Massachusetts

United Steelworkers In Solidarity With The Massachusetts Indigenous Legislative Agenda

February 8, 2020 Staff, Workers.org Organize! Indigenous Peoples, Labor Unions, Massachusetts, Solidarity

Whereas, USW Local 8751 represents over 1,000 school bus drivers in Boston and Randolph, Mass., most of whose families are from Haiti, Cape Verde, Barbados, Jamaica, Ethiopia, Santo Domingo, Vietnam, Honduras, states of the U.S. South, homelands that experienced waves of successive enslavement, invasion and occupation since 1492 by armies from Spain, Portugal, France, Britain, Italy and the United States...

Massachusetts State Police Becomes First Agency To Test Out Robot Dog

December 9, 2019 Bill Galluccio, Jamn945.iheart.com Educate! Fascism, Massachusetts, Police, Repression, Robots, Technology

The Massachusetts State Police have been quietly testing Boston Dynamics' robot dog named Spot and took it out into the field on two separate occasions. Boston Dynamics has been leasing Spot to a variety of companies, though it does prohibit them from using the robot dog to harm or intimidate people. Spot comes equipped with 360-degree video capabilities and is capable of walking up a flight of stairs and traversing uneven terrain. It can also open doors, using a mechanical arm that extends from its head.

After Second Deadly Crash, Regulators Say Trucks Leaking Fracked Gas Cargo Are Fine

October 19, 2019 By Justin Nobel, Desmogblog.com Create! Fracking, Massachusetts, Pipelines, Regulation

Last Friday, October 11, a “Virtual Pipeline” truck carrying compressed natural gas crashed on a highway in Orange, Massachusetts, killing the driver, leaking the potent greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere, and leading local authorities to evacuate nearby residents. “Let me put this in perspective, if one of these trucks blew up in the right conditions, it could destroy a neighborhood,” said Bill Huston, director of a research and advocacy program called Terra Vigilate, and one of a small group of advocates raising awareness about the extreme risks of fire and explosion of Virtual Pipeline trucks.

FANG Collective Protests ICE And 287g Agreements In Plymouth And Bristol Counties, MA

April 16, 2019 Washingtonbabylon.com Resist! ICE, Immigration, Massachusetts, Protests, Undocumented

We just carried out two disruptions at Plymouth County’s annual 287g steering committee meeting in Plymouth, Massachusetts. 287g agreements allow police and ICE to collaborate, and contributes to the separation of families via detention and incarceration. We demand that Plymouth County end their 287g agreement with ICE!

Massachusetts Begins Round Two In Its Fight To Tax Millionaires

April 16, 2019 By Jen Wofford, Inequality.org Create! Massachusetts, Reform, Taxes

Activists in Massachusetts were disappointed when the state’s Supreme Court struck down a ballot initiative last year to increase taxes on millionaires. But they’re already gearing up for round two. Their second try for the Fair Share Amendment – also known as the millionaire’s tax – began with a legislative hearing Thursday. Two hundred people, led by the Raise Up Massachusetts Coalition, packed the statehouse for a hearing on the Fair Share Amendment. The proposal, first brought about as a citizen’s amendment that would have appeared on the 2018 ballot, would impose an additional 4 percent tax on incomes over 1 million. The resulting revenue would fund public education and transportation infrastructure.

MA – Mothers Out Front Launches “Beyond Gas” Campaign Team And 2-Year Campaign

April 11, 2019 Anne Wright, Mothersoutfront.org Resist! Gas, Massachusetts, Women

We started the Launch Meeting with a celebration of all that has been done in past years to limit the use of dangerous fracked gas, and to stop the build-out of gas infrastructure in Massachusetts. Attendees wrote our successes out on a timeline on the wall, and then added our visions for the future: the wins we hope to have in this two-year campaign. Members were hopeful that we would stop the Weymouth Compressor Station, join the fight in Western Mass.

Top Cannabis Regulator: Massachusetts Should Create State Public Bank

March 1, 2018 Staff, Publicbankinginstitute.org Create! Marijuana, Massachusetts, New Economy, Public Banks

Recreational pot sales are scheduled to begin in July in Massachusetts, and as yet, there are no banking services for the industry predicted to have $1 billion in sales by 2020. Cannabis Control Commission chairman Steve Hoffman said in the Boston Globe, “There’s a high degree of urgency, so it’s something we need to start talking about.” Hoffman suggests the state should consider creating a state-run bank. That adds Massachusetts to the list of states — including California and Ohio — considering Public Banking due to the urgent needs of the legalized marijuana industry. Hoffman continued: “Unfortunately, it’s a real possibility that the recreational industry won’t have access to any banking services. We’re working as hard as we can to preempt that, but we can’t force any bank or credit union to service this industry.”

