Michael F. Fitzgerald

14 inches and counting in south #Framingham.

I will never be considered a New Englander by New Englanders. but was just listening to @wbznewsradio.bsky.social meteorologist pronounce Haverhill "have-er-hill."
I found myself saying "have-er-hill? It's HAY-vruhl."
So i have become New England enough for that.

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In this week’s newsletter: A legal win for Big Tobacco in South Korea continues their winning streak against governments seeking payment for the healthcare costs of smoking. Plus, parents of sick infants demand answers from Nestlé over baby formula recall. www.theexamination.org/newsletter

Victor K. McElheny Award for Local and Regional Science Reporting. Deadline Jan. 31.

no entry fee. open to freelance and staff journalists working in any medium, provided the outlet’s primary mission is to serve a local or regional audience. $10,000 prize. ksj.mit.edu/mcelheny-awa...

Just talked with the journalists at the @fayerweatherschool.bsky.social Sun. Their questions were thoughtful and thought-provoking.

It is not every day you could take a photo with a tuskegee airman. Enoch "Woody" Woodhouse was at the martin luther king jr. commemoration event at Saint Paul's AME in Cambridge today. What a joyful, high-energy person.

My enterprise rental car shuttle driver in detroit asked me if I had my phone. Turns out I did not-- it was on the seat of my rental. Just saved me a world of trouble. Thanks, Tom.

Man in fatal stabbing claims self-defense - Cambridge Day Prosecution says the investigation is not yet complete, but acknowledges some corroborating evidence.

I've been a journalist for four decades. Today I covered my first arraignment. New year, new things.

www.cambridgeday.com/2026/01/09/m...

O'Sullivan's was a favorite of my family's when we lived nearby. Looking forward to trying this new restaurant.

at the Cambridge City Council inaugural for 2026, where Sumbul Siddiqui was elected mayor on the second ballot, and Burhan Azeem vice mayor, also on the second ballot.

love this essay by Paul Kvinta. archive.ph/Z1p8N

The FDA Often Doesn’t Test Generic Drugs for Quality Concerns, So ProPublica Did Billions of prescriptions for generic drugs are filled in the U.S. annually. The FDA tests only a few dozen of them every year, its own records show, and it has largely dismissed warnings about contam...

“It comes down to the fact that the FDA is not doing its job,” a retired cardiologist said.

“Everything you are swallowing should be tested — there should be no question about it. You don’t want a bad batch coming to the drugstore.”

YAH: "We're already on the path to terminating the contract. We're going to have to start over in terms of thinking about ALPRs."

"I think where we are is we're terminating the contract."

At Lesley University for tonight's #Harmogeddon #acapella showcase. The music director gets way up for the run through.

This looks like the @bostonglobe.com public health edition. Those stories take up almost the entire front page. A chronicle of a broken system. Even the politics story's really about our health system.

Ballot boxes at the end of election night in Cambridge.
www.cambridgeday.com/2025/11/05/a...

#cambma Municipal Early Voting started on Saturday.

So far less than 1% of registered voters have voted early:
196 on Sat; 163 on Sun, for a total of 359 voters.

(As of July there were 40,725 active voters out of 66,539 registered voters. That's probably gone up but the final numbers aren't in.)

Members of the @cambridgeday.com team talking Election Guide 2025. Marc Levy, @sydneyywisee.bsky.social, Jane Peterson, Julia Carpi and me.

MIT says "Nope! to Trump "college compact" plan. Here's MIT prez Sally Kornbluth: "fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone." Full statement here 👇 orgchart.mit.edu/letters/rega...

Dasgupta wins ‘genius grant’ for creative and effective harm reduction work Dr. Nabarun L. Dasgupta, PhD, MPH ’03, is a 2025 MacArthur Fellow and "genius grant" recipient. The MacArthur Foundation noted Dasgupta, an epidemiologist and

Inspiring to write about @nabarund.bsky.social and the work he's doing that prompted a MacArthur genius grant.
ysph.yale.edu/news-article...

A story about simulpitching Yes, you *can* send the same story pitch to multiple places

noteworthy piece by @wudan.bsky.social on simultaneous pitching for freelancers and why it can no longer be considered verboten. In some cases it still will be, but she makes a good case for it. open.substack.com/pub/thewrite...

Monitoring projects with an impact on the environment Disclose, a French investigative newsroom and NGO, wanted to spot major projects impacting the environment before they slipped past public awareness. Relevant documents were scattered across governmen...

Our team got to work with Disclose, a French NGO, to help them use @documentcloud.org keep tabs on thousands of environmental assessments and other gov reports. Would love to have some US organizations following their lead! www.muckrock.com/news/archive...

AI Can Make You Laugh. But Can It Ever Be Truly Humorous? As people turn to AI for therapy and companionship, some say the models still need to learn the nuances of human humor.

AI can tell a joke. But does it know it's joking? @smjyoti.bsky.social in @undark.org undark.org/2025/07/21/a...

got it, thx.

AI "will perhaps allow a specific type of media executive to squeeze out a few more months of salary." A bracing take on the business case for AI in journalism from @404media.co .

sorry, treating 'what' like any other discussion? The use of AI as an editing tool?

Your Professional Decline Is Coming (Much) Sooner Than You Think Here’s how to make the most of it.

Was scanning @theatlantic.com's newsletter and saw this @arthurbrooks.bsky.social article on how professional decline comes for us sooner than we think. They snuck in a piece first published in 2019. It was still good the 2nd time around. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...