribbleBot, Atlas is intended to assist humans in responding to future disasters.

But even robots have off days, as this TikTok video shows Atlas struggling to complete a series of tasks (it’s like bad parkour). However, after some tweaks, it was back to its humanoid ways.

🤖 Thanks for reading! Much like Atlas I, too, sometimes struggle to complete a series of tasks.

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected].

And a special thanks to today’s sponsor, Meet Boston. They offer exciting and inclusive programs and services that drive our local economy, including their Regional Career Fair.