February 13, 2025
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Read MoreState and federal governments continue to address the medical and economic consequences the COVID-19 issue.
Here is a summary for employers. If you have questions regarding these or other public policy issues, please contact a member of the AIM Government Affairs Team.
November 30, 2021
Schedule
Tuesday November 30
Wednesday December 1
CDC Strengthens Booster Recommendation
Boston Globe – WASHINGTON (AP) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention broadened its recommendation for COVID-19 booster shots to include all adults because of the new Omicron variant. The agency had previously approved boosters for all adults, but only recommended them for those 50 years and older or living in long-term care settings.
“Everyone ages 18 and older should get a booster shot either when they are six months after their initial Pfizer or Moderna series or two months after their initial J&J vaccine,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.
The CDC’s recommendation comes after President Biden Monday appealed to the roughly 80 million unvaccinated Americans aged 5 and up to get their shots, and for the rest of the country to seek out booster shots six months after their second dose. He also encouraged everyone to get back to wearing face masks in all indoor public settings — a pandemic precaution that has fallen out of use across much of the country.
When omicron arrives, and it will, Biden said, America will “face this new threat just as we’ve faced those that have come before it.”
Biden was joined by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and the president’s COVID-19 adviser, who said earlier Monday that scientists hope to know in the next week or two how well the existing COVID-19 vaccines protect against the variant, and how dangerous it is compared to earlier strains.
“We really don’t know,” Fauci told ABC’s “Good Morning America,” calling speculation premature.
The new variant poses the latest test to Biden’s efforts to contain the pandemic, mitigate its impacts on the economy and return a sense of normalcy to the U.S. during the holiday season.
Moderna, Pfizer Fast-Track Study of Omicron Variant
Boston Herald – As the omicron variant has seized the world’s attention, crushing financial markets and grounding global travel, vaccine manufacturers are scrambling behind the scenes to make sure their shots still protect against the deadly virus, and make adjustments if they don’t.
“We should know about the ability of the current vaccine to provide protection in the next couple of weeks, but the remarkable thing about the mRNA vaccines’ Moderna platform is that we can move very fast,” Moderna’s Chief Medical Officer Paul Burton told the BBC on Sunday, noting the company has “mobilized hundreds” to research the new variant.
Executives at Pfizer, makers of the other mRNA vaccine, expect to know within two weeks if the variant is resistant to its current vaccine, but said they, too, would be able to respond quickly.
“Pfizer and BioNTech have taken actions months ago to be able to adapt the mRNA vaccine within six weeks and ship initial batches within 100 days in the event of an escape variant,” the company said in a statement.
Public health experts agree existing vaccines should provide at least some protection against the deadly virus and Gov. Charlie Baker seized the opportunity on Sunday to encourage residents to roll up their sleeves.
“If you’re not vaccinated, get vaccinated and if you’re eligible for a booster, get a booster. That’s your best protection,” Baker said, following a menorah lighting ceremony in Boston Common on Sunday evening.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Biden, also plugged vaccines during an interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, saying they are the nation’s best hope for combatting a “potential” new COVID-19 wave.
WGBH – State, federal and municipal officials strategized in conversations throughout the weekend about how to address the new, highly mutated omicron variant of COVID-19, according to Gov. Charlie Baker.
Baker said his administration has been “in constant touch” with federal health officials and the White House and expects conversations to continue this week.
“There are three big questions,” Baker told GBH News in an interview Sunday. “The first is the transmissibility relative to previous variants. The second is the nature of the impact that it has on the people who get infected by it, which is a really important issue and a hard one for people to answer immediately. The third is, what’s the likely issue associated with this relative to the vaccines that are already available? And that question, I think, will be answered relatively quickly.”
Omicron, first discovered in South Africa earlier this month and declared a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organization on Friday, has increased the call nationwide for booster shots of COVID-19 vaccines, which officials from the National Institutes of Health describe as the best bet for tackling the spread of the new variant.
“If you’re not vaccinated, get vaccinated,” Baker told GBH News on Sunday. “And if you’re eligible for a booster, get a booster. That’s your best protection.”
Boston Globe – Massachusetts has nearly $5 billion in unspent federal stimulus dollars to spread to its residents. At least another $8 billion in aid is coming from the US government to help repair roads, bolster public transit, and shore up the state against climate change. The state’s tax receipts are again running well ahead of expectations.
This is good news for Massachusetts. But the heady fiscal times could also complicate a question that voters are set to answer in the November 2022 election: Should Massachusetts raise taxes on its wealthiest residents to generate billions more for the state to spend?
A proposed constitutional amendment that would layer a surcharge on yearly earnings above $1 million will land on the ballot in 2022, years after it first surfaced during a time of mounting needs for Massachusetts’ school and transportation systems — and of financial uncertainty for the state.
Boston Globe – Michelle Wu is a 36-year-old progressive champion who preaches the gospel of the Green New Deal and rent control for Boston.
Charlie Baker is a 65-year-old moderate Republican who recently yanked an ambitious climate change program and opposes rent control.
This month, theirs became the most important political partnership in the state, with implications for everything from Boston’s global reputation to its snowstorm preparations.
The future of the city that is New England’s economic engine rests on the relationship between the Boston mayor and the Massachusetts governor. So far, there isn’t much of one: Aides say Baker and Wu don’t know each other well. Both have said they’re committed to building that bond and collaborating effectively.
US News – Inflation is soaring, businesses are struggling to hire, and President Joe Biden’s poll numbers have been in free fall. The White House sees a common culprit for it all: COVID-19.
Although the economy has actually been coming back, there are multiple signs that COVID-19 will leave its scars even if the pandemic fades.
For now, in the administration’s view, an intransigent minority that is resisting vaccination is spoiling the recovery for the rest of the country — forcing masks on the vaccinated and contributing to lingering anxiousness everywhere you look.
Asked why Americans aren’t getting the message that the economy is improving, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said this past week: “We’re still in the middle of fighting a pandemic and people are sick and tired of that. We are, too.”
Biden’s team views the pandemic as the root cause of both the nation’s malaise and his own political woes. Finally controlling COVID-19, the White House believes, is the skeleton key to rejuvenating the country and reviving Biden’s own standing.
But the coronavirus challenge has proved to be vexing for the White House, with last summer’s premature claims of victory swamped by the more transmissible delta variant, millions of Americans going unvaccinated and lingering economic effects from the pandemic’s darkest days.
All of that as yet another variant of the virus, omicron, emerged overseas. It is worrying public health officials, leading to new travel bans and panicking markets as scientists race to understand how dangerous it may be.
‘No Appetite’ for a Shutdown as Congress Readies Funding Fix
Politico – Democrats are preparing a temporary funding fix to keep the government open into the new year, with federal cash set to run out — again — at midnight on Friday.
The House could vote as early as Wednesday to avert a shutdown, sending the stopgap measure to the Senate. While leaders have yet to settle on an end date, they are mulling mid to late January.
That span would buy top lawmakers and the White House less than two months to hash out a bipartisan deal, which would include revamped spending totals for the military and all the other federal agencies that have been running on autopilot since the new fiscal year began on Oct. 1.
Democrats had originally eyed a short-term funding fix that would expire before the holidays, hoping to keep the pressure on Republicans to negotiate a broader funding deal before Christmas. But GOP leaders have shown no inclination to participate in those talks, leveraging the threat of sticking Democrats with non-defense funding levels established when Donald Trump was president.
Republicans were planning to make Democrats a counteroffer for the next funding patch on Monday afternoon. A Senate GOP aide said Democrats “decided to start a conversation” about the stopgap on Sunday. Meanwhile, Democrats have accused Republicans of failing to negotiate on a broader funding agreement for weeks.
“We are working diligently and hope to reach a resolution“ by the deadline on Friday, the GOP aide said, adding that the length of the next temporary funding bill should provide Congress with “as much time as possible“ to work out a broader agreement.
A stopgap through the new year would remove one major legislative item from the calendar as Democrats race to pass President Joe Biden’s social spending package before Christmas. And, unlike Democrats’ bill to expand the social safety net that can pass on party lines, the government funding deal requires buy-in from at least 10 Senate Republicans.
“People are very, very concerned,” House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said of funding the government through stopgap measures rather than full-year spending bills. “I’m getting calls every day — what does this mean for this program? What does it mean for that program? What’s going to happen? … We can get started if you want to get started, and you want to try to move forward.”
Despite the gridlock, lawmakers in both parties say a funding lapse is highly unlikely after the 35-day government shutdown that began just before Christmas three years ago.
Berkshire Eagle – “If you build it, they will come” has been the mantra of those who want to see passenger rail service connect Pittsfield and Boston through Springfield and Worcester.
“What we advocated for was a commuter rail system throughout the commonwealth. To have a separate governmental structure for Boston versus Western Massachusetts says to me that they are not committed to Western Massachusetts, especially beyond Springfield,” said William “Smitty” Pignatelli, state representative, D-Lenox
Money to “build” that service, which would run along a combination of existing and newly constructed track, could come through the federal government’s $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, which President Joe Biden signed Nov. 15.
Western Massachusetts lawmakers overwhelmingly hail east-west rail — or “west-east” rail, as Berkshire County supporters say — as a generational investment that would help their constituents access economic opportunities in the east and relieve Greater Boston residents of an increasingly unaffordable housing market, all while curbing vehicle emissions from highway travel.
The Hill – The $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill is enshrined into law, but the lobbying over its implementation is just getting started.
The spending package, which aims to rebuild roads, bridges and rail and expand broadband and clean drinking water, gives federal agencies broad powers to craft key policies. That opens up an opportunity for industry lobbyists to fight provisions they unsuccessfully urged Congress to strip from the final bill — as well as scramble over how and where billions of federal dollars will be spent.
The fast-growing cryptocurrency industry, for example, lost its first lobbying battle when the infrastructure bill included a measure that requires brokers to disclose digital asset transactions to the IRS.
Advocates warned that the law’s broad language could apply to crypto miners or wallet developers who are unable to comply with the tax reporting rules. After failing to secure an amendment to better define what crypto “brokers” are, they’re now shifting their lobbying efforts to the Treasury Department, which is tasked with writing the new rules.
“It’s our job as the crypto industry to have conversations with the IRS and Treasury and explain to them why if they attempt to go too broad, it simply won’t work,” said Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association, which lobbies on behalf of crypto exchanges such as Binance.US and Kraken.
Metro West Daily News – For the food-service staff at Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School, it’s been all hands on deck lately.
As supply and staffing shortages squeeze food-service departments in schools statewide, those who remain are scrambling to make sure students are fed. About 85% of the Marlborough school’s 1,200 students are served breakfast and lunch.
The school’s director of nutritional services, Dina Wiroll, noted during a recent phone interview that it was probably the first time she’d sat at her desk in two months.
“I’m with my staff every day feeding kids,” said Wiroll, who added, “They work like crazy people.”
The ongoing labor shortage and supply chain issues mean there are not enough workers to harvest food, transport it or distribute it, Wiroll said.
As a result, school nutrition directors throughout Massachusetts are facing a backlog of orders every week. To make it work, they rework lunch menus day to day and hunt for hard-to-find key products, such as chicken or forks.
“It’s kind of a global situation that funnels to a very local level,” Wiroll said.
GOP Courts Anti-Vaxxers with Jobless Aid
Axios – Republican officials around the country are testing a creative mechanism to build loyalty with unvaccinated Americans while undermining Biden administration mandates: unemployment benefits.
Florida, Iowa, Kansas and Tennessee have changed their unemployment insurance rules to allow workers who are fired or quit over vaccine mandates to receive benefits.
Extending unemployment benefits to the unvaccinated is just the latest in a series of proposals aligning the GOP with people who won’t get a COVID shot. Republicans see a prime opportunity to rally their base ahead of the midterms. No matter how successful their individual efforts, the campaign is a powerful messaging weapon.
Nine GOP-controlled states have passed laws requiring exemptions for the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate, or banning private companies from requiring vaccination altogether, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy.
Several states have made it as easy as possible for workers to claim exemptions, allowing them to opt-out on philosophical grounds or requiring businesses to accept all requests for religious or medical exemptions without proof.
Legal uncertainty created by a wide variety of new vaccine exemptions in Florida – including for past COVID-19 infections and “anticipated future pregnancy” – prompted Disney World to suspend its vaccine mandate on Tuesday.
In Congress, Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) is leading a formal challenge against the federal vaccine mandate using the Congressional Review Act, the official process for Congress to eliminate an executive branch rule.
Boston Herald – Vaccination rates among teenagers are lagging in the same cities and towns that have suffered the most amid the coronavirus pandemic, a new report by equity advocates reveals, renewing calls for officials to prioritize the state’s most vulnerable residents with cases back on the rise.
“We are nine months into the state’s vaccination program, yet we are still seeing the same inequities that plagued the program from the start,” said Dr. Atyia Martin, Co-Chair of the Vaccine Equity Now! Coalition.
A data visualization created in partnership with Boston Indicators revealed inequities in COVID-19 vaccination rates among 12-19 year-olds living in different cities and towns. The scatterplot shows many communities with higher cumulative incidences of coronavirus and higher social vulnerability ratings have lower rates of vaccination among youth while more affluent communities that were less affected by the virus have vaccinated teens in higher numbers.
Martin said the chart “shows in no uncertain terms” that many of the state’s most vulnerable communities are still being left behind.
MSN – Health officials say it appears the omicron variant is more contagious, but it’s unclear if it will result in more severe illness.
And it’s not yet clear how the current vaccines hold up against it.
“I think the bottom line – whether it’s delta, omicron or whatever is next – people can’t just assume that they can ignore this virus, go about their business, as if nothing was wrong,” said Dr. Robert Klugman of UMass Memorial Health.
Gov. Charlie Baker said his administration has been communicating with the feds about the omicron variant over the past few days.
“There are three big questions, you know? What’s the answer with respect to transmissibility? What’s the answer with respect to severity? And what’s the answer with respect to how vaccines that are currently available respond to this? And those are questions that we expect we’ll learn a lot more about in the next few days, and we’ll make adjustments in our current plans, based on that information, as it becomes available,” Baker said.
Pfizer and Moderna are already working to adapt their vaccines to fight omicron if necessary, but that process could take two to three months.
Newburyport News – Winter is coming. The pandemic continues. Too many people are unvaccinated. Breakthrough cases are common. And now, even as the delta variant continues to pummel the masses, an ominous new strain – Omicron – is on its way.
And so, this is the time to pause; to pay attention to the trends; to get vaccinated if you are not or schedule your booster if you haven’t yet. We have to mask up, practice social distancing, sanitize, and become hyper-vigilant about personal and public safety.
We know the drill. And as much as we might not want to, it’s time to double down.
In the United States, new daily coronavirus cases have risen by 10% in the past week, according to Washington Post figures. Deaths have increased by 10% as well, while hospitalizations crept up 4% in that period.
In Massachusetts, the number of new daily COVID-19 cases reported as of Thursday was 5,058, while the number of newly confirmed deaths rose by 24, according to Department of Public Health data. There were 771 people reported hospitalized with the virus that same day, 156 of them in intensive care units. Cases have doubled since October.
Gov. Charlie Baker issued an emergency order to hospitals facing limited capacity, requiring them to reduce nonessential, nonurgent scheduled procedures beginning this week. He did so for a variety of reasons, among them protecting patients and the workforce, and ensuring beds are available during a winter surge.
Mobile Vaccination Clinics Pop Up as Booster Appointments Hard to Find
Boston Herald – The state is rolling out COVID-19 mobile pop-up vaccination clinics, as many people struggle to find booster appointments at pharmacies across the region.
Four of the community-based, short-term vaccination clinics were held on Sunday in Chelsea, Everett, Methuen and Fall River — and more of these clinics are set for this week as Bay Staters seek out booster doses.
Gov. Charlie Baker said Sunday the shots are available at 800 locations statewide, but officials may “may need to do more” to keep up with demand.
“A couple weeks ago you could get a booster pretty much anywhere on a walk-in basis. We now have seen a very significant increase since we started talking about boosters for everybody over age 18 and that means we may have to up our game a little with respect to additional capacity,” Baker said.
Coronavirus cases are surging in Massachusetts, and many residents are hoping to get a third shot as soon as possible for extra protection this winter. All fully vaccinated people who are 18-plus are eligible for the booster, and more than 1 million people in the state have already received the third dose.
Some residents trying to find appointments at local pharmacies have been struggling, however.
“No time slots are available for this date at this location,” the CVS message reads for many locations in the Greater Boston area. “Try choosing another location or day.”
A CVS spokesperson on Sunday said they’re “continuing to book appointments and administer COVID-19 vaccines and we encourage patients to make appointments at CVS.com on or the CVS Pharmacy app.”
While those appointments have been hard to come by, people on Sunday without appointments walked into the state’s mobile pop-up vaccination clinics and got the shot within 20 to 30 minutes.
The mobile pop-up vaccination clinics coming up this week include: New Bedford, McCoy Center, Monday from 2 to 7 p.m.; Chelsea Senior Center, Monday from 2 to 7 p.m.; Nahant Town Hall, Tuesday from 3 to 8 p.m.; Amherst, Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Arts, Wednesday from 5 to 7 p.m.; and Chelsea Senior Center, Friday from 2 to 5 p.m.
Wu Hints at Possibility of Vaccine Passports for Restaurants, Businesses
Boston Herald – Mayor Michelle Wu said she’s looking at “all the options available” when it comes to a potential vaccine mandate for restaurants, venues and businesses, which some key stakeholders oppose.
Wu had previously voiced support for a vaccine verification system or “vaccine passport” such as the one implemented in New York City where residents and visitors cannot enter establishments like restaurants and concert halls without showing proof of coronavirus vaccination.
When asked again on Boston Public Radio on Tuesday, Wu said, “I still very much think that we should be taking all possible action to protect our community members, to protect customers and those who might be wanting to attend these events.”
Wu said, “We’re looking internally as well as externally at all of the options available.”
She added she’s working with the Boston Public Health Commission on “what those standards will look like.”
Some small businesses and restaurants in Boston have no appetite for a vaccine passport.
Bob Luz, president of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association said, “The government can’t come back and start to put enforcement responsibilities on our understaffed and overstressed restaurant employees.”
He added, “We know firsthand what employees had to overcome when having to enforce mandates on guests, and it really wasn’t pretty
Some ‘Boston-based’ companies are hardly here
Boston Globe – What does it mean to be a “Boston-based” company these days?
With lots of startups giving up office leases, hiring people in other states, and even having top leaders move away during the pandemic, the very notion of a company with a home office or headquarters is starting to seem antiquated.
Take a company such as EverTrue, which helps universities communicate with alumni to persuade them to donate. I met the founder, Brent Grinna, in 2010, just after he’d earned a degree at Harvard Business School and was starting the company.
He went through the Techstars Boston and MassChallenge “accelerator” programs, designed to help companies polish their products, attract investors — and ideally, put down roots in Boston. EverTrue raised money from Bain Capital Ventures, a Boston investment firm, and before long, it had an office in the Seaport with 37 employees.
Clearly, a Boston company.
But when EverTrue’s office lease expires in January, Grinna doesn’t plan to renew it. Amidst the pandemic, Grinna and his family moved to Narragansett, R.I. — about a 90-minute drive from the office.
“When we started the company, our first 30 or so hires were all in the Boston metro area,” Grinna says. But of the 23 people he has hired since COVID shut down offices last March, just three live in or near Boston. “We’ve also supported three employees who’ve relocated from Boston to Maine, Colorado, and Rhode Island — me,” Grinna says.
“It’s hard to imagine going back to a world where we care how close to the Boston Seaport a candidate lives,” or whether they will move here, he adds.
EverTrue is not a one-off. Josh Walker co-founded Sports Innovation Lab, a research firm that focuses on trends in the world of pro sports and that had office space in a WeWork building near the TD Garden. He and his wife, who works for another Boston startup, decided to move to Manchester, Vt., last summer, in part so that their children could attend school in person. He sees the company likely convening in Boston for all-hands gatherings, but says, “I cannot imagine putting monthly rent and multiyear leases back on our books anytime soon.”
Hospitals to Reduce Non-Essential Elective Procedures
Boston Herald – Massachusetts hospitals, which are once again facing critical staffing and bed shortages, will soon be limiting non-essential pre-scheduled procedures to preserve resources and capacity.
“The current strain on hospital capacity is due to longer than average hospital stays and significant workforce shortages, separate and apart from the challenges brought on by COVID,” said Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders in a statement.
“COVID hospitalizations in Massachusetts remain lower than almost every other state in the nation, but the challenges the healthcare system face(s) remain,” she continued. “This order will ensure hospitals can serve all residents, including those who require treatment for COVID-19.”
According to data compiled by the New York Times, Massachusetts hospitals are at 82% ICU capacity, compared to 69% capacity nationally.
The COVID-19 Public Health Emergency Order developed by the Baker-Polito administration and the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association goes into effect Monday, Nov. 29.
It instructs any hospital or hospital system that has limited capacity to start reducing “non-essential, non-urgent scheduled procedures that may require the use of bed capacity and/or services,” according to the order. The guidance is aimed at preserving capacity for more pressing health needs.
State officials said the changes were due largely to ripple effects of the pandemic, including staffing shortages across the health care system and about 500 fewer beds available statewide in both medical/surgical and intensive care units.
Senate Leader Hopes to Revive Facial Recognition Debate
State House News – Limits on law enforcement use of facial recognition software enacted last year “did not go far enough” to rein in the technology, a top Senate Democrat told her colleagues on Tuesday.
Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Creem urged the Judiciary Committee to advance legislation (S 47) that would impose a near-total ban on public agency use of facial recognition, arguing that the burgeoning tool empowers government surveillance and creates disproportionate impacts on people of color.
“Given their significant implication, we cannot allow government agencies to keep using this technology without further regulations in place, and right now there are no regulations on government agencies following us,” Creem said.
Her bill would prohibit any government agent from using facial recognition to track people in public spaces and would require police to obtain a warrant to use facial recognition databases except in some emergency cases. The Registry of Motor Vehicles could continue to use facial recognition to verify identities when handling licenses or other documents.
Lawmakers originally approved a ban on almost all law enforcement use of facial recognition systems as part of a police reform bill they sent Gov. Charlie Baker last year, but in a compromise with Baker, the final law allows police to use the tool to assist with criminal cases or to mitigate “substantial risk of harm” after submitting a request in writing.
Civil rights advocates, including the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, and some legislators continue to push for an update to the policy, particularly to standardize practice across the state after some municipalities have taken steps to rein in facial recognition at the local level.
“Last session, we were able to establish limited regulations on police use of facial technology,” Creem said. “Unfortunately, these reforms were the result of a compromise and truly did not go far enough.”
November 23, 2021
Schedule
Tuesday November 23
Wednesday December 1
All U.S. Adults Now Eligible for Pfizer and Moderna COVID Vaccine Booster Shots
CNBC – All adults in the U.S. are now eligible to receive Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID vaccine boosters after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authorized the shots for the general public Friday.
The move allows an extra dose of protection for tens of millions of fully vaccinated Americans as cases climb and public officials worry the nation could face another surge during the winter.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky signed off on the booster shots hours after the agency’s independent panel of vaccine scientists unanimously endorsed opening up eligibility to everyone 18 and older at least six months after they received their second dose.
The Food and Drug Administration had authorized both companies’ vaccine boosters for all U.S. adults earlier Friday.
“After critical scientific evaluation, today’s unanimous decision carefully considered the current state of the pandemic, the latest vaccine effectiveness data over time, and review of safety data from people who have already received a COVID-19 primary vaccine series and booster,” Walensky said in a statement Friday evening.
Gov. Charlie Baker Blames State Lawmakers for COVID Relief Bill Delay
MassLive – Gov. Charlie Baker is among those disappointed that Beacon Hill Democrats couldn’t agree on a plan to put nearly $4 billion to work before breaking for a seven-week stretch of informal sessions. The governor blamed a legislative decision earlier this year for causing delays.
Baker proposed spending American Rescue Plan Act funds in June, but legislative Democrats put the federal aid in a lockbox that they control and opted for a long public hearing process to gather feedback about the state’s needs. They then couldn’t agree on a consensus bill by Wednesday when formal sessions ended for 2021.
“The Baker-Polito Administration believes the Legislature’s original decision six months ago to freeze these funds and subject them to the legislative process created a massive delay in putting these taxpayer dollars to work,” Baker press secretary Terry MacCormack said.
“Massachusetts was already behind most of the country in utilizing these funds before the latest setback, and further delay will only continue to leave residents, small businesses and hundreds of organizations frozen out from the support the rest of the country is now tapping into to recover from this brutal pandemic.”
Advocates Push Massachusetts Lawmakers to Pass Road-Safety Bills
Boston Herald – Road safety advocates remembered the 2,500 lives lost in fatal roadway crashes since 2015 by blanketing the State House steps with yellow roses and asking lawmakers to act to on a slate of bills designed reduce the “human toll of traffic crashes.”
“This is the sixth year the Vision Zero Coalition has called on the Legislature to pass life-saving legislation on World Day of Remembrance. Every moment of delay adds to the devastating statewide toll of preventable traffic crashes,” said Emily Stein of Safe Roads Alliance, one of a handful of safe-streets organizations that make up the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition.
In the last seven years, 910,149 car and pedestrian crashes in Massachusetts have killed 2,463 people and seriously injured 15,700, the coalition said.
The 4,000 yellow blossoms laid Sunday were a solemn reminder of each life impacted by a fatal or serious traffic crash in Massachusetts during 2020 and 2021.
Rep. Mike Moran, D-Boston, a lead sponsor for a bill that would require side-guards, convex mirrors, back-up cameras and other prevention measures on trucks to prevent drivers from rolling over people spoke of the “heart-wrenching” process of mourning lives lost to traffic accidents.
“One of the hardest parts of our jobs is attending a ghost bike dedication at the site of a recent crash where someone was killed, and bearing witness to the collective sadness,” Moran wrote in an op-ed column with MassBike Executive Director Galen Mook published in Commonwealth Magazine.
It also requires the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security to standardize bicyclist and pedestrian crash data collection and maintain a publicly accessible database in an effort to inform policy.
House to Take the Next Step in Re-Opening for Employees
State House News – All employees of the Massachusetts House of Representatives will need to be “available and able to work in person at the State House as a condition of their employment,” including complying with a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, starting Dec. 13, House leaders announced Monday.
The House’s plan to move into Phase 2A of re-opening features new enforcement of the chamber’s vaccine requirement, including threats of indefinite unpaid administrative leave and “further disciplinary action” that could begin as the Legislature returns from its holiday recess in January.
Effective Dec. 13, all House employees and officers must be available and able to work from the building, though in-person work in the House will be “at the scheduling discretion of the employee’s supervisor or House HR,” according to a summary of the reopening update the House’s human resources office released on Monday.
Executive: Maine Vote Can’t Apply to Hydro Projects
State House News – For opponents of the transmission corridor intended to carry hydroelectric power from Quebec through Maine for Massachusetts’ benefit, the result of the Nov. 2 referendum on the New England Clean Energy Connect project speaks louder than any finicky legal argument about the question’s constitutionality or applicability.
But with about $450 million already invested and much of the 145-mile corridor already cleared, Central Maine Power Company and its affiliates laid out in detail Monday the legal arguments underpinning their belief that the referendum does not actually apply to the project that Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration is also relying on to fulfill part of a 2016 Massachusetts clean energy law.”The initiative will not affect construction of the project … because our view that it is unconstitutional and it cannot be applied to the project. Retroactive application of the initiative on the project is unconstitutional and unlawful,” Thorn Dickinson, president and CEO of NECEC Transmission, said during a Maine Department of Environmental Protection hearing held Monday as the agency weighs whether to suspend the license it issued for the NECEC project in May 2020.
Maine’s Question 1, which asked whether Mainers “want to ban the construction of high-impact electric transmission lines in the Upper Kennebec Region and to require the Legislature to approve all other such projects anywhere in Maine” including retroactively, cruised to victory earlier this month with about 60 percent support.
Massachusetts Economy Nearly Doubles Monthly Job Gains
Boston Business Journal – The Massachusetts economy added 25,000 jobs in October, according to a preliminary estimate published Friday, its third-highest monthly total this year.
The gains are almost twice those of September when the state added 13,500 jobs, according to a revised figure shared Friday by the Massachusetts Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development. It is the second consecutive month that gains have beat out those of the previous month.
The state’s unemployment rate rose to 5.3% in October, from 5.2% the previous month. The national jobless rate is still lower than it is in Massachusetts, at 4.6%.
The job gains may be a sign that Massachusetts employers are making some headway in hiring workers amid complaints about a labor shortage.
What’s in the $2.2 Trillion Social Policy and Climate Bill?
New York Times – The House on Friday passed a sprawling, roughly $2 trillion social-policy, climate and tax measure that is the central pillar of President Biden’s domestic agenda.
The product of months of intense negotiations, the package would bolster the federal safety net, enhancing support for children and families with child care subsidies and universal prekindergarten, expanding health coverage, increasing housing assistance and investing heavily in combating climate change.
The measure is likely to change as it moves through the evenly divided Senate, where Republicans are unanimously opposed and Democrats cannot afford to lose even a single vote from their party.
Significant Increase in Massachusetts School COVID Cases
MassLive – The number of COVID-19 cases reported among Massachusetts school students and staff members jumped significantly in the last week.
From Nov. 11 to 17, state public schools reported that 3,257 students and 558 staff members tested positive for the virus.
That’s up from last week’s report, when state officials announced that 2,640 students and 381 staff members tested positive for the virus from Nov. 4 to 10.
Despite the higher numbers, the rate of positive cases remains below 1%. With about 920,000 students enrolled and roughly 140,000 staff members working in public school buildings, the rate of COVID-19 cases currently stands at 0.35% among students and 0.40% among staffers, according to a report from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Each Thursday, DESE issues a report detailing the number of COVID cases reported among school staff members and students during the previous Thursday-Wednesday period. The report also includes data on COVID testing in schools.
Northampton, Amherst Restaurants Press State for Continued Outdoor Dining
MassLive – Jeremiah Micka, owner of the Union Station complex in Northampton, said he spent about $25,000 last year on a tent, tables, chairs and other equipment to boost his outdoor dining capacity from 150 to 250.
“I’d like to see it last forever,” Micka said Friday at a legislative hearing, conducted in Ludlow, focused on the future of outdoor dining in the state.
Somerville and Boston Want Rent Control, but Beacon Hill Could Get in the Way
WBUR – It’s been 27 years since voters ended rent control in Massachusetts. But with a housing shortage and rising rents, there’s renewed interest in bringing back the measure.
Boston’s new mayor, Michelle Wu, was sworn in last week after campaigning on a platform that included rent control — also known as rent stabilization. And Somerville’s mayor-elect, Katjana Ballantyne, also touted rent control during her campaign.Before the election, Wu said rent control — which limits how much landlords can hike rents each year — has “worked to keep people in their homes in cities across the country.”
The measure has a long history in Massachusetts.
Several communities in the area, including Cambridge, Brookline and Boston, enacted rent control around the 1970s. And the policy remained popular in all three cities.
Enrollment in Boston Public Schools Drops below 50,000 Students
Newsbreak – Overall, 48,654 students are attending 122 schools in the district, a decrease of more than 2,000 students from the last school year, according to the analysis, which combines student enrollment for BPS and its six in-district charter schools, which the state reports separately. Over the past decade, the school
Baker Drops Out of TCI
Gov. Charlie Baker has pulled the plug on a regional climate initiative that would have capped tailpipe emissions and was projected to hike gas prices at a time of record inflation, admitting the multi state-deal is “no longer the best solution.”
He backs out of the Transportation and Climate Initiative just days after Connecticut did.
“The Baker-Polito Administration always maintained the Commonwealth would only move forward with TCI if multiple states committed, and, as that does not exist, the transportation climate initiative is no longer the best solution for the Commonwealth’s transportation and environmental needs,” Baker press secretary Terry MacCormack said in a statement Thursday.
MacCormack said the federal infrastructure package and a statewide tax revenue surplus puts the state in a strong position to upgrade its infrastructure and public transit, while also investing in emissions reduction strategies.
TCI would have capped carbon emissions by forcing fuel companies that exceeded limits to buy additional permits and invest those proceeds into green transportation and climate-resilient infrastructure. It aimed to reduce vehicle emissions by 26% by 2032.
One of the few remaining states, Connecticut, pulled out Tuesday, with Gov. Ned Lamont citing high gas prices — which would creep up even higher by up to 9 cents per gallon by 2023 if TCI were enacted.
Initially, 12 states plus the District of Columbia were in talks to enter the agreement, but just Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and D.C. eventually signed a memorandum of understanding by December 2020.
“Today is a major win for the taxpayers of Massachusetts,” said GOP gubernatorial candidate Geoff Diehl. “Joining TCI was a bad idea from the start, and it would cost our state too much money.”
Novo Nordisk to Pay $3.3 Billion for Lexington Biotech Dicerna
MSN – After the Lexington biotech he runs inked two licensing deals with big drugmakers in less than a week in 2018, Douglas Fambrough said Dicerna Pharmaceuticals’ cutting-edge approach for developing medicines was “very attractive to the pharmaceutical industry.”
That turned out to be an understatement. On Thursday, the Danish drug giant Novo Nordisk announced that it had signed a deal to buy Dicerna for $3.3 billion. The agreement for $38.25 a share represented a premium of almost 80 percent to Dicerna’s closing price on Wednesday.
Dicerna’s share price closed at $38.03 Thursday, up 78.7 percent.
Founded in 2006, Dicerna is developing medicines that rely on RNA interference, a Nobel Prize-winning technology that turns off disease-causing genes. The firm calls its approach GalXC. Dicerna and Novo Nordisk have been collaborating since 2019 to discover more than 30 potential liver cell targets for RNAi drugs in the hopes of treating chronic liver disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, rare diseases, and other illnesses.
Massachusetts Pension Fund May be Used to Fight against Climate Change
Rachel Carson Council – The state treasurer Thursday called for Massachusetts’ $98.5 billion pension fund to be used as a weapon in the fight against climate change, recommending that the fund’s managers pressure companies to cut emissions and take other measures to comply with world climate goals.
Legislators and activists have been pushing the state to divest its funds from fossil fuel companies for nearly a decade, which other public pension funds have done in recent months, including New York and Maine and the Canadian province of Quebec. On Wednesday, Boston’s City Council voted to divest all city funds from fossil fuels.
The proposed rule, which will be voted on by the pension fund’s board in February, draws on a history of shareholder activists who pressure companies from the inside, treasury officials said. And using the leverage of all the state’s investments rather than withdrawing funds from selected ones, Goldberg said, can influence significantly more companies, reflecting the broader physical and financial risks posed by climate change.
In short, if a company fails to align its business plans with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial times or achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, the state’s Pension Reserves Investment Management board would vote against the company’s slate of directors at its annual shareholder meeting.
Hospitals are Busier than Ever — But not Because of COVID
Boston Globe – In the bay outside the crowded emergency department of UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, the ambulances keep coming.
Just inside the doors, a pair of paramedics wait with their patient, an elderly woman on a stretcher.
Eventually, they take the patient to a room where a nurse checks on her. But many others are not so lucky. Sick and distressed, they lie in beds in the hallways, bright lights overhead, alarms beeping, doctors and nurses rushing past. There are more patients here than beds or medical staff to care for them.
Here and across the state, hospitals are busier than at any time during the pandemic.
In the emergency department at Massachusetts General Hospital, every bed and hallway are often full and dozens of patients wait to be admitted — a situation known as “capacity disaster.”
Hospitals in the Beth Israel Lahey Health system are postponing some scheduled surgeries to open beds for patients with more urgent needs. In many hospitals, patients are staying longer because they are sicker.
Little of this surge is driven by COVID infections, even as cases rise across the state. Instead, patients are flooding hospitals with every kind of problem — heart attacks, strokes, drug overdoses, suicidal thoughts, broken bones, infections, and COVID. Many had put off medical care during the pandemic and came to the hospital only when they could no longer bear to stay home.
As much as hospital leaders had strategized and prepared for the pandemic, they didn’t foresee this.
“We didn’t quite appreciate how much the delays of care would impact the acuity of illness for patients now,” said Dr. Ravin Davidoff, chief medical officer at Boston Medical Center. “We probably underestimated the magnitude of that impact and the volume that we’re seeing now.”
Cannabis Oversight Board to Lobby Legislators for Greater Industry Equity
Boston Business Journal – In a change from its past approach, the state board that oversees cannabis licensing says it plans to take a more active role in lobbying the state Legislature for changes that will ensure greater equity across the industry.
All five members of the Cannabis Control Commission on Thursday spoke in support of the lobbying efforts, which will start with attempts to establish a statewide fund, using both private and public money, that will give grants or low/no-interest loans to disenfranchised applicants.
“This industry lacks access to capital,” said Commissioner Nurys Camargo. “Small business loans, grants and other services that are available to regular businesses are not to marijuana operators. In many cases, this has encouraged predatory lending, and led to a lack of diversity and inclusion, and most importantly, as per our law, full participation by individuals who have been harmed by marijuana prohibition.”
Camargo said that while Massachusetts is the first state in the nation to have an equity cannabis mandate, “the task is incomplete.”
The commission has called the diversity statistics insufficient. Of all 1,070 approved cannabis licenses, just 24% identified as disadvantaged business enterprises. That designation includes women, veterans, minorities, LGBTQ and individuals with disabilities.
Of the 17,394 people authorized to work in the industry, 71% identified as white.
November 16, 2021
Schedule
Tuesday November 16
Wednesday November 17
Friday November 19
Monday November 22
Senate Passes Spending Bill with Bonuses of Up To $2,000 for Massachusetts Essential Workers
CBS Boston – Massachusetts is one step closer to giving bonuses of up to $2,000 to essential employees who showed up to work in-person during the COVID pandemic.
The Senate Wednesday night unanimously approved a $3.82 billion package that aims to spend billions in federal dollars from the American Rescue Plan Act.
The Senate still has to work out significant differences in allocations in its legislation with the version of the spending package that the House passed recently. But the State House News Service reports that leaders agree on two “cornerstones” in the bill – $500 million for the state’s unemployment trust fund and another half a billion dollars for the bonuses.
Gov. Charlie Baker also said in late October that he’s generally supportive of the “premium pay program,” saying that “this is something that is the right thing to do.”
Eligible workers must have worked in person during the state of emergency that began on March 10, 2020 and lasted for more than a year. Their household income must not be more than 300% of the federal poverty level.
Baker’s administration and an advisory panel would determine who exactly qualifies as an “essential worker.” The legislation suggests that those eligible may include but not be limited to health care workers, long-term care workers, public health staff, childcare workers, educators and school staff, farm workers, food production workers, grocery store and other service workers, transportation workers, utility workers and foster care parents.
The panel would offer its recommendations on eligibility no later than Feb. 1, 2022.
“The recommendations shall prioritize lower-income essential workers who performed essential duties in-person since the start of the state of emergency declared by the governor on March 10, 2020,” the bill states.
“The panel shall also consider factors including, but not limited to, an essential worker’s increased financial burden and increased risk of exposure to the 2019 novel coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, due to the nature of their work and any bonuses or hazard pay a worker has already received for their work during the COVID-19 pandemic and the amount thereof.”
It is possible that the payments may come in the form of a one-time refundable tax credit, the legislation adds.
Massachusetts Surpasses Major COVID Vaccination Milestone
MassLive – Though COVID-19 booster shots are rolling out and children ages 5 to 11 can now get immunized, some larger cities in Massachusetts are lagging behind in vaccination rates.
At least 16 communities with more than 20,000 people, about the size of the average Massachusetts town, have yet to cross the 60% vaccinated threshold, data from the state Department of Public Health shows.
In New Bedford, with a population of 99,980, for example, only 51% are fully immunized. In nearby Fall River, the rate is a bit higher, with 56% of 89,317 people vaccinated, according to DPH data.
In Springfield, which has a population of 156,245, the vaccination rate is 53%. Of the 99,226 people in Brockton, 55% are immunized. Holyoke has a population of 40,638 and a vaccination rate of 56%. Lawrence is close to crossing the 60% threshold. Right now, 59% of its 87,731 population is inoculated.
In Worcester, the rate is just hitting 60% of a 191,575 population. Boston, the state’s largest city with 692,958 residents, has a rate of 65%, data shows.
Last week, Worcester had a rate of 59%, Springfield was at 52% and New Bedford had just reached the 50% mark.
There are a few things to keep in mind when looking at the vaccination rates. The data uses 2019 population figures, those available at the start of the pandemic. Though that’s a consistent number for comparing data week-to-week, the percentage of vaccinated individuals in a town could be different based on current population estimates.
Additionally, the figures represent the total population and not just the number of people eligible to be inoculated against COVID. Children ages 5 to 11 were not able to get vaccinated until earlier this month and there is no immunization option for those younger than 5 years old.
Massachusetts is generally seeing an upward trend in virus cases. New infections rose about 24% last week over the previous week following seven weeks of a slow decline. A total of 4.8 million residents are now fully vaccinated with 5.2 million having received at least one shot of a vaccine. A total of 730,169 booster shots have been administered.
Coronavirus Cases on the Rise in Massachusetts; Experts Warn of ‘Viral’ Winter
Boston Herald – The highly contagious delta variant is once again driving up coronavirus cases in the state, fueling disruptive outbreaks across the Northeast and sending hospitalizations surging in the Mountain West.
It’s a worrisome sign of what could be ahead this winter as the nation’s battle against COVID-19 continues.
“A significant surge is inevitable, and the delta variant is the reason why,” Dr. Todd Ellerin, director of infectious diseases at South Shore Health.
As the United States braces for its first winter alongside the transmuted virus, signs of what’s to come are already evident in Massachusetts where the seven-day average of daily reported cases spiked by 299 in a single week. On Nov. 3 the average number of new cases daily stood at 1,182. As of Nov. 10, it had jumped to 1,481, state health data show.
“Delta is three to four times more contagious than the original virus so combine that with fact that we’re moving indoors and shutting windows, the fact that not even 60% of the country is vaccinated and pandemic fatigue — all of that combined with increased mobility around the holidays, it’s essentially a guarantee that COVID is going to go viral,” Ellerin said.
Trends are improving in hard-hit Florida, Texas and other warm Southern states, but the delta has headed north for the winter as people head indoors, close their windows and breathe stagnant air, prompting experts to underscore the importance of vaccines and wearing masks inside.
The tiny Vermont liberal arts college St. Micheal’s put the lid on social gatherings this week after a spike in cases was tied to Halloween parties.
Boston health officials on Tuesday shut down a Jamaica Plain elementary school for 10 days due to a coronavirus outbreak across several grade levels and classrooms.
The delta variant dominates infections across the U.S., accounting for more than 99% of the samples analyzed. Experts like Ellerin attribute the surge in cases to “COVID fatigue and waning immunity.”
Even states like Massachusetts with above-average vaccination rates should prepare for a hard winter, Ellerin said.
Surgeon General Says Blocking COVID Vaccine Mandate Would be ‘Public Health Setback’
MassLive – U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Sunday defended the Biden administration’s push for businesses with 100 or more employees to require COVID-19 vaccines or weekly testing, an order that remains in a standstill while facing ongoing court challenges from Republican-led employers and legal groups.
Murthy told Fox News Sunday that the vaccines are proven to be safe and effective, and that the requirement makes sense at a time when a winter spike in new cases is likely. The U.S. is coming off a surge of cases driven by the highly contagious delta variant, particularly in areas with low vaccination rates, but more Americans staying indoors during the holiday season “increases the possibility that there will be spread,” Murthy said.
“I think it would be a setback for public health,” Murthy said, referencing the possibility that the mandate is permanently killed in the courts. “What we know very clearly is that when people get vaccinated – and the more people who get vaccinated the quicker we’re able to bring this pandemic to an end — the more lives that we can ultimately save.”
In a ruling released Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit described the mandate as “a one-size-fits-all sledgehammer that makes hardly any attempt to account for differences in workplaces (and workers).”
The panel maintained a temporary stay on the order as the case plays out in court. The mandate has faced sharp criticism from Republican-led governors and businesses, even though — with its option for weekly testing — it is not as strict as some state and local governments’ requirements.
After 600 Days, the Massachusetts Statehouse Remains Closed to the Public
Steeped in history, the Massachusetts State House stands alone for many reasons among the country’s state capitols: Its iconic dome was constructed with copper from Paul Revere’s foundry. Samuel Adams laid its cornerstone. It holds a 237-year-old fish effigy.
The seat of the state’s executive and legislative branches now has another: The State House appears to be the only state capitol on the continent where the public remains barred from entering.
The pandemic-induced closure has now stretched past 600 days, and legislative leaders in charge of the building say they’re juggling how to safely reopen a living museum where hundreds of people work — most of whom are vaccinated against COVID-19 — but typically receives some 100,000 visitors each year.
Nearly every other state has taken more steps to let people back into the “people’s house” since the onset of COVID-19, according to a Globe review of official statements, news reports, and responses from government officials. And while Hawaii is the only other state whose capitol the Globe found is still closed to the general public, it does allow those with appointments to enter.
The lack of clarity on when the Massachusetts Legislature will reopen its capital has now stirred complaints about an institution that’s long been criticized for opacity.
Millennial. Mom. Mayor. Michelle Wu Reflects a Changing Boston
Boston Globe – As a 34-year-old working mom of two children, Maria Zolotarev sees a lot of herself in Mayor-elect Michelle Wu. In fact, she sees a lot of Wu, period: typically at the Saturday farmers market in Roslindale, each with their kids in tow.
“I feel like I have tons in common with her,” said Zolotarev, who calls herself a bit of a Wu “fangirl.” “We are both working moms, both have two kiddos, both children of immigrant parents.”
And over the years Zolotarev has watched her fellow “Rozzident” juggle parenthood and politics, navigate the Boston Public Schools, and be a voice trying to help families afford — and stay in — the city. Now she’s thrilled to see “someone who gets it” become mayor.
When Can I get the Novavax Vaccine?
Boston Herald – Maryland-based biotech company Novavax could soon bring a new coronavirus vaccine into the market about a year after Americans first rolled up their sleeves.
When can I get a Novavax coronavirus vaccine?
The vaccine, called NVX-CoV2373, is not currently available in the United States. The company expects to submit data to the Food and Drug Administration by the end of the year. Once authorization is requested, a rigorous review process will take place before the shot is cleared for use in the general public.
What makes this coronavirus vaccine different from the ones we already have?
The Novavax vaccine is protein-based and uses the same platform as shots for shingles and hepatitis. The proteins deliver immune stimulation directly into a person’s cells as opposed to a fragment of genetic code. It is not an mRNA as is the case with Moderna and Pfizer, or an adenovirus vector, such as the Johnson & Johnson vax.
How does it work?
The Novavax coronavirus vaccine is engineered from the genetic sequence of coronavirus with nanoparticle technology. The technology binds with human receptors targeted by virus which is critical for effective protection. When the vaccine is injected, it stimulates the immune system to produce antibodies.
Is it safe and effective?
Clinical trials for the Novavax shot have shown an overall 90% efficacy against coronavirus and 100% protection against moderate and severe disease. Most common side effects include injection site pain and tenderness, fatigue, headache and muscle pain. No single adverse reaction was reported by more than 1% of trial participants.
Can foreign travelers show proof of the Novavax vaccine to enter the United States?
Yes. Novavax clinical trial participants from sites outside the U.S. are considered fully vaccinated if they received the same product that was administered in the U.S. clinical trials. It is one of the vaccines already approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for air travel in the U.S., giving the 30,000 in the trial for the jab a passport to move around, whereas other shots haven’t made the cut.
Could children get this vaccine?
The vaccine is not yet authorized for use in the United States
Baker Administration Unsure of Balance in Unemployment Insurance Fund
Commonwealth Magazine – A top aide to Gov. Charlie Baker said on Friday that the administration is still trying to determine the current balance in the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund.
Rosalin Acosta, the secretary of labor and workforce development, told members of a study commission that US Treasury data indicate the fund has a current balance of $2.9 billion and owes the federal government $2.3 billion in connection with previous borrowings to keep the fund solvent.
Although the two numbers would seem to indicate the fund has a surplus after the $2.3 billion owed the federal government is paid off, Acosta indicated she isn’t ready to go along with that conclusion. She called the $2.9 billion number “a fluid number that can change daily.”
The unemployment insurance trust fund pays out the state’s share of unemployment benefits. Its funding comes from businesses. Until the last few days, state officials have been saying the trust fund is drowning in red ink brought about by the pandemic and needs financial support to remain solvent and reduce the financial burden on businesses.
Lawmakers have authorized the Baker administration to borrow up to $7 billion to help stabilize the fund and the Legislature seems poised to steer at least $500 million in American Rescue Plan Act money into the fund. But those decisions hinge on determining the fund’s current financial status, which Acosta’s office has been unable to do for the last several months.
“There are a lot of federal debits and credits and reconciliation that we’re still doing on our side and I assure you as soon as that is completed we will get all our reports out and we have some that are late. Our reports will come out as soon as we are very sure and very sure-footed on exactly what the balance is so we can then put to rest the bond issue etc.,” Acosta told her fellow commission members at a virtual meeting.
Elizabeth Warren Says Vote on Build Back Better Bill ‘Unlikely’ before Thanksgiving
Boston Herald – Elizabeth Warren said a vote on President Biden’s Build Back Better bill that includes social safety-net programs and addresses climate change concerns is “unlikely” before Thanksgiving.
The companion bill to Biden’s $1.9 trillion infrastructure bill passed by the House earlier this month is a “once-in-a-generation investment in our people,” the president has said.
“It will lower bills for healthcare, child care, elder care, prescription drugs, and preschool. And middle-class families get a tax cut.”
During a Sunday appearance on WCVB’s “On the Record,” Warren said the Senate has “a deep and abiding commitment to the rest of it.” Doing so will require commitment from all 50 Senate Democrats.
“Whether we can get both of those done by Thanksgiving, I think that’s pretty unlikely,” Warren said.
The splitting up of the two infrastructure packages has angered progressives, who voted against passage of President Biden’s $1.2 trillion
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Massachusetts, was among the progressives who voted no. The other nine members of the Bay State’s congressional delegation, also Democrats, voted for the bill.
More Schools Get OK to Lift Mask Mandate
MassLive – More Massachusetts schools are getting approval from state education officials to move away from a COVID-19 mask mandate.
Schools that can show a COVID vaccination rate of at least 80% can seek permission from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to end the mask mandate for individuals who have been immunized.
Just because a school gets DESE approval does not mean students and staff automatically ditch masks. Local school officials and school committees decide whether to lift the mandate after receiving the OK from the state.
So far, DESE has received 23 requests to lift the mask mandate and has approved 13, officials said.
Schools with approval are Hopkinton High School, Ashland High School, Westborough High School, Westwood High School, Sarah Gibbons Middle School in Westborough, Algonquin Regional High School in Northborough, Norwell High School, Medway High School, Franklin High School, King Phillip Regional High School in Wrentham, New England Academy School, Corwin-Russell School at Broccoli Hall and Cotting School.
Those 13 approvals and 23 requests are up from 11 approvals and 18 requests last week.
Hopkinton was the first to get DESE approval and did not end the mask mandate until the school committee voted.
When an approved school ends its mask mandate, unvaccinated individuals must continue to wear masks, according to DESE guidelines.
Uncovering a Contractor’s Path of Destruction in Mass.
NBC Boston – The NBC10 Investigators have uncovered a contractor’s path of destruction across Massachusetts. Homeowners paid big bucks for pools and other home improvement projects but were left with giant holes in their backyards and broken promises.
During a three-month investigation, we discovered criminal records and lawsuits spanning more than two decades in New England. From there, we followed the trail of money, tracked down the contractor responsible and asked authorities if he’ll be held accountable.
In our three-part series, “To Catch a Contractor,” we also review the red flags consumers should be aware of before they hire someone for a project. And we take a closer look at the statewide system meant to provide oversight of contractors with a sketchy track record.
When we visited Huy Pham in late August, an enormous hole was all he had to show for the $60,000 he’d already paid a contractor to install a pool in his backyard in Sharon.
According to the project contract, his three kids were supposed to be swimming by the Fourth of July. But after breaking ground and digging the hole in June, Pham said the project came to a standstill.
Pham had hired Steve Docchio, owner of Xtreme Living Pools and Construction.
According to the web site, the company is “built on quality workmanship, dedication…and keenly focused on delivering breathtaking results.”
The contractor had seemed eager to start the project and knowledgeable about pool installations, Pham recalled. On the day they moved into their home in April, Docchio showed up to collect the deposit. When the timeline started to slip by a couple of weeks in June, Pham claimed the contractor did not take it well when he inquired about the delay.
“He just exploded on me and said, ‘No pool for you! No pool for you!’ I couldn’t believe what had happened,” Pham said.
What’s in Senate ARPA Package for Western Massachusetts?
Gazettenet – The Massachusetts Senate unanimously passed its version of a $3.82 billion American Rescue Plan Act spending package late Wednesday, allocating about half of the federal relief funding to several areas of need.
In western Massachusetts, there is money to improve local public health systems, provide storm damage disaster relief, and fund environmental work and internet infrastructure.
The Senate voted 38-0 in favor of a package that prioritizes health care, including behavioral and mental health, economic recovery, and climate preparedness among others. The vote came after multiple hearings and a total of 722 proposed amendments.
Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, said one of her main priorities during debates was building a stronger public health system.
“I had a strong focus on public health in my own advocacy and on what we have to do to be more prepared, more resilient and more equitable the next time we face such a disaster,” Comerford said.
When the pandemic shook the foundations of the commonwealth’s public health system, many rural areas were not prepared, Comerford said — there wasn’t a strong enough foundation to handle the crisis.
In its ARPA package, the Senate allocated $250.9 million to local and regional public health, in particular providing funds to “communities with the least ability to meet minimum public health standards, enact workforce development and training initiatives, and transform public health data systems.”
“The communities hardest hit were low-income, communities of color, and rural communities,” Comerford said. “These are the communities that didn’t have the same public health infrastructure or the same level of preparedness of bigger,
McCarthy, Warren Meet to Discuss Green Jobs, Infrastructure
WBUR – White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren joined state and local leaders Friday to discuss the influx of money coming to the state as a result of the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Massachusetts is expected to receive more than $9 billion, with with money earmarked for roads and bridges, public transportation, an electric vehicle charging network, internet expansion, climate resiliency, airport infrastructure and lead pipe replacement. President Biden is scheduled to sign the bill on Monday.
The roundtable conversation at the Ben Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston focused on the environmental justice investments baked into the legislation; 40% of the bill is designated for marginalized communities.
“A lot of the communities here in Massachusetts … suffer from legacy pollution,” said McCarthy. “This goes directly to taking the resources we need to actually improve lives.”
Some of those resources would go to places like the Ben Franklin Institute that primarily serve Black and brown students, said Warren, highlighting the funding as an opportunity to expand green jobs.
Roundtable attendees met with students learning about the installation and operation of heat pumps. The state wants to install 1 million of the devices as part of its roadmap to meet environmental targets by 2030, but is well behind schedule to meet that benchmark.
Schumer urges Biden to tap petroleum reserve to ease fuel prices
(Bloomberg) — Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer urged President Joe Biden to tap the U.S. government’s reserves of emergency fuel to help lower gasoline prices.
“Consumers need immediate relief at the gas pump, and so I am urging the administration to approve fuel sales from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve,” Schumer, a Democrat who is New York’s senior senator, said at a news conference Sunday.
Biden, whose popularity has dropped, in part, as many Americans blame him for failing to contain inflation, has hinted he may take actions aimed at taming fuel prices. A top aide declined to say on Sunday whether the president would tap the SPR.
“The president has made clear that all options are on the table,” Brian Deese, director of the White House National Economic Council, said on CNN. “We’re monitoring the situation very carefully.”
Gasoline prices at a seven-year high, along with surging costs for shelter, food and vehicles, have contributed to a spike in inflation. The consumer price index increased 6.2% in the 12 months through October, the fastest annual pace since 1990, according to Labor Department data released last week.
‘Tremendous Need’ for City Hall to Get Hiring Done, Wu Says
Boston Herald – Mayor-elect Michelle Wu’s spent the past week-plus plugging her way through briefing after briefing on everything from public safety to arts and culture, snow removal to contract procurement, and one topic keeps coming up: the many open jobs in City Hall.
“We’re hearing across all of the briefings a tremendous need for more staff,” Wu told the Herald during a sit-down interview during a brief lull in her schedule. “On any given day, there are hundreds of positions that we need to fill in city government. Very exciting opportunities. And we need to make sure that we’re reaching into our communities to pull people in.”
According to City Hall, there were 420 job postings active on the career website earlier this month. The actual number of openings is significantly higher, as many of the postings are advertising multiple jobs, like one now for 35 crossing guards. For another example, there’s one active for 17 positions of 911 call takers — a position that, as the Herald has reported, has been in “dire” need for months.
The overall number of postings actually is down from where it was early in Janey’s tenure, when the Herald reported on a widespread exodus from City Hall. At that point in June, the city had 541 active postings for more than 3,700 jobs. But there’s a bit of an extra pinch now, as hundreds of the city’s 18,000-or-so employees remain on leave due to violating the vaccine mandate.
Wu, speaking on Friday less than 100 hours before her swearing-in as mayor at noon on Tuesday, said she sees this as an opportunity to get the possibility of good city jobs in front of a diverse array of Boston residents — “some of whom might not see themselves working in city government, some who might not have known about these opportunities otherwise.”
The soon-to-be-former city councilor from Roslindale said the various departments in the 30-minute briefings have been presenting 30, 60 and 90 day timelines for what work is underway and what’s coming up.
“There are also many pressing issues that will require some decision making even in the next 30 days,” Wu said. That includes filling “key vacancies,” she said, and contracts expiring that the city has to figure out what to do with, plus “plans that have been delayed to get a better sense with a new administrat
Cyr: State Legislative Redistricting Non-Controversial on Cape Cod
Cape Cod Times – According to the 2020 Census, the population of Massachusetts increased by more than 7 million people in the last decade. As a result, state legislative districts have been adjusted, and the altering of congressional district boundaries are being discussed and debated.
The House passed the maps for new state legislative districts by a vote of 158-1 and the Senate by a vote of 36-3, and Gov. Charlie Baker signed the new redistricting plan into law without hesitation.
Sen. Julian Cyr, D-Truro, called the redistricting changes on the Cape and Islands non-controversial.
The 4th Barnstable District, represented by state Rep. Sarah Peake, D-Provincetown, has moved east with the population change. Brewster’s Precinct 3 used to be in Peake’s district, but has been added to state Rep. Timothy Whelan’s, R-Brewster, 1st Barnstable District. State Sen. Susan Moran, D-Falmouth, gained Plympton, in Plymouth County, and Mashpee as part of her adjusted senatorial district. Moran now represents four towns on the Cape including Bourne, Falmouth, Sandwich and Mashpee.
“Brewster is now fully in the 1st District and Barnstable will have two state representatives, not three,” Cyr said. “Those all follow good redistricting principles. Because of the population shift, we’re uniting a few more towns.”
Senate Democrats’ Mental-Health Access Bill to be Debated
Milford Daily News – From annual mental health checkups to measures aimed at helping psychiatric patients avoid long waits in emergency rooms, an expansive mental health bill the Senate plans to take up proposes a host of policies that top Senate Democrats said aim to ensure people can access the care they need.
