Boston Mayor Martin Walsh plans to speak more about the good that safe injection sites can have on preventing overdose deaths and reducing harm for drug users after his recent visit to Canada where such programs were front and center. Walsh traveled to Toronto and Montreal this past weekend. He was joined by Chief of…
Walsh introduces housing and economic mobility bills to legislature
Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced his comprehensive housing security and economic mobility legislative package on Jan. 7. The 14 bills are the first of four legislative packages that the City of Boston will be submitting to the Massachusetts Legislature. The six housing bills concern programs and issues such as the Linkage Program, the Community Preservation…
Former Youth Workers Sentenced for Roles in Abusing Boys at a Residential Facility on Long Island
Four former Volunteers of America youth workers are facing jail time after a judge found them guilty of abusing teenagers while working on Boston’s Long Island in 2014. Suffolk Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Locke found Silvio Depina, 40, Jalise Andrade, 37, Hermano Joseph, 28, and Ainsley LaRoche, 44, guilty of beating, sexually assaulting and threatening…
Workers Gain Protection Under New Law on Non-Compete Contracts
“The law makes them more expensive than they used to be,” Davis said. “It’s not something you just do anymore. For a long period of time, in Massachusetts and in other jurisdictions, it really was something that employers just did – you know, ‘You want to work here? You need to sign this.’
Gone too soon: Interfaith memorial honors homeless people who passed this year
At the 29th National Interfaith Homeless Memorial Service, people of many faiths, and people who have no faith at all, honored the lives and mourned the deaths of those who left this world behind while enduring hardships most of us can only attempt to understand. The service took place inside Church on the Hill on…
Massachusetts has highest increase in homeless population in the country
The homeless population of Massachusetts has increased by 14 percent in the last year, according to a recent report from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development. According to the report, there are 20,068 homeless persons in the Commonwealth this year, up from 17,565 in 2017. This was the highest increase in the country…
Man indicted for deadly beating of homeless man
A Suffolk County Grand Jury has indicted 30-year-old Clifton Moore with first-degree murder in the Sept. 6 beating death of Joshua Rivera, 54, who was sleeping in a Charleston playground. According to a press release by the Suffolk County District Attorney, Moore is already locked up in Middlesex County on an unrelated assault charge. Suffolk…
Boston Has One of Nation’s Highest Homeless Rates
New research shows that while homelessness in the United States may be down overall, it’s still rising in the most expensive rental markets. And Boston has one of the highest homeless rates. Christopher Glynn, assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire, is one of the lead authors of the national Zillow-sponsored study. The researchers…
Police Surveillance Put Under Civilian Oversight in Cambridge
The Cambridge City Council passed the Community Control Over Police Surveillance (CCOPS) ordinance Monday, Dec. 10, making Cambridge the first city in the Boston area to implement civilian oversight over the use of police surveillance technologies. The new law says that no city department can fund, use, acquire, or use any surveillance technologies without first…
Should the Boston School Committee be elected?
The night of Dec. 11 was cold and biting, but didn’t keep Boston’s residents from making their way to City Hall to attend a nearly three hour hearing, where people spoke of accountability, racial and class discrimination, and freedom when debating the governance structure of the Boston School Committee. Two panels spoke in stark opposition…