The MetroWest Daily News
“It’s a discussion worth having. Climate change won’t wait for Congress to show leadership. Where better than Massachusetts, birthplace of innovation, to launch an aggressive response to the threat of climate change?”
News Clips
Senators Seek Quick Action on “Disconcerting” DCF Report
State House News
After an independent group called for reforms to the way the Department of Children and Families handles appeals, Senate President Stanley Rosenberg on Wednesday called the report “very disconcerting” and committed to working with the administration to resolve the highlighted issues. Lawmakers last year ordered the state’s Child Advocate to hire an outside consultant to review DCF’s “fair hearing” process. The report released Monday from the Ripples Group found a growing backlog of cases waiting to be decided, a lack of access for families to easily-understood case materials and a system that lends itself to a perception that hearing officers are not independent from department administrators.
Read moreBarrett draws on Canadian experience to promote carbon fees
State House News
“British Columbia, with its population of about 4.4 million people, first imposed a carbon tax in 2008 as part of the province’s climate action plan. By 2012, the province had hit its goal of reducing carbon emissions by 6 percent below 2007 levels at the same time that British Columbia’s population was growing and its gross domestic product climbed 9 percent.”
With Mass. Off Track On Emissions Goal, Advocates Seek 1st State Carbon Tax
WBUR
“This is carbon pricing,” State Senator Mike Barrett said, “and the idea is to make it a little more expensive to pollute, a little more expensive to buy something that results in the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere — which is the greenhouse gas that causes climate change — make it a little more expensive to do all that, but then you send the money back so that you spend it on something less polluting.”
Mass. can lead on greenhouse gas reduction
Boston Globe
In the The Boston Globe, Mike Ross writes on my bill to combat climate change by pricing carbon:
“The idea of a lone state like Massachusetts getting out ahead of the rest of the country and leading a program of this magnitude might strike some as incredulous. But this is precisely what the Commonwealth has been doing on a host of issues — from marriage equality to health care. Being ahead of the curve is a good thing, especially when our future depends on it.”
Time to pass measures to ease challenges of the long-term unemployed
Boston Globe
Joan Cirillo, President and CEO of Operation A.B.L.E., makes the case for two bills I’ve filed.
Will Charlie Baker’s Management Skills Be Enough?
Crushing debt part of cycle of poverty, according to report by Crittenton Women’s Union
State House News
“Barrett said there is no evidence that a person’s credit score indicates what type of employee they will make, and he wants to outlaw the practice of employers checking scores. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has filed similar legislation at the federal level.”
Twenty-five years ago, a key moment in gay rights fight
The Boston Globe
“This was all about politics, not about a wholesale conversion to fairness,” said Senator Michael Barrett, the bill’s primary sponsor.