Senate President Karen Spilka said the bill addresses a “top priority of the people of the commonwealth.”
“Mental health and behavioral health has become so acute with (the) COVID-19 pandemic,” the Ashland Democrat told reporters Tuesday. “Everybody is concerned, practically, about the lack of, the fragmentation of the mental health services currently.”
The Senate on Tuesday adopted an order giving senators until 5 p.m. Friday to file amendments to the bill. It’s scheduled for consideration next Wednesday, which will mark the Senate’s second go in less than two years at many of the measures the legislation envisions.
In February 2020, less than a month before Gov. Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency around COVID-19 and state government’s agenda refocused around pandemic response, the Senate unanimously passed a bill aimed at increasing access to mental health care.
While that bill, dubbed the Mental Health ABC Act for “addressing barriers to care,” would go on to die in the House Ways and Means Committee, senators said several of its provisions — including standardized credentialing forms for newly hired mental and behavioral health professionals, a pilot program for behavioral telehealth services in public high schools, and creation of a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner fellowship pilot program — became law through other avenues.
Nearly 1.3 Million in Massachusetts to Face Higher Medicare Costs
Nearly 1.3 million people in Massachusetts will be paying higher premiums, deductibles and coinsurance amounts for Medicare in 2022.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced Friday that the standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B enrollees will be $170.10 next year, an increase of $21.60 or 14.54 percent from $148.50 in 2021. The annual deductible for all Medicare Part B beneficiaries will be $233 in 2022, an increase of $30 from the 2021 annual deductible.
The higher costs for Part B, which covers outpatient care and durable equipment, are due to rising health care costs and utilization, the possibility that Medicare could have to begin covering a high-cost Alzheimer’s drug and congressional action that held down the 2021 premium, CMS said.
Health care spending is on the front burner for Beacon Hill this week as the House and Senate each gear up to consider its leader’s priority health-related legislation and as the governor and attorney general prepare to address health cost growth at the Health Policy Commission’s annual conference on Wednesday.
Health care spending in Massachusetts exceeded an annual target set under a 2012 cost control law the second straight year in 2019, climbing 4.3 percent.
For Medicare Part A, which covers inpatient hospital, skilled nursing facility, hospice, and inpatient rehabilitation care, the 2022 deductible will be $1,556 per benefit period, up $72 or 4.85 percent from the current year’s $1,484 deductible. In Massachusetts, there were 1,375,687 total Medicare beneficiaries as of September, including 1,245,877 people enrolled in either Part B or Part A, according to CMS data.
House, Senate Name ARPA Spending Bill Negotiators
The House and Senate on Monday named their negotiating team as lawmakers in both branches work to see this week if they can reach a quick compromise on a $3.8 billion COVID-19 recovery bill.
The House named Reps. Aaron Michlewitz, Dan Hunt and Todd Smola as its conference committee members. The Senate appointed Sens. Michael Rodrigues, Cindy Friedman and Patrick O’Connor is its negotiators.
The spending bills are H 4234, which passed the House on Nov. 2, and S 2580, which cleared the Senate on Wednesday.
Lawmakers Seek to Revitalize Local Health Departments
Eagle Tribune – Local health agents were on the front lines of the state’s battle against COVID-19 — testing residents, enforcing virus restrictions and setting up vaccination clinics.
But medical experts say city and town health departments have been underfunded and understaffed for decades, and will need more money and resources to ensure they can respond to the next pandemic.
On Beacon Hill, lawmakers are planning to direct a windfall of funding to health boards as part of a plan to spend billions of dollars in federal pandemic relief money and surplus revenues.
A $3.82 billion House plan approved two weeks ago calls for spending $150 million over the next three years to strengthen the boards.
The Senate’s version of the spending bill, which was approved Wednesday, calls for spending more than $250 million on them over the next five years. That includes $118.4 million for public health infrastructure and data sharing upgrades, and $95 million for direct grants to local boards.
The Coalition for Public Health, which includes the Massachusetts Association of Health Boards and Massachusetts Public Health Association, has called for at least $251 million initially to support them.
“This is the level of funding that is necessary to fix the local public health system, which is pretty darn broken,” said Carlene Pavlos, the Public Health Association’s executive director. “We need to transform the system so that it’s not a matter of your ZIP Code whether you get good quality public health services.”
The Senate plan also includes a provision requiring the state to provide regular funding for local health agencies and through the annual budget and grants to improve services, data collection and cross-jurisdictional cooperation.
16 Small Massachusetts Towns Share $3 Million in Grants
Milford Spectrum – More than a dozen small towns in Massachusetts are sharing a total of $3 million in state grants to support local projects from improving wastewater treatment facilities to updating a 70-year-old fire station.
The Rural and Small Town Development Fund grants announced in Montague this week go to communities with fewer than 7,000 residents or a population density of less than 500 people per square mile.
The program was created in the economic development legislation signed by Gov. Charlie Baker last January.
Sixteen towns are getting grants ranging from $24,000 to $400,000.
Lincoln will use its $400,000 grant to create design and engineering plans to expand an existing wastewater treatment plant that services a shopping center and a 125-unit mixed income residential property.
Williamstown’s $400,000 grant will be used to help with the redesign of a fire station built in 1950 so it meets national standards and improves response times.
The other communities that got grants were Avon, Cummington, Eastham, Edgartown, Erving, Hopedale, Montague, Orange, Princeton, Tisbury, Topsfield, Truro, Westport and Whately.
Amherst Councilors Explore Moratorium on Big Solar Projects
Amherst Bulletin – A large ground-mounted solar system proposed for wooded land near the Pelham and Shutesbury town lines is prompting Amherst officials to consider a moratorium on such projects.
A divided Town Council voted 7-6 Monday to have the moratorium reviewed by the council’s Community Resources Committee.
The moratorium is proposed by District 2 Councilors Pat De Angelis and Lynn Griesemer, who also serves as the council president, to possibly give guidance for amendments to town bylaws so landscapes are better protected and possible environmental damage is prevented.
“The town needs time to consider and study the future implications and impacts of large-scale ground-mounted solar voltaic installations developments upon the town as a whole, as well as the consistency of the already completed solar facilities with the town’s current and future planning goals,” De Angelis and Griesemer wrote in a memo to their colleagues.
They also note the town has approved multiple installations of solar farms, at least one of which has involved extensive clear-cutting of forests and clearing of ground vegetation, and which is located in proximity to residential neighborhoods that depend on private drinking wells and septic systems. Article 3 of zoning, they contend, “is inadequate for protecting the town’s environmental resources and mitigating other negative effects of large-scale ground-mounted solar facilities on the town.
The moratorium comes after a recent proposal that is being reviewed by the Conservation Commission for an 11-megawatt project on about 100 acres of wooded land owned by W.D. Cowls Inc. south of homes on Shutesbury Road.
If the moratorium is approved — by a two-thirds council majority — it would prevent the Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning Board from accepting or approving “any application for a large-scale ground-mounted solar energy system with a rated capacity of 250 kW DC or greater.”
This would buy time for town officials to examine what areas are suitable for solar, and regulate tree clearing, provide design standards and address forest habitat loss.
“It will allow us to create reasonable regulation without preventing the development of solar energy systems and helping us to avoid the environmental disasters like those that have occurred in Hopkinton and Williamsburg.”
November 9, 2021
Schedule
Tuesday November 9
Wednesday November 10
Monday November 15
Labor Market Back on Track after 531,000 Jobs Were Added in October
WBUR – A strong rebound in job growth in October is raising hopes for a long-awaited recovery in the labor market. But millions of workers remain on the sidelines — and the economy needs them back.
The Labor Department reported Friday that U.S. employers added 531,000 jobs last month. Job gains for August and September were also revised upward. The unemployment rate fell to 4.6% from 4.8% in September.
“America is getting back to work,” President Biden told reporters at the White House. “Our economy is starting to work for more Americans.”
Bars and restaurants added 119,000 workers in October as consumers felt more comfortable eating out. Factories and warehouses also saw significant job gains — a sign the fallout from the delta wave of coronavirus infections may be fading.
Biden credited an aggressive effort to boost vaccination levels, including a new OSHA requirement that large employers ensure all their workers are vaccinated by early January or get them tested for COVID at least once a week.
“That’s good for our health, but it’s also good for our economy,” Biden said. “Now vaccinated workers are going back to work. Vaccinated shoppers are going back to stores. And with the launch of the vaccine for kids ages 5-11 this week, we can make sure more vaccinated children can stay in school.”
Even with last month’s solid job gains, the economy is still 4.2 million jobs short of where it was when the pandemic began.
And questions about when or even if sidelined workers will return to the labor force continue to weigh on the U.S. recovery.
There were more than 10 million unfilled job openings at the end of August. From factories to furniture stores, businesses are desperate for additional help.
U.S. Lifts Pandemic Travel Ban, Opens the Doors to International Visitors
WBUR – The U.S. lifted restrictions Monday on travel from a long list of countries including Mexico, Canada and most of Europe, allowing tourists to make long-delayed trips and family members to reconnect with loved ones after more than a year and a half apart because of the pandemic.
The U.S. is accepting fully vaccinated travelers at airports and land borders, doing away with a COVID-19 restriction that dates back to the Trump administration. The new rules allow air travel from previously restricted countries as long as the traveler has proof of vaccination and a negative COVID-19 test. Land travel from Mexico and Canada will require proof of vaccination but no test.
Airlines are expecting more travelers from Europe and elsewhere. Data from travel and analytics firm Cirium showed airlines are increasing flights between the United Kingdom and the U.S. by 21% this month over last month.
The change will have a profound effect on the borders with Mexico and Canada, where traveling back and forth was a way of life until the pandemic hit and the U.S. shut down nonessential travel.
Malls, restaurants and Main Street shops in U.S. border towns have been devastated by the lack of visitors from Mexico. On the boundary with Canada, cross-border hockey rivalries were community traditions until being upended by the pandemic. Churches that had members on both sides of the border are hoping to welcome parishioners they haven’t seen during COVID-19 shutdown.
Loved ones have missed holidays, birthdays and funerals while nonessential air travel was barred, and they are now eager to reconnect.
River Robinson’s American partner wasn’t able to be in Canada for the birth of their baby boy 17 months ago because of pandemic-related border closures. She was thrilled to hear the U.S. is reopening its land crossings to vaccinated travelers.
“I’m planning to take my baby down for the American Thanksgiving,” said Robinson, who lives in St. Thomas, Ontario. “If all goes smoothly at the border I’ll plan on taking him down as much as I can. Is crazy to think he has a whole other side of the family he hasn’t even met yet.”
Appeals Court Temporarily Halts Biden Vaccine Mandate for Larger Businesses
WBUR – A federal appeals court on Saturday temporarily halted the Biden administration’s vaccine requirement for businesses with 100 or more workers.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted an emergency stay of the requirement by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration that those workers be vaccinated by Jan. 4 or face mask requirements and weekly tests.
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said the action stops President Biden “from moving forward with his unlawful overreach.”
“The president will not impose medical procedures on the American people without the checks and balances afforded by the constitution,” said a statement from Landry, a Republican.
At least 27 states filed lawsuits challenging the rule in several circuits, some of which were made more conservative by the judicial appointments of former President Donald Trump.
The Biden administration has been encouraging widespread vaccinations as the quickest way to end the pandemic that has claimed more than 750,000 lives in the United States.
The administration says it is confident that the requirement, which includes penalties of nearly $14,000 per violation, will withstand legal challenges in part because its safety rules pre-empt state laws.
The 5th Circuit, based in New Orleans, said it was delaying the federal vaccine requirement because of potential “grave statutory and constitutional issues” raised by the plaintiffs. The government was to provide an expedited reply to the motion for a permanent injunction Monday, followed by petitioners’ reply on Tuesday.
Hospitals Terminate Hundreds over Vaccine Mandates
Boston Business Journal – The state’s largest health systems are terminating hundreds of health care workers for failing to meet vaccine mandate deadlines.
At Mass General Brigham, the state’s largest health system with 80,000 employees, there were 458 workers who didn’t comply with the mandate as of last Thursday, a day before the health system’s final deadline. Those employees are expected to be terminated on Nov. 11.
Those workers represent 0.4% of the entire workforce, and the company has said the employees are spread out through the system, so it won’t be detrimental to operations.
The terminations include employees who filed a lawsuit against the health system over its vaccine mandate, after the courts decided Thursday not to issue a preliminary injunction to prevent the health system from moving forward with the terminations. The broader court case is still ongoing.
Wellforce, the parent company of Tufts Medical Center, let go of 107 employees on Nov. 1 for failure to comply with vaccine mandates. That represents less than 1% of its 12,000-person workforce.
The numbers at Wellforce were much smaller than anticipated. The health system had 274 employees placed on unpaid leave Oct. 1 over the mandate, but nearly two-thirds changed their minds and got the shot. As at Mass General Brigham, the cuts were few enough not to illicit service reductions.
Vaccine mandates were similarly effective at Lawrence General Hospital, which only had 20 employees be let go out of its 2,000-person workforce on Nov. 1 due to vaccine mandates.
“It was a concern for all of us, but we did a lot of education and partnered with our team and worked with our staff,” said Lawrence General CEO Deborah Wilson. “Most of our staff wanted this. They wanted to be part of that safe environment.”
More terminations are likely. Beth Israel Lahey Health, the state’s second largest health system with 36,000 employees, placed 153 employees on unpaid administrative leave on Oct. 31. The employees are expected to be terminated on Nov. 14 if they don’t comply with the mandate.
Is Herd Immunity’ Possible?
WBUR – Now that children ages five to 11 are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine, some epidemiologists are holding out hope that it might be possible to achieve “herd immunity,” which happens when enough people are immune to a virus to make spreading it unlikely.
Although it remains unclear whether this will become a reality, experts say reaching high vaccination rates among children will be a key step along that path.
“This is the most important piece,” said Robert Horsburgh, a physician and professor of epidemiology, biostatistics and global health at Boston University. “We’ve done a pretty good job with adult vaccines, but we were never going to get this under complete control until we get children vaccinated.”
While some states — including Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island — have vaccinated roughly 70% of residents, the virus has continued to circulate, although at lower rates than in some less vaccinated states. Horsburgh said one reason for this is children.
Despite being less likely than adults to get severely sick from the virus, children can still spread it. “They are a major way the virus stays in the community.” Horsburgh said.
Demand for Boosters Surpasses that for First Shots of COVID Vaccine
WBUR – The number of people getting COVID-19 vaccine boosters in the U.S. is now far outpacing the number getting their first shots, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That trend represents a big success for White House’s aggressive booster campaign. But it also underscores the administration’s flagging effort to achieve its high priority of vaccinating the remaining unvaccinated Americans.
More than 21 million people have already received a booster in the short time they’ve been widely available, according to the CDC website. And more than 786,000 are getting boosters every day now on average. That’s nearly triple the number coming in for their first shots, though the rollout to kids under 12 could potentially change that equation.
This isn’t a big surprise: The same people who rushed to get their first jabs are apparently just as eager for their third, and with the booster recommendations announced late October, two out of every three vaccinated people are eligible, according to some estimates.
The trend is being praised by many public health experts. Boosters will help protect people who may have become more vulnerable because of waning immunity, especially against the delta variant. That will help prevent more people from getting sick or spreading the virus to others, and should prevent hospitalizations and deaths.
“I think the folks who are eligible for boosters should get them,” says Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. “The data are clear that your immunity wanes and that’s not good for you or good for the community if more people become vulnerable.”
But some worry the focus on boosters has distracted from the more important goal of vaccinating the tens of millions of people who are eligible but still haven’t gotten vaccinated. As of Thursday, over 222 million Americans, or 67% of the population, had gotten at least their first shot.
The large number of unvaccinated people is the primary reason that more than 70,000 people are still catching the virus every day, many hospitals are still overwhelmed, and more than a thousand are still dying every day.
Wu Replicates Menino Margin and Map
Commonwealth Magazine – In the closing weeks of the Boston mayor’s race, Michelle Wu was name-checking her one-time boss, Tom Menino, a lot more than her former law professor, Elizabeth Warren. It was smart politics to remind voters that she wasn’t just a protege of the Senate lefty firebrand but was also very much a product of Tom Menino’s City Hall, where she cut her teeth as a law student intern looking at small business licensing issues and school bus route logistics.
As much as the city’s Harvard-educated incoming mayor and its often tongue-tied longest-serving one seemed cut from very different cloths, they shared an interest in the nitty-gritty of how city government affects residents’ lives. When it comes to their political prowess, they now also share something else: An almost identical winning margin and map in rolling to dominant victories in their first mayoral runs.
In unofficial results from Tuesday’s election, Wu captured 64 percent of the vote to Annissa Essaibi George’s 36 percent. That’s exactly the same margin by which Menino beat Dorchester state rep Jim Brett in the 1993 race. What’s more, Wu dominated the city geographically in a way nearly identical to Menino. She actually did him one better when measuring victories at the ward level, winning 19 of the city’s 22 wards to Menino’s 18 ward-level wins in 1993.
In Michelle Wu, Many Business Leaders See a Mayor They Can Work With
Boston Globe – Her progressive promise may align with business community’s goals more than some might think
Michelle Wu convinced Boston voters she’s the right person to run the city. Now, can she persuade a wary business community?
Her race against Annissa Essaibi George was often framed as progressive versus pragmatist. Wu’s talk of free T rides and reviving rent control struck some executives as pie-in-the-sky proposals with little chance of immediate success, not serious attempts to tackle longstanding problems. Meanwhile, her promises to push substantive reforms — by rewriting the rules of real estate development in Boston, for example — threaten the bottom line for powerful people who have benefited from the status quo.
But it might not be as tough as it seems to persuade Boston’s typically cautious business community to hop on board the Wu train — and not just because she emerged victorious last Tuesday. Business leaders know how this city has changed since they started their careers. And, for the most part, they recognize it needs to evolve further.
Wu gave herself a head start by directly engaging with executives in a variety of industries during the campaign. To many who met with her, the city councilor came across as genuinely interested in their concerns, and not simply as a politician casting for votes or campaign donations.
And when it comes to priorities, there’s plenty of overlap with the soon-to-be mayor. Bolstering Boston’s public schools. Improving mass transit and affordable housing. Making the city more resilient to catastrophic storms. Narrowing the wealth gap to help Black and Latino residents. Dealing with the drug addiction and homeless encampment at Mass. and Cass. Replacing all those “For Lease” signs downtown with vibrant shops and restaurants.
The Kids are Not Okay
Commonwealth Magazine – In a shocking and tragic incident last week, Patricia Lampron, the principal of the Dr. William Henderson Inclusion School in Dorchester, ordered a 16-year-old girl to leave the school grounds. The girl began punching her in the head, beating Lampron unconscious, according to a report in the Boston Globe. The school serves many students with physical, mental, and emotional disabilities, and the attack shocked the school community.
Parent Dalida Rocha told the Globe that she worried the school had not done enough to prepare students to return after the long pandemic-related closure. “We haven’t done a good job as a society to help children to deal with the traumatic experiences they have gone through with the pandemic,” she said.
Lawrence Mayor Kendrys Vasquez voiced similar fears last month amid an uptick of violence at Lawrence High School. The Eagle-Tribune reported that two teens were arrested and a dozen more issued summonses for disorderly conduct after an assault on a male teacher and a spate of fights at the school. Vasquez said the year-long break from school “took a mental and emotional toll” on students and educators, and it will take attention and resources to address that.
The impacts are not felt only through violence. The Gloucester Daily Times said local districts are struggling to address chronic absenteeism. While the paper did not give a reason, this may indicate that students are struggling, fearful, or simply out of the habit of regular school attendance.
Older students in college are not immune from the educational turmoil. Worcester Polytechnic Institute is reeling from four student deaths, two of which were by suicide. The Telegram & Gazette reported that some students feel the administration is not doing enough to address students’ mental health.
Health care providers have long been talking about a mental health crisis among children. Emergency department beds are filled with children in crisis waiting for inpatient psychiatric treatment. As of October 25, there were 191 kids with behavioral health problems “boarding,” waiting for an inpatient bed, according to the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association.
Biden’s Infrastructure Win Gives Him some Momentum. Here’s Why He Needs That
WBUR – Friday night was a long one for President Biden, working the phones at the end of a week where his party lost a bellwether race in Virginia, following months of Democratic infighting over his agenda. Down in the polls, he had just returned from an overseas trip where he said he faced questions about whether he had support to back the pledges he made on the world stage.
But by Saturday morning, Biden could not contain his ebullience, celebrating a major legislative victory: a long-stalled $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill had passed with bipartisan support.
“Finally, infrastructure week,” Biden said, chuckling over what had become a running joke about his predecessor, who failed to ever make a deal on the investment needed for the nation’s roads and ports despite often promising to focus on the problem. “I’m so happy to say that: infrastructure week,” he said.
The bill’s passage — combined with some positive news on the economy and the pandemic — could give Biden some momentum for tackling the next big piece of his agenda, a sprawling package of social programs, an overhaul of the tax system and billions of dollars of climate incentives. The size and scope of the plan has exposed deep division within his own party. But it’s another win he’s eager to secure ahead of looming 2022 congressional elections.
“The week started rough for Biden, but the [infrastructure] win and great jobs numbers shows the path by which Biden can turn this around,” said Jennifer Palmieri, who worked in the Obama White House.
But there are a host of forbidding odds working against Democrats as they head into the 2022 midterm elections, says Doug Heye, a Republican political consultant. “Inflation, national security, the border and so much more,” Heye said. “It’s hard to find an issue where Democrats have an advantage now.”
Massachusetts Delegation, Minus One, Votes for Infrastructure Bill
Boston Herald – After a tense, drawn out negotiation period on Capitol Hill to pass a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, it succeeded late Friday night — though not all Massachusetts House members voted in its favor.
“For months, my progressive colleagues and I … have been clear from the onset that any vote on the narrow roads and bridges bill must happen in tandem with a vote on the Build Back Better Act that invests in our care economy, housing, paid leave, combating climate change, and more,” said U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Boston, in a statement.
The agreement to move the smaller infrastructure bill alongside a larger bill including some of President Biden’s most ambitious campaign proposals was not honored, Pressley said. For this reason, she continued to “#HoldTheLine,” as she and other progressives have tweeted, and voted against the bill. Five other progressives, including fellow “Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, also voted against the bill.
All the other Massachusetts U.S. House members, all Democrats, voted in favor of the passage of the bill. The final vote was 228-206, with thirteen Republicans voting with most Democrats to pass the bill, and six Dems voting against it.
Although Rep. Richard Neal, D-Springfield, voted in support of the infrastructure bill, the Ways and Means Committee chairman said in a statement that “basic workplace supports like child care and paid family and medical leave,” all parts of the Build Back Better Act, are just as important as the infrastructure bill.
Several members of the Massachusetts delegation made the same argument, including Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Lowell, and Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Worcester. McGovern likened the Build Back Better Act to the “New Deal” of the FDR era 89 years ago that ushered in sweeping reforms.
These Massachusetts Companies have the Most Women in the C-Suite
Boston Business Journal – Massachusetts companies reported their highest numbers of women in C-level positions yet, according to The Boston Club’s annual Census of Women Directors and Executive Officers, which tracks gender equity among the leadership of the state’s 100 largest public companies.
Forty-seven companies reported having at least three women directors, up from 39 companies a year ago, according to the census. Nineteen had at least three women executive officers as of June 30.
The number of companies with multiple women directors continued its growth over the past decade as the number of companies with a sole woman director or executive officer or with none — also known as “zero-zero” companies — continued to fall. In fact, the 2021 Census reported no “zero-zero” companies, just as it did last year. By comparison, the census had reported 35 zero-zeros when in 2003, its first year.
When drilling down into director-level positions, the Boston Club reported two of the 12 companies that are new to this year’s census have no women directors: Vicor Corp. (Nasdaq: VICR) in Andover and Organogenesis Holdings Inc. in Canton. The two companies also lack non-white directors.
On the other end of the spectrum are Framingham-based TJX Companies Inc. (NYSE: TJX), which has five or more women in leadership positions at the company. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq: VRTX) in Boston has at least four women in director or executive-officer positions. Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. (Nasdaq: KDP) in Burlington reported at least six women leading the company as directors or executive officers.
While the latest figures show improvement, the share of women in boardrooms is far smaller than the country’s population of women. As of late June, just under 28% of women held board seats in Massachusetts’ largest companies, and women accounted for 13.5% of top executives.
Advocacy Effort Launched to Push for Child-Care System Reform
Boston Globe – Parents fed up with exorbitant child-care costs and the difficulty of finding care for young babies are about to get something they may never have imagined: their own political action organization.
A Boston-based advocacy and lobbying effort was launched Monday by the Neighborhood Villages Action Fund to push for transformative changes to the child-care system that have already been proposed on both the state and federal levels.
In Massachusetts, the Common Start bill before the Legislature would publicly fund child care, boost teachers’ wages, and limit families’ child-care costs to 7 percent of household income. In Congress, a vote is expected later this month on a $1.85 trillion Build Back Better package that would pour $400 billion into child-care subsidies and create universal pre-kindergarten for all the nation’s 3- and 4-year-olds.
Massachusetts has higher costs for infant care than any state in the nation, averaging nearly $21,000 a year, behind only Washington, D.C., according to a 2020 analysis by the Economic Policy Institute.
With a populace keenly attuned to the need for reliable child care after a year and a half of pandemic-related closures and crises, the Action Fund aims to harness parents’ frustration and flex newfound political muscle on Capitol Hill and on Beacon Hill
“If you talk to parents, know parents, everyone’s talking about it,” said Latoya Gayle, senior director of advocacy for Neighborhood Villages. “I’m excited to bring all those voices together so they can be one, big loud voice, a voting bloc of parents.”
Child care has never been a cachet political issue, but the closure of centers and schools during the pandemic highlighted its centrality to the economy, particularly as women lagged in returning to the workforce.
Massachusetts has 10 percent fewer child-care slots than before the pandemic, and centers still can’t fill all of them because of understaffing. Low-wage child-care workers abandoned the demanding jobs over the past year, limiting centers’ ability to fully reopen even after pandemic restrictions were eased.
Mariano Backs Bill to Provide More Scrutiny of Hospital Expansions
Commonwealth Magazine – The Massachusetts House will consider a health care bill that would impose increased scrutiny on hospital expansions, House Speaker Ron Mariano said Thursday.
The goal of the bill would be to stop behemoth health care systems from expanding into communities where today patients primarily rely on community hospitals, then siphoning revenue away from those hospitals. Mariano acknowledged that the bill was prompted by Mass General Brigham’s proposal to expand into Westborough, Westwood, and Woburn – which some worry will take patients with commercial insurance away from providers already serving the area.
Mariano’s proposal represents yet another attempt to shore up financially struggling community hospitals, with a different type of policy solution than those lawmakers have considered previously. Instead of rate relief or subsidies, Mariano is seeking more aggressive regulation.
“We have a whole bunch of folks going forward with expansions into different catchment areas that dramatically affect community hospitals and their public-private payer mix numbers,” Mariano said in an interview. “My feeling is we really can’t allow some of these folks to move into some of the community hospital catchment areas and siphon off the private payers and leave the community hospitals only with public payers.”
Mariano said this bill, if passed, “will help stabilize the payer mix for community hospitals.”
Mariano said the bill will be released from committee before lawmakers go on break November 17, though he could not say if the House would try to pass it before then.
Lawmakers have been trying for years to pass legislation that would curb the costs of health care and also help financially struggling community hospitals stay afloat. Reports by the Center for Health Information and Analysis have repeatedly found that community hospitals are far less profitable than teaching hospitals and academic medical centers, which tend to be bigger with more market power and more ability to negotiate favorable rates with insurers.
Kerry Spouts Optimism About Global Action From UN Climate Change Summit
WGBH – John Kerry struck out with an optimistic tone about the U.N. climate summit on Thursday.
“I guarantee you, we are going to come out of Glasgow with a level of ambition that is going to surprise people,” the special presidential envoy for climate told host Jim Braude on Greater Boston.
The 2021 Conference of the Parties, known as COP26, kicked off on Sunday, bringing together world leaders to strike deals on combatting climate change. Former Secretary of State Kerry spoke enthusiastically about the market shifts that are greening the global economy and commitments from countries that previously haven’t been “at the table.” But Dr. Vanessa Kerry, director of the Global Public Policy and Social Change program at Harvard Medical School and CEO of Seed Global Health, pointed out that global health — which is threatened by the changing climate through its impact on food, water, sanitation and shelter — has been largely left off of the agenda.
“Believe me, nobody’s raised it with me. Not one conversation has anybody said to me, ‘Oh, you guys can’t do it, look at what’s going on [in Congress].’ Hasn’t happened,” he said. “But would it be helpful? You bet. It would be wonderful to walk into a meeting, and say, ‘Look at what we’re doing,’ and use [new legislation] as leverage.”
Sec. Kerry also praised a new level of engagement from countries such as Saudi Arabia and South Africa, highlighting efforts to meet the target he initially sought with the 2015 Paris Climate Accords: capping global warming to a 1.5-degree Celsius increase.
“About 65% of global GDP is now working on adopted plans to be able to keep 1.5 degrees alive,” Sec. Kerry said. “I’ll tell you, six months ago, I wouldn’t have believed that was possible, but it’s happening, and we have more to come in the next ten days.”
And for those who do make commitments, technological advances help keep up public accountability, Sec. Kerry said. He recalled a Washington Post investigation that worked off of satellite data to show a massive methane leak in a Russian republic. In the past, countries might simply understate emissions or deny problems, but that’s no longer possible in the same way.
Getting to ‘Yes’ on Electricity Transmission Infrastructure
Commonwealth Magazine – Any vision of the future decarbonized power system is sure to include hundreds of wind turbines dotting the Atlantic Ocean to power homes and businesses across New England. While the eye is drawn to the blades spinning above the water, equally important to this vision is what’s going on under the sea and back on land.
Transmission infrastructure–like substations, high-voltage lines, and underwater cables–will be a vital component of getting electricity generated by remote renewable projects to New England’s electricity consumers. Reaching the clean energy future the region desires will require collaboration and agreement from state and federal decision makers on where this infrastructure will be built and how it will be funded.
In New England, sharing a power grid across state borders provides reliability, market, and environmental benefits to residents in all six states. Over the past two decades, the region has invested nearly $12 billion to make the transmission system more efficient and reliable. These upgrades were made possible through an agreement reached by the majority of states and industry stakeholders on a formula for sharing costs among New England ratepayers.
We do not, at this time, have a similar arrangement for the construction of transmission infrastructure needed to achieve the states’ policy goals developed to combat climate change. As the power system evolves to one with more renewable resources and energy storage, state officials will again need to reach consensus on how transmission projects will be selected and paid for, based on the transmission planning conducted by ISO New England.
While these broader discussions are ongoing, the ISO is conducting long-range research projects, including the 2050 Transmission Study. Last year, the states asked the ISO to study how we could reliably and cost-effectively incorporate large-scale clean energy and distributed energy resources, such as rooftop solar and small batteries, by 2050, when most states need to meet decarbonization targets. The study, which we’ll release next year, includes interim looks at 2035 and 2040. It will examine several scenarios for future electricity generation and consumption developed by the states, based on different state policies and pathways toward meeting their decarbonization goals.
This is What the World Looks Like if We Pass the 1.5-Degree Climate Threshold
WBUR – There’s one number heard more than any other from the podiums at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland: 1.5 degrees Celsius.
That’s the global climate change goal world leaders agreed to strive for. By limiting the planet’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, by 2100, the hope is to stave off severe climate disruptions that could exacerbate hunger, conflict and drought worldwide.
The 1.5 degree target has long been championed by developing nations, where millions of people are among the most vulnerable to climate change. At the 2015 Paris climate negotiations, they pushed industrialized countries to improve on the 2 degree Celsius goal held at the time, since wealthier nations are responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions since the Industrial Revolution.
At the climate negotiations now underway, nations are touting new commitments to cut their heat-trapping emissions by switching to clean energy and reducing deforestation. India is pledging, for the first time, to be carbon neutral by 2070. More than 100 countries, including the United States, joined a global pact to cut methane, a potent greenhouse gas.
Still, added together, the recent pledges don’t go far enough. Even with more ambitious emissions cuts from some countries, warming is still on track for more than 2 degrees Celsius (or 3.6 Fahrenheit) by the end of the century. The Earth is already 1.1 degrees Celsius hotter than it was 150 years ago.
Though a half-degree Celsius difference in temperature increase might seem inconsequential, the difference for life on Earth could be huge. Here’s what scientists expect, if average global temperatures exceed 1.5-degree Celsius warming by 2100.
November 2, 2021
Schedule
Tuesday November 2
Wednesday November 3
Monday November 8
Tuesday November 9
Wednesday November 10
Here’s What is in the Stimulus Spending Bill Passed by the Massachusetts House
Friday evening the Massachusetts House of Representatives unanimously passed a $3.82 billion COVID-19 spending plan. The funding came from a combination of direct federal aid allocated to the state in the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and surplus revenue from the FY 21 budget.
The bill contains a $500 million deposit into the state’s unemployment trust fund and another $500 million for one-time bonus payments to low-income essential workers who remained on the job in-person throughout the COVID-19 state of emergency.
The house spent $2.510 billion from APRA aide and $1.313 billion in surplus spending. The legislation leaves roughly $2.9 billion in total remaining surplus for future projects. The House debate resulted in a $173 million increase in spending via amendments in a combination of $154 million in earmarks and $19.5 million supplemental spending on state programs.
The bill also contains critical relief to small businesses owners who paid $200 million in tax relief for small-business owners who paid personal income taxes on state or federal relief money.
The spending by category includes:
$600 Million for Housing
$365 Million for Environmental Project/Climate Change
$777 Million for Economic Development
$750 Million for Workforce Development
$765 Million for Health and Human Services:
$280 Million for Education
Miscellaneous
Massachusetts Surpasses Vaccination Milestone
MassLive – More than 10 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine have now been administered in Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker announced Thursday afternoon.
“Thank you to all of our health care and community partners who have helped the Commonwealth achieve this milestone in our vaccination efforts,” Baker wrote on Twitter, drawing criticism from some Twitter users over his strict COVID vaccine mandate that required more than 40,000 Executive Department employees and contractors to be fully immunized by Oct. 17.
The vast majority of those employees are vaccinated, Baker’s office has said. But officials have disclosed scant details on vaccination rates by individual department, as well as the number of medical or religious vaccine waivers granted.
On Tuesday, Massachusetts had hovered just below the 10 million dose milestone, with the Department of Public Health reporting that 9,997,290 doses had been administered. By Wednesday, that number rose to 10,052,080.
State health data show that 4,944,552 first doses — and 4,404,706 second doses — of the Moderna or Pfizer have been administered as of Wednesday.
The number of Johnson & Johnson doses administered as of Wednesday is much lower: 318,589. Meanwhile, state health data show 384,233 booster shots have already been administered in Massachusetts as of Wednesday.
The total number of vaccine doses administered across the United States is 417,795,537 as of Thursday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Michelle Wu, Annissa Eassaibi George Make Final Pitch in Boston Mayoral Race
Boston Globe – On the next-to-last day of her mayoral campaign, Michelle Wu was once again on the trail, shaking hands and posing for selfies at Pavement Coffeehouse, in the heart of Boston University’s campus on Commonwealth Avenue.
“We’re down to the wire here,” she said of the contest that she formally joined more than a year ago.
After ordering a matcha latte, Wu, who has supported workers of the café in their unionization efforts, told a scrum of reporters that as mayor she would appoint a chief of worker empowerment tasked with ensuring that Boston is “building an economy that is fair and sustainable and centers out workers.”
But Wu is likely to lock horns with a certain subsection of labor groups, specifically Boston’s police unions, over changes in their contracts, which expired over a year ago. Monday morning, she said her mayoral administration would “fight for an objective approach to discipline within the department, accountability for the conduct of officers, and also budgetary changes that we need.”
Her rival, fellow Councilor Annissa Essaibi George, meanwhile was halfway through a 24-hour campaign blitz. Her schedule Monday included door-knocking in Dorchester, a tour of a nonprofit that helps children experiencing homelessness, and a get-out-the-vote rally in Hyde Park.
Baby Boys Get Fewer Protective Antibodies from Pregnant Moms with COVID-19 Compared to Girls, New MGH Study Suggests
Boston Herald – Pregnant women who get the coronavirus make fewer antibodies against the virus and transfer less immunity to their baby when having a boy compared to a girl, a new study out of Massachusetts General Hospital suggests.
“We definitely saw that male fetuses ended up with less protective antibodies from mom,” said Dr. Andrea Edlow, senior author of the study published in Science Translational Medicine and a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Edlow and her team looked at 68 pregnant women and 38 got the coronavirus during their third trimester before COVID-19 vaccines were available. They tested antibodies in the umbilical cord.
They found that the sex of the baby influenced the woman’s ability to make antibodies against the coronavirus and transfer them to the baby.
Mothers having a baby boy made fewer antibodies and transferred less protection to the baby compared with moms having a baby girl.
That’s because male placentas had higher levels of certain genes and proteins associated with increased immune activation. While the activation may help protect baby boys from being infected with the coronavirus, the inflammation can pose risks. That pattern was opposite in baby girls.
Studies have shown that male adults, kids and babies have a higher prevalence of the coronavirus and develop more severe disease than women. In addition, young boys are more likely to get multisystem inflammatory syndrome, a severe condition associated with COVID-19 in kids, than girls.
Edlow said the study may provide early insights into this vulnerability and shows that newborn boys up to six months of age might be more vulnerable to the coronavirus if their mother had the virus during pregnancy.
Overall, Edlow said it’s crucial that pregnant mothers get the coronavirus vaccine.
New Legislative District Maps Sent to Baker for Review
MassLive – After a tumultuous U.S. Census process and using feedback from legislators and interest groups to refine draft House and Senate maps, lawmakers sent legislation redrawing the state’s 200 legislative districts to Gov. Charlie Baker’s desk on Thursday.
The Legislature wrapped up its work on the House and Senate political boundaries that will be in place for the next decade, sending Baker bills carving the state into 160 House districts (H 4217) and 40 Senate districts (S 2563).
Both bills cleared their final procedural hurdles in the House and Senate on Thursday with no commentary after each branch previously debated and approved its respective map.
One week ago, the House voted 158-1 in favor of its redistricting plan that would increase the number of districts where non-white residents represent a majority of the population from 20 under the current map to 33.
Senators voted 36-3 on Wednesday to advance the Senate map, with two of those who voted against it voicing concerns about how their districts would shift and the process used to develop the proposal. Senate leaders faced criticism about their first redistricting draft, then redrew the map to add three new majority-minority districts, including one centered around Brockton, rather than just two as originally proposed.
Baker, a Republican, will get 10 days to review the legislation. He has not commented publicly on the redistricting plans, or made clear any concerns.
The Legislature faced significant time pressure during this round of redistricting. Because of pandemic-inflicted delays, the U.S. Census Bureau did not deliver decennial population data used to craft new political maps until mid-August, months after the information’s standard arrival.
Delta, Inflation Slow State’s Economic Growth
WWLP – Growth in the Massachusetts economy slowed significantly during the third quarter and the economic analysts at MassBenchmarks reported Thursday that their outlook for the next six months is less optimistic than it was previously as the Delta variant persists and consumer spending slows.
The state’s real gross domestic product increased at a 2 percent annualized rate in the third quarter, matching the national growth rate for the same period but stepping down from state growth rates of 6.1 percent in the first quarter and 8 percent in the second quarter, the publication from the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute said.
“The slowdown in growth from the second quarter reflects the effects of the Delta variant of COVID-19 restraining the pace of reopening, continued supply chain disruptions and labor shortages, and less exuberant consumer spending on goods, especially durable goods,” Alan Clayton-Matthews, a Northeastern University professor emeritus and senior contributing editor of MassBenchmarks, wrote.
“Much of the growth that did occur reflects increased consumer spending on services and job growth in the leisure and hospitality and other services sectors. Inflation means that consumer spending’s effect on real output is diminished, and this also affects real GDP growth.”
Spending that is subject to the state’s sales tax or motor vehicle sales tax declined at a 5.8 percent annual rate in the third quarter after having climbed by a 40.3 percent annual rate in the second quarter of the year. Clayton-Matthews said the drop was fueled mostly by a shortage of motor vehicles that has contributed to a roughly 37 percent annual drop in their sales.
Jobs in Massachusetts grew at a 6.9 percent annual rate in the third quarter as compared to a 4.3 percent annual rate in the second quarter. Employment has grown by 6.2 percent in Massachusetts versus 4.6 percent for the country over the last year, MassBenchmarks said. Though the state’s unemployment rate climbed from 4.9 percent in June to 5.2 percent in September, Clayton-Matthews said it could indicate more people returning to the workforce.
Here’s What is in the $1.75 Trillion Biden Budget Plan
Washington Post – President Biden on Thursday unveiled a roughly $1.75 trillion blueprint for overhauling the country’s health care, climate, education and tax laws, as he seeks to break a logjam among his party’s liberals and moderates that has stalled his economic agenda for months.
The plan includes some of Biden’s earliest policy priorities, including new spending to enhance child care and offer prekindergarten free to all American families. But it also shelved some of the Democrats’ most favored plans, including an effort to provide paid leave to millions of workers — one of many casualties in the party’s efforts to reduce its original, $3.5 trillion price tag.
Biden presented the plan on Capitol Hill in a private meeting with House Democrats earlier Thursday, after which many Democrats said they are still negotiating its specifics and haggling over what’s in and out of the package. He still must convince lawmakers including Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who helped drive Democrats to scale back their policy ambitions in the first place.
Editorial: House COVID-19 Relief Spending Bill Needs Tweaks
Lowell Sun – Five months in the making, House leaders on Monday finally detailed a $3.65 billion spending package that would pour state surplus and federal COVID-19 relief money into virtually every aspect of the state’s economy, while also reserving about $2.75 billion for future allocation.
The state received roughly $5.2 billion in federal discretionary funds back in May. That $3.65 billion still falls far short of the spending wish list submitted to the Legislature.
With debate in the House ongoing and Senate consideration still weeks away, most of the bill’s details remain ripe for negotiation.
However, both branches appear to be in agreement on two key pieces of the legislation — totaling $1 billion.
They’re a pair of $500 million investments in the unemployment insurance system and bonus pay for low-income workers who remained on the job during the pandemic.
Employees who worked in-person during the state of emergency and earn no more than 300% of the federal poverty level — $79,900 for a family of four — would qualify for a one-time bonus of $500 to $2,000, according to House Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz.
The vast majority of that funding — $460 million — would go to those in private industry, with the remaining $40 million reserved for state workers.
That’s the least the state can do for those lower-paid employees, who stocked supermarket aisles and worked the checkout counters while others took their jobs home.
With the other $500 million, the bill helps business owners facing repayment of a $7 billion loan to cover the historic number of unemployment benefit claims paid out during the pandemic, which pushed their trust fund into insolvency.
Digital Boom Sparks Crime Wave, Job Growth
WWLP – The COVID-19 pandemic changed the ways that businesses operate and people interact, but the shift towards even greater reliance on digital technologies has created new opportunities for cybercriminals and highlighted the state’s need for more skilled workers in the cybersecurity field.
As he kicked off the annual Massachusetts Cybersecurity Forum on Thursday, CyberArk founder and CEO Udi Mokady put a fine point on the ways that bad actors have sought to take advantage of the pandemic-influenced shift to remote work and the rise in online payments and services.
“Since last year’s forum, the world has seen a lot of change. We’ve seen cyberattacks become much more targeted and damaging, with the goals of those attacks ranging from critical infrastructure disruption to massive financial damage,” he said from his company’s Newton headquarters.
Mokady added, “The rapid movement to work from anywhere dissolved any remaining notions of a traditional network-based security perimeter, and attackers haven’t stopped innovating. Attackers are becoming bolder, with nearly all cyberattacks centered on compromised identities.”
The FBI has said that Massachusetts residents lost around $100 million from reported cybercrimes in 2020 and a survey that NBC10 conducted in 2019 found that at least one out of six Massachusetts municipalities had been hit with a ransomware attack.
This spring, a malware attack forced the state’s auto inspection system offline for nearly three weeks and a ransomware attack on the Steamship Authority caused delays for vacationers and residents trying to get to Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket.
Massachusetts’ ‘Test to Stay Rollout Raises Questions
Stat News – Massachusetts is drawing praise and even imitation for its “test-to-stay” approach to keep kids in school during the COVID-19 pandemic. But the realities of the policy’s implementation have been less than rosy, overburdening school nurses and requiring the National Guard be sent to counter personnel shortages.
Test to stay allows students to attend in-person classes and partake in extracurricular activities provided they test negative every day — an option aimed at keeping more kids in class, more often. In other states, many schools are choosing to quarantine all students who come into close contact with someone who tests positive, which has amounted to tens of thousands of missed days of school for people who have not been infected with the virus.
The approach has been heralded as a “success” and a “simple solution.” This month, there are even some indications that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will endorse test to stay. On Oct. 13, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters during a press briefing that the agency was working with states to evaluate test to stay as a “promising potential new strategy for schools,” and that guidance would be forthcoming.
Workforce Training Programs Must be Transparent, Accountable
Boston Business Journal – When the quasi-public Massachusetts Life Sciences Center offers a tax incentive to a company in exchange for a hiring promise, there is clear accountability: If the company doesn’t meet its job-creation goal, it is obligated to return that taxpayer money.
It mystifies us that not all state job-training programs have a similar level of transparency.
Given the crisis that Boston-area employers are facing when it comes to hiring, there’s no question that help is needed. But so is the reassurance that state-funded workforce training programs are actually working and fulfilling the hiring needs of local employers.
Gov. Charlie Baker has proposed putting $240 million of the state’s American Rescue Plan Act funding into an expansion of the state’s workforce development system. Just this week, Massachusetts House leadership proposed a $3.65 billion spending plan that included $750 million for workforce development programs, including $150 million for programs like the Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund.
We applaud that both the governor and Legislature recognize that investment is needed in such programs right now. Three hundred thousand people in Massachusetts lost federal unemployment benefits in September, and many of their jobs are lost forever. They could benefit from retraining to return to the workforce.
But the main programs into which Gov. Baker wants to pump millions of dollars are either so new as to be unproven, or — as data so far suggests — they may not be as effective as state officials think they are.
For example, data obtained through public-records requests showed that two of those programs — the Workforce Competitiveness Trust Fund and Learn to Earn — left more than one-third of their enrollees over the past eight years without job placements. Another one, the trades-focused Career Technical Initiative, is so new that it has placed only seven enrollees into jobs to date, according to state records.
Is a roughly two-thirds placement rate a success? That’s debatable. Yet no debate is taking place because such numbers aren’t made widely available and success metrics aren’t clear.
Tenants, Landlords Struggle with Eviction Process after Moratoriums End
South Coast Today – A crumbling ceiling, unlevel toilet and mushrooms sprouting in the bathroom. Since Michelle Sullivan moved into her New Bedford apartment two years ago, it has needed multiple repairs.
Sullivan tried talking to her landlord, before filing complaints with the New Bedford Board of Health to get the apartment repaired. Sullivan said she refused when the landlord tried bribing her with money to keep quiet.
Now her landlord has petitioned to evict her.
“She wants me out because of my record of all my complaints about the building and her,” Sullivan said. “And I can’t find housing anywhere else, so I’m stuck.”
Following the end of the state eviction moratorium in October last year and the CDC moratorium on Aug. 26, evictions are still lower than before the pandemic, according to state housing court data.
Since the beginning of 2020, Middlesex County has had the highest number of eviction cases, at 3,930. Bristol County has issued the most court orders for evictions at 692. Worcester and Middlesex counties followed closely behind.
Bristol County representatives met with Chief Justice Tim Sullivan of the Southeastern Housing Court to investigate the number of eviction orders. Sullivan cited the difference between evictions and execution of evictions — a court order allowing landlords to evict — according to
Rep. Chris Hendricks, D-New Bedford, a member of the Legislature’s Committee on Housing.
Other reasons for the rise in cases in certain counties may have to do with landlords’ miscommunication with tenants, how aggressively the courts are processing these cases, or the effectiveness of mediation and access to legal aid, according to housing committee co-chair Sen. John F. Keenan, D-Quincy.
State Must Crack Down on Labor Brokers
Commonwealth Magazine – Massachusetts construction is once again taking off to pre-pandemic levels. This is great news for working families and for the economy, since responsible development — when conducted with proper labor protections — is a key producer of economic opportunity and of great, family-sustaining careers for residents of every neighborhood.
Unfortunately, some construction industry companies continue to take advantage of workers and taxpayers, undermining some of the gains that Greater Boston communities and workers would otherwise be experiencing.
So-called “staffing agencies” such as the outfit known as TrueBlue often act as labor brokers in the non-union construction industry, claiming to provide on-demand workers to keep pace with the building boom.
You may not have heard of TrueBlue, the parent company of PeopleReady, but they claim to have put nearly half a million people to work in 2020. Workers go to them looking to earn fair pay for a fair day’s work, but that’s hardly guaranteed.
Unscrupulous contractors use labor brokers like TrueBlue to exploit loopholes in the law. By misclassifying workers as independent contractors, for example, they’re able to dodge payroll taxes and they avoid paying adequate workers’ compensation insurance.
The costs of misclassification, wage theft, and tax fraud were detailed in a recent report by the UMASS Amherst Labor Center, which looked at the impact of labor brokers in non-union residential construction, though they’re certainly active in commercial construction as well.
There’s a lot at stake for construction workers who are misclassified as independent contractors on non-union construction projects. Labor brokers often don’t guarantee fair wages, overtime, or benefits such as workers’ compensation. Over 22,000 workers in Massachusetts are believed to be impacted by this wage and tax fraud.
MassWorks Grants Work for Lowell
Lowell Sun – Public-private partnerships have been a lifeline to urban centers pursuing economic development that otherwise would be beyond their financial reach.
In this state, that integral relationship was recently on display in Lowell and Leominster with the awarding of grants to support two major projects.
On Monday, Gov. Charlie Baker, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and other top state officials were in Lowell to announce a $1.72 million MassWorks Infrastructure Program grant to support a mixed-use development proposed on upper Merrimack Street, along with a number of other monetary awards.
Earlier this month, Leominster received a $2.09 million MassWorks grant for the extension of Orchard Hill Park Drive.
That funding, along with $19 million in private investment, is expected to create 300 full- and part-time jobs in 234,000 square feet of new building space, according to the city.
Proposed by JDCU and Soucy Industries, Lowell’s Acre Crossing development will create 32 affordable condominium units for first-time homebuyers and street-level retail and office space.
The MassWorks funding enables the city to make infrastructure improvements needed to support the project, including sidewalk reconstruction, traffic signal updates and new lighting.
Lowell City Manager Eileen Donoghue called the project “a textbook example of the kind of transformative development the MassWorks program can support,” and that it will have a great impact on the city’s Acre section.
Lawmakers Urge Biden to Address Public-Service Loan Relief
MassLive – In 2007, Congress created the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to encourage students to pursue careers in public service by offering relief on the remaining balance of college loans after a decade of employment.
But 14 years later, most public servants — including hundreds in Massachusetts — have been left out to dry on Congress’ promises under the PSLF program, struggling to overcome red tape, illogical eligibility rules and loan servicers’ delays, according to a new report from the offices of Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley.
The progressive lawmakers took the opportunity to again call on President Joe Biden to cancel up to $50,000 in federal student loan debt, arguing that recently announced plans to fix the PSLF program were not enough to resolve ongoing “bureaucratic torture” and systemic problems that leave people of color behind and make public service less appealing for millions of American students.
The report, shared with MassLive, noted that 98% of PSLF applications have been denied due to “major structural flaws” in the program, potentially prompting talented public servants to jump ship to “higher-paying work in the private sector which would allow them to pay off their debt more quickly.”
PSLF’s low forgiveness rates — which the Biden administration seeks to address — also makes it harder to draw young people to public service and may “deepen the disparity in access to vital resources experienced by underserved communities,” according to the report.
Gov. Baker Honored at Chamber Dinner
Eagle Tribune – With one of the highest vaccination rates in the country, Massachusetts is bouncing back from the pandemic says Gov. Charlie Baker, in his keynote address at the annual dinner hosted by the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce.
In his talk to a crowd of more that 200 people who gathered at DiBurro’s Function Facility in Ward Hill, Baker said that as of March, Massachusetts had the highest vaccination rate per capita of any state in the country with more than five million people.
“We are in many respects as well positioned with respect to our vaccination rate as anything you’re going to find pretty much anywhere in the country,” Baker said. “That’s made it possible for us since the month of June to basically be pretty much fully open.”
Baker said that although people are still being affected by COVID-19, it’s nothing like it was at the height of the pandemic.
He said states with high vaccination rates have lower case counts, lower hospitalization rates and lower deaths per capita and that it’s just the opposite for states with low vaccination rates.
“That’s what the data says, whatever you think about it,” Baker said in support of vaccination. “It is in fact, the fastest way to get everybody back to what they want most of all, and that is to live their lives, be with their colleagues, friends and family and have some sense of confidence they are safe.”
The chamber presented several awards during the dinner, including its highest award, the Ralph B. Wilkinson Good Citizenship Award, to Pfizer of Andover.
Massachusetts Health Network Hacked; Patient Info Exposed
Boston.com – A Worcester, Mass. health care network says someone hacked into its employee email system, potentially exposing the personal information of thousands of patients.
UMass Memorial Health notified patients earlier this month if their information was involved in the breach, which occurred between June 2020 and January. The personal data included Social Security numbers, insurance information and medical information, The Telegram & Gazette reported Thursday.
More than 200,000 patients and health plan participants could have been affected by the breach, according to a federal database of cybersecurity incidents at medical facilities.
The hospital says it has investigated the incident but couldn’t determine how much of the personal information may have been stolen.
Power Outages Largely Resolved as Utility Companies Run ‘Massive Response Effort’
Boston Herald – The power outages along the South Shore and Cape Cod plunged over the last few days, as Eversource and National Grid worked around the clock to get the lights back on.
The peak of 500,000 power outages last week was largely resolved by Monday.
“In response to the extensive and widespread damage across southeastern Massachusetts caused by last week’s nor’easter, we mobilized a massive response effort of nearly 2,000 line and tree crews,” an Eversource spokesman said in a statement, noting that some workers came from as far away as Canada, Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee.
The personnel “worked around the clock to restore power to our customers,” the spokesman added.
Throughout the course of its storm response, Eversource restored power to more than 480,000 customers, including those who lost power more than once.
“Our dedicated employees will continue to work around the clock on a small number of outages in some of the hardest-hit communities and the additional outages that have been caused by high winds yesterday and other scattered weather,” the spokesman said. “Additionally, our crews will continue cleanup efforts, removing trees and other debris, and will complete an examination of the electric system that will continue to ensure it is safe and reliable.”
National Grid workers have also restored power to hundreds of thousands of customers in Massachusetts and Rhode Island since the storm began Tuesday night.
“Our crews remain in the field today, working to complete full restoration to customers impacted from last week’s storm,” National Grid said in a statement. “As of Saturday night, we had reached 99% of those impacted in MA and will be on the job until all are restored.”
Climate Change Became the Central Part of Biden Spending Bill
CNBC – Climate has emerged as the single largest category in President Biden’s new framework for a huge spending bill, placing global warming at the center of his party’s domestic agenda in a way that was hard to imagine just a few years ago.
As the bill was pared down from $3.5 trillion to $1.85 trillion, paid family leave, free community college, lower prescription drugs for seniors and other Democratic priorities were dropped — casualties of negotiations between progressives and moderates in the party. But $555 billion in climate programs remained.
It was unclear if all Democrats will support the package, which will be necessary if it is to pass without Republican support in a closely divided Congress.
Progressive Democrats in the House and two pivotal moderates in the Senate, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, did not explicitly endorse the president’s framework. But Mr. Biden expressed confidence that a deal was in sight.
Bostonians Will Vote on Three Ballot Questions
Boston Globe – In addition to a historic mayor’s race and a slew of City Council contests, Bostonians will decide a trio of ballot questions this general election, the voting for which is already underway.
The most weighty, albeit wonky, of these is Question 1 on the city municipal ballot, which asks voters if Boston should drastically overhaul its budget process, giving city councilors much more sway over the city’s purse strings.
The binding referendum would allow the council to modify budget appropriations. Under the city’s current structure, the council can approve or deny the mayor’s proposed budget but can transfer funds only if the mayor requests it. The system has frustrated councilors for years.
The ballot measure would allow the council to amend the budget as long as it does not exceed the amount originally proposed by the mayor. The mayor could accept or reject the council’s version of the budget and amend any line item in that version. The council would have the ability to override the mayor’s veto or amendments by a two-thirds vote.
The measure would also create an independent Office of Participatory Budgeting with an external oversight board. If passed, the proposal would take effect for next year’s budget process. If approved by voters, the proposal would not need any further approval to take effect, according to organizers behind the question.
G-20 Leaders Make Mild Pledges on Climate Neutrality, Coal Financing
Boston Globe – Leaders of the world’s biggest economies agreed Sunday to stop funding coal-fired power plants in poor countries and made a vague commitment to seek carbon neutrality “by or around mid-century” as they wrapped up a Rome summit before the much larger United Nations climate conference in Glasgow.
While the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi, and France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, described the Group of 20 summit as a success, the outcome disappointed climate activists, the chief of the UN, and Britain’s leader. The UK is hosting the two-week Glasgow conference and had looked for more ambitious targets to come out of Rome.
Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, called the G-20′s commitments mere “drops in a rapidly warming ocean.” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres agreed the outcome was not enough.
“While I welcome the #G20′s recommitment to global solutions, I leave Rome with my hopes unfulfilled — but at least they are not buried,” Guterres tweeted. “Onwards to #COP26 in Glasgow.”
Biden Announces New Steps to Address Supply Chain Disruptions
Boston Globe – President Joe Biden took several steps to address supply-chain problems as he met leaders from major global economies, including the European Union, to address recent disruptions.
He issued an executive order during the Group of 20 summit on Sunday aimed at speeding up the response to shortfalls of supplies, equipment and raw materials housed in the U.S.’s National Defense Stockpile.
The U.S. also is boosting funding to Mexico and Central America to alleviate supply bottlenecks and to improve customs and clearance procedures, the White House announced Sunday.
“Solving this is going to take all of us — government and private industry, labor unions and research institutions,” Biden told reporters as he convened a meeting of international leaders in Rome.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will convene a summit next year with their international counterparts to bring together companies, labor organizations, indigenous groups and academics to identify more steps to bolster the resilience of supply chains, according to the White House.
Biden ordered a broad review of U.S. supply chains this year as the economic disruption of the coronavirus pandemic triggered shortages of everything from computer chips used in cars to medical supplies and bicycles.
His defense-related order puts the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer in charge of deciding whether and when to release raw materials from the National Defense Stockpile.
The Pentagon’s undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment “may release strategic and critical materials from the National Defense Stockpile for use, sale, or other disposition only when required for use, manufacture, or production for purposes of national defense,” according to a White House statement.
October 26, 2021
House Proposes to Spend $3.65 Billion for Housing, Hospitals, Unemployment, Workforce
AIM Summary
The Massachusetts House Ways and Means Committee announced a $3.65 billion spending plan that would invest in housing, hospitals, schools, the unemployment insurance trust, and workforce development. The plan draws from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars and state surplus revenue.
