Category: Political
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Elizabeth Warren kicks off campaign in Lawrence
Elizabeth Warren made her presidential campaign official in Lawrence, at a Saturday morning kick-off event that alluded to the mill city’s history of labor strikes and long lineage of immigrant communities. The Massachusetts senator’s speech was full of talking points on issues ranging from corruption in Washington, D.C. to the racial wealth gap. But it…
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Cambridge votes to add gender neutral option to birth certificates
The Cambridge City Council voted unanimously last Monday to draft a home-rule petition allowing residents to amend birth certificates to a third gender category, “X,” rather than male or female, as well as streamlining the change process. The proposed bill is intended to accommodate residents who identify as neither exclusively male nor female and to…
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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…
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Federal workers protest government shutdown
Senator Ed Markey gives a speech about standing with the people to end the shutdown. Dozens of federal employees rallied at Boston’s Post Office Square in protest of the government shutdown on Friday Jan. 11, the first day that thousands of federal workers did not receive their paychecks. In December, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously…
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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…
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Election Shows Strong Support for LGBTQ Rights
Voter approval of Question 3 on the Massachusetts ballot was a victory for transgender rights in the Bay State. Approval of the measure upholding the state’s transgender nondiscrimination law was one of several victories for LGBTQ rights and candidates nationwide. But the civil rights of transgender people in particular have been under attack in several…
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How the loss of Native American languages affects our understanding of the natural world
Alaska has a “linguistic emergency,” according to the Alaskan Governor Bill Walker. A report warned earlier this year that all of the state’s 20 Native American languages might cease to exist by the end of this century, if the state did not act. American policies, particularly in the six decades between the 1870s and 1930s,…
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Ayanna Pressley Urges People to Vote and Pine Street Inn Registration Drive
Ayanna Pressley. File Photo Boston City Councilor and Democratic Congressional Candidate Ayanna Pressley spoke at a Pine Street Inn voter registration forum on Oct. 10, to encourage homeless people to vote. Pine Street Inn, an organization which provides housing, food and job training for people experiencing homelessness, addressed misconceptions about voting rights and helped people…