The Japan-America Society of Houston (JASH) warmly congratulates the Houston Astros on the signing of Japanese pitcher Tatsuya Imai, marking an exciting new chapter for both the Astros organization and the enduring relationship between Houston and Japan.

Imai-senshu’s arrival in Houston is more than a roster move—it is a powerful example of how sport continues to serve as a bridge between cultures. Baseball has long been a shared passion of the United States and Japan, fostering mutual respect, admiration, and people-to-people connections across generations.

The timing of this signing is especially meaningful. The year 2026 represents a historic milestone for both nations, with the United States commemorating its 250th anniversary and Japan marking the 100th anniversary of the Showa era. It was during the Showa period that baseball became deeply embedded in Japanese society, evolving into a national sport and a cultural touchstone. Imai-san’s journey from Japan to Major League Baseball reflects this rich legacy and the sport’s continuing role in strengthening bilateral ties.

Houston has long been a gateway for U.S.–Japan exchange, and the Astros’ global presence further amplifies the city’s role as a hub for international connection. Imai-san’s signing underscores the Astros’ commitment to excellence on the field while embracing the global nature of the game.

As an organization dedicated to advancing understanding and friendship between Japan and the United States, JASH celebrates this moment with pride. We look forward to welcoming Imai-san to Houston, cheering him on throughout the season, and continuing to support the many ways cultural exchange enriches our community—on and off the field.

Please join us in welcoming Tatsuya Imai to Houston and wishing him great success with the Astros.

The North Colonie community is mourning the loss of Erin Couture, wife of Shaker High School Dean Garrett Couture, who passed away unexpectedly.

Erin, a former employee at Shaker Middle and High Schools, was cherished by students and staff, the district said in an email to parents. She leaves behind her husband and two young sons, who are students in the district. Garrett Couture is an active figure in youth sports, coaching football and lacrosse, with Erin’s support always by his side.

The district will hold a half-day session on Thursday, Jan. 8, to allow staff to support the Couture family during services. Shaker High School will dismiss at 11:30 a.m., Shaker Middle School at 12:30 p.m., and elementary schools at 1:30 p.m.

You can read Couture’s obituary here.

A gofundme has been set up for the family. You can donate here

Good morning Boston, and Happy New Year! Congratulations to the Boston City Council, and a special welcome to our colleague, new to elected office—but not new to service—Reverend Councilor Miniard Culpepper.

To all our Councilors: Thank you for your faith in our city and your dedication to service as we strive to uphold the values on which our nation was founded. When you take your oath of office in the most acoustically perfect concert hall in America, the words ring with a special weight.

Boston Symphony Hall was the first concert hall in the world to be designed by renowned architects and a Harvard physics professor—who invented a formula to design this space with the perfect reverberation time: 1.9 seconds. Every angle and every surface, every statue tucked in every nook, reflects that uniquely Boston blend of science and the arts to serve the public good.

Thank you to our hosts at the BSO for sharing this beautiful venue with us, and for opening your doors to all the children of Boston as partners in our Boston Family Days program.

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Governor Healey, Congresswoman Pressley, Congressman Auchincloss, Chairman Michlewitz, Leader Moran and Ellie, to my fellow mayors here today, and all of our state, county, and federal officials: Thank you for your partnership.

To our City workers, thank you for making everything we do possible. To my husband Conor; to Blaise, Cass, Mira, and my entire family—I love you so much. And to the people of Boston: Thank you for the honor of continuing our work together. Thank you for choosing to be a city that doesn’t settle or fold…for believing that a better world is possible, and working together to build it no matter what stands in our way.

2026 marks four years and two months since our administration took office—and 250 years since our nation was born. 250 years ago on this very day, a young man—the son of immigrants, and a BPS alum—was standing on the banks of a half-frozen river, focused on getting home to Boston.

Henry Knox was on a mission to bring cannons from Fort Ticonderoga—over 300 miles—to Dorchester Heights, where…with command of the high ground, General George Washington and the patriots could liberate Boston from British control. But between Knox and his city lay a nearly impossible obstacle for 60 tons of cannons to cross: The Hudson River, thawing in the sun, its surface a mosaic of splintering ice.