AIM appreciates the House Ways and Means Committee’s commitment of $500 million to help reduce the unemployment insurance trust fund deficit. This allocation is an important first step toward reducing the unemployment tax burden on the business community. However, given the overwhelming systemic debt of more than $7 billion, AIM calls on the Legislature for additional resources.
Sources:
Total: $3.65Billion spending bill
Spending:
$500 million for Unemployment insurance trust-fund debt reduction.
$500 million for bonus pay for low- and middle-income essential workers during the pandemic
$600 million for housing
$350 million for environment/climate change
$777 million for economic development
$750 million for workforce development
$765 million for health and human services
$265 million for education
Miscellaneous
House Plan Invests $3.65 Billion Across Massachusetts
State House News – House leaders on Monday detailed a $3.65 billion spending package that would pour state surplus and federal COVID-19 relief money into areas like housing, schools and workforce development, while also reserving about $2.75 billion to be allocated at a later date.The long-awaited plan to spend American Rescue Plan Act dollars arrived five months after the state first received roughly $5.2 billion in federal discretionary funds, and the Legislature resisted calls from Gov. Charlie Baker and others to put some of the money to use quickly as it gathered information on the existing needs.
Two of the cornerstones of the proposal, which will get a vote in the House later this week, are a $500 million investment in the state’s unemployment insurance system and $500 million for bonus pay for low-income workers who could not stay home during the pandemic. Leaders also said all the investments were designed with an eye on racial equity, and helping people and communities most impacted by the pandemic.
“The spending of this money is critical to getting Massachusetts back better than before. Our goal is to responsibly fund priority areas that will stand the test of time and make systemic and equitable changes,” House Speaker Ron Mariano said.
While House and Senate leaders said they have already agreed to the $1 billion for UI and bonus pay, the remaining details of how to spend the unprecedented amount of one-time federal stimulus funding must still be worked out between the branches.
The House plans to debate the bill (H 3922) on Thursday, and the Senate said it would take up a version of the bill “within the next few weeks.” House lawmakers have until 3 p.m. on Tuesday to file amendments.
Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz said the bill proposes to leave up to $2.4 billion in ARPA funds untouched, and would spend about $1.15 billion of an estimated $1.5 billion in unbudgeted surplus funds.
Biden ‘Positive’ on Budget Deal; Manchin OK with Wealth Tax
Associated Press – Pivotal Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin appears to be on board with White House proposals for new taxes on billionaires and certain corporations to help pay for President Joe Biden’s scaled-back social services and climate change package.
Biden said Monday he felt “very positive” about reaching agreement on his big domestic policy bill, aiming for votes in Congress as soon as this week — though that is far from certain.
“That’s my hope,” the president said before leaving his home state of Delaware for a trip to New Jersey to highlight the child care proposals in the package and his infrastructure measure.
Democrats are working intensely to try again to wrap up talks, scaling back what had been a sweeping $3.5 trillion plan so the president can spotlight his administration’s achievements to world leaders at two overseas summits on the economy and climate change that get underway later this week.
Biden huddled with the conservative West Virginia Democrat Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at the president’s Delaware home on Sunday as they work on resolving the disputes between centrists and progressives that have stalled the Democrats’ wide-ranging bill. A person who insisted on anonymity to discuss Manchin’s position told The Associated Press the senator is agreeable to the White House’s new approach on the tax proposals.
It’s now being eyed as at least a $1.75 trillion package. That’s within a range that could still climb considerably higher, according to a second person who insisted on anonymity to discuss the private talks.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that even at “half” the original $3.5 trillion proposed, Biden’s signature domestic initiative would be larger than any other legislative package with big investments in health care, child care and strategies to tackle climate change.
“It is less than what was projected to begin with, but it’s still bigger than anything we have ever done in terms of addressing the needs of America’s working families,” Pelosi said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Hearing Schedules:
Tuesday October 26
Wednesday October 27
Thursday October 28
Friday October 29
State Prepares to Start Elementary School Vaccines Next Month
WGBH – Massachusetts health officials are preparing to immunize more than 500,000 children ages 5 to 11 against the COVID-19 virus as soon as federal regulators grant emergency approval to the Pfizer vaccine.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders told a legislative oversight panel Thursday the Baker administration expects approval of the vaccine for younger children sometime in the first week of November and will deliver the shots to pediatricians, school-based clinics, local boards of health and other providers.
“We are getting ready. We expect that the vaccines will be arriving between October 26 and no later than November 5th,” Sudders said.
Department of Public Health commissioner Margaret Cook told a joint of several legislative committees the state has placed an initial order of 360,000 doses of vaccine on behalf of 289 providers.
“We have, as the Secretary said, been able to preorder child vaccine from the federal government, and obviously, we think this is a strong sign that they are confident that it will be approved for 5 to 11-year-olds,” Cook told lawmakers.
Shots will be available through school-based clinics like the ones currently serving students over 12 years old, from pediatricians, local health boards.
House Plan Invests $3.65 Bil Across Massachusetts
State House News – House leaders on Monday detailed a $3.65 billion spending package that would pour state surplus and federal COVID-19 relief money into areas like housing, schools and workforce development, while also reserving about $2.75 billion to be allocated at a later date.
The long-awaited plan to spend American Rescue Plan Act dollars arrived five months after the state first received roughly $5.2 billion in federal discretionary funds, and the Legislature resisted calls from Gov. Charlie Baker and others to put some of the money to use quickly as it gathered information on the existing needs.
Two of the cornerstones of the proposal, which will get a vote in the House later this week, are a $500 million investment in the state’s unemployment insurance system and $500 million for bonus pay for low-income workers who could not stay home during the pandemic. Leaders also said all the investments were designed with an eye on racial equity, and helping people and communities most impacted by the pandemic.
“The spending of this money is critical to getting Massachusetts back better than before. Our goal is to responsibly fund priority areas that will stand the test of time and make systemic and equitable changes,” House Speaker Ron Mariano said.
While House and Senate leaders said they have already agreed to the $1 billion for UI and bonus pay, the remaining details of how to spend the unprecedented amount of one-time federal stimulus funding must still be worked out between the branches.
The House plans to debate the bill (H 3922) on Thursday, and the Senate said it would take up a version of the bill “within the next few weeks.” House lawmakers have until 3 p.m. on Tuesday to file amendments.
Ways and Means Chairman Aaron Michlewitz said the bill proposes to leave up to $2.4 billion in ARPA funds untouched, and would spend about $1.15 billion of an estimated $1.5 billion in unbudgeted surplus funds.
Biden ‘Positive’ on Budget Deal; Manchin OK with Wealth Tax
Associated Press – WASHINGTON (AP) — Pivotal Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin appears to be on board with White House proposals for new taxes on billionaires and certain corporations to help pay for President Joe Biden’s scaled-back social services and climate change package.
Biden said Monday he felt “very positive” about reaching agreement on his big domestic policy bill, aiming for votes in Congress as soon as this week — though that is far from certain.
“That’s my hope,” the president said before leaving his home state of Delaware for a trip to New Jersey to highlight the child care proposals in the package and his infrastructure measure.
Democrats are working intensely to try again to wrap up talks, scaling back what had been a sweeping $3.5 trillion plan so the president can spotlight his administration’s achievements to world leaders at two overseas summits on the economy and climate change that get underway later this week.
Biden huddled with the conservative West Virginia Democrat Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at the president’s Delaware home on Sunday as they work on resolving the disputes between centrists and progressives that have stalled the Democrats’ wide-ranging bill. A person who insisted on anonymity to discuss Manchin’s position told The Associated Press the senator is agreeable to the White House’s new approach on the tax proposals.
It’s now being eyed as at least a $1.75 trillion package. That’s within a range that could still climb considerably higher, according to a second person who insisted on anonymity to discuss the private talks.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that even at “half” the original $3.5 trillion proposed, Biden’s signature domestic initiative would be larger than any other legislative package with big investments in health care, child care and strategies to tackle climate change.
“It is less than what was projected to begin with, but it’s still bigger than anything we have ever done in terms of addressing the needs of America’s working families,” Pelosi said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Hearing Schedules:
Tuesday October 26
• Joint Committee on Public Service-Group Reclassification-10:00am-Virtual Hearing-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/4041
• Joint Committee on Tourism, Arts and Cultural Development-Tourism Marketing Cultural Development-10:00am-Virtual Hearing-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/4047
• Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight-Open Meetings/Public Records-10:30am-Virtual Hearing-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/4035
• Joint Committee on Health Care Financing-Alternative Health Care Financing Methods-11:00am-Virtual Hearing-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/4036
• Joint Committee on Financial Services-Banking-11:00am-Virtual Hearing-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/4034
• Joint Committee on Housing-Affordable Housing and Late Filed Legislation-11:00am-Virtual Hearing-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/4045
• The Future of Work Commission-Wraparound Services-11:00am-In Person-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/4059
Wednesday October 27
• Joint Committee on Advanced Information Technology, The Internet and Cybersecurity-Emerging Technologies, Cybersecurity, Digital Platforms, and Cable Television-1:00pm-Virtual Hearing-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/4042
• Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture-Oceans, Waterways, Wetlands, Water Resources-2:00pm-Virtual Hearing-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/3701
Thursday October 28
• Joint Committee on Public Health-Patient Safey and Quality, Health Equity, and Pharmacy-9:00am-Virtual Hearing-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/4043
Friday October 29
• Joint Commitee on Public Health-Health Care Facilities & Workforce Development-9:00am-Virutal hearing-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/4056
• Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities-DDS-1-10:00am-Virtual Hearing-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/4056
• Joint Committee on the Judiciary-Court Administartion-10:00am-Virtual Hearing-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/4056
State Prepares to Start Elementary School Vaccines Next Month
WGBH – Massachusetts health officials are preparing to immunize more than 500,000 children ages 5 to 11 against the COVID-19 virus as soon as federal regulators grant emergency approval to the Pfizer vaccine.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Marylou Sudders told a legislative oversight panel Thursday the Baker administration expects approval of the vaccine for younger children sometime in the first week of November and will deliver the shots to pediatricians, school-based clinics, local boards of health and other providers.
“We are getting ready. We expect that the vaccines will be arriving between October 26 and no later than November 5th,” Sudders said.
Department of Public Health commissioner Margaret Cook told a joint of several legislative committees the state has placed an initial order of 360,000 doses of vaccine on behalf of 289 providers.
“We have, as the Secretary said, been able to preorder child vaccine from the federal government, and obviously, we think this is a strong sign that they are confident that it will be approved for 5 to 11-year-olds,” Cook told lawmakers.
Shots will be available through school-based clinics like the ones currently serving students over 12 years old, from pediatricians, local health boards, other providers and through some retail pharmacies.
The initial order will be enough to vaccinate about 70 percent of the state’s children in the 5-11 age range.
More than 600 Boston Employees Remain on Leave over Vaccine Mandate
Boston Herald – More than 600 city employees remain on unpaid leave under the coronavirus vaccine mandate — for which enforcement kicks in on Tuesday for a whole new group of workers including police and fire, according to City Hall.
Acting Mayor Kim Janey’s office said 624 people remained on unpaid leave as of Friday evening, barely changed from the mark last Wednesday, just a day after the mandate went into effect.
The city began enforcing the vax-or-test mandate for the “Phase 1” group of its workers a week and a half ago, after the long weekend. After the city sent notice to all of the out-of-compliance employees the previous Wednesday, 1,400 facing punishment quickly dropped to 1,200 and then 812 who actually ended up getting placed on leave the day the enforcement began.
By the next day, that number was down to 637, and then 602 the next day — but the trend down hasn’t continued.
A city spokeswoman said the number of people fluctuates as some people get in compliance and others newly fall out of it.
Phase 1 appears to apply to the largest chunk of city employees, including the school district, which has the most staff of any department. The city’s never been willing to say quite how many employees fall under the Phase 1 umbrella, but some perusing of payroll documents suggests that more than 10,000 of the total 18,000 Boston employees are counted.
Phase 1 employees — who also include those in Boston Centers for Youth & Families, Boston Public Libraries, Age Strong and Commission on Disabilities — were technically supposed to come into compliance with the mandate Sept. 20, though enforcement didn’t follow for several weeks. Phase 2, which includes police, fire and inspectional services, hit their mandate Oct. 4.
And now enforcement will begin this coming Tuesday, Janey’s office said, saying that it sent out notice on Thursday to Phase 2 employees who are currently not compliant.
Moderna Data Shows Covid-19 Vaccine Produced Strong Immune Response in 6- to 11-Year-Olds
Wall Street Journal – Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine was generally safe and induced the desired immune responses in children ages 6 to 11 in a clinical trial, according to the company.
The Cambridge, Mass., company said Monday that it would submit the results to health regulators in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere in seeking authorization to widen the use of its shots to include this younger age group.
The company announced the interim data in a press release, and results haven’t yet been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
Moderna’s vaccine is currently authorized for use in adults 18 years and older in the U.S.
The company’s efforts to expand use of its vaccine to include children are further behind Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, which could get FDA authorization in days or weeks for use of their vaccine in children 5 to 11.
“We are encouraged by the immunogenicity and safety profile of mRNA-1273 in children aged 6 to under 12 years and are pleased that the study met its primary immunogenicity endpoints,” Moderna Chief Executive Stéphane Bancel said. Immunogenicity refers to a vaccine’s ability to trigger an immune response, though it alone isn’t definitive proof that the immune response will protect someone from disease.
The company has asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize use of the vaccine in children age 12 to 17, but the FDA’s decision has been held up by the agency’s assessment of the risk of heart-inflammation conditions in younger vaccine recipients.
State Economy Tacks on Sixth Consecutive Quarter of Growth
State House News – Supply chain disruptions and labor shortages are continuing to hold back economic growth, but index readings released Monday show the Massachusetts economy in expansionary territory for a sixth straight quarter and four straight quarters of growth for the U.S. economy.
Citizens said its national Citizens Business Conditions Index finished the third quarter at 57.1, down from the second quarter reading of 57.4. The state economy’s third quarter reading was 55, up from 53.1 in the second quarter. Readings above 50 reflect an economy in expansionary mode.
“Despite ongoing challenges from the pandemic, the third quarter was a period of strong demand across most sectors of the economy,” Citizens said.
“With the continued support of low interest rates and fiscal spending initiatives, most sectors seem to have established a healthy trajectory of growth. Concerns over higher inflation have increased, and the employment sector still has ground to cover to reach pre-COVID status.”
The index draws from a pool of metrics, including manufacturing data, consumer spending, commercial banking data, initial jobless claims, commodity prices, and new business applications.
“Business activity is incredibly strong and confidence levels are quite high,” said Tony Bedikian, head of global markets at Citizens. “We haven’t fully exited the pandemic yet, but at this stage most parts of the economy have established some normalcy given the benefit of vaccines and the fiscal and monetary stimulus that continue to provide support towards full recovery. Many companies are doing well and would be doing even better if it weren’t for headwinds such as supply chain disruption and labor shortages.”
The new index readings were released as House and Senate leaders on Beacon Hill gear up to put $3.65 billion in one-time funds to work across Massachusetts, part of efforts over the next few weeks to allocate large chunks of American Rescue Plan Act funds and the state’s fiscal 2021 budget surplus.
Housing Bills Set for Legislative Hearing
Vineyard Gazette – Proposed legislation that would allow cities and towns in Massachusetts to impose a fee of up to two per cent on certain real estate sales to support affordable housing is among two dozen bills scheduled for a virtual hearing next week.
The legislature’s Joint Committee on Housing will convene at 11 a.m. on Tuesday to consider a variety of bills to address housing affordability, including two identical bills originating in the House and Senate respectively, H.1377 and S.828.
The bills, co-sponsored by Sen. Julian Cyr and Rep. Dylan Fernandes, are similar to bills that died in committee last year. But the new bills, presented by Sen. Joanne M. Comerford of Northampton and Rep. Mike Connolly of Cambridge, would give cities and towns more flexibility in how to administer the fee. They also have additional co-sponsors — 27 in the House and 19 in the Senate.
Among other things, the current bills would allow municipalities to assess a fee of up to 6 per cent on certain “speculative sales,” that is, where someone sells a house within year of buying it.
They also would exempt from the fee transfers for less than the state median sales price of a single-family home, about $500,000, or allow the city or town to set a higher threshold.
Dozens of State Workers Face Termination over Religious Beliefs, COVID Vaccine Mandate
MassLive – An unvaccinated Massachusetts social worker, paralyzed by uncertainty and silence from her supervisors, has ignored messages from her young clients all week.
The state employee, who spoke to MassLive on the condition of anonymity, said she is likely not authorized to report to work anymore, even though she’s yet to be formally suspended without pay.
While her employment status remains in limbo, she’s adamant about her immunization status: She will not get the COVID-19 shot, even though Gov. Charlie Baker’s vaccine mandate for more than 44,000 Executive Department employees and contractors took effect Sunday.
Massachusetts is the Only State to See Unemployment Increase in September
Worcester Business Journal – Massachusetts was the only state in September to see an increase in unemployment, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Friday release. The rate grew from 5.0% to 5.2% from August to September, putting Massachusetts 0.4 percentage points above the national average of 4.8%.
This marks the second consecutive month Massachusetts’ unemployment rate has increased since its initial jump of 13.7 percentage points at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. It plateaued at 4.9% in June and July before rising in August.
The rate is still considerably lower than the 8.9% of Sept. 2020, but higher than the pre-pandemic 3.0% of Sept. 2019.
The Commonwealth was one of 28 states to have a statistically significant change in its unemployment rate last month, as 22 states remained basically stable through the month.
Workers Became more Willing to Go on Strike during the Pandemic
MSN – When the pandemic shut down movie and TV production across the country last year, thousands of crew members accustomed to spending long days on set suddenly had more time for themselves and their families.
But when filming resumed, studios went into overdrive to keep up with demand and pushed workers to the brink. So the workers pushed back — and voted to strike.
A walkout was narrowly averted when the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees tentatively agreed to an offer that kept 60,000 people on the job. But the mind-set of the workforce has been indelibly shifted by the pandemic, which put workers’ long-simmering discontent into stark relief, said Chris O’Donnell, business manager for the union’s 1,100 members in New England.
Burnt out and fed up, and emboldened by the labor shortage, many of them, particularly those in unions, are increasingly willing to take a stand. Strikes surged nationally in October, with at least 40 actions ongoing (including 26 that have started so far this month) and 187 since the start of the year, according to Cornell University’s new Labor Action Tracker.
Covid-19 Vaccine Mandates Are Surviving Nearly All Court Challenges
Wall Street Journal – A range of people—from nurses to firefighters to students—have filed lawsuits objecting to the mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations imposed by states and cities, claiming the policies infringe on their constitutional rights.
Nearly every legal challenge has failed so far.
With limited exceptions involving religious objectors, judges have overwhelmingly upheld orders in numerous states that require health workers, public employees, state university students and government contractors to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as a condition of employment. These rulings have allowed states to fire workers who refuse immunization.
“What we’re seeing are courts finding that mandates are lawful and constitutional,” said Jennifer Piatt, a deputy director with the Network for Public Health Law, a national nonprofit group based in Minnesota that promotes public health laws and has kept track of the litigation.
More than 20 states and dozens of cities have adopted vaccination mandates—mostly through executive orders and legislation—to control the spread of Covid-19.
The legal basis for the orders largely stems from a Supreme Court ruling from a century ago upholding a vaccine mandate after an outbreak of smallpox in Massachusetts. The court acknowledged in that case that states have broad powers to combat significant public-health challenges.
In at least 17 lawsuits, judges appointed by both Democrats and Republicans have refused to block vaccine mandates.
A federal appeals court ruled on Oct. 15 that Maine can enforce its vaccination requirement for healthcare workers. The First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that Gov. Janet Mills had no choice but to mandate that healthcare workers be vaccinated to curb transmission of the Delta variant.
DiZoglio Says Small Business Day of Action Set for Monday to Push Pandemic Aid Extensions
WHAV – State Sen. Diana DiZoglio is co-hosting a Small Business Day of Action Monday in support of her legislation to extend restaurants’ option to sell cocktails to-go, to maintain third-party delivery fee caps and to provide grants to small businesses startups that were not eligible for government assistance when the pandemic struck.
DiZoglio said, “there remains significant work to be done to ensure the survival and vitality of our mom-and-pop shops, who have faced countless challenges over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“We can start by implementing these common-sense measures designed to help small businesses at a time when they need it most. We are on the road to recovery but must recognize that local businesses are going to need the legislature to provide continued support and financial relief as they rebuild. These tools are not just essential for them but to the health of all of our communities.”
Business groups across the state are also calling on the state legislature to investigate the insurance industry, which came under fire when most business interruption insurance claims made by small businesses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic were denied.
THIRST, a citizen-led political action committee advocating for the hospitality industry, and representatives from the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, Massachusetts Restaurants United, Cocktails for Commonwealth, Love Live Local, and Cambridge Local First for the Small Business Day of Action, plan a virtual rally Monday morning, a press conference from the State House steps in the afternoon and a cocktail hour at The Emory.
State: School testing delays are being resolved
Commonwealth Magazine – Massachusetts health and education officials acknowledged on Thursday that “logistical challenges” led to a delayed rollout of the state’s COVID-19 testing program in schools, but they said the problems, which were primarily attributable to low staffing, are being addressed.
“As is often the case when developing a bold new idea – in this case, test and stay – there were logistical challenges during the initial ramp up, including significant staff recruitment difficulties and demand that far exceeded expectations,” said Marylou Sudders, the secretary of health and human services, in testimony submitted to legislative committees dealing with emergency preparedness, public health, and education.
Jeff Riley, the commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said only 28 of the 327 districts doing testing have not yet reported any tests, and he said some of those districts only recently launched their programs.
CommonWealth previously reported that the state’s pooled testing program faced delays in getting off the ground, apparently due to staffing shortages at CIC Health, the private company hired by the state to do the testing.
The state is offering schools access to three types of testing: test and stay, in which a student exposed to COVID-19 in school can take daily rapid tests rather than quarantining; rapid testing for kids who start showing symptoms in school; and pooled testing, which is routine weekly surveillance testing to catch cases before children or staff show symptoms. As of October 1, state officials said almost all schools had gotten the rapid tests. But several districts complained that they had not yet been able to begin pooled testing.
Sen. Jo Comerford, a Northampton Democrat who co-chairs the Legislature’s committees on public health and COVID-19 preparedness, revealed at the hearing that state education officials and CIC Health officials participated in “a very painful webinar with school superintendents where they detailed in significant measures the way the relationship with CIC Health has in many ways been a failure in Western Massachusetts.”
Port of Boston Deliveries are Being Passed Over
Boston Herald – Boston’s glory days as a major shipping port are long gone. It’s now about to pay a price for being lower down the food chain, as the shipping industry seeks to untangle the massive traffic jam of container ships waiting to enter the nation’s largest cargo ports.
Disruptions in the global supply chain have resulted in long queues of container ships waiting outside of bigger ports to unload, adding to the delays of goods shipped from overseas factories. Though Boston’s newly remodeled port doesn’t have as much traffic or traffic jams as larger ports, some shipments from China have arrived up to a month late, causing many New England retailers and other businesses looking to stock up on imported goods for the holiday shopping season.
And now, a major shipper that sends one of only two containerships that regularly visit Boston each week is planning to skip its visits for two months this winter. The move will allow the shipper to concentrate on speeding up deliveries at larger ports, such as New York.
As part of the supply chain crisis, the carriers are looking to save time wherever they can, said Jennifer Mehigan, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which operates the Conley Container Terminal in South Boston. A temporary measure is to bypass ports like Boston to accomplish that, said Cook.
Boston will take one for the team in the global shipping crisis.
The timing for Boston is a little unfortunate. Massport has just purchased and installed three new giant cranes at the Conley terminal as part of an ongoing $850 million renovation project. Once they pass tests, the cranes will allow the port to accommodate significantly larger cargo ships capable of carrying up to 14,500 standard shipping containers.
House Lawmakers Draw New Maps to Boost Representatives of Color
Boston Herald – New House district maps would make it easier for candidates of color to win seats in majority-minority cities like Worcester, Lawrence, Brockton and Chelsea over the next decade, map drawers said.
“The population counts for the 2020 Census are reflected in the diversity of our districts in these final maps,” said Assistant Majority Leader Michael Moran, a Boston Democrat who led the redistricting process for the second straight cycle, who said the new map reflects observed demographic shifts.
The House voted 158-1 in favor of the new district maps.
Georgetown Republican Rep. Lenny Mirra, whose district would be significantly altered, cast the lone no vote.
The Census revealed Massachusetts’ population surpassed 7 million and saw the number of white residents shrink 7 percentage points while the Black population grew nearly 17 points, the Asian population jumped 45% and the Hispanic population increased by 41%.
Brockton, despite having a majority of nonwhite residents, has never been represented by a person of color.
Incumbent-First Law is Unique to Massachusetts
Commonwealth Magazine – Among the ways that Massachusetts is unique among the 50 states: our state election ballots give top billing to incumbent state officeholders who are seeking re-election, with the other candidates listed in alphabetical order below. (Cities and towns can choose alternatives – Boston, notably, selects candidate order by lottery.)
No other state reserves the top ballot positions for incumbent candidates. Most states determine ballot order either by lottery or by rotating names among precincts, so as to avoid the “primacy effect” – the name psychologists give to the human inclination to select the first item on a list over those further down. Some states do recognize current officeholders on their ballots, not by listing the name first, but by some indication of the incumbent’s status next to it. Here in Massachusetts we do both – we put the incumbent’s name at the top and garnish it with the words “candidate for re-election.”
Studies of the primacy effect in voting have concluded that it has some influence. Its weight is more significant in primary elections than in general elections (where party affiliation also differentiates the candidates), and it’s most likely to play a role in low-profile elections, down-ballot races, and contests with many candidates. Bottom line, it can matter.
And it can matter enough to amount to a violation of the constitutional right to equal protection of the laws. In 1975, the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of a non-incumbent city council candidate challenging that state’s incumbent-first statute. Concluding that the law imposed “a very real and appreciable impact on the equality, fairness, and integrity of the electoral process,” the court struck it down as an infringement of the equal protection rights of voters who chose a candidate lower down on the list. In compliance with that decision, California has since adopted a ballot rotation system.
The incumbent-first law in Massachusetts still stands, however. A legal challenge here, decided one year later, had an entirely different result.
The 1972 Democratic primary election for two Middlesex County commissioner seats pitted two non-incumbent candidates (one of whom was Lowell city councilor Paul Tsongas) against two incumbents. Weeks before the election, the challengers filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the incumbent-first law on equal protection grounds. The court declined to intervene before the election, and Tsongas and his fellow challenger ended up winning the two spots, which made their legal claims moot. New plaintiffs joined the case, and after a trial a three-judge panel of the federal district court issued a decision upholding the law.
Free Transit had Benefits but May Not be Sustainable, Worcester Study Concludes
WBUR – A new report from the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission revealed that the Worcester Regional Transit Authority outperformed most of its peer agencies in the state when it came to recovering ridership lost during the pandemic.
The finding comes after the agency offered fare-free service starting last spring and is now considering other options as the policy is set to end in December.
The commission looked at bus ridership between April 2020 and June 2021 for 12 regional transit agencies in the state and found the WRTA averaged 67% of pre-pandemic ridership during that time, topping the other agencies — including the MBTA.
“I can’t speak to being fare-free for the entirety of that period had an effect on that, but it is an interesting correlation,” said Jack Narron, an associate planner at the commission.
The report also found that free fares offered benefits such as more equity, since there is no barrier to entry for riders, and faster boarding. However, one of the downsides the commission found is that foregoing fares long term could lead to big financial losses.
WRTA administrator Dennis Lipka estimates the loss in fares will cost the agency nearly $6 million by the time the policy ends in December. The agency has been relying on federal pandemic assistance to fund the program but would need additional help to continue it. When the free fare policy sunsets, Lipka hopes to reinstate fares and move the agency to a new fare payment system
Prepare for Propane Sticker Shock
Wall Street Journal – Propane prices haven’t been so high heading into winter in a decade, which is bad news for the millions of rural Americans who rely on the fuel to stay warm.
At $1.41 a gallon at the Mont Belvieu trading hub in Texas, on-the-spot prices are about triple those of the past two Octobers. Of the two main U.S. propane futures contracts, one hit a high earlier this month and the other doesn’t have far to climb to eclipse the record it set during the blizzard of 2014. The average residential price tracked by the U.S. Energy Information Administration has jumped by 50% from a year ago, to $2.69 a gallon.
All manner of heating fuels are heading into winter at their highest prices in years and could climb more if the weather is cold. But propane is expected to take the biggest bite out of household budgets.
Most U.S. households and businesses are heated with natural gas or electricity, highly regulated markets in which consumers are insulated from price swings in the commodities and usually given time to catch up on payments before they go cold.
Buying propane is more like filling up a car. The fuel is paid for upon receipt and priced in the free market. Residential propane is delivered by truck, often by small firms over big swaths of countryside. Domestic inventories have been so drained by exports that it isn’t out of the question that some could be left for periods without propane no matter what they are able to pay.
More than 600 Boston Employees Remain on Leave over Vaccine Mandate
Boston Herald – More than 600 city employees remain on unpaid leave under the coronavirus vaccine mandate — for which enforcement kicks in on Tuesday for a whole new group of workers including police and fire, according to City Hall.
Acting Mayor Kim Janey’s office said 624 people remained on unpaid leave as of Friday evening, barely changed from the mark last Wednesday, just a day after the mandate went into effect.
The city began enforcing the vax-or-test mandate for the “Phase 1” group of its workers a week and a half ago, after the long weekend. After the city sent notice to all of the out-of-compliance employees the previous Wednesday, 1,400 facing punishment quickly dropped to 1,200 and then 812 who actually ended up getting placed on leave the day the enforcement began.
By the next day, that number was down to 637, and then 602 the next day — but the trend down hasn’t continued.
A city spokeswoman said the number of people fluctuates as some people get in compliance and others newly fall out of it.
Phase 1 appears to apply to the largest chunk of city employees, including the school district, which has the most staff of any department. The city’s never been willing to say quite how many employees fall under the Phase 1 umbrella, but some perusing of payroll documents suggests that more than 10,000 of the total 18,000 Boston employees are counted.
Phase 1 employees — who also include those in Boston Centers for Youth & Families, Boston Public Libraries, Age Strong and Commission on Disabilities — were technically supposed to come into compliance with the mandate Sept. 20, though enforcement didn’t follow for several weeks. Phase 2, which includes police, fire and inspectional services, hit their mandate Oct. 4.
And now enforcement will begin this coming Tuesday, Janey’s office said, saying that it sent out notice on Thursday to Phase 2 employees who are currently not compliant.
Moderna Data Shows Covid-19 Vaccine Produced Strong Immune Response in 6- to 11-Year-Olds
Wall Street Journal – Moderna Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccine was generally safe and induced the desired immune responses in children ages 6 to 11 in a clinical trial, according to the company.
The Cambridge, Mass., company said Monday that it would submit the results to health regulators in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere in seeking authorization to widen the use of its shots to include this younger age group.
The company announced the interim data in a press release, and results haven’t yet been published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
Moderna’s vaccine is currently authorized for use in adults 18 years and older in the U.S.
The company’s efforts to expand use of its vaccine to include children are further behind Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, which could get FDA authorization in days or weeks for use of their vaccine in children 5 to 11.
“We are encouraged by the immunogenicity and safety profile of mRNA-1273 in children aged 6 to under 12 years and are pleased that the study met its primary immunogenicity endpoints,” Moderna Chief Executive Stéphane Bancel said. Immunogenicity refers to a vaccine’s ability to trigger an immune response, though it alone isn’t definitive proof that the immune response will protect someone from disease.
The company has asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize use of the vaccine in children age 12 to 17, but the FDA’s decision has been held up by the agency’s assessment of the risk of heart-inflammation conditions in younger vaccine recipients.
State Economy Tacks on Sixth Consecutive Quarter of Growth
State House News – Supply chain disruptions and labor shortages are continuing to hold back economic growth, but index readings released Monday show the Massachusetts economy in expansionary territory for a sixth straight quarter and four straight quarters of growth for the U.S. economy.
Citizens said its national Citizens Business Conditions Index finished the third quarter at 57.1, down from the second quarter reading of 57.4. The state economy’s third quarter reading was 55, up from 53.1 in the second quarter. Readings above 50 reflect an economy in expansionary mode.
“Despite ongoing challenges from the pandemic, the third quarter was a period of strong demand across most sectors of the economy,” Citizens said.
“With the continued support of low interest rates and fiscal spending initiatives, most sectors seem to have established a healthy trajectory of growth. Concerns over higher inflation have increased, and the employment sector still has ground to cover to reach pre-COVID status.”
The index draws from a pool of metrics, including manufacturing data, consumer spending, commercial banking data, initial jobless claims, commodity prices, and new business applications.
“Business activity is incredibly strong and confidence levels are quite high,” said Tony Bedikian, head of global markets at Citizens. “We haven’t fully exited the pandemic yet, but at this stage most parts of the economy have established some normalcy given the benefit of vaccines and the fiscal and monetary stimulus that continue to provide support towards full recovery. Many companies are doing well and would be doing even better if it weren’t for headwinds such as supply chain disruption and labor shortages.”
The new index readings were released as House and Senate leaders on Beacon Hill gear up to put $3.65 billion in one-time funds to work across Massachusetts, part of efforts over the next few weeks to allocate large chunks of American Rescue Plan Act funds and the state’s fiscal 2021 budget surplus.
Housing Bills Set for Legislative Hearing
Vineyard Gazette – Proposed legislation that would allow cities and towns in Massachusetts to impose a fee of up to two per cent on certain real estate sales to support affordable housing is among two dozen bills scheduled for a virtual hearing next week.
The legislature’s Joint Committee on Housing will convene at 11 a.m. on Tuesday to consider a variety of bills to address housing affordability, including two identical bills originating in the House and Senate respectively, H.1377 and S.828.
The bills, co-sponsored by Sen. Julian Cyr and Rep. Dylan Fernandes, are similar to bills that died in committee last year. But the new bills, presented by Sen. Joanne M. Comerford of Northampton and Rep. Mike Connolly of Cambridge, would give cities and towns more flexibility in how to administer the fee. They also have additional co-sponsors — 27 in the House and 19 in the Senate.
Among other things, the current bills would allow municipalities to assess a fee of up to 6 per cent on certain “speculative sales,” that is, where someone sells a house within year of buying it.
They also would exempt from the fee transfers for less than the state median sales price of a single-family home, about $500,000, or allow the city or town to set a higher threshold.
Dozens of State Workers Face Termination over Religious Beliefs, COVID Vaccine Mandate
MassLive – An unvaccinated Massachusetts social worker, paralyzed by uncertainty and silence from her supervisors, has ignored messages from her young clients all week.
The state employee, who spoke to MassLive on the condition of anonymity, said she is likely not authorized to report to work anymore, even though she’s yet to be formally suspended without pay.
While her employment status remains in limbo, she’s adamant about her immunization status: She will not get the COVID-19 shot, even though Gov. Charlie Baker’s vaccine mandate for more than 44,000 Executive Department employees and contractors took effect Sunday.
Massachusetts is the Only State to See Unemployment Increase in September
Worcester Business Journal – Massachusetts was the only state in September to see an increase in unemployment, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Friday release. The rate grew from 5.0% to 5.2% from August to September, putting Massachusetts 0.4 percentage points above the national average of 4.8%.
This marks the second consecutive month Massachusetts’ unemployment rate has increased since its initial jump of 13.7 percentage points at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. It plateaued at 4.9% in June and July before rising in August.
The rate is still considerably lower than the 8.9% of Sept. 2020, but higher than the pre-pandemic 3.0% of Sept. 2019.
The Commonwealth was one of 28 states to have a statistically significant change in its unemployment rate last month, as 22 states remained basically stable through the month.
Workers Became more Willing to Go on Strike during the Pandemic
MSN – When the pandemic shut down movie and TV production across the country last year, thousands of crew members accustomed to spending long days on set suddenly had more time for themselves and their families.
But when filming resumed, studios went into overdrive to keep up with demand and pushed workers to the brink. So the workers pushed back — and voted to strike.
A walkout was narrowly averted when the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees tentatively agreed to an offer that kept 60,000 people on the job. But the mind-set of the workforce has been indelibly shifted by the pandemic, which put workers’ long-simmering discontent into stark relief, said Chris O’Donnell, business manager for the union’s 1,100 members in New England.
Burnt out and fed up, and emboldened by the labor shortage, many of them, particularly those in unions, are increasingly willing to take a stand. Strikes surged nationally in October, with at least 40 actions ongoing (including 26 that have started so far this month) and 187 since the start of the year, according to Cornell University’s new Labor Action Tracker.
Covid-19 Vaccine Mandates Are Surviving Nearly All Court Challenges
Wall Street Journal – A range of people—from nurses to firefighters to students—have filed lawsuits objecting to the mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations imposed by states and cities, claiming the policies infringe on their constitutional rights.
Nearly every legal challenge has failed so far.
With limited exceptions involving religious objectors, judges have overwhelmingly upheld orders in numerous states that require health workers, public employees, state university students and government contractors to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as a condition of employment. These rulings have allowed states to fire workers who refuse immunization.
“What we’re seeing are courts finding that mandates are lawful and constitutional,” said Jennifer Piatt, a deputy director with the Network for Public Health Law, a national nonprofit group based in Minnesota that promotes public health laws and has kept track of the litigation.
More than 20 states and dozens of cities have adopted vaccination mandates—mostly through executive orders and legislation—to control the spread of Covid-19.
The legal basis for the orders largely stems from a Supreme Court ruling from a century ago upholding a vaccine mandate after an outbreak of smallpox in Massachusetts. The court acknowledged in that case that states have broad powers to combat significant public-health challenges.
In at least 17 lawsuits, judges appointed by both Democrats and Republicans have refused to block vaccine mandates.
A federal appeals court ruled on Oct. 15 that Maine can enforce its vaccination requirement for healthcare workers. The First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that Gov. Janet Mills had no choice but to mandate that healthcare workers be vaccinated to curb transmission of the Delta variant.
DiZoglio Says Small Business Day of Action Set for Monday to Push Pandemic Aid Extensions
WHAV – State Sen. Diana DiZoglio is co-hosting a Small Business Day of Action Monday in support of her legislation to extend restaurants’ option to sell cocktails to-go, to maintain third-party delivery fee caps and to provide grants to small businesses startups that were not eligible for government assistance when the pandemic struck.
DiZoglio said, “there remains significant work to be done to ensure the survival and vitality of our mom-and-pop shops, who have faced countless challenges over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“We can start by implementing these common-sense measures designed to help small businesses at a time when they need it most. We are on the road to recovery but must recognize that local businesses are going to need the legislature to provide continued support and financial relief as they rebuild. These tools are not just essential for them but to the health of all of our communities.”
Business groups across the state are also calling on the state legislature to investigate the insurance industry, which came under fire when most business interruption insurance claims made by small businesses as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic were denied.
THIRST, a citizen-led political action committee advocating for the hospitality industry, and representatives from the Massachusetts Restaurant Association, Massachusetts Restaurants United, Cocktails for Commonwealth, Love Live Local, and Cambridge Local First for the Small Business Day of Action, plan a virtual rally Monday morning, a press conference from the State House steps in the afternoon and a cocktail hour at The Emory.
State: School testing delays are being resolved
Commonwealth Magazine – Massachusetts health and education officials acknowledged on Thursday that “logistical challenges” led to a delayed rollout of the state’s COVID-19 testing program in schools, but they said the problems, which were primarily attributable to low staffing, are being addressed.
“As is often the case when developing a bold new idea – in this case, test and stay – there were logistical challenges during the initial ramp up, including significant staff recruitment difficulties and demand that far exceeded expectations,” said Marylou Sudders, the secretary of health and human services, in testimony submitted to legislative committees dealing with emergency preparedness, public health, and education.
Jeff Riley, the commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said only 28 of the 327 districts doing testing have not yet reported any tests, and he said some of those districts only recently launched their programs.
CommonWealth previously reported that the state’s pooled testing program faced delays in getting off the ground, apparently due to staffing shortages at CIC Health, the private company hired by the state to do the testing.
The state is offering schools access to three types of testing: test and stay, in which a student exposed to COVID-19 in school can take daily rapid tests rather than quarantining; rapid testing for kids who start showing symptoms in school; and pooled testing, which is routine weekly surveillance testing to catch cases before children or staff show symptoms. As of October 1, state officials said almost all schools had gotten the rapid tests. But several districts complained that they had not yet been able to begin pooled testing.
Sen. Jo Comerford, a Northampton Democrat who co-chairs the Legislature’s committees on public health and COVID-19 preparedness, revealed at the hearing that state education officials and CIC Health officials participated in “a very painful webinar with school superintendents where they detailed in significant measures the way the relationship with CIC Health has in many ways been a failure in Western Massachusetts.”
Port of Boston Deliveries are Being Passed Over
Boston Herald – Boston’s glory days as a major shipping port are long gone. It’s now about to pay a price for being lower down the food chain, as the shipping industry seeks to untangle the massive traffic jam of container ships waiting to enter the nation’s largest cargo ports.
Disruptions in the global supply chain have resulted in long queues of container ships waiting outside of bigger ports to unload, adding to the delays of goods shipped from overseas factories. Though Boston’s newly remodeled port doesn’t have as much traffic or traffic jams as larger ports, some shipments from China have arrived up to a month late, causing many New England retailers and other businesses looking to stock up on imported goods for the holiday shopping season.
And now, a major shipper that sends one of only two containerships that regularly visit Boston each week is planning to skip its visits for two months this winter. The move will allow the shipper to concentrate on speeding up deliveries at larger ports, such as New York.
As part of the supply chain crisis, the carriers are looking to save time wherever they can, said Jennifer Mehigan, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which operates the Conley Container Terminal in South Boston. A temporary measure is to bypass ports like Boston to accomplish that, said Cook.
Boston will take one for the team in the global shipping crisis.
The timing for Boston is a little unfortunate. Massport has just purchased and installed three new giant cranes at the Conley terminal as part of an ongoing $850 million renovation project. Once they pass tests, the cranes will allow the port to accommodate significantly larger cargo ships capable of carrying up to 14,500 standard shipping containers.
House Lawmakers Draw New Maps to Boost Representatives of Color
Boston Herald – New House district maps would make it easier for candidates of color to win seats in majority-minority cities like Worcester, Lawrence, Brockton and Chelsea over the next decade, map drawers said.
“The population counts for the 2020 Census are reflected in the diversity of our districts in these final maps,” said Assistant Majority Leader Michael Moran, a Boston Democrat who led the redistricting process for the second straight cycle, who said the new map reflects observed demographic shifts.
The House voted 158-1 in favor of the new district maps.
Georgetown Republican Rep. Lenny Mirra, whose district would be significantly altered, cast the lone no vote.
The Census revealed Massachusetts’ population surpassed 7 million and saw the number of white residents shrink 7 percentage points while the Black population grew nearly 17 points, the Asian population jumped 45% and the Hispanic population increased by 41%.
Brockton, despite having a majority of nonwhite residents, has never been represented by a person of color.
Incumbent-First Law is Unique to Massachusetts
Commonwealth Magazine – Among the ways that Massachusetts is unique among the 50 states: our state election ballots give top billing to incumbent state officeholders who are seeking re-election, with the other candidates listed in alphabetical order below. (Cities and towns can choose alternatives – Boston, notably, selects candidate order by lottery.)
No other state reserves the top ballot positions for incumbent candidates. Most states determine ballot order either by lottery or by rotating names among precincts, so as to avoid the “primacy effect” – the name psychologists give to the human inclination to select the first item on a list over those further down. Some states do recognize current officeholders on their ballots, not by listing the name first, but by some indication of the incumbent’s status next to it. Here in Massachusetts we do both – we put the incumbent’s name at the top and garnish it with the words “candidate for re-election.”
Studies of the primacy effect in voting have concluded that it has some influence. Its weight is more significant in primary elections than in general elections (where party affiliation also differentiates the candidates), and it’s most likely to play a role in low-profile elections, down-ballot races, and contests with many candidates. Bottom line, it can matter.
And it can matter enough to amount to a violation of the constitutional right to equal protection of the laws. In 1975, the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of a non-incumbent city council candidate challenging that state’s incumbent-first statute. Concluding that the law imposed “a very real and appreciable impact on the equality, fairness, and integrity of the electoral process,” the court struck it down as an infringement of the equal protection rights of voters who chose a candidate lower down on the list. In compliance with that decision, California has since adopted a ballot rotation system.
The incumbent-first law in Massachusetts still stands, however. A legal challenge here, decided one year later, had an entirely different result.
The 1972 Democratic primary election for two Middlesex County commissioner seats pitted two non-incumbent candidates (one of whom was Lowell city councilor Paul Tsongas) against two incumbents. Weeks before the election, the challengers filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the incumbent-first law on equal protection grounds. The court declined to intervene before the election, and Tsongas and his fellow challenger ended up winning the two spots, which made their legal claims moot. New plaintiffs joined the case, and after a trial a three-judge panel of the federal district court issued a decision upholding the law.
Free Transit had Benefits but May Not be Sustainable, Worcester Study Concludes
WBUR – A new report from the Central Massachusetts Regional Planning Commission revealed that the Worcester Regional Transit Authority outperformed most of its peer agencies in the state when it came to recovering ridership lost during the pandemic.
The finding comes after the agency offered fare-free service starting last spring and is now considering other options as the policy is set to end in December.
The commission looked at bus ridership between April 2020 and June 2021 for 12 regional transit agencies in the state and found the WRTA averaged 67% of pre-pandemic ridership during that time, topping the other agencies — including the MBTA.
“I can’t speak to being fare-free for the entirety of that period had an effect on that, but it is an interesting correlation,” said Jack Narron, an associate planner at the commission.
The report also found that free fares offered benefits such as more equity, since there is no barrier to entry for riders, and faster boarding. However, one of the downsides the commission found is that foregoing fares long term could lead to big financial losses.
WRTA administrator Dennis Lipka estimates the loss in fares will cost the agency nearly $6 million by the time the policy ends in December. The agency has been relying on federal pandemic assistance to fund the program but would need additional help to continue it. When the free fare policy sunsets, Lipka hopes to reinstate fares and move the agency to a new fare payment system
Prepare for Propane Sticker Shock
Wall Street Journal – Propane prices haven’t been so high heading into winter in a decade, which is bad news for the millions of rural Americans who rely on the fuel to stay warm.
At $1.41 a gallon at the Mont Belvieu trading hub in Texas, on-the-spot prices are about triple those of the past two Octobers. Of the two main U.S. propane futures contracts, one hit a high earlier this month and the other doesn’t have far to climb to eclipse the record it set during the blizzard of 2014. The average residential price tracked by the U.S. Energy Information Administration has jumped by 50% from a year ago, to $2.69 a gallon.
All manner of heating fuels are heading into winter at their highest prices in years and could climb more if the weather is cold. But propane is expected to take the biggest bite out of household budgets.
Most U.S. households and businesses are heated with natural gas or electricity, highly regulated markets in which consumers are insulated from price swings in the commodities and usually given time to catch up on payments before they go cold.
Buying propane is more like filling up a car. The fuel is paid for upon receipt and priced in the free market. Residential propane is delivered by truck, often by small firms over big swaths of countryside. Domestic inventories have been so drained by exports that it isn’t out of the question that some could be left for periods without propane no matter what they are able to pay.
October 19, 2021
Schedule
Tuesday October 19
Wednesday October 20
Thursday October 21
Friday October 22
Monday October 25
Tuesday October 26
Thursday October 28
Four Million Workers are Missing. Where Did They Go?
Wall Street Journal – Scarce labor is becoming a fixture of the U.S. economy, reshaping the workforce and prodding firms to adapt by raising wages, reinventing services and investing in automation.
More than a year and a half into the pandemic, the U.S. is still missing around 4.3 million workers. That’s how much bigger the labor force would be if the participation rate—the share of the population 16 or older either working or looking for work—returned to its February 2020 level of 63.3%. In September, it stood at 61.6%.
The absence comes as U.S. employers are struggling to fill more than 10 million job openings and meet soaring consumer demand. In another sign of just how tight the labor market is, jobless claims—a proxy for layoffs across the U.S.—fell to 293,000 last week, the first time since the pandemic began that they fell below 300,000, the Labor Department said Thursday.
Workers are quitting at or near the highest rates on record in sectors such as manufacturing, retail, and trade, transportation and utilities, as well as professional and business services.
Participation has fallen broadly across demographic groups and career fields, but has dropped particularly fast among women, workers without a college degree and those in low-paying service industries such as hotels, restaurants and child care.
The participation rate experienced its biggest drop since at least World War II in the early months of the pandemic. It partly rebounded last summer and since then has hovered near the lowest level since the 1970s, despite sturdy economic growth and the strongest wage gains in years.
More Than 300,000 Women Left Workforce in September
The Hill – More than 300,000 women exited the labor force last month, even as the nation saw tens of thousands of jobs added to the economy overall, an analysis from the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) shows.
According to the analysis, 309,000 women ages 20 and above exited the workforce entirely last month. The group called the figure the biggest dive in women’s labor force participation since September 2020, when more than 800,000 women left the workforce.
At the same time, the unemployment rate for women dipped in September. A NWLC spokesperson said on Monday that the drop was likely driven by the significant number of women that exited the labor force last month, meaning “they are no longer employed nor looking for employment.”
A closer look at the racial breakdown of women’s unemployment numbers last month showed glaring disparities.
More than 7.3 percent of Black women at least 20 and older were unemployed last month, a slight dip from the 7.9 percent recorded the month prior.
The unemployment rate among white women during the same time frame went from 4.2 percent to 3.7 percent, underscoring the disproportionate burden Black women are facing in the pandemic labor market.
Similarly, unemployment decreased among Latinas in the same age group from 6 percent to 5.6 percent during the same period, data showed.
The unemployment rate among Asian women lowered from August to September from 4.2 percent to 3.4 percent.
Overall, the NWLC said the unemployment rate for women 20 and over was 4.2 percent last month, down from 4.8 percent month before. The unemployment rate for men was 5 percent in September, 0.4 percentage points lower than in August.
Interest in Municipal Internet is Rising on the South Shore, Nationwide
Patriot Ledger – As the chief technology officer for a software company, Gary MacDougall said getting on the Internet every day is as essential to his job as having electricity.
“Everything I do in the course of the day is online, so if I lost Internet for three or four days, I’d be in trouble,” MacDougall, of Weymouth, said. “You have tons of people working from home and kids trying to get on Zoom calls, so the Internet is definitely an essential utility.”
The pandemic has made clear that high-speed internet is all but essential for modern living, yet millions of Americans are still not online due to access or cost, and others struggle with service that is sluggish or unreliable.
Some communities on the South Shore – including Quincy, Weymouth and Milton – are exploring the potential of making broadband Internet a public utility, lumping it in with the long-considered-essential public services of water, electricity and sewer.
Quincy City Councilor Ian Cain first floated the idea for municipal broadband in early 2018 after hearing that Milton was exploring the concept. Cain said he pays more than $100 a month for Internet through Comcast, the only provider in the city.
Threats of Termination Convince Many Hesitant Hospital Workers to Get COVID Vaccine, but Thousands of Holdouts Remain
Boston Globe – Looming deadlines and threats of termination have convinced hundreds of hesitant health care workers to get their COVID-19 shots in recent days, but thousands of holdouts remain, Massachusetts hospital leaders reported Friday.
Already, one major hospital system, Springfield-based Baystate Health, said it terminated 90 workers who remained unvaccinated on Friday after an extensive effort to change their minds.
A pressing deadline also looms at Mass General Brigham, the state’s largest hospital system, where still-unvaccinated employees will be placed on unpaid leave at the end of their shift on Wednesday, the company said. Roughly 1,900 employees — about 3 percent of the 80,000-person workforce — remained unvaccinated Friday or had failed to submit documentation showing they had received at least one shot, according to the company.
“We are mandating the vaccine because we want to do everything possible to protect you, your families, and our patients,” the company said in a memo Thursday to employees. “You make our system great, and we do not want to lose you as a result of this condition of employment.”
‘It is Our Goal to Fire No One’: MGH President on Looming Employee Vaccination Deadline
WBUR – About 800 employees at Massachusetts General Hospital — including a small number of physicians and nurses — still aren’t vaccinated and are at risk of suspension or losing their jobs.
The hospital’s mandatory employee vaccine deadline is Friday.
MGH President Dr. David Brown tells WBUR about half of the employees are temporary “per diem” workers who don’t have regular hours at the hospital, while the other half are regular employees.
The group represents about 3% of the approximately 28,000 Mass General employees. There are about 77,000 employees across the entire Mass General Brigham hospital network, which includes Mass General.
“We’re busy confirming among that group of 800 at Mass General, who … is in fact vaccinated and can provide confirmation of that so that number gets smaller,” Brown says, adding that employees can get their doses right at any hospital in the system. They are still conducting hundreds of first-time vaccinations daily.
Brown says as of Thursday afternoon there are unvaccinated staff members in a wide range of roles, but only a small number are physicians or nurses.
“There isn’t one role group that seems to be disproportionately impacted,” he says.
Hundreds of State Workers Seek Vaccine Waivers, Union Says
WBUR – Hundreds of state workers are seeking exemptions from Governor Charlie Baker’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate, according to one of the commonwealth’s largest unions.
The Baker administration is casting its vaccine requirement as a success, saying Massachusetts state “agencies are seeing significant progress toward the vaccination goal.”
But unions have warned that some workers would rather quit or be fired than comply with the vaccine mandate, potentially leaving some agencies understaffed as early as next week.
And some are criticizing the state’s process of reviewing waiver applications, including at least one labor union that generally supports the vaccine mandate.
“There hasn’t been a consistent, uniform process for how these situations are going to be reviewed,” said Peter MacKinnon, president of SEIU Local 509, which represents about 8,500 state workers and endorsed Baker’s vaccine mandate.
“What we’re hearing anecdotally is that one agency is applying this set of criteria for exemption requests, whereas another agency is applying a different set of criteria. It shouldn’t be that way.”
Biden Open to Shortening Length of Programs in Spending Bill
Boston Globe – President Joe Biden said Friday he would prefer to cut the duration of programs in his big social services and climate change package rather than eliminate some entirely, as Democrats struggle to win support from moderates by trimming what had been a $3.5 trillion proposal.
Biden’s comments, reassuring progressives on what he hopes will be a landmark piece of his legacy, marked his clearest comments yet on how he hopes negotiations over the bill will play out. Appearing to side with a strategy preferred by progressive lawmakers, it marked at least a subtle break with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has suggested that most Democrats prefer to focus on establishing a few enduring programs.
He also said there is no deadline for a deal.
“I’m of the view that it’s important to establish the principle on a whole range of issues without guaranteeing to get the whole 10 years,” Biden told reporters before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington from a trip to Connecticut. “It matters to establish it.”
Multiple Schools Reached 80% Vaccination Rate ahead of Oct. 18
MetroWest Daily News – Although the mask mandate for public schools in Massachusetts has been extended to Nov. 1, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has said that local school committees, at their discretion, can allow individuals who are vaccinated against COVID-19 to unmask as of Monday — provided the vaccination rate among students and staff at the individual’s school is greater than 80%.
The following MetroWest communities have met the 80% threshold for vaccinations of 12- to 19-year-olds as of Thursday, according to state Department of Public Health data: Natick, Marlborough, Hopkinton, Sudbury, Wayland, Southborough, Holliston, Northborough and Shrewsbury.
For some communities, there’s a disparity in rates between 12- to 15- year-olds and 16- to 19-year-olds — the two separate age groups the Department of Public Health presents in its data.
Towns that have this disparity include Hudson (the older group is over 80%, but not the younger), Weston (the younger group is over 80%), Ashland (the older group is at more than 95%), Milford (the older group is at more than 95%), Hopedale (the older group is over 80%) Mendon (the older group is over 80%) and Millis (the older group is over 80%).
Berkshire Health Systems puts Unvaccinated Employees on Leave, as System hits 98 percent Vaccination Rate
Berkshire Eagle – More than two months after Berkshire Health Systems announced that it would mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for its staff, about 75 employees remain unvaccinated.
The system had an 80 percent vaccination rate when the mandate went into place in August, according to BHS. As of this week, about 98 percent of the system’s approximately 4,000 employees were vaccinated.
Two weeks after the Oct. 1 deadline, BHS is pulling its unvaccinated employees from in-person work and preparing to terminate some workers.
“Our enforcement of this vaccination policy will likely result in employees losing their jobs,” David Phelps, BHS’ president and CEO, wrote in a letter to staff Wednesday. “However, not taking advantage of the opportunity to be vaccinated creates a level of risk for our patients and our staff that we cannot accept within our facilities.”
Patrick Borek, vice president of human resources at BHS, told The Eagle on Thursday that some of the unvaccinated employees have requested religious or medical exemptions. A number of those will be allowed to work remotely.
But, the majority of unvaccinated employees have been or soon will be put on unpaid suspension and eventually fired, like thousands of other hospital workers across Massachusetts and the nation.
“We’re meeting with people individually to look at their job content and ways in which we could accommodate them, working remotely mostly,” he said. “But we expect the number of people we can accommodate to be relatively small. Health care is very much a face-to-face business.”
BHS instituted its mandate about a month before the federal government announced that it would require all health care workers to get vaccinated.
Judge Denies Prison Guard Union Attempt to Block Governor’s Vaccine Mandate
WGBH – A federal judge rejected a bid by the state prison guard union to temporarily block Governor Charlie Baker’s vaccine mandate from going into effect on Sunday.
U.S. District Judge Timothy Hillman said the public health concerns around coronavirus outweigh the concerns that four members of the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union (MCOFU) spelled out in their lawsuit.
These were namely that their constitutional and contract rights were being targeted by Baker’s August executive order that says employees who don’t get the COVID-19 vaccine by Sunday, Oct. 17 could face punishment and termination from their jobs.
“Even considering the economic impact on the Plaintiffs if they choose not to be vaccinated, when balancing that harm against the legitimate and critical public interest in preventing the spread of COVID-19 by increasing the vaccination rate, particularly in congregate facilities, the Court finds the balance weighs in favor of the broader public interests,” said Hillman in his decision, which denied granting a temporary ban on the mandate.
The Friday afternoon decision increases the likelihood that the Massachusetts National Guard will have to fill in for officers who have not been vaccinated. Baker activated the Guard preemptively on Oct. 12 to temporary work as prison guards in the event of a staffing shortage.
Key FDA Advisory Committee Unanimously Supports Moderna Boosters
Boston Business Journal – A key advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has voted unanimously in favor of Covid-19 booster vaccines made by Moderna Inc.
Specifically, the 19 voting members are endorsing a third shot of the Moderna vaccine for all patients 65 and older, adults with underlying medical conditions and adults who are at a high risk for Covid-19 because of their occupations or time in institutional settings.
The populations are identical to those for whom a Pfizer Inc. booster shot was authorized last month.
The FDA will likely issue an updated authorization in coming days. Moderna share prices rose after the committee vote by about 3%. The company’s market capitalization is just under $133.9 billion.
The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee met for most of the day on Thursday before voting shortly after 3 p.m. During the meeting, which was held virtually and livestreamed over YouTube, committee members heard from FDA staffers as well as Moderna’s head of infectious diseases, Jacqueline Miller.
