Speaker 1: This is WBZ, Boston's news radio, redefining local.
Speaker 2: News sixty eight degrees in Boston. It's eleven o'clock and
Speaker 2: you've made it to Friday. Thanks for joining us. I'm
Speaker 2: Nicole Davis, and here's what's happening. One of Boston's busiest
Speaker 2: tea stations is set for a major renovation. Here's WBZ
Speaker 2: Sheerry Small.
Speaker 3: We're talking about back Base Station. With eighteen thousand daily riders,
Speaker 3: many say the station feels outdated and downright dirty. The
Speaker 3: MBTA is working to change that with work underway, promising
Speaker 3: new entrances, lighting, seating, signage, and much more. That he says,
Speaker 3: despite the work, the station will stay open with minimal disruption.
Speaker 3: Back Base Station is a key hub for commuter rail,
Speaker 3: the Orange Line and Amtrak. Completion is expected by twenty
Speaker 3: twenty seven. Sherry Small, WBZ Boston's News Radio.
Speaker 2: It's eleven o one and we're getting more details today
Speaker 2: about five finances in the second Karen Reed murder trial.
Speaker 2: Hank Brennan, the special prosecutor hired by the Commonwealth, ended
Speaker 2: up billing the Norfolk County DA's office five hundred sixty
Speaker 2: six thousand dollars for his work. That works out if
Speaker 2: you do the math to about two hundred and fifty
Speaker 2: dollars an hour for more than twenty two hundred hours.
Speaker 2: For context, DA Michael Morrissey is paid two hundred twenty
Speaker 2: three thousand dollars annually.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 2: Document show Brennan was first contracted for about seventy five
Speaker 2: thousand dollars. The contract was changed up several times, most
Speaker 2: recently Back in April. Reid was acquitted of most of
Speaker 2: the charges against her in the death of her boyfriend
Speaker 2: John O'Keefe, but was convicted of OUI. The State Department
Speaker 2: today is firing more than thirteen hundred employees. It's all
Speaker 2: part of a massive reorganization. Here's the aps Sacermcgoney.
Speaker 1: Layoff notices are going to both civil servants and foreign
Speaker 1: service officers assigned in the US. They'll have sixty to
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty days before formally losing their jobs.
Speaker 1: The administration announced the plan earlier this year year, and
Speaker 1: the Supreme Court recently cleared the way for layoffs to start.
Speaker 1: Secretary of State Marco Rubio says it's a bid to
Speaker 1: make the department more efficient and nimble.
Speaker 4: The reduction of force is a consequence of the reorg
Speaker 4: It's not a consequence of getting trying to get rid
Speaker 4: of people.
Speaker 2: But if you've closed the bureau, you don't need those positions.
Speaker 1: Critics say the reorganization will hurt America's global leadership and
Speaker 1: ability to counter threats abroad. Saga Magani Washington.
Speaker 2: President Trump and the First Lady are out to Central
Speaker 2: Texas today, the search, of course continuing there for the
Speaker 2: people still missing after those devastating flash floods. Here's ABC's
Speaker 2: Enter Dinburg.
Speaker 5: Brew's carefully going through debris piles by hand, using drones
Speaker 5: and cadaver dogs to help locate the one hundred and
Speaker 5: sixty six people still missing, the death toll now reaching
Speaker 5: at least one hundred and twenty one. Local officials have
Speaker 5: come under fire for their response to the flooding, amid
Speaker 5: questions about whether they could have done more to warn people.
Speaker 5: President Trump saying in an interview that he doesn't blame
Speaker 5: local officials for what happened, but express support for building
Speaker 5: an alert system. Authorities now promising a review of the
Speaker 5: entire emergency response.
