Lawmakers wade into redistricting without key data
More than a dozen hearings planned over next six months
Matt Murphy
State House News Service
BOSTON By most accounts, the redistricting process 10 years ago was a huge success. The district maps produced by legislative leaders avoided challenges in federal court for the first time in decades and most stakeholders walked away feeling heard.
Despite losing a Congressional seat, the Legislature created double the number of majority-minority districts in the Massachusetts House and established the newly drawn U.S. House district now held by U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley the first Black woman to represent the state in Congress.
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Despite high ongoing COVID-19 infection rates across the city, Boston Public Schools and other districts across Massachusetts have been forcing teachers and students back to school.
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley originally mandated all elementary students and teachers return to school starting April 5, with support from Governor Charlie Baker. After pushback from educators, BPS was granted a waiver to start in-person learning on April 26.
Boston teachers and staff have been faced with the constant threat of schools reopening under dangerous conditions throughout the past year. Liberation News spoke to members of the Boston Teachers Union about their struggle through the pandemic to this point, and their ongoing concerns as Massachusetts approaches reopening.
Calling out white supremacy: Labor responds to Atlanta massacre workers.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from workers.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Source: AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
This is a family-friendly website, so I have to be careful about how I manifest my contempt for selfish adults who continue to stand in the way of children returning to classrooms, where they belong. All across the country, millions of students have been safely attending in-person classes for months on end. The science overwhelmingly shows that open schools do not pose a public health risk to communities. Public health experts who have performed the research on this matter are not only begging political leaders to get schools fully open immediately, they are repeatedly sounding the alarm about the awful toll that failed virtual learning and social isolation are exacting on America s kids. This isn t a close call.
Emissions enigma, mask scofflaw’s dare, Ammon Bundy saga: News from around our 50 states
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March 16, 2021, 12:00 AM·48 min read
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Alabama
Birmingham: City leaders likely will extend a mandate requiring face masks in public to slow the spread of the coronavirus despite the governor’s plan to end the statewide rule next month, said City Council President William Parker. While Gov. Kay Ivey has said the state order will expire April 9, Parker said officials in Birmingham have been in discussions with medical experts and will push to keep a requirement in place for face masks in public places. “I feel very confident that there will be a mask ordinance for the city of Birmingham,” he said Saturday at the opening of a new vaccination site. A City Council vote likely will be held April 6, he said. Jefferson County is among multiple counties the Alabama Department of Public Health rates as having a high infection rate over the past two weeks even as cases an