Israel’s director of public health and a professor at Israel’s Weizman Institute also provided information about their own Covid-19 vaccine booster program. Israel has offered Covid-19 vaccine boosters to older adults since July and thus has the closest thing to a real-world study in the world.
State Redistricting Proposal Would Shuffle Political Representation
Lowell Sun – Proposed new legislative districts in the state House and Senate could mean changes for voters in Greater Lowell, the Nashoba Valley and North Central Massachusetts.
Districts announced by lawmakers on Tuesday appear to be shifting east to accommodate population growth. Additionally, lawmakers have hoped to create new majority-minority districts with the redistricting proposal — an effort to have representation more representative of the state’s growing diversity.
In Lowell, state Rep. Vanna Howard would see her district shift from Chelmsford toward Tewksbury. Currently, Howard represents precinct 4 in Chelmsford and Lowell precincts 2 and 3, as well as Wards 1, 2, 3, 4, 10 and 11. In the shift, precinct 4 would move to the 14th Middlesex District currently represented by state Rep. Tami Gouveia.
The change would see Howard’s district head toward Tewksbury precinct 1. Howard would maintain Ward 1, Ward 2 precinct 3, Ward 4 precincts 2 and 3, Ward 10 precincts 1, 2, and 3, and Ward 11 precincts 1, 2 and 3.
Redistricting Sets Political Dominoes Falling
Politico – State Rep. Nika Elugardo won’t seek the Boston state Senate seat being vacated by Sonia Chang-Díaz. It’s increasingly looking like her colleague, state Rep. Liz Miranda, will.
Elugardo confirmed she plans to run for reelection to the House next year.
Miranda said she’s “taking a serious look” at the Senate seat and plans to announce her decision after the November municipal election.
Miranda is talking to community leaders about a potential Senate bid, according to a source familiar with her thinking who said it appears increasingly likely she’ll make a run for the 2nd Suffolk seat.
Elugardo and Miranda both expressed interest in the seat after Chang-Díaz announced in June she was running for governor. Both are Black women who were first elected to the House in 2018.
Elugardo, a Jamaica Plain Democrat, will vie for a third term in a district that will likely look different than the one she’s represented for the past three years. The proposed House redistricting map would consolidate her 15th Suffolk district within Boston and take her out of neighboring Brookline. Miranda’s 5th Suffolk district, which covers parts of Roxbury and Dorchester, would look different as well.
Mapmakers also proposed changes to the 2nd Suffolk — shedding voters in Jamaica Plain and the South End, adding parts of Mattapan and Hyde Park — that they believe will better empower Black voters in the district to elect their candidate of choice.
There will be more announcements. State Rep. Paul Mark (D-Peru) is expected to say in coming days that he’s running for the state Senate seat Adam Hinds (D-PIttsfield) is giving up to run for lieutenant governor, per a source familiar. In doing so, Mark will avoid a potential faceoff against state Rep. John Barrett III (D-North Adams) in a redrawn Berkshires House district.
Some might have to rethink their plans. State Rep. Andy Vargas (D-Haverhill) is running to succeed state Sen. Diana DiZoglio (D-Methuen), who’s vying for state auditor, in the 1st Essex district. But the proposed Senate map would put him in a new district rooted in neighboring Lawrence and Methuen instead.
Political newcomer Simon Cataldo believed he didn’t “have the luxury of waiting” for the new maps when he launched his campaign for the 14th Middlesex seat that state Rep. Tami Gouveia’s leaving open to run for LG. But Cataldo’s Concord precinct is no longer in that district under the proposed House map. Instead the Democrat would be up against state Rep. Carmine Gentile (D-Sudbury).
Jamie Belsito of Topsfield is running in the special election to succeed former state Rep. Brad Hill in the 4th Essex. But Topsfield wouldn’t be part of that redrawn district come next year. If the House map holds, Belsito, a Democrat, looks to be in the same district as state Rep. Christina Minicucci (D-North Andover).
Massachusetts Medicaid fraud case settled for $25M
Associated Press – A private equity firm and two former executives at a mental health provider have agreed to pay $25 million to settle a lawsuit that alleged they caused fraudulent claims to be submitted to the state’s Medicaid program, the state attorney general’s office said.
South Bay Mental Health Center, Inc., which operates facilities in more than a dozen communities around the state, provided services for thousands of patients through the state’s Medicaid program known as MassHealth by unlicensed, unqualified, and improperly supervised staff members, according to a statement from the office of Attorney General Maura Healey.
The attorney general’s office called the agreement is “the largest publicly disclosed government health care fraud settlement in the nation involving private equity oversight of health care providers.”
The settlement calls for H.I.G. Capital, a private equity firm that acquired South Bay, to pay $19.95 million, according to the statement. The two former executives, including South Bay’s founder, will pay the remaining $5.05 million.
The deal includes no admission of wrongdoing.
A spokesperson for H.I.G. declined to comment. Messages were left with attorneys for the former executives.
MassHealth Expands Long-Term Care to Thousands of Immigrants
WBUR – Thousands of immigrants will become eligible for long-term care coverage under MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program, thanks to a policy change that takes effect Nov. 1.
The MassHealth members that fall under the new policy are currently prohibited from long-term care coverage due to their immigration status, though their medical care is covered by the program.
One of those immigrants is Nora Ketter, about whom WBUR reported in May. Ketter is a 75-year-old Liberian immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1989. In recent years, she developed dementia. She was admitted to UMass Memorial’s Clinton Hospital three-and-a-half years ago and has been stuck there ever since.
Ketter should be in a skilled nursing facility. But she hasn’t qualified for that care because she’s still awaiting the green card she applied for more than two years ago. Upon getting the green card and the lawful permanent residence it confers, she would have immediately qualified for long-term care due to how long she’s been in the U.S. Under the new MassHealth guidelines, she won’t have to wait for that change to her immigration status.
Lynch: ‘We Have To Get To An Agreement’ On Stalled Infrastructure Bill
CBS Local – The partisan divide in Washington, D.C. remains as strong as ever. But Massachusetts Rep. Stephen Lynch said it’s critical in particular to find common ground on President Biden’s proposed infrastructure bill.
Lynch talked about the stalled bill with WBZ-TV political analyst Jon Keller.
The infrastructure bill, which has some bipartisan support, and a social infrastructure bill both appear to have stalled for the time being. Lynch said he joined the Transportation Committee because it had historically been a bipartisan group.
“It has become anything but that. It has become as partisan as any other committee on the Hill,” Lynch said. “I’m greatly disappointed we can’t even get to an agreement on the basics in Washington, D.C. In this case, we have to get to an agreement. I’m sure we won’t get everything we want on the Democratic side, but we’re searching for that balance moving forward.”
Racial Equity Scorecard Will Grade ARPA Spending
WWLP – Expecting decisions from legislative leaders in the next few weeks over how to start spending billions of remaining dollars from the state’s American Rescue Plan Act allocation, a coalition of advocacy groups plus a handful of lawmakers on Monday released a scorecard they’ll use to measure whether the plans prioritize racial justice.
The coalition is launching a website that it says offers a roadmap for how lawmakers can use the $4.8 billion to focus on closing structural gaps that have been exacerbated by the pandemic’s disproportionate impacts on communities of color.
The scorecard will assess spending plans on six factors: urgency, attention to structural problems like housing instability and the racial wealth divide, innovation, targeting of funds to hardest-hit populations, accountability and inclusive processes for decision-making.
“Our state legislators saw the hiking numbers of COVID leading the charts in our state. They saw the thousands of people lined up for hours in our food lines and they heard the stories of deplorable housing conditions and health concerns due to the code violations in apartments facing monthly & yearly rent increases,” Norieliz DeJesus, director of policy and organizing at La Colaborativa in Chelsea, said in a statement.
“We must ensure these facts remain on the table and in the discussions as our Legislators are allocating funds to the different cities in our state. For the sake of our children that at times go to sleep hungry and worried about where they will sleep the next day, we must enact the Racial Equity Scorecard and give these children a fair opportunity out of poverty.”
Separately, two economic experts on Thursday urged policymakers to be mindful of equity as they chart a path forward for recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Urban Institute Economist Christina Plerhoples Stacy and Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Executive Vice President Prabal Chakrabarti said the American Rescue Plan Act and other federal dollars have created an unprecedented opportunity to invest in an economic recovery that addresses long-standing issues of inequality.
Such investments, they said, could take the form of more affordable housing near job centers, cash transfers that incentivize apprenticeships and career training, or public transit that connects job seekers with work opportunities.
Chakrabarti and Stacy were brought together by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation for a discussion about an equitable economic recovery as part of the think tank’s forum series focused on ARPA. MTF in May published a report titled Closing the Racial Divide in the U.S. and Massachusetts: A Baseline Analysis.
The State Asked for a Blueprint of a Gas-Free Future. Why are Utilities Writing the First Draft?
Daily Advent – Looking ahead to a future when fossil fuels must be almost entirely removed from everyday life, Massachusetts last year made what would seem a sensible move: It launched a formal effort to plot the organized phase-out of natural gas.
The outcome of that investigation into the future of natural gas is to be a key step in the state’s climate fight, meant to produce the “policy and structural changes we need to ensure a clean energy future” and address the critical questions of “when and how” the state will wean itself from its most pervasive heating fuel.
So, what state regulators did next triggered more than a few angry questions among climate advocates, legislators, and researchers involved in Massachusetts’ climate efforts: they handed responsibility for writing the first draft of how the state will reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 to the very industry whose fate hung in the balance, natural gas.
For the first phase of the process, which began earlier this year, the Department of Public Utilities asked the gas companies to create several scenarios for how the state can reach net zero and still provide reliable, affordable heat to residents and business owners.
Other interested parties, including state and local governments, and labor, business, and environmental groups, are invited to take part in monthly meetings, but, according to an order from the DPU, it’s the gas companies that lead this part of the process. Only later, once those companies have filed their reports, will others have the chance to formally weigh in.
Moreover, the DPU gave the utilities responsibility for selecting and hiring the consultant needed to develop critical data and models that will be used in the blueprint, rather than retaining its own independent adviser.
Crunch Time: Biden Faces Critical Two Weeks for Agenda
Associated Press — President Joe Biden is entering a crucial two weeks for his ambitious agenda, racing to conclude contentious congressional negotiations ahead of both domestic deadlines and a chance to showcase his administration’s accomplishments on a global stage.
Biden and his fellow Democrats are struggling to bridge intraparty divides by month’s end to pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill and a larger social services package. The president hopes to nail down both before Air Force One lifts off for Europe on Oct. 28 for a pair of world leader summits, including the most ambitious climate change meeting in years.
But that goal has been jeopardized by fractures among Democrats, imperiling the fate of promised sweeping new efforts to grapple with climate change. There’s also rising anxiety within the party about a bellwether gubernatorial contest in Virginia and looming Senate fights over the federal debt limit and government funding that could distract from getting the president’s agenda across the finish line.
Biden is trying to stabilize his presidency after a difficult stretch marked by the tumultuous end of the Afghanistan war, a diplomatic spat with a longtime ally and a surge in COVID-19 cases that rattled the nation’s economic recovery and sent his poll numbers tumbling.
Key to Biden’s Climate Agenda Likely to Be Cut Because of Manchin Opposition
New York Times – The most powerful part of President Biden’s climate agenda — a program to rapidly replace the nation’s coal- and gas-fired power plants with wind, solar and nuclear energy — will likely be dropped from the massive budget bill pending in Congress, according to congressional staffers and lobbyists familiar with the matter.
Senator Joe Manchin III, the Democrat from coal-rich West Virginia whose vote is crucial to passage of the bill, has told the White House that he strongly opposes the clean electricity program, according to three of those people. As a result, White House staffers are now rewriting the legislation without that climate provision and are trying to cobble together a mix of other policies that could also cut emissions.
A White House spokesman, Vedant Patel, declined to comment on the specifics of the bill, saying, “the White House is laser focused on advancing the president’s climate goals and positioning the United States to meet its emission targets in a way that grows domestic industries and good jobs.”
Cities Seek to Loosen Rules on Spending Federal Pandemic Aid
Associated Press – At the Loma Verde Recreation Center south of San Diego, demolition work is underway on a $24 million project that will rebuild the facility from the ground up, complete with a new pool.
An hour’s drive to the north, the iconic bridge to the Oceanside pier is deteriorating because the city lacks the money for a roughly $25 million rehabilitation.
A reason one project is moving ahead and the other isn’t revolves around the American Rescue Plan — the sweeping COVID-19 relief law championed by President Biden and congressional Democrats that is pumping billions of dollars to states and local governments.
Under rules developed by the US Treasury Department, some governments have more flexibility than others to spend their share of the money as they want. That’s why the new swimming pool is a go, and the rehabbed pier — at least for now — is a no.
Similar disparities among cities across the country have prompted pushback from local officials, who want the Treasury to loosen its rules before the program progresses much further.
Strikes Sweep Labor Market as Workers Wield New Leverage
Washington Post – Marcial Reyes could have just quit his job. Frustrated with chronic understaffing at the Kaiser Permanente hospital where he works in Southern California, he knows he has options in a region desperate for nurses.
Instead, he voted to go on strike.
While Americans are leaving their jobs at staggering rates – a record 4.3 million quit in August alone – hundreds of thousands of workers with similar grievances about pay, benefits and quality of life are, like Reyes, choosing to dig in and fight.
Last week, 10,000 John Deere workers went on strike, while unions representing 31,000 Kaiser employees and 60,000 film and television production workers authorized walkouts. Film and TV workers reached a deal with producers Saturday night to avert a strike hours before a negotiating deadline.
All told, there have been strikes against 178 employers this year, according to a tracker by Cornell University’s School of Industrial Labor Relations. The Bureau of Labor Statistics, which records only large work stoppages, has documented 12 strikes involving 1,000 or more workers. That’s a significant jump from 2020, when the pandemic took hold, but in line with significant strike activity in 2019 and 2018, bureau data show.
The trend, union officials and economists say, is an offshoot of the phenomenon known as the Great Resignation, which has thinned the nation’s labor pool and slowed the economic recovery.
Workers are harder to replace and many companies are scrambling to manage hobbled supply chains and meet pandemic-fueled demand for their products. That has given unions new leverage and made striking less risky.
October 13, 2021
Schedule
Wednesday October 13
Thursday October 14
Friday October 15
Monday October 18
Tuesday October 19
Wednesday October 20
Legislature Begins Redistricting Process with Drafted Proposals
Massachusetts House and Senate leaders, along with the Joint Committee on Redistricting, released draft maps of new state legislative districts that, if adopted, would be in effect for the 2022 election.
AIM Members can see the proposed maps here:
House: https://malegislature.gov/Redistricting/ProposedDistricts/House
Senate: https://malegislature.gov/Redistricting/ProposedDistricts/Senate
Study Says 140,000 Children Lost a Caregiver to COVID
Commonwealth Magazine – A study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics in the journal Pediatrics on Thursday quantifies yet another tragic outcome of the COVID-19 pandemic: orphanhood.
The study used modeling to estimate that, from April 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021, more than 120,000 children in the US under age 18 lost their parent or custodial grandparent to a COVID-associated death. Another 22,000 lost a “secondary caregiver,” such as a grandparent providing housing for the family.
Of those children who lost a caregiver to COVID, 65 percent were racial and ethnic minorities – even though minorities make up just 39 percent of the population. The researchers say this is symptomatic of broader inequities that have made Black and Latino individuals more likely to contract COVID.
Susan Hillis, lead author of the study, said in a press release put out by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that COVID-related orphanhood is “a hidden, global pandemic that has sadly not spared the United States.” “All of us – especially our children – will feel the serious immediate and long-term impact of this problem for generations to come,” Hillis said, adding that addressing this loss must be a top priority in the response to COVID.
The study puts into stark terms what has been evident throughout the pandemic. Children may not be falling ill from COVID with the same severity as adults (though a small number do get seriously ill), but they feel its collateral consequences.
Children have been facing mental health crises at unprecedented numbers, due to stress, isolation, and a lack of educational and social supports. CommonWealth reported that due to stresses on the health care system, many of these children cannot get timely treatment.
Students have lost a year of education to the struggles of remote learning, and plunging MCAS scores this year illustrate how much ground many kids need to make up.
Even as vaccinated adults began returning to more normal life, children under 12 have been ineligible for vaccines, meaning families have continued to face tough choices about what risks they want to take with their unvaccinated children.
Schools Report Higher Rates of COVID-19 in Students, Staff
WBUR – Massachusetts public schools have found and reported almost 15 times as many cases of COVID-19 among students and staff as they had at this point last year.
After four weeks of classes, the state tallies 8,502 total cases — 7,388 among students and 1,114 among staff — compared to just 578 in the same period of the 2020-21 school year.
While increases in the number of students learning in-person and in school-based testing account for part of that disparity, some public health experts and local officials take it as a sign that the state can’t yet let its guard down when it comes to controlling the virus’s spread.
Changes to state regulations mean that nearly all students are in school buildings this October, compared to about half as many by this point last fall. But Julia Raifman, an assistant professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, says the virus has changed, too.
“[The delta variant] is very transmissible, and it’s clear that it’s transmitting among children,” Raifman says. “And while children are lower-risk than adults, we’ve seen record-high hospitalizations and deaths of children across the country” with the variant.
More Than 1,000 Boston Employees Face Suspension Over Vaccine Mandate
Boston Herald – The Janey administration is scrambling to deal with what could be more than 1,000 city workers suspended at this start of this coming work week as City Hall begins to crack down on people out of compliance with coronavirus vaccine mandates.
As of the end of this past work week, about 1,200 city workers were not in compliance with the rules, which require either vaccination or negative tests, according to a spokeswoman for Acting Mayor Kim Janey.
The suspensions — which would come without pay — began Tuesday following the long weekend, per the city.
There are about 18,000 City of Boston employees, meaning 6 percent are not following the mandate. Information wasn’t immediately available on Saturday about how the compliance rate varies from department to department, other than the city saying that the Boston Public Schools rate is at 92 percent, slightly below the citywide mark.
A Janey spokeswoman said that the school district has prepared “contingency plans” to ensure that the school day isn’t interrupted if it does so happen that there’s suddenly a bunch of suspensions.
Janey in August announced a vaccine mandate for all of the city’s employees and contractors. It’s not an absolute mandate, as people who don’t wish to get a vaccine can instead opt to submit weekly evidence of a negative coronavirus test.
Janey announced that this would begin to be phased in, with the first cohort of requirements starting Sept. 20, and applying to employees of Boston Public Schools, the Boston Centers for Youth & Families, Boston Public Libraries and some other higher-risk workers. Then others, including cops, firefighters, inspectional services and more, would face mandates starting Oct. 4.
The mandate expands to all remaining workers and contractors on Oct. 18, so these numbers come as some employees haven’t hit the wall yet.
Where Did All the Workers Go?
Wall Street Journal – The Labor Department on Friday reported another disappointing month for employment, but the problem wasn’t a dearth of jobs. The question is whatever happened to the workers?
Employers added a mere 194,000 jobs in September, the second negative monthly surprise in a row. While the unemployment rate fell sharply to 4.8% from 5.2%, that’s because 183,000 Americans dropped out of the workforce. Labor force participation fell 0.1 percentage point to 61.6% and has barely moved since 61.4% a year ago even as the economy has grown rapidly.
There are still five million fewer Americans employed than before the pandemic lockdowns, and three million of them have left the workforce. Even the White House didn’t try to sugar-coat the numbers. It blamed the lousy report on COVID’s Delta variant, which probably contributed to the dearth of new jobs in food and accommodation.
But the number of Americans unable to work because their employer closed or lost business due to the pandemic dropped 600,000 from August. COVID cases declined by a third in September, and many industries unaffected by the virus also failed to add workers.
Employers are crying for workers but they can’t find them even when they pay more. According to the National Federation of Independent Business, 67% of small businesses reported hiring or trying to hire in September, and 42% raised compensation. But a record 51% still have openings they couldn’t fill.
Return of Office Workers Reaches Pandemic High
Wall Street Journal – A widely anticipated surge in employees returning to the office after Labor Day never materialized. But as COVID-19 infection rates fall again, workers are trickling back to the office at the highest rate since the pandemic began.
Office-building use has been slowly rising after a number of businesses required employees to return at least part of the week. In other cases, workers are returning voluntarily with summer vacations over and their children back in school.
The number of workers returning to traditional office space has been edging higher since the week of Labor Day, when an average of 31% ofthe workforce was back in the 10 major cities monitored by Kastle Systems. The average hit 35% during the week that ended Oct. 1 and 36% during the week that ended Oct. 8, a new high during the pandemic period, said the security company that tracks access-card swipes.
Office usage looks poised to push higher as more companies indicate they will be welcoming office workers back in the weeks ahead. BlackRock Inc., Whirlpool Corp. and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. are among the companies that set return dates for October and early November.
“There are things we can accomplish together in the office that we can’t do remotely,” Lions Gate Chief Executive Jon Feltheimer wrote in a message to employees, who are required to begin alternating between the office and working at home this month.
Those return figures are still modest compared with the lofty expectations of the spring, when rising vaccination rates led many companies to say that a majority of their employees would be back at their desks at least part of the time in the early fall. Manhattan employers projected that 62% of their workers would be in the office by September, according to a survey released in June by the Partnership for New York City.
Hundreds of Troopers Face Firing Over Vaccine Mandate
Boston Herald – A group of State Police troopers and commanders have hired a Boston law firm as “hundreds” in the agency face being fired for not taking the coronavirus vaccine.
A source told the Herald more than 300 troopers, sergeants, lieutenants, detective lieutenants, captains and staff are in that group and some have already caught COVID, giving them the antibodies. But that won’t help them come Oct. 17 when the vaccine mandate goes on the books.
“This has been my whole life. I’ve been a loyal cop,” the source said. “But unlike Boston Police and others, we don’t have a testing option.”
Gov. Charlie Baker instituted a vaccine mandate for all Executive Branch employees Aug. 19, including all troopers, with a deadline of Oct. 17 to be fully vaccinated. The order only granted exemptions for those who have medical or religious grounds to reject the vaccine.
State Police and Corrections Officers sued and lost in court and now the deadline is just over a week away. That means they can only take the one-shot Johnson & Johnson jab, the lesser of the vaccine options.
National Guard Expands School Transportation Help to Worcester, Wachusett, Revere and Haverhill
MassLive – School transportation help from the Massachusetts National Guard is expanding to Worcester, Wachusett, Revere and Haverhill, officials said Thursday.
The National Guard is starting service in those communities after getting requests for assistance from local government officials. Those requests fall under an order issued Sept. 13 by Gov. Charlie Baker, freeing up 250 personnel to assist with transportation.
Now the Guard is providing school transportation support in 13 districts: Brockton, Chelsea, Framingham, Haverhill, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Quincy, Revere, Wachusett, Woburn, and Worcester.
More than 190 members of the Guard have completed the driver’s certification process to operate transport vans known as 7D vehicles. The orientation process included vehicle training, background screening and a thorough review of all health and safety measures, according to a statement from Baker’s office.
Beyond those certified as drivers, about 40 members of the Guard are activated to provide operational support for the mission, the statement said.
The Massachusetts National Guard gets regular training with law enforcement, civilian, and other military agencies to provide a broad spectrum of services in support of security, logistics, disaster relief, and other missions, the governor’s office said.
Families of At-Risk Children Struggle to Balance Safety and Education
Boston Globe – Every day in September, Bethany Van Delft agonized about her daughter’s education. The 9-year-old, known as Lulu, longed to return to the Henderson Inclusion School in Dorchester, her second home since she was 3, where caring teachers help her keep up with her class. But her history of severe respiratory illness — a common problem for people with Down syndrome — makes in-person school too risky, said her mother, until the little girl can be vaccinated.
It took weeks for her family to identify a safe way for Lulu to keep learning. She missed a month of fourth grade as they struggled to find and access the state’s home-based learning option for medically at-risk children, the only path available to keep her safe at home, yet still connected to her school, under the state’s strict ban on remote education this fall. As of Friday, she still had not begun receiving instruction.
Meanwhile, in Mattapan, another Boston mom is agonizing, too. Zoraida Ramon was frightened to send her son Axel back into his high school, Boston International Newcomers Academy, because of health risks stemming from his history of childhood brain cancer. But Ramon, who emigrated from the Dominican Republic three years ago in search of better medical care for her son, does not speak English. She never heard about any remote option. And so, she sent her son to school.
New Harvard Business School Dean Talks about Inspiring the Next Generation of Executives
Boston Globe – Talk to Srikant Datar for long, and you’re bound to hear about his “three aspirations” for Harvard Business School.
It may sound like a modest catchphrase. Datar, who is starting his first full school year as the HBS dean, can come across that way. It’s anything but that. Instead, the phrase reflects Datar’s ambitious vision for the school and the new roles it can play in the modern connected world beyond what HBS is best known for — that is, educating the next generation of executives and entrepreneurs.
He oversees a school with nearly 2,000 staffers, about 250 faculty members, and 1,700 MBA students. The incoming class of more than 1,000 students is larger than normal, because many deferred entrance from 2020, when classes were virtual because of the pandemic.
Datar took on the deanship like the lifelong academic he is, by embarking on extensive research to help inform his priorities. (He took over for predecessor Nitin Nohria midway through the last school year.) This included meeting with more than 1,000 students, faculty, staffers and alums to gauge their opinions. He put the results of these discussions into a computer, and used artificial intelligence to pinpoint the most commonly shared visions and goals.
The end result? Those three aspirations that Datar keeps mentioning. Business has a role to play as a force of good in society. Research needs to go beyond the ivy-covered walls of academia, and be put into action in the real world. And the business school can’t rest on its past successes, but needs to keep pace with broader societal changes, including more emphasis on diversity and lifelong learning options beyond the two-year master’s program.
With that in mind, it’s no surprise that HBS was the first school to sign up as an academic partner over the summer with the OneTen initiative, a coalition launched by big-name CEOs dedicated to seeing one million Black individuals get hired or promoted over the next 10 years into good-paying careers. So far, Datar said, about 60 Fortune 500 companies have joined the effort, led by the likes of Merck executive chairman Ken Frazier and former American Express CEO Ken Chenault.
One Reason for Supply Shortages: No One to Drive the Trucks
Boston Globe – Local coffee shop constantly out of your favorite ingredient lately? Can’t find what you’re looking for at the store? Packages arriving late?
The problem might be as simple as having too few people to drive the stuff around.
A shortfall of truck drivers is one factor clogging every facet of the supply chain right now, and Massachusetts is feeling the impact. It’s not a new problem, industry experts say, but like so much else, the global pandemic has made it worse.
It’s even affecting America’s oldest county fair.
This year, the Trucking Association of Massachusetts had hoped to participate in a Touch-a-Truck event Friday at the Topsfield Fair, parking
a truck there for kids to climb on and play around. But executive director Kevin Weeks said his group had to back out. They couldn’t spare a driver.
One reason, Weeks said: The need for trucking just “exploded” during the pandemic, with all the online shopping from consumers working from home.
President Biden’s Proposal to Empower IRS Rattles Banks and Their Customers
Boston Globe – When the Biden administration looked for ways to pay for the president’s expansive social policy bill, it proposed raising revenue by cracking down on $7 trillion in unpaid taxes, mostly from wealthy Americans and businesses.
To help find those funds, the administration wants banks to give the Internal Revenue Service new details on their customers and provide data for accounts with total annual deposits or withdrawals worth more than $600. That has sparked an uproar among banks and Republican lawmakers, who say giving the IRS such power would be an enormous breach of privacy and government overreach.
Banks and their trade groups are running advertising and letter-writing campaigns to raise awareness — and concern — about the proposal. As a result, banks from Denver to Philadelphia say they are being deluged with calls, emails and in-person complaints from both savers and small-business owners worried about the proposal. JPMorgan Chase & Co. has issued talking points to bank tellers on what to tell angry customers who call or come into a branch to complain.
“We have heard a lot from our customers about their concerns about their privacy,” said Jill Castilla, the chief executive of the one-branch Citizens Bank of Edmond, just outside Oklahoma City. “I’ve gotten calls, emails, and then we’ve had many customers come in.”
Banks already submit tax forms to the IRS about the interest that customer accounts accrue. But the new proposal would require they share information about account balances so that the IRS can see if there are large discrepancies between the income people and businesses report and what they have in the bank. The IRS could audit or investigate the gaps to see if those taxpayers are evading their obligations.
Business Groups Push Lawmakers to Act on Unemployment Debt
Boston Herald – Industry groups accused Beacon Hill lawmakers of “not grasping” the scope of the unemployment hit on business owners, noting that at least 30 states have already moved to relieve the debt racked up amid the pandemic.
“The state is looking to businesses to lead the recovery from the pandemic and they can’t do that if they’re being weighed down by high taxes,” Christopher Carlozzi, state director for NFIB, said. “They don’t fully grasp just how much of a crisis this is at this point. This is a dire situation.”
Massachusetts is on the hook to repay a $7 billion loan after the historic number of unemployment benefits claims paid out during the pandemic pushed its trust fund into insolvency.
For now, the burden has been placed on the backs of business owners who will be paying higher unemployment rates for the next 20 years as the bond is paid down.
States paid out roughly $175 billion in unemployment benefits collectively throughout the pandemic, with the federal government providing an additional $660 billion in assistance.
At least 30 states so far have committed portions of federal relief dollars to relieve pressure on businesses still struggling to bounce back after government-mandated shutdowns and restrictions. The federal government in May gave states the green light to use the $195.3 billion on local relief from President Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act to cover unemployment costs.
House, Senate Approve Bill to Raise Debt Ceiling through December
Boston Globe – Congress passed legislation to raise the debt ceiling through early December, after a small cluster of Republicans temporarily put aside their objections and allowed action to stave off the threat of a first federal default.
The action came the day after Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, partly backed down from his blockade on raising the debt limit, offering a temporary reprieve as political pressure mounted to avoid being blamed for a fiscal calamity.
But the fragile deal to move ahead was in doubt until the very end, with some Republicans reluctant to drop their objections. McConnell and his top deputies labored into the evening Thursday to persuade enough members to clear the way for a vote. Ultimately, 11 Republicans joined every Democrat in voting to take up the bill, clearing the 60-vote threshold needed to break the GOP filibuster.
The final vote was 50-48, with Democrats unanimously in support and Republicans united in opposition.
Health-Care Lobbyists Admit Their Big Scam
Daily Poster – The corporate health-care industry typically presents a united front in defense of for-profit medicine — but in a new letter to regulators, the hospital industry has detailed some of the most abusive techniques being used by insurers to fleece Americans.
The insidious details were spelled out by the Federation of American Hospitals (FAH) in a letter responding to a federal rule aiming to limit surprise billing. Though FAH’s comments defend the group’s own for-profit interests, the filing from FAH president and CEO Chip Kahn — himself a former insurance lobbyist — offers a detailed look at the ways insurance companies mistreat patients to boost their own bottom line.
Health insurance companies, noted Kahn, “have deployed a range of unfair payment practices and abuses to inappropriately deny coverage of emergency services” and employ “many other unfair and abusive plan practices that result in surprise bills for patients and/or burden providers and facilities with underpayments and disputes.”
Kahn’s comments are particularly striking, considering he has bragged about helping create a major health care industry dark money group working to convince Americans that the corporate insurance system is great, and that popular programs like Medicare should not be expanded.
716 Psychiatric Patients Stuck in Emergency Rooms, Report Says
WBUR – The first of what will be weekly reports from hospitals across Massachusetts shows 716 patients who need acute psychiatric care and can’t get it. That’s 174 children and 542 adults who showed up at an emergency room in distress and are still there because the treatment programs they need are full.
“Behavioral health has become the epidemic within the pandemic,” says Leigh Youmans, who leads work on this issue at the Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association (MHA). “We have seen significant amounts of behavioral health need increasing across all acute care hospitals in the state.”
The problem is worse in some regions and at some hospitals. At a peak during the past month, 49% of emergency room beds in Southeastern Massachusetts were filled with patients on a waiting list for psych care, compared to 24% in western Mass. The MHA says one hospital reported 87% of emergency department beds in use for what’s known as psych boarding in the past month.
Holding patients who need mental health care limits space for those who come in with chest pain, early signs of stroke, wounds and other common emergencies.
Baker Appoints Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Board of Directors
Governor Charlie Baker today appointed the seven-member Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Board of Directors and designated Betsy Taylor as chair. In July, Governor Baker signed legislation that established a new, permanent board of directors for the MBTA.
“I am pleased to appoint this distinguished group that together will bring years of leadership and knowledge to serve on the MBTA Board of Directors,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “The expertise and diversity of perspectives that make up this Board will allow the MBTA to continue to focus on providing safe and reliable service to riders as it invests record levels of funding across the system, and I am thankful for the Board’s willingness to serve.”
“The guidance and insight of this Board will be valuable and significant as the MBTA continues to build a resilient and robust system working with multiple communities,” said Lt. Governor Karyn Polito. “We look forward to working with the Board to maintain the MBTA’s progress.”
The Administration previously proposed the Board in its Fiscal Year 2022 budget recommendation and before that, in its Fiscal Year 2021 budget recommendation, to replace the Fiscal and Management Control Board (FMCB) created by the Administration following the winter of 2015.
“The MBTA has become a safer, more reliable and equitable service provider that riders can depend on thanks in large part to the dedicated, strategic and transparent leadership provided over the last few years to address a system that had been overlooked and neglected,” said Transportation Secretary & MassDOT CEO Jamey Tesler.
“As the MBTA turns this corner, and we collectively emerge from the pandemic, the General Manager and his team are well positioned to continue to address ridership and revenue challenges, while successfully building on the record capital investments and customer-focused initiatives that have improved on-time performance, safety and reliability. I look forward to working with the Directors to serve as a strategic resource and see that the MBTA’s progress continues.”
“The MBTA looks forward to working with and receiving direction from the new Board as we continue to invest in the system and build back better, more equitable service for our current and future riders,” said MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak.
“We’re committed to working with the new Board to continue to invest billions of dollars, not only this year, but in the coming years, to modernize MBTA infrastructure and to continue to make dependable improvements for our riders in order to provide the safest, fastest service possible.”
By statute, the MBTA Board of Directors will consist of seven members. The Secretary of Transportation will serve as an ex-officio member. The MBTA Advisory Board appoints one member who has municipal government experience in the MBTA’s service area and experience in transportation operations, transportation planning, housing policy, urban planning or public or private finance. The Governor appoints the remaining five members, including a rider and resident of an environmental justice population, and a person recommended by the President of the AFL-CIO.
About the MBTA Board of Directors:
Betsy Taylor (Chair) has served as the Treasurer and Chair of the Finance & Audit Committee for the MassDOT Board since 2015. During this time, she inspired the creation and hiring of a department-wide Chief Compliance Officer and is a Co-chair of the Allston I-90 Financing Team. Previously, Taylor worked at the Massachusetts Port Authority from 1978 to 2015 in a variety of financial roles and continues to serve as an elected board member of the Massport Employee Retirement system. While at Massport, she established the Authority’s first Treasury Department in 2001, and secured and maintained its Aa3, AA-, and AA credit ratings. Taylor also worked for the University of Massachusetts, Boston as the Assistant Director of the Office of the Budget. A longtime resident of Massachusetts, Taylor received her Bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and her MBA from Stanford University.
Robert Butler serves as the President of the Northeast Regional Council of the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers (SMART), a post he has held since May of this year, as well as serving as the Vice President of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO. Previously, Butler served as the Business Manager of Sheet Metal Workers Local 17, where he was responsible for managing over 5,000 Union members and oversaw millions of dollars in investments and Union funds. Butler spent almost 20 years as a Journeyman in Local 17, giving him a strong understanding of the needs of trade employees that he uses to advocate for worker’s rights.
Thomas “Scott” Darling is an independent consultant where he provides advice and expertise to organizations to help them improve their safety, security, environmental, and change management performance. Previously, Darling served as the Chief of Safety, Security, & Control Center Operations for the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), where he directed the function and Activities of the CTA’s Safety Department. He also served as for three years as the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administrator at the United States Department of Transportation after being confirmed by the Senate. Darling had previously served at the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration as the Acting Administrator and as its Chief Counsel. Darling also worked at the MBTA from 2008 to 2012 as a Deputy Chief of Staff and Assistant General Counsel, as well as working for the Conservation Law Foundation from 1999 to 2005 in various capacities. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Worcester’s Clark University and later went on to receive his Master’s degree from Tufts University and his Juris Doctorate from Suffolk University Law School.
Travis McCready is the Executive Director, US Life Sciences Market for JLL. Before this, McCready most recently served as President and CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center, and before that, the Vice President of Programs for The Boston Foundation (TBF). In this role he focused the TBF’s grant awards on education, health, economic development, the arts and local neighborhoods. McCready previously served as TBF’s Chief of Staff and Corporate Secretary from 2001 to 2003. From 2010 to 2013 McCready was the Executive Director of the Kendall Square Association, where he increased membership and represented the organization as a member of Governor Patrick’s Economic Development Advisory Committee. McCready also has experience working at the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority in a variety of leadership roles and as Director of Community Affairs for Harvard University. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Yale University and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Iowa College of Law.
Mary Beth Mello is the principal at Mello Transportation Consulting, where she helps consult with the MassDOT Rail and Transit Division on matters related to the Commonwealth’s Regional Transit Authorities. Previously, Mello worked at the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) from 1993 to 2010, first as a Deputy Regional Administrator and then later as the New England Regional Administrator. While there, Mello oversaw federal funding for a variety of local initiatives, including the MBTA’s Green Line Extension project and Connecticut’s Walk Bridge Railroad Bridge Replacement project. She received several awards while working at the FTA, including the USDOT Secretary’s Gold Medal and Silver Medal. Mello is a graduate of Smith College, where she received her Bachelor’s degree, and Boston University, where she received her Master’s degree.
The MBTA Advisory Board has appointed Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch as its designee.
Which Climate Threats are Most Worrisome? US Agencies Made a List.
Boston Globe – Less food. More traffic accidents. Extreme weather hitting nuclear waste sites. Migrants rushing toward the United States, fleeing even worse calamity in their own countries.
Those scenarios, once the stuff of dystopian fiction, are now driving US policymaking. Under orders from President Biden, top officials at every government agency have spent months considering the top climate threats their agencies face and how to cope with them.
On Thursday, the White House offered a first look at the results, releasing the climate adaptation plans of 23 agencies, including the departments of Energy, Defense, Agriculture, Homeland Security, Transportation, and Commerce. The plans reveal the dangers posed by a warming planet to every aspect of American life and the difficulty of coping with those threats.
Major Climate Action at Stake in Fight over Twin Bills Pending in Congress
Boston Globe – President Biden has framed this moment as the country’s best chance to save the planet.
“The nation and the world are in peril,” he said weeks ago in the New York City borough of Queens, where 11 people drowned in their basement apartments after flood waters from Hurricane Ida devastated communities from Louisiana to New York.
“And that’s not hyperbole. That is a fact. They’ve been warning us the extreme weather would get more extreme over the decade, and we’re living in it real time now.”
Biden’s plan to try to fortify the United States against extreme weather — and cut the carbon dioxide emissions that are heating the Earth and fueling disasters — is embedded in two pieces of legislation pending on Capitol Hill. The future of both bills remains in question, with tension between moderate and progressive Democrats over the size and scope of many details.
Together, they contain what would be the most significant climate action ever taken by the United States. Because Democrats could lose control of Congress after 2022 and Republicans have shown little interest in climate legislation, it could be years before another opportunity arises, a delay that scientists say the planet cannot afford.
The climate provisions are designed to quickly transform energy and transportation, the country’s two largest sources of greenhouse gases, from systems that now mostly burn gas, oil, and coal to sectors that run increasingly on clean energy from the sun, wind, and nuclear power.
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Massachusetts Lowers Employer Costs for Paid Family, Medical Leave
Boston Business Journal – The Baker administration announced Friday that employer costs for the state’s paid-leave program will go down next year, even though workers will be eligible to receive more in benefits thanks to rising wages statewide.
For every $100 in eligible employee wages, the state will be owed 68 cents for the paid family and medical leave program in 2022. That’s down from 75 cents this year. The rate applies to businesses that have not opted out of the state-run program for one of the alternative plans offered by insurance companies.
Many employers will be responsible for a little less than half of what the state pays, 33.6 cents for every $100 in eligible wages. Businesses with fewer than 25 covered workers, however, do not have to pay into the paid-leave fund themselves. Employees are on the hook for the remaining amount, though businesses have the option of covering part or all of that portion, too.
Business groups had expressed concern that the paid-leave costs could increase next year because 2021 is the first year the claims have been paid out since the program was enshrined in law in 2018. There has been little publicly available information about the level of claim activity.
Biden Signs Bill to Avert Partial Government Shutdown
Boston Globe – With only hours to spare, President Joe Biden on Thursday evening signed legislation to avoid a partial federal shutdown and keep the government funded through Dec. 3. Congress had passed the bill earlier Thursday.
The back-to-back votes by the Senate and then the House averted one crisis, but delays on another continue as the political parties dig in on a dispute over how to raise the government’s borrowing cap before the United States risks a potentially catastrophic default.
The House approved the short-term funding measure by a 254-175 vote not long after Senate passage in a 65-35 vote. A large majority of Republicans in both chambers voted against it. The legislation was needed to keep the government running once the current budget year ended at midnight Thursday.
Passage will buy lawmakers more time to craft the spending measures that will fund federal agencies and the programs they administer.
“There’s so much more to do,” Biden said in a statement after the signing. “But the passage of this bill reminds us that bipartisan work is possible and it gives us time to pass longer-term funding to keep our government running and delivering for the American people.”
Legislative Prepares for Pre-Thanksgiving Issue Feast
Boston Globe – Before Thanksgiving, Massachusetts lawmakers could rearrange their districts for the first time in 10 years, begin tapping billions of dollars of federal stimulus money, and move — again — to reimagine how voters cast their ballots.
That may not be all.
The Legislature is embarking on a crucial six-week stretch of lawmaking, with formal voting in 2021 scheduled to end by mid-November and the chambers’ competing lists of priorities each vying for oxygen in what’s informally considered their fall session.
The Senate opened the door to major legislation last week, teeing up a bill that would make voting-by-mail permanent and institute same-day voter registration for approval on Wednesday. In the coming weeks, lawmakers are expected to release highly anticipated maps redrawing the state’s political boundaries, a decennial effort that lawmakers say they must complete before the holiday break.
And months of weighing how to spend nearly $5 billion in American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA, funding is likely to begin bearing fruit. Legislative leaders say they’re still discussing where to funnel it — a deliberate process that’s frustrated Governor Charlie Baker, who’s called on lawmakers to move much more quickly.
But House Speaker Ronald Mariano suggested lawmakers could appropriate roughly half of it now, with areas such as housing seeing a significant infusion, according to legislative officials.
“It’s an opportunity to get people to make decisions,” Mariano said of the next six weeks. In the same span two years ago, lawmakers completed a generational change to the school-funding formula, banned drivers from using hand-held cellphones, and set the country’s tightest restrictions on the sale of vaping products, among other laws.
Battle Lines Clear in Digital Repair Fight
State House News – The average Massachusetts family could save $330 a year if they could fix electronics rather than replace them, adding up to an estimated $875 million in annual savings for Bay State consumers, supporters of the digital right to repair movement said Monday.
The savings would flow if people got their smartphone, laptop, tablet, gaming console, or other electronic device repaired to extend the lifespan by 50 percent, Janet Domenitz of the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group told lawmakers Monday as she testified in support of legislation (H 341 / S 166) that would require the makers of digital electronics and other products to make diagnostic repair tools and information available to product owners and independent repair shops.
“Manufacturers of everything from phones to appliances to tractors intentionally make things difficult to repair, limiting repair to just their branded providers if they let anyone fix it at all,” Domenitz told the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure.
“Manufacturers aggressively lock out repairs to either force us to go back to them or buy the newest version. The result is surging repair costs and a massive amount of waste.”
MASSPIRG issued a report in July that found each American family disposes of an average of 176 pounds of electronic waste a year — waste that the group says largely could be avoided if access to digital repair information was mandated.
Opponents, who ranged Monday from trade organizations representing video game manufacturers to agricultural equipment dealers, countered that their increasingly complicated technology should only be handled by people trained to properly repair it and that most manufacturers already provide product repair and support.
Merck Says Experimental Pill Cuts Worst Effects of COVID-19
Boston Globe – Merck & Co. said Friday that its experimental COVID-19 pill reduced hospitalizations and deaths by half in people recently infected with the coronavirus and that it would soon ask health officials in the U.S. and around the world to authorize its use.
If cleared, Merck’s drug would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19, a potentially major advance in efforts to fight the pandemic. All COVID-19 therapies now authorized in the U.S. require an IV or injection.
Merck and its partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics said early results showed patients who received the drug, called molnupiravir, within five days of COVID-19 symptoms had about half the rate of hospitalization and death as patients who received a dummy pill. The study tracked 775 adults with mild-to-moderate COVID-19 who were considered higher risk for severe disease due to health problems such as obesity, diabetes or heart disease.
Among patients taking molnupiravir, 7.3% were either hospitalized or died at the end of 30 days, compared with 14.1% of those getting the dummy pill. There were no deaths in the drug group after that time period compared with eight deaths in the placebo group, according to Merck. The results were released by the company and have not been peer reviewed. Merck said it plans to present them at a future medical meeting.
An independent group of medical experts monitoring the trial recommended stopping it early because the interim results were so strong. Company executives said they are in discussions with the Food and Drug Administration and plan submit the data for review in coming days.
“It exceeded what I thought the drug might be able to do in this clinical trial,” said Dr. Dean Li, vice president of Merck research. “When you see a 50% reduction in hospitalization or death that’s a substantial clinical impact.”
Few Giving up Their Jobs over Vaccine Mandates
Commonwealth Magazine – Vaccine mandates are sweeping across the country, both in the public and private sectors. They have produced a great deal of anxiety in public conversation, and polls in recent months suggested mandates would lead to mass firings and resignations among unvaccinated employees.
But that doesn’t seem to have happened so far, and the divide over vaccine mandates may be much smaller than it appears.
When push comes to shove, people have almost all gotten their shots rather than lose their jobs according to available media accounts. Our analysis of news articles about companies who have lost employees shows the numbers who have lost their job appears to be less than 1 percent of the company’s workforce on average. (Spreadsheet available here.)
In conducting this search, we found news accounts of 17 large organizations where resignations or terminations occurred. All but 3 of the organizations experienced under 1 percent turnover due to the requirements, with median turnover at 0.6 percent.
Here in Massachusetts, the State Police union grabbed national headlines claiming “dozens” of officers have submitted resignation paperwork. It’s hard to say what “dozens” refers to, or what the precise number is they are claiming. The Boston Globe later reported that a police spokesperson clarified that just one trooper has said he will retire out of a total force of 2,200.
Many news headlines and tweets cite the raw numbers of people who quit with no larger context. A headline from NBC blared, “Nearly 600 United Airlines employees face termination for defying vaccine mandate.”
These days, that’s all the fodder needed to launch an online culture war. But the article itself noted the airline employs 67,000 people, meaning just 0.9 percent will actually lose their jobs. That number was later reduced even further, to just 320.
This misleading pattern repeats itself over and over again. Politics is very often the search for the right denominator, and news organizations are failing to highlight the actual level of job losses.
t must be noted there is not a great deal of available data yet and most of what there is focuses on health care systems, where vaccination deadlines have come earlier than for other businesses. But what data there is shows remarkable consistency, and gives no support to the predictions of mass resignations.
MassDOT to Unvaccinated Workers: Get J&J Vaccine Before Deadline or Risk Firing
CBS Local – MassDOT is warning its employees that they have to act fast to meet Gov. Charlie Baker’s COVID vaccine mandate deadline that takes effect Oct. 17. The transportation agency says it’s already too late for unvaccinated workers to start the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna vaccine process, and they are urged to find a Johnson & Johnson shot.
“If you have not yet been vaccinated, the deadline to receive the first dose of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, has passed,” MassDOT said in an email to employees.
“The J&J/Janssen vaccine is currently the best (and only) option to be in compliance by the October 17 deadline, if you have not already received a first dose of the Modern or Pfizer vaccine.”
Workers will be suspended for five days without pay if they are not fully vaccinated by the deadline. If they are still not vaccinated after that, a 10-day suspension without pay will follow.
“Failure to meet this requirement after the 10-day suspension will result in the termination of employment,” MassDOT said.
Employees have until Oct. 8 to seek a religious or medical exemption.
Baker issued the vaccine mandate in August for 44,000 executive department employees.
“The stark reality of employment with MassDOT after October 17 is that every employee must be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus or receive an approved exemption,” the agency said. “We hope that each of you will make a well-informed choice and we hope that you will choose to stay with MassDOT.”
Sports Betting Goes Live in Another Border State
State House News – In-person sports betting began Thursday in Connecticut.
As the Massachusetts Senate mulls over the legalization of sports betting again this session, the activity has now been approved in every state bordering Massachusetts besides Vermont. The House approved a sports betting bill this summer but the Senate, where the bill has not drawn outright opposition, has consistently shown less interest in the idea and has the House bill under the review of its Ways and Means Committee.
Connecticut’s rollout begins Thursday with in-person betting at temporary sportsbooks at Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods Resort Casino, both in the eastern part of the state and relatively accessible from Massachusetts by I-395 and I-95. Mohegan Sun said adults 21+ can begin placing bets after a 9:30 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony. Mobile and online wagering for the Nutmeg State remains a week away, according to The Day newspaper.
J&J Recipients Feel Left Out in Rollout of Booster Shots
Boston Globe – When Elisa Heath became eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in March, she didn’t care which one she got. She just wanted to get vaccinated.
So, when the Johnson & Johnson vaccine became available at a clinic near her house in Pawtucket, R.I., the 60-year-old fund-raiser quickly got in line with her husband. She liked that it was a “one and done” shot, unlike the two-shot vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. She even had her daughter and nephew rush over after the clinic offered extra doses to anyone 18 and older.
These days, however, Heath is feeling neglected. Millions of older and at-risk recipients of Pfizer’s vaccine in the United States have started getting booster shots since federal regulators cleared them last week amid concerns about waning immunity. Moderna has also applied for authorization of its booster.
But while J&J recently announced that a second shot substantially increased protection in a clinical trial, the company hasn’t discussed a potential timeline for a rollout, to the frustration of some of the nearly 15 million US recipients of the vaccine.
“I feel really left out and forgotten,” said Heath, principal gifts officer for Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Boston. “In the general press, there’s been very little if anything written about the J&J recipients.”
Group Adds Suits Statewide against School Masks, Claiming Involvement by Parents in Cambridge
Cambridge Day – A Norfolk Superior Court judge has postponed a hearing in the anti-mask lawsuit filed against the state education department, Cambridge, the Cambridge schools and six other local school systems after the state sought to consolidate a growing number of similar suits.
There are now six suits in five counties seeking to invalidate mask mandates for schoolchildren. Five were filed by the same New Hampshire lawyer who brought the case against Cambridge, Robert Fojo, on Sept. 21 and Sept. 22.
The sixth lawsuit was filed in Hampden County Superior Court on Sept. 20. The state wants to combine all the litigation there, citing a legal rule that the earliest case should be selected for consolidations. All the suits make similar claims that the state and school districts overstepped their authority, masks don’t reduce Covid-19 transmission among public school students, children face low risk from Covid-19, wearing masks harms children and mandates interfere with parental rights to protect the health of their children.
A hearing had been scheduled for Wednesday in Norfolk Superior Court, where the Cambridge cases were filed, to consider a motion by the anti-mask activists for a preliminary injunction banning the mandates. It’s on hold while Hampden Superior Court Judge Mark Mason considers the state’s motion to consolidate the cases. A hearing on the motion is set for Oct. 5.
The lawsuit against Cambridge and its school district, plus two other suits, were brought by a nonprofit organization formed only last month, Children’s Health Rights of Massachusetts. Fojo, the attorney for Children’s Health Rights and plaintiffs in two other anti-mask cases, peppered courts in New Hampshire with lawsuits challenging mask mandates, a similar strategy to the one he is following in Massachusetts.
One judge criticized him for suing in multiple counties, asking why he had not filed one case in the state’s top court. In a phone interview, Fojo said cases couldn’t go before the higher court unless they were first filed in a lower court and he said the judge’s comment had been “misinterpreted.”
From COVID Tests to Angry Parents, School Nurses Say It’s Hard to Keep Up
WBUR – It’s tough to be a school nurse right now.
Concerns about COVID dominate their days. This year, all students are back in the classroom, so there’s almost no physical distancing. That’s even though the highly contagious delta variant continues to spread.
Cathryn Hampson is the supervisor of health services for the North Middlesex Regional School District, which includes the towns of Townsend, Pepperell and Ashby and has about 3,000 students. Hampson is also the school nurse at a pre-school in Townsend.
Linda Cahill is the nursing supervisor for Brockton Public Schools, which has about 15,000 students in 23 schools.
Cahill and Hampson say they’re seeing more students test positive for COVID than they did last school year. That’s the case in many districts. The state says there’s also more testing going on than last school year.
Delays Hinder State’s Pooled Testing Program for Schools
Commonwealth Magazine – When the Amherst-Pelham regional school district instituted a COVID-19 vaccine mandate, the school committee gave staff an alternative: they could get tested regularly instead.
But the district was counting on using the state’s pooled testing program – which so far, has not materialized in Amherst.
Amherst-Pelham Superintendent Michael Morris said he developed a partnership with the University of Massachusetts to test unvaccinated staff members, but he had to scramble to get the program set up. And that testing program does not help students and vaccinated staff, who simply want the added layer of protection that weekly surveillance testing provides.
Although school started August 30, the pooled testing program promised by the state, which the Amherst district signed up for August 16, is still not up and running. “It’s a cause of a lot of stress and consternation for folks who want to participate in our community,” Morris said.
When Gov. Charlie Baker and state education officials announced that all schools had to return in person this year, one factor intended to make that easier and safer was the availability of pooled testing. The state-run program offers all school districts that request it access to weekly COVID-19 testing for students and staff.
In pooled testing, several samples are tested at one time, which makes the tests cheaper to administer. The goal is to detect cases quickly so infected people can be isolated before the virus spreads.
As Vaccination Deadlines Loom, Hospitals Brace to Lose Hundreds of Workers
Boston Business Journal – Massachusetts hospitals are bracing to lose hundreds of employees as deadlines for employees to get a Covid vaccine mandates approach.
While vaccination rates at Massachusetts hospitals are high, thousands of workers have yet to meet the criteria ahead of deadlines, which range from Oct. 1 at some hospitals to Nov. 1 at others. Those who haven’t confirmed they are vaccinated could face termination.
Roughly 5,000 workers at Mass General Brigham have not submitted proof of vaccination ahead of what was set to be an Oct. 15 deadline, according to Rose Sheehan, chief human resources officer for Mass General Brigham. Those workers account for just 7% of the health system’s 80,000 workforce.
However, the organization on Wednesday gave workers an extra month, requiring only a first vaccine dose and proof of an appointment for a second by Oct. 15. The deadline for full vaccination is Nov. 12.
The non-vaccinated employees are sprinkled throughout the system and throughout departments, with the largest numbers located at the health system’s largest entity — Massachusetts General Hospital, Sheehan said.
Nurses Say Short Staffing, Pandemic Pressures Leading to Burnout
Gazette Net – When Cooley Dickinson Hospital nurse Monica Stillings first started as a floor nurse 16 years ago, staffing levels felt rational and appropriate.
But for more than a decade later, Stillings said she has seen Cooley Dickinson, which is part of the Mass General Brigham system, and other hospitals increasingly rely on a staffing model that leaves nurses overworked and unable to provide the kind of care patients deserve. And that was before the COVID-19 pandemic flooded health care facilities nationwide.
“We’ve been working on skeleton crews since the first economic crash back in 2008 and 2009,” Stillings said.
She said nurses have suffered mental trauma and physical injuries, including from an increase in violent patients. It has gotten so bad that Stillings said she’ll be leaving the nursing profession.
“I will never be a nurse ever again. Just emotionally, trauma-wise, I just can’t handle it,” she said.
Stillings was one of five Cooley Dickinson nurses who spoke to the Gazette about their frustrations with Cooley Dickinson and Massachusetts General Hospital amid the continued staffing crunch made worse by the pandemic. They said that amid the COVID crisis, the hospital hasn’t done enough to retain burned-out staff, such as offering pay retention bonuses or implementing staffing ratios, and that management is not supportive of nurses, who feel fearful of retaliation for speaking out.
Across the state and country, hospitals are straining under labor shortages and beds filled to capacity due to the coronavirus, medical care that patients deferred for all of last year and other causes.
The five Cooley Dickinson nurses who spoke to the Gazette stressed that staff-to-patient ratios have long been a concern for nurses, and that the further strain of the pandemic has caused patient care to suffer and burnout to sweep staff ranks.
RI Judge Strikes Down Challenge to State Vaccination Mandate on Religious Grounds
Providence Journal – A federal judge on Thursday rejected health-care workers’ request for an order blocking the state COVID vaccination mandate from taking effect Friday because it doesn’t explicitly include an exemption for employees based on religious concerns.
“The Court finds that the plaintiffs have not demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits of these claims,” U.S. District Court Judge Mary S. McElroy wrote Thursday in denying the health-care workers’ request for a temporary restraining order that would bar state health officials from enforcing the mandate, which could lead to the revocation or suspension of medical licenses for unvaccinated health-care professionals.
“As to the constitutional claims, courts have held for over a century that mandatory vaccination laws are a valid exercise of a state’s police powers, and such laws have withstood constitutional challenges,” McElroy continued, referring to a 1905 U.S. Supreme Court case that upheld states’ authority to enforce compulsory vaccines.
Report: Blacks, Latinos Hit Hard by Evictions
Baystate Banner – A report released Tuesday by the housing activist group City Life/Vida Urbana (CLVU) found that evictions in Boston during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic had an undue impact in communities of color.
Helen Matthews, communications director for CLVU, said at a virtual press conference Tuesday that evictions are a major challenge in Boston, especially considering the pandemic.
“Evictions are violent, devastating and dangerous in our communities, but nonetheless, well over 3,000 evictions have been filed in Boston during the pandemic and over 20,000 evictions have been filed in Massachusetts during the pandemic,” Matthews said.
The report, which was led by recent MIT graduate Ben Walker, found that about 70% of Boston evictions that occurred during the first year of the pandemic occurred in communities where Black and Brown residents constitute the majority of renters, despite those same communities containing 43% of the city’s rental housing.
The CLVU report also found that Black communities were hit especially hard compared to Boston’s white neighborhoods, with 51% of eviction filings in the city occurring in census tracts where the number of Black residents is in the top quarter of all tracts in Boston; these areas contain 27% of Boston’s rental housing.
Advocates for Entrepreneurs of Color Press Legislature for $1 billion in Stimulus Funds
Boston Globe – A coalition representing entrepreneurs of color is pushing the Massachusetts Legislature for $1 billion in federal stimulus funds to help small business owners bounce back from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Coalition for an Equitable Economy has sent a letter to the committees overseeing stimulus deliberations on Beacon Hill, asking for a $1.1 billion investment in small businesses across the state.
