Good News In MA's Coronavirus Fight | The HUB

The HUB is a rundown of the stories people in Boston are talking about. Patch publishes the HUB every weekday.

Good morning, Boston! It's Friday, April 23. Today we're regretting our decision to skip law school, and we're downloading an app that pays us to shop locally in Boston. We're also counting down the days until the Coolidge Corner Theater reopens and arguing how to pronounce "Filene's," as in the defunct retailer of bygone Boston.

But First...

"Is it possible the coronavirus is beginning to loosen its deadly grip on Massachusetts?"

That's the question The Boston Globe asks and tries to answer in a story published on its website Thursday afternoon. Coronavirus deaths and cases are declining as the number of Massachusetts residents who have been fully vaccinated increases. The trends are giving researchers reasons to be cautiously optimistic.

"In the absence of vaccines, that surge that we saw that is subsiding would have just continued to go up," Samuel Scarpino, an epidemiologist at Northeastern University, told the newspaper.

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One More Reason To Dislike Lawyers

The coronavirus pandemic and the subsequent recession didn't stop some of Boston's biggest law firms from reporting double-digit profit increases last year. The Boston Business Journal says three firms — Ropes & Gray, Goodwin and Mintz — saw their operating income rise by 20 percent or more between 2019 and 2020.

"Firm leaders could not have anticipated such gains when Covid-19 first slammed the U.S. last spring. Some firms operating in Boston and elsewhere were quick to cut attorney and staff pay as a precautionary measure. Last April, Mintz cut partner draws by up to 10% and associate base pay by 10%," the Boston Business Journal writes. "However, by the fall, firm management realized such precautions were unnecessary, according to managing member Bob Bodian. It restored the pay and retroactively paid back the compensation it had cut, he said."

Learn more about getting a COVID-19 vaccine in Massachusetts at Patch's information hub.

Check It Out

Free (our second four-letter word beginning with 'F'): Boston's "B-Local" program is offering cash discounts at the city's stores and restaurants for shoppers and diners who use the effort's mobile app. The Boston Globe has the details.

Change that sign: After being closed for more than a year, the Coolidge Corner Theater will reopen May 13. The first screening will be Spike Lee's "Do The Right Thing," which was the first film shown at the theater in 1989 after a nonprofit was formed to save it from closure.

Commercial real estate high on legal cannabis: The pandemic has been hard on the commercial real estate sector but, in Massachusetts, that blow has been cushioned by the state's legalization of cannabis for medical and recreational use. The National Association of Realtors surveyed 8,300 members and 35 percent of respondents in states where pot is legal said they are seeing increased demand for warehouses. Realtors in those states are also seeing increased demand for storefronts and land.

Question Of The Day

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The Rundown

What I'm reading: My Patch colleague Colin Miner's interview with ex-gangster Sammy "the Bull" Gravano about his new podcast and more.

What I'm watching: "Hemingway," the three-part, Ken Burns documentary that aired on PBS earlier this month. The series includes never-before-revealed material from the Hemingway collection at the JFK Library in Boston.

Weather

Clouds continue to linger today, but the unseasonably warm temperatures of the past few days will give way to a high of 60. Saturday is the best day of the weekend, with some clouds and a high of 70. Rain returns on Sunday with a high of 56.

Dave Copeland is Patch's regional editor for Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island and is filling in for Mike Carraggi as curator of the HUB today. Mike will be back on Monday.