Fit to print

Monday the 21st. If it seems like a long day, that’s because it is.

Boston to New York in an hour and a half and a train to Revere Beach. Now that’s what I call infrastructure.

The mayor of New Bedford believes that every city needs a functioning local newspaper. So he helped to create one – with a little help. Welcome to the New Bedford Light, a non-profit online paper not driven by click-throughs.

The Verge has a few good TV deals for Prime Day.

Some Catholic bishops are cautioning the president on abortion rights, appearing to threaten his ability to take communion. Karen Tumulty provides a history lesson on mixing politics and religion. In any case, this won’t go anywhere.

And running an airline is hard. Booking a flight on American this weekend was even harder.

Where credit is due

Today is Sunday. Jaws was released 46 years ago today.

Google and Apple are beginning to restrict how advertisers track us on the Internet. In response, advertisers are trying to find new ways to track us. Get ready for an arms race.

Following up on yesterday’s rant about the Globe and it’s seeming aversion to crime reporting, the paper did cover two crime related stories today, albeit via police press releases. The first involved an arrest for gun possession and the other a human trafficking case. Nice to see them at least paying attention.

ItalyGate is back in the news. It’s pretty wacky stuff but it made it to the desk of the former president’s Chief of Staff. How does something like that even happen?

When a company gets hit with a ransomware attack, and pays to get its data back, you would assume that they would change their security protocols. Many do, but not always in ways that are effective. In fact, a Cybereason Global Ransomware study indicates that 80% of companies that go through this process get hit a second time. Pretty discouraging.

And I love dogs, probably more than the next guy. Kitt did his job and was a good boy. But this is a bit over the top.

From the ivory tower

Good morning Saturday. The word of the day is abrupt.

The Wall Street Journal went to the beach. “Six pack abs, red Solo cups, thongs-a-plenty.” Where could it be? Ipanema? Diamond Head? Bondi? Nope, it was M Street beach.

The Globe doesn’t think people are interested in good police work so they don’t report on it. Maybe they’re right, maybe people only want to read the bad stories about the police and don’t want to know about crime around them. But Live Boston is out there covering this stuff. Universal Hub also keeps an eye on crime. One important takeaway is that guns are way too common on the streets and in the hands of young people.

MassNotify is finally up and running. But some Android users are complaining that the app is installing itself without user permission or knowledge. Weird.

Mayoral candidates are airing their ideas for fixing the problems of the Methadone Mile, which was toured by Essaibi-George and a globe photographer. What a mess. It looks like the Long Island bridge is no longer a viable solution. Most candidates are focused on increasing services. Duh. Michelle Wu apparently wants to spread the disfunction out across the city. That might not a great idea for winning over neighborhood voters.

And the budget is back before the City Council, just in time for July 1st.

Feeding time

Friday. It’s a wrap.

We’re number two! (Drats! Beaten by New Jersey.)

Sometimes a windfall comes with headaches. The Governor wants to divvy up $5 billion in federal assistance with the legislature. Legislators want it all. Baker is ready to start spending. He’s identified a number of critical needs that can be addressed quickly. Lawmakers want to be more “deliberate” with the money, spending it over time. Meanwhile, groups who haven’t been targeted for any of the funds are already complaining.

One password. That’s all that was protecting some of New York’s most confidential data.

I thought we had completely decoded the human genome. I was wrong. Actually, there was about 8% of our DNA that scientists put aside because it was extra challenging to decode and it wasn’t thought to be all that important. Now they’ve completed that last bit and scientists are sorting through it with the hope of finding something interesting.

And you could do worse than accepting book recommendations from David Deutsch.

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Big Brother in motion

It’s Thursday. Don’t forget to eat your vegetables.

James Aloisi says it’s time to lose the masks on public transportation.

The Globe reports on couple of local tech companies that are joining up to track driver behavior for insurance companies. “Both companies’ core products are apps on smartphones that use the sensors in the phones to collect data about how people are driving, such as whether they are speeding, frequently braking hard, or picking up their phones to text when they should be paying attention to the road.” Uh-oh. Some people are going to get a big premium hike.

Brian Krebs tells the strange tale of Alla Witte, a 55 year old mother of two who was writing the code for a ransomware gang. A real-life Walter White.

New polling for Boston’s mayoral race shows the power of incumbency. Kim Janey now leads slightly over Michelle Wu. Then again, another poll puts Essaibi George in the lead. So it’s really too early to tell. But the front runners are at least starting to come into focus. Adam Gaffin rounds up other election news.

And advertisers want into your dreams. You might want to move that smart speaker out of the bedroom.