Without the cannons, he knew Boston would never be free. Without Boston, he knew the revolution would fail. So, over the next few days, Knox and his men crept out onto the ice in the coldest part of the night, drilling holes to let the water flow up from below and freeze over in thickening layers.

Faced with an impossible challenge, he did what Boston has always done best: With a blend of creativity and courage, imagination and will, he forged a path forward.

Four years ago, I was sworn in as mayor in the only building in Boston more beautiful than this one: City Hall. It was a small gathering, everyone was masked, and it felt—at the time—like we might never emerge from the endless cycle of constantly-evolving viruses threatening to keep us apart.

Still, we had hope.

Because in Boston, we know obstacles are opportunities to go beyond old ways of thinking—to innovate and set a new standard for the world to meet. For nearly four centuries, Boston has been the center of American innovation and progress: The place where revolutionary ideas get their start, where the impossible is overcome with creativity and courage, imagination and will.

So, four years ago, we got to work forging the path forward.

We promised to make Boston a home for everyone, starting with safety; and together, we drove gun violence down to the lowest levels on record. We refused to accept the broken status quo at Mass and Cass, coordinating a citywide response to permanently end encampments and connect thousands of people to recovery.

We prioritized housing like never before, building 4,200 affordable homes with another 2,000 under construction, tackling outdated zoning and red tape, converting vacant City lots and empty office buildings into hundreds of new homes, and helping more Boston families become first-time homeowners than ever before.

We expanded Boston pre-K to serve 5,000 families and helped 200 new childcare providers open their doors to our littlest learners. We taught more than 20,000 kids how to swim and ride bikes; expanded youth sports citywide; and made museums and performances free for every Boston kid and their family. Boston Public Schools graduation rates and attendance are up, and we’re on track to offer early college classes to every high school student by fall of 2028.

We saved residents and businesses more than $230 million dollars on energy bills, cut our retail vacancy rate nearly in half compared to two years ago, and made three bus routes fare-free. We repaved more than 100 miles of roadway, made it faster to fix sidewalks, and protected more miles of road for safe walking and biking than ever before.

We’ve seen how much is possible because of how far we’ve pushed forward, together. And we need to keep pushing.

Because, right now, in some ways, the world feels helplessly stuck—like we know what problems need fixing, but we’ve lost faith we can fix them. Today, the forces we face aren’t British troops on the Common or ships in our harbor, but they demand no less ingenuity.

Isolation, polarization, and misinformation are fraying our connection to trust, truth, and each other. Core industries are losing workers to competitors overseas. Against this backdrop the federal government is taking aim at the ways we take care of each other: They have slashed funding for emergency management, research, housing, education, and life-saving care; abducted our neighbors off sidewalks and outside our schools; crushed small businesses with trade wars and tariffs; trashed clean energy projects to profit billionaire donors; carried out unconstitutional military campaigns; and illegally deployed our troops against their own families and neighbors in peaceful American cities.

This federal administration has plundered our economy, ravaged our reputation, torched our institutions, and destroyed the lives of our people. But, when in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for a city to stand as the beacon for freedom and proof of what’s possible—a testament to the endurance of American ingenuity and civic success, Boston will be that beacon.

We will not appease or abet any threat to our city, and we will not wait for permission to build the world our families deserve. Over the next four years, Boston will be the proof that the nation we fought for is possible—a place where we take care of each other and take on the challenges that matter the most.

In our second term, we will reinforce the very foundations of our democracy: local government as the bedrock for getting results.

Making Boston the best city for families means getting the basics right and delivering on our most fundamental, most important work every day. Repaving streets and sidewalks, tending to our playgrounds and parks, and ensuring that every block of our city is healthy and safe, beautiful and welcoming for every one of our residents.

Nearly a century and a half before our nation was born, Bostonians were hosting town meetings to tackle together the challenges they couldn’t tackle alone. Our public parks, our schools, and our libraries were the first in the country because Boston was determined to be a democracy that’s direct and effective, focused unflinchingly on the public good.

This legacy lives on in every pothole filled, every library book borrowed, every playground filled with laughter. We will continue to make city services more efficient, responsive, and accessible in every way possible, across every neighborhood.

Starting this year, together with members of my Cabinet and the Office of Neighborhood Services, we will hold Mayor’s Office Hours across Boston: An opportunity to connect directly with residents, hear what’s working and what’s not, and unstick any city service issues in real time.

