— “Millions of Mass. electric customers to get $50 credit on April bills, Healey says,” by Matt Stout, The Boston Globe: “Governor Maura Healey said Monday that millions of utility customers in Massachusetts will receive a $50 credit on their April electric bills, calling it one of several moves her administration intends to make to help offset surging energy costs many households faced this winter. State officials said that every electric residential customer in Massachusetts served by either Eversource, National Grid, or Unitil will get the credit, totaling $125 million, which the state would cover using compliance payment funds from utilities. Combined, National Grid and Eversource have more than 2.8 million total electric customers in Massachusetts.” — “Lawmakers urged to pass child sex abuse prevention bills,” by Christian M. Wade, The Eagle-Tribune: “Beacon Hill leaders are being urged by advocates of sexual assault victims to close ‘loopholes’ in state law they say are allowing child predators to go unpunished. On Monday, advocates held a briefing with lawmakers and state prosecutors to push for approval of bills that would criminalize sexual assault by adults in positions of authority, regardless of the age of consent, require schools to adopt child sex abuse prevention policies and expand training and improve screening of employees to identify past sexual misconduct.” PAY WALL — “‘Are you kidding?’ Mass. Gov. Healey slams Trump cuts to food for kids,” by John L. Micek, MassLive.
MASS GOP AMY CARNEVALE OFFERS NO SOLUTIONS, NOR DID SHE COMPREHEND THE ISSUE! JUST MORE BLABBER!
SEVERAL YEARS AGO, the Brockton Public Schools did a survey & determined that there were 20,000 students who were HOMELESS! That population has surely grown since then. It's time for you to THINK, AMY, if that's possible!
You want to repeat MAGA GOP LIES & target 'immigrants' by repeating those LIES...it doesn't work!
SLASHING FOOD ALSO IMPACTS NON-PROFITS! SO YOU DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH HUNGRY KIDS? MUSKRAT'S BUDGET SLASHING ARE TO FUND THE $4.5 TRILLION TAX CUTS FOR THE WEALTHY ON THE BACKS OF THE POOR! THE BLOVIATORS IGNORE THIS: More than 75% of families now seeking shelter are “long-time Massachusetts” residents, according to the Healey administration. excerpts: LOGAN TRUPIANO IS A MASS GOP BLOVIATOR! ALWAYS WORTH READING FOR HIS FACT FREE NONSENSE!
On a cold night, looking for New Bedford’s unhousedThe annual overnight census provides a snapshot of New Bedford’s homeless population. The 24-hour continuous effort is one of more than 400 censuses that take place on the same night in towns and cities across America. https://newbedfordlight.org/on-a-cold-night-looking-for-new-bedfords-unhoused/
Buffeted by six weeks of funding freezes and employee purges across the federal government, a visibly angry Gov. Maura Healey appeared to hit her tipping point on Monday. During a joint news conference with legislative leaders, the Democratic governor lambasted GOP cuts to a school nutrition program, calling it “just another example of bad actions” by President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk “that are going to hurt people here in our state.” Officials at the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education learned Friday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture was terminating a second round of grant funding for the Local Food for Schools program. Agency officials had “determined this agreement no longer effectuates agency priorities and that termination of the award is appropriate.” The $12.2 million headed for Massachusetts, known as the Northeast Food for Schools program “was to be used to provide local healthy food to child care programs and schools, and to create new procurement relationships with local farmers and small businesses,” Healey’s office said in a statement. When she was asked whether the state had a plan to backfill that loss of federal support, Healey, flanked by Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, state Senate President Karen Spilka, D-Middlesex/Norfolk, and House Speaker Ronald J. Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, didn’t mince words. “Are you kidding?” she shot back. “I think people have got to understand the scope of what we’re talking about here ... the scope is so vast when you’re talking about federal funding,” she said. “We’re talking about tens of billions of dollars,” she continued. Healey’s $62 billion budget proposal for the new fiscal year that starts July 1 is premised on more than $16 billion in assistance from Washington. That money funds a host of programs, including MassHealth, as Medicaid is known in the Bay State, as well as public education. “And that’s not even accounting for the funding that doesn’t even come to us,” Healey continued. “There’s money that comes directly to not-for-profits, and to organizations and to school districts directly that is also subject to just being cut completely. So, the numbers are so huge that there is no way the state can begin to fill the void and pick up the tab.” The state does have some limited avenues, including its Rainy Day Fund savings account, which is now flush with more than $8 billion in funding. Right now, however, there is no legislative appetite to tap those funds. The financial box in which the state finds itself reinforces the importance of court fights waged by state attorneys general —including Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell — who are trying to frustrate the White House’s efforts. “This money has been appropriated. It’s Congress who makes the laws. It’s Congress who appropriates, and they’re just ... taking it away,” Healey continued. “And [the administration is] also ignoring federal orders. People need to know that right now, while the [attorneys general] are having success, the Trump administration is ignoring federal orders.” But that’s not enough, Healey added. Lawmakers have to step up. And for that to happen, there has to be public pressure, she said. “That’s why people really need to be speaking up, and speaking to Republicans in Congress in particular, to get them to take action and to get Congress to take action,” she said. “Because really, they’re the only ones who can step in right now and assert their power, assert their role, [and] take back their power, which they’ve allowed Elon Musk, an unelected, to take from them.” Turning to Spilka and Mariano, Healey asked the lawmakers if they had anything to add. “Ditto,” Spilka quipped. In a statement, Massachusetts Republican Party Chairpeson Amy Carnevale chastised Healey for not finding the money to save the program, while still finding the cash to keep the state’s emergency shelter system afloat. “She has the resources to spend over $1 billion a year to fund the migrant crisis — but can’t backfill $12 million to ensure our children have access to healthy, locally sourced meals?” Carnevale said. The state’s emergency shelter system serves both permanent Massachusetts residents and migrant new arrivals. Healey, a former two-term state attorney general who sued Trump nearly 100 times during his first term, underscored what she said was the breakdown of the longstanding partnerships between the state and federal governments. “And I just want to be upfront with the people of Massachusetts, but at the end of the day, every state in this country has as its partner, or has had as its partner the federal government when it comes to funding,” she said. Legal experts have pointed to what they have described as a deliberate effort by the White House to use the funding stick as a way to bring state governments to heel. Those efforts are “not only legally dubious," they also are "unconstitutional," the American Civil Liberties Union asserted last month. Pointing to the food cuts and firings at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that will reverberate in Massachusetts, Healey again argued that “Congress needs to step up and act because all states are going to suffer.” “All states are going to suffer, and people are going to get hurt, and it’s a shame. It’s a shame,” she said.
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