The Boston Globe raised its digital subscription price 74 percent last month, but not for everyone.

David Rosen, a Boston resident and long-time Globe subscriber, said he canceled his subscription after being notified that the price was rising from $3.99 a week to $6.93 a week, or from $207 to $360 on an annual basis. He said the unexpected price increase showed arrogance.

But then he received a call from the Globe asking him if he’d return to the fold if he got the old rate back for two years, paid in advance. Rosen took the newspaper up on the offer and paid $414.96, which represented a savings of $305.76 over what a digital subscription for two years under the new rate would have cost.

“This phenomenon, I believe, is not unique to the Boston Globe, but rather now a business norm in our culture: charge whatever the market will bear and when it is clear that it is unbearable enough that the customers threaten to quit — or in my case, actually quit — accommodate,” Rosen said in an email.

Officials at the Globe could not be reached for comment. When CommonWealth reported on the digital price increase last month, Globe officials said the new price, about 99 cents a day, was a tremendous value. “We didn’t try and value it based on what other publishers are doing. We tried to value it based on what our journalism is worth,” said Peter Doucette, vice president and chief customer officer at the newspaper.

—BRUCE MOHL

 

BEACON HILL

Gov. Charlie Baker plans to appoint a high-level official to coordinate the administration’s response to the opioid epidemic. (Salem News)

Baker sounds a note of support for the idea of state funding help for communities to equip police with body-worn cameras. (Boston Herald)

Meredith Warren says Baker is mastering the art of bipartisan politics on Beacon Hill. (Boston Globe)

The Massachusetts Health Connector is ramping up its outreach efforts. (State House News)

Talk of a ballot question that would legalize the sale of fireworks in Massachusetts is stirring opposition from fire officials. (Boston Globe)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

Investigators in Boston, Cambridge, and Everett have made no arrests yet in shootings overnight on Wednesday that left five people dead. (Boston Globe) Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson says the city is in a “crisis” following the rash of shootings that left three dead and three wounded in Boston. (Boston Herald) A Herald editorial says beefed up policing that cracks down on “gun-toting thugs” might be a better use of scarce dollars than body cameras on police.

Boston’s much-touted gun buyback program is coming up way short. (Boston Herald)

Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter laid the blame for a recent “negative” outlook report from Standard & Poor’s on the City Council, which he called “obstructionist” for opposing a power plant that could boost the tax base and rescinding a water rate hike. (The Enterprise)

A letter to the editor spurs a debate in Hyannis about moving a homeless shelter out of the downtown area. The police chief insists the shelter has got to go. (Cape Cod Times)

Methuen is counting on billboard revenues to help pay for the $4.6 million Nicholas Stadium renovation project. (Eagle-Tribune)

Two beaches in Beverly closed due to high bacteria levels. (Salem News)

CASINOS

The Boston-Wynn Resorts feud subsides long enough for transportation officials to discuss long-range solutions to congestion in Sullivan Square. (CommonWealth)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

Secretary of State John Kerry will try to strike a delicate balance today when he attends the raising of the flag to mark the reopening of the US embassy in Havana and then meets with Cuban dissidents following the ceremony. (New York Times)

A Colorado court has ruled a against a baker, saying he engaged in discrimination when he refused to make a cake for a gay wedding because of his religious beliefs. (New York Times)

ELECTIONS

Charlie Baker has tried to stay out of the presidential politics fray, but apparently decided that Donald Trump went too far and he denounced the GOP front-runner’s comments on women as “reprehensible, outrageous, and ridiculous” in a radio appearance yesterday. (Boston Globe)

Carly Fiorina‘s rise in the polls could threaten Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, and John Kasich, one of whom could lose a seat at the grown-ups table at the next GOP debate. (National Review)

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Boston has approved tax breaks for a 239-unit project near North Station in which all units will be priced at below-market rents, but the size of the tax break has yet to be specified. (Boston Globe)

Ready, set, shop: Massachusetts tax-free holiday is this weekend, in case you missed the ad onslaught. (Berkshire Eagle)

EDUCATION

State grants will allow 22 schools across Massachusetts to offer extended hours. (WBUR)

HEALTH CARE

Tens of thousands of people with disabilities, many of whom may have trouble filling out the required forms, are being told they must reapply for Medicaid coverage. (Boston Globe)

The new president of long-struggling Carney Hospital in Dorchester is bullish about its prospects — in part because of the opening to draw new patients created by the recent closure of Quincy Hospital. (Dorchester Reporter)

In an op-ed for the Patriot Ledger, state Rep. James Cantwell of Marshfield says the state must do more to prevent tick-borne diseases.

A bill filed on Beacon Hill would require greater privacy protection for sensitive health information on forms mailed to people’s homes. (Boston Globe)

TRANSPORTATION

Public officials are wary of trying to put a saddle on the runaway Uber horse. Third in a series. (CommonWealth)

In Framingham, one gas station is selling gas for $3.43 a gallon and another a block away is charging $2.42. (Metrowest Daily News)

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

Michael Gerson offers a must-read analysis of the climate change challenge facing us. (Washington Post)

With federal officials uninterested in holding another hearing on the Kinder Morgan pipeline, Senate President Stan Rosenberg says he will organize his own. (MassLive)

The Coast Guard has proposed removing navigational markers from some of the waters in and around Wareham and letting the town take over setting and maintaining buoys if it wants them. (Standard-Times)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Hampden Sheriff Michael Ashe has put plans to relocate the Western Massachusetts Correctional Alcohol Center in Springfield on hold after opposition to the facility from neighbors. (The Republican)

Elder abuse cases are on the rise, in large part because the population of elders is rising rapidly. (Lowell Sun)

Four men pulled up to the Fall River Justice Center, where two of them had a court appearance scheduled, and were promptly arrested — for arriving in a stolen vehicle. (Herald News)

A judge has approved the sale of Aaron Hernandez‘s house and Hummer in a wrongful death suit stemming from the former Patriots’ star’s murder conviction. (Herald News)

MEDIA

Sesame Street is heading to HBO. (New York Times)