Category: Political

  • ICE detains Nahant activist and single mother, protesters rally for her release

    ICE detains Nahant activist and single mother, protesters rally for her release

    Photo: Steve Ahlquist. On Nov. 7, Immigration and Customs Enforcement took Siham Byah, a 40-year-old single mother from Nahant, Massachusetts, into custody. Byah faces a final deportation order after attending a check-in at an ICE office in Burlington, Massachusetts. Her 8-year-old son is currently in Department of Children and Families’ custody. According to a press…

  • Boston Mayor Marty Walsh wins second term: a recap from both candidates election night watch parties

    Boston Mayor Marty Walsh wins second term: a recap from both candidates election night watch parties

    Walsh celebrates reelection. Photo: Rida Ashraf. An exuberant crowd of Mayor Marty Walsh supporters at Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel chanted “We are Boston, we are one” Tuesday night, following the announcement of the incumbent’s sweeping victory in the Boston elections. This will be Walsh’s second four-year-term as the Boston mayor. “Four years ago, my dream…

  • Boston Clergy Reignite MLK’s Poor People’s Campaign

    As Americans all over the country eagerly await a real change, an enthusiastic crowd of people was heard chanting “No more! Poverty has to go!” outside Trinity Church on Thursday. The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, who is popularly known for his effective Moral Mondays movement, and the Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis, have picked…

  • Boston Police release arrest reports from August’s ‘Free Speech’ Rally

    Boston Police release arrest reports from August’s ‘Free Speech’ Rally

    Photos by Caitlin Russell Back in August, a handful of Nazis, White Supremacists, and “free speech advocates” came to Boston, where they were met by tens of thousands of counter-protesters. Or, as Boston Police (BPD) reported, somewhere between 200… And 2000. While the crowd was huge, only 33 people were arrested. And according to those…

  • Sixty-one affordable homes coming to Cambridge

    The week of July 16, LP Solutions transferred its equity stake in the Close Building to Just-A-Start (JAS), a local nonprofit, allowing it to expand its property share in the Cambridge affordable housing market. With this transfer, affordable housing will continue to grow at the Close Building, a former chocolate confectionary factory. LP Solutions is…

  • Mass. Lawmakers Consider $15 Minimum Wage

    Cheers and jeers filled the State House on Tuesday, Sept. 19  as supporters and opponents alike packed the Garner Auditorium to voice their opinions on a bill proposing a $15 hourly minimum wage at a hearing held by the Joint Force Committee of Labor and Development. The current minimum wage in Massachusetts is $11 an…

  • Teachers out in force to protest Betsy DeVos at Harvard

    When Education Secretary Betsy Devos came to the Kennedy School of Government last week, she faced protesters outside the school as well as inside. The crowd outside included members of the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance, a coalition of teachers, parents, students, and civil rights groups. They were out front with signs and amplifiers making it…

  • Boycotting the NFL Won’t Stop Police Brutality

    Boycotting the NFL Won’t Stop Police Brutality

    On the day of the New England Patriots’ first game of the year, a friend asked me if I was going to watch it. I said, “Of course I am,” and he immediately began to lecture me on how I was betraying my people. (He was white, go figure.) As everyone knows—unless you’ve been in…

  • American Fall: Anti-Flag’s Chris Barker on Distractions, Deregulations and Donald Trump

    American Fall: Anti-Flag’s Chris Barker on Distractions, Deregulations and Donald Trump

    Anti-Flag have been making music for over 20 years, and still remain “eternal optimists.” Photo My Meghan Thomson The number two has surrounded Chris Barker his entire life. The decade in which Barker was born, “Christopher” was number two on the Department of Social Security’s “Most Common Baby names of the 1980s” list. His tenure…

  • Al Franken in Conversation

    Al Franken in Conversation

    Senator and former SNL head writer Al Franken of Minnesota Photo by Ben Burgess Street Sense vendor Ken Martin took advantage of a chance meeting with Sen. Al Franken to arrange an interview. Franken was getting out of his car, and Martin was nearby doing what he normally does when he sells the paper. Remembering…