How Much Federal COVID Aid Did MA Schools Get? | Patch PM

MASSACHUSETTS — It's Friday, August 27. Here's what you should know this afternoon:

• The tour of triumph continued for the Peabody West Little League All-Stars on Wednesday with a stop at the State House.
• A 41-year-old from Douglas was arrested this week along the Mass Pike in Framingham for driving drunk at nearly five-times the legal limit.
• Fans of the 6-foot tall yellow chicken sign with the words "Live Poultry, Fresh Killed," can rejoice, because the Cambridge landmark isn't going anywhere.

Scroll down for more on those and other stories Patch has been covering in Massachusetts today.

Today's Top Story

The federal government has poured some $190 billion into the nation's schools since March 2020 to help offset the costs of coping with the coronavirus pandemic — more than four times what the U.S. Education Department spends on K-12 schools in a typical year.

About $2.4 billion of that total went to Massachusetts schools, according to an analysis by the Associated Press.

Relying on data published or provided by states and the federal government, the AP also tallied how much money was granted to nearly every school district in the state and country.

See how much federal aid your school system got.

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Friday's Other Top Stories

Peabody Little Leaguers honored: The tour of triumph continued for the Peabody West Little League All-Stars on Wednesday with a stop at the State House. Rep. Sally Kerans, Rep. Thomas Walsh and Sen. Joan Lovely j9ined Gov. Charlie Baker for a short ceremony on the State House steps that included a proclamation and the distribution of certificates commending the players on their state championship.

.36 BAC in Pike arrest: A 41-year-old from Douglas was arrested this week along the Mass Pike in Framingham for driving drunk at nearly five-times the legal limit, according to state police. The driver failed four sobriety tests, and was taken in a cruiser to the Weston state police barracks. He fell asleep during the short ride, police said. A breath test later determined his blood-alcohol level was 0.36, well above the 0.08 limit.

New life for 'Live Poultry, Fresh Killed' sign: Fans of the 6-foot tall yellow chicken sign with the words "Live Poultry, Fresh Killed," can rejoice, because the Cambridge landmark isn't going anywhere. Earlier this month, the Mayflower Poultry Company sold its home base, relocating to 139 Newmarket Square in Boston as a wholesale-only spot. The poultry company decided the best move for the famous sign was to auction it off, leaving someone else with the memories as the storefront closes its doors at the end of the month. The East Cambridge Business Association decided the sign and its trademark were too important to be hidden away, bidding $14,500 and $8,000 respectively, to keep the sign in Cambridge in the Thursday auction.

Eat fresh: Patch's 2021 Massachusetts Farmers Market Guide

Picture This: Rare Bucket Head Eagle

It's not a new species of eagle, but perhaps evidence of the reemergence of a species that was — and still is — under threat. Ashland resident and wildlife photographer Brad Dinerman recently captured a juvenile bald eagle playing in a local cemetery — at one point getting his head stuck in a bucket used for planting flowers. "The whole scene lasted about thirty seconds," Dinerman said in a local Facebook group Thursday. "I was going to get out of my car to help him when he shook it loose on his own."

They Said It

"Stephen was an extremely valuable advisor to our Civil War series and an informed and passionate participant. He knew the bottom-up story as well as the top-down one, but more importantly, he knew and appreciated the huge stakes for the United States and indeed the world in a Union victory."

• Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns on the death of Stephen Oates, a UMass-Amherst history professor who was a consultant on Burns' 1990 documentary series “The Civil War." Oates, who wrote biographies of Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., Clara Barton, William Faulkner and others, died Friday. He was 85.

In Case You Missed It

Coronavirus hospitalizations: Coronavirus hospitalizations continued to rise across Massachusetts while the positive test rate declined, according to the latest data released by the Department of Public Health Thursday. For the first time in weeks, more Massachusetts communities reported falling positive rates than rising rates in the latest town-by-town report. Twenty-four Massachusetts communities didn't report a single positive test over the last two weeks, down just one from in the last report.