With public smoking more frowned upon than ever, some Beacon Hill lawmakers and their allies want to take what they believe is the logical next step by banning the next generation of Bay Staters from buying tobacco and nicotine products.
“Nicotine and tobacco products are highly addictive and the use of these products increases the risk of lung cancer, heart disease, stroke and other illnesses,” Sen. Jason Lewis, D-5th Middlesex, who’s shepherding a
ban bill
through the upper chamber,
said in a statement
.
Lewis’s bill, along with a
companion House proposal
sponsored by Reps. Tommy Vitolo, D-15th Norfolk,
got an airing
(pun entirely intended) before the Legislature’s
Joint Committee on Public Health
last week.
As it’s currently written, the legislation would bar anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2006, from buying cigarettes or
nicotine pouches
, such as Zyn.
That cohort would turn 21 in 2027, the current legal age in Massachusetts,
State House News Service
reported.
People born before 2006 who already use such products would still be able to buy them, the wire service reported.
Isabel Tashie, a rising senior at Needham High School, told lawmakers that she knows “countless peers and friends who use nicotine pouches and e-cigarettes.”
Some of her friends began using tobacco products as early as 12 years old. Tashie, a member of the anti-tobacco organization,
The 84 Movement
, a project of the state Department of Public Health, told lawmakers, according to the wire service.
The advocacy group,
created in 2007
, takes its name from the 84% of Bay State high schoolers who didn’t smoke when the organization launched,
according to its website
.
As of 2023, “97% of [Massachusetts] high school youth do NOT smoke cigarettes, and 84% do NOT vape,” the advocacy group asserted.
The debate on Beacon Hill comes even as municipalities across the state take matters into their own hands.
In 2020, Vittolo’s hometown of Brookline became the first municipality in the state to ban the sale of nicotine products to people born after Jan. 1, 2000. Local officials
also fended off a court challenge
.
Other communities, such as Malden, Melrose, Reading, Stoneham, Wakefield and Winchester, have followed suit.
But not everyone is on board, including one person who told lawmakers he found it ironic that the state allows recreational marijuana use for people aged 21 and older, but is looking to stub out tobacco use.
“You champion bodily autonomy and harm reduction on one side and then turn around and criminalize nicotine,” Alexander Chouvelon told lawmakers, according to the wire service. “It’s inconsistent, it’s ideological, and it sends a mixed message.”
It’s also Beacon Hill, which means it’s completely on-brand.
Following
Gov. Maura Healey’s lead
, the majority-Democrat state House has imposed a temporary hiring freeze.
“Given federal economic uncertainty, effective today, the House of Representatives is instituting a hiring freeze, with the exception of previously approved positions and backfills for legislative aides who are the sole aides to their member,” Katherine Palmer, the House’s human resources director, wrote in a message to lawmakers,
State House News Service reported
.
There is no similar freeze on the other side of the State House, a spokesperson for Senate President Karen E. Spilka, D-Middlesex/Norfolk, told the wire service.
There’s always been an intersection between faith and politics.
With images of deportations and immigration raids on their parishioners’ TV screens nightly, Catholic clergy nationwide haven’t been shy about talking about it from the pulpit.
Discussions about immigration outpaced discussions of any other political issue — including abortion, health care, hunger and the environment — according
to new research by experts at UMass Boston
.
That shouldn’t be too much of a surprise, according to UMass Boston sociology professor Evan Stewart and Ph.D. candidate Diane Beckman, since it’s right in line with
Catholic social teaching
.
And many of those same clergy have “called for
compassion and care for migrants
and the need to
uphold human dignity
and due process, regardless of someone’s
immigration status
,“ they wrote in an analysis published by The Conversation,
a nonprofit and nonpartisan public affairs website
.
And based on 2022 data — before the dawning of Trump 2.0, Catholic clergy talked about the issue more than other denominations when they talked politics from the pulpit, the analysis found.
That made extrapolating to the current climate a challenge. But some patterns did emerge.
“We did find that Catholic leaders of congregations where the majority of worshipers are Hispanic were much more likely to talk about immigration, compared with leaders of non-Catholic Hispanic congregations and Catholic leaders of mostly white congregations,” Stewart and Beckman wrote. “Because Hispanic communities in the U.S.
are facing the brunt of the immigration crackdown
, this finding shows that Catholic leaders have been addressing the needs of their communities.”
So what’s next?
Beckman is “furthering this research by conducting interviews with Catholics in Greater Boston. By asking church members to talk through their attitudes toward immigrants, we can learn more about how people make sense of complicated ethical questions,” they wrote.
So far, the 2026 midterm contests aren’t terribly dramatic for the Bay State’s all-Democrat U.S. House delegation. But a lack of action doesn’t mean they get a pass on campaign fundraising requirements.
