🎓 Free community college for ... ALL?!

🚨 Fenway Concert Series have your wallet hurting? Live Nation just rolled out a 4-for-$80 summer concert deal where fans can snag a four-pack of $20 tickets to various upcoming shows. The deal ends July 30, so be sure to check out all the concerts happening near you.

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

At last, a state budget is in sight. Mass. House and Senate lawmakers finally filed a $58 billion compromise on the state’s fiscal 2025 budget. It’s fashionably late — no really, we’re literally the last state with a July 1 fiscal year to not have a budget in place. 

Here’s a peek at some of the biggest eye-catchers: 

🎓 Free community college for all. You’re not dreaming! Assuming it survives Healey’s pen, this initiative would make community college permanently free for ALL, covering tuition and fees for students (plus some stipends for books and supplies for eligible students). This last-dollar program expands on an existing initiative making community college free for residents over 25 without a previous degree, meaning the state picks up the tab on tuition costs not otherwise covered by financial aid or scholarships.

🚌 Free rides on regional transit. $30 million has been set aside to make transit service on regional buses fare-free, meaning you could hop on one of the state's 15 regional transit authorities without spending a dime. But this does not apply to the MBTA. Sad. 

🤑 No more playing Powerball at just the gas station. The budget calls for allowing the lottery to move online in Mass. for the first time, something advocates have been pushing for since casinos and online sports betting rolled out in Mass. Lottery sales are projected to bring in $100 million next year, which would partly be used to fund grants for child care providers. Worth noting: This spending plan would also raise the age to 21 for anyone buying online lottery products, and would prohibit predatory advertising to minors.

🥪 Free school lunch for kiddos. Lawmakers are hoping to run this program back, setting aside $170 million to fund free school meals for every public school student. Shoutout to the millionaire’s tax for funding help!

💔 (Not enough) funding for Mass.’ emergency shelter system. $500 million would be dedicated to the state’s strained emergency shelter system, which is somehow still $400 million short of the $915 million Healey’s admin has said it’d need to stay afloat.

🤔 What’s next? The clock has already started on Healey’s 10-day response window, meaning she has until July 28 to review the bill, veto/reduce specific line items, and/or send provisions back to the Legislature with amendments, if she wants. Stay tuned!

🗳️ The 2024 Presidential race deserves its own reality show. We apologize for interrupting your local news roundup with another national headline, but the news cycle had other plans. ICYMI: President Biden officially dropped out of the Presidential race and endorsed VP Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. As expected, local Democratic officials followed the news with big claps for Biden, with Gov. Maura Healey praising his decision as the “ultimate example of putting the country first.” One thing we can all agree on: We’re ready for the coconut tree memes. 

🔌 It was a rough day to be a business, hospital, or airport. If you were trying to fly out of Logan on Friday, we hope your blood pressure is OK. A tech outage brought computer systems and businesses across the globe to a screeching halt, grounding flights and knocking banks and hospital systems offline. Here in Mass., multiple hospitals canceled non-urgent procedures, the RMV canceled appointments, and Logan saw several delays and cancellations. Quite literally a to-do list nightmare.

🚇 Wake me up when the September Red Line shutdown ends. The MBTA’s Red Line train of bad news keeps on chugging as the agency announced a 24-day service shutdown between JFK/UMass and Braintree stations from Sept. 6-29. A big shutdown hopefully = a big takedown of slow zones; MBTA crews will work to repair 18 miles of track and remove over 20 speed restrictions, improving round-trip Braintree branch travel times by as much as 24 minutes. Alternate shuttle bus plans should drop soon, so we’ll keep you posted. 

🍿 Netflix jumps into the Karen Read fray. If you — like the rest of the Commonwealth — have been consumed by the Karen Read murder trial, Netflix is dangling another carrot. The streaming service announced a three-part docu series focused on the trial and the death of Boston cop John O'Keefe. There’s no release date yet, which makes total sense given the legal saga is ongoing. Read is due back in court today, at which point the judge could set a new trial date.

🦪 Make your trek into the office worth it. Friendly reminder that Bostonia Public House is offering $1 oysters and shrimp cocktail, along with $3 burger sliders at the bar every Monday through Friday from 3 to 6 p.m.

😂 Go to therapy … kinda. The “My Therapist Knows Your Name” comedy show is in Boston on Tuesday. The hosts will sort through things they should probably be talking about in therapy instead of using as stand-up material. 

😋 Sample some of the best food in Boston. The 28th annual “Taste of Eastie” charity dining event is back in action Tuesday, where attendees can snack on East Boston’s local cuisine.

🏃 Crown yourself King of Castle Island. The Castle Island Brewery 10K unsanctioned road race kicks off Thursday at 6:30 p.m. sharp, starting with a scenic route around Castle Island and ending with a cool drink. 

🛼 Lace up your skates … or dancing shoes. The Rollerama at Kendall Square’s weekly DJ sets start Thursday night, where you can roller skate and groove through a mix of eras and genres. 

🇺🇸 Start practicing your “USA” chants. Because the 2024 Paris Olympics kick off this week! MIT Open Space Programming is hosting an Opening Ceremony watch party Friday night, complete with free snacks.

🚦 Let your relationship status be known. That’s the plan at The Greatest Bar’s stop light party on Friday, where a red glow stick necklace lets others know you’re taken, a yellow one means “it’s complicated,” and green = you’re single and ready to mingle. 

🎨 Paint and sip with Taylor Swift. On Friday, enter the Paint Lounge at Boston Public Market for a night of painting Taylor Swift designs, guided paint lessons, and local drinks from the Pine Bar.

If we learned anything from Noah’s Kahan’s performances at Fenway last week, it’s that we made the right guy famous. 

Kahan was oozing with gratitude during his two-night, sold-out stint at the ballpark on Thursday and Friday, taking every available moment to express how much it meant to him. 

“This is the most unbelievable thing that’s ever happened in my entire life. Thank you so much,” he said Friday night. “I’ll be telling my grandchildren about these last two nights.”

But perhaps the moment that reduced everyone to a puddle of tears was when Kahan’s family joined the stage during the “Stick Season” finale — jumping and dancing and truly just basking in the joy of it all. No seriously, this video of them coming on stage might make you cry. 

We have truly never seen a mother more proud of her son. 

— Written by Emily Schario

👀 Thanks for reading! Mom, if you’re reading this, I expect this same energy when I win my first Emmy.

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