IT IS PERHAPS  fitting that Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell announced her candidacy for mayor the morning after protests erupted across US cities, including Boston, over the news that none of the three officers involved in Breonna Taylor’s death were charged with her killing.

Campbell, 38, is cementing her campaign platform on a racial equity agenda, something police involved shootings, including Taylor’s, have thrust into the national spotlight.

“I’m running for mayor because every neighborhood deserves real change and a real chance,” said Campbell, who let her supporters, including a former Walsh administration member, lay out her history and desire to resolve racial imbalances in a kickoff video.

“For too long, Boston has been a tale of two cities. You have been fortunate enough to live in both parts,” says Beverly Williams, a retired Boston Public School teacher who taught Campbell in middle school. “And the struggles you had in one and the successes that you had in another makes a perfect combination to be the leader of our city.”

One supporter, Antonia, called Campbell “Boston’s daughter,” part of a string of  testimonials in the video highlighting the councilor’s local roots.

Campbell’s announcement comes one week after fellow councilor Michelle Wu announced her candidacy for mayor. Both women have served as council president. Two-term Mayor Marty Walsh is expected to run, but hasn’t made it official. Campbell and Wu are both women of color, endeavoring to win a post that has only ever been filled by white men.

Campbell clashed recently with Walsh over the city budget, which she voted against, saying his plan didn’t “resonate in every single neighborhood,” and go far enough to address racial inequities in the city. Wu also voted against the budget.

In 2015, Campbell unseated long-time incumbent Charles Yancey with 61 percent of the vote. She represents the neighborhoods of Dorchester and Mattapan, as well as parts of Roslindale and Jamaica Plain as a District 4 councilor.

Campbell and her twin brother spent eight years in foster care and with relatives after losing their mother as infants. Their father was incarcerated during that period.

She began her first term by chairing and expanding the Council’s Committee on Public Safety to focus on re-entry services for returning citizens, solitary confinement, and the school-to-prison pipeline. Campbell’s own connection to criminal justice is personal — her twin brother Andre died while awaiting trial in the custody of the state Department of Correction in 2012.

In the past few months, Campbell has zeroed in her interest in criminal justice on policing, proposing a civilian review board during calls for accountability of police officers.

Campbell is demanding data from the Boston Police Department about how and where officers stop, search, and record observations of residents, something that hasn’t been made public since 2017.

Hours after a Kentucky grand jury brought no charges against the Louisville police directly tied to Breonna Taylor’s death, Campbell tweeted, “I don’t want to hear ‘Boston is better than that.’ I want to hear that we will take immediate action to create true accountability and transparency in policing that CONFIRM we’re better than that.”  

SARAH BETANCOURT

FROM COMMONWEALTH

Fitchburg is pinning its hopes for an economic revival on arts and culture anchored by the Fitchburg Art Museum and Fitchburg State University.

Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell declares she’s running for mayor. 

At a press conference in Lowell, Gov. Charlie Baker weighs in on the state budget situation, the eviction moratorium, Sen. Susan Collins, and Bennett Walsh’s removal as superintendent of the Holyoke Soldiers Home.

Nantucket has the highest COVID-19 rate in the state. The latest state data indicate the state’s per capita rate continues to inch up.

A new report issued by opponents of having police officers in schools says the data indicate black and brown students are subjected to enforcement actions at much higher rates.

Tom Turco, the governor’s secretary of public safety and security, announces he is retiring at the end of the year.

Opinion: Amy Rosenthal of Health Care for All says a recently approved hike in health insurance rates (8 percent on average) should be the focus of a transparent, public hearing.

 

FROM AROUND THE WEB

 

BEACON HILL

Gov. Charlie Baker dials up the pressure on school districts to return to in-person classes. (Boston Globe)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

A Reading police officer is indicted on manslaughter charges after shooting and killing a man in 2018 during a domestic violence call. (WBUR)  

A Swampscott resident and the head of the Board of Health get in a testy exchange over the town’s requirement that masks be worn at all times in four high-traffic areas of the community. (Daily Item)

Big development doings in Dorchester. Accordia Partners proposes Dorchester Bay City on a 34-acre site at Columbia Point and close by eight developers have submitted ideas to UMass Boston on how to redevelop a 10-acre site on the campus. (Dorchester Reporter)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

Mayor Marty Walsh says Boston is close to moving into the “red” category for coronavirus transmission. (Boston Globe) 

The Maine governor announces that Massachusetts residents visiting Maine no longer need to quarantine. (MassLive)

A coronavirus vaccine developed by pharmaceutical Johnson & Johnson and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center that could offer protection via a single shot will begin Phase 3 testing among 60,000 volunteers. (Boston Globe)

A Massachusetts man dies from eating too much black licorice – and health experts explain why this is possible. (Associated Press)

The state Department of Public Health is waiting to hear from Steward Health Care about how the company plans to ensure the Quincy population won’t suffer when the satellite emergency room on Hospital Hill closes later this year. (Patriot Ledger)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

Two police officers were shot and a man was taken into custody during a night of unrest in Louisville, Kentucky, following a grand jury decision to charge one officer with “wanton endangerment” but to not bring any charges against the other two officers who were part of a raid in which police shot and killed 26-year-old Breonna Taylor. (Washington Post)

Three members of the state’s congressional delegation, Katherine Clark, Stephen Lynch, and Ayanna Pressley, traveled to Fort Hood in Texas last week and are sounding the alarm over what they say are 150 suicides, deaths, or disappearances over the last five years of service members stationed at the base. (Boston Herald) The Enterprise has more on the visit. 

ELECTIONS

President Trump refuses to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses. (Axios)

Joe Battenfeld says the bulk of the campaign pushing a November ballot question to bring ranked-choice voting to Massachusetts is being funded by out-of-state moneybags. (Boston Herald) 

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Boston Fed president Eric Rosengren says the toughest part of the economic recovery still lies ahead. (Boston Globe)

The pandemic is contributing to real estate scams, with fake online listings. (Gloucester Daily Times) 

Four former eBay workers prepare to plead guilty to charges that they engaged in a campaign of intimidation against a Massachusetts couple that ran an online newsletter critical of the auction site. (MetroWest Daily News)

EDUCATION

Two Catholic schools open in person by providing weekly COVID-19 testing – for staff at one school and for both staff and students at the other. (MassLive)

Massachusetts gets federal approval to continue its pandemic EBT program through September, providing extra food assistance money to families with children who are eligible for free and reduced lunch in school. (MassLive)

Parents of Barnstable High School students say the school got off to a chaotic remote reopening this week after multiple last minute delays — and they want to know why. (Cape Cod Times)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

Attorney General Maura Healey’s office has dropped charges and will discontinue prosecuting 25 defendants charged with more than 150 counts of animal cruelty, following a 2016 landmark animal abuse case on American Legion Highway. (Standard-Times)

MEDIA

The Boston-based weekly Jewish Advocate, which was launched in 1902, will cease publication. The paper said it will launch a new digital initiative focused on advocacy. (Boston Globe)