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    Boston Resists Trump’s Domestic Gag Rule

    Boston City Hall Plaza was a sea of pink on Tuesday, May 24, where protesters gathered outside the regional office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to speak out against President Trump’s proposed domestic gag rule. The rule, submitted last week, takes direct aim at Planned Parenthood and other reproductive health organizations…

    Home and Healthy for Good Wins Hearst Health Award

    The Massachusetts Housing & Shelter Alliance (MHSA) has received the Hearst Health Prize for Excellence in Population Health. The prize recognizes MHSA’s Home & Healthy for Good (HHG) program, which was founded in 2006. The win was announced on Tuesday, March 20 at the 18th annual Population Health Colloquium in Philadelphia. “All of us at…

    HUD’s Rent Increases and Work Requirements Called ‘Unconscionable and Immoral’

    Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Ben Carson, proposed changes to rent structures  that are sparking backlash from housing advocates and prominent legislators on Capitol Hill. The change in rent structures calls for a five percent increase in monthly rent contributions based on a family’s monthly income or the amount earned by an individual working 15…

    Panel analyzes ways to increase opportunities through wages and social programs

    A report outlining the effects of social programs and removing barriers for low-income individuals and families was discussed at a recent panel discussion hosted by Action for Boston Community Development in Dorchester. The “Obstacles on the Road to Opportunity” report, sponsored by the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center and Massachusetts Association for Community Action, concluded…

    Photo: Zengzheng Wang

    Boston sees continued success housing the homeless, but still more work to do

    Mayor Marty Walsh at the 2014 opening of Southampton Street Shelter. Photo: Zengzheng Wang. On Thursday, Boston officials announced that their push to end chronic individual homelessness has resulted in housing 301 individuals since the start of 2016. This is in addition to the 846 veterans they have housed since 2015. The new numbers reflect…

    HUD’s Rent Increases and Work Requirements Called ‘Unconscionable and Immoral’

    Housing and Urban Development Secretary, Ben Carson, proposed changes to rent structures  that are sparking backlash from housing advocates and prominent legislators on Capitol Hill. The change in rent structures calls for a five percent increase in monthly rent contributions based on a family’s monthly income or the amount earned by an individual working 15…

    Q&A with Tray Johns, Advocate for Incarcerated Women

    Tray Johns is head of Fedfam4life, a sisterhood to restore incarcerated women and former prisoners, focusing on women of color and LGBT women. Her knowledge of the law, her ability to stand up for her rights and for those of her sisters and brothers is astounding. It’s fitting, since as a child Johns dreamed of…

    Arts & Culture

    David Tennant: ‘I was told acting was a daft idea.’

    In this letter to his younger self, ex-Doctor, Jessica Jones villain and Broadchurch star David Tennant looks back on life, loss and cracking the big time in acting I didn’t really enjoy adolescence; I was always aware that I was waiting for adulthood to start. I found the lack of control over your own affairs…

    Spare Change Poetry: Linda Larson

    9 Below We didn’t want to go to a shelter. They would have parted us men from women. You and I caught in unforgiving ice, looked for an unlocked car to save us. We found one but it was clear, even then we would not survive the night. By chance we found an open hallway.…

    Punk In Drublic: An Interview with Fat Mike of NOFX

    Punk rock has always been about going against the grain, and Fat Mike of NOFX has been tackling social norms and taboos on and off the stage since he picked up a bass guitar over 35 years ago. Aside from his brightly colored mohawk and sleeves of tattoos, he’s also cross-dressed for most of his…

    Live Review: Green Day Brings a Revolution to Xfinity Center

    All Photos by Jason Greenough Green Day always seems to have the perfect timing when it comes to their politically charged music. The band of Oakland natives brought the summer leg of their Revolution Radio tour to Xfinity Center in Mansfield on Monday night, and with it, they brought a feverish angst that showed their…

    David Tennant: ‘I was told acting was a daft idea.’

    In this letter to his younger self, ex-Doctor, Jessica Jones villain and Broadchurch star David Tennant looks back on life, loss and cracking the big time in acting I didn’t really enjoy adolescence; I was always aware that I was waiting for adulthood to start. I found the lack of control over your own affairs…

    Columns

    A Lesson In Impermanence

    My wife worked hard almost all of her life, except for a ten year period where she was very sick, and she decided, about 9 months ago to treat herself to her final car.  She’s never had a really nice car before and she sprung for a 2017 Toyota Camry. It was beautiful and I…

    Bizarre Boston: Raising Hell at Harvard

    When I think about college students raising hell, I picture kegs of beer, red plastic Solo cups and loud music. Oh, and maybe a beer funnel or two. In my mind, the phrase “raising hell” is just a metaphor for having a wild time. However, maybe it’s not always just a metaphor. For some Harvard…

    The Ruins of Pahokee

    Suddenly the dreams come.  For a second there is the face of Ar Lain Ta laughing and then I am back in Pahokee, Fla., with my wife.  She stares at me with her giant eyes, the corners of her full lips are turned down, she is dark with the bite of the tropical sun as…

    LAST WORD: Christina Sukghian Houle

    About a month ago, an artist called Christina Sukhgian Houle dropped into the Spare Change News’ headquarters to meet with some of the vendors. Christina has joined forces with the newspaper’s co-founder, James Shearer, with the goal of making a documentary on homelessness in the Boston area. Christina is a relatively recent transplant to Greater…

    A Lesson In Impermanence

    My wife worked hard almost all of her life, except for a ten year period where she was very sick, and she decided, about 9 months ago to treat herself to her final car.  She’s never had a really nice car before and she sprung for a 2017 Toyota Camry. It was beautiful and I…

    Holidays and Gray Hair

    My birthday flew by, squashed between three holidays—Thanksgiving, Christmas/Chanukah and New Year’s Eve. While time was having its way with me, I had to go to the dermatologist to have various blemishes checked out. The older I get, the more I hate going to the doctor, even though, as my wife Mary Esther says, it’s…

    The Avoidable Crisis

    Stanley Forman: 40 Years After the Soiling of Old Glory

    The photo was chilling. Before a crowd of onlookers, a white man appears to be attempting to stab a black man with the tip of a flagpole. “It really showed racism,” said photographer Stanley Forman 40 years after he took the Pulitzer Prize-winning snapshot of an anti-busing protest that had turned violent. “It was whites…

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