Nearly all of that money, $964 million, would come from the $5 billion pot of American Rescue Plan Act funds overseen by the Legislature. An additional $136 million would come from a separate small-business credit program, likely also funded by federal stimulus dollars.
“This is one of the only times in our lifetime that we will have this huge infusion of financial resources to create a new world,” said Segun Idowu, president of the Black Economic Council of Massachusetts and a member of the coalition.
“We’re telling everybody that if you want the business owners in your district to still be business owners next year, you have to put out money right now.”
The coalition’s proposal represents just the latest in a long line of requests for the $5 billion in federal money, a tally that far exceeds what’s available.
Vote Delayed, Democrats Struggle to Save Biden’s $3.5 Trillion Bill
Boston Globe – Despite a long night of frantic negotiations, Democrats were unable to reach an immediate deal to salvage President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion government overhaul, forcing leaders to call off promised votes on a related public works bill.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi had pushed the House into an evening session and top White House advisers huddled for talks at the Capitol as the Democratic leaders worked late Thursday to negotiate a scaled-back plan that centrist holdouts would accept. Biden had cleared his schedule for calls with lawmakers but it appeared no deal was within reach, particularly with Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin.
Manchin refused to budge, the West Virginia centrist holding fast to his earlier declaration that he was willing to meet the president less than halfway — $1.5 trillion.
“I don’t see a deal tonight. I really don’t,” Manchin told reporters as he left the Capitol.
Massachusetts Schools Report 2,054 Students, 345 Staffers with COVID in Past Week
MassLive – The state for the first time on Thursday released data on the results of COVID testing in schools. Overall, there’s a positivity rate of 0.91% for pooled testing so far this school year.
“The pooled testing data in this report show low positivity rates, less than 1 percent, and instances of in-school transmission are rare,” DESE wrote in its report.
This week’s report shows similar case counts compared to last week’s report. From Sept. 16 to 22, there were 2,236 students and 318 staff members positive with COVID.
Of the cases detailed in Thursday’s report, public school districts reported the largest numbers, with 2,035 student infections and 324 infections reported among staff. Education collaboratives reported 9 student cases and 14 staff cases. Approved special education schools reported 10 student cases and 7 staff cases.
Springfield had the largest number of student cases with 74. From Sept. 20 to 26, the district administered 112 pooled tests, with one positive result in that time frame, according to DESE data.
Human Services Agencies Face Staffing Crisis, Delaying Services for Those in Need
Boston Globe – Joanna Bunker has had an up-close view of the strain the pandemic is putting on people’s mental health. The clinical social worker saw clients over Zoom who were isolated and felt hopeless, many without support systems or the ability to get around on their own.
“It’s just a lot of suffering to witness and to have to hold together,” said Bunker, who specializes in eating disorders and trauma. “I felt like I was starting to drown.”
Bunker, 35, worked for a nonprofit in Marlborough serving mainly lower-income, high-risk people, as she’d done her entire career. But the difficulties of helping them through the pandemic, coupled with the growing pressure of living paycheck to paycheck, drove her to accept an offer in April to join a private practice, where she makes three times as much as she did before.
A steady stream of workers have left community-based human services jobs like Bunker’s during the pandemic, and many jobs are going unfilled, leading to a staffing shortage that has reached emergency levels, providers say. Some programs are facing vacancy rates as high as 60 percent.
At the same time, the need has increased, particularly in behavioral health, and the wait for services — ranging from addiction treatment to day programs for people with developmental disabilities, to youth and elderly support — is growing.
Nearly every sector in the state is experiencing labor shortages. But in these mainly nonprofit human services jobs, the effects are far-reaching. Workers dealing with COVID-induced stress are pulling double shifts to make up for staffing shortages. And with so many jobs oing unfilled, vulnerable populations aren’t always able to get the vital services they need.
Diverse Public Boards are Better Public Boards
Boston Globe – Women may “hold up half the sky,” as the old Chinese proverb goes, but here in Massachusetts, when it comes to sitting on the state’s most important public boards and commissions in numbers equal to men, they are conspicuously absent.
For politicians here who like to lecture corporate boards about their lack of diversity — and they wouldn’t be wrong about that — doing the right thing in the public sector can and should be much easier. And the government ought to set an example for the private sector, demonstrating that gender and racial equity makes for good governance.
Pending legislation is aimed at forcing Massachusetts public officials to do just that — to bring gender and racial equity to state boards and to at long last report publicly on the demographic makeup of those boards. It would be an essential first step in ensuring fairness in the hiring, policy, and decision-making of those boards.
“Massachusetts leads the nation in human talent, and our pipelines are replete with women and people of color ready to serve,” said a 2019 “Women’s Power Gap” study issued by the Eos Foundation.
“Yet this data shows we have a long way to go to reach gender parity and proportionate representation of people of color on our state boards and commissions, particularly among powerful leadership positions.”
Polito Pledges to Assist Smith & Wesson Workers
WWLP – Top state leaders are reacting to Thursday’s announcement about Smith and Wesson’s headquarters moving out of state.
Lt. Governor Karyn Polito said the Baker administration never wants to see jobs lost in the state to other places. The focus will be on the people impacted by this decision.
“Making sure they have access to whatever training program is available and we have plenty of resources to help them to reskill, re-employ, get back on track to gain the income for themselves and their families,” said Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito.
Polito added that the commonwealth will continue its economic recovery in this pandemic.
As Massachusetts Envisions a Fossil Fuel-Free Future, Gas Companies Invest Billions in Pipelines
Boston Globe – More than 21,000 miles of aging gas pipelines lie under the streets in Massachusetts, nearly enough to encircle the earth. When researchers began discovering about a decade ago that tens of thousands of leaks across that vast network discharged tons ofhazardous methane into the air, the Legislature went to work. A law was passed, and in short order, gas companies embarked on a massive, years-long upgrade.
Since then, the gas companies have slogged through a slow, expensive process of digging up pipes and replacing them with new ones meant to last more than half a century. Costs soared. And something else happened: The state passed a climate law that effectively called for the end of natural gas.
Now, a detailed analysis of the cost and effectiveness of the program, to be released Monday, is raising questions among some experts about whether the program should be modified or even scrapped, potentially allowing money to flow to other climate-related needs.
“The question people need to ask is: The world has changed; does this program really make sense any more given climate change, the fact that we’re moving toward a low-carbon economy, and that the Commonwealth has very aggressive climate mandates?” said Dorie Seavey, an economist who conducted the study on behalf of the advocacy group Gas Leaks Allies, a coalition of scientists, activists, and environmental organizations working to reduce methane emissions from natural gas.
Sun Life Signs $2.5 Billion Deal to Acquire DentaQuest
Boston Globe – Canadian insurance giant Sun Life Financial reached a deal on Sunday to buy Boston-based DentaQuest for $2.475 billion and fold the dental insurer into Sun Life’s US operations.
Dan Fishbein, president of Sun Life U.S., said DentaQuest’s owners, the nonprofit CareQuest Institute for Oral Health and private equity firm Centerbridge, decided to sell DentaQuest a few months ago. Sun Life made a play for DentaQuest to grow its dental insurance portfolio, particularly in government-funded programs, such as those subsidized through Medicaid and Medicare Advantage.
Sun Life offers dental insurance through employer-sponsored plans, but not publicly subsidized plans. DentaQuest has more than 33 million members across 36 states and projected 2021 revenue of $2.7 billion.
“We’re excited about becoming one of the top leaders nationally in dental,” Fishbein said. “DentaQuest has a real focus on underserved communities. That’s really what they’re all about. … We really like that they’ve been able to open up access to people who don’t normally have access. We’re excited to be a part of that.”
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Legislature Passes Extension of COVID Emergency Sick Leave
The Massachusetts Legislature passed during informal session yesterday legislation that extends the Massachusetts COVID-19 Emergency Sick Leave Program.
Associated industries of Massachusetts has asked Governor Charlie Baker to veto the legislation.
The extension sent to the governor contains three new provisions:
The original leave program created 40 additional hours of paid leave in Massachusetts. The legislation includes an emergency preamble, which means it will go into effect immediately after the governor signs it, if he decides to do so.
AIM Signs Letter to Protect Tax Reform
AIM joined several manufacturing and business organizations on a letter urging Congress to vote against tax increases to the business community and proposed changes to the 2017 tax reform law. Here is the text of the letter:
Dear Speaker Pelosi, Majority Leader Schumer, Minority Leader McCarthy, and Minority Leader McConnell:
We are leaders in manufacturing, a sector critical to the U.S. economy and America’s ongoing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The industry employs more than 12 million people, contributes more than $2.44 trillion to the U.S. economy annually, pays workers nearly 24% more than the average for all businesses, and has the largest economic impact of any major sector.
As part of the 98% of the industry comprised of small and medium-sized firms that form the backbone of communities around the country, we write to express our grave concerns with the significant and damaging tax increases currently being considered in Congress. Increasing taxes on manufacturers is a surefire way to harm the economy and hamper job creation.
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act included a wide range of important reforms, including a lower corporate tax rate, a reduced tax burden on pass-through income, and a modern international tax system. Together, these changes helped drive historic growth in the manufacturing sector. Following tax reform’s passage in 2017, manufacturers kept their promises to create jobs, increase wages and benefits, and invest in their communities. Consider the following:
The tax increases under consideration would make it harder for manufacturers to continue this growth: higher individual and corporate tax rates would reduce capital that small manufacturers could reinvest in their firms; changes to the international tax system would negatively impact globally-engaged companies by undermining their ability to successfully compete in foreign markets and thus directly harming U.S. job creation and investment; limits on deductions (such as deductions for income earned by pass-through entities and interest on business loans) would make it more difficult to fund new equipment purchases; and proposals to tax the transfer of firms to the next generation of manufacturing leaders—such as repealing stepped-up basis, taxing unrealized capital gains at death, increasing capital gains taxes, and expanding the reach of the estate tax—would harm family-owned businesses.
These changes pose a significant threat to the U.S. economy and millions of manufacturing jobs. A recent study published by the National Association of Manufacturers found that increasing corporate and individual taxes, repealing the pass-through deduction, and making other tax changes would cost the U.S. 1 million jobs in just the first two years after enactment. A separate NAM analysis found that changes to the international tax system would result in 1 million jobs lost. Another study found that repealing stepped-up basis would cost America 80,000 jobs per year over the next decade.
Put simply, rolling back tax reform’s pro-growth provisions would undermine manufacturers and harm job creation. We respectfully encourage you to reverse course and refrain from increasing taxes on the creators and innovators who make things in America.
Kim Janey Endorses Michelle Wu for Boston Mayor
Boston Globe – In an unprecedented moment in Boston politics, Acting Mayor Kim Janey on Saturday endorsed City Councilor Michelle Wu for mayor during a jubilant gathering in Nubian Square, where the first woman and first Black person to lead the city shared the spotlight with a candidate who could become the first woman and first person of color to attain the top job through a win at the polls.
Janey’s support gives Wu, who is Asian American, the blessing of the candidate who had the best preliminary election showing in precincts with the highest concentration of Black voters, according to the MassINC Polling Group.
Wu was the top performer in the Sept. 14 preliminary election, collecting support through all of Boston’s neighborhoods, according to a Globe analysis of election data.
Her rival, City Councilor Annissa Essaibi George, finished second in the preliminary election, performing well in the whiter, more conservative neighborhoods that have long put candidates into office, but trailing in Black communities. While campaigning Saturday, Essaibi George put Janey’s endorsement aside. “I got work to do,” she said.
The general election is Nov. 2.
The announcement in front of the Faces of Dudley mural was festive even before proceedings got underway, as a supporter with a bullhorn urged the crowd to cheer for Janey as she pulled up in a city SUV, arriving at about the same time as Wu, who was on foot.
House Approves Vaccine Mandate for Members, Employees
Commonwealth Magazine – After an unusually testy and personal debate on the House floor, representatives on Thursday approved an order mandating vaccines for all House members, staff, and officers.
The vote was 131-28, almost entirely along party lines. It came over the vehement objection of House Republicans, some of whom opposed the vaccine mandate for reasons of personal responsibility, and others who said the order gave too much power to a House reopening working group. Speeches on the bill lasted nearly two hours.
No Democrats voted against the order, and only a single Republican, Rep. Sheila Harrington of Groton, voted for it.
Rep. William Galvin, a Canton Democrat who chairs the House Rules Committee, said vaccines are the most effective weapon against transmission of COVID-19 in a workplace that includes 160 elected members and 450 staff. “Vaccines are essential to fulfill our responsibility to care for our staff, each other and the public, and represent the quickest path to a full and safe reopening,” Galvin said.
Court Denies State Police Union’s Bid to Delay Vaccination Deadline
Boston Globe – A Suffolk Superior Court judge rejected the Massachusetts State Police union’s motion to delay Governor Charlie Baker’s COVID-19 vaccination requirement, which carries an Oct. 17 deadline, according to court documents.
The union had filed its lawsuit last week and sought to put a hold on the vaccination mandate to allow time for it to bargain and negotiate the terms of employment. The union claimed that troopers would undergo “irreparable harm” if the deadline were not pushed back.
Judge Jackie Cowin, however, ruled that the State Police Association of Massachusetts’ arguments “frame the public interest too narrowly, by focusing on its members to the exclusion of everyone else,” court records show.
“Specifically, the public interest is, unquestionably, best-served by stopping the spread of the virus, in order to protect people from becoming ill, ensure adequate supply of medical services, and curtail the emergence of new, deadlier variants of the virus,” the court’s order read, citing data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that show the virus spreads more easily through unvaccinated individuals.
The order said that “while the Union has a significant interest in effecting its right to bargain the terms and conditions of its members’ employment … the Court concludes that this interest is outweighed by the Commonwealth’s more significant interest in protecting the health and safety of its workforces, those who come into contact with its workforce, and the public in general.”
Walensky Overrules Advisory Panel, Backs Boosters for At-Risk Workers
Boston Globe – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday endorsed booster shots for millions of older or otherwise vulnerable Americans, opening a major new phase in the U.S vaccination drive against COVID-19.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signed off on a series of recommendations from a panel of advisers late Thursday.
The advisers said boosters should be offered to people 65 and older, nursing home residents and those ages 50 to 64 who have risky underlying health problems. The extra dose would be given once they are at least six months past their last Pfizer shot.
However, Walensky decided to make one recommendation that the panel had rejected.
The panel on Thursday voted against saying that people can get a booster if they are ages 18 to 64 years and are health-care workers or have another job that puts them at increased risk of being exposed to the virus.
But Walensky disagreed and put that recommendation back in, noting that such a move aligns with an FDA booster authorization decision earlier this week. The category she included covers people who live in institutional settings that increase their risk of exposure, such as prisons or homeless shelters, as well as health-care workers.
The panel had offered the option of a booster for those ages 18 to 49 who have chronic health problems and want one. But the advisers refused to go further and open boosters to otherwise healthy front-line health care workers who aren’t at risk of severe illness but want to avoid even a mild infection.
Riley Extends School Mask Mandate Through October
State House News – Masks will remain required in Massachusetts public schools until at least Nov. 1, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said in guidance issued to districts and published Monday.
The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in August authorized Commissioner Jeff Riley to require masks for students age 5 and up and school staff through at least Oct. 1, and Riley on Monday extended the requirement through at least Nov. 1. The board in August also declared that “exigent circumstances” exist that hinder students’ ability to safely attend classes, a move that allows Riley to issue health and safety requirements for districts.
The mask plan Riley put forward in August allowed for middle and high schools where at least 80 percent of students and staff have been vaccinated against COVID-19 to be able to lift the mask requirement in October, for vaccinated individuals only.
Kids age 12 and under are still not eligible for the shots. Under the latest guidance, as of Oct. 15, in schools that submit to the state an attestation form demonstrating a vaccination rate of 80 percent or higher among students and staff, vaccinated individuals will no longer need to wear masks.
The department also posted additional details on calculating the 80 percent vaccination rate, which says, “Schools should determine a method to collect proof of COVID-19 vaccination for all eligible staff and students.” School districts last week reported 2,236 new COVID-19 cases among students and 318 in staff. The combined total of 2,554 during the week of Sept. 16-22 is up from the 1,420 logged over three days in the previous week’s report.
Report: SALT Change Compounds Surtax Impacts on High Earners
State House News – The House last week passed, despite the governor’s veto, a change in state tax law to allow the owners of partnerships and S corporations to avoid the federal limit on state and local tax deductions, but the Pioneer Institute said Monday the change will not be enough to avoid compounding effects if voters next year approve a surtax on household income above $1 million.
The 2017 federal tax law capped state and local tax (SALT) deductions at $10,000, increasing the liability on higher earners and property owners in Massachusetts and other states with relatively high taxes and property values. In a whitepaper published Monday, Pioneer said the cap “will greatly exacerbate the adverse effects” of a proposed 4 percent state surtax on household income greater than $1 million, a proposal the organization has long opposed.
“After the authors of the proposed graduated tax in Massachusetts submitted their proposal for legislative approval in 2017, the federal government placed a $10,000 limitation of deductibility of state and local taxes on federal tax returns. This unforeseen change in the federal tax code had the effect of turning what would have been a 58 percent increase in average state income tax payments among Massachusetts millionaires, from $160,786 to $254,355, into what is essentially a 147 percent increase when the federal SALT limitation is included in the calculation,” the Pioneer report concluded. “This substantial change should be taken into consideration by voters when they contemplate approving the surtax proposal.”
The state budget approved this summer included a provision to allow the Department of Revenue to implement an optional pass-through entity excise in the amount of personal income tax owed on a member’s flow-through income and a corresponding tax credit equal to 90 percent of the member’s portion of the excise. Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed the provision in favor of his own proposal to return 100 percent of the excise to the taxpayer, but the House last week overrode his veto (H 4009) and the Senate could follow suit.
But Pioneer said Monday that a workaround, with a credit at either 90 percent or 100 percent, would “not diminish the amount of surtax payments Massachusetts taxpayers will owe DOR if state voters approve the graduated income tax.”
“It appears that neither the [workaround] tax credit nor the taxpayer’s state tax liability are relevant to the proposed constitutional amendment because the additional 4 percent surtax is charged by calculating the total amount of annual taxable income, not the amount of taxes due on that income,” Pioneer said.
Roughly 55,500 Massachusetts personal income tax filers would benefit from a pass-through entity (PTE) tax workaround and could save up to an average of $20,158 in federal taxes annually, DOR estimated in a March report.
State Gives Update On COVID Booster Availability
Cape Cod.com – Governor Charlie Baker recently announced the process by which eligible Massachusetts residents may access Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots.
Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots are now available to individuals 65 years of age and older, individuals 18-64 years of age at risk for severe COVID-19 due to certain underlying medical conditions as defined by the CDC, and individuals 18-64 years of age who are at increased risk of COVID-19 due to occupational or institutional settings.
Eligible residents may receive their Pfizer booster shot six months after their second dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
“The COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective and getting vaccinated remains the best way to protect yourself and your loved ones,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders.
“The Baker-Polito Administration has been working with pharmacies, local boards of health and other health care providers to ensure eligible residents will be able to access the Pfizer booster vaccines at hundreds of locations across the commonwealth. If you have questions about whether getting the booster is right for you, we encourage you to contact your healthcare provider,” she said.
Pfizer COVID-19 booster doses are being made available at over 460 locations, with some appointments already available for booking.
About 600,000 residents are eligible for the Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots under the current federal eligibility criteria.
Mothers are Postponing the Return to Work. Amazon and Other Companies are Trying to Bring Them Back
Wall Street Journal – Working hasn’t worked well lately for many U.S. mothers.
About 3.5 million mothers living with school-age youngsters lost their jobs, took leave or left the labor market when COVID-19 hit last year, Census Bureau data shows. Now, increased COVID -19 cases are causing some schools in hundreds of districts to bring back virtual learning—and burden mothers again.
“Many women will delay their plans to re-enter the workforce even further,’’ says Amanda Augustine, a career coach and spokeswoman for TopResume, a resume-writing service. In a spring 2021 survey, TopResume found that 69% of 362 women employed pre-pandemic but currently caring full time for children under 18 plan to stay home for now.
Facing a brain drain and labor shortages, some companies are responding not just by hiring more women with children. They’re going to unusual lengths to assist mothers’ re-entry into the workforce, addressing their desire for flexibility and offering them more child-care support.
If employers change work cultures and practices to attract mothers and other people forced to give up work and assume caregiver roles during the pandemic, that “could be a real game-changer,’’ says Brigid Schulte, director of Better Life Lab, a work/family research group at the New America think tank. These potential future workers, she says, represent talent and experience “that companies can’t afford to toss aside.”
About 40% of employers beefed up child-care assistance during the pandemic—mostly through remote work and flexible schedules, U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation researchers found.
AI Use in Hiring Means Women with Employment Gaps Get Overlooked
Boston Business Journal – AI was intended to make the recruiting process more efficient. Instead, it’s keeping millions of job seekers from being considered
At a time when many companies are in desperate need of workers, millions of applicants aren’t even being considered for jobs.
Why? The automated hiring programs that filter applications, rejecting those applicants early in the process based on employment gaps on resumes, or a missing experience. That’s a big problem for employers when there are more than 10 million jobs open in the U.S.
As AI has been introduced into the recruiting process in recent decades, software has taken over tasks like tracking applicants, scheduling interviews with candidates and handling background checks. Three-quarters of U.S. employers and 99% of Fortune 500 companies use automated hiring software, a recent report from Harvard Business School and Accenture noted.
Although these programs were designed to help, they might be doing more harm than good, especially
when workers are in high demand and overlooked job seekers are becoming discouraged.
Survey: Government Action Needed to Ease Health-Cost Hardships
State House News – More than half of Massachusetts adults who participated in a May survey said they’d experienced some sort of health-care cost hardship in the past year and almost three-quarters said they’re worried about their ability to afford care in the future.
The advocacy organization Health Care for All presented findings from the survey of about 1,150 Bay Staters aged 18 and older, which was conducted by Altarum Healthcare Value Hub, on Monday, using the figures to call for lawmakers to pass bills addressing health care and prescription drug costs.
Dr. Ronald Dunlap, past president of the Massachusetts Medical Society, and Juan Cofield, each voiced support for legislation (H 729, S 771) focusing on drug costs and price transparency.
“For the physician community, the high and continually rising cost of prescription drugs undermines our ability to provide the best clinical care possible and directly impacts the health of our patients,” Dunlap said.
“The disproportionate impact drug affordability has on communities of color and the related exacerbation of disparate health outcomes is unconscionable.”
Sen. John Keenan and Rep. Christine Barber also touted their bill (H 1247, S 782), dubbed the More Affordable Care Act, which proposes reforms to the state’s health insurance rate review process. The bill would eliminate co-pays for certain treatments for chronic conditions.
Altarum’s Amanda Hunt said the survey results show Massachusetts residents “are generally dissatisfied” with the health system, and that they “view government as the key stakeholder that needs to act to address health system problems.”
Blue Cross Will Reward Doctors who Close Gaps in Care for People of Color
Boston Globe – In a new initiative to tackle health inequities, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts will begin paying doctors more money if they close longstanding and pernicious gaps in care for people of color.
The state’s largest private health insurer plans to reward physicians who improve medical care for patients who are Asian, Black, or Hispanic. The company’s approach is novel and employs the most powerful tool health insurers can wield — their dollars.
For years, Blue Cross and other insurers have tied doctors’ compensation to the quality of care they provide. But racial equity — the differences in how white patients and people of color are treated — was not a focus until now.
“Like many others, we had an awakening after the George Floyd murder and the COVID pandemic, and the way that that more deeply exposed racism and disparities in health care,” said Andrew Dreyfus, chief executive of Blue Cross. “We had to start by looking at the health of our own members, which is not something we had done in a systematic way before.”
COVID has disproportionately affected people of color, but disparities existed long before the pandemic. Blue Cross on Thursday released data about its members from 2019 that show Asian, Black, and Hispanic people received lower-quality care, according to several measures.
The data reveal that Asian, Black, and Hispanic patients with Blue Cross insurance were less likely than white patients to receive screenings for colorectal cancer, which was the second-leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control. About 64 percent of Black patients had colonoscopies, for example, compared with 71 percent of white patients.
Among adolescents, 69 percent of Black and 70 percent of Hispanic patients went to their doctors for checkups, compared with 80 percent of white patients.
Vaccination Status Is the New Must-Have on Your Resume
Wall Street Journal – Job seekers are considering a new addition to their résumés: COVID-19 vaccination status.
As employers make vaccine rules for workers and some limit hiring to the vaccinated, people are starting to volunteer their vaccination status on job applications, in résumés and on their LinkedIn profiles.
David Morgan, chief executive of Snorkel-Mart, an online snorkeling gear wholesaler and retailer, started requiring full vaccination for the company’s 20-plus employees in the spring. He says he favors candidates who are candid about their vaccine status on their résumés because it prevents surprises late in the hiring process.
“It saves us a lot of time and hassle to just clear it out in the résumé phase,” he said. “Candidates must be aware of the fact that the vaccination status holds the same importance as your personal profile nowadays, if not more.”
In an August survey of 1,250 hiring managers, nearly 70% said they were more likely to hire somebody who indicates on their résumé that they have had the shot, according to ResumeBuilder.com, which commissioned the poll. A third of hiring managers surveyed said they were automatically eliminating résumés that don’t spell out vaccine status.
Employees and bosses across the country have been adapting to a patchwork of laws and guidelines around vaccination, testing and masking as workplaces reopen more widely. Earlier in September, the Biden administration said all employers with 100 or more workers will have to start requiring that employees be vaccinated or undergo at least weekly COVID -19 testing, creating new pressures for managers and questions for workers.
Harvard Business School Goes Back to Remote Classes for First-Year MBA Students after Eruption of COVID-19 ‘Cluster’
Universal Hub – It’s like March, 2020 again at the Harvard Business School, which has ordered a week-long return to remote-only education for first-year MBA students, because it seems too many future masters of the universe have been ignoring basic COVID-19 precautions – to the point where the business school made up two-thirds of new COVID-19 cases among Harvard students this month despite comprising only 9% of the total school population.
In one of a series of messages to students, the school says it hopes a week of remote teaching will let the business school put a damper on what is now an “active cluster” and keep it from getting worse:
Harvard University leaders, advised by city and state public health officials, now tell us that we must consider the MBA Program an active cluster and escalate our approach – hit a “circuit breaker” and get in front of the virus rather than react to it. … Feedback from the contact tracers who have worked with positive cases among our student population highlights that transmission is not occurring in our classroom or other academic settings on our campus. Nor is it occurring among individuals who are masked. Rather, it is occurring as a result of numerous unmasked, indoor activities – everything from sharing an Airbnb for the weekend, to dinner gatherings in an apartment, to larger parties.
Harvard’s Covid-19 dashboard shows most of the 70 positive tests among Harvard students and staff between Sept. 19 and Sept. 24 were among graduate students. The site does not break out the numbers by school, however.
The dashboard says 95% of all students, and 96% of professors and staff, are fully vaccinated. Public-health officials have continued to urge people to socially distance and to wear masks indoors at parties and in such places as restaurants, because of the dramatically increased virulence of the delta variant.
DCU Center Not Requiring Proof of Vaccination for Most Events
Telegram – The DCU Center is not requiring proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for most of its events. But that policy could change.
Earlier this week, the TD Garden in Boston announced that it would require ticket-holders over age 12 to be vaccinated or tested with a negative result, while nearby concert venue the Palladium announced the same protocol last week.
The DCU Center is leaving it up to the promoters of acts and shows renting the premises to decide on the requirements, according to DCU Center General Manager Sandy Dunn.
For now, all DCU Center guests have to remain masked at all times unless actively eating or drinking. This rule is in line with the mandate recently imposed by the city.
Baker Addresses COVID-19 Concerns at Stops in Western Massachusetts
Western Mass News – Governor Charlie Baker made multiple stops in western Mass. Thursday.
After visiting the Big E, he went to a tree planting in Westfield.
While many people consider the pandemic to be mostly in the rearview mirror, Massachusetts has had more than 18,000 COVID-19 deaths since March of 2020.
We asked the governor about the new challenges ahead and some of the ongoing problems left in the virus’s wake.
A lot of discussions are taking place on the national stage over who gets a COVID booster shot and when.
The CDC decided Thursday to authorize Pfizer booster shots for adults 65 and older, as well as people in long-term care facilities. They voted separately in favor of boosters for those with underlying medical conditions that put them at severe risk for serious illness.
We asked the governor how this factors into the October 17 vaccine mandate for state employees.
“It’s probably going to be mostly for health-care workers, folks in long-term care and assisted living and congregate care, people who are immunocompromised and there will be some folks in public sector when we think of the traditional the public sector, first responders, those kind of folks, but I don’t anticipate that we’ll have any trouble meeting the need,” Baker said.
This comes as his secretary of health and human services, MaryLou Sudders, has been added to a lawsuit in federal court over the deadly COVID-19 outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home.
The lawsuit filed on behalf of veterans who died in the 2020 outbreak accuses Sudders of turning a blind eye to the spreading virus that would kill more than 75 residents.
Sudders is the only defendant in that lawsuit who hasn’t resigned or been let go from their role.
Baker Thursday said he would not comment on pending litigation so, we asked Senator John Velis, who has been a big supporter of reforming the home, about holding officials accountable.
“There is that process going forward right now. We’ll wait and see what happens with the lawsuit, but my concern, my exclusive concern right now, is ensuring something like this never happens again,” Velis said.
Workers are Going Back to the Office, Just Not in the Manner They Expected
Boston Globe – The health-care industry has long struggled with burnout and workforce shortages — but the pandemic has both shone a light on the problem and worsened it, hospital leaders say.
And as exhausted employees leave the profession, the burdens on those left behind only increase, creating a downward cycle that hospitals are struggling to break, the presidents of three Boston hospital systems said in a session that aired Thursday during Day 2 of the inaugural Globe Summit, a virtual symposium focused on the region’s future.
“It is not new that there is burnout in health care,” said Dr. Kevin Tabb, president and CEO of Beth Israel Lahey Health. “But it has just really exploded and is now causing a crisis on top of the crisis.”
Even as their institutions fill up with patients, the hospital leaders are looking for ways to revive the joy in care-giving that sustained people in the early days of the pandemic and that have always been central to health care professions.
A recent national survey found disturbing news from the nursing workforce, Tabb said: Almost 90 percent of nurses said they were experiencing increased stress, anxiety, and depression, 20 percent plan to transfer to jobs that don’t involve patient care, and 10 percent plan to leave the profession altogether.
“That is really a crisis,” Tabb said.
Nursing Homes Ramp up Vaccinations Ahead of Mandates
Newburyport News – Nursing homes across Massachusetts are ramping up efforts to get their staff vaccinated for COVID-19 ahead of federal and state mandates.
Gov. Charlie Baker announced in August that the state will require staff at nursing homes, assisted living facilities and hospice programs to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 10 or face disciplinary action, including termination, unless they’ve been granted a medical or religious exemption.
Baker’s mandate covers at least 62 state-licensed rest homes, 85 hospice care programs and 268 assisted-living facilities, according to the administration.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has ordered sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million Americans — private-sector employees as well as health care workers and federal contractors — in a major push to curb spread of the highly contagious delta variant.
His plan will also require vaccinations for about 17 million health care workers at hospitals and nursing homes that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding.
The latest data shows overall Massachusetts inching closer to meeting the mandates, with some of the highest nursing home staff vaccination rates in the country.
As of Sept. 20, an average of 89% of staff in skilled nursing facilities are fully vaccinated, according to the Executive Office of Health and Human Services. That’s a 3% increase from the previous week and 7% increase since last month, the agency said.
When Baker rolled out his mandate in August, nearly half of the state’s skilled nursing facilities had less than 75% of their staff fully vaccinated.
Massachusetts Locked Up People With Mental Illness For Decades. Now Advocates Want Their Stories Told
WBUR – For many years, people with disabilities and mental illness in Massachusetts were locked away in state institutions to be kept separate from the rest of society.
Now some advocates and families are pushing to create a commission to reckon with the way patients were treated and the abuses they endured.
“There is no formal statement of what the state schools and what the state hospitals were or why they came to be, what they were, how they closed,” said Alex Green, a Waltham resident and Harvard public policy lecturer who is spearheading efforts to establish the commission.
Green said he wants the unvarnished history to be told, as he walked the grounds of the long shuttered Metropolitan State Hospital where Belmont, Waltham and Lexington come together.
Closed in 1992, many of the buildings have either been torn down, or converted to housing or businesses. But the brick administration building, covered in graffiti and invasive vegetation, stands abandoned, a stark reminder of a system that at one time was made up of 27 state hospitals and state schools, where thousands were sent away, including many who complained about mistreatment over the years.
For Green, his quest is personal. He lives with mental illness. And had he been born a few decades earlier, Green believes he might have been sent to an institution himself.
Green says the surviving written records are likely scattered all over the state.
Baker Administration Announces $15 Million in Support for the Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program
Lynn Journal – Building on investments to address food insecurity among Massachusetts residents, the Baker-Polito Administration last week announced it has made available $15 million in funding through a second round of its Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program. The funding will enable the Administration to continue to implement the recommendations of the Food Security Task Force, which was convened last year by the Massachusetts COVID-19 Command Center in response to increased demands for food assistance.
“Addressing food security issues remains a high priority of our Administration to help ensure all residents have fresh, healthy produce readily available to them,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “By working with dedicated partners, we will continue to strengthen the food distribution supply chain and address more needs throughout the Commonwealth.”
“This round of grants from the Food Security Grant program will further expand on our efforts to provide greater access to locally harvested and produced food products,” said Lieutenant Governor Karyn Polito. “With higher numbers of people experiencing food insecurity, we continue to take significant strides in ensuring fresh, locally sourced food remains widely available to the residents of Massachusetts.”
Baker Clean Heat Commission Faces Time Squeeze
Commonwealth Magazine – A little more than a month ago, the Boston Globe reported that the Baker administration was woefully behind in one phase of its overall plan for addressing climate change. The plan called for converting 100,000 homes a year to heating and cooling with electricity instead of fossil fuels. In fact, the Globe reported, just 461 homes made the switch last year.
The story was a direct hit to the administration’s climate credibility, and raised questions about whether it was up to the challenge of reorienting the energy underpinnings of the state’s economy. Equally concerning, there was no one from the administration quoted in the story explaining why the program was lagging and what’s being done about it.
Then earlier this week, the administration leaked to the Globe information on an executive order the governor was signing creating a first-in-the-nation Commission on Clean Heat, whose job it will be to ramp up home conversions using emission caps and financial incentives – tools already deployed in the electricity sector and possibly soon in transportation.
“Recognizing the urgent challenge presented by climate change and the need to reduce emissions, our administration is convening this first-of-its-kind commission to help the Commonwealth meet our emissions reduction goals,” said Gov. Charlie Baker in the press release announcing the commission. “By soliciting the expertise of leaders with a variety of perspectives, including the affordable housing community, we can ensure that the strategies and policies we pursue to reduce emissions from heating fuels will be innovative, affordable, and equitable.”
Biden Administration Makes First Move to Regulate Greenhouse Gases
Boston Globe – The Biden administration on Thursday finalized its first major regulation to directly limit greenhouse gases, part of an effort to show American progress on global warming before a crucial climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, in November.
The measure would curb the production and use of potent planet-warming chemicals called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are used in air conditioners and refrigerators. Without the new regulation, President Biden would be in danger of arriving at the United Nations summit with few concrete emissions-reduction measures to back up his calls for global action against climate change.
Biden has vowed to cut United States emissions 50 to 52 percent below 2005 levels in the next decade. But legislation that includes policies to cut carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, the most prevalent greenhouse gas and the most politically difficult to address, faces uncertain prospects in a sharply divided Congress.
“The outlook for meaningful broad-based climate legislation is not very good,” said Robert N. Stavins, an environmental economist at Harvard University. He said that makes regulatory actions to curb HFCs and methane, another potent greenhouse gas, “vastly more important.”
The new Environmental Protection Agency rule, which goes into effect next month, implements legislation that Congress approved under former president Donald Trump. Unlike efforts to curb fossil fuels, plans to reduce HFCs have won broad support from both Democrats and Republicans, as well as industry groups and environmental organizations.
Kerry Says Other Nations Must Do More to Address Climate Change
Boston Globe – With carbon emissions rising at a rate the United Nations secretary general recently called “catastrophic,” Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry said Thursday that he worries other countries won’t commit to sufficient steps to reduce their greenhouse gases at the upcoming international climate negotiations in Scotland.
“Most countries will raise ambition; regrettably, a good number probably won’t raise it enough,” he said in an interview at the inaugural Boston Globe Summit, a free virtual conference open to all through Friday. “So we’re going to have to keep pushing. That’s just part of the course of things, but we will have the highest level of ambition ever set forth, even though it is clearly not enough.”
At the UN General Assembly on Tuesday in New York, Secretary General António Guterres noted that existing emissions reduction commitments have the world on a “catastrophic pathway” to a hike of 2.7 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels later this century. He urged countries to increase their commitments to reduce emissions so that they live up to their Paris Climate Accords goals to keep the planet from warming more than 1.5 degrees.
“We need decisive action by all countries, especially the G20, to go the extra mile and effectively contribute to emission reductions,” Guterres said.
New York Prepares for Health-Care Disruptions as Vaccine Mandate Takes Effect
Wall Street Journal – New York state’s health-care system is bracing for staff shortages this week as a vaccine mandate takes effect at midnight on Monday, presenting the largest test case so far of how similar requirements will play out across the country.
Government officials said they spent the last several days working to vaccinate workers while planning for potential disruptions. A hospital in Rochester postponed elective surgeries, while some nursing homes have paused new admissions.
“We’re anticipating a problem,” said Michael Balboni, executive director of the Greater New York Health Care Facilities Association, which represents nursing homes in and around New York City. “There are already many nursing homes that have not been taking new admissions over the last weeks, and looking at their staffing routines so they basically stretch.”
The state mandate requires that more than 665,000 workers in public and private hospitals and nursing homes receive their first vaccine dose by midnight Monday to continue working on Tuesday.
September 21
Vaccine Mandate for 18,000 Boston Workers Rolls Out Monday
Boston Herald – Roughly 18,000 city workers will have to submit proof of full vaccination against coronavirus or start weekly testing beginning Monday, according to a new city policy.
“Our purpose is to protect our employees and the public, and our work is rooted in public health guidance and based on data and science,” Acting Boston Mayor Kim Janey said in a statement.
The vaccine mandate will be rolled out in three phases. Employees who serve “high priority residents” including public school students, and work in city services like day care, the library and the Council on Aging must comply starting Monday.
Public-facing on-site city contractors and volunteers – including public safety, parks and parking – must comply by Oct. 4.
All other city employees, onsite contractors and volunteers must be in compliance by Oct. 18.
Any employee who cannot verify that she or he is fully vaccinated will be required to submit proof of a negative COVID-19 test result every seven days.
The city has been ramping up coronavirus measures since last month after spread of the more infectious and more deadly delta variant became evident in Boston.
Workers are Going Back to the Office, Just Not the Way They Expected
Boston Globe – Back-to-office plans are playing out much differently than anyone expected
Anticipation for a momentous post-Labor Day return has come and gone, but now a growing number of employers are repopulating their offices gradually and on a voluntary basis, rather than pinning all their hopes — and anxieties — onto one date.
That model is unfolding in business districts from downtown Boston to Kendall Square, where some employers are starting to see more workers return, even as the Delta variant has delayed formal office reopenings. Companies have a wide range of masking, testing, and vaccine requirements, and even for the employees choosing to work in-person, concerns about public transportation and unvaccinated children at home persist.
At the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, which had about 1,000 scientists working in-person over the last year, any employee can come back to the Cambridge office starting Oct. 12 on a schedule worked out with their manager.
“We finally said, there’s not going to be a magic day when the virus goes away,” said Frances Brooks Taplett, the institution’s chief people officer, who added that several previous return dates have been delayed.
“There’s something about getting over the hump, getting used to coming back, that we wanted to give people, before the time period stretched out so long that it became insurmountable.”
Pfizer Says its COVID-19 Vaccine is Effective in Children Ages 5 to 11
Boston Globe – The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has been shown to be safe and highly effective in young children ages 5 to 11 years, the companies announced early Monday morning. The news should help ease months of anxiety among parents and teachers about when children, and their close contacts, might be shielded from the coronavirus.
The need is urgent: Children now account for more than 1 in 5 new cases, and the highly contagious delta variant has sent more children into hospitals and intensive care units in the past few weeks than at any other time in the pandemic. Massachusetts officials say there are 884,000 children under the age of 12 in the state, including 515,000 who are 5 to 11.
Pfizer and BioNTech plan to apply to the Food and Drug Administration by the end of the month for authorization to use the vaccine in these children. If the regulatory review goes as smoothly as it did for older children and adults, millions of elementary school students could be inoculated before Halloween.
Trial results for children younger than 5 are not expected till the fourth quarter of this year at the earliest, according to Dr. Bill Gruber, a senior vice president at Pfizer and a pediatrician.
For Young Adults, COVID-19 Has Been Disruptive — Yet Also a Chance to Reset
Boston Globe – Late one night in March 2020, Sanpha Samura lay in bed at his parents’ house in Mattapan, thinking. Colleges were scrambling to shift classes online in those early, frantic weeks of the pandemic. He had just transferred from Bunker Hill Community College to Northeastern University, where he was studying biology. His education had been a winding journey, and this was the last leg.
Yet his thoughts were not about pressing on but pausing. He felt isolated and out of place at his new school. Blocked from the computer lab for being late on fees, he’d been taking the bus to a friend’s in Hyde Park to print out homework.
Now, with the rise of COVID-19, classes were going virtual. Without a laptop or printer of his own, he wasn’t sure who he could turn to, or how he’d manage. He also thought about the student loans he owed, almost $20,000 already.
The debt, the stress ― it wasn’t worth it. The thought had nagged at him for a while, but in this moment, it crystallized: He didn’t have to stay. He could ditch all the anxiety. Opening his smartphone, he navigated to his NU student profile and withdrew from his classes.
‘Nobody Knows Where It Came From’: Former FDA Head Says ‘Arbitrary’ Six-Foot Social Distancing Highlights CDC’s ‘Lack Of Rigor’
Boston Globe – Dr. Scott Gottlieb, the former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), called the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s six-foot distancing recommendation during the pandemic “arbitrary” on Sunday.
“The six feet is a perfect example of sort of the lack of rigor around how CDC made recommendations.”
“Nobody knows where it came from. Most people assume that the six feet of distance — the recommendation for keeping six feet apart — comes out of some old studies related to flu where droplets don’t travel more than six feet,” the former commissioner explained.
“The initial recommendation that the CDC brought to the White House … was 10 feet. A political appointee in the White House said we can’t recommend 10 feet. Nobody can measure 10 feet. It’s inoperable. Society will shut down. So, the compromise was around six feet,” Gottlieb said.
How Should Schools Keep Students Safe this Year? Here’s What the Experts Recommend
Boston Globe – As millions of students returned this fall to classrooms nationwide — many vaccinated and many more not — public health and education leaders are using layered mitigation strategies in an effort to keep coronavirus cases low and in-person learning safe.
Nationwide, both health and school experts have emphasized that in-person learning should be a priority this year. And many agree that with little documented evidence of in-school transmission, families and district leaders should not be concerned about the safety of students in classrooms.
“We will never prevent COVID from coming into the school doors when COVID is present in the community. That is not the goal. The goal is not to prevent COVID from coming in. The goal is to prevent COVID from transmitting,” said Daniele Lantagne, a Tufts University professor who helped craft the child mask-wearing guidance for the World Health Organization.
“If you can do targeted interventions in specific areas to stop transmission, there’s no need to take a whole district to remote [learning].”
Massachusetts Might Create A Statewide ‘Vax ID’ System, Gov. Baker Says
WGBH – Massachusetts could implement a system to verify a person’s COVID-19 vaccination status, according to Gov. Charlie Baker. He said Thursday on GBH News’ Boston Public Radio that his administration is in touch with jurisdictions that have put their own “vax ID” in place.
“We’ve been talking to those folks and working through how that would work here in the Commonwealth,” Baker said.
“I certainly think it’s going to be an important thing for people to have,” Baker said in response to host Jim Braude’s question of whether it’s likely Massachusetts will have such a vaccination ID program at some point.
“Getting to the point where there’s a relatively simple process for people to credential the fact that they’ve been vaccinated will be important for a whole bunch of reasons,” Baker said.
While explaining that most Massachusetts vaccination status is technically, if not easily, accessible through a person’s vaccine provider, the governor mentioned “states and municipalities that have done something more universal than that.”
New York state has operated the “Excelsior Pass” since earlier this year to provide a digital proof of vaccination, or for recent test results.
Baker’s thinking has evolved since April, when he said it was too early to consider vaccine passports.
The governor was also asked about the possibility of Afghan refugees coming to live in Massachusetts after fleeing the Taliban. Baker said his administration will cooperate with federal resettlement programs to help out any refugees.
“There will be people who resettle in Massachusetts, and that’s something that, as I said before, we support and want to participate in.
Schools Report 1,420 Cases of COVID in Students, Staff as School Year Begins
MassLive – At the start of the new school year, districts across the state have reported 1,420 cases of COVID-19 among students and staff, according to state education officials.
On Thursday evening, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released its first COVID case report for the 2021-2022 school year, which represents cases reported to DESE from Sept. 13 to 15. Going forward, the report will cover a time frame of Thursday to Wednesday.
Initially, DESE did not plan to release such reports this school year. Earlier this month, DESE reversed that decision and districts were required to start reporting cases as of Sept. 13. Such reports were released through the 2020-2021 school year.
Of the 1,420 total cases reported so far, 1,230 were students and 190 were staff members, according to Thursday’s report. Districts have the majority of those cases, with 1,226 student infections and 181 infections reported among staff. Education collaboratives reported two student cases and three staff cases, and approved special education schools reported two student cases and six staff cases.
Still, the percentage of positive students and staffers is low.
With roughly 920,000 students and 140,000 staff members currently in public school buildings, the rate of coronavirus cases in schools stands at 0.13% among students and 0.14% among staffers, according to the report.
Evictions Happening Less Today than Pre-COVID
Commonwealth Magazine – When state and federal COVID-related moratoriums on evictions ended, advocates worried that there would be a tsunami of people losing their homes.
But state officials said Friday, an increase in rental assistance combined with programs geared at mediation have actually resulted in far fewer evictions than pre-pandemic.
“Filings are substantially down over what historic numbers would be,” said Housing Court Chief Justice Timothy Sullivan.
Trial Court Chief Justice Paula Carey called the collaboration between the Legislature, judicial branch, and executive branch “a true example of good government.”
During the COVID pandemic, as people throughout the state lost jobs and incomes, the state and federal governments imposed eviction moratoriums. The state moratorium expired in October 2020 and the federal mortorium was lifted in August due to a US Supreme Court decision.
In their place, state officials crafted their own eviction diversion initiative – a $171 million Baker administration initiative, which was boosted by $768 million in federal money for emergency rental assistance. The Legislature also passed a law requiring a judge to delay any eviction case where the tenant has a pending application for rental assistance.
Small Agency, Big Job: Biden Tasks OSHA with Vaccine Mandate
Boston Globe – The Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn’t make many headlines. Charged with keeping America’s workplaces safe, it usually busies itself with tasks such as setting and enforcing standards for goggles, hardhats and ladders.
But President Joe Biden this month threw the tiny Labor Department agency into the raging national debate over federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The president directed OSHA to write a rule requiring employers with at least 100 workers to force employees to get vaccinated or produce weekly test results showing they are virus free.
The assignment is sure to test an understaffed agency that has struggled to defend its authority in court. And the legal challenges to Biden’s vaccine mandate will be unrelenting: Republican governors and others call it an egregious example of government overreach. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster vowed to fight the mandate “to the gates of hell.’’
David Brown takes over at MGH
Boston Globe – One Sunday during the first surge of COVID-19 in Boston, Dr. David F.M. Brown, exhausted, scared, and lonely, sat down at his computer and started typing.
Brown was chair of the emergency department at Massachusetts General Hospital, where doctors and nurses were scrambling to care for 200 COVID patients. He knew it would get worse.
“The days and weeks ahead will be difficult,” he wrote to his staff on April 5, 2020. “We will be severely tested in many ways.”
In another message several weeks later, he tried to rally his weary workers. “We can take heart in the firm assurance that collectively we are meeting the greatest challenge of our time,” he wrote.
Those e-mails to the 650 people who work in MGH’s emergency department became a weekly ritual, designed to inform and sustain front-line workers through their fear and grief. And they offer a window into how Brown may tackle his latest professional challenge: leading the world-renowned medical center into a new era of collaboration with its sister hospital, Brigham and Women’s, and the system that they anchor, Mass General Brigham.
Brown became president of MGH last week, taking the helm with recent and vivid memories of treating suffering patients and toiling beside other doctors and nurses through the unrelenting pressure of the pandemic.
During his many years in the emergency department, Brown became known for communicating important information, even when the news was unpleasant or complicated, and for making time for friends and colleagues despite a packed schedule.
“He has this ability when you’re talking with him [to make you feel] that you are the most important person to him at that point in time,” said Jonny Kim, an astronaut who trained as an emergency doctor with Brown until he joined NASA in 2017. “He gives you his full attention, and he makes you feel very special about the work you do and the person you are.”
US Unemployment Claims Rise after Hitting Pandemic Low
Boston Globe – The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits moved up last week to 332,000 from a pandemic low, a sign that the spread of the Delta variant may have slightly increased layoffs.
Applications for jobless aid rose from 312,000 the week before, the Labor Department said Thursday. That was the lowest level since March 2020. Jobless claims, which generally track the pace of layoffs, have fallen steadily for two months as many employers, struggling to fill jobs, have held onto their workers.
Last week’s increase was small and may be temporary. The four-week average of jobless claims, which smooths out fluctuations in the weekly data, dropped for the fifth straight week to just below 336,000. That figure is also the lowest since the pandemic began.
Last week in Massachusetts, nearly 7,300 people filed new claims for unemployment benefits, up about 1,600 from the week prior.
Another 1,230 people filed claims under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which provides aid to those not eligible for traditional benefits, such as gig workers, down about 4,900 from the previous week. The PUA program ended on Sept. 4.
Michelle Wu Shies Away from Progressive Labor as Election Approaches
Boston Herald – Mayoral hopeful Michelle Wu is working to soften her “progressive” image as she battles it out to be the city’s next CEO with fellow city councilor Annissa Essaibi-George, who leans moderate.
“I will stand on the side of moving forward and ensuring that we are putting in place the changes and the policies to aim for our brightest future,” Wu said, during an appearance on WBZ’s “Keller at Large” on Sunday morning. “In city government, it’s about getting things done, not being judged on a scorecard of whether you said yes or no on a certain thing.”
Wu also shied away from using the hot-button phrase “defund the police” during Sunday’s interview.
“We need to see more resources in the combination of public safety and public health but we have to use our dollars wisely,” Wu said.
It’s a tactic the leftist could be using to woo conservative Boston voters, who largely stayed away from the ballot box during last week’s preliminary election in which Wu was the top vote-getter. Barely 108,000 voters turned up out of the city’s roughly 430,000 registered voters.
“The beauty of city government and what I love about being involved at this level closest to the people is that it cuts across any rigid type of ideological or political views,” Wu told Keller when he asked if her liberal label was accurate. “In city government, it’s about getting things done, not being judged on a scorecard of whether you said yes or no on certain things.”
“When you talk about climate change, I think people would associate that as being a more progressive issue, but the reality is that when we implement changes at the city level, it is not only the best for reducing emissions and making sure we are meeting our goals, it also saves money and therefore makes the most sense from a fiscal perspective,” said Wu.
As an example, Wu said she believes electric school buses would give out less pollution, have a longer life span, and could be used as mobile charging sources in cases of emergencies.
“Every time I hear someone describe our vision as pie in the sky, in fact, that is a badge of pride because we are fighting for what our communities need right now,” Wu said. “We can’t afford to just nibble around the edges of the status quo. We need to take the actions that will actually secure our neighborhoods, ensure that everyone has opportunity, and connect us to what’s possible in our future.”
State Spends Less than $25 Million of $4.8 Billion Budget with Black and Hispanic Companies
WGBH – State agencies spent $4.8 billion in 2020, but Black-owned businesses were awarded only $11 million in state contracts and Hispanic-owned businesses got only $12 million, according to a new state report obtained by GBH News.
The Supplier Diversity Office report said that state agencies exceeded their goal of doing 8% of their contracting with minority-owned enterprises. That conclusion relies on counting hundreds of millions of dollars the state spent with minority-led nonprofits, plus work that non-minority firms working for the state passed along to minority businesses. Without those categories, all minority-owned firms combined received about 2% of the state’s spending.
The new report — quietly posted to a state website in the past few days — says that, in fiscal year 2020, the state spent just over $300 million in direct contracts with minority-owned businesses (known as MBEs) but Black-owned firms got just $10.8 million worth of work; Hispanic-owned firms got $11.5 million; and Asian-owned firms got $71.1 million.
The vast majority of the state’s $301 million in direct “MBE spending” — $204 million — went to minority-led nonprofits such as Brockton Area Multi-Services, Inc., and Action for Boston Community Development, large social services organizations that provide a wide range of services from mental health care to housing assistance.
The state has reported minority business expenditures every year for decades, but this is the first year the spending has been broken out by race, following reporting by the GBH News Center for Investigative Reporting last year that the state was intentionally inflating its minority business spending numbers by including sums that were not contracts to minority firms.
Travis Watson, chairman of the Boston Employment Commission that watches over minority hiring on city jobs, said the lack of state contracts going to minority-owned businesses is contributing the racial wealth gap.
Massachusetts Court Case Could Provide Precedent for Vaccine Mandates
Boston Globe – During a smallpox epidemic more than 100 years ago, a Cambridge resident took issue with the local board of health’s requirement that all adults be vaccinated against the disease.
Transit Advocates Hope Stark Report on MBTA Delivers a Wake-Up Call
Boston Globe – Transit advocates called on state lawmakers Thursday to drastically boost funding for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority following a new report that warned the agency is heading for fiscal disaster in the coming years.
A report from the business-backed Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation found that the MBTA will be as much as $400 million short on its operating budget by mid-2023 and $13 billion short on its plans for maintenance and modernization over the next decade. Advocates and policy watchers say the findings should serve as a call to action.
“This is a fundamental, existential question that keeps having Band-Aids put on it year after year after year,” said Brian Kane, the executive director of the MBTA’ s Advisory Board.
Biden Pitching Partnership after Tough Stretch with Allies
Boston Globe – President Biden goes before the United Nations this week eager to make the case for the world to act with haste against the coronavirus, climate change, and human rights abuses. His pitch for greater global partnership comes at a moment when allies are becoming increasingly skeptical about how much US foreign policy really has changed since Donald Trump left the White House.
Biden plans to limit his time at the UN General Assembly due to coronavirus concerns. He is scheduled to meet with Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday and address the assembly on Tuesday before shifting the rest of the week’s diplomacy to virtual and Washington settings.
At a virtual COVID-19 summit he is hosting Wednesday, leaders will be urged to step up vaccine-sharing commitments, address oxygen shortages around the globe, and deal with other critical pandemic-related issues.
The president also has invited the prime ministers of Australia, India, and Japan, part of a Pacific alliance, to Washington and is expected to meet with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the White House.
Through it all, Biden will be the subject of a quiet assessment by allies: Has he lived up to his campaign promise to be a better partner than Trump?
Biden’s chief envoy to the United Nations, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, offered a harmonious answer in advance of all the diplomacy: “We believe our priorities are not just American priorities, they are global priorities,” she said Friday.
But over the past several months, Biden has found himself at odds with allies on a number of high-profile issues.
There have been noted differences over the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the pace of COVID-19 vaccine-sharing, and international travel restrictions, and the best way to respond to military and economic moves by China. A fierce French backlash erupted in recent days after the United States and Britain announced they would help equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.
Democrat Linked to Fossil Fuels will Craft the US Climate Plan
Boston Globe – Senator Joe Manchin, the powerful West Virginia Democrat who chairs the Senate energy panel and earned $500,000 last year from coal production, is preparing to remake President Biden’s climate legislation in a way that tosses a lifeline to the fossil fuel industry — despite urgent calls from scientists that countries need to quickly pivot away from coal, gas, and oil to avoid a climate catastrophe.
Manchin has already emerged as the crucial up-or-down vote in a sharply divided Senate when it comes to Biden’s push to pass a $3.5 trillion budget bill that could reshape the nation’s social welfare network. But Biden also wants the bill to include an aggressive climate policy that would compel utilities to stop burning fossil fuels and switch to wind, solar, or nuclear energy, sources that do not emit the greenhouse gases that are heating the planet.
As chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Manchin holds the pen and the gavel of the congressional panel, with the authority to shape Biden’s ambitions.
But Manchin is also closely associated with the fossil fuel industry. His beloved West Virginia is second in coal and seventh in natural gas production among the 50 states. In the current election cycle, Manchin has received more campaign donations from the oil, coal, and gas industries than any other senator, according to data compiled by OpenSecrets, a research organization that tracks political spending.
Healey Seeking Action on Environmental Justice
CapeCod.com – Attorney General Maura Healey recently joined a coalition of 20 attorneys general calling on Congress to respond to the climate crisis and advance environmental justice.
They want funding prioritized for programs which combat pollution, improve water and air quality, and promote clean energy in the upcoming budget reconciliation bill.
The letter sent to Congress by the coalition said the effects of the climate crisis have disproportionately burdened marginalized communities and advocated for remediation of the environmental injustices faced by immigrant communities, communities of color, and Tribal and indigenous communities.
“For decades, there’s been a lack of decisive national action on climate change and a failure to enact policies that protect our communities of color, immigrant communities, and families with low incomes from climate and other environmental harms, forcing them to breathe dirty air and drink dirty water,” Healey said.
“Congress must help us undo these longstanding injustices by including funding in the budget reconciliation bill that helps fight the climate crisis, transforms our economy with clean energy and jobs, and delivers solutions that promote environmental justice,” she said.
House Group Outlines State House Re-Opening Plan
State House News – A House working group is proposing a phased-in approach to resuming in-person business at the State House, and recommending that all House members and employees maintain full vaccination status against COVID-19 as a condition of physically working at the State House.
Under the plan, the reopening’s first phase would allow access for state representatives who wish to return for in-person voting, along with “core staff who must be physically in the building to conduct session and House business.” Representatives for months have been encouraged to participate in sessions remotely.
The second phase would broaden access to the State House to all remaining House staff and employees, “along with individuals who have a need to conduct business at the State House.”
Phase 3 would allow entry to the State House by members of the public, by appointment, for meetings and committee hearings. The State House would be fully open to all parties, for all activities, in Phase 4.
The working group also recommends extending the existing mask requirement for the House chamber to all House-controlled spaces, including offices and hearing rooms, and broadening it to include employees and personnel from external entities who have a need to conduct business at the State House, as well as members and staff.
“We also recommend, at this time, maintaining a virtual option for public hearings and we propose a model for resuming in-person access to public hearings that can be adapted to hearings of various sizes and allows for both in-person and remote participation in public hearings,” according to the working group.
“This model employs multiple interventions to reduce the risk of indoor airborne transmission, such as controlling the number of people allowed in hearing rooms, monitoring ventilation and air quality, requiring masks, setting up a pre-registration system on MyLegislature, and facilitating remote participation through hybrid hearings to reduce in-person crowding.
