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The Bridge
State prison plans: mental therapy or torture?
On February 11, four steel cages were delivered to the state prison in Walpole. That was two months after publication of the Globe series on alleged suicides among Massachusetts prisoners. Just four square feet and eight feet high, they cost the Department of Corrections almost $60,000. The cages feature small metal benches and have openings for leg shackles. They have a sinister name, too: Custom Therapeutic Modules. (editors' note)
How to shop at Whole Foods
Very carefully. Now you can add eternal vigilance to the price of "shopping organic."
Will Harvard signs bring City fines?
Check out this link to a one minute video clip of signs from Harvard University's prominent lawless(?) School of Government, on a City-owned street light pole on Kirkland at Oxford Street. Will City Manager Healey fine Harvard as he did the Riverside Neighborhood Association?
Detroit activists, neighbors reverse an eviction
Direct action is becoming part of the movement against foreclosures and evictions which continues to grow across the country.
State of War: Kerry is Senate’s top war profiteer
What do the The Bluest State, The City of Peace, and the Democrats' 2004 presidential candidate have in common? They are all up to their ears in blood money....
Feds: Feed em clones, they'll never know the difference.
A U.S. government report, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, reveals that ZERO percent of those surveyed would feed food from clones to their children. Yet the government has decided not to require labelling of cloned food products.
Texas jury sides with medical pot user
Supporters of a Massachusetts ballot question decriminalizing marijuana should be encouraged by today’s acquittal in a medical marijuana jury trial.
Housing alliance announces emergency relief package
On Monday morning, representatives from a new housing coalition and a group of State legislators announced and explained the filing of three emergency bills dealing with the current foreclosure crisis among homeowners, tenants, and entire communities across the state.
New Orleans public housing defenders charged under terror law
The “critical structure” law was enacted by the Louisiana legislature in the wake of September 11. On Good Friday, March 21, three New Orleans residents who entered a vacant housing development during a rally were charged under this law. An act of civil disobedience was treated as an act of terrorism.
Patrick moving to sell courthouse in East Cambridge
Governor Patrick is quietly seeking authorization to sell State-owned courthouse properties in Worcester, Salem, Cambridge, and Lowell. No specific properties are named, but in each city the main targets are clear. One is the high-rise Edward J. Sullivan Courthouse in East Cambridge
Green-Rainbow to Governor: Steal this health care plan
Last month the Boston Globe editorialized that the State's compulsory health plan is only "suffering from a bit too much success." This month the Cambridge Health Alliance, which also serves Everett and Somerville, says the State plan may force it to slash services. [editor's note]
State budget faces looming recession, zooming health costs
The Massachusetts state budget has reached a point of reckoning, as the nation's looming recession threatens to shatter Beacon Hill's ability to juggle the budget's structural imbalance and skyrocketing health care costs, says a new policy brief released today by MassINC, a nonpartisan think tank in Boston.
Study: Norwegians recorded Arctic pollution in 1870
Scientists know that air pollution particles from mid-latitude cities migrate to the Arctic and form an ugly haze, but a new University of Utah study finds surprising evidence that polar explorers saw the same phenomenon as early as 1870.
CORI reform supporters jam State House hearing
Room A-1 at the State House was jammed this afternoon by hundreds of people supporting CORI reform. CORI is the Criminal Offender Record Information Act, which generates a file every time a person encounters police and the courts. CORI records are often used to deny jobs or housing, particularly to low income and people of color.
City: Please don’t make us fix sidewalks
A City lawyer has filed an application with a State board to avoid repairing some of the sidewalks cited earler for violations of State codes.
Palestine group defies a Zionist effort to shut down April conference
A single complaint from a pro-Israel labor group last week led a Boston activist center to tear up its contract to provide space for a major conference organized by the New England Committee to Defend Palestine (NECDP).
Police in Somerville clashed with Teamsters to shield scofflaw Russell
F. W. Russell, the trash disposal company used by Cambridge and Somerville, is waging a vicious campaign against its workers, most of whom want to join the union.
Central America activists dispute Feds, warn of potential harassment
Washington DC—The Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), targeted by an illegal FBI operation during the Reagan era, reports a new threat from the Department of Justice.
Holiday greetings from the cops
Two Cambridge men, aged 27 and 31, went into ABC Pizza with two friends just after 2:30 in the morning of the Sunday before Christmas. A half hour later they were in a police wagon, after being beaten, maced, and arrested by Cambridge police.
State board rules against City, for seniors, disabled
On January 7, the Massachusetts Architectural Access Board (MAAB) held hearings on three complaints I filed regarding the condition of Cambridge sidewalks. The locations are Erie Street between Brookline and Magazine, Pearl Street at Decatur, and Green Street at Hancock.
State prison plans: mental therapy or torture?