Massachusetts State Senator
Non-profit cultural organizations spur economic growth. One dollar spent on the arts brings in $2.30 for local businesses. On the left, speaking with constituents with MASSCreative. We agreed to make that case during the debate over the budget for the new fiscal year. On the right, with Rob Mitchell of Concord, Carole Charnow of Bedford, Jerry Wedge of Concord, Allene Kussin of Concord and Belinda Jentz of Waltham.
Met with members of the Mass. Coalition for the Homeless. One of their top priorities is legislation establishing a Homeless Bill of Rights, on which I’m a co-sponsor. You can read more about the bill here.
The Mass. Legislature’s internal rules matter. Here’s why citizens should weigh in:
As part of the Senate’s statewide listening tour, my colleagues and I visited the United Teen Equality Center in Lowell. UTEC was founded for local teens in response to gang violence. Had a delicious lunch from Cafe UTEC prepared by some young chefs.
Sonia DeMarta, co-founder of the Farmers Market in Lexington and Healthy Eating consultant at Whole Foods in Bedford, got a State House audience to dig in on the topic of healthy eating.
The State Senate’s Commonwealth Conversations Tour stopped at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. My colleagues told me later that they were astonished by what they saw. Among other things, the translation of military R&D to non-military uses is as robust today as it was when ARPANET led to the development of the internet.
Brings you up short. Rivets the mind. Emotional, even. At the Museum of Fine Arts viewing the contents of a time capsule entombed in 1795 in a cornerstone of the Massachusetts State House. Sam Adams and Paul Revere chose these things, arranged them, reaching through time to touch people like us, future residents of a young country they had just fashioned out of passion and ideas.
I heard from two high-ranking constituents on the importance of legal aid for low-income people with respect to non-criminal problems like evictions and heating shutoffs. With Boston Bar Association President Julia Huston of Weston (right) and President-elect Lisa Arrowood of Lincoln (left).
I joined colleagues on site visits in Worcester and Hampden counties, on another leg of the State Senate listening tour. Top: Hearing from Monson Town Administrator Evan Brassard in a new municipal building rebuilt after the original was destroyed by the tornadoes. Left: Speaking with Dan Mardirosian, Senior Operations Manager of the Worcester Tech Biomanufacturing Education & Training Center. Right: At National Grid’s NE Distribution Center.
Citizens United has allowed special interests to play an even more discouraging role in the political process. A group of constituents is fighting back by calling for an amendment to the U.S. constitution. I’m with them. I recently co-sponsored the bill filed by Sen. Jamie Eldridge and Rep. Cory Atkins.
