Embracing nuclear power? In Massachusetts?

This might be the surprise story of the week in Massachusetts: State officials in this bluest of blue states are embracing nuclear energy as a tool to fight climate change. It’s right there in the new climate bill signed into law this past week by Gov. Maura Healey. The Globe’s Jon Chesto explains. …. Oliver Stone, take a bow. His movie “Nuclear Now” has helped make it politically safe for some (though not all) environmentalists to support what was unthinkable only a few years ago.  

Needham set to revert back to anti-housing norm

You knew it was too good to be true. A month after Needham town-meeting voters approved a new transit-oriented housing plan that could, theoretically, lead to construction of thousands of new housing units in town, opponents have gathered enough signatures to force a repeal referendum, as CB’s Scott Van Voorhis reports. … A similar housing plan in Milton was rejected by voters earlier this year, as the Globe note. 

Healey outlines changes to shelter program, but not the most needed changes

Gov. Maura Healey is proposing changes to the state’s right-to-shelter programs that are now costing the state more than $1 billion a year. Among the major changes: phasing out the use of costly hotels as shelters and limiting the days people can stay in shelters. … But Healey’s proposals aren’t addressing the main cause for the recent surge in demand for state-funded shelters: migrants. … A shelter program that was first started decades ago to assist the state’s poor, particularly women with children, has somehow morphed into a migrant shelter program as well.

America can laugh again: Anthony Weiner mulls a comeback 

There really is a tabloid god in the sky. Yes, former congressman and convicted pervert Anthony Weiner is out of prison and now mulling a possible run for a City Council seat in NY. … The headline on the New Republic’s Weiner story: “Nobody Asked For This: An Anthony Weiner Political Comeback.” The subhead: “My dude, now is just not the time for this!”… Fyi: the NY Post had the story a few weeks ago. Strangely, no wiener jokes in the headline or lede.

Trump’s latest picks: Not so awful

There’s still an unconventional air to most of the cabinet nominees that Donald Trump announced yesterday – including nominees for U.S. treasurer and Labor secretary and FDA/CDC. But they’re not nearly as awful as the earlier Gaetz (now gone), RFK Jr., Gabbi, and Hegseth picks. I guess that’s a little encouraging, somewhat. … 

‘Trump Detachment Syndrome’

I know of two anti-Trump friends who went through exactly what Beth Teitell describes in her great Globe story about “acute-onset Trump Detachment Syndrome.” The syndrome’s immediate post-election symptoms: “not watching, listening to, reading about, or discussing you-know-who. It’s perhaps the final, fatal, stage of Trump Derangement Syndrome.” … It’s a form of shock that lasts about a week. 

Dems finally discover effective way to oppose Trump: silence

As the NYT noted the other day, anti-Trumpers are only now realizing that “protests, petitions, hashtag campaigns or other tools of mass dissent” aren’t effective against Trump.  But Senate Democrats have recently discovered there’s one highly effective tool to oppose Trump: shutting up while he’s in the process of screwing up. The NYT’s Carl Hulse explains.

One illegal strike down, two illegal strikes to go 

They’ve struck a deal to end the illegal teachers strike in Gloucester. Now there’s only two ongoing illegal teacher strikes in Massachusetts, in Beverly and Marblehead.