And, to ensure that every community member can count on City Hall, whether you’re opening a business, throwing a block party, or building a home—we’re going to streamline every city permitting process and set the bar for excellence in constituent services.

In this second term, on that foundation of excellence, we will build the country’s oldest public school district into the best—so that BPS is the first choice for all of our families.

Two miles from here, Boston opened the first public school in the country—the same school where Henry Knox learned to read. Two hundred years before the rest of the nation, we made a choice to make education a right. Today, we also choose operational excellence, academic rigor, and high expectations in every classroom.

We’ll continue rightsizing our district, investing in facilities and student supports, and improving transportation. We refuse to accept that accessing high quality education means crisscrossing our children all over our city rather than ensuring that, in every corner of Boston, the best school is just down the block.

We will revisit school assignment to be simpler and more predictable, reduce time students spend on the bus, and reinvest in advanced coursework, arts, and athletics. And because learning shouldn’t be confined to the first and last bell, with our community partners, we will offer quality before- and after-school programming available and accessible at every BPS school by the start of the 2027 school year.

And we will invest in the facilities our students and families deserve. Just last month, the Massachusetts School Building Authority selected BPS to start the process for a full rebuild at Madison Park Technical Vocational High School. And next year, we’ll cut the ribbon on the best student athletics facility of any public school district in the country at Boston’s own White Stadium.

With partnerships across every sector of the city focused on our schools, we will build reliable pathways to student success and make it our mission to get every last detail right for our BPS communities.

An educated citizenry is the lifeblood of Boston’s proud tradition of civic engagement, and the key to our economic success. And in this moment, we must continue to secure our sources of economic prosperity and defend the engines that drive innovation all across America.

We will fiercely defend our universities, our hospitals, our life sciences and innovation sector, so they can keep generating the breakthroughs that drive the progress our city is known for and our country needs.

We will ensure that Boston remains the place where people come to do good in the world, to solve the toughest problems that haven’t been solved: We will work smarter and harder to recruit the scientists and companies curing diseases like cancer and Alzheimer’s, harness clean energy, and improve lives all over the world.

We will partner with higher education and industry to nurture and benefit from the innovation that will reshape the future, from robotics to climate technology. Together, we will prepare workers for emerging technology to expand their opportunities rather than be replaced.

We will use our infrastructure investments and purchasing power to make our communities resilient against rising seas and stronger storms, and power our City with cleaner, more affordable energy. We will expand careers in green industries, including the construction trades, building operations, facilities management, stormwater infrastructure, horticulture, and engineering.

And for our city to flourish, Bostonians must be able to grow up and grow old here. We will work to address the housing needs of our families and seniors, focusing on solutions they want and can afford. Over the next four years, we will continue inventing new ways to use public planning, public finance, and public land to create the homes our residents need, because we know that housing is a public good.

We are the city that created whole new neighborhoods out of swampland and invented the triple-decker to tackle the housing crises of our past. We will not be defeated by the affordability crisis of the present. Together, we will deliver the best city services to all of our residents, set the standard for public education, and build an economy that will thrive for another two-and-a-half centuries.

If we can invent America, then we can be the city that forges the path forward in this moment.

Right now, backstage, there’s someone who doesn’t know anything about acoustics or walking on ice.

In fact, she’s just barely learning to walk. But, here with me this morning on this very stage, she took one wobbly step, then another, then looked up and laughed.

They weren’t her very first steps, but they were her first in a little while.

Unlike her older brothers, who couldn’t wait to go from wobbling to walking and running, Mira decided that, after taking her first two steps—and a tumble—a month ago, she wasn’t sure she wanted to do it again.

But, this morning, on this stage, she chose to try again knowing she might fall.

250 years ago, Henry Knox didn’t charge onto the ice of the Hudson. He wrote a letter to Washington explaining the challenge he faced. He took a moment to gather himself and reflect, but he didn’t wait for certainty, either.

With creativity and courage, imagination and will, he forged a path and pressed on—knowing the ice might not hold. Mira doesn’t know about Knox, or the physics that explain why her laughter this morning hung in this hall like a bell.

She doesn’t know that every March, we celebrate Evacuation Day here in Boston because Knox was creative and brave—because he dared to find a way forward, and because the ice held.