Bio Sector Seeks to Widen Talent Pipelines
State House News – As vaccine developers and other drugmakers angle to scale up with greater production and physical presence in Massachusetts, an industry organization this week is officially launching a program it hopes will jumpstart a talent pipeline and open new doors for workers.
On Thursday, the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council sister organization the Massachusetts Biotechnology Education Foundation will introduce the first two cohorts of people seeking an alternate path to careers in biomanufacturing and clinical trial research through the accelerated training offered by its new life sciences apprenticeship program.
The program has two tracks, which MassBioEd said were purposefully chosen in response to high employer demand — one for biomanufacturing technicians and one for clinical trial associates. The technicians “help produce and deliver biological products and therapies to patients” while the clinical trial associates work in pharmaceutical companies to “assist with clinical trials of novel drugs, devices, and therapies,” according to MassBioEd.
The biomanufacturing track partners with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals in Norton, Arranta Bio in Watertown, Bristol Myers Squibb in Devens, MassBiologics in Mattapan and Pfizer in Andover.
The clinical trial track partners with Agios Pharmaceuticals in Cambridge, Apellis Pharmaceuticals in Waltham, Blueprint Medicines in Cambridge, Covis Pharma in Waltham, Halloran Consulting in Boston, Jounce Therapeutics in Cambridge, Magenta Therapeutics in Cambridge, Praxis Precision Medicines in Cambridge, Replimune in Woburn and Surface Oncology in Cambridge.
The introductory period for the biomanufacturing track began in June and on-the-job training begins in early November. For clinical trial associates, the intro period began this month and jobsite training starts in early December, MassBioEd said.
Thursday’s virtual kickoff event will feature remarks from U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, U.S. Congresswoman Lori Trahan, state Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Rosalin Acosta, Mass. Life Sciences Center President Kenn Turner and MassBio President Kendalle Burlin O’Connell.
Massachusetts is already a hub of biopharma and biotech companies but MassBio said earlier this year that “Massachusetts must grow beyond R&D to develop leading-edge biomanufacturing capabilities” if it is to stay ahead of Pennsylvania and North Carolina as a leader of the life sciences industry.
MassBio said that employment in the biopharma sector “grew at a rate of 5.5% in 2020, reaching nearly 84,000 jobs and representing a 55% increase from 2008 – 2020.” And the life sciences industry is rapidly expanding its footprint in Massachusetts, with about 20 million square feet of new life sciences real estate in the pipeline by 2024, the organization said. It estimated that the new space alone will require as many as 40,000 new jobs.
This summer, executives from Moderna and Pfizer told Massachusetts lawmakers that it has become harder to recruit new skilled workers here at a time when both vaccine makers have plans to substantially ramp up production.
Based in Cambridge, Moderna produces some of its COVID-19 vaccine at its manufacturing technology center in Norwood and this May announced plans to more than double its square footage in part to accommodate a 50 percent increase in the production of the COVID-19 vaccine expected late this year or early in 2022.
“So I would say that one of our most important topics is continued access to capable and qualified individuals, both for [good manufacturing practice] production as well as for quality control,” Paul Granadillo, the company’s senior vice president of global supply chain, said.
The situation was similar for Pfizer, which manufactures the mRNA substance used in its COVID-19 vaccine at a facility in Andover. Jon Tucker, the site’s global supply leader, said establishing a talent pipeline through the MassBioEd apprenticeship program, along with more traditional recruitment methods, has been a key priority.
Role Of MCAS Exam Continues to Rile Education World
State House News – .By 2018, more than a decade after he was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, Ryan Boyd had passed nearly every single MCAS standardized exam he needed to get his diploma from Marlborough High School.
All that remained in his way was the math test. But in his final try during his senior year, Boyd fell two points short.
“This is the only reason why I was unable to obtain my diploma at my graduation in 2018,” Boyd told the Education Committee on Monday. “Do you know how heartbroken I was to learn that? I want to repeat again today for everyone in this room: the only reason I was prevented from getting that diploma in 2018 was because I failed my math MCAS by two points after I put in so much hard work and dedication into passing the test.”
More than 50,000 students have faced similar circumstances the last nearly 20 years, a point that a chorus of lawmakers and education reform advocates hammered on Monday as they called for the Legislature to eliminate the state’s MCAS graduation requirements or pause the tests altogether.
“Please do not ever let another child’s future be affected by two points,” Boyd, who said he ultimately received his diploma this spring after the school retroactively waived testing requirements, added.
Teacher unions and some education activists have long targeted the state’s MCAS system, complaining that setting the exams as a bar all students must clear forces teachers to narrow their focus on test preparation and creates unnecessary stress in the classroom.
A bill filed by Sen. Jo Comerford and Rep. James Hawkins (S 293 / H 612) would decouple MCAS from graduation and instead offer what Comerford called “multiple pathways” for students to prove they meet the benchmarks to complete high school, some of which would not require a standardized test.
The legislation would also pilot new ways of measuring district and teacher performance less reliant on MCAS scores and more influenced by community input in partnership with the Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education Assessment.
“I believe in accountability,” Comerford said Monday. “What I do not believe in is allowing a single test to determine whether or not a student receives a high school diploma, regardless of whether or not that student passes all of their requisite coursework.”
Lawmakers created the MCAS system in a 1993 education reform law aimed at improving accountability and school performance. The first tests were administered in 1998, and since the class of 2003, students have been required to achieve sufficient scores to graduate.
Waivers Sought for Jobless Workers who Were ‘Overpaid’ Benefits
Eagle Tribune – Lawmakers are hoping to buoy thousands of jobless workers who owe the state for “overpayment” of unemployment benefits during the pandemic.
A proposal seeks to increase the number of waivers granted by the Department of Unemployment Assistance to workers who owe hundreds of thousands of dollars in state and federal benefits they weren’t supposed to get.
Backers say loosening eligibility for the waivers will bring relief to unemployed workers who, in some cases, received and spent benefits they had no reason to question.
“These are people who accepted these benefits — which they’ve used to meet rent, food and other basic needs — and are now being told they have to pay the money back,” said state Rep. Tram Nguyen, D-Andover, a co-sponsor of the bill. “In some cases, these overpayments were not the fault of workers.”
The proposal, filed by Rep. Joan Meschino, D-Hull, would require a waiver for people whose income after taxes is 125% or less than the state’s poverty level; if funds were used for “ordinary living expenses”; or if the state made technical error leading to the overpayment, or if a notice of overpayment took too long to process.
“Under these circumstances, it shall be against equity and good conscience for the director to recover an overpayment, and the department shall grant a waiver,” the bill reads.
The plan also would require the state to review waivers that were previously denied for the expanded criteria. If the state collected overpayments from workers who are later granted a waiver, it would have 30 days to return those funds.
Benefit overpayments can occur for a variety of reasons. People may apply for benefits they believe they’re qualified for but are later deemed ineligible. Applicants may make good-faith mistakes while filling out forms.
In other cases, clerical errors were made in the state’s haste to approve claims.
As of September 2020, the state reported 78,337 cases of overpayments totaling $188,283,829. That’s about $2,400 per worker.
Overpayments were made to people getting traditional benefits as well as self-employed, gig economy workers and others getting weekly payments under a federal pandemic-era program.
To recoup the money, Massachusetts offers individuals the chance to repay a lump sum or deduct from weekly payments if they are still getting benefits. Money also may be recovered from tax refunds, or through the courts.
Beneficiaries who get notices of overpayment can appeal. The state charges 15% interest on overpayment tied to fraud in filling out forms, or “due to a misrepresentation or failure to disclose a material fact.”
It’s not clear how much the state has recouped so far, or how many beneficiaries have sought waivers.
Like most states, Massachusetts was hit with a deluge of jobless claims last year.
It paid out nearly $6 billion in benefits in 2020 as hundreds of thousands of workers were sidelined by government-imposed shutdowns meant to stop the spread of COVID-19. The claims forced Gov. Charlie Baker to borrow more than $2.2 billion from the federal government.
A pandemic relief law approved by Congress allows states to forgive overpayment if it’s determined the beneficiary wasn’t at fault or “if such repayment would be contrary to equity and good conscience.”
Massachusetts has similar rules on the books, though Nguyen said the process for getting a waiver hasn’t been well publicized.
A provision of the bill would require more public outreach to make beneficiaries aware that they may qualify for an exemption.
“There has really been no notice for folks, which is problematic,” she said. “We need to make sure that they have access to these waivers.”
September 14
Schedule
Tuesday September 14
Wednesday September 15
Friday September 17
Tuesday September 21
Wednesday September 22
Biden Announces Vaccine Mandates that Could Cover 100 Million Americans
CNN – President Joe Biden on Thursday imposed stringent new vaccine rules on federal workers, large employers and health care staff in a sweeping attempt to contain the latest surge of Covid-19.
The new requirements could apply to as many as 100 million Americans — close to two-thirds of the American workforce — and amount to Biden’s strongest push yet to require vaccines for much of the country.
“We’ve been patient, but our patience is wearing thin, and your refusal has cost all of us,” Biden said, his tone hardening toward Americans who still refuse to receive a vaccine despite ample evidence of their safety and full approval of one — the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine — from the US Food and Drug Administration.
He said vaccinated America was growing “frustrated” with the 80 million people who have not received shots and are fueling the spread of the virus. And he acknowledged the new steps would not provide a quick fix.
“While America is in much better shape than it was seven months ago when I took office, I need to tell you a second fact: We’re in a tough stretch and it could last for awhile,” Biden said in an early evening speech from the White House.
At the center of Biden’s new plan is directing the Labor Department to require all businesses with 100 or more employees ensure their workers are either vaccinated or tested once a week, an expansive step the President took after consultation with administration health officials and lawyers. Companies could face thousands of dollars in fines per employee if they don’t comply.
Executive Order Imposes COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate on Federal Contractors
National Law Review – In an attempt to contain the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, President Biden issued two Executive Orders on September 9 that mandate COVID-19 vaccines for federal government employees and employees of federal government contractors. Although key details of these vaccine mandates have yet to be defined, the new measures appear to build on the administration’s recent mandate for vaccination or testing of contractor employees who work on-site at federal locations.
As a result of these new mandates, federal government contractors will soon be presented with complex and risk-laden decisions as employees seek exemptions, to the extent available, from the vaccine mandate.
The first executive order is applicable to federal government employees and requires the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force (Task Force) to issue guidance requiring a vaccine mandate for federal agency employees. Federal agencies are then required to implement the Task Force’s guidance “with exceptions only as required by applicable law.”
The second executive order is applicable to federal government contractors and provides that new government contracts and contract-like instruments must include a clause requiring the contractor and “any subcontractors (at any tier)” to comply with “all guidance” issued by the Task Force.
Pursuant to the terms of the contractor Executive Order, the clause’s requirements are applicable to “any workplace locations (as specified by the Task Force Guidance) in which an individual is working on or in connection with a Federal Government contract or contract-like instrument.”
The Executive Order applicable to federal contractors provides that the Task Force will issue its guidance by September 24 and outline “definitions of relevant terms,” “explanations of protocols required of contractors and subcontractors,” and “any exceptions” to the vaccination mandate.
The vaccine mandate is applicable to any contract or contract-like instrument that is entered into, extended, renewed, or has an option exercised on or after October 15. However, the Executive Order is effective immediately and agencies are “strongly encouraged, to the extent permitted by law” to extend the vaccine mandate to existing contracts not otherwise subject to the Executive Order.
The Executive Order adopts the definition of “contract or contract-like instrument” from the Department of Labor’s minimum wage regulations, and thus presumably excludes procurement contracts excluded from the Davis-Bacon Act and service contracts excluded from the Service Contract Act. The Executive Order explicitly excludes federal grants, contracts with Indian Tribes, employees who perform work outside of the United States, contracts equal or less than the simplified acquisition threshold (generally $250,000), and subcontracts solely for the provision of products.
The Executive Order is ambiguous about several important issues that will need to be fleshed out by the Task Force’s guidance.
First, in the context of the federal contractor minimum-wage requirement, employees who work only “in connection with” a contact are not covered unless more than 20% of their work time is spent performing contract-related services. Will the same 20% threshold apply to the vaccine mandate?
Second, the Executive Order is phrased to apply to “any workplace locations” where contract work is performed, rather than to employees performing the work. Arguably, the mandate may cover workers performing only commercial work if there is also government contract work performed at the employee’s “workplace location,” which is itself a potentially ambiguous term pending further guidance from the Task Force.
The Executive Order provides that the Task Force should permit only exceptions “required by applicable law.” Presumably, this would include disability, religious, and pregnancy accommodations that are required by federal statutes.
To date, many employers implementing vaccine mandates have struggled with these accommodation requirements, which present complex and nuanced legal issues. To the extent the Task Force’s guidance regarding exemptions is different than generallyapplicable federal law, it will only add to the complexity.
Moreover, state law may impose different or additional requirements, including laws in some states protecting workers against mandatory vaccine mandates, which may conflict with the mandate required by the Executive Order. To the extent there is ambiguity as to which employees are actually covered by the Executive Order, the potentially conflicting obligations under the Executive Order and state laws may pose challenging dilemmas for employers.
Federal contractors should begin working with counsel now to prepare for the new mandate required by the executive orders, including implementing procedures to communicate with employees regarding the mandate, ascertain employees’ vaccination statuses, and process and address requests for accommodations.
Key Parts of Biden’s Plan to Confront Delta Variant Surge
Boston Globe – President Joe Biden has unveiled a new “action plan” plan to confront the COVID-19 surge that’s being driven by the spread of the Delta variant.
It mandates vaccines for federal workers and contractors and certain health care workers, requires employees at companies with 100 or more workers to be vaccinated or tested weekly, lays the groundwork for a booster shot campaign and recommends that large venues require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test. The plan also makes recommendations on keeping schools open.
Key parts of the plan:
Vaccine mandates
Schools and events
Boosters
Masks and testing
COVID care
Economy
Vaccine Mandates Test Biden Ties with Labor
The Hill – President Biden’s strong ties to labor unions could be put to the test by his administration’s embrace of vaccine mandates.
Biden on Thursday unveiled a much more heavy-handed approach to combating COVID-19 compared to what the administration has favored in the past.
In a speech, he scolded vaccine-hesitant and vaccine-resistant people for rising numbers of infections and hospitalizations and proceeded to announce a series of vaccine mandates on health workers, federal employees and contractors, and even private companies.
If they don’t comply, they could face steep fines.
Labor unions are divided over the approach, as they seek to balance the need for workplace safety with addressing anti-vaccine sentimentamong some of their members.
Many unions have walked a fine line, encouraging members to get vaccinated without endorsing mandates.
But as private sector mandates have grown in popularity, unions have increasingly stressed the need for any potential measures to be collectively bargained before going into effect.
The response to federal mandates was no different.
Companies Confront Vaccine Question in Face of Biden Mandate
Boston Business Journal – While several large employers in Massachusetts had already mandated Covid-19 vaccinations for their workers, many more are weighing their options following the Biden administration’s order Thursday that large employers must require the shots or test their workers weekly.
The federal government’s rule applies to all employers with 100 or more workers. In Massachusetts, life sciences companies, universities and even government agencies overseen by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker have already mandated vaccines. The Democratic president’s announcement is forcing everyone else to confront the matter.
One of the state’s largest employers, Stop & Shop Supermarket Co. LLC, requires its employees to wear a mask but has stopped short of issuing a vaccine mandate. The Quincy-based supermarket has 5,299 full-time workers and 14,558 part-time workers in Massachusetts.
“We have been monitoring the news released by President Biden’s administration yesterday and will be evaluating the implications for our business and associates,” a Stop & Shop spokesperson said in a statement to the Business Journal.
“We will work with both industry and government partners as this situation evolves. Stop & Shop is committed to continuing to help our associates and the communities we serve navigate the pandemic and doing our part to support health and safety during these difficult times.”
Hopkinton-based tech giant Dell Technologies, which has 6,400 employees in Massachusetts, is mulling over how to mandate a Covid-19 vaccine.
“We are currently evaluating requiring a Covid-19 vaccine for onsite employees and contractors, and how we would effectively roll it out across the company,” the company said in a statement.
“We’re working on an approach that prioritizes the health and safety of our employees and customers. We will continue to be transparent about these decisions and communicate next steps, timed to any news on site reopenings.”
Coronavirus Testing Demand Increases in the Face of the Delta Variant
Boston Globe – Demand for coronavirus testing has increased significantly due to the ultra-contagious Delta variant, and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard is processing nearly 100,000 tests on some days, numbers that haven’t been seen since May.
The Broad Institute processed more than 89,000 coronavirus tests on Thursday, the highest tally of the week, and the most tests since May 11, when 97,000 were completed.
Demand for tests started to spike in early August, according to a Broad Institute real-time dashboard. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had identified the Delta variant as predominant on Aug. 6, and it’s remained so since.
Daily tests in early July, when coronavirus rates were still relatively low, hovered between 10,000 and 25,000 per day.
The peak testing demand for the Broad Institute came during April of this year, when on the 6th of the month they processed 148,000 tests in one day.
The institute created a new automated system for COVID-19 tests, and works with hospitals, clinics, nursing homes, homeless shelters, and schools across the state to provide quick and accurate testing.
Turnaround time for results, even as demand had increased, has been 24 hours from the time the sample reaches the lab to the result, according to a spokeswoman.
The Broad Institute has processed more than 21 million coronavirus tests since the pandemic began. The cumulative test positive rate is 2%, while the latest seven-day rolling average is 1.2%.
A Massachusetts Court Case Could Provide Precedent for Biden’s Mandate
Boston Globe – During a smallpox epidemic more than 100 years ago, a Cambridge resident took issue with the local board of health’s requirement that all adults be vaccinated against the disease.
Henning Jacobson claimed he had a serious reaction to a vaccination as a child living in Sweden and did not want to be vaccinated. He faced the criminal penalty of a $5 fine for those who refused the vaccine and took his case to the US Supreme Court, arguing the vaccine requirement infringed on his rights under the due process clause of the 14th Amendment of the Constitution that says states cannot “deprive any person of life, liberty or property without due process of law.”
In 1905, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Jacobson v. Massachusetts that public health measures, like vaccination, imposed by states are constitutional because, in essence, living in society comes with restrictions, including those pertaining to public health.
At the heart of the case is the intersection between public health and a person’s individual rights. The court ruled that while the state doesn’t have absolute power to limit individual rights, it can impose reasonable limits when it comes to public health.
Jobless Claims Edge Higher
The number of Massachusetts workers filing new claims for unemployment edged up last week, the executive office of Labor and Workforce Development said Thursday.
For the week ending Sept. 4, Massachusetts had 5,712 people file initial claims for unemployment insurance.
The larger increases were seen in: Construction, up 74 people; Manufacturing, up 42; Food and Accommodation, up 42; and Public Administration, up 36 people.
State numbers are not adjusted for seasonal changes in the economy as it shifts from summer to fall business patterns.
Nationally, seasonally adjusted data also released Thursday said the number of initial claims was 310,000, down 35,000 from the week before and a new low for the pandemic.
It’s the lowest number of new unemployment claims since March 14, 2020 when it was 256,000, the federal Labor Department, said.
State Health Council Approves Expanded Vaccine Requirement
Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly – The Massachusetts Public Health Council on Sept. 8 approved a plan to require vaccination against COVID-19 for all employees at rest homes, assisted living residences, and hospice programs, along with workers who provide in-home direct care services.
The council unanimously approved the plan at a public meeting, with members calling it an important step to protect vulnerable age groups.
The plan expands on a previous order from Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration requiring vaccination for workers at skilled nursing facilities.
The expanded vaccine requirement was announced on Sept. 1 and applies to the state’s 62 freestanding rest homes and 268 assisted living residences, as well as 85 hospice programs and up to 100,000 home care workers. It also applies to contractors who work in those facilities.Under the plan, workers will be required to receive vaccinations by Oct. 31.
Exemptions will be granted for people with a medical condition that prevents them from receiving a vaccination or with a sincerely held religious belief.
The requirement was previously applauded by the Massachusetts Assisted Living Association, an industry group.
Remote Work Made Life Easier for Employees with Disabilities. Advocates Say the Option Should Stay
Boston Globe – The pandemic upended corporate culture as workers traded office buildings for their kitchen tables. For most, the change was largely a matter of convenience. But for many people with disabilities, it was transformative ― getting to and from a workplace was the most arduous part of their day.
From the city to the suburbs and beyond, getting from one point to the other in a timely fashion has always been complicated for them. Some Boston workers live in rural towns far from public transit stations and are either unable to drive to work or need support to do so.
The Boston Center for Independent Living has worked closely with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority to ensure accessible public transit, said executive director Bill Henning. But while most MBTA routes do include accommodations for disabilities, not all stations are wheelchair-friendly.
And people with vision problems may find it hard to navigate a bustling city, especially during peak commuting hours.
Andy Forman, senior disability advocate at BCIL, is legally blind. Prior to the pandemic, he said, commuting from Plymouth to Boston for work could take up to two hours each way. Because he cannot drive, a family member would drop him off at the Kingston commuter rail station.
Vaccine Boosters Not Widely Needed, Top FDA and WHO Scientists Say
Yahoo News – COVID-19 vaccine booster shots are not needed for the general population, leading scientists including two departing senior U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials and several from the World Health Organization (WHO) said in an article published in a medical journal on Monday.
The scientists said more evidence was needed to justify boosters. That view disagrees with U.S. government plans to begin offering another round of shots to many fully vaccinated Americans as soon as next week, contingent on approval from health regulators.
As COVID-19 cases caused by the Delta variant of the virus rise, President Joe Biden’s administration is concerned that infections among those already vaccinated are a sign that their protection is waning and has pushed boosters as a way to rebuild immunity.
The WHO has argued that the vaccines are still needed for first doses around the globe.
“Any decisions about the need for boosting or timing of boosting should be based on careful analyses of adequately controlled clinical or epidemiological data, or both, indicating a persistent and meaningful reduction in severe disease,” the scientists wrote in the Lancet medical journal.
The risk-benefit evaluation should consider the number of severe COVID-19 cases that boosting would be expected to prevent, and whether it is safe and effective against the current variants, they said.
“Current evidence does not, therefore, appear to show a need for boosting in the general population, in which efficacy against severe disease remains high,” the scientists wrote.
Some countries have begun COVID-19 booster campaigns, including Israel, providing some of the data on which the Biden administration has made its case for additional shots. Boston Public Schools Superintendent Gets Full License Back
Boston Herald – Every year, myriad school-age teens are delighted to finally get their licenses, and the freedom that comes with them.
But no one in Boston Public Schools might be happier to get her license than the person in charge: Superintendent Brenda Cassellius, who will be able to keep doing her job after a bizarre turn of events left her without the full ability to run the district for a few weeks.
The school department announced Friday that the state told them that Cassellius had passed her licensure test last month, meaning she now is back fully licensed after a lapse.
“I am pleased today to learn that I passed the licensure exam and have completed this last component of the state’s licensure requirements,” Cassellius said in a statement during the second day of school.
“I look forward to welcoming our Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten students back to school on Monday and remain committed to the important work ahead.”
The state license lookup confirms that she has her initial license, issued Friday.
Chaos ensued in the first week of August, when state Commissioner of Education Jeff Riley called Cassellius to inform her that her provisional license had expired. Cassellius then apologized to the school committee, blaming it on some unspecified “miscommunication,” even though the state says they had told the district this problem was looming.
Cassellius continued to work on the expired license as she got ready to take the final test, though the district did start having a licensed second administrator sign off on documents. The state then gave Cassellius her license back on a temporary basis until the results of her test came back.
Cassellius said in the Friday statement that the on-time arrival rate for buses increased to 81% after it was at 57% on the first day of school. That first-day low number — though higher than many past years — led to the administration taking flak from mayoral challengers, who gave Cassellius moderately low marks when asked to grade her performance in Thursday night’s debate.
“These milestones are the result of dedication and collaboration and I want to thank the entire BPS community for their tireless work. As we greeted students and staff returning to school yesterday, I saw so much joy and happy reunions,” Cassellius said in the statement.
Towns with High Infection Numbers have Fewer Young People Inoculated
New York Times – Teen-agers in many of the cities and towns hardest hit by COVID-19 are getting vaccinated at alarmingly low rates, according to an analysis from a Harvard University researcher, raising concerns there could be a fresh surge in infections as schools open for in-person classes across Massachusetts.
The analysis, which focused on 42 communities that have had some of the state’s highest infection rates through most of the pandemic, found that 37 of them recorded teen vaccination rates lower, and in some cases dramatically lower, than the state average for teens.
Just 38 percent of 12- to 15-year-olds in New Bedford had received their first COVID shot by Sept. 2, and the rate for those 16 to 19 wasn’t much better: just 44 percent. Holyoke and Springfield reported similarly low vaccination rates. In Boston, older teens are the main concern — fewer than half of 16- to 19-year-olds had gotten at least one shot.
The lowest rates of all were among children 12 to 15 years old, still too young to make their own health care decisions. Just five of the 42 communities Harvard researcher Alan Geller focused on had vaccination rates for this age group that were above the state average of 68 percent.
“If we don’t get this right, how are we going to do it with the 5- to 11-year-olds when they are authorized for a vaccine?” said Geller, a senior lecturer at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the author of the analysis.
“Unfortunately, this may be a barometer of where we will go” with the younger children.
Baystate Health COVID Hospitalizations Triple; Patient Count Reaches 100
Mass Live – The number of patients hospitalized at Baystate Health facilities for COVID-19 has tripled in a month, as infections are rising in the region.
There are currently 104 people being treated at Baystate hospitals in the region and 11 are currently in critical care, Baystate officials reported on Sunday.
“We will continue to closely monitor our curves as the state eases restrictions and mass gatherings continue. Careful vigilance will also provide early clues to any potential recurrent surge of the regional pandemic,” the statement said.
On Aug. 15, Baystate Health reported 35 patients hospitalized with COVID-19, five of whom were being treated in the critical care unit. On July 12, Baystate officials reported just five people were being treated with COVID-19, two of whom were treated in the critical care unit.
Administration Announces $303,000 Grant to Marion
Wicked Local – The Baker Administration announced more than $6.7 million in Seaport Economic Council grants for 16 projects in 14 coastal communities, including $303,000 to Marion.
The awarded funds will help coastal communities advance projects that benefit commercial maritime industries, improve resident and visitor access to waterfront assets, mitigate the impacts of climate change, and advance future dredging.
The grants were approved last week at a meeting of the Seaport Economic Council held at Massachusetts Maritime Academy and chaired by Lt. Governor Karyn Polito.
Polito also conducted the swearing-in of Michael Collins, who will serve on the Council as the Northeast Region Coastal Community Representative, and Ashley Stolba, Undersecretary of Community Development, as the Council’s Vice Chair.
“The commonwealth’s coastal communities greatly contribute to our statewide economy, and through the Seaport Economic Council we continue to invest in the infrastructure that boosts working waterfronts, protects natural assets, and improves access for residents and visitors,” said Governor Charlie Baker.
“With these grants and in partnership with these communities, we can continue to support key industries and the economic activity they generate.”
Trial Court Employees Say They’re Hitting a Glass Ceiling Due to Race
MassLive – “People are scared to come forward,” said Case Specialist Sharon Rodriguez. “They are worried that they might lose their job if they do.”
Rodriguez sat and spoke of her experiences at the trial court in Springfield for over an hour highlighting that she is not the only one to have faced discrimination and a glass ceiling at the court building.
Four current and former employees of the state’s trial court system came forward with their own stories of discrimination in the workplace after reading a MassLive article on former probation officer Garry A. Porter Sr. claiming a workplace atmosphere of passive aggressive racism.
Warren’s Red Line on Budget Talks: ‘We Must have a Child-Care Bill’
WPRI – U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Wednesday she remains confident Democrats in Congress will soon reach agreement on a far-reaching budget bill despite significant disagreements, while making clear she has no higher priority than additional funding for child care.
In a wide-ranging interview with 12 News at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth ahead of a town hall Wednesday night, the second-term Massachusetts Democrat said there are a host of issues she wants to see tackled in the final budget reconciliation plan, including expanding Medicare and tackling climate change. But child care tops the list.
“We must have a child-care bill,” Warren said. “And we must have a child-care bill so that parents have access, so that it is affordable, and so that it is high quality.” She added that one in four women who are currently out of the workforce say the reason is a lack of child care.
Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are racing to complete negotiations over the $3.5 trillion budget plan put forward by President Biden by the end of this month. Party leaders are caught between progressives who say want the bill to be even bigger and moderates who have signaled they may not support anywhere near that much spending.
“Look, that’s the whole point — we are negotiating, we are talking, people are pushing their issues,” Warren said.
As for concerns about the cost of the plan, Warren said, “I believe we should pay for this.”
She offered three proposals that she said would provide enough funding to cover the $3.5 trillion tab: a wealth tax on the richest households; a new minimum corporate tax on profits over $100 million; and stepped-up enforcement resources for the IRS.
Vaccine Resisters Seeks Religious Exemptions. But What Counts as Religious?
Boston Globe – When Crisann Holmes’ employer announced last month that it would require all employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Nov. 1, she knew she had to find a way out.
She signed a petition to ask the company to relax its mandate. She joined an informal protest, skipping work with other dissenting employees at the mental health care system where she has worked for two years. And she attempted a solution that many across the country are now exploring: a religious exemption.
“My freedom and my children’s freedom and children’s children’s freedom are at stake,” said Holmes, who lives in Indiana.
In August, she submitted an exemption request she wrote herself, bolstered by her own Bible study and language from sources online. Some vaccines were developed using fetal cell lines from aborted fetuses, she wrote, citing a remote connection to a practice she finds abhorrent. She quoted a passage from the New Testament: “Let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit.”
Major religious traditions, denominations and institutions are essentially unanimous in their support of the vaccines against COVID-19. But as more employers across the country begin requiring COVID vaccinations for workers, they are butting up against the nation’s sizable population of vaccine holdouts who nonetheless see their resistance in religious terms — or at least see an opportunity.
Vaccine-resistant workers are sharing tips online for requesting exemptions to the requirements on religious grounds; others are submitting letters from far-flung religious authorities who have advertised their willingness to help.
Mariano: House May Allocate Some ARPA Funds in Fall
State House News – House Speaker Ronald Mariano said Monday that passing a bill to allocate some of the state’s American Rescue Plan Act funds before Thanksgiving is not “an unrealistic goal” and suggested that questions around ascertaining the COVID-19 vaccination status of representatives are among the obstacles remaining to a full reopening of the State House.
“I don’t want to have a two-tiered system where I’m asking folks to come in and work beside people who will not declare whether or not they’ve been vaccinated,” he said in response to a question about reopening the building.
“We have people currently in the House of Representatives who are being treated, who are immune compromised. I’m not going to ask those people to sit next to people who won’t declare, and right now we’re investigating ways in which we can deal with that.”
Mariano’s comments came after he met with Gov. Charlie Baker and Senate President Karen Spilka for their first in-person huddle since July 26. Baker said they discussed issues around COVID-19, the fall legislative agenda and the start of the new school year.
Along with spending some of the ARPA money, Spilka listed redistricting, election reform and mental and behavioral health as items on her fall agenda. Mariano said his list contains “a number of different health care issues.”
The Legislature has a little over nine weeks before it breaks for its next recess ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday — legislative rules set Nov. 17 as the last day of formal lawmaking sessions until 2022.
House and Senate budget-writers have announced plans to hold at least three more hearings this fall on spending some of the $4.8 billion available in state ARPA funds, the next of which is scheduled for Sept. 21 and will focus on health care, mental health, substance use disorder, public health, and human services.
“We still have a couple hearings left, and we are waiting to hear from both folks in the administration and folks outside how best to use some of that money,” Mariano said, going on to describe passing a bill by Thanksgiving as not an “unreasonable goal.”
Discussing her plans for the fall legislative agenda, Spilka said she anticipates putting out a bill to “use some of the money, maybe not all.”
Business Groups Renew Call for Unemployment Relief
WWLP – After making a pitch to legislative leaders weeks ago, a coalition of business groups and chambers of commerce expanded their effort and wrote to all 200 lawmakers calling for Massachusetts to pursue additional unemployment insurance relief.
The collection of nearly 30 industry leaders and advocates on Thursday sent a letter to every lawmaker urging them to use federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars to replenish the unemployment insurance trust fund, offsetting the costs businesses will pay over 20 years to stabilize the system after enormous upheaval during the pandemic.
Authors sent House Speaker Ronald Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka a letter on Aug. 18 urging action, then sent the same text to all lawmakers on Thursday.
They voiced support for Gov. Charlie Baker’s proposal to spend $1 billion from the state’s surplus tax collections on unemployment relief but said lawmakers should also tap into the massive pool of unspent federal aid to relieve businesses.
“If no relief money is committed for the UI Trust Fund, businesses in every corner of the Commonwealth will face UI tax increases with payments amortized over a 20-year span,” the business groups wrote. “Budding entrepreneurs sitting in a Massachusetts classroom dreaming of one day owning their own business will unreasonably be saddled with this debt. Businesses that hobbled through the pandemic and are still in the process of recovering will find higher UI taxes as a barrier to job creation and economic expansion.”
Retailers Association of Massachusetts President Jon Hurst, who signed the letter alongside the more than two dozen other industry leaders, also sent his own letter to Senate Ways and Means Committee Chair Michael Rodrigues, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Aaron Michlewitz, and House Committee on Federal Stimulus and Census Oversight Chair Daniel Hunt making a similar plea for a $2 billion payment toward the unemployment system.
“What employers hope to see now from the state is a sense of shared responsibility in attacking this deficit, with the state’s assistance in reducing the overall unemployment insurance debt,” Hurst wrote.
SEED Gets $1.14 Million Grant to Help Small Businesses in Southeastern Massachusetts
Sun Chronicle – The South Eastern Economic Development (SEED) Corp. has been awarded a $1.14 million state grant aimed at lowering the barriers small businesses face in accessing essential start-up, expansion, and general working capital.
The grant is through the Mass Growth Capital Corp., which is awarding $14.7 million in matching funds to 15 non-profits that will administer the loan programs to reach small businesses in their communities.
“To address the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the commonwealth’s small businesses and main streets, our administration put forward the largest relief program in the nation as part of our comprehensive plan for economic recovery,” said Gov. Charlie Baker.
“With this new round of funding for technical assistance, access to capital, and digital tools, we are strengthening our support for small businesses and taking another major step toward a return to normal.”
The grant will increase SEED’s total capital to $15 million for small loans up to $250,000 and enable it to continue meeting the financing needs of start-up and expanding small businesses in underserved markets, and economically distressed areas in Southeastern Massachusetts, said SEED Executive Director Susan Murray.
Boston Mayoral Candidates Hit the Campaign Trail ahead of Tuesday Election
Boston Herald – A competitive field of candidates for Boston’s top office spread out through the city over the weekend to hustle up votes in the waning days before Tuesday’s preliminary election.
Acting Boston Mayor Kim Janey, City Councilors Annissa Essaibi-George, Andrea Campbell and Michelle Wu, and John Barros, the city’s former economic development chief, are stepping up appearances and ringing as many doorbells as possible in the run up to the vote when field will be narrowed to two.
Recent polls show a tight race among the historic group of candidates with Wu in the lead and Janey, Campbell and Essaibi-George running neck-and-neck for second place. Barros trails in the polls.
Boston has always elected and been led by white men, something guaranteed to change with this mayoral election. Wu is a first-generation Taiwanese American. Janey and Campbell are both Black women. Essaibi-George is a first-generation Arab-Polish American. Barros is of Cape Verdean descent.
There’s plenty of crossover for the candidates — all progressive Democrats — when it comes to the issues and all are using the final days to connect with as many voters as possible. The two top candidates selected on Tuesday will face off on Nov. 2.
Campbell took the prize for most-visible candidate this weekend, making 26 appearances in total between Saturday and Sunday, according to her campaign schedule.
Campbell is enjoying a groundswell of support after a string of recent endorsements buoyed the District 4 city councilor into the group of top contenders. She trailed during much of the early campaign season. It’s momentum she said she’s hoping will propel her onto the November ballot.
“I’m the best candidate in this moment in time and not just because of my lived experience where I can relate to every inequity we are talking about in Boston,” Campbell said. “I am more than a story – I have a record of getting results.”
Essaibi-George has also seen a bump in the polls, which she said is proof her “message is resonating with voters.”
“Voters are really responding to my work, track record and commitment to working on so many of the big issues we face as a city,” the city councilor-at large told the Herald.
Proposed Massachusetts Law Classifying App-Based Drivers as Independent Contractors Clears First Step of Ballot Initiative Process
JDSUPRA – On September 1, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey approved two versions of a ballot initiative (version 1, version 2) concerning the relationship between app-based drivers (such as those who transport passengers or deliver food) and the companies with which they contract.
If passed, the ballot initiative will enact the Relationship Between Network Companies and App-Based Drivers Act (the “Act”) and classify such drivers as independent contractors, not employees. It will also require ride-sharing and food-delivery companies to provide them with certain benefits.
Like most companies, ride-sharing and food-delivery companies operating in Massachusetts must satisfy M.G.L. c. 149, § 148B’s “ABC test” to show that a worker is an independent contractor. The ABC test provides that workers are independent contractors only if their putative employer demonstrates that they are not subject to the company’s “control and direction,” perform work “outside the usual course” of the company’s business, and are “customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, profession or business.”
Under the Act, however, app-based drivers would be independent contractors if they are not required to work on certain days, at specific times, or a set number of hours; are free to reject requests for rides or deliveries; and are not restricted from working in any other lawful line of work, including working for other app-based transportation and delivery companies (except while actively performing transportation or delivery services using a particular company’s app).
Opinion: Massachusetts Tax Credit for Film Will Bring Business To The Bay State
WGBH (Opinon) – Spotted, speeding down the night streets of Cambridge: Okoye, the head of the Dora Malaje, the fierce all-woman security force of Wakanda.
That’s the fictional home of the Marvel Studios comic book superhero Black Panther, brought to life in the 2018 global movie blockbuster of the same name. The night filming a couple of weeks ago will be part of the 2022 sequel, “Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever.”
Nobody knows how the filming in and around MIT, and in at least one other Boston location, figures into the closely guarded plot. But rabid fans are probably not wrong in speculating that it involves Shuri, the Black Panther’s sister, the brainy scientist who runs the country’s high-tech laboratory. It makes sense she might be checking in with a mentor at MIT or seeking consultation on her latest futuristic gadget.
Now I can imagine there are many of you not in the least interested in the Marvel Universe featuring superheroes like Black Panther and the dozen or so others like the Hulk, Black Widow and Captain America of the star-studded “Avengers: Endgame.”
But if that fictional universe doesn’t grab you, there is the universal appeal of fattening the state’s wallet.
Filming the new chapter of the Black Panther story in the Bay State is a “ka-ching!” moment supported by the now-permanent Massachusetts film tax credit. Governor Charlie Baker recently signed off on a legislative compromise in the 2022 budget that requires 75% of the production’s budget or filming days to be spent in the state. I’ve always been a fan of the film tax credit, which also benefits GBH, as a win-win for the state and the local film, TV and streaming industry.
The state’s history and architecture attract legions of tourists and are a perfect backdrop for productions. In the recently released movie, “Free Guy,” actor Ryan Reynolds finds himself living in a video game. Downtown Boston serves as the main setting, while many scenes were shot in nearby locations including Revere Beach and Worcester. Expect more tourists who, like me, love to visit sites where filming took place.
House Panels Begin Writing $3.5 Trillion Social Policy and Climate Bill
New York Times – Five House committees on Thursday began formally drafting their pieces of Democrats’ far-reaching social policy and climate change bill that would spend as much as $3.5 trillion over the next decade — and raise as much in taxes and other revenue boosters — to reweave the social safety net and move the country away from fossil fuels.
The products of the drafting sessions, which could take several arduous days, are to be folded into a final bill later this fall that could be one of the most significant measures to reach the House floor in decades.
“This is our moment to lay a new foundation of opportunity for the American people,” said Representative Richard Neal of Massachusetts, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, in opening remarks on Thursday.
“This is a historic moment to make investments that reflect what we’ve learned during the pandemic so that the American people will be healthier, and our economy will be more inclusive and resilient for generations to come.”
Democrats plan to push through the legislation using a process known as reconciliation, which shields fiscal measures from filibusters and allows them to pass with a simple majority if they adhere to strict rules. The maneuver leaves the party little room for defections given its slim majorities.
In Social Policy Bill, Businesses See a Lot to Like. They Oppose it.
Boston Globe – The far-reaching social policy bill under construction in Congress has much that corporate America has long sought from Washington.
Federal funding for family leave would ease the burden of businesses that currently pay for it while helping those that cannot afford it compete for workers. Child-care tax credits would get women back in the workforce. Income supports for young families could ease upward pressure on wages.
But the bill also contains plenty for corporate America to dislike — particularly the tax increases that would pay for it — and in the cold calculus of corporate lobbying, industries are working hard to bring the whole enterprise down.
“It’s not fair to say we like all the spending but don’t want to pay for it. There is some investment that is more valuable than others,” said Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer for the US Chamber of Commerce. But, he added, “ultimately we’re making the case that, taken as a whole, this is economically devastating for the country and in particular members’ districts and states.”
Businesses have long seen a role for the government in creating and sustaining the kind of trained, healthy workforce that can keep them competitive in a global economy.
Access to affordable child care and early-childhood education would help parents who stopped working during the coronavirus pandemic return to the labor force. Expanded higher education aid and worker retraining could create a more flexible labor pool, programs that business groups have supported for years.
Federally financed family and medical leave would help small businesses that cannot afford it compete for talent with larger businesses providing the benefit.
“What’s holding back growth? Labor force participation, which hasn’t recovered; nonaffordability of child care, which is going to take the biggest leap forward that we’ve ever had; paid leave for illness and family leave,” said Representative Donald Beyer Jr., a Virginia Democrat who owned and ran car dealerships before his political career.
“On the business side, I think it will make for a better workplace, an easier one with less tension.”
Downtown Businesses Cope with New Reality
Associated Press – Downtown businesses in the U.S. and abroad once took for granted that nearby offices would provide a steady clientele looking for breakfast, lunch, everyday goods and services and last-minute gifts. As the resilient coronavirus keeps offices closed and workers at home, some are adapting while others are trying to hang on.
Some businesses are already gone. The survivors have taken steps such as boosting online sales or changing their hours, staffing levels and what they offer customers. Others are relying more on residential traffic.
Many business owners had looked forward to a return toward normalcy this month as offices reopened. But now that many companies have postponed plans to bring workers back, due to surging COVID-19 cases, downtown businesses are reckoning with the fact that adjustments made on the fly may become permanent.
In downtown Detroit, Mike Frank’s cleaning business was running out of money and, it seemed, out of time.
September 8
Schedule
Wednesday September 8
Joint Committee on Advanced Information Technology, The Internet and Cyber Security-Informal Hearing on Cyber Policy-1:00pm-Virtual Hearing.
Thursday September 9
Joint Committee on Ways and Means- American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Spending with Focus on Economic Development: Transportation/Arts & Tourism/Climate/Infrastructure-11:30 am-Virtual Hearing.
Monday September 13
Joint Committee on Education-Curriculum-11:00am-Virtual Hearing.
Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure-Alcohol Expansion, Transportation, and Manufacturing-1:00pm-Virtual Hearing.
Tuesday September 14
Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development-Independent Contractors-10:30am-Virtual Hearing.
Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight-State Regulations-10:30am-Virtual Hearing.
Joint Committee on Health Care Financing- Primary Care & Behavioral Health Care, Patient Care Coordination-11:00am-Virtual Hearing.
Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government- Home Rule Petitions, Municipal Infrastructure, Powers and Authority, Finance-11:00am-Virtual Hearing.
Wednesday September 15
Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities-DCF/Adoption and Abuse-10:00am-Virtual Hearing.
Joint Committee on Financial Services-Auto Insurance-10:00am-Virtual Hearing.
Joint Committee on Housing-Public Housing-11:00am-Virtual Hearing.
Delta, Economic Disruptions Dent Business Confidence
Boston Globe – What a difference a month makes.
In July, business confidence levels tracked by Associated Industries of Massachusetts reached a three-year high as employers hoped an end to the COVID-19 pandemic was just around the corner.
Then came the Delta variant: COVID case counts shot up again, causing many companies to put off their return-to-office plans and implement new vaccination requirements for workers.
That’s one big reason the AIM Business Confidence Index shed 3.6 points in August, its largest drop since March 2020, according to a report out Tuesday. The index fell to 62.0, keeping it squarely in positive territory — the breakpoint between an overall negative mood and an upbeat one is 50 — but the trajectory changed significantly, for the worse. (About 130 employers, ranging in size from one- and two-person firms to billion-dollar companies, responded to the latest poll.)
“There’s no question that concern about COVID is giving employers pause,” said Chris Geehern, executive vice president at AIM. “The uncertainties swirling around employers have kind of slowed things down a bit.”
The uncertainties extend beyond public health concerns. They also include significant supply chain disruptions and the struggle to hire enough workers. One respondent remarked that costs have shot up because parts need to be imported to the United States by plane, as it’s impossible to get supplies on a container ship. Another said they are not bidding on potentially lucrative contracts because they don’t have the staff necessary to fulfill them.
And then there are the persistent headlines about office delays: Big Boston-area employers that have publicly announced they would keep most workers remote for longer than anticipated range from Google to John Hancock to Dell Technologies.
The AIM report comes days after the National Federation of Independent Business reported poll results that showed half of small-business owners reported they had job openings they could not fill, a record high. The primary factor: Too few qualified applicants.
Gig Workers Question Clears First Hurdle Before 2022 Ballot
Boston Globe – A controversial ballot question that could reshape the gig economy moved one step closer to appearing before Massachusetts voters on the 2022 ballot.
On Wednesday, Attorney General Maura Healey certified 17 ballot petitions as meeting constitutional muster, including questions on voter identification, happy hour, the legal status of app-based drivers, and more.
That’s just the first hurdle of many: Proponents of each question still have to gather more than 80,000 signatures over the next few months, and, if the Legislature doesn’t take action on the petitions, more than 13,000 additional signatures in the spring. It’s a taxing, expensive process; many initiatives don’t make the ballot after missing one or more requirement.
And there’s always the possibility that a lawsuit could keep a petition from reaching voters, especially for controversial measures like the gig workers question.
Thirteen initiatives were nixed in Healey’s review, she announced, including several that had the backing of the Massachusetts Republican Party. One seeking “to preserve the lives of children born alive,” was rejected because, the agency said, “its provisions are so ambiguous that it is impossible to determine, or inform potential voters of, the proposed law’s meaning.” Healey’s office also rejected one the party claimed targeted “critical race theory,” in part because “it is inconsistent with the right to free speech.”
Ballot petitions are reviewed under strict constitutional standards, the office said in a news release. They cannot infringe on protected constitutional rights and cannot pertain to subjects like religion or the power of the courts.
Perhaps the most closely watched is the question on the legal classification of gig workers in Massachusetts. A coalition backed by tech companies such as Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart seeks to keep classifying their drivers and deliverers as independent contractors, not employees, while offering them some new benefits. An opposing group, with support from large labor organizations, says those benefits are paltry compared with what drivers should already be getting under state law.
Unemployment Benefits Expire for Millions Without Pushback From Biden
New York Times – WASHINGTON — Expanded unemployment benefits that have kept millions of Americans afloat during the pandemic expired on Monday, setting up an abrupt cutoff of assistance to 7.5 million people as the Delta variant rattles the pandemic recovery.
The end of the aid came without objection from President Biden and his top economic advisers, who have become caught in a political fight over the benefits and are now banking on other federal help and an autumn pickup in hiring to keep vulnerable families from foreclosure and food lines.
The $1.9 trillion economic aid package Mr. Biden signed in March included extended and expanded benefits for unemployed workers, like a $300-per-week federal supplement to state jobless payments, additional weeks of assistance for the long-term unemployed and the extension of a special program to provide benefits to so-called gig workers who traditionally do not qualify for unemployment benefits.
The expiration date reached on Monday means that 7.5 million people will lose their benefits entirely and another three million will lose the $300 weekly supplement.
Board Agrees to Early Education Mask Mandate
NBC Boston – Teachers, staff and children age 5 and older who are enrolled in state-licensed day care, after-school and out-of-school programs will be required to wear masks indoors starting after Labor Day.
The policy, approved unanimously by the Massachusetts Board of Early Education and Care, is consistent with the back-to-school policy rolled out last week by the state.
Children across Massachusetts are returning to in-person learning over the next couple of weeks.
The policy applies to adults regardless of vaccination status and does not have an expiration date. It includes parents at pick-up and drop-off. The EEC policy bulletin notes that, by federal public health order, all children over the age of 2 and staff are required to wear masks on child care transportation.
Children between the ages of 2 and 5 will be “strongly” encouraged to wear a mask indoors if they are able. No students would be required to wear a mask while eating or sleeping, and exemptions would be available for physical and behavioral health conditions that might make wearing a mask unsafe.
Gov. Charlie Baker, who held a news conference shortly before the vote, said he agreed with the approach. “I think they’re viewing that at this point in time as an appropriate measure as, you know, school starts and as people start incorporating more of those early ed programs into their daily lives, I think it makes sense,” Baker said.
The board also voted to give Early Education Commissioner Samantha Aigner-Treworgy the authority to relax some of the early education teacher credentialing policies to increase the pipelines of people willing to take jobs in day care and after-school programs.
Massachusetts Preschools, Daycares Face ‘Frustrating’ Staff Shortages
Boston Herald – Although childcare workers and experts have warned of a staffing shortage for years, the crisis is now being felt more acutely than ever before as the school year ramps up.
“Pre-COVID, there was a waitlist for kids to come in and all of the classrooms were up and running,” said Jennifer Curtis, executive director of South Shore Stars, a non-profit organization that hosts early childhood and youth programs.
Now, she said, “two of our early childhood programs… have classrooms that remain empty because we still have staffing needs.”
According to a study released earlier this year by the Boston Opportunity Council, Boston saw an 11% drop in the number of seats available for children since the end of 2017, and had permanently lost 13% of its licensed childcare programs that were open pre-pandemic.
One study from the Center for American Progress estimated that only 28% of infants and toddlers statewide could be served by licensed childcare providers pre-pandemic.
Curtis said staff have turned over because they had to take care of their own families, were concerned about contracting COVID-19, or, reconciled whether they wanted to be in the workforce or whether they want to be at home. As a nonprofit organization, she’s not able to pay her workers as much as private or public centers can.
“You’re teaching your little ones in a prime developmental phase that’s really going to make them successful for the rest of their educational career,” she said. “It’s very frustrating when the salaries aren’t where they should be so you can attract and maintain staff.”
Researchers have known about the “expensive childcare, low worker wages” paradox for a while, according to Alicia Modestino, associate professor at Northeastern’s School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and the Department of Economics.
Taxpayers Keep Cash Rolling in on Beacon Hill
State House News – As legislators sit on surpluses and federal aid tied to pandemic recovery, taxpayers last month delivered money to state government at an even more accelerated pace than last fiscal year when they contributed to a cash windfall on Beacon Hill.
Department of Revenue officials late Friday afternoon reported that tax collections just two months into fiscal 2022 are up $639 million, or 15.6 percent higher than in the same two-month period of fiscal 2021. August collections of $2.49 billion were up by nearly 27 percent over August 2020.
“August revenue included increases in all major tax types relative to August 2020 collections, including increases in withholding, regular sales, meals tax, and ‘all other tax,’ ” Revenue Commissioner Geoffrey Snyder said.
“The increase in withholding is likely related to improvement in labor market conditions. The increase in regular sales tax reflects continued strength in retail sales, and the increase in meals tax reflects the easing of COVID-19 restrictions. The increase in ‘all other tax’ is primarily attributable to estate tax, a category that tends to fluctuate, and room occupancy tax.”
Income and withholding tax collections, the two largest pots of revenue, were up 25 percent and 20.5 percent, respectively, above August 2020 totals.
Snyder’s assessment of improving labor market conditions comes as employers scramble to fill open positions and as 300,000 state residents over the weekend lost federal enhanced unemployment benefits when COVID-19 programs ended on Saturday.
Last month, after revenues beat expectations for fiscal 2021 by roughly $5 billion, Gov. Charlie Baker proposed legislation to spend almost $1.57 billion while substantially bolstering the state’s cash reserves and offsetting some of the long-term unemployment insurance cost increasing facing businesses.
The Massachusetts Legislature last held formal sessions in late July. When formal sessions resume, lawmakers face decisions about how to allocate the fiscal 2021 surplus, ways to spend $4.8 billion in federal aid, as well as policy choices in the areas of sports betting, voting law reforms, and redistricting.
Massachusetts Expands Vaccine Requirement to More Workers Caring for the Elderly
Boston.com – After announcing plans to mandate the COVID-19 vaccine for skilled nursing home staff in Massachusetts last month, Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration is expanding the requirement to a range of workers who interact with the state’s oldest and most vulnerable residents.
The Baker administration announced Wednesday that the state will require all staff at rest homes, assisted living residences, and hospice programs, as well as an estimated 100,000 home care workers, to get the COVID-19 vaccine by Oct. 31.
If and when the plan is approved by the state’s Public Health Council, the mandate — implemented through state regulations — would cover 62 freestanding rest homes, 268 assisted living residences, and 85 hospice programs in Massachusetts, in addition to the thousands of home care workers.
The requirement would also apply to contractors who regularly enter rest homes, assisted living residences, and hospice programs, in addition to direct employees.
For home care workers, the mandate applies to individuals providing in-home, direct care who are employed by an agency that is contracted or subcontracted with the commonwealth, as well as independent, non-agency-based home care workers.
The planned mandate does have exemptions for individuals with medical conditions that prevent them from getting the vaccine or objections to vaccination based on sincerely held religious beliefs.
Baker’s office, which will also require the COVID-19 vaccine for tens of thousands of state government workers and contractors, says the expanded mandate Wednesday is part of the administration’s effort to protect older adults against COVID-19.
Primary Care Field Faces High Burnout and Renewed Financial Struggles
WBUR – Primary care has been under stress for years. It’s a medical field with high demands and relatively low incomes, at least among doctors.
When COVID-19 arrived, those practices took a huge hit. Despite measures to make up for lost revenue, many are still struggling.
On a recent morning, Amy Jewitt, of Hadley, brought her 2-month-old baby, Summer, for a physical with physician assistant Sarah Vacca.
“Let me see you on your belly,” Vacca says to Summer, setting her on the exam table, over a few light gurgles. “Any diaper rashes?” Vacca asks Jewitt.
This is one of the only times Jewitt has come into the office since the pandemic began. Most of her appointments have been on video. “Just being in a space where a lot of sick people come is worrying,” Jewitt says, “especially with such a little one.”
For the past year and a half, many patients have been avoiding the doctor’s office — in varying waves.
“It was terrifying. I really thought I was going to lose my practice,” says Dr. Kate Atkinson, who runs primary care offices in Northampton and Amherst.
Early in the pandemic, when patient visits dropped off dramatically, Atkinson’s income dried up. So, she laid off some staffers, starting with those who wanted to reduce hours, and quickly ramped up televisits.
In March 2020, Gov. Charlie Baker ordered insurers to reimburse telehealth at the same rate as office visits and to waive those copays, “which for Massachusetts was a godsend,” explains Atkinson. “I mean, it really saved us. People actually wanted to keep their appointments.”
Poll Shows Michelle Wu in a Commanding Position in the Boston Mayoral Race
Boston Globe – As early voting swings into motion, a new poll shows City Councilor Michelle Wu of Roslindale with a commanding lead over her competitors, confirming the findings of other recent surveys that point to a battle brewing for second place in the preliminary contest for Boston mayor.
With roughly a week to go before Tuesday’s preliminary election, Wu sits atop of the pack with 31 percent, outside the poll’s margin of error, according to the Suffolk University and Boston Globe poll of 500 likely voters. Wu’s standing is an improvement over where she was in June, when a Suffolk/Globe poll found her with support from 23 percent of likely voters.
Three other contenders are bunched together in the race for second place — Kim Janey, who is the acting mayor, at 20 percent; and City Councilors Annissa Essaibi George at 19 percent and Andrea Campbell at 18 percent. John Barros, the city’s former chief of economic development, trails far behind at 3 percent.
US Reaches 75% of Adults with at Least One Vaccine Dose
Boston Globe – Three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as of Tuesday, according to a White House official, setting a new milestone in the country’s fight against the pandemic.
Data to be reported later in the day by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will reflect the new threshold, the official said. The U.S. hit 70% of adults with at least one dose in early August, four weeks after President Joe Biden’s July 4th target for the achievement.
Labor Shortage Leaves Union Workers Emboldened
Associated Press – When negotiations failed to produce a new contract at a Volvo plant in Virginia this spring, its 2,900 workers went on strike.
The company soon dangled what looked like a tempting offer — at least to the United Auto Workers local leaders who recommended it to their members: Pay raises. Signing bonuses. Lower-priced health care.
Yet the workers overwhelmingly rejected the proposal. And then a second one, too. Finally, they approved a third offer that provided even higher raises, plus lump-sum bonuses.
For the union, it was a breakthrough that wouldn’t likely have happened as recently as last year. That was before the pandemic spawned a worker shortage that’s left some of America’s long-beleaguered union members feeling more confident this Labor Day than they have in year.
With Help Wanted signs at factories and businesses spreading across the nation, in manufacturing and in service industries, union workers like those at the Volvo site are seizing the opportunity to try to recover some of the bargaining power — and financial security — they feel they lost in recent decades as unions shrank in size and influence.
Are Voters Ready to give Democrats Total Control of Beacon Hill?
Commonwealth Magazine – Over the last 30 years, voters in Massachusetts have been remarkably consistent, electing moderate Republicans as governor to serve as a counterbalance to the Democratic-controlled Legislature.
The only exception to that trend was the election of Deval Patrick in 2006. He ran for an open seat when Mitt Romney chose not to seek reelection and ended up serving for two terms – defeating Kerry Healey to win a first term and Charlie Baker to win a second. Both Healey and Baker moved to the right in those campaigns and lost. Baker adopted a much more centrist campaign in 2014 and won; his mix of political pragmatism and fiscal incrementalism has made him one of the most popular governors in the nation.
The race for governor in 2022 is still taking shape (Baker, for example, hasn’t said whether he will run again), but the early trendlines suggest Democrats believe a different dynamic is in play this time around. Rather than adopting centrist positions, the three announced Democratic candidates – Harvard professor Danielle Allen, Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz of Jamaica Plain, and former state senator Ben Downing – are all campaigning on platforms that call for a much larger and expensive role for state government in daily life.
Chang-Diaz on Tuesday came out in support of extending the K-12 public school system in both directions – adding publicly funded preschool programs for 3- and 4-year-olds and making public higher education free for all Massachusetts residents, with additional money to cover fees for living and textbook expenses for low-income students.
The initiatives would be expensive, with costs running into the billions of dollars. Chang-Diaz told CommonWealth she believes voters want full-scale reform and not the more targeted, incremental changes favored by Baker. “This plan that we’re laying out is intended to be bold, transformative change on the scale of the problem working families and our economies are experiencing,” she said.
