The City Council voted 12-1 today to ask the state legislature and the governor to let Boston increase the tax rate on commercial properties to higher levels than normally allowed over three years as a way to protect homeowners from potentially large property tax rates. Read more.

On both sides of the Charles, people called 911 to report the smell of smoke this morning, as bone-dry brush in greater Boston started flaming overnight. Read more.

In an emergency Zoom meeting this morning, the City Council agreed to hold a public hearing before voting on a proposal to potentially increase taxes on commercial properties over a three-year period to help cushion the blow on residential property owners from expected large decreases in the value of downtown office buildings because many have higher vacancy rates as a higher percentage of workers continue to stay home in the aftermath of Covid-19. Read more.

CommonWealth Beacon reports that under a compromise with city business organizations, the city will seek state approval to raise the tax levy from commercial properties higher than otherwise allowed for three years to help shield residential property owners from some of the shock of upcoming property re-assessments, expected to show a significant drop in commercial tax revenue due to continuing effects of fewer people returning to work downtown. Read more.

Joseph Abasciano, fired as a Boston cop in 2023 for going to Washington and posting a series of tweets about the "traitors" in the Capitol and across the country before and during the events of Jan. 6, 2021, yesterday sued Boston and its police department, alleging violations of his First Amendment rights to both free speech and religious freedom by a mayor and police commissioner allegedly out to get him. Read more.

Rev. Laura Everett has been following and writing about women's sports in Boston for quite awhile. Today, she writes about the disaster that was the formal naming and introduction of the Boston professional women's soccer team, in particular the way the team managed to insult men, transgender people and past and present women's pro teams in Boston. Read more.

The State House News Service reports Mayor Wu is continuing to push for the state Senate to approve a measure that would let city assessors temporarily increase the total amount they can level in taxes on commercial property as a way to help reduce impending increases on residential property. Read more.

GBH runs some numbers, finds we have some admirable crime stats, but that the mayor and the Economist might have, well, jumped the gun.

WBZ reports on the impact on both businesses that get and ship their goods by sea and on the local workforce:

There are only 160 dockworkers in Boston, but the strike is expected to affect about 12,000 jobs in the area, including tugboat and truck drivers and delivery workers.

Eric Adams and Michelle Wu both won election in 2021. About a year later, the New York Times posed the question of which leadership style Democrats wanted. Given events of the past couple days, you think the Times would ever ask that again? Read more.