Massachusetts, Protesters Balk At Pipeline Company’s Payments To Police

December 5, 2017 Eoin Higgins, huffingtonpost.com Resist! Massachusetts, Pipelines, Police, Protests

By Eoin Higgins for The Huffington Post - SANDISFIELD, Mass. ― When Karla Colon-Aponte arrived at the Otis State Forest on the morning of Oct. 25, she intended to join her fellow protesters praying beside energy giant Kinder Morgan’s Connecticut Expansion Project line, a four-mile-long natural gas pipeline that runs in a loop through the town of Sandisfield in the Berkshire hills of western Massachusetts. The Connecticut Expansion Project has been the focus of sustained activist resistance in this sleepy rural community ever since Kinder Morgan began work at the site in late April. The pipeline, which went into operation last month, links natural gas infrastructure in Massachusetts, New York and Connecticut. The portion of the project in Sandisfield cuts through Berkshire wilderness, across old-growth forest and alongside waterways, which pipeline critics say could potentially damage the natural resources in the state forest. Colon-Aponte, 22, is Taina, the indigenous people of Puerto Rico, and is part of a group known as the “water protectors,” who have traveled the country protesting energy infrastructure projects, using nonviolent resistance tactics to stop projects that they see as endangering water resources. The Massachusetts State Police, expecting trouble from the protesters, were already on site in force when Colon-Aponte arrived at the pipeline. The two sides converged on a dirt road as tensions began to rise with the early morning mist. It started as a faceoff between the protesters and the cops, but quickly escalated. As the police closed in, Colon-Aponte tried to move away from the front line.

22 Arrested By Massachusetts State Police At Protest Of Kinder Morgan Pipeline

August 7, 2017 Lucas Ropek, www.masslive.com Resist! Massachusetts, Pipelines, Protesters Arrested, Protests

By Lucas Ropek for Mass Live - SANDISFIELD - Twenty two people were arrested at a staged protest of the construction of the Kinder Morgan pipeline extension in Sandisfield Saturday morning, police said. The "Connecticut Expansion," an extension of an already extant Kinder Morgan pipeline that will stretch four miles through Berkshire County's Otis state forest, has been the site of repeated protests during recent months, including a recent incident involving the arrest of 98-year-old Northampton peace activist Frances Crowe. Massachusetts State Troopers took the demonstrators into custody Saturday after they refused police orders to leave a restricted area of the construction, police said in a statement. The protesters were charged with trespassing, police said. Arrests have been a common occurrence during recent protests, with activists commonly trespassing onto pipeline property as an act of protest. Many protesters are members of the Sugar Shack Alliance, a Western Massachusetts affiliation of activists that pledges non-violent resistance to the fossil fuel industry. Police noted that the arrests were made "peacefully and without resistance," similar to other trespassing arrests that have occurred in the vicinity of the pipeline project during recent weeks.

Massachusetts Governor Signs Bill To Allow Recreational Pot

August 1, 2017 Reid Wilson, www.thehill.com Create! Legislation, Marijuana, Marijuana Legalization, Massachusetts

By Reid Wilson for The Hill - Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) has signed a new measure that sets in motion a nearly yearlong process to legalize marijuana for recreational use, after months of negotiations with the state legislature. The law comes nine months after voters in Massachusetts and three other states approved ballot measures to allow recreational marijuana. The first recreational pot shops are set to open in July 2018. “We appreciate the careful consideration the legislature took to balance input from lawmakers, educators, public safety officials and public health professionals, while honoring the will of the voters regarding the adult use of marijuana,” Baker said in a statement. The new legislation makes significant changes to the initiative Bay State voters passed last year, increasing sales taxes on legal marijuana from 12 percent to 20 percent. The state will levy a 17 percent tax, while municipalities will issue their own 3 percent tax. Massachusetts anticipates generating as much as $83 million in tax revenue from marijuana sales during the first year of legalization alone, the state Department of Revenue estimated earlier this year. Sales during the second year are expected to top out at more than $1 billion, generating tax revenue of up to $200 million.