Coronavirus May Never Go Away. But Perpetual Pandemic Could Still Fizzle Out
WBUR – When the novel coronavirus burst into the world, and 2020 was still young and full of hope, many imagined the pandemic would last for just a few weeks of “lockdown.” Later it became: Okay, just one more year of this.
Then the vaccines came out, and even health experts were finally starting to talk about population-level immunity, relaxing restrictions and living it up like it was ’19. Cases were dropping, at least in the United States, and it looked like the end times might soon be at an end.
“For the first time, even as we were loosening restrictions, and the Red Sox came back and cases continued to drop, I was like, ‘This is categorically new epidemiology. This is vaccine,’ ” says Dr. Benjamin Linas, an epidemiologist at Boston University. “We had that moment of hope that perhaps we could generate complete herd immunity. I had adjusted to the idea of like, ‘This is awesome.’ ”
Turns out things are not awesome. With the surge of delta variant infections around the world and the revelation that the strain can cause fully vaccinated people to experience infections and transmit the virus, Linas and other health scientists say it’s time to recalibrate our expectations once again. The coronavirus might very well be around forever, and Linas says it’s high time we accept that.
“I don’t think we’re ever going to eradicate or even eliminate SARS-CoV-2 [or the novel coronavirus],” Linas says.
At-Home COVID Tests Surge in Popularity
Commonwealth Magazine – The last couple of weeks, customers at Skenderian Apothecary in Cambridge have been asking for at-home COVID tests. But owner Joseph Skenderian hasn’t been able to stock them.
“I can’t get a steady line,” Skenderian said. “When I go to order, I might get a couple, then they’re unavailable. They go very quickly.”
As COVID-19 rates are rising again amid a surge in Delta variant cases, people are flocking to buy a relatively new product: at-home, rapid COVID tests. The high demand nationwide is creating a shortage of the products. And their availability also poses new questions about the accuracy of state-related COVID case counts, since if someone tests positive at home, their illness may never be reported to public health officials.
Since November 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration has approved for emergency use several COVID tests where specimens can be collected at home.
Some, like QuestDirect, mail consumers a kit. The consumer takes a nasal swab and mails the kit back. According to Quest, the test is processed in the lab just as if it were collected in a doctor’s office, and results are reported to public health authorities as required by law.
But other tests can be done without a lab. Abbot BinaxNOW is a rapid test that is done at home and delivers results in 15 minutes. There is another rapid at-home test manufactured by Ellume, and one by Quidel called QuickVue. The tests are generally less reliable than the traditional PCR tests, but they still have relatively high accuracy and allow for faster results.
While PCR tests are often covered by insurance or government programs, the rapid tests cost money – between $24 and $39 for one or two tests, depending on the brand.
Editorial: Andrea Campbell Should be Boston’s Next Mayor
Boston Globe (Opinion) – Andrea Campbell wanted change, and she didn’t want to wait. So in 2015, the Roxbury-born education lawyer took the toughest path into Boston politics: She challenged, and then handily defeated, an entrenched 32-year incumbent for the City Council seat representing Mattapan, one of the city’s neediest neighborhoods.
A restless impatience with the status quo and a willingness to charge headfirst into political risks to make life better for Bostonians have been the hallmarks of Campbell’s inspiring career. Last year, before anybody knew that Mayor Marty Walsh would be leaving City Hall, she announced she would take him on, frustrated by the slow pace of change in the public schools and police department on Walsh’s watch.
In a recent meeting with the Globe editorial board, Campbell, 39 and a mother of two young boys, described the moment she decided to launch what would have been another uphill battle. She looked at her children, and asked herself, “Are you going to continue to stand on the sidelines?”
“I said, I was done waiting.”
Baker ‘Not Focused” on 2020 Campaign, but Not Ruling out Third Term
Boston Herald – Gov. Charlie Baker brushed off concerns that former President Donald Trump could derail his re-election — should he choose to run for a third term, saying the 2022 campaign is “so far down the road” he’s not yet thinking about it yet.
“There will be plenty of opportunities to talk about campaign 2022 if it becomes something that the lieutenant governor and I are part of, but I’m not focused on that stuff at this point at all,” Baker said in response to a question by WBZ’s Jon Keller asking him about Trump’s potential support for gubernatorial candidate and former state Rep. Geoff Diehl.
Trump last month told MassGOP Chairman Jim Lyons that he’d be inclined to support Diehl, a loyal supporter of the former president, in a primary with Baker, the Herald first reported last month.
There’s little love lost between the Massachusetts Republican governor and Trump, who frequently engaged in public mudslinging during the former president’s tenure in office.
Property Owners Weigh Challenge to Boston’s Eviction Moratorium
State House News – Landlords and real estate industry leaders criticized a new citywide eviction moratorium in Boston, contending that it would slow the region’s economic recovery from the pandemic amid rumblings that a potential legal challenge might soon take shape.
The Small Property Owners Association, a landlord group that led the successful push for a ballot question banning rent control in 1994, said Wednesday that the new temporary ban Mayor Kim Janey announced a day earlier “will do little to solve the challenge of keeping tenants in their housing and will continue to unfairly burden rental housing providers.”
“Small property owners are small business owners who still must pay expenses and property taxes while being denied the fundamental right to manage their own properties,” SPOA said in a statement. “Government should not foist the responsibility of housing non-paying tenants on (the) backs of rental housing providers — especially without offering any direct assistance or compensation.”
Under the public health order issued Tuesday, which took effect immediately and cites the city’s ongoing public health emergency, property owners and landlords cannot “serve or cause the service of notice of levy upon an eviction, or otherwise enforce a residential eviction upon a resident of Boston.” Some cases where a court has found health and safety violations by a tenant are not covered by the moratorium.
Janey linked the order and a separate $5 million foreclosure prevention fund she is establishing to a U.S. Supreme Court decision last week, which lifted the Centers for Disease Control’s federal eviction moratorium.
“The loss of federal eviction protections and the ongoing pandemic has put our most vulnerable neighbors at risk of losing their homes,” Janey said.
Greg Vasil, president and CEO of the Greater Boston Real Estate Board, told the News Service on Wednesday that the city-level policy “sends a message that you don’t have to pay rent because the mayor took care of you.”
Vasil said he worries the moratorium will stymie efforts to connect Boston tenants behind on rent payments with the hundreds of millions of dollars that remain available through the Residential Assistance for Families in Transition program, or RAFT, and other forms of rent relief.
“What this does is it incentivizes people not to engage with their landlord and not to apply for RAFT and not to do all the things we’ve been preaching for the past six months now that we have this money,” he said. “We’ve been through this, and it’s wrong. Now we have money, a lot of money we’ve been trying so hard to get out.”
Amid calls from President Joe Biden for action to prevent evictions at the state and local levels, Gov. Charlie Baker and legislative leaders have opted not to revive a statewide eviction moratorium. Their focus has been on a diversion initiative launched last year to connect renters and landlords with aid dollars and legal resources.
August 31
Schedule
Wednesday, September 1
Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities-DCF/Trauma-10am-Virtual Hearing.
Joint Committee on Public Service-Creditable Service and Buyback Bills-1:00pm-Virtual Hearing.
Tuesday September 14
Joint Committee on Health Care Financing- Primary Care & Behavioral Health Care, Patient Care Coordination-11:00am-Virtual Hearing.
Wednesday September 15
Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities-DCF/Adoption and Abuse-10:00am-Virtual Hearing.
Joint Committee on Financial Services-Auto Insurance-10:00am-Virtual Hearing.
All but One Massachusetts County is at High Risk of COVID-19 Transmission
Boston.com – Every Massachusetts county but one now has a high risk of COVID-19 transmission, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Sunday, the CDC posted updated transmission data showing that Franklin County is the only one with “substantial” transmission. The other 13 counties — Barnstable, Berkshire, Bristol, Dukes, Essex, Hampden, Hampshire, Middlesex, Nantucket, Norfolk, Plymouth, Suffolk, and Worcester — have a high rate of transmission. For weeks, the CDC has been classifying transmission in counties and states as low, moderate, substantial, or high.
This isn’t novel: almost every bordering county in each neighboring state has high transmission.
As of Aug. 29, Massachusetts had a high transmission rate overall, with a 7-day percent positivity of 3% to 4.9% and 146 cases per 100,000 in the last week. Right now, every single state is classified as having a high transmission rate.
The World Is Still Short of Everything. Get Used to It.
New York Times – Like most people in the developed world, Kirsten Gjesdal had long taken for granted her ability to order whatever she needs and then watch the goods arrive, without any thought about the factories, container ships and trucks involved in delivery.
Not anymore.
At her kitchen supply store in Brookings, S.D., Ms. Gjesdal has given up stocking place mats, having wearied of telling customers that she can only guess when more will come. She recently received a pot lid she had purchased eight months earlier. She has grown accustomed to paying surcharges to cover the soaring shipping costs of the goods she buys. She has already placed orders for Christmas items like wreaths and baking pans.
“It’s nuts,” she said. “It’s definitely not getting back to normal.”
The challenges confronting Ms. Gjesdal’s shop, Carrot Seed Kitchen, are a testament to the breadth and persistence of the chaos roiling the global economy, as manufacturers and the shipping industry contend with an unrelenting pandemic.
Delays, product shortages and rising costs continue to bedevil businesses large and small. And consumers are confronted with an experience once rare in modern times: no stock available, and no idea when it will come in.
Governor Baker: Low Positivity Rate Proof Vaccines are Working
Boston.com – With high testing rates, low percent positivity, and robust vaccination rates, Gov. Charlie Baker says Massachusetts is leading the country in protecting residents against COVID-19.
In a Sunday Twitter thread, Baker pointed to several data points as proof that the state is doing well.
“Massachusetts tests more than any other state but our positivity rate is the lowest in the nation,” he said. “More of our population is vaccinated than almost any other state. With more of our residents protected, fewer are getting very sick than almost anywhere else.”
According to Baker, Massachusetts is leading the nation in COVID-19 testing, with 17.608 tests per 100,000 administered in the last month.
Governor Defends School Mask Policies
Boston.com – Governor Charlie Baker is defending his quick policy change on a statewide school mask mandate and suggesting a return to remote learning is highly unlikely.
In a Sunday interview, WBZ’s Jon Keller asked Baker about his two-day policy change on masking in schools: from saying local governments should craft policies on Aug. 18 to his education commissioner recommending a statewide mask mandate for schools on Aug. 20.
“Things change primarily because the circumstances and the facts on the ground change,” Baker said.
“We heard a lot from our colleagues in local government who felt that it was very important for them — and therefore for us and the constituents we both serve — that we start the school year with a consistent standard across the board.”
The state’s new policy implements a broad mask mandate through Oct. 3, after which schools with an 80% vaccination rate can allow vaccinated individuals not to wear masks. Since children under 12-years-old aren’t yet eligible for the vaccine, they will still be required to wear masks. For each scenario, standard exceptions apply, such as certain medical diagnoses.
“It’s our hope and our expectation…that we’ll be able to use many of the vaccine clinics we’ve established with local school districts to give schools the ability to get to the 80%…vaccinated so they’ll be able to make their own decision moving forward,” Baker said
Unclear Whether VaxMillions Increased Vaccinations
Commonwealth – State officials are trying to spin the VaxMillions Giveaway as a success, but it’s hard to say whether the lottery game actually did what it was intended to do – prod more people to get vaccinated.
The Baker administration points out that between the time the game was announced on June 15 through the final day of registration on August 19 more than 318,000 residents received a first dose of the vaccine, and more than 440,000 residents became fully vaccinated.
But what impact the lottery game, whose $10 million cost was paid for using federal COVID funds, had on individual vaccination decisions is unclear. Of course, people got inoculated during that time period, but we don’t know if the game impacted the decision to get vaccinated to any significant degree.
VaxMillions shut down on Thursday after the latest winners were announced. Cynthia Thirath of Leominster won the $1 million prize for fully vaccinated people 18 and over. Gretchen Selva of Conway won the $300,000 scholarship available to fully vaccinated individuals between 12 and 17.
Both Thirath and Selva were vaccinated prior to the lottery game being unveiled, so the game itself had no impact on their decisions. The same was true of the previous eight winners.
Gov. Charlie Baker issued a statement on Thursday praising the lottery game. Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, who chairs the Massachusetts State Lottery Commission, was even more emphatic. “This did in fact encourage thousands who were not yet vaccinated, and at the end of the day that is a win/win for everyone,” she said.
Return of College Students Brings Uncertainty because of Delta Variant
Boston Globe – For a brief moment early this summer, as vaccination rates rose, it seemed as though the fall season on college campuses might bring a blissful rush of normalcy. Teeming dorms, packed lectures, bustling dining halls, raucous parties.
Now, as students return, the reality is a more subdued version of that dream. Most institutions will have full dorms, side-by-side desks, and in-person activities, but they’ll also require masks, regular testing, and proof of vaccination for students and staff.
And a sense of foreboding looms: The Delta variant is extremely contagious, and no one knows what the colder months will bring. Many professors, especially those with unvaccinated children, fear for their safety and that of their families.
“We are not as far as we hoped we would be as a nation in battling the pandemic, and so campuses have to respond,” said Laurie Leshin, president of Worcester Polytechnic Institute who last year led a consortium of institutions that banded together to tackle the pandemic. She continues to meet with a group of private college presidents every two weeks to compare notes on how they are handling this new phase.
In response to the highly transmissible variant, many institutions recently reinstated an indoor mask mandate, including in dormitories. Most will continue weekly testing for students, faculty, and staff, and nearly all schools in the region have made vaccines mandatory for everyone on campus. But none of this is any guarantee of a smooth school year, epidemiologists warn.
Gubernatorial Rivals Take Aim at Baker over COVID-19
Boston Globe – All three Democratic gubernatorial candidates are pushing Governor Charlie Baker to enact stronger COVID-19 restrictions, a signal that the highly transmissible Delta variant has emerged not just as a public health threat but as a potentially dominant issue in the 2022 governor’s race.
The calls for Baker to take more aggressive steps foreshadow the central role that virus response could play in the still-uncertain gubernatorial contest. The popular second-term Republican has yet to say whether he will seek a third term as governor, but political rivals on the left and right are taking aim at his administration’s COVID-19 response, charging that he’s done either too little or too much — and hoping their criticisms dent his enviable approval ratings.
Two Democratic candidates, Harvard professor Danielle Allen and state Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz, released proposals this month outlining more aggressive steps to combat the uptick in COVID-19 cases. Ben Downing, a former state senator who is also running, has been vocal over the past few months on COVID-19 protocols, too, including calling for Baker to declare a new state of emergency to address the Delta variant.
“The governor has been too reactive to the virus and to its many ripple effects,” Downing told the Globe on Friday. “It’s going to require a variety of proactive steps to not only beat back the virus but to start to return to something that looks like normal in our day to day lives. I think on the whole the governor hasn’t shown the urgency.”
All three Democrats say Baker should require public school educators to be vaccinated. But administration officials said Baker has already imposed a vaccine mandate on all the public employees under his purview and has encouraged all other employers to adopt similar requirements.
On the Republican side, conservative former lawmaker and gubernatorial candidate Geoff Diehl has slammed Baker for going too far in his response to the growing threat, arguing that a vaccine mandate for state workers that Baker enacted Aug. 19 encroaches on their civil liberties.
EU Recommends Halting Nonessential Travel From the U.S. Over Covid-19
Wall Street Journal – The European Union recommended halting nonessential travel from the U.S. because of the rise of Covid-19 cases, diplomats said Monday, ending a summer-vacation reprieve for American tourists.
The decision came amid the growing spread of the Delta variant in the U.S., where vaccination rates have also now fallen behind the average rates of shots in EU countries.
The EU travel list, which is reviewed every two weeks, isn’t binding on member states, but it has generally set the pattern for who can visit the bloc. The EU decided in June to add the U.S. to its safe list.
Still, member states retain control over all the rules for tourist travel, such as whether to impose quarantines on unvaccinated travelers and which certificates to accept as proof of having received a vaccine.
Announcing the decision, the EU stressed the decision doesn’t take away “the possibility for member states to lift the temporary restriction on nonessential travel…for fully vaccinated travelers.”
Most Children With Severe Post-Covid-19 Condition in Fine Health Year Later, U.K. Study Finds
Wall Street Journal – Most children admitted to intensive care with a serious inflammatory complication after getting COVID-19 didn’t have serious lingering issues a year later, according to a study of data collected from hospitals across the U.K.
As the highly contagious Delta variant sweeps across the world, doctors say they are worried about its effect on children, especially those who are unvaccinated. In some parts of the U.S., more children have been hospitalized for COVID-19 treatment recently than at any time during the pandemic since U.S. authorities began tracking the data last year.
The U.K. study tracked the health of children with multisystem inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C, a rare condition that can occur in children several weeks after COVID -19 infection. It can involve many different organ systems and lead to issues with the heart, including aneurysms in the coronary arteries, arrhythmias and problems with heart function.
Without the proper diagnosis and management, which often involves the use of intravenous immune globulin or corticosteroids, MIS-C can lead to organ damage or even death. More than 4,400 cases of MIS-C were reported among children in the U.S. during the pandemic as of the end of July, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most children seemed to recover from MIS-C without any serious long-term problems, according to researchers in the U.K. who collected data on 68 patients under the age of 18 admitted to intensive-care units with MIS-C before May 10, 2020.
Court Tosses Mandatory Vaccine Lawsuit Filed against UMass by Quincy Woman
Patriot Ledger – A federal judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Quincy woman challenging a requirement that students at the University of Massachusetts campuses in Boston and Lowell be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus in order to return to campus.
Cora Cluett, a senior student from Quincy, and UMass-Lowell junior Hunter Harris, of Medway, sued in July, asking the judge to find the vaccination mandates to be unconstitutional. UMass-Boston denied Cluett’s request for a religious exemption, which would have allowed her to attend class without being vaccinated.
U.S. District Judge Denise Casper said the schools have a strong interest in reducing the spread of the disease. She found that, despite the students’ assertion that the policy is “arbitrary or not based in science,” the schools “based the decision upon both medical and scientific evidence and research and guidance and thus is at least rationally related to these legitimate interests.”
The judge also noted that students who refuse to get vaccinated may still take online classes or defer their enrollment for one semester. But even if the policy meant they would be deprived of a UMass education, their argument still fails, she said.
“Moreover, the balance of equities tips in Defendants’ favor given the strong public interest here that they are promoting – preventing further spread of COVID-19 on campus, a virus which has infected and taken the lives of thousands of Massachusetts residents,” she wrote.
Cluett’s lawsuit says she asked the school to exempt her from the vaccine requirement because of her religious beliefs. In her request, she identified as Roman Catholic and provided no evidence or information that vaccines were against her religion.
Amid Pandemic, A Startup Surge in Massachusetts.
Boston Globe – The coronavirus pandemic has likely sparked a surge in entrepreneurship in Massachusetts, reversing a years-long stagnation in the growth of new businesses in the Commonwealth.
Aspiring entrepreneurs filed paperwork to start 74,662 businesses in Massachusetts over the last year, according to recent data from the Census Bureau, a 33 percent increase from the year before, and the highest volume of applications since the Census began tracking it in 2004. (The latest numbers are from Internal Revenue Service data from July 2020 to July 2021.)
“I am not surprised,” Jim Rooney, president of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, said in a statement about new-business growth. “Economic downturns have created similar patterns in the past as people laid-off from companies during COVID decide to start their own business.”
Mask Mandate Reaches into Early Education
Consistent with the new mask-wearing rules in public schools, the Baker administration on Tuesday will seek permission to impose a mask mandate for all staff and children age 5 and older enrolled in state-licensed pre-kindergarten, after-school and other early education programs.
The policy would look similar to what Education Commissioner Jeff Riley rolled out last week for students, faculty and staff in K-12 public schools, which requires that anyone over the age of 5 must wear a mask regardless of vaccination status through at least Oct. 1.
The Board of Early Education and Care will hold a special meeting Tuesday morning to consider the request to give Commissioner Samantha Aigner-Treworgy the authority to implement the new masking policy in early education centers.
Aigner-Treworgy will also ask the board for the authority to modify educator qualifications and professional development requirements, and take other administrative measures that will make it easier to hire teachers and respond to a workforce shortage that is limiting families’ access to early education options, officials said.
“EEC is committed to addressing barriers to help child care programs increase their workforce and help more families get back to work by accessing child care that works for them,” Aigner-Treworgy said in a statement. “We fully recognize the critical importance of doing all we can to help mitigate the impact of the pandemic on child care and on the health and safety of families.”
Community Colleges Retain Online Learning
Boston Globe – As the five colleges of Hampshire County revert back to full in-person instruction, the area’s community colleges are moving in another direction. Both Holyoke Community College and Greenfield Community College are still offering more online or hybrid courses than in-person ones for the upcoming semester.
For GCC, just over half of their classes will be online this fall semester. In 2019, only 12% of course selections were listed as online courses.
At HCC, only about 30% of classes will be fully in-person this semester. In 2019, more than two-thirds of the college’s classes were face-to-face. The college is also offering some “blended face-to-face” courses which have some on-campus aspects, like a lab. Those courses account for about 10% of the total courses offered.
According to the colleges, their decisions to keep online learning as a big part of the schools was a reflection of two things: student demand and COVID-19 safety.
Chet Jordan, the dean of social sciences, professional studies & workforce development at GCC, has noticed that there is a similar demand for both in-person and online courses, matching the school’s nearly 50-50 spread.
“They’re shaking out pretty evenly,” Jordan said.
Mark Hudgik, the director of admissions at HCC, said that he also had heard feedback from students that went both ways.
“We were hearing from a number of students who said, you know, I really want to go to college, but I don’t want to do it online,” Hudgik said.
Massachusetts General Hospital names David Brown to be new president
Boston Globe – Mass General Brigham has promoted a veteran department chief to run Massachusetts General Hospital, the state’s most prestigious medical institution.
Dr. David F. M. Brown will be president of the hospital and executive vice president at the Mass General Brigham system beginning Sept. 8. He is chair of the department of emergency medicine at MGH, a role he has held since 2013.
Brown, 58, is a familiar name at MGH, where efforts to make the hospital work better as part of a unified health care system have run into resistance. As an insider, he may be better positioned to ease tensions.
Brown has worked at the hospital for 32 years, starting as an intern, and called himself an MGH “lifer.”
“MGH is in my DNA, and I have love, respect, and affection for it,” he said in an interview. “At the same time, I have a clear-eyed understanding and full-throated support of our MGB vision to become a fully integrated health care system in service of our patients.”
Brown will succeed Dr. Peter L. Slavin, who has led the hospital for 18 years and announced in April that he would step down, saying a new leader should work to integrate MGH with its parent company, Mass General Brigham.
Formerly known as Partners HealthCare, Mass General Brigham is the state’s biggest hospital system.
Dr. Anne Klibanski, chief executive of Mass General Brigham, said she selected Brown from a large and diverse field of candidates and called him the best person to lead MGH during this “critical point in the history and evolution of Mass General Brigham.”
“David has been in our system for a long time. He understands the culture. He understands what makes these institutions special,” Klibanski told the Globe. “But he also embraces the strategic vision of where we need to go in the future.”
Curb Boston’s Biggest Source of Greenhouse Gas Emissions
The Boston Globe (Opinion) – The biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Boston is not the cars on our congested streets. It’s the buildings that hover over them.
About 70 percent of the city’s emissions come from homes and offices and hospitals. Buildings use huge amounts of heating oil and natural gas and electricity to warm living rooms, cool our lobbies, and keep our hallways well-lit.
So, if Boston is to meet its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 — that is, if the city is to release only as much carbon as the environment can safely absorb — it has to get serious about reducing emissions from buildings. And that means approving a measure championed by City Council President Matt O’Malley that would require building owners to ratchet down emissions or face fines.
“For years we said, ‘We’re going to lower our greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050,’ and we’d all shake hands and take a picture and feel good about ourselves,” O’Malley says. “But we never actually put the roadmap in place on how to get there — that is, until now.”
O’Malley’s legislation builds on a 2013 measure called the Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance, or BERDO, which requires large commercial and residential buildings to report on their energy and water use. The new measure, known as BERDO 2.0, moves beyond mere reporting — laying out incremental, five-year targets for cutting back on emissions, with an end of goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. The ordinance would apply to commercial buildings that are 20,000 square feet or larger and residential buildings with at least 15 units.
State Grants Seed Local Projects to Enhance Forestry, Economy
Berkshire Eagle – A series of grants announced this past week will fund a number of local nature-based projects, including a new trail in New Ashford, more money for the Greylock Glen project in Adams, design money for an adventure trail in North Adams, and tree plantings at the town common in Williamstown.
The Baker administration announced the $313,500 in grant money to 10 municipalities and two regional economic development organizations to support forest stewardship and conservation and nature-based tourism in the Mohawk Trail Woodlands Partnership region, which includes most of Northwestern Massachusetts.
The partnership enables the conservation of forests and sustainable management to aid in economic development in rural areas along the Vermont and New York borders.
“The Mohawk Trail Woodlands Partnership region has amazing natural resources and opportunities for outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism, and our Administration is pleased to work with the rural communities of the region to support economic development that conserves land and enhances resilience to climate change,” Gov. Charlie Baker said in a release.
“Enhancing partnerships with local communities and organizations is one of the most effective approaches we have to support the stewardship of our unique natural resources here in the Commonwealth.”
Among the local municipalities receiving grants are Adams, with a $20,000 grant to help in the process of selecting a food vendor, education vendor and outdoor recreation vendor for Greylock Glen.
In New Ashford, another $20,000 will aid in the design and construction of a hiking trail around Beaver Pond on the slopes of Mount Greylock.
August 24
FDA Gives Full Approval to Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine
Boston Globe – The US Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for people 16 and older on Monday, a landmark decision that could boost public confidence in the shots and pave the way for more vaccine mandates by employers, colleges, and other organizations.
By licensing the vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, the FDA gave the two-shot regimen its strongest possible endorsement for safety and efficacy. More than 204 million Pfizer doses already have been administered in the US ― and hundreds of millions more overseas ― since regulators authorized its emergency use in December.
Pfizer’s vaccine, which will be marketed as Comirnaty, was the first of three vaccines cleared by the FDA for emergency use and is the first to be fully approved. Monday’s decision was expected and came as the highly contagious Delta variant is causing COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations to surge in parts of the country, particularly in states with low vaccination rates.
“The public can be very confident that this vaccine meets the high standards for safety, effectiveness and manufacturing quality the FDA requires of an approved product,” acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement. “Today’s milestone puts us one step closer to altering the course of this pandemic in the US.”
Cambridge-based Moderna has also applied for full approval of its two-shot vaccine, which was authorized for emergency use on Dec. 18, a week after Pfizer’s. Johnson & Johnson, whose one-shot vaccine was cleared for emergency use on Feb. 27, plans to seek full approval later this year, according to a company spokeswoman.
Federal Unemployment Benefits to End Labor Day
Boston Herald – Federal unemployment benefits that have buoyed jobless workers throughout the pandemic officially expire on Labor Day, leaving thousands in Massachusetts jobless and millions across the nation without a key safety net as the delta variant rages.
About 7.5 million will be abruptly cut off from benefits completely, while another 4.5 million more will be receiving smaller weekly unemployment checks, according to federal estimates.
Unless Congress moves to extend federal benefits, they will stop for gig workers, contract workers, the long-term unemployed and others typically ineligible for state benefits. A $300 weekly benefit boost for those receiving benefits will also end.
It’s hard to say what the consequences of cutting off the boost to unemployment benefits will be. About half the country — 26 mostly Republican states in total — halted the federal benefits early in May and June. But a recent study from payroll company UKG showed the policy has not been effective in getting people back to work.
The delta variant does not appear to be slowing the economy regardless.
The July federal jobs report showed employers added a robust 943,000 jobs. The unemployment rate sank from 5.9% to 5.4%.
Last week’s report from the Labor Department showed that jobless claims fell to 375,000 from 387,000 the previous week — declining for a third straight week. The number of applications has fallen steadily since peaking at more than 900,000 in early January as the economy has increasingly reopened in the aftermath of the pandemic recession.
But claim numbers inched up in Massachusetts where about 7,310 people filed for unemployment benefits in the state, up about 770 from the week prior, according to estimated tallies from the Department of Unemployment Assistance.
July Jobless Rate Stays at 4.9 Percent
State House News – Massachusetts employers added jobs at a robust pace in July, while the statewide unemployment rate held flat at 4.9 percent for the second month in a row, labor officials announced Friday.
In Shift, Baker Administration Moves to Impose K-12 School Mask Mandate
Boston.com – After resisting calls for a K-12 school mask mandate for weeks, Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration is changing course.
In a press release Friday, state Education Commissioner Jeff Riley said he will ask the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education for the authority to mandate masks for all public K-12 students, educators, and staff through at least Oct. 1.
After Oct. 1, middle schools and high schools would be allowed to lift the mask mandate for vaccinated students and staff only if at least 80 percent of students and staff in the respective school building are vaccinated.
The new policy would also indefinitely require all unvaccinated individuals ages 5 and over to wear masks, including children younger than 12 who remain ineligible for the vaccine (the state’s current guidelines only “strongly recommend” that schools require students up to sixth grade wear masks).
“With cases rising, this mask mandate will provide one more measure to support the health and safety of our students and staff this fall,” Riley said.
Officials said that Riley has asked the board to meet on Tuesday to vote to give him the authority to institute the mandate, which would include exceptions for students who cannot wear a mask due to medical conditions or behavioral needs.
“While Massachusetts leads the nation in vaccination rates, we are seeing a recent rise in COVID-19 cases because we still need more people to get vaccinated,” Baker said in a statement. “This step will increase vaccinations among our students and school staff and ensure that we have a safe school reopening.”
Here’s What We Know (and Don’t Know) about Schools Re-Opening
Boston Globe – With just weeks before Massachusetts students return to classrooms, school administrators, teachers, and parents alike are trying to decide how to keep themselves and their children safe, especially as the Delta variant continues its rapid spread.
Governor Charlie Baker and state education leaders have taken a localized approach, releasing statewide mask-wearing guidance for schools but emphasizing that individual districts should determine what COVID-19 protocols are best for their communities. The state announced in May that all of its coronavirus health and safety requirements would be lifted for the 2021-22 academic year.
“Giving locals the opportunity to own the decisions they make is a big and important issue,” Baker told reporters while visiting Peabody High School on Monday.
“And if you look at what’s playing out in other states right now, where state government has taken away the authority for locals to make their own decisions, that’s not the right way to play this game. It’s just not.”
Baker has steadfastly defended that position, even as he faces pressure from state teachers’ unions to mandate masks in buildings and consider other coronavirus-related protocols. The board of directors of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the largest educators union in the state, voted earlier this month to push state leaders to enact a universal mask-wearing mandate in schools and this week to support a vaccine mandate for staff and eligible students.
Largest Teachers’ Union Calls for Vaccine Mandate for Teachers and Eligible Students
With the start of the new school year on the horizon, the leadership of the largest teachers’ union in Massachusetts voted Monday night to support a vaccine mandate for school employees and eligible students statewide.
The motion, approved by the Massachusetts Teachers Association’s board of directors by a 46 to 4 vote, states the group supports required vaccinations or regular COVID-19 testing for those who are not vaccinated. Districts should negotiate the specifics of vaccine requirements with their local teachers’ unions, the group said.
“We must do everything in our power to protect students, educators, public health, and all of our communities — including communities of color, which, because of structural racism, have been hit the hardest by the coronavirus pandemic,” union President Merrie Najimy said in a statement Tuesday.
Child-Care Providers are Facing a Staffing Crisis, Forcing Some to Close with Little Notice
Boston Globe – Desperate to hire child-care workers during the pandemic, Nurtury Early Education has raised its hourly rate, hired a recruiter, and offered $1,000 signing bonuses — $500 up front and $500 after six months on the job.
It hasn’t been enough. Its pool of candidates has become so thin that Nurtury, the oldest child-care agency in New England, is closing one of its five centers in Greater Boston. Teachers and children from the South End location are moving into the remaining facilities, where nine classrooms sit dark and empty from the upheaval of the past 17 months.
“This is not a financial crisis. This is not an enrollment crisis. This is a staffing crisis,” said Laura Perille, Nurtury’s chief executive. “There are simply not enough available workers to maintain our classrooms.”
Moderna Mandates Vaccines for Workers, Reversing its Policy
Boston Business Journal – Moderna Inc. has shifted gears on its own company vaccine policy, mandating COVID-19 vaccines for all U.S. workers starting Oct. 1.
As recently as this week, the company — famously a developer of one of three COVID-19 vaccines given emergency use authorization by the FDA — had not implemented a vaccine mandate or indicated that it might head in that direction. Spokesperson Ray Jordan told the Business Journal on Monday that Moderna had “thorough safety, masking, testing protocols in place.”
The shift, announced Friday, is reflective of a rapidly changing landscape among employer vaccine requirements. Life-science company leaders in particular had largely shrugged off the idea of a mandate until recently, citing the high vaccination rates of their own workforces.
But in the absence of leadership from the public sector as the Delta variant spurs another rise in COVID-19 cases, executives have changed their tune, viewing vaccine requirements as a question of moral leadership more than pragmatism.
Moderna is the last of the three COVID-19 vaccine makers to announce a mandate. Johnson & Johnson in August started requiring all of its U.S.-based employees and contractors to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 4. Pfizer Inc., which is based in New York but has a sizable presence in Cambridge, announced earlier this month that U.S. workers would need to either get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing.
“The safety and well-being of the Moderna community continues to be a top priority as we work to help end the Covid-19 pandemic with our mRNA vaccine,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement shared with the Business Journal. “This new requirement reflects our commitment to the health of our team, their families and society, as we know Covid-19 vaccines can help prevent severe disease, hospitalizations and death.”
Abolish the Religious Vaccine Exemption
Commonwealth (Opinion) – The following pieces was written by Shela Sridhar, Zoe Tseng, Meredith Haley, Hemal Sampat, and Elisa Choi on behalf of on behalf of the Massachusetts chapter of the American College of Physicians
Vaccines save lives.
Never has this been more evident than in the last year. Since the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed more than 15,000 lives in Massachusetts alone and is a leading cause of death in the United States.
With the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines in Massachusetts, we have seen our rates of COVID-19-related hospitalizations and deaths drop dramatically. Preventing future outbreaks and pandemics is critical to protecting the health and economic well-being of our state. This is why it is crucial that we pass H. 2411, an Act Relative to Vaccines and Preventing Future Disease Outbreaks, which eliminates the non-medical (religious) exemption for vaccine requirements for schools.
Vaccines have helped to nearly eliminate some of the most dangerous childhood illnesses.
In 1954, almost all children had measles before the age of 15 and there were close to 6,000 deaths yearly from this infectious disease. The measles vaccine was approved in the United States in 1968, and after a nationwide effort, by 2000, measles was declared eliminated in this nation.
However, as the anti-vaccination movement gained traction in the last two decades through sustained misinformation, including inaccurate claims of links between the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine, and autism, as well as celebrity activism, the US has seen childhood vaccination rates drop and vaccine-preventable diseases rise. During this time, there has been a rise in the number of religious exemptions to vaccination claimed, without any concurrent change in religious demographics.
We see the deadly consequences in our daily work as physicians. We saw a healthy 17-year-old girl go into cardiac arrest because she developed myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. Tests indicated that her infection was due to influenza A, a vaccine-preventable infection. The virus acted so rapidly that, within a week, her heart had failed. She survived, but she needed a heart transplant and now, at age 20, she takes two handfuls of medications every single day to stay alive.
We saw a 70-year-old man end up in a nursing home because of Haemophilus influenzae meningitis. He had had a bone marrow transplant to treat multiple myeloma, a type of blood cancer, which left him with a weak immune system. A visit with his unvaccinated grandchild exposed him to this disease, and he ended up in the hospital. He suffered seizures as a complication of this illness and now requires long-term care. His grandchild’s parents had not vaccinated him, and he suffered because of their decision.
We saw an unvaccinated 4-year-old come into the emergency room with fever, cough, and a few spots on his belly. His family thought at first that it was a cold, but then he fell unconscious. The diagnosis: meningitis from varicella, the chickenpox virus. The preschool-age child spent two weeks in the ICU, with a tube in his windpipe and a ventilator breathing for him.
These stories are not unique. Almost every physician has a similar story of someone whose illness could easily have been prevented by a vaccine. In addition to these lives lost, billions of dollars in health care costs are lost every year–and this loss of life and these health care expenditures are entirely preventable.
Massachusetts requires vaccinations for school, with only medical and religious exemptions, and has higher rates of vaccination than much of the country. Even here, though, we still have a problem. In some parts of the Commonwealth, up to 14 percent of students are unvaccinated or under-vaccinated. Moreover, more than 75 percent of the exemptions claimed are religious exemptions.
While freedom of religion is one of the core freedoms of our nation, evidence strongly suggests that those claiming a religious belief exemption for vaccines are doing so disingenuously. A major study in 2019 found that states with both personal belief and religious belief exemptions had only one-fourth as many religious belief exemptions claimed as those that had a religious belief exemption only.
Vermont was the first state to repeal the personal belief exemption to vaccines and in the subsequent years, the number of religious belief exemptions claimed increased from 0.5 percent to 3.7 percent. This trend was also reflected in testimony from many parents in opposition to H.2411 on July 12 in front of the Joint Committee on Public Health; the parents decried the elimination of the religious belief exemption as denying them the option to decline vaccination for their child for personal reasons.
Furthermore, no major religion has a specific prohibition against vaccination. While some have expressed concerns based on certain ingredients used in vaccines (e.g., concerns about the use of porcine gelatin in some vaccines), vaccination is still recommended. Even faiths whose members frequently decline vaccination (e.g., Church of Christ, Dutch Reformed Congregations) have no strict rules against vaccinations.
Thus, it is imperative that we pass H.2411 and close this dangerous loophole that parents are using to keep their kids unvaccinated. We must protect the most vulnerable among us and those who have true medical exemptions to vaccines. This bill is an important step to achieving a fully vaccinated community. Parents and children have a right to an education where they know they are protected from infectious diseases. While Massachusetts would not be the first, we can be a national leader in smart vaccine policies that protect our children and vulnerable communities.
Union Demands may Re-Shape Baker’s COVID Vaccine Mandate
Boston Globe – When Governor Charlie Baker on Thursday announced that 42,000 state workers would be required to get COVID-19 vaccines, their union leaders reacted with strong but widely divergent opinions.
Human service workers enthusiastically embraced the new rule. Correctional officers and others threatened legal action to block it.
But ultimately, the battle over vaccine mandates will be waged at the bargaining table, with unions on both sides of the divide seeking similar provisions.
As a result, Baker’s mandate, called one of the toughest in the nation, will probably undergo some modification, said Daniel S. Bowling III, a longtime labor lawyer and scholar who teaches at Duke Law School.
Baker’s statement Thursday indicated that his administration intends to work out the details with the unions.
“I imagine we’re going to see some fireworks at the bargaining table,” Bowling said, predicting that some unions may end up in arbitration or federal court.
In both the public and private sectors, Bowling said, employers have the right to impose health and safety rules, which might include vaccine requirements. But even so, he said, they must negotiate the specifics of how the rule will be carried out, such as the options for those who refuse vaccination and the process by which they would be terminated, if it comes to that.
Even the aspect of Baker’s rule that makes it more aggressive than those of other states — that it doesn’t allow people to choose regular testing instead of vaccination — could potentially be bargained away, Bowling said.
Some unions hinted that was their intention. The State Police Association of Massachusetts said in a statement that it expects Baker to “identify meaningful alternatives for those with concerns about receiving a vaccine.”
Council 93 of the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees called for regular testing as an alternative to vaccination, and said in a statement that if that doesn’t happen “we will be reviewing all of our options under the law.”
Forecasters Offer Grim Fall Outlook on COVID-19
Boston Globe – Another season lost to pandemic may lie ahead.
Two separate disease forecasting teams are predicting that COVID-19 deaths will rise in Massachusetts and across the country for weeks to come, as the grim flood of new infections and steady rise in hospitalizations that began around July 4 continues.
Meanwhile, a third forecasting team has acknowledged that the ongoing surge is even stronger than they predicted only a few weeks ago based on early July data because they had underestimated the contagiousness of the Delta strain of the virus.
But the extremity of the COVID surge’s high-water mark, and how quickly Massachusetts turns the tide, depends on choices about wearing masks and getting vaccinated that can mean the difference between life and death, several disease trackers said.
One respected disease modeler from the University of Washington said that simply adopting universal mask mandates now could avoid roughly 1,300 deaths in Massachusetts by Dec. 1 and 50,000 deaths nationwide.
“I am concerned. Delta is causing a lot of increases in cases and in our hospitals,” said Ali Mokdad, a professor who has projected COVID cases, hospitalizations, and deaths throughout the pandemic at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.
“We have underestimated this virus and celebrated prematurely,” he said.
These harsh predictions come as Massachusetts and the nation grapple with whether to adopt new restrictions in hopes of slowing COVID’s renewed spread. This week, Governor Charlie Baker enacted one of the nation’s strictest vaccination requirements for state employees, while Acting Mayor Kim Janey on Friday announced a mask mandate for indoor public places in Boston, a measure that takes effect at 8 a.m. on Aug. 27 as the city continues to battle the virus.
How to Calculate Delta-Variant Risks for Children This Fall
Wall Street Journal – With the Delta variant of Covid-19 infecting more children, many parents are worried about how to keep their unvaccinated young kids safe as schools reopen and extracurricular activities resume.
The best protection against Delta, doctors and public health officials say, is vaccination. But that doesn’t directly help children under 12, who are ineligible for the shots. So parents must weigh the risks and benefits of fall activities, from in-person school to sports, play dates and birthday parties.
Most parents by now know the basics: Masks reduce transmission and outdoors is safer than indoors.
Beyond that, doctors suggest some principles to guide decision-making this fall. Give priority to your most important activities, they say, and skip others. Within your selected activities, look for ways to lessen risk.
“Almost nothing at this point is zero-risk,” says Leana Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University in Washington, D.C.
“Do those activities and reduce risk in those activities, and then try to cut out the other activities that are higher-risk and lower-value.”
Risk accumulates with each activity, she notes. Don’t assume that if you are engaging in one higher-risk activity that you might as well do others.
Delta Variant Upends US Labor Chief’s Plans for Swift Jobs Comeback
Boston Globe – U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh had high hopes for September: Receding COVID-19 risk, easing restrictions and steadily improving jobs numbers. But the delta variant’s aggressive path has shaken his expectations for a rapidly recovering labor market.
The resurgence of coronavirus cases has already pushed back a return to the office for many Americans and slowed down consumer activity. Walsh’s own department is delaying a partial return until at least October.
“I was hoping that we could have a nice recovery here in the month of September,” Walsh, 54, said in a wide-ranging Zoom interview with Bloomberg News Thursday from his home in Dorchester, Boston.
“We’ve had some good job growth here in the last six months,” and “I get worried that this is going to slow some of that.”
Walsh said the Delta variant could upend his expectation that July payrolls — with the most positions added in nearly a year — would be a prelude to future months. He now says he’s concerned about the resurgence of cases dragging on the workforce and economic growth.
The U.S. labor market is still in the midst of clawing back from the crisis, with about 5.7 million fewer jobs than before the pandemic.
MassCOSH Leads Call for Revision of Workplace Safety Standards
Berkshire Eagle – The state Department of Labor Standards stopped enforcing COVID-19 safety standards when the state of emergency expired in June.
Yet, the delta variant has led COVID-19 transmission in the state to surge once more. Public health and labor leaders say the lack of enforcement leaves workers without a key line of defense against working conditions that may increase their exposure to the virus. Many people continue to work in settings that expose them to coworkers or customers who are not vaccinated.
“Workers have no recourse and no one to turn to if they feel unsafe in their workplace and they feel their employer is putting them at risk,” said Jodi Sugerman-Brozan, executive director of the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health, , adding that some workers fear spreading the virus to others they live with. “There may be guidelines, but with no enforcement they are left with no support.”
MassCOSH says the administration of Gov. Charlie Baker should revise the standards, which include distancing and masking protocols, to align with current science rather than repeal them outright. The state’s approach, Sugerman-Brozan said, displays “a continued denial of the role that workplace exposure is playing in spreading a deadly virus.”\
MassCOSH has estimated that “hundreds, if not thousands,” of workers have died of COVID-19 related to workplace infection, and more than 11,000 filed claims for missing five or more days of work for what they believed to be a work-related infection.
Amazon Wants to Get Even Bigger in Boston. The Five Would-Be Mayors are Wary
Boston Globe – Amazon is knocking on Boston’s door. But will the next mayor let the massive retailer in?
For at least the last couple of years, the e-commerce giant has wanted to build a distribution center in Boston. So far, its efforts have fizzled amid concerns about traffic and lower-wage, non-union jobs. But Amazon’s not giving up and has recently hired two top Walsh administration officials to help with its expansion efforts. Whoever wins the mayor’s race in November will need to grapple with Amazon before long.
None of the five major candidates say they would shut the company out entirely, but all expressed wariness about a new distribution facility — particularly about wages and working conditions.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise: In December, the four candidates who sit on the City Council all endorsed a petition urging the tech giant to confer with local labor leaders about its warehouse plans in Boston and ensure its drivers are employees, not independent contractors.
But Amazon’s presence in Boston runs far deeper than one warehouse. Amazon employs nearly 4,000 well-paid workers in Fort Point and Kendall Square, many of them working on the company’s tech offerings such as Alexa and Amazon Web Services, with plans to add at least 3,000 more over the next few years. Likely thousands more Boston residents work as drivers and warehouse workers around the region. The blue vans that crisscross the city are a visual reminder of Amazon’s popularity with consumers — and its impact on struggling brick-and-mortar retailers.
Another COVID School Year
Boston Globe – The end of August is a bittersweet time if you have school-age kids. The luckiest of us try to soak up every last one of those gorgeous, waning summer days, feeling some combination of nostalgia and, it must be said, relief: We love our kids, truly, but how many more barneys over screen time can we have?
Having a new school year in sight brings dread, and excitement. We make all kinds of promises and resolutions — Healthier lunches! More study! Less procrastination! Better sleep! — we will never, ever keep. Still, it feels good to pretend, if only for a few weeks.
Or, it did.
We’re going into our third COVID-plagued school year. And what should be a triumphant return to normal — carried on the wings of the miraculous vaccines — is, yet again, an exercise in fear and diminished expectations. Especially for parents with kids too young to get the shot.
That gorgeous vaccine should have protected more of us from the virus, but refusers and the demonic Delta variant conspired to make that impossible. Remember how hopeful spring felt, when legions were lining up for vaccines, and the end seemed within reach?
May’s dashed hopes had an inescapable and way-too-on-the-nose metaphor in the stinking weather that followed: Rare perfect beach days crowded out by stifling heat or soggy chill. And, as of this writing, Hurricane Henri, because of course.
So here comes another broken autumn. Not as broken as last year’s, certainly, but no one’s dream. Our vaccination rates are very good compared to other states, which means fewer COVID hospitalizations and deaths. But cases, including those infections breaking through the vaccines, are ticking up. Which makes gathering in classrooms and other crowded settings risky. Which means normal is still a ways off.
Massachusetts Resumes Reporting Racial COVID-19 Hospitalization Data
Boston.com – Following pushback from local Democrats and a rebound in COVID-19 rates, Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration resumed reporting demographic data on hospitalizations due to the virus in Massachusetts this week.
For the first time since late June, the state Department of Public Health’s data dashboard included information Thursday on COVID-19 patients broken down by their age, race, and gender, after Baker suggested earlier in the week that they would bring back the more detailed data due to the rise in hospitalizations.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley said she was “relieved” by the change, which she and Sen. Elizabeth Warren had called for in mid-July, amid concerns that the decision to stop reporting demographic data would hurt efforts to address the pandemic’s already disproportionate impact on communities of color.
“The Baker administration should never have stopped collecting and reporting demographic data on COVID hospitalizations, so I’m relieved to see that the Governor heeded our calls and changed course,” Pressley told Boston.com in a statement Friday afternoon.
Baker Proposes $1B to Defray Unemployment Costs for Businesses
Boston Business Journal – As part of a supplemental budget, Gov. Charlie Baker proposed putting $1 billion toward the state fund for unemployment insurance claims to help defray billions of dollars in costs set to accrue to Massachusetts businesses.
Baker unveiled a $1.6 billion supplemental budget for fiscal year 2021, saying in a letter to lawmakers that the state’s unprecedented $5 billion budgetary surplus justifies the package. Through the proposal, the governor is also mounting another attempt to implement a state-level charitable tax deduction.
For months, Massachusetts businesses have called for government aid for the unemployment insurance trust fund, which has paid out record-shattering claims during the pandemic. Baker signed legislation in April that authorizes the state to borrow up to $7 billion to keep the fund solvent.
“This transfer will reduce the need to borrow funds for COVID-era claims, and thereby reduce the need for future employer assessments,” Baker wrote in the letter.
Biden Ramps up Virus Strategy for Nursing Homes and Schools
Boston Globe – The Biden administration moved on multiple fronts last week to fight back against the surging delta variant, strongly recommending booster shots for most vaccinated American adults and using federal leverage to force nursing homes to vaccinate their staffs.
In remarks from the East Room of the White House, President Joe Biden also directed his education secretary to “use all of his authority, and legal action if appropriate,” to deter states from banning universal masking in classrooms. That move is destined to escalate a fight with some Republican governors who are blocking local school districts from requiring masks to protect against the virus.
The shifts in strategy reflect the administration’s growing concern that the highly contagious delta variant is erasing its hard-fought progress against the pandemic and thrusting the nation back to the more precarious point it was at earlier in the year.
Thus far, Biden has been reluctant to use the federal government’s power to withhold funding as a means of fighting the pandemic. But that changed Wednesday, when he said his administration would make employee vaccination a condition for nursing homes to receive Medicare and Medicaid funding. Officials said the decision would affect more than 15,000 nursing homes that employ 1.3 million workers.
“The threat of the delta virus remains real, but we are prepared, we have the tools, we can do this,” Biden said in the East Room, adding, “This is no time to let our guard down.”
He accused politicians who were banning local school districts from requiring masks in the classroom of setting a “dangerous tone,” adding, “We’re not going to sit by as governors try to block and intimidate educators from protecting our children.”
The administration is sending letters to eight states — Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah — challenging their efforts to ban universal masking in schools.
On Gig Economy Ballot Question, Both Sides are Brawl-In
Commonwealth – There will be plenty of time for battling over the substance of the looming ballot question on gig workers. For now, the two sides are getting warmed up by hurling charges and countercharges at each other over process issues and legalisms, an early sign of just how intense the fight is likely to get.
Looking to replicate a ballot question victory in California last November, bankrolled with more than $200 million, gig economy companies led by Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart have set their sights on Massachusetts, where they hope to pass a similar question that would legally define gig workers as independent contractors, not traditional employees. A coalition of labor groups has formed to fight the question.
What’s clear already is that this will be a no-holds-barred brawl.
Earlier this month, opponents of the ballot effort fired off a complaint to the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance charging that backers violated campaign finance rules by raising and spending money on their effort before formally establishing and registering a campaign committee with the state. Backers said the complaint leveled “false claims” based on “willful misunderstanding of Massachusetts campaign finance laws.”
On Tuesday, supporters of the ballot question (dubbed the Coalition for Independent Work, not to be the confused with the opposing group, the Coalition to Protect Workers’ Rights) filed a complaint with the state campaign finance office lobbing the same charge back at opponents — of raising and spending money before filing initial paperwork with the state.
The skirmishes have the feel of the old Mad magazine feature “Spy vs. Spy,” in which dueling operatives engaged in a back and forth of comical moves trying to trip each other up.
In their latest move, opponents are now hoping to kill the whole thing right out of the gate: They’ve asked Attorney General Maura Healey to rule that the question is not eligible to appear on next year’s statewide ballot because it violates a provision of the state constitution that bans questions with elements that are not sufficiently related to each other. They say a provision of the ballot question that would protect tech companies from liability exposure is too unrelated to its main focus on worker classification.
Proponents say the complaint doesn’t “hold up to scrutiny.”
Three years ago, the Supreme Judicial Court knocked a proposed new tax on high-earners off the ballot because the justices said it failed the “relatedness” requirement.
California Gig Law Ruled Unconstitutional
Los Angeles Times – California’s giant ride-hailing and delivery companies suffered a setback Friday as a state Superior Court judge invalidated a 2020 ballot proposition that allowed Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart and other app-based businesses to classify their workers as independent contractors.
In a lawsuit brought by the Service Employees International Union and several drivers, Alameda County Superior Court Judge Frank Roesch ruled that Proposition 22 is unconstitutional and unenforceable.
That’s in part because the law, Roesch wrote, infringes on the power of the Legislature explicitly granted by the state Constitution to regulate compensation for workers’ injuries.
“If the people wish to use their initiative power to restrict or qualify a ‘plenary’ and ‘unlimited’ power granted to the Legislature, they must first do so by initiative constitutional amendment, not by initiative statute,” the judge wrote.
Baker Promises ‘Aggressive’ Booster Vaccine Rollout
Patriot Ledger – The federal government plans to begin making COVID-19 booster shots available next month to adults who have already received both doses of a Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, an announcement Gov. Charlie Baker indicated came without advance guidance for states.
Baker said plans for a booster program did not come up in a regular Tuesday call between governors and Biden administration officials “on all things vaccines and all things COVID.”
“First time I heard about it was when I got home last night and saw the news,” he said during a GBH Radio interview. “So, I have no guidance, all right, even though we spent an hour on the phone yesterday with all of the people who probably knew something about what this is all about, which really bums me out.”
Baker described himself as an “enthusiastic supporter of a booster program” and said that once Massachusetts has more information about timing and other details, the state will “move very aggressively to make sure that those who are eligible to get boosters get them.”
“I think it’s really important that we do it, especially based on some of the studies that have come out of other countries that are farther ahead of us with respect to vaccines,” he said.
Massachusetts Should be Converting 100,000 Homes a Year to Electric Heat. The Actual Number: 461
Boston Globe – When Massachusetts officials look into the not-so-distant future of 2030, they see 1 million homes across the state comfortably heated and cooled by sleek, efficient heat pumps, their old oil- and gas-burning systems — and the climate-warming emissions they spewed — relegated to the scrap heap.
But they are woefully behind pace to reach that lofty goal, and the more time that passes without an urgent response, the further out of reach it gets.
According to the state’s own plan, Massachusetts should be converting 100,000 homes a year from fossil fuels to electricity for heating and cooling. The reality is much different: Just 461 homes made the switch last year, according to data reviewed by the Globe.
“We are nine years from 2030, and we have barely begun to scratch the surface in terms of what we’re doing and where we need to be going,” said Eugenia Gibbons, Massachusetts climate policy director for Healthcare Without Harm. “We need to be doing more, faster. The world is burning — I don’t know how else to say it.”
Nearly one third of Massachusetts’ emissions come from its more than 2 million buildings. The state says eliminating those emissions by shifting to electrical sources — and replacing fossil fuel energy generation with renewable sources, such as wind, hydro-power, and solar — is critical to achieving net zero emissions in time to do the most good. Between 2021 and 2030, the state estimates, about 1 million residential heating systems will come to the end of their service lives — each a fossil fuel system that could be replaced by one using electricity.
Bill Filed to Establish State Climatologist Office to Track Climate Change
Boston Globe – A Democratic state representative from Bedford is pushing for Massachusetts to create a state climatologist post to track the effects of climate change on the Commonwealth and to work with various agencies and environmental experts on crafting responses to the increasingly dire crisis.
Representative Kenneth I. Gordon filed a bill July 29 to establish a state climatologist, records show. The bill was referred days later to the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources, and Agriculture. It remains pending.
According to the language of the bill, the office of the state climatologist would be housed within the University of Massachusetts system.
The office, the bill says, would be tasked with gathering and analyzing” data on climate conditions in” Massachusetts. It would also conduct research on “the climate in the commonwealth” and seek “opportunities for sponsored research concerning climate issues” in the state, the bill says.
Among the bill’s boosters is Charles Orloff, executive director of the Blue Hill Observatory and Science Center.
State Sets Emissions-Reduction Goal for Energy-Efficiency Plan
Business West – The Baker-Polito administration recently announced it has established an ambitious greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions-reduction goal for the next three-year Mass Save Energy Efficiency Plan. The goals, established as part of comprehensive climate legislation signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker in March, are intended to help the commonwealth meet its ambitious goal to reduce GHG emissions 50% below 1990 levels by 2030.
The GHG reduction goal for the three-year energy-efficiency plan, established in a letter issued by Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Kathleen Theoharides to Mass Save program administrators, builds upon the framework established in the administration’s 2050 Decarbonization Roadmap and 2030 Interim Clean Energy and Climate Plan.
The goal requires the commonwealth’s utility companies to pursue an ambitious emissions-reduction goal through Mass Save in a cost-effective and equitable manner while creating jobs and opportunities for economic development throughout Massachusetts.
“Massachusetts continues to lead the nation in ambitious clean-energy and energy-efficiency policies with programs like Mass Save, helping residents save money on their energy bills while making substantial progress on our climate goals,” Baker said. “The goals we are setting today will help spark innovative efficiency solutions and lead to significant reductions in harmful greenhouse-gas emissions to combat the effects of climate change.”
“In establishing this emissions-reduction goal, our administration is laying the groundwork for significant investments in energy-efficient infrastructure and job creation across the Commonwealth,” Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said. “These investments will reduce air pollution in our cities and towns, create new economic opportunities, and lower energy costs for our residents and businesses across the state.”
The GHG reduction goal for the 2022-24 Joint Statewide Energy Efficiency Plan for electric utility companies requires the reduction of 504,955 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions, while the emissions reduction for gas-utility companies requires the reduction of 335,588 metric tons of CO2e.
August 17
This Week:
No hearings scheduled this week
AIM and Massachusetts Non-Profit Network Statement Regarding Unemployment Insurance Payment Extension for Non-Profit Employers
To: Hon. Rosalin Acosta, Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development
On behalf of our memberships, the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network (MNN) and the Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) write to thank you for your work to steer the Massachusetts economy and labor force through the COVID-19 pandemic, and to request further support for our vulnerable non-profit employers who face a looming unemployment insurance (UI) payment deadline at the end of August 2021. As state leadership continues to work towards the best use of one-time federal relief from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) – and as concerns about emerging variants, vaccination rates, and shifting workplace models remain a priority for employers – we ask that you provide reimbursing non-profit employers another deadline extension for their pandemic-era UI bills until December 31, 2021.
As you know, non-profits, municipalities, and Tribal entities that self-insure in Massachusetts were relieved of 50% of their UI costs with federal support. ARPA expanded this relief to 75% from April 1 to September 6, 2021. Despite the federal relief and the generous state-level payment deadline extensions that have been provided thus far, the costs many non-profit organizations face remain insurmountable and will continue to result in vital resources being directed away from communities in need.
Self-insured non-profits could not have budgeted for an event as devasting as COVID-19 nor the magnitude of their employees simultaneously filing for UI. In a statewide survey of the ongoing impacts of COVID-19 on Massachusetts non-profits conducted earlier this year, MNN found that one year since the onset of the pandemic:
Reimbursing non-profits in Massachusetts now owe a lump-sum payment, reflecting all COVID-19 related layoffs from March 2020 onwards, at the end of this month. Alleviating the unemployment burden felt by vulnerable employers providing necessary resources to Massachusetts residents is a wise and practical action to benefit communities, employers, and business alike, especially while the state continues to explore best avenues for ARPA funds.
