Monday, March 17, 2014

NYT ARTICLE ON RON SUSSKIND AND HIS AUTISTIC SON

This is the  link to the fascinating description of a family's response to their autistic son. It is a tribute to the family and to both sons.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/09/magazine/reaching-my-autistic-son-through-disney.html

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

STEVE GROSSMAN SUPPORTS IN-STATE TUITION

Viewpoint: College-bound immigrants deserve in-state tuition         by     Steve Grossman   January 14, 2014  Masslive.com

Massachusetts has been America’s laboratory for experimentation and innovation for nearly four centuries.
Yet in 2014, our Commonwealth’s commitment to progressive public policy designed to aid our most vulnerable children has fallen behind.
Seventeen states, including Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, and Utah – not exactly hotbeds of progressive politics, have passed legislation or implemented policies allowing undocumented immigrants who graduate from a local high school to receive in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities.
Even New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, widely considered one of the GOP’s top presidential prospects in 2016, recently signed in-state tuition into law.
So why does Massachusetts lag when others lead?
Immigrants searching for a land filled with opportunities and a better life settled on Massachusetts as the birthplace of freedom in the New World.
But currently, only immigrants with a federal work permit are eligible for in-state tuition. In 2012, President Obama announced Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a federal program allowing immigrants who came to the United States as children under the age of 16, along with other requirements, to gain work authorization. Yet many students in Massachusetts remain ineligible for the in-state tuition rate, having not yet obtained a federal work permit.
Pending legislation on Beacon Hill can change that. This year, legislators can continue our proud history of leading America by passing “An act regarding tuition equity for high school graduates in the Commonwealth,” a bill sponsored by Representative Denise Provost and Senator Linda Dorcena Forry. The bill grants undocumented immigrants access to in-state tuition, with its key provision requiring they attend high school for three years in Massachusetts and graduate.
This bill is a win for our schools, our students, our families, and our economy. I urge my colleagues in the legislature to bring it to a vote and pass it without delay.
Few undocumented immigrants can afford to pay out-of-state tuition rates. Offering them in-state tuition would provide our 29 public colleges and universities with about $2 million in new revenues during the first year alone, according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. By the fourth year that revenue would increase to between $6 and $7 million.
Because the number of students likely to enroll remains fewer than 1,000, schools would not incur high costs and instead would actually profit from this policy.
We need our talented, innovative, and imaginative young people to stay here in Massachusetts. We can’t afford to lose a single motivated young person and miss out on the contribution he or she will make to our rapidly-changing innovation economy.
Yet passing this legislation is not only a question of economics or politics.
Fundamentally, it’s a question about what type of society we want to live in.
Will we be a Commonwealth that provides all its children who work hard and play by the rules, regardless of where they come from and what they look like, with the resources they need to create a brighter future?
It’s time to make fairness and common sense central ingredients of our state’s immigration policy when our national policy, paralyzed for years by Washington’s partisan gridlock, is both inequitable and illogical.
It’s time to level the playing field for hard-working immigrants who grew up with an unwavering belief in the American Dream – the idea that educational achievement translates to economic mobility – yet suddenly see that dream collapse after 12th grade with the daunting price tag of a college education.
It’s time we honor the centuries-old principle of opportunity that built this country – the principle that says if you work hard to raise a family and educate your children, they can build a better life because of your sacrifices.
Immigrant children who grew up with an unshakeable devotion to this Commonwealth and this country are not asking for much. They simply want a chance to go to school and build a career.
Who are we, as elected officials, to get in their way?
Washington may be broken, but that has never stopped Massachusetts from leading the way.
So let’s not play politics with our children and their future. Let’s allow hard-working high school students who come from another country the opportunity to go to college.


Massachusetts has been America’s laboratory for experimentation and innovation for nearly four centuries.
Yet in 2014, our Commonwealth’s commitment to progressive public policy designed to aid our most vulnerable children has fallen behind.
Seventeen states, including Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, and Utah – not exactly hotbeds of progressive politics, have passed legislation or implemented policies allowing undocumented immigrants who graduate from a local high school to receive in-state tuition rates at public colleges and universities.
Even New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, widely considered one of the GOP’s top presidential prospects in 2016, recently signed in-state tuition into law.
So why does Massachusetts lag when others lead?
Immigrants searching for a land filled with opportunities and a better life settled on Massachusetts as the birthplace of freedom in the New World.
But currently, only immigrants with a federal work permit are eligible for in-state tuition. In 2012, President Obama announced Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a federal program allowing immigrants who came to the United States as children under the age of 16, along with other requirements, to gain work authorization. Yet many students in Massachusetts remain ineligible for the in-state tuition rate, having not yet obtained a federal work permit.
Pending legislation on Beacon Hill can change that. This year, legislators can continue our proud history of leading America by passing “An act regarding tuition equity for high school graduates in the Commonwealth,” a bill sponsored by Representative Denise Provost and Senator Linda Dorcena Forry. The bill grants undocumented immigrants access to in-state tuition, with its key provision requiring they attend high school for three years in Massachusetts and graduate.
This bill is a win for our schools, our students, our families, and our economy. I urge my colleagues in the legislature to bring it to a vote and pass it without delay.
Few undocumented immigrants can afford to pay out-of-state tuition rates. Offering them in-state tuition would provide our 29 public colleges and universities with about $2 million in new revenues during the first year alone, according to the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. By the fourth year that revenue would increase to between $6 and $7 million.
Because the number of students likely to enroll remains fewer than 1,000, schools would not incur high costs and instead would actually profit from this policy.
We need our talented, innovative, and imaginative young people to stay here in Massachusetts. We can’t afford to lose a single motivated young person and miss out on the contribution he or she will make to our rapidly-changing innovation economy.
Yet passing this legislation is not only a question of economics or politics.
Fundamentally, it’s a question about what type of society we want to live in.
Will we be a Commonwealth that provides all its children who work hard and play by the rules, regardless of where they come from and what they look like, with the resources they need to create a brighter future?
It’s time to make fairness and common sense central ingredients of our state’s immigration policy when our national policy, paralyzed for years by Washington’s partisan gridlock, is both inequitable and illogical.
It’s time to level the playing field for hard-working immigrants who grew up with an unwavering belief in the American Dream – the idea that educational achievement translates to economic mobility – yet suddenly see that dream collapse after 12th grade with the daunting price tag of a college education.
It’s time we honor the centuries-old principle of opportunity that built this country – the principle that says if you work hard to raise a family and educate your children, they can build a better life because of your sacrifices.
Immigrant children who grew up with an unshakeable devotion to this Commonwealth and this country are not asking for much. They simply want a chance to go to school and build a career.
Who are we, as elected officials, to get in their way?
Washington may be broken, but that has never stopped Massachusetts from leading the way.
So let’s not play politics with our children and their future. Let’s allow hard-working high school students who come from another country the opportunity to go to college.
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THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT LEGISLATION i SPONSORED WHEN i WAS A MEMBER OF THE MA hOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES


Wednesday, October 23, 2013


SEE CAMBRIDGE CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATES' NIGHT

                                                                                                                   

I moderated this forum

CCTV will broadcast our recent City Council Candidates Forum on

  Thursday, October 24, 2013
at
  12:00 PM

The video is also available online at:

  http://cctvcambridge.org/citycouncillesley



Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

WELFARE FAMILIES HAVE TOUGH LIVES -- GET BUM WRAP

See excellent article by Claire Higgins, former Mayor of Northampton MA:

http://www.gazettenet.com/home/8189875-95/clare-higgins-inside-a-cato-institute-report-lo



The article answers a research study done by the CATO Institute, a very conservative think tank, on welfare recipients.


There used to be a war on poverty; now there is a war on poor people, especially poor families. As happens often at times of downturns in the economy, people who themselves are in trouble get upset at others who are in trouble. Then some politicl people take over to take advantage of this situation.


I have been extremely concerned that, while there is some recognition of the plight of the middle class in the present economic situation, very poor people have fallen off the radar screen. This particularly affects the children of very poor families whose brains and lives are liiely to be stinted for their entire lives.

We can and should do better. 

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

FUEL FIRM DROPS BID TO TRAIN TRANSPORT OF ETHANOL

The following appeared on Bostonglobe.com:
13

A fuel company has scrapped a proposal to transport ethanol by train through densely populated communities north of Boston, amid concerns from activists that the highly flammable liquid could be ignited in a derailment or attract would-be terrorists. Global Petroleum announced the step in a statement on Tuesday, a day after the Legislature moved to outlaw the storage of large quantities of ethanol near populous areas. Under the plan, the company would have transported ethanol -- which is mixed with gasoline to comply with Clean Air Act standards -- to its storage terminal in Revere over MBTA commuter rail lines. The path potentially would have taken the fuel through such cities and towns as Cambridge, Somerville, Everett, Chelsea, and Revere.


http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/07/02/fuel-firm-drops-bid-transport-ethanol-through-several-boston-area-communities/W5CM8dSlpaIyybtXaLVJQO/story.html?s_campaign=8315

Monday, June 17, 2013




GO          HILLARY         GO                    


Watch Hillary Clinton's speech this past weekend. Note her continuing commitment to our youngest children



View this email as a web page.

Clinton Foundation

alice,

I hope you were able to see Secretary Clinton's opening remarks at CGI America on Thursdaywhere she talked about her excitement to support the visionary work of the Clinton Foundation and outlined the work she will take on with the Foundation – promoting early childhood development, creating more opportunity for girls and women, and strengthening economic development in the U.S.

In case you missed it, you can watch her inspiring remarks here.
Clinton FoundationSecretary Clinton also announced a new project with Next Generation to help parents, businesses, and communities take meaningful action to provide our youngest generation with a strong foundation for success. Learn more about Too Small to Fail.

We are grateful to have Secretary Clinton's vision and expertise and Chelsea's continued passion and dedication at the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation. The entire Clinton family has always been dedicated to public service, and now through the Clinton Foundation, they will continue to work on creating lasting solutions to some of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century.

And because we know you share their dedication to building a stronger, more inclusive world, we hope you will continue to be an integral part of our work. Please join our new Clinton Foundation community at Facebook.com/ClintonFoundation and follow us on Twitter at@ClintonFdn for the latest news on our work and to learn how you can help improve even more lives and take action on global challenges.

We know that when we work together anything is possible.

Thank you, as always, for your support.

Bruce Lindsey

Chief Executive Officer
Clinton Foundation