SJC Rules Against ICE In Blockbuster Massachusetts Immigration Case

July 26, 2017 Chris Villani, www.bostonherald.com Resist! ICE, Immigration, Massachusetts

By Chris Villani for Boston Herald - Massachusetts court officers cannot hold a suspected illegal immigrant in custody at the request of federal immigration agents if there is no criminal warrant or criminal detainer, the state’s highest court today found today in a blockbuster ruling sure to send shockwaves through the Bay State's immigration enforcement system. "Massachusetts law provides no authority for Massachusetts court officers to arrest and hold an individual solely on the basis of a Federal civil immigration detainer beyond the time that individual would otherwise be entitled to a release from State custody,” the unanimous Supreme Judicial Court ruling states. The case was brought to the SJC by a Cambodian national named Sreynuon Lunn who was in custody on a case out of Boston Municipal Court. Unable to post a $1,500 bail, Lunn was held until his trial date, Feb. 6 of this year, at which time the charges were dismissed when Suffolk prosecutors could not move forward with a trial. However, Judge Michael Coyne refused to release Lunn due to a request from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to court documents.

Massachusetts To Vote On Taxing The Wealthy

June 19, 2017 Staff, www.massteacher.org Create! Massachusetts, New Economy, Taxes, wealth inequality

By Staff of MTA - The Massachusetts Legislature, meeting in a Constitutional Convention, has approved sending the proposed Fair Share Amendment to the November 2018 state ballot. The legislators’ vote of 134-55 on Wednesday, June 14, was the second by a Constitutional Convention on the measure, as is required for amendments to the Massachusetts Constitution. The citizens’ initiative would create an additional 4 percent tax on annual income over $1 million. The tax would raise almost $2 billion a year for public education and transportation. To ensure that the tax would be applied only to the highest-income residents, the $1 million threshold would be adjusted each year to reflect cost-of-living increases. MTA President Barbara Madeloni said that the amendment is needed because “our public schools and colleges are drastically underfunded.” “We have many communities in need of free high-quality prekindergarten,” she continued. “We need to make sure that arts, athletics and cultural activities are available to students no matter where they live — and we cannot let cost be a hurdle to students looking to pursue higher education in our public colleges and universities. It’s time to give the voters public education funding that is sufficient to meet the needs of all of our students.”

Massachusetts: 21,000 Drug Cases Could Be Dismissed

April 22, 2017 Staff, www.aljazeera.com Educate! ACLU, Drugs, Massachusetts

By Staff of Al Jazeera - More than 21,000 convicted drug offenders in the US state of Massachusetts may have their cases dismissed because a former police chemist tampered with evidence and falsified tests. If the cases are thrown out, the event would mark the largest dismissal of criminal convictions in UShistory, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Massachusetts. The state's highest court had ordered district attorneys in seven counties to produce lists by Tuesday indicating how many of approximately 24,000 cases involving Annie Dookhan they would be unable or unwilling to prosecute if the defendants were granted new trials. The cases would be formally dismissed by court action, expected on Thursday, the ACLU said. "Today is a major victory for justice and fairness, and for thousands of people in the commonwealth who were unfairly convicted of drug offences," Matthew Segal, legal director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, said on Tuesday. An investigation in 2013 found that Dookhan falsified test results as far back as 2004.

Why Are They Still Prosecuting Pot Cases In Massachusetts?

February 6, 2017 Mike Crawford, www.alternet.org Create! Marijuana, Massachusetts

By Mike Crawford for Alternet. With marijuana having been legalized through the ballot in Massachusetts, and with it now being legal to grow 12 cannabis plants in a household, one might expect to see any existing small time marijuana grow cases to be dismissed.At the same time, state Sen Jason Lewis, considered the leading expert on weed among Beacon Hill lawmakers who themselves know little to nothing, is aiming to severely cut the cannabis possession limit from 10 ounces at home to 2 ounces, as well as limit for home grown plants from 12 to 6. Ironically, Lewis and others have shown superficial support for criminal justice reform—all while lining up to kill and compromise marijuana legalization, one of the clearest wins for criminal justice reformers in recent Mass memory. There is, of course, a choice. Instead of gutting the reform, Lewis should consider joining his colleague Jamie Eldridge in developing an amnesty bill that would dismiss charges, free prisoners, and seal criminal records related to marijuana. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case.

Political Elites Are Trying To Wreck Massachusetts’ New Marijuana Law

December 10, 2016 Mike Crawford, www.alternet.org Resist! Marijuana Legalization, Massachusetts, Ruling Class

By Mike Crawford for AlterNet - Immediately after Massachusetts voters passed Question 4 to legalize marijuana, the top office-holder tasked with leading the implementation and regulation of the law, Treasurer Deb Goldberg, was already asking to change it. She wasn’t alone. Within a week of people passing the initiative to tax and regulate cannabis, many other influential Bay State politicians—and at least one hack scribe, Boston Globe pro-business siren Shirley Leung—were advocating to repeal parts of the law that 1,745,945 heads pulled for.

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