We thank you for your time and attention to this important budgeting concern for struggling local nonprofits and urge you to extend the deadline to December 31, 2021. Should you have any questions or concerns of if you would like to discuss any of these concerns in person, please contact us at jklocke@massnonprofit.net or jregan@aimnet.org.
Most Recent COVID Numbers for Massachusetts
Baker Has No Plans to Change Mask Guidance
Boston Globe – Governor Charlie Baker said Monday that he has no plans to alter the statewide mask guidance, as K-12 students prepare to return to classrooms this fall amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“I’m not considering changing the mask guidance … at this time,” Baker said during an unrelated briefing in Peabody.
He said state officials pay close attention to data surrounding case counts, hospitalizations, and deaths from the virus in shaping policy on pandemic response. The hospitalization rate in Massachusetts, where vaccination rates are comparatively high, remains below the rest of the country, Baker said.
“I hope and pray that many other states move as aggressively as the people in Massachusetts have moved to get a vaccine,” Baker said. “Vaccinations are the pathway out of this pandemic, period. … We’re going to run hundreds of vaccination clinics in conjunction with our colleagues in the K-12 world between now and the start of school. We expect that will continue to boost our numbers among the kids between the ages of 12 and 19, where again we are a national leader.”
He said there’s also a strategy in place for elementary school grades, where kids aren’t yet eligible to get vaccinated.
“We’ve made a very strong recommendation to our colleagues in K-6 education, that because there is not a vaccine currently available for that population … that those kids we believe should be masked up until they have the opportunity to get vaccinated,” Baker said. “And our recommendation for the kids in middle and high school, is that if you’re not vaccinated, you should wear a mask. If you are vaccinated, you don’t need to.”
Late last month, the state released recommendations that unvaccinated students, teachers, and other school staff members should wear masks indoors, despite federal recommendations that everyone wear masks regardless of vaccination status.
Despite pressure from teachers unions to create a stronger mask requirement, Baker has for many weeks emphasized that school districts should determine which COVID-19 protocols work best for them and adopt them as needed.
The state has not explicitly recommended that districts adopt other COVID-19 protocols, such as social distancing, this fall.
Baker said Monday that officials have also made clear that people with certain medical conditions should don face coverings.
“If you are with people who are susceptible to COVID indoors, especially, you should wear a mask,” Baker said. “And we’re certainly going to work with our colleagues in the federal government to make sure we do all we can, as the rules become more available and clearer with respect to … boosters for immunocompromised individuals, that we do all we can to make sure those folks have access to vaccine boosters as well. But at this point in time, we don’t have a plan to change our guidance.”
Federal ARPA Money for Counties Soon Available to Municipalities
State House News – Most municipalities in Massachusetts will soon get another infusion of federal money when the Baker administration reallocates nearly $1 billion to the cities and towns that make up the state’s nine “inactive” counties.
The American Rescue Plan Act provided $1.3 billion in direct aid to Massachusetts’ 14 counties, with $946 million earmarked for nine counties that the U.S. Treasury calls “not units of general local government.”
So instead, the 254 municipalities of Berkshire, Essex, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, Middlesex, Nantucket, Suffolk and Worcester counties will share that money. The state began sending the money out to cities and towns on a per capita basis Monday and local governments can expect to have the funds in hand in two to three business days, the administration’s special director of federal funds, Heath Fahle, said a memo to municipal leaders last week.
As with other Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund aid, cities and towns get half of their allotment now and the remaining half in a year. Just more than $393 million is already available from the U.S. Treasury to the Bay State’s five functional and eligible counties.
Norfolk County is awarded $137.3 million, Bristol County gets $109.8 million, Plymouth County is due $101.2 million, Barnstable County is allocated $41.4 million and Dukes County’s share is almost $3.4 million.
“The Commonwealth has no ability to alter these allocations. Municipalities within the jurisdiction of the counties listed below should contact county officials for more information,” Fahle wrote in the memo, referring to the five counties that get their CLFRF money directly from the U.S. Treasury.
Baker Administration Hits Milestone of Awarding More Than $100 Million in Skills Capital Grants to High Schools, Colleges and Educational Institutions
The Baker Administration today announced $9.7 million in grants from the Skills Capital Grant Program to 47 educational organizations across the Commonwealth to update equipment and expand student enrollment in programs that provide career education. The awards announced today mark $102 million in total funding provided to high schools, colleges and other educational organizations since the program’s inception in 2015.
Governor Charlie Baker, Lt. Governor Karyn Polito, Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Rosalin Acosta and Education Secretary James Peyser visited Peabody Veterans Memorial High School to announce the awards and to tour the high school’s electrical engineering and culinary arts classrooms, which received a $175,000 award last year.
The Skills Capital Grant Program was originally launched in 2015 with the goal of replacing outdated equipment and technology, mainly at vocational technical high schools and community colleges. Since then, the program has evolved into a crucial component of local workforce training efforts by expanding the number of young people and adults trained and experienced with the newest technologies used by local employers. Approximately 40,000 students across the Commonwealth have directly benefitted from these grants.
“The Skills Capital Grants have helped give thousands of young people opportunities in high-demand jobs, and the grants have had a tremendous impact on students, schools and local businesses,” said Governor Charlie Baker. “These significant investments made over the past six years in this program with our partners in the Legislature will help train students to adapt to the changing needs of our economy.”
“Massachusetts, like the rest of the country, will face workforce challenges in the next few years, but we are poised to handle them better because of programs like the Skills Capital Grants,” said Lt. Governor Karyn Polito. “The grants enable schools, colleges and other educational institutions to revamp how students learn and gain crucial experience that serves them and employers well.”
Since 2015, 387 grants totaling more than $102 million have been awarded to 187 different schools and educational institutions across the Commonwealth, with many organizations receiving multiple grants over the years. The state’s investment also helped institutions leverage the grants to gain an additional $25 million in local matching funds.
The competitive grants are awarded to educational institutions that demonstrate partnerships with local businesses, as well as align curriculum and credentials with industry demand to maximize hiring opportunities in each region of the state. The 2018 Economic Development Bill, filed by the Governor and passed by the Legislature, established an additional $75 million in Skills Capital Grant funding over five years.
About two-thirds of the investments made with the grants are directly aligned to reduce skills gaps in high priority industry sectors, including health care, manufacturing, IT and skilled trades. A percentage of the funding, about 5 percent, has been invested in multi-year strategic projects in manufacturing, healthcare and energy training programs which are projected to have significant regional impact.
“As we continue to address economic disparities across the Commonwealth and provide solutions to employment gaps in high-demand industries, the Skills Capital Grants play a significant role in training students of all ages for successful long-lasting careers,” said Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Rosalin Acosta. “The impact of these grant funds on students, educational institutions, and local business partners is incredibly positive and moves us toward a more equitable economy.”
Approximately 68 percent of the funds have been awarded to traditional high schools and vocational technical schools, 24 percent going to colleges, and another 8 percent to community-based organizations. A focus of the more recent grant awards has been the launch and expansion of the Governor’s Career Technical Initiative, which supports vocational-technical schools in expanding their impact by operating programs in the afternoons for local high school students and in the evenings for workers and adult learners.
“These unprecedented and sustained investments to expand training capacity in high-demand industries, and upgrades to the quality of equipment, ensure that our students – both young people and adults – graduate with knowledge and skills that are of immediate value to them as they launch careers and to employers who need skilled workers in today’s rapidly changing economy,” said Education Secretary James Peyser.
“Training a skilled workforce is critical to the Commonwealth’s economic recovery, and the Skills Capital Grants have been a vital component of our efforts to strengthen the talent pipelines for key industries,” said Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy.
“As we continue emerging from the economic damage inflicted by the pandemic, funding this program at this milestone level will significantly increase access to employment opportunities in every region of Massachusetts and accelerate progress toward recovery.”
In January 2020, the Administration began awarding larger multi-year grants, allowing educational institutions to apply for either one or two years of funding. In this round of grants, Massachusetts Bay Community College received a two-year grant totaling $750,000 to purchase new equipment to support students in the nursing and allied health programs. Entities which receive two-year awards require a local matching contribution of $1 to every $3 of state funding.
The Skills Capital Grants are awarded by Governor Baker’s Workforce Skills Cabinet, which was created in 2015 to bring together the Secretariats of Education, Labor and Workforce Development, and Housing and Economic Development to align education, economic development, and workforce policies in order to strategize around how to meet employers’ demand for skilled workers in every region of the Commonwealth.
For a full list of this rounds’ recipients please see here.
Coronavirus in Boston-area Wastewater is on the Rise Again
Boston Globe – In worrisome news for residents on edge about the contagious Delta variant, the amount of coronavirus in Boston area wastewater is on the rise again, a possible signal of case increases ahead.
Levels of coronavirus in the wastewater coming from the northern section of the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority, which includes Boston, are now similar to those in late January. Levels from the southern section have reached levels similar to April. The numbers reflect tests taken as recently as Friday.
The pilot program tests for SARS-CoV-2 RNA copies per milliliter of wastewater at the MWRA’s Deer Island treatment plant. Officials think the tests can serve as an early warning system for surges in cases. Cambridge-based Biobot Analytics, which conducts the tests, says it has found that the amount of virus in the waste water is correlated with newly diagnosed coronavirus cases four to 10 days later.
Dr. Paul Sax, clinical director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Womens Hospital, said Sunday in a tweet about the MWRA data, “Not liking this trajectory (which often predicts what’s coming in weeks ahead) one bit. But better to be prepared than live in ignorance.”
The Delta variant is raising case, hospitalization, and death counts nationwide, especially in areas with higher community spread and lower vaccination rates, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Massachusetts is a national leader in vaccinations that are highly effective against severe disease and death. Officials and experts are hoping that the vaccinations will blunt the variant’s impact here, with higher case counts not resulting in the same amount of hospitalizations and deaths as in previous phases of the pandemic.
“If you get people vaccinated, there will be people who will test positive but they’re not going to get as sick as they would if they weren’t vaccinated,” Governor Charlie Baker said last week.
Baker said Monday that the state is doing far better in terms of coronavirus metrics than many other states and lauded Massachusetts residents for getting their shots.
“The fact that so many people in Massachusetts have been vaccinated – and that is a real tribute to the enthusiasm that the people of this Commonwealth showed to getting vaccinated – has put us in a dramatically different place than many other states across this country,” he said. “I hope and pray that many other states move as aggressively as the people in Massachusetts have moved to get vaccinated. Vaccinations are the pathway out of this pandemic. Period,” he said.
US Considers COVID Vaccine Boosters for Elderly People as Early as Fall
WASHINGTON (AP) — Warning of tough days ahead with surging COVID-19 infections, the director of the National Institutes of Health said Sunday the U.S. could decide in the next couple weeks whether to offer coronavirus booster shots to more Americans this fall.
Dr. Francis Collins also pleaded anew for unvaccinated Americans to get their shots, calling them “sitting ducks” for a delta variant that is ravaging the country and showing little sign of letting up.
“This is going very steeply upward with no signs of having peaked out,” he said.
Federal health officials have been actively looking at whether extra shots for the vaccinated may be needed as early as this fall, reviewing case numbers in the U.S. “almost daily” as well as the situation in other countries such as Israel, where preliminary studies suggest the vaccine’s protection against serious illness dropped among those vaccinated in January.
Israel has been offering a coronavirus booster to people over 60 who have already been vaccinated.
No U.S. decision has been made because cases here so far still indicate that people remain highly protected from COVID-19, including the delta variant, after receiving the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna regimen or the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine
But U.S. health officials made clear Sunday they are preparing for the possibility that the time for boosters may come sooner than later.
Pelosi Takes Step to Quell Moderates’ Budget Rebellion
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has proposed a procedural vote this month that would set up future passage of two economic measures crucial to President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, a move Democratic leaders hope will win must-have votes from unhappy party moderates.
In a letter Sunday to Democratic lawmakers, Pelosi, D-Calif., suggested that the House will take a single vote that would clear an initial hurdle for both a budget resolution and a separate infrastructure bill. The budget blueprint would open the gate for Congress to later consider a separate, $3.5 trillion, 10-year bill for health, education and environment programs.
Nine centrist Democrats said Friday they would oppose the budget resolution until the House first approves a $1 trillion package of road, railway and other infrastructure projects. In the face of solid Republican opposition, Democrats can lose no more than three defectors to pass legislation through the closely split chamber. The infrastructure measure, which the Senate approved last week with bipartisan support, is the top priority for moderates, who want to bank a quick win by sending it to Biden for his signature. Democrats are calling the House back from summer recess on Aug. 23.
By forcing the House to vote on moving both measures an initial step forward together, Democratic leaders hope moderates will be forced to abandon their threat — at least for now — and join the rest of the party in edging its economic and social agenda toward eventual passage.
Delta Variant Leaving Mark on Business
The Wall Street Journal – Repercussions from the Delta variant of Covid-19 are starting to ripple across companies, raising staffing costs in senior housing, disrupting production of potato chips and leading some companies to rein in profit projections.
Still unclear: whether the highly contagious strain of the virus will be a momentary stumble in an improving global economy—one that businesses and consumers are now better equipped to handle—or something more serious.
In recent weeks, Kellogg Co. said Delta’s spread in Malaysia slowed production of Pringles there. Online travel company Booking Holdings Inc. said overall bookings declined as Delta took root in July. U.S. healthcare companies say elective medical procedures are slowing once again in some places.
And, as more employers postpone their return to offices, the outlook is darkening for such disparate companies as a 25-person Houston cable installer and a company with a $1.3 billion market-capitalization that sells paper goods and cleaning supplies.
“We were on a good trajectory, and then the Delta variant showed up and we’ve taken a step back as a result of that,” Donnie King, chief executive of meat processor Tyson Foods Inc., told investors last week. The company, which said early this month that it would require workers to be vaccinated, has seen efficiency drop as absenteeism rises, Mr. King added. “Essentially, it takes us six days to get five days worth of work.”
The setbacks come after a spring and summer that seemed to promise a rapid, uninterrupted recovery with wider vaccinations. Then at the end of July, as reports of the Delta variant spread, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed earlier guidance and recommended that vaccinated Americans wear masks indoors where Covid rates are high. Consumers began pulling back.
Traffic at grocery stores, gas stations, gyms, restaurants and retail stores fell starting in late July, after surpassing 2019 levels earlier in the summer, according to mobility metrics from data firm SafeGraph. Weekly domestic flights declined last week, for the second time since mid-April. The median number of trips Americans took at least 10 minutes from home also declined in July, data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics show. Workplace visits leveled off last week after mostly rising for months, according to data from Brivo, which tracks the number of times people use credentials to gain access to commercial buildings.
Small-business confidence fell in August to its lowest level since March, with 39% of owners expecting U.S. economic conditions to improve over the next year, down from half in July and two-thirds in March, according to a survey of more than 560 small businesses for The Wall Street Journal by Vistage Worldwide Inc.
For Quality Cable Installers LLC, which employs about 25 people running networking and audiovisual lines in office suites, return-to-office delays portend a few more lean months.
The Houston company stayed busy at first during the pandemic, as customers continued existing projects. Work ground to a halt early this year, as companies held off on office-space changes, owner Tarin Williger said.
About three months ago, as many companies began mapping out a return to their offices for September, they started discussing plans to move, expand or remodel—all of which can require new cable runs. Now, many of those plans are on hold again.
“What we really need is people to go back to work to get business,” Ms. Williger said.
A survey of consumer sentiment by the University of Michigan, released on Friday, fell 13.5% in the first half of August from July, one of the sharpest declines since the index began tracking on a monthly basis in 1978.
The stock market, while up nearly 20% for the year overall, is sending uncertain signals. This summer, stocks seen as benefiting most from a recovery fell more than broader economic indicators would have warranted, in part on uncertainty over federal spending plans, said Keith Parker, head of U.S. and global equity strategy at UBS. Those declines have largely leveled off, but haven’t reversed.
There are signs that Delta’s economic impact could remain limited. The number of Americans who aren’t working for fear of getting or spreading the coronavirus has continued to decline, to 2.5 million adults in late July and early August from 2.8 million a month earlier and 5.5 million in January, a U.S. Census survey found. New unemployment claims have remained roughly level since May, and robust job growth and falling unemployment in July suggest the labor market remained strong just ahead of the latest pandemic wave.
Companies have continued to conserve cash, a factor that helped many big businesses weather 2020. Households, too, have more of a cushion, built up as many paid down debt or amassed savings during the pandemic, with help from federal stimulus spending and lower travel and dining spending. As of June, American households had saved $2.5 trillion more than might have been expected absent a pandemic, consulting firm Oxford Economics estimated.
And consumers appear eager to spend, including on categories hit hard by Covid-19, such as vacation travel, restaurants and bars—though they may wait out the current spike in infections, UBS’s Mr. Parker said. Those spending plans are reassuring, he added.
“It signals that consumers, after a year-and-a-half of living with Covid cases spiking and coming down, seem willing to spend and maybe look past this recent wave,” Mr. Parker said.
Travel and hospitality are among the industries most affected by the Delta variant. Spending on air travel and cruises has dropped sharply since early July, after recovering steadily throughout the spring and early summer, according to credit- and debit-card data tracked by Earnest Research.
Spending on hotels has largely held up so far. But trade shows are getting canceled. And the number of diners seated at restaurants tracked by online reservation platform OpenTable was 9% below 2019 levels for the week ended Thursday, after surpassing 2019 levels in late June. New Orleans, Houston, Atlanta and other Southern cities have been among the hardest hit. Borrowing costs for travel and leisure companies are rising.
For Erin Francis-Cummings, whose 10-person market-research firm in San Francisco primarily advises tourism bureaus, the slowdown is unsettling.
The company launched a weekly “travel sentiment” newsletter in March 2020 after losing 70% of its contracts. The newsletter, intended for those in the tourism business, assesses how inclined people are to travel.
This summer, as travel began to pick up, she cut back to biweekly editions, and some customers dropped their subscriptions, figuring the worst was over.
“We thought we were recovering,” Ms. Francis-Cummings said. Her measure of travel sentiment has fallen for a month now, with business and international travel lagging more than leisure travel.
“If the travel industry isn’t healthy, as much as I can do, my business is just not going to be as healthy,” she said.
Frank Del Rio, CEO of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd. , said the company saw a modest decline in new net booking in July, as concerns about the Delta variant mounted, compared with June. But the company said its safety policies, including requiring cruise passengers to be vaccinated, along with strong bookings, would help see it through. He predicted the Delta variant’s impact would prove transitory.
“It’s going to run through the course of the population very, very quickly,” Mr. Del Rio told investors on Aug. 6. “We don’t think it will have lasting effects.”
Walt Disney Co. , in reporting fiscal third-quarter results on Thursday, acknowledged the uncertainty spawned by the Delta variant, but reported a strong rebound in visitors and bookings for its theme parks, including its Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Disney executives also said future reservations exceeded third-quarter attendance, signaling Delta hadn’t dented demand.
Healthcare companies are monitoring the pace of elective medical procedures, which tend to be more profitable but also more readily canceled or postponed when infections rise. Becton Dickinson and Co., which makes medical supplies from syringes to infusion pumps, told investors on Aug. 5 that its own outlook, for 16.5% revenue growth for the year ending Sept. 30, assumes no broad restrictions on elective procedures from the pandemic.
“However, in the last several weeks, we are seeing some impact from the Covid Delta variant on elective surgeries in certain U.S. states,” Chief Financial Officer Christopher Reidy told investors.
The spread of the Delta strain has raised staffing costs for tenants of Sabra Healthcare REIT Inc., a real-estate investment trust that leases facilities to nursing homes and senior housing operators. So far, its customers haven’t seen significant illness as a result of the Delta variant, executives said, attributing that to high vaccination rates among facility patients and residents, as well as protocols such as requiring staff and residents to wear masks.
At the same time, where tenants have required that staff be vaccinated, costs are rising as they add temporary and then permanent staff to replace those who refuse, Sabra Chief Investment Officer Talya Neco-Hacohen said on an early August call with investors.
Packaging and paper-products seller Veritiv Corp. warned that as more companies extend remote work, it could hurt results for its unit selling towels, tissues and break-room supplies to facilities in North America. The business generates about 15% of revenues for Veritiv, which has a market capitalization of about $1.3 billion.
A spokeswoman said the company’s main packaging business has performed well through the pandemic, and sales of hand sanitizer, protective equipment and similar products have helped offset declines in its facilities unit.
In the U.S., Delta is so far slowing activity by discouraging consumers and businesses from traveling or gathering, economists and executives say. Widespread government-mandated shutdowns appear unlikely, although some jurisdictions—including Louisiana, seven San Francisco Bay Area counties and Los Angeles, which have all instituted indoor mask mandates—are imposing restrictions, short of closures. Disney World now requires customers to wear masks indoors, as does Apple in most of its stores.
A handful of studies have used cellphone location data to show that Americans last year began staying away from businesses before government-mandated shutdown orders required it. During subsequent outbreaks, fear also appeared to be a major driver of consumer behavior, according Austan Goolsbee, a former Obama administration economist who wrote one of the studies with economist Chad Syverson. Both work at the University of Chicago.
“With the lower death rates, hopefully a resurgence of the virus now would freak people out less, but people shouldn’t kid themselves,” Mr. Goolsbee said. “If the surge in hospitalizations continues and the virus begins to rage out of control again, the recovery will be in danger.”
He added: “It wouldn’t have to collapse like in the spring of 2020. It could just stall out the recovery like what happened in November and December last year.”
Compromise on Infrastructure Bill is a Path Forward for Congress and America
Boston Globe (Opinion) – The coronavirus pandemic has directed a spotlight across the full scope of America’s depleted infrastructure. To keep the country competitive, the United States will need to make major investments in both hard assets (i.e. transportation and broadband) and softer infrastructure, including paid medical and family leave and child care.
But while the Biden administration and both houses of Congress are working to address this challenge, disagreements about what should be in the final package have become increasingly heated. At issue now is whether hyper-partisanship will derail the entire effort.
Having spent my career in public policymaking and board governance, I have learned a few things about getting to consensus to make consequential change.
There’s no substitute for getting opposing sides to sit down and work through controversies face-to-face, as happened in the case of the bipartisan effort that recently passed the Senate. It allows people with divergent points of view to bring their ideas and concerns to the table, and find common ground. However, if the nature of the change is too much to be pursued all at once, it’s best to step back and agree to manageable chunks.
I would probably have prioritized child-care subsidies. Parents without good daycare options can’t go to work, and that has profound implications both for the broader economy and for that individual family’s budget. Yet there’s nothing in the bipartisan infrastructure package now before the House to address this challenge. The question then is whether advocates like me who support other proposals to boost growth and prosperity should support this bill. My answer is an unequivocal yes.
Those of us concerned about economic growth and inequality cannot afford to let the perfect be the enemy of the good. While this bill might not include every wise proposal — Senate Democrats shifted child care to their $3.5 trillion budget bill where it’s believed to have a greater chance of passing — the infrastructure bill boasts a raft of constructive provisions. Recent studies, for example, have pointed to evidence that lead pipes play an outsized role in upending a child’s academic and subsequent professional achievements. This bill would eliminate lead pipes throughout the country. And if the alternative to passing this bipartisan bill is to pass nothing —and an honest look at Washington gridlock over the last two decades suggests that’s probable — Congress should take the bird in hand.
While the news coverage centers squarely on the political dimensions of this debate — who is leaning for and against final passage — the real story is in the underlying text. Take, for example, the question of broadband funding. Nearly 140,000 Massachusetts residents don’t have access, this bill would allocate $100 million toward connecting them. More than that, 19 percent of Massachusetts families would be eligible for a broadband subsidy. Given the realities of the last 18 months when COVID-19 required students learn from home, it’s vitally important to ensure every young person can see and interact with their teacher from afar. And that’s just one of many substantive examples.
In an era where our elected officials are so divided — at a moment when so many of us have been drawn into the temptation to view politics as a battle between us and them — we can’t lose sight of the fact that ideas that survive compromise between people with different points of view have staying power. The fact that this roster of ideas — provisions to address deteriorating roads and bridges, railways, transit systems, power grids, water pipes and, of course, telecommunication wires — has earned the support of leaders with very different governing philosophies suggests that they are well considered.
If Washington rejects this bill — if those who support more of different provisions succeed in derailing this effort — Congress may not have another opportunity to make any of these crucial investments. But if it moves forward on this agreement and builds momentum, members may create momentum to tackle future challenges in a bipartisan way — including a more expansive child care subsidy.
Within an institution as persistently gridlocked as Congress has recently proven to be, we cannot let an opportunity for rare progress slip through our fingers. No matter what any individual public official might want included in the bill, those empowered to cast ballots on Capitol Hill should support final passage.
Americans Looking for Straight Talk on Booster Shots
Boston Globe (Opinion) – Some 3 percent of Americans are expected to get the good news any moment now that they will be eligible for a COVID-19 booster shot — a second chance to resume something like a normal life in this “new normal” governed by pandemic variants and surges.
Millions of people with compromised immune systems are — and should be — the first to get in line for an added dose of protection against a disease that has kept immunologists around the world awake at night tracking and trying to combat it mutations.
“I’m overjoyed at the news,” said Suffolk University’s senior vice president for external affairs, John Nucci, the recipient of a kidney transplant in 2018. “But this has been a difficult and frustrating wait. My sense is that doctors were perfectly willing to offer a booster to their patients and have been as frustrated as the rest of us waiting for them.”
But what about the rest of the population?
They too are looking for clarity from government health officials about whether they need boosters and how they can get them — and, absent that clarity, some are lying and cheating their way up to the pharmacy counter, desperate to protect themselves by acquiring that third shot any way they can.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the Biden administration, in announcing Thursday that a booster shot was “imminent” for the immunocompromised, said of boosters for the rest of the population, “It is likely that that will happen at some time in the future.”
But he also told “CBS Morning News,” “We’re already starting to see indications of some diminution” in the durability of the vaccines. (The studies thus far show that this is with respect to getting infected, but they do not necessarily show diminished protection against severe illness.)
That’s the sort of vague and slightly scary message that has driven people to cross a state line or shade the truth in their quest for a third shot.
That and the fact the United States is already behind the curve in announcing plans for booster shots. Germany and Britain announced timetables beginning in September, though not for their entire populations. Israel’s campaign to administer booster shots in the face of its latest Delta variant surge is already well underway.
Those decisions elsewhere in the world have convinced people that a third shot would at least meet the “do no harm” standard in medicine. But what it doesn’t mean is that it would be the best use of the country’s, or the world’s, vaccine supplies. Many public health experts believe that preventing new variants from emerging by vaccinating more people abroad, and trying to overcome vaccine hesitancy among the unvaccinated, are more important priorities than giving a third shot to people already largely protected from serious illness by the vaccines.
But for many people, the specter of waning protection and the confusing message from government officials are enough cause. “People are trying to get that third shot by hook or by crook,” Peter Grinspoon, an internist at Massachusetts General Hospital, told the Globe. Patients and friends haven’t been shy about asking for help he is not yet able to offer.
The easiest answer to that problem will be when the Food and Drug Administration gives its full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is currently being administered under an emergency use authorization. Full approval is expected within weeks — and that in turn will allow physicians to offer booster shots to anyone they deem in need of one.
But as Nucci noted in an interview, “Approving a booster is just the beginning. We have to make sure that people will actually get the shot.”
If boosters are a good idea — and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is knee-deep in the process of confirming that — then the problem will once again be reaching people who can benefit from the shot and doing that in an orderly fashion.
That means reaching well beyond those in the thrall of — as Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, called it — “booster-mania.” Those folks will surely continue their quest for a third jab no matter what. In fact, according to an internal CDC document reported on by ABC News, more than 1 million Americans have already managed to get that third shot.
At some point, the nation’s health care chiefs will want Americans to step up for that booster, just as they are begging the unvaccinated to get vaccinated. But when Fauci talks about the diminishing durability of vaccines and in the next breath insists “apart from the immunocompromised we don’t see a need [for boosters] at this time,” that indeed muddles the message.
Americans just want a little straight talk — and a lot more clarity on how they can protect themselves and their families in these increasingly uncertain times.
State Street Corp. Will Vacate New York City Offices
Wall Street Journal – Financial giant State Street Corp. is vacating its two New York City office locations.
Executives at the Boston firm told New York staffers they won’t be returning to its Midtown Manhattan offices, according to people familiar with the matter. It expects to sublease the two offices near Rockefeller Center to other companies.
Many of State Street’s New York employees have worked remotely since the pandemic’s early days. The financial firm, like others, sent staffers to work from home when infections started surging across the country. Later, U.S. employees who needed an office could go into work if they followed safety protocols. The firm’s New York offices remained sparsely occupied.
In May, State Street told New York staffers to prepare for the closure of their offices. More than 500 employees across the firm’s custody bank and money-management businesses will be affected, some of the people said.
State Street is giving New York-based employees the option to work in other offices in New Jersey and Stamford, Conn. But the firm isn’t directing New York-based staffers to spend time in those offices, letting different groups across State Street determine the mix of in-person and remote work that suits them. State Street also secured some co-working space in Manhattan for those who want to use it.
A firm spokesman said State Street changed its real-estate strategy in New York to accommodate a hybrid workforce.
“We have taken a diligent look at our real-estate footprint in NYC,” spokesman Edward Patterson said. He added that the firm is “ensuring that our realty needs are in line with where our employees will be working.”
State Street’s pivot is part of a broader re-evaluation of New York City offices by financial firms.
Firms across business lines are questioning whether New York City’s costs, taxes and uncertain recovery from the pandemic make it worthwhile to maintain the same Manhattan office presence as before. In finance, some banks and other firms have ordered workers back to the office, while others have been slower to return to New York’s towers.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., while maintaining its New York office, is planning to expand head count in West Palm Beach, Fla., by as much as several hundred in the near future, said a person familiar with the matter. Paul Singer’s hedge fund Elliott Investment Management LP moved its headquarters from New York to Florida at the start of 2021.
At stake is the office culture of financial firms and vitality of the nation’s financial capital.
“It’s certainly a wake-up call that we cannot take for granted New York’s position as the financial capital,” said Kathryn Wylde, chief executive of business group Partnership for New York City. “During the pandemic, people have learned they can work profitably from anywhere—and that’s a competitive threat to the concentration of talent in New York.”
Adding to the New York dilemma, the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus has created logistical headaches for firms that need to make employees feel comfortable commuting and working in close quarters. Asset-management giant BlackRock Inc. recently delayed the formal date workers have to return to its New York headquarters by about a month, to October.
Even before the pandemic, some asset-management firms had been moving into smaller, lower-wage cities. Intense competition over the past decade forced many to take steps to reduce costs and protect profit margins.
AllianceBernstein Holding LP in 2018 decided to shift its headquarters from New York to Nashville, Tenn. The money manager cited lower state, city and property taxes as among reasons for the move. It plans to relocate 1,250 jobs to Nashville by 2024, and is 70% of the way toward that goal, a spokeswoman said. It will officially open its new Nashville office this fall.
State Street’s most well-known presence in New York is the “Fearless Girl” statue, a fixture outside the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street. State Street’s exchange-traded funds are used by traders all around Wall Street, and the firm provides custody services for New York investment firms among others.
But a major chunk of its U.S. staff works out of the Greater Boston area.
Subleasing New York offices will help generate additional revenue for State Street, without the firm having to pay costs of breaking those leases. In the past year, low interest rates have eaten into custody banks’ bottom line. This year, the firm announced plans to cut 1,200 jobs, or 3% of its workforce, and to reduce office space for cost savings.
The State Street spokesman said there will be no changes to how it services clients in New York City and the surrounding area. He said the firm is committed to clients, business lines, corporate functions and staffers in the greater New York area, who include members of its executive leadership.
The “Fearless Girl” statue will remain on Wall Street.
The Biggest Mistakes Bosses Will Make with Returning Workers
Wall Street Journal – There’s little doubt that how we work changed dramatically during the sudden, unexpected and extensive experiment in remote work brought on by the pandemic. Many employees, working at home, became more efficient, productive and happier; others struggled and desperately missed office life.
Now, as returning to the office becomes more feasible, the temptation for many managers is to consider the past year and a half as an aberration—a period that’s best left behind and forgotten. Or they will take some of the emergency pandemic practices and consider them a permanent fixture of the workplace.
Bosses do both of those at their peril. If managers ignore some of the lessons remote work has taught us, empty offices may remain the norm—but this time it will be because resentful employees have moved on to other companies that better serve their new needs.
Whether dealing with employees who are working in the office, remotely or on a hybrid schedule, here are some of the key mistakes that managers should avoid with returning employees.
Treating workers like children
During the pandemic we learned that management practices of 2019 that centered on control are as antiquated as those from a century earlier when factory bosses sat in glass offices watching workers make widgets.
When workers suddenly went remote, bosses worried that teams’ productivity would nosedive. Without the presence of managers and co-workers to keep them focused, workers would surely spend their time bingeing on Netflix, sightseeing and taking their dogs for long walks. Instead, managers soon realized (in line with decades of studies), remote work doesn’t pose a threat to productivity; in fact, remote work actually makes us more productive.
It’s easy to chalk up this productivity as a mere function of more hours logged, and blurred boundaries between work and home lives. But buried in this belief is the assumption that employees aren’t able to self-manage their time for their own best interests. This assumption is infantilizing, and stifles potential. Research shows that many people thrive when they have autonomy over their work, their environment (no more thermostat wars) and flexibility in arranging schedules. With less stressful commutes and more flexibility, most of us are more available to bring our A game to work.
The question is whether bosses are prepared to accept this. Whether it’s for remote, in-person or hybrid workers, managers must avoid the mistake of reinstating the control practices that were standard for so long. If decisions about who works where and when come unilaterally from the top down, it will most certainly be met with a backlash. Employees have tasted freedom, and they won’t give it up easily.
Of course, a certain level of structure and consistency is still crucial, especially as we adapt to a new normal. What we want to avoid, though, is for the personal preferences and biases of managers alone to inform these decisions. Instead, we need to make sure that there are centralized and equitable guidelines, which managers and teams can interpret together.
For example, a company might determine that overlapping in-person appearances are crucial for collaboration but leave it up to individual teams to craft specific schedules. These teams have first-hand insight into what is necessary for in-person meetings, and what can be done much more easily at home. By contrast, arbitrarily making teams come in when they don’t have to is a surefire way to infuriate them.
Reinforcing tech exhaustion
Bosses have gotten accustomed to using technology in ways that seemed necessary during the prolonged shutdown—scheduling video meetings back-to-back or on a moment’s notice, for instance. Those worked in the short term, especially when people were stuck at home. But the resulting tech exhaustion won’t be tolerable as things return to normal.
Whether meeting in person or virtually, we need an in-between period to decompress, digest information and prepare for the next meeting. And bosses can’t expect that remote workers will continue to be available all the time, anytime.
What’s more, managers who fell in love with videoconferencing have to understand that while it was a savior during lockdown, they risk overusing it in the new normal. Cognitive overload, headaches and even slurring words aren’t the fault of tech. It’s because managers don’t know how to use it. With the return to work, there are many scenarios in which videoconferencing will do more harm than good.
Instead, managers must cultivate a more-sophisticated awareness of which digital tools to use and when in a hybrid world. Some tools, such as videoconferencing, increase immediacy and intimacy, while other asynchronous tools, such as email, are designed to formalize processes and policies. Meanwhile, no digital tool can fully replace in-person interactions even though it may have seemed otherwise during lockdown.
Managers who understand such differences and become intentional in their selection will provide a model that people can emulate. The result will be a healthier and more productive team. Otherwise, people’s tech exhaustion will sink into chronic fatigue, and that’s on the leader.
Be honest and vulnerable with your co-workers.
The past year and a half redrew the boundaries between our professional lives and our personal lives. The office became our home, and the home became our office. Virtual meetings were windows into one another’s lives: the paintings and plants that decorate our homes, our kids and pets that pop into the frame, the voice of our partners in the other room.
In the middle of a global health crisis, we were compelled to be honest with one another about our fears and struggles. This vulnerability was the key to our strength and solidarity in a time of unprecedented challenges.
Social scientists refer to this vulnerability as “self-disclosure,” and research has shown that when we share our thoughts and feelings, our peers find it easier to give us their trust and empathy. When we tell our co-workers that we’re worried about our parents’ health, or that we’re looking forward to our vacation, it shows that we are willing to be honest, and implies that we are accepting of others’ vulnerabilities as well.
As some of us return to the office, managers cannot make the mistake of reverting back to the old ways of distant professionalism. For one thing, many employees don’t want to go back; they liked the new openness. But in addition, working during a stressful (to say the least) pandemic has shown us just how crucial that catalyst is to team morale, especially in a remote format. Managers who relinquish vulnerability by hiding behind a shell of cold, impersonal leadership will lose out as we transition back into the office.
During the pandemic, most of us also have experienced a renewed appreciation for our relationships and bonds with other people. Managers would be wise not to devalue this appreciation. So in addition to modeling self-disclosure—volunteering thoughts about hobbies and weekend jaunts—managers can also schedule time devoted to fostering closer bonds among team members. It might be as simple as a coffee break, or bringing teammates in on a brainstorming session about what joint activities might be fun for everyone involved.
Of course, managers cannot make the mistake of overcorrection, and let the freedom to self-disclose or socialize devolve the workplace into a free-for-all of hurtful or disruptive self-disclosure. Managers must set the boundaries of what is appropriate to discuss. But the ultimate goal is to continue building on the closeness we cultivated during the pandemic. The risk of losing this camaraderie far outweighs the risks.
Managers need to avoid rewarding people for their presence and focus on the work itself.
The remote-work experiment also exposed the holes in long-held practices of performance evaluation. Whether managers consciously realized it or not, a key indicator of office performance was the archaic “butts in seats” metric. Employees who spent more time in the office were perceived as more productive.
But as it turns out, getting in early and staying late isn’t necessarily related to performance, although it may very well be performative. As a result, as many workers return to a hybrid or remote workplace, managers need to stop rewarding people for their presence, and focus on the work itself.
The implication of an outcome-based appraisal of workers is that managers have to equip people with skills, tools and resources, and get out of the way. Trusting that workers will have or seek the insights into how best to achieve their work goals will be crucial.
Refusing to experiment
Ultimately, the biggest mistake managers may fall prey to with returning workers is overconfidence (which bosses have in abundance). Managers think that they can draw on their extensive experience as we return to work, and that they understand how the new normal will unfold.
A mind-set that anticipates a lot of trial and error and accepts that it will take time to learn how to navigate the new normal is the best way to manage returning employees in the coming weeks and months.
August 3
Calendar
Tuesday August 3
Joint Committee on the Judiciary-Property, Land & Tenancy-10:00am-Virtual Hearing-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/3898
*No other events are scheduled for August as of 8/2/21
Federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal Introduced in the Senate
A bipartisan working group of senators finished the text on a $1 trillion deal that contains $550 billion in new physical infrastructure spending. The spending is focused on significant new investments in transportation, utilities, and power infrastructure. The spending plan will be paid for without new taxes and is funded by reallocating existing federal resources. The Senate can vote on the bill as early as the end of the week and the legislation would then move to the House for adoption.
The plan includes the following expenditures:
Senate Democrats also plan to pass a blueprint for a $3.5 trillion social spending package. That spending package, if adopted, will be passed through the budget reconciliation process, which will require a simple 51-vote majority to pass the Senate.
AIM will continue to monitor both pieces of legislation and provide timely updates to how the proposals might affect the business community.
Debate on $1 Trillion Infrastructure Finally Opens in Senate
Associated Press – Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer sought to speed up consideration of a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package Monday, promising that Democrats would work with Republicans to put together amendments. GOP senators cautioned that they needed time to digest the massive bill.
The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act clocked in at some 2,700 pages late Sunday after a hurry-up-and-wait rare weekend session. The final product was not intended to stray from the broad outline a bipartisan group of senators had negotiated for weeks with the White House. Schumer has said a final vote could be held “in a matter of days.”
New Advice, but No Mask Mandates from the State
Boston Globe – Amid an increase in COVID-19 infections over the last month, Massachusetts officials on Friday refrained from issuing new mask mandates either in schools or inside public places, instead advising mask-wearing for residents who are unvaccinated and those who are, or who live with, someone at high risk for a severe case of the virus.
State health officials now recommend that vaccinated people wear masks indoors if they or a member of their household has a weakened immune system or underlying medical condition that puts them at risk of a severe case of COVID-19. In schools, unvaccinated students, educators, and staff should cover their faces, state officials said, as should all students in kindergarten through sixth grade, nearly all of whom are too young to be eligible for vaccines.
Those recommendations stop short of what Americans heard this week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which said that even healthy, vaccinated people should wear masks indoors in parts of the country where cases are surging. That includes Suffolk, Barnstable, and three other counties in Massachusetts where the CDC criteria says transmission is either “high” or “substantial.”
The CDC also recommended universal masking in public schools, as has the American Academy of Pediatrics. Boston Public Schools students will be required to wear masks when they return to classrooms this fall, Acting Mayor Kim Janey said last week.
Most of Greater Boston Added to CDC’s Mask-Wearing Guidance
Boston Business Journal – Most of Greater Boston is now under a federal advisory that urges people to wear masks indoors, including those who are vaccinated against COVID-19.
Updated guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday includes Middlesex County, which stretches from Cambridge and Newton to Lowell, and Essex County, which includes Lawrence and Lynn. Plymouth and Worcester counties have also been added, as has Hampden County, which includes Springfield.
Most of Massachusetts is now under such guidance despite 69% of residents having at least one vaccine, among the nation’s highest rates. The CDC recommendations come as coronavirus cases have risen rapidly, due in large part to the more contagious Delta variant.
The CDC issued county-by-county guidance last week, which included Boston’s Suffolk County, the three counties that cover Cape Cod and the Islands, and Bristol County, which includes Fall River and New Bedford.
Other cities and towns affected by the new CDC guidance include Brockton, Haverhill, Framingham, Plymouth and Leominster.
Norfolk County, which includes Brookline, Quincy and many of Boston’s south and southwestern suburbs, is not part of the advisory for indoor mask wearing.
State Treasurer and Auditor Mandate Vaccines Or COVID Tests For Employees
GBH – State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg and Auditor Suzanne Bump will require all state employees under their authority to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be subject to weekly virus testing, becoming the first statewide elected leaders to implement stricter vaccination rules for state employees as they return to the office.
“It’s very clear that the Delta variant is unlike anything we’ve seen before and because of that, but also because we would like to go into our hybrid work environment, we want to ensure that everyone’s safe,” Goldberg told GBH News Thursday.
Goldberg said the order will alleviate employees’ anxiety and fears about returning to the workplace without knowing the vaccination status of their colleagues.
“This is not a decision that was taken lightly, but is one that we believe is necessary to uphold our value of keeping the well-being of staff members a top priority,” Bump wrote to her Auditor’s office employees in an internal email.
Gov. Charlie Baker has said he opposes mandatory vaccinations for state employees, while Attorney General Maura Healey, a potential Democratic opponent next year, has called for vaccinations for state employees who deal with the public.
Target, Facebook Issue Mask Requirements for Some Employees
Wall Street Journal – Facebook Inc. said Monday it will require any employee working at its U.S. offices to wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status. The social-networking giant last week said that employees working at its U.S. office would need to be vaccinated.
The new masking policy takes effect Aug. 3 and will remain in place until further notice, the company said. The move reflects rising COVID-19 cases, “the newest data on COVID variants, and an increasing number of local requirements,” a Facebook spokesman said.
Many of Facebook’s U.S. employees remain at home. The company has previously said it plans to reopen its U.S. offices more broadly this fall.
Separately, Target Corp. said Monday it would require workers to wear masks regardless of vaccination status in counties deemed at high risk of Covid-19 transmission, mirroring policies implemented by other companies last week in the wake of new guidance on mask wearing from U.S. officials.
Many retailers are taking new steps to follow the shifting federal health guidelines as Covid-19 cases jump in the U.S. but stopping short of the moves last year when they imposed nationwide mask rules when vaccines were unavailable. Roughly half the U.S. population is fully vaccinated.
Biden Plans to Require Federal Workers to be Vaccinated or Tested
Boston Globe – President Joe Biden will announce Thursday that all federal employees will be required to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or face repeated testing mandates, a White House official said, a dramatic escalation of the administration’s effort to combat the spread of the delta variant.
The new rules will closely align with policies recently put in place for government officials in California and New York City, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to disclose the plan. The White House is not planning on firing government employees who aren’t vaccinated but will impose a number of restrictions on them as a way to encourage them to receive one of the vaccines that have received emergency-use authorization.
Another official cautioned that nothing is final until Biden announces it and the plan could change, adding that a policy review is underway. But Biden plans to make the policy announcement on Thursday, the official said.
The plan is part of a change in tack by the White House in recent days as the delta variant has spread markedly through parts of the United States, particularly among unvaccinated Americans. Public health experts have long said that getting at least 70% of the public vaccinated is the single most important tool in controlling the pandemic, but some parts of the United States have fallen far short of that target. And some authorities are urging an even higher rate of vaccinations now, given the increased virulence of the variant.
Biden Hits Resistance from Unions on Vaccine Requirement
The Hill – Influential public sector unions are pushing back on a new vaccination requirement for federal workers in a rare split with the Biden administration.
President Biden’s latest vaccine push, announced Thursday, requires federal employees to attest that they have been vaccinated against COVID-19 or be subject to masking, social distancing and weekly testing.
While labor groups representing government employees have urged their members to get vaccinated, most of the leading public sector unions either oppose the vaccine requirement or say it must first be negotiated.
Groups representing educators, postal workers, law enforcement officers, Treasury Department personnel and other government employees expressed unease about the vaccine requirement this week. Only a few public sector unions outright endorsed the measure.
“We expect that the particulars of any changes to working conditions, including those related to COVID-19 vaccines and associated protocols, be properly negotiated with our bargaining units prior to implementation,” Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents nearly 700,000 workers, said in a statement.
Larry Cosme, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, said requiring vaccinations “is not the American way and is a clear civil rights violation no matter how proponents may seek to justify
Northeastern Requires Professors and Staff to Get COVID-19 Shots
Universal Hub – With the delta variant ascendant, Northeastern University announced today that, in addition to students, faculty and staff will also have to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination by Sept. 8.
Employees with medical issues or a “sincerely held religious belief” can apply for a waiver.
Boston University issued a similar mandate last month.
As Delta Variant Rages, More Workers Are on Edge About Return to the Office
Wall Street Journal – Pieter Wingelaar was looking forward to going back to work in his company’s office in Detroit later this month, after more than a year of working remotely.
With Covid-19 cases rising again because of the highly transmissible Delta variant and no requirement at his job for employees to be vaccinated, the financial-industry phone-sales officer said he is less sure about returning. “I don’t feel that comfortable about it,” said the 40-year-old, who is fully vaccinated and doesn’t have any pre-existing conditions.
With scores of U.S. companies planning to return to offices in full force in a few weeks, workers are trying to make sense of changing face-mask guidelines and rising virus cases, along with new research about how easily the virus strain can be transmitted. The calculations and recalculations of risk are leaving many stressed, upset or simply in limbo.
New and at times confusing guidance from health officials and employers on wearing masks indoors, and questions about whether vaccines will be required or not, have workers grappling with what to expect at work, or even whether to come in.
Younger and Unvaccinated: The New Face of COVID-19 Hospitalizations
Boston Globe – Doctors, nurses, and their army of colleagues in Massachusetts hospitals are worried and exhausted. The trickle of COVID-19 patients arriving at their doors a month ago has grown to a steadier stream — up 78 percent over the last three weeks.
The faces of those infected are changing, too. No longer is the typical patient a gray-haired 70-year-old with multiple health conditions, they say. Instead, they are seeing many 40- and 50-year-olds, some even younger, who had been healthy before becoming infected. Many are people of color.
And 80 percent of them are not fully vaccinated.
As the ferociously contagious Delta strain of the virus seeds infections at a frightening clip, hospital leaders are anxious about what may be just around the corner. And they are frustrated about the number of unvaccinated COVID patients who are winding up in hospital beds now — a situation they describe as largely preventable if more people would get their shots.
“It’s more sadness than anything else,” said Dr. Armando Paez, director of the infectious disease program at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. “Looking at somebody gasping for air, and you know it could have been prevented by getting vaccinated.”
As of Thursday, Massachusetts was reporting 197 people hospitalized with COVID, up from 80 the week of July 4, when the state’s seven-day average hit its pandemic low. The spike at hospitals tracks closely with the rise in people testing positive for COVID that began after the 4th of July holiday.
The numbers are still far below last year’s high, when more than 3,000 people were hospitalized on many days during April and May. But the trend is worrisome, and there are indications at some of the state’s biggest hospitals that the hospitalization rate is starting to accelerate.Mass General Brigham, the state’s largest health care system, said the number of its COVID-19 hospitalized patients more than tripled this month, from 12 on July 1 to 38 on Wednesday. At UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, cases have also more than tripled, from 10 earlier this month, to 33 as of Wednesday. Baystate Medical Center in Springfield was reporting 17 midweek, up from a handful of COVID patients a week earlier. And Beth Israel Lahey Health said its COVID-19 patients increased from 19 on July 1 to 27 Thursday.
Baker, Dems Remain Apart on Tax Holiday, ARPA Spending
State House News – Gov. Charlie Baker sat down face-to-face with the House speaker and the Senate president for the first time in over a year on Monday, but had no more luck in person than he’s had virtually in trying to convince Democratic leaders that a two-month sales tax holiday and rapid deployment of federal aid are needed.
Baker, Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka gathered in the Senate Reading Room for over an hour, discussing Baker’s push for more urgency to begin spending American Rescue Plan Act funding, the recent rise in COVID-19 infections, and mask-wearing for children.
The governor said he made a pitch to Beacon Hill’s top two Democrats on his stalled plan to spend $900 million of expected state budget surplus on a sales tax holiday in August in September, but it fell flat.
“Suffice it to say that I think agree to disagree might be the best way to describe their point of view,” Baker said, when asked if he lobbied the two Democrats standing by his side. “I still think it’s the right thing to do for the people of Massachusetts. They worked hard. They generated a big piece of that surplus. I think we should give some of it back to them.”
Employers Alone Can’t Foot the $7 Billion Bill for Unemployment Insurance
Boston Globe – Massachusetts employers were recently handed their revised unemployment insurance tax bills for 2021. These lower bills are the result of new legislation that has been marketed as a fix for the unemployment insurance crisis. It authorizes the state to borrow $7 billion to shore up what would have been an insolvent unemployment insurance fund to pay back federal loans and interest on those loans. For many businesses, their revised tax bills dropped dramatically from what was first sent to them in April. The catch? Employers must pay it back. While the reduction in payments is welcome, employers have been handed an unprecedented tax increase for the $7 billion COVID-19 unemployment tab, which is now being amortized over 20 years rather than just two years.
This is hardly a fair fix. What employers need from Beacon Hill is for government to step up with true shared responsibility by significantly reducing the overall unemployment insurance debt. The Legislature can do this by using a portion of the $5 billion in federal COVID relief funds under its control to make a fair down payment to mitigate the unprecedented tax increase for COVID layoff costs, which were triggered by public policy and government administration as a result of the pandemic.
The current legislative “fix” to the unemployment insurance system is a tax on employers to amortize over 20 years the massive $7 billion in COVID claims paid out during the pandemic. Through state bonding, the $7 billion — plus interest — is being spread out, but current and future employers are still being asked to pick up the entire tab for the claims, fraud, and interest charges.
The delayed tax increase on employers will most certainly suppress future wage and job growth in the Commonwealth by making it more expensive to run a business here. By mortgaging the entire debt, Beacon Hill has yet to do what more than half of the states have done — devote federal COVID relief funds to bring down the debt and relieve employers from significant portions of the cost of the layoffs from the pandemic. Furthermore, some states — such as Connecticut — have also recently reformed their unemployment insurance systems, including freezing benefit increases for multiple years to create economic balance in the future, but Massachusetts has yet to freeze benefits.
Here are the Industries Vying for a Piece of the $4.8 Billion in ARPA Money
Boston Business Journal – From hospitals to tourism to helping homebuyers, Massachusetts lawmakers have no shortage of options on how to spend more than $4.8 billion in federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act.
Business leaders, advocates and legislators pushed their own recommendations in the months after the federal government announced the state would get more than $5.3 billion. After spending funds on four of the hardest-hit cities, and letting Gov. Charlie Baker retain $200 million, lawmakers have more than $4.8 billion left to allocate how they see fit. That’s on top of another $3.4 billion set to go directly to cities and towns.
The recommendations range from investing in local boards of health to financial assistance for first-time homebuyers. At a hearing last week, the Joint Committee on Ways and Means heard hours of public testimony on possible spending in housing and workforce development alone, not to mention hundreds of pages of written testimony.
Meanwhile, Baker administration officials continue to pitch the Republican governor’s $2.9 billion spending plan.
But lawmakers in the heavily Democratic Legislature have a long way to go before deciding how much of the money to spend and where it should go. Below are some of the biggest priorities on the table.
Mass. Labor Secretary: Need for Post-COVID Job Training is a ’10-Alarm Fire’
Boston Business Journal – Top Baker administration officials pressed lawmakers Tuesday to approve $240 million in proposed spending on the state’s job-training programs, saying a historic infusion of funding would help hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents who are weeks away from losing their unemployment benefits.
The job-training spending represents a chunk of Gov. Charlie Baker’s $2.9 billion plan to spend aid Massachusetts received under the federal American Rescue Plan Act. The Legislature on Tuesday held the second in a series of hearings on potential uses for the ARPA money, this one focused on housing and workforce development.
The administration is pushing what one official has called a “radical expansion” of its workforce development programs. The ramp-up comes as some 300,000 people in Massachusetts stand to lose the special federal unemployment benefits they’ve received during the pandemic. The enhanced benefits expire on Sept. 6, and many could see their payments run out altogether.
“I just don’t want to bring two fire trucks to a 10-alarm fire,” Massachusetts Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Rosalin Acosta told lawmakers during the hearing. “Once the building burns, there’s no going back.”
Federal Government has a Unique Opportunity to Help Raise Wages
Boston Globe (Opinion) – With the economy humming away and GDP eclipsing its pre-pandemic high, Americans appear to be returning to old habits, from shopping to eating out to driving.
But not everyone wants to go back to their pre-pandemic lives, and there’s at least one aspect of “normal” that some workers are not willing to go back to: obscenely low wages. Across the country, employers in the service sector are reporting that they’re having trouble staffing up their businesses, causing anxiety about a potentially prolonged labor shortage. But what some businesses are finding is that the key to drawing back employees is simply to apply some economics 101 and raise their wages.
There are several factors that could be contributing to workers’ lack of willingness to return to low-paid service-sector jobs. The one that employers are pointing out is that enhanced unemployment benefits are keeping people home. Workers, on the other hand, say that the low wages offered aren’t making unsafe working conditions worth the risk. (Earlier this year, for example, a study showed that line cooks have the highest risk of dying from COVID-19 among US workers.) But there’s truth in what they’re all saying: More generous unemployment insurance is giving workers some financial breathing room to think about what jobs they actually want — and to hold out for higher wages in the process.
This moment — where businesses are looking for workers and many Americans have the leverage to be choosy about which jobs to take — presents the federal government with a unique opportunity to push employers to raise wage standards. And there are three steps the federal government can take to do just that.
Anger Mounts as Biden, Congress Allow Eviction Ban to Expire
Boston Globe – Anger and frustration mounted in Congress over the weekend as a nationwide eviction moratorium expired during a surge in the COVID-19 pandemic. One Democratic lawmaker even camped outside the Capitol in protest as millions of Americans faced being forced from their homes.
Lawmakers said they were blindsided by President Biden’s inaction as the midnight Saturday deadline neared, some furious that he called on Congress to provide a last-minute solution to protect renters. The rare division between the president and his party carried potential lasting political ramifications.
New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday that Democrats have to “call a spade a spade” after the deadline expired.
“We cannot in good faith blame the Republican Party when House Democrats have a majority,” the progressive congresswoman said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Ocasio-Cortez and other Democrats joined Representative Cori Bush of Missouri on Saturday evening and overnight Sunday as Bush camped outside the Capitol. “I don’t plan to leave before some type of change happens,” Bush said, though the House had already left for its August recess.
More than 3.6 million Americans are at risk of eviction, some in a matter of days. The moratorium was put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as part of the COVID-19 crisis when jobs shifted and many workers lost income.
Rental Assistance Still Available for Massachusetts Residents
WHDH – Local officials and advocates are urging the Biden administration to restore a nationwide eviction moratorium after it expired Saturday night, leaving millions of people to face the possibility of losing their homes.
The CDC ordered the eviction moratorium last September to prevent further spread of COVID-19 by keeping people from being evicted and forced to live on the streets or in shelters. Millions of Americans faced eviction after losing their jobs during the pandemic and falling behind on rent.
Emily Benfer, chair of the American Bar Association task force on Eviction, Housing Stability, and Equity, said that without the moratorium, landlords would move forward with evictions.
“Not only do I expect to see mass evictions across the country and filings, I also expect to see all of those cases that are currently on hold immediately move forward and widespread eviction in all of those cities and states where tenants were being protected from the federal moratorium.” Benfer said.
House Democrats tried passing an extension of the moratorium late last week, but the attempt failed. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is now calling on the CDC to extend the moratorium.
In Massachusetts, Gov. Charlie Baker recently signed a bill that extends some pandemic-era provisions but ended the state’s eviction moratorium last year. Attorney General Maura Healey urged residents facing eviction to apply for assistance to pay rent.
“Rental assistance is still available—regardless of your immigration status. If you are behind on your rent or mortgage, apply ASAP. These funds can also go towards finding new housing,” Healey tweeted.
Bay State residents who are in need of rental assistance are urged to visit masshousinginfo.org, call 211, or try speaking with their landlord.
Federal Bailout Funds Split Struggling Restaurant Industry
Boston Globe – For 16 months, while scrambling to stay afloat, the restaurant industry has begged the federal government for money to help recover from the pandemic. But the $28.6 billion Restaurant Relief Fund didn’t play out as they’d intended. The funds became mired in legal challenges, and then ran out far too quickly, leaving more than 200,000 applicants — nearly two in every three restaurants that applied — in the lurch.
Now, food service workers say, it’s splitting the industry in two: the haves, and the have-nots.
“Imagine you live on a street and all the houses burn down, and the government says, ‘You’re going to be okay and we’re going to help you rebuild,’ ” said chef Steve “Nookie” Postal of Commonwealth in Cambridge, which didn’t receive any funds. “And then the government turns around and says, ‘We’re just going to give it to 30 percent of the houses on your block.’ They can rebuild their house. You’re [out of luck].”
Those flush with cash, Postal said, are able to pay workers more than their competitors, giving them an edge in a tight labor market. They can pay down debts, afford the surging prices for the cost of goods, and make repairs to their equipment.
Union Calls State Decision to Encourage, Not Require, Masking in Schools ‘Reckless’
MassLive – Educator unions in Massachusetts are urging officials to change course on mask-wearing in schools after state officials on Friday said the prevention effort will be encouraged but not required.
In guidance released Friday, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education strongly encouraged, but did not require, unvaccinated students in grades K-12 or school staff to wear masks when inside school buildings this fall.
Massachusetts Teