Waltham Welcomes Wolverine

Wolverine makes great shoes (my wife and I love our Merrells).  Very happy the company’s New England operations are now in Waltham.  Here I am, cutting the ribbon with the Guv, his wife Lauren, Waltham Mayor McCarthy, and the Wolverine team.

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Targeted by hate in Orlando

“The attack in Orlando was on gay people.  The attack was on Latinos.   The attack was on immigrants.  The attack was on Americans.  The attack was on all of us as human beings.  How to repel the attack?  In the U.S.,  the pace of change is painfully slow in the short run — but reaches farther than we ever dreamed in the long run.  That’s OK.  We’ll take it.  For the hard work of making our country a better place, each of us has signed up for the long run.”

— State Sen. Mike Barrett, June 15, 2016, vigil in Lexington, MA after the Orlando massacre.
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Marking the 50th anniversary of a win for gender equality

In 1966 Roberta “Bobbi” Gibb became the first woman to finish the Boston Marathon.  The rules restricted the competition to men, but Bobbi jumped in at the starting line to join the male runners.  She completed the course in an impressive 3 hours and 21 minutes.  To mark the 50th anniversary of her trail-blazing, the State Senate honored her.  Here, with Sen. Jehlen, Sen. Lewis, our honoree, and Sen. Lovely.

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Librarians educate legislators

Each year, Massachusetts residents borrow 6.5 million items that happen to be unavailable at their local libraries.  This, thanks to resource sharing among communities.  I recently chatted about funding for this initiative and others with Sudbury librarians Megan Statza Warren, Esme Green and Marie Royea.

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Catching up with the LWV

Many thanks to the Weston League of Women Voters of Massachusetts for hosting its recent legislative talk. State Rep. Alice Peisch, D-Wellesley, and I took questions on solar initiatives and rising health care costs, to name a few. Photo courtesy of Katherine Wolfthal of the League.

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