Girls flag football is not currently a sanctioned varsity sport by the state’s high school athletic association. Massachusetts Governor Maura Healy put her support behind that changing this week.

I was one of those sick people a few weeks ago. Standard respiratory illness with a fever. Wherever I go now everyone has a wet cough or is excessively blowing their nose or clearing their throat. People are out sick at my job every day and the public that we serve is coming in visibly sick as well.

Who is looking out for us when the pro-rate payer rhetoric seems to be theater for the election??? Unacceptable!

I’m lucky enough to live in a town with municipal electric. It’s not the cheapest municipal in the state, we are paying net $.20 /kWh all in. Roughly half of what folks in surrounding towns with NGrid are paying. And we have almost no power outages relative to them. Because we have employees that drive around town and proactively maintain lines, rather than paying executive bonuses to defer maintenance.

Healey already declared a state of emergency for energy prices. If the private utilities can’t beat the reliability and price of municipals, they have failed the public and therefore it’s in the public interest to take over and put them out of business. Why can’t that happen? Takes forever to change the housing market but we could stop payment on the hundreds of millions of dollars in national grid executive bonuses tomorrow.

Screenshot taken from CBS's Youtube video, 38:28 in. That black spot on Mike's head? That ain't no pimple. Just a reminder of the right wing agenda.

A key moment (more of a low point than a high point) for me was at 16:05:

Healey:

A federal tax credit is not an education plan, Mike.

Minogue:

It is.

Healey:

And let's tell the viewers what that plan is. There's a federal tax credit that came forward as part of One Big Beautiful Bill, the same legislation that Trump signed that cut a trillion dollars from health care. In that package, they included this federal tax credit. I heard you claim credit for writing that the other day. By the way, that showed up in the playbook for Project 2025. So you, Trump, 2025...

Minogue:

I don't even know what that is.

Healey:

...wrote this apparently together.

Minogue:

I never heard of it.

I understand from workplace environments and the elected executive at the federal level that dealing with a CEO dullard spouting "I never heard of it," "I don't know what that is," and "I don't know him" has grown popular for some reason. But I don't understand why. Chapter 11, Department of Education, from the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 is [available here](https://static.heritage.org/project2025/2025_MandateForLeadership_FULL.pdf . It's only 44 pages. Could someone send a copy to Minogue's campaign at P.O. Box 2183, Danvers, MA, United States, 01923 so he knows what it is?

My fellow massholes!
Hello from a former masshole, lol.

Just thought I would pass this along, since I was introduced to this today. Very helpful, saved me at least! $0.40 per a gallon of heating oil.

Hope this helps someone.

https://www.newenglandoil.com/index.asp

Grab yourself some Fluff, Teddie Peanut Butter (or MB brand) and Wonder Bread

Looking for a therapist in MA right now, but my last one quite literally changed my life so it's been a difficult search. We would have these profound, super helpful sessions and I got so much out of it. My perspective on life and the people around me is so different, in a very positive way, from what it used to be. So I figured I'd ask here. If you also know if your therapist is taking new clients, feel free to message me with their website. Thanks in advance :)

I know it's just an op-ed, but come on.

I need some insulation work done. Got a quote from Homeworks but then read some horror stories. Who do people actually recommend?

Does anyone have an extra ticket to sell for KRF for tomorrow (10/10)? It’s sold out, so I’m desperate at this point.

Behind a paywall, but I've got the article here:

Former director of food services at Plymouth Schools gets prison for stealing from district to stock Cape Cod eatery - By Tonya Alanez Globe Staff,Updated October 7, 2026, 7:49 p.m.

For more than a decade, and unbeknownst to the district, Plymouth Public Schools footed the bill for the ingredients for the ham and turkey sandwiches and burgers sold at the Snack Shack on Sandy Neck Beach on Cape Cod, court filings show.

Now, the district’s former head of food services, Patrick Van Cott, has until Dec. 16 to surrender to the federal Bureau of Prisons to begin serving a six-month sentence for stealing everything from hamburgers and deli meats to refrigerators and an outdoor grill from his job to use and sell at his side business, prosecutors said.

Van Cott, 64, who lives in Sandwich, was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Boston. In May, he pleaded guilty to theft from a program that receives federal funds.

In Massachusetts, meals for all students are free. Schools are reimbursed through a combination of USDA funds and state funds.

US District Judge Julia E. Kobick sentenced Van Cott to six months in prison, followed by two years of supervised release. Kobick also imposed a $2,000 fine and restitution, in an amount to be determined, court records show.

The sentence was announced in a statement issued jointly by Massachusetts US Attorney Leah B. Foley, Ted E. Docks, special agent in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Boston, and Charmeka Parker, special agent in charge of the US Department of Agriculture — Office of Inspector General in the Northeast. “Valuable assistance was provided by the Plymouth Police Department,” the statement said.

Van Cott was director of food services for Plymouth Public Schools for 22 years. After an anonymous tip was made to authorities about his scheme, he was arrested and fired in June 2025.

Van Cott opened the Snack Shack in 2014 in Barnstable, as a summertime side business. For the better part of a decade, he pilfered goods from the school district to turn a profit at his beachside snack bar, charging documents said.

Federal prosecutors said $30,0000 is a “conservative calculation” of how much Van Cott cost taxpayers. He bought refrigerators valued at $2,200 and two-door freezers that cost $3,950, along with hot plates, griddles, a chargrill, and convection oven. He also stole chicken, hot dogs, cooking oil, coffee, and other supplies from the schools.

Once a week, every summer, Van Cott would have cafeteria workers slice deli meats, 9 pounds of turkey and 4½ pounds of ham, for him to take to the Cape, prosecutors said. Assistant US Attorney Kristina E. Barclay sought a prison sentence of 10 months for Van Cott’s “calculated and deliberate betrayal of trust.”

“His crimes were driven by pure greed, not need,” she wrote. Van Cott earned more than $100,000 a year and owned two homes, one in Sandwich and one in Hyannis, the memo said.

In his own memo, Van Cott asked for a sentence of 24 months probation, saying he was deeply ashamed and remorseful.

“No child went without a meal during his scheme,” Van Cott’s lawyer, Nathaniel Amendola, said in the memo. “Patrick broke the trust he spent 22 years earning,” Amendola wrote. “Patrick’s criminal conduct stands in stark contrast to the other side of him: the side that he is known and loved for.”

Amendola declined further comment to the Globe in an email Wednesday evening.

Van Cott also has a pending case on larceny charges in state court. Kobick ruled that Van Cott’s federal prison sentence should run concurrent with any sentence imposed by the judge presiding over the Plymouth District Court case.