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 With eighteen thousand daily riders, many say the station feels outdated and downright dirty.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