Page 146 - Jon Mitchell News Today

NEW BEDFORD — The night before Christmas Eve, the New Bedford Commission to Review NBPD Use of Force Policies released its final report after a six month review of the police departments policies.  The report offers recommended changes to the policies and states the recommendations “recognized and adopted language to meet the need of strengthening the emphasis on ‘duty to intervene’ and ‘de-escalation’ components for all three policies.” One recommendation states that even if the...

Read It: New Bedford Police Use of Force Final Report The Commission on Police Use of Force Policies, chaired by city councilor Brian Gomes, was created in June by Mayor Jon Mitchell. Since then, the 22-member panel met behind closed doors on a weekly basis for six months to conduct the bulk of its work, and held two public meetings via Zoom. News of the reports release came Thursday in the form of a press release from the communications arm of the New Bedford Police Department. The NBPDs curre...

Residency Requirement Ordinance Looms over 2021 [OPINION] A new residency requirement for the city employees drafted by the New Bedford City Council and vetoed by Mayor Jon Mitchell will be an election issue next year. There has been a residency requirement for some New Bedford municipal employees since the 1970s. Over the years, there have been changes for certain employee groups. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts forbids public school teachers from residency requirements enacted by the local...

Who Will Be the Next New Bedford City Councilor? [OPINION] There will be a new New Bedford at-large city council member elected next year. Longtime councilor Debora Coelho is retiring and that means a new councilor in 2021. In 2019, Mayor Jon Mitchell was overwhelmingly re-elected. He was also the first mayor of New Bedford elected to a four-year term. A ballot question to change the mayors term from two years to four years was overwhelmingly approved by the voters in 2017. The change in term l...

City of New Bedford Has No Choice But to Tow Cars [OPINION] The first snowstorm of the winter season has come and gone and a lot of cars are now gone, too. The city has to tow cars that violate snowstorm parking rules. When David Koresh lived in New Bedford, he understood the reason the city had parking rules for snowstorms and he complied with the reasonable rules. He went out of his way to help out the city and his neighbors by making a church parking lot available for overnight parking durin...

POLITICO Get the Massachusetts Playbook newsletter Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or updates from POLITICO and you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service. You can unsubscribe at any time and you can contact us here. This sign-up form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Presented by Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. Its really coming down out there! WILL HE STAY O...

Markey says aid to states may be pushed to Biden era Matt Murphy BOSTON -- Congress would be making "a billion-dollar mistake" if it settles on a stimulus package that excludes relief for state and municipal governments, U.S. Senate Ed Markey said Thursday, but he suggested he would back such a deal knowing that President-elect Joe Biden offers hope for a second package early next year. Like other Democrats, Markey blamed Senate Majority Mitch McConnell for trying to "save a few pennies" at the...

Temporary Remote Learning Makes Sense [OPINION] Thomas Anderson, the Superintendent of New Bedford Public Schools, has decided to shift from a hybrid-learning situation to a fully remote situation for the days leading up to and immediately following the Christmas break. At first, the decision seemed to make little sense. Weve been told that our schools are fairly safe and not likely to be the source of COVID-19 clusters. That is still the case, according to Mayor Jon Mitchell. Mitchell tells me...

Speaking with WBSMs Barry Richard, Mitchell said inoculations have already started at St. Lukes Hospital. "The staff over there is already getting inoculated, its happening already. Thats a very positive sign," said Mitchell. Mitchell said healthcare workers will be inoculated first. After that, said Mitchell, "it will be the most vulnerable folks, people above a certain age with established, underlying health conditions and well go from there." Mitchell says more than 91 percent of the corona...

NEW BEDFORD — This week, New Bedford Public Schools announced a shift to fully remote learning from Dec. 21 to Jan. 8 in a letter that was emailed to parents.  The letter, signed by Superintendent Thomas Anderson, states that over the last few weeks, staff and student absences have increased for a variety of reasons, including waiting for COVID test results and/or quarantining because of being in close contact of someone who tested positive.  “This is impacting our ability to effectively ...