A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday. 

Headline: “A Forceful Rebuke: Democrats Sweep Congress, Delivering Blow to Republicans” New York Times, November 5, 2026. This was the front page of the Times two days after the election. (The edition on the day after was out too early to reflect any election results). This front page had two map graphics that used blue and red coloring to depict the shift in Congress. Then there were photos of the seven new Democratic Senators who won seats held by Republicans. Finally, there were four articles with headlines like, “A Signal Trump’s Era is Starting Its Twilight” by Peter Baker; “Vance Cites War – Johnson to Step Back” by Catie Edmondson (who wrote a stellar article about the 2017 fight over the location of Lowell High when she was a summer intern at the Boston Globe); “Seismic Change As Texas Breaks Grasp of GOP”; and a “news analysis” piece by Carl Hulse, “Congress to Dust Off Role as Check on the President.” 

Editorial: “Immigrants, long part of Lynn’s fabric, now feel under siege” Boston Globe, October 26, 2026 – This is another in the Globe’s series on Gateway Cities in Massachusetts. While the focus of the Lowell article a few weeks ago was the renovation of a downtown office building into housing, this Lynn article is all about how the federal government’s immigration policy is disrupting the lives of so many of that city’s residents. It cites many examples of longtime residents who have established businesses, or work regular jobs in support of their spouses and children here in Massachusetts, who have been snatched off the streets and disappeared, leaving their businesses to founder and their families to spiral into crisis. The city is providing what support it can, but it seems that is only marginally effective and often just triages the disaster that has befallen these families. 

Article: “Last-ditch effort to save Flock cameras in Providence” by Steph Machado, Boston Globe, October 31, 2026. There are 60 Flock cameras in Providence, Rhode Island, and the city’s police force say they are critical in solving crimes. However, the incoming mayor and city councilors are intent on ridding the city of the cameras. It seems the conflict in Providence mirrors that in Lowell with the two sides, the police and their political supporters versus those opposed to this data collection, each addressing a different issue. The police and their supporters say the strict policies they have enacted regarding access protects against abuse of the system, whereas others – like me – say that if your data resides on the Flock servers (which it does) or if you share your data with another department (which Lowell and Providence both do), you don’t really control “your data” because all those other points of access create a backdoor into your data. And this is not an abstract concern because the federal government in power now has demonstrated again and again that it will use whatever tools it has to terrorize immigrant communities and political opponents. 

Article: “Kennedy Backs Off Plan to Ban an Opioid: Allowing Some Kratom After Push for Donor” by Christina Jewett, New York Times, November 1, 2026. A couple of years ago a Lowell resident appeared before the City Council and urged the council to ban the sale of kratom in the city. I had never heard of kratom before that, but learned it was an unregulated drug that appeared in large quantities in some energy drinks sold at gas stations and convenience stores. The petitioner was the mother of a young man who had died as a result of ingesting kratom. So this past week when I saw this article on the front page of the Times, it grabbed my attention. The story explains that following the deaths of dozens of people who consumed kratom, the federal government, by Health Secretary Robert Kennedy, decided to ban the sale of kratom. That caused a guy who owns a company that sells a lot of energy drinks that include kratom to donate $3 million to Republican candidates and get a meeting at the White House. A few days later, Kennedy revoked the new rules and the regulation of kratom was short-lived. 

Obituary: “Craig Symonds, 79, Lauded Military Historian Dies” by Sam Roberts, New York Times, October 30, 2026. I confess to being unaware of Professor Symonds and his books. While I’m sorry he passed away, I’m glad I read his obituary. He was an expert on the history of the U.S. Navy and was a longtime history professor at the Naval Academy. He had twin areas of specialization: The U.S. Navy in World War II, and the U.S. Navy in the Civil War. While I’ve read much about WWII, I recognize that I don’t know much about the Navy in the Civil War. The common understanding is that all the important battles took place on land, but strategically, the Navy and its blockade of the southern states, was critical to the defeat of the rebellion. Similarly, seizing the Mississippi River, including capturing New Orleans in 1862, was primarily a Naval action even though Lowell’s own General Ben Butler had much to do with New Orleans, but it was the Navy who handed it to him.