Officials across the country, including in some Massachusetts cities, are worried about upticks in COVID-19 cases.
It's been just over a month since Governor Charlie Baker lifted the COVID-19 state of emergency.
But the number of cases are increasing across most of the state — not near the levels we saw before, but enough that Baker was asked about it publicly. He blamed Fourth of July gatherings.
In California, Los Angeles County reimposed a mask mandate.
Matt Murphy of the State House News Service joins us to talk about whether there's anything like that being discussed in Massachusetts.
Matt Murphy, State House News Service: We have not heard talk of a statewide return to any of the restrictions that we got used to during the year — plus the pandemic-mandated masks, the business closures — or anything like that. But there has been a slight uptick in case counts the governor attributed to the holidays.
But if you go out and about, you can see people gathering in large crowds everywhere you go, enjoying the summer, largely outdoors. I think depending on where you are, we may start to see some cities or towns take steps if they are experiencing surges in cases.
Provincetown is one area where they had a number of "breakthrough" cases — people that had been vaccinated came down with the virus. They brought in mobile testing sites all last week for people to avail themselves of that if exhibiting symptoms, to try and control that before it really started to spread more through the community.
I think that is more of what you're likely to see in places where there are higher numbers: people stepping up the vaccination campaigns, the public awareness campaigns, encouraging people to get tested.
And you may even see businesses or other groups start to ask people to wear masks indoors, especially if they are not vaccinated.
A commission tasked with revising the state seal and motto meets for the first time Monday. Some argue the seal disparages Native Americans. Can you describe the state seal, and talk about what might be a challenge for the group in their upcoming work?
The state seal, which is also part of the state flag, depicts the image of a Native American on a blue backdrop with one star. Above that image is sort of what can best be described as a floating arm that is believed to be a colonial arm carrying a broadsword that almost appears to be coming down above the head of the Native American figure.
This has caused some controversy in the past. There are Native American groups who do not appreciate the imagery that is on this state seal and on the state flag, and all the government insignias.
The law that Governor Baker signed in early 2021 created a commission to review this and consider proposed changes to the state seal. They do face, by this law, an October 1 deadline to come up with possible alternatives to the state seal, which at this point is they are just getting started with this work, seems a real tall task, a heavy lift for this commission.
We expect to hear them talk about some of these challenges, including other commitments of lawmakers and public officials on this board. And we may see them attempt a request to change the timeline. But this commission is starting this week and it will be interesting to see where they take it.
Late last week, the governor signed a budget for the fiscal year that began on July 1. He did veto some items. He cut $3.5 million in funding for regional transit agencies (RTAs) like those serving western Massachusetts. Baker pointed in part to the hundreds of millions of dollars the agencies have received from federal relief bills. How do you see this playing out?
By and large, the governor did not veto very much — $7.9 million in spending. He also sent back some of the excess revenue that the Legislature proposed to put into a reserve for schools and to pay into the pension fund, hundreds of millions of dollars.
The governor and the Legislature are working separately, and side by side, on figuring out how to spend billions in federal relief aid.
I think the governor foresees a lot of this going to transportation, perhaps to RTAs. But I would not be surprised to see the Legislature overturn some of these vetoes, particularly the ones you just mentioned.
There's a lot of pushback to some of those cuts from lawmakers just days after the governor vetoed those. So I would look for some votes in the Legislature in the next week, or two weeks, to perhaps reverse some of those cuts.
