Happy Friday!

• A beloved Roxbury clothing brand enters a new chapter, and the wait for a verdict in the Lindsay Clancy trial continues.

🌤️ Today's weather: Mostly sunny, with a high of 82 and a low of 64.

💻 Programming note: We're off Monday for Labor Day, but will be back in your inboxes Tuesday.

🎂 Happy birthday to our member Cheryl Byrne!

Today's newsletter is 988 words — a 3.5-minute read.

Madrugada, a beloved Roxbury-born clothing brand, is back with a permanent brick-and-mortar.

Why it matters: What began as a homegrown side hustle sold out of a backyard shed will soon become the South End's newest upscale boutique.

Catch up quick: Madrugada recently wrapped up a pop-up in Downtown Crossing — a test run for owner Nan James, a Roxbury native who works in the TV industry.

The latest: James plans to sign a lease for a storefront on Columbus Avenue in the South End, but declined to say where because of pending negotiations.

What they're saying: James, a Madison Park Technical Vocational High School alumna, says she owes her success in TV and apparel to her alma mater.

• "We were learning how to design clothes. We were learning how to screen-print stuff. I was learning how to shoot commercials," she tells Axios.
• "Literally, everything I learned, I learned from Madison Park."

Flashback: James started out selling embroidered caps in 2016 before expanding to clothes and incorporating the business in 2019.

• She named the brand Madrugada, which means "dawn" in Spanish, because she felt it described her life in Los Angeles at the time.
• "I was in a space where jobs weren't where I needed them to be," says James, who is now a bicoastal resident. "I felt like something positive was coming."

Flash forward two years, and James set up a shed in the backyard of her childhood home in Roxbury.

• The shed quickly became a destination for local shoppers, but it came down in early 2025 after James' family sold the house.
• Since then, Madrugada has lived on in pop-ups.

Yes, and: The brand has also gotten attention from celebrities, from Jaylen Brown to rapper YG and DJ Mustard (he wore a Vanson x Madrugada motorcycle jacket while on tour with Kendrick Lamar).

Zoom in: The downtown pop-up gave Madrugada a prime location with easy MBTA access and new customers from Spain and Japan.

• She's still getting messages from fans saying they were looking for Madrugada downtown, even though the nine-day pop-up ended weeks ago.

What's next: James plans to open the store this fall.

• Madrugada has another collaboration in the works with the Vanson motorcycle apparel brand.

Tell a fashionista

Jurors return to Plymouth County Superior Court today without having reached a verdict in the trial against Lindsay Clancy, who is charged with murder in the deaths of her three children in 2023. (Globe)

• Judge William Sullivan denied a defense motion to remove a juror who Clancy's lawyer says is keeping the panel from reaching a consensus.

🪧 Encore Boston Harbor employees will go on strike at 7am after they failed to reach a deal with management on a new contract. (WCVB)

🌅 The Supreme Judicial Court ruled yesterday that Nahant can use eminent domain to block Northeastern University from building a new marine research center to preserve the town's "natural, scenic and open condition." (Universal Hub)

Gloria Steinem, a pioneering feminist activist and Smith College alumna, died Wednesday at age 92. (WBUR)

The Athletic's probe found that former NFL reporter Dianna Russini violated company standards by having a relationship with New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel. (CBS Boston)

• The investigation didn't examine the nature of their relationship.

⚖️ ICYMI: A jury found Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins not guilty of extorting a multi-state cannabis company. (GBH News)

A Cambridge man is channeling his love of home cooking into a newsletter for neighbors and fellow foodies.

The intrigue: The Cambridge Recipe Club is amassing thousands of subscribers interested in low-cost, accessible ideas for meals.

Catch up quick: Andrew Little launched the club in September 2025, sharing his take on stir-fries, summer pasta dishes and other seasonal dishes with locally grown herbs or vegetables.

• He once featured a recipe for braised beef brisket shared by Robert Harris, the chef-owner of Season to Taste.

The latest: Little compiled the summer recipes in a cookbook.

What they're saying: Little sees the recipe club as a source of connection among neighbors.

• "Sometimes you don't know the person who lives below you or next to you, and so I think it's a really cool way to kind of facilitate that connection," he says.

What's next: Look out for an upcoming recipe for butternut squash macaroni and cheese.

Tell someone looking for meal prep inspiration

It's prime time to plant grass seed for patching bare spots or overseeding lawns in most U.S. regions.

Why it matters: Plant too late and grass might not establish before winter; too early and young grass could still be exposed to stressful summer heat.

Zoom in: Across much of the northern U.S., the optimal fall seeding window closes about mid-September, according to Axios' analysis of each state's Cooperative Extension guidance.

• Across parts of the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest and Northeast, the window extends through the end of September.
• The farther north you go, the earlier the window closes as that first frost approaches.

Yes, but: State borders aren't climate borders. Elevation, temperature and grass type can shift the ideal window.

• North Carolina, for example, recommends earlier fall seeding in the mountains than in the Piedmont and warmer Coastal Plain.

The bottom line: If you seed outside your region's best window, you could be tossing away time and money along with those seeds.

Spread the word

Deehan is out.

Steph wants to get at least one more beach day before summer ends.

This newsletter was edited by Jeff Weiner.