The numbers are in for all nine incumbent members of the House delegation.
And it’s fair to say that they’re mostly swimming in cash like Uncle Scrooge McDuck used to backstroke through piles of gold coins in those old Disney cartoons.
Here’s a look, by the numbers, at the totals through June 30, based on U.S. Federal Elections Commission data.
U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, D-1st District:
Neal, of Springfield, is the top Democrat on the budget-writing House Ways & Means Committee. And that means he should be able to raise a ton of cash — and he didn’t disappoint. He had $3.9 million on hand at the end of June, after reporting total receipts of $782,495 and disbursements totaling $764,048,
FEC records
showed.
U.S Rep. James P. McGovern, D-2nd District:
The Worcester-area lawmaker had $321,660 on hand as of the end of June, according to his FEC filings. McGovern had total receipts of $166,719 and disbursements totaling $239,222,
according to his FEC filing
.
U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan, D-3rd District:
Trahan, of Lowell, had $1.72 million in her campaign account at the end of June,
her FEC filing showed
. She reported total receipts of $550,454 and disbursements that clocked in at $278,193.
U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-4th District:
The Newton lawmaker, frequently mentioned as a 2026 U.S. Senate contender, was sitting on an impressive $5.8 million at the end of June, his FEC filing showed. He reported receipts of $1.16 million and total disbursements of $277,436,
records showed
.
U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark, D-5th District:
As the No. 2 Democrat in the House, one of Clark’s big jobs is to raise big bucks that she then showers on other Democrats. She had $1.7 million in her campaign account at the end of June,
her FEC filing showed
.
Clark reported total receipts of $1.4 million for the first six months of the year and disbursements of $1.08 million, according to her campaign filing.
U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-6th District:
Moulton, of Salem, had nearly $2.2 million in his campaign coffers through the end of June,
his FEC filing showed
. The onetime White House hopeful had receipts of $748,595 and disbursements that totaled $406,544, records showed.
Moulton picked up a primary challenger last week: Bethany Andres-Beck, a software engineer and Democratic activist, has thrown her hat into the ring,
The Boston Globe reported
.
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-7th District:
Pressley, of Boston, had $125,104 on hand at the end of June. She reported receipts of $364,536 and disbursements of $357,653,
her FEC filing showed
.
U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-8th District:
Lynch, of South Boston, who was recently passed over for a top leadership post, had $1.06 million on hand at the end of June, according to
his FEC filing
, with receipts totaling $214,249 and disbursements of $242,129.
Plot twist:
Patrick Roath, 38, an attorney and former Patrick administration aide
who’s also running for the seat
, outraised Lynch, taking in a total of $287,691 through the end of June,
records showed
.
Roath reported total disbursements of $64,086 and had $223,605 in his campaign account at the end of the most recent reporting period.
U.S. Rep. William Keating, D-9th District:
The South Shore and Cape and Islands lawmaker had $632,660 in his campaign coffers through the end of June,
FEC records showed
. He reported receipts of $140,630 and disbursements totaling $173,838, according to his campaign filing.
“America has never been a country that gets it all right. We’ve always been a country that believes that we might.”
— U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-6th District, makes the pitch for public service during an appearance
before the New England Council in Boston
last week.
Chicopee native announces candidacy for at-large city councilor position
Mass. Gov Healey’s popularity gets a bump in new poll as 2026 campaign heats up
University Staff Association employees demand fair contracts from UMass
Greater Boston lawmaker arrested for OUI near State House
Boston housing crisis 2025: How Wu and Kraft plan to tackle affordability
Quelle dommage: Republicans pounce on Healey’s revelation she was in France
Beachy foodies rejoice:
The 13th Annual Cape Cod Food Truck & Craft Beverage Festival returns to the Cape Cod Fairgrounds on Saturday, Aug. 16.
General admission runs $5 online in advance to
$10 at the gate. There are also package deals whose prices rise accordingly depending on how boozy you want to get. Orders for those are online only.
You can grab your
tickets and find more info here
.
Aussie EDM legends Rufus du Sol play the XFinity Center in Mansfield on July 27 (
tickets and more info here
). Here’s
a whole playlist of trancey/dancey goodness
from the band to get you through your Monday morning.
Actor/author/midlife male style icon Stanley Tucci cements his National Treasure status with …
stay with me now
…
an elevated tuna melt recipe
that takes the diner staple to a sublime height.
I’m not going to give too much away here, but I’ll just say the cheese choice is key. Click through
to this Food and Wine story
to learn more. And, of course,
bon appétit
.
That’s it for today. As always, tips, comments and questions can be sent to [email protected]. Have a good week, friends.