But some part of her already knows that progress takes courage—the willingness to take the next step when the ground isn’t certain. Every one of us, from our earliest days, is living proof that last month’s impossible can become this morning’s milestones—that if we are only willing to try, with a little help from each other, we can build the future our families deserve.

Thank you for the honor of building it together. God Bless the city and people of Boston. Let’s get back to work.

Manchester City defender Josko Gvardiol is set for a lengthy injury layoff after suffering a fractured tibia (shinbone) in his right leg.

City confirmed the Croatia international will undergo surgery later this week, the results of which would give the full extent of the diagnosis and potential timeframe for absence.

Earlier on Monday, City recalled centre-back Max Alleyne from his season-long loan at Watford after Pep Guardiola said on Sunday that Gvardiol and team-mate Ruben Dias could miss time with injury.

Dias and Gvardiol were substituted in the second half of City’s 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Sunday. Gvardiol was replaced in the 51st minute by Abdukodir Khusanov after a collision with Chelsea full-back Malo Gusto and had to be helped off the pitch, while Dias was substituted 30 minutes later.

This adds to City’s issues in defence, with John Stones sidelined with a thigh injury sustained in early December. Nathan Ake has only been used sparingly after undergoing foot surgery last season, making just two Premier League starts this campaign.

Due to City’s defensive issues, they have recalled the 20-year-old Alleyne from his loan spell in the Championship. The City youth graduate made 17 appearances for the second division side.

Alleyne has represented England at every youth level from under-17 to under-21, and was an unused substitute for City’s first team on seven occasions last season, including in the Premier League and Club World Cup.

Alleyne had been a regular for Watford in recent weeks (Leila Coker/Getty Images)

At his post-match press conference on Sunday, Guardiola did not put a timeframe on Gvardiol and Dias’ injuries but added that both are likely to miss time.

“We will see tomorrow (about the extent of Gvardiol’s injury), but it doesn’t look good for him or Ruben,” Guardiola said, via the City website. “I didn’t speak with the doctor but if Ruben is out, it is because he felt something.

“Of course, we have a lot (of injuries). John Stones is missing for many months; Ruben will be out and Josko will be out. Always we know with Nathan (Ake) that he cannot play regularly. After what happened last season, if we stay strong, we will find a solution and the spirit will be there.”

When asked if Dias had sustained a muscle injury, Guardiola said: “Yes, it looks like it.”

Khusanov, who missed almost two months himself earlier in the season with an ankle injury, is now a candidate to see an increase in game time, having made just seven starts in all competitions this campaign.

City, second in the table and six points behind leaders Arsenal, are next in action on Wednesday when they host Brighton & Hove Albion.

The clinic, featuring student-athletes from participating Duke’s women’s varsity sports, will run from 9-10:30 a.m., throughout all of Cameron Indoor Stadium. Each of the represented sports have a designated section in the arena to teach a sport-related skill or technique. The Duke Cheer and Dance teams along with the Blue Devil mascot will also be in attendance. 

The clinic is free of charge and open to all kids in grades 1-8. A parent or guardian must be present at all times.  Registration, although not required, is strongly encouraged.  For more information and to register for the clinic, visit https://goduke.com/form/174.

“We are thrilled to host the seventh annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day Clinic and to once again welcome young people and families into Cameron Indoor Stadium,” said Vice President and King-Compton Families Director of Athletics Nina King. “This event is always a favorite among our student-athletes as it gives them the opportunity to connect, mentor, and inspire the next generation through sport. Creating a positive and engaging environment where kids can learn, have fun, and see strong female role models in action is incredibly important to us, and we’re proud to continue collaborating with the local community to celebrate the power of girls and women in sports.”

As a proud partner of Duke Athletics, Blue Cross NC has enhanced its commitment to youth mental health, connectivity and resiliency by being the presenting sponsor of National Girls & Women in Sports Day.

Blue Cross NC encourages participation in sports and an active lifestyle that supports physical and mental wellbeing. By partnering with youth, parents and community leaders like Duke Athletics, Blue Cross NC believes there is opportunity to help reduce stigmas associated with mental health for young people in sports. 

To stay up to date with all things Blue Devils, follow Duke Athletics on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching “DukeAthletics”.

 

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