Speaker 2: As ABC's Andrew denber. Meantime, Texas Governor Greg Abbott has
Speaker 2: requested several more counties be added to President Trump's major
Speaker 2: disaster declaration. For the rest of the afternoon, we will
Speaker 2: start to see the sun peeking through a bit more,
Speaker 2: temperatures getting up to about seventy five on the coast,
Speaker 2: and it may be eighty five or so if you're
Speaker 2: further inland away from the water. For tonight, partly cloudy early,
Speaker 2: but then more clouds will move in through the overnight,
Speaker 2: with a lone near sixty five for Tomorrow and Sunday.
Speaker 2: Both days looking pretty good when it comes to rain,
Speaker 2: shouldn't have any. It will be a little cooler on
Speaker 2: the coast for both days. Tomorrow high near seventy five
Speaker 2: in Boston eighty five inland, and then Sunday more clouds
Speaker 2: than sun, with a high year eighty in Boston and
Speaker 2: eighty five inland. Monday could have some storms in the
Speaker 2: afternoon and a high year eighty five seventy two in Fitchburg.
Speaker 2: Right now north of Boston, it is sixty nine in
Speaker 2: northad and over south of Boston, we're at sixty six
Speaker 2: in Braintree, and in Boston at eleven oh five it
Speaker 2: is mostly cloudy and sixty eight. Change is coming over
Speaker 2: at the Department of Health and Human Services. The Heally
Speaker 2: administration announcing today that HHS Secretary Kate Walsh is stepping down.
Speaker 2: She'll be replaced by Under Secretary doctor Kiyami Mohanya starting
Speaker 2: on Monday.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: Walsh has headed AHHS for just over two years and
Speaker 2: navigated the state through the collapse of Stewart Healthcare. Governor
Speaker 2: Healey is appointing doctor Mahanya to take over on a
Speaker 2: permanent and not interim basis. Health experts are raising new
Speaker 2: concerns about a new move from the Trump administration, as
Speaker 2: we hear from CBS's Steve Kathan.
Speaker 4: Health Secretary Kennedy canceled a meeting this week of a
Speaker 4: federal task force that helps determine which preventive health measures
Speaker 4: will be covered fully by insurance companies. The sixteen member
Speaker 4: panel of doctors and other health experts plays a key
Speaker 4: role in determining whether millions are eligible for services like screenings.
Speaker 4: Critics have complained it had a woke ideology, but others
Speaker 4: now warned those decisions could be politicized. Last month, Kennedy
Speaker 4: fired seventeen members of the Advisory Committee on Vaccines, appointing
Speaker 4: eight people to succeed them. Steve Kaith and CBS News.
Speaker 2: And lawmakers on Beacon Hill are considering a bill recently
Speaker 2: filed by Governor Moore at Heeley that, if passed, could
Speaker 2: make big changes to pediatric vaccine policies in the Bay State.
Speaker 2: It would give the state's Public Health Commissioner, who right
Speaker 2: now is Robbie Goldstein, the power to determine what routine
Speaker 2: childhood immunizations are for all kids under nineteen. Goldstein and
Speaker 2: other officials say normally they would work with the Federal
Speaker 2: Vaccine Panel, but since Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior
Speaker 2: gutted that panel, they are concerned some changes could be
Speaker 2: coming that could negatively impact immunizations in Massachusetts. This week,
Speaker 2: Harvard has changed up its web presence the school, removing
Speaker 2: websites for offices connected to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
Speaker 6: The sides We're taken down this week as Harvard launched
Speaker 6: a new office Raccademic, Culture and Community. Faculty members were
Speaker 6: informed of the change in an email. It said the
Speaker 6: office is part of an ongoing effort to make sure
Speaker 6: all members of the community are connected, supported, and empowered
Speaker 6: to contribute. The move comes as the Trump administration has
Speaker 6: launched an effort to revoke Harvard's accreditation. I'm Tammy Trujillo.
Speaker 2: You are now in maluk For news updates throughout the day,
Speaker 2: and listen to w b Z Radio on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2: I'm Nicole Davis. W b LE, Boston's news radio