Chick-fil-A is deepening its footprint in Boston with the recent opening of a location at South Station.

Why it maters: It's a turnaround from over a decade ago when city leadership vowed to block the fast-food giant over its ownership's anti-LGBTQ+ stances.

Flashback: In 2012, Chick-fil-A executive Dan Cathy sparked nationwide outrage by publicly opposing same-sex marriage and directing millions in donations to anti-LGBTQ+ advocacy groups.

• Late Boston Mayor Thomas Menino spearheaded local resistance. He sent a scathing letter to Cathy stating there was "no place for discrimination on Boston's Freedom Trail" and warned that a franchise in the city would be heavily resisted.
• There were also student-led boycotts of the chicken chain.

Chick-fil-A restructured its corporate philanthropy in 2019 and halted donations to organizations with anti-LGBTQ+ policies. Since then, it says, it's been focusing on education, homelessness and hunger efforts.

• By the time the Copley Square store debuted in 2022, it faced minimal official pushback compared to the 2012 firestorm.
• Matt DeMichele-Rigoni, a 17-year company veteran, owns and operates the Boylston Street location with his husband João.

By the numbers: The company now operates four outposts within the city limits of Boston, including a Logan Airport location that opened last year.

• The company told Axios each new restaurant adds between 80-120 full- and part-time positions for local residents.

What we're watching: Nothing says "mainstream commercial normalization" in Boston more than a stall at South Station.

• But the location continues to draw local ire online for closing on Sundays, an inconvenient feature for a seven-day transit hub.

What's next: Leaders in Dorchester and Mattapan want the chain to open in Boston's Black neighborhoods and provide opportunities for local franchisees.

Read on

Haitian families across Greater Boston were still coming off the high of watching their national team score two goals in the World Cup when they started learning the news.

• The Supreme Court had ruled that the Trump administration could end Temporary Protected Status, a designation that elders, neighbors and young adults had relied on for years.

The big picture: The ruling clears a path for the government to end the status for the estimated 37,000 TPS holders in Massachusetts, including at least 22,000 from Haiti.

Catch up quick: The Supreme Court ruled, 6-3, yesterday that the Trump administration could end TPS for Syrians and Haitians for three reasons:

• The 1990 TPS law shields the determinations from judicial review except when constitutional questions are raised.
• The Department of Homeland Security properly consulted all the appropriate agencies required under the law before making its decision, contrary to plaintiffs' arguments. (DHS emailed the State Department but never got an answer about the countries' conditions, which the majority ruling said still counted as a "consult.")
• The plaintiffs failed to prove the terminations were racially motivated.

Friction point: The majority opinion called the government's arguments race-neutral, which Haitians across Massachusetts disputed.

• So did Justice Elena Kagan, who wrote that the evidence "includes statements by the president so repellent and racially inflected that the majority declines to put them in print."
• Kagan's dissent goes on to list some of them, including President Trump's infamous, false claim that Haitians are "eating the dogs" in Springfield, Ohio.

The latest: Elected officials and advocates are turning their attention to the remaining options:

• Enlisting voters, business leaders and other influential residents to pressure the U.S. Senate into taking up the House bill, led by U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), that would extend TPS for Haiti for three years.
• Persuading attorneys and business leaders who employ TPS holders to explore alternative immigration pathways for them, including company-sponsored work visas.

What they're saying: "We have no choice but to be victorious," said Boston City Councilor Ruthzee Louijeune, a Haitian American.

Go deeper

🏙️ The Boston City Council accepted Mayor Michelle Wu's amended $4.9 billion budget after a 6-6 deadlock rejection vote and the arrest of eight protesters who stormed council chambers this month. (Globe)

⛽ Massachusetts gas prices fell below $4 a gallon yesterday for the first time in two months, dipping to $3.99. (CBS Boston)

• That's down from $4.02 the prior day and well above last year's $3.10 average.

🎮 CD Projekt RED — maker of the Witcher and Cyberpunk franchises — plans to relocate its Mass. operations from Waltham to a larger Watertown office. (BBJ)

Flann O'Brien's, a Mission Hill Irish pub that shut down during the pandemic, could be resurrected later this year.

Why it matters: The Brigham Circle bar at 1619 Tremont St. was a neighborhood institution for nearly three decades.

• College students, hospital workers and everyone else bustling through the busy neighborhood knew it well before it closed in December 2020.
• Its unexpected return would fill a space that's already seen one business close since the bar came to an end.

State of play: The Boston Licensing Board approved the transfer of an all-alcoholic beverages license from the Yellow Door Taqueria, which occupied the space and closed in January.

The comeback is led by Scott Prince, Ray Butler and Michael Vaughan, all familiar faces during the original Flann O'Brien's run.

• Butler and Vaughan operate The Banshee in Dorchester and Brick & Beam Tavern in Quincy. Prince, a former Mission Hill resident, has bartended at The Banshee for eight years.

Between the lines: Prince framed the revival explicitly around restoring the communal atmosphere of the original Flann's, telling the Globe he welcomes healthy competition from the broader Mission Hill dining scene.

What's next: The partners are targeting a reopening by end of 2026.

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We'll be finding traffic cones in weird places for the next few months as we recover from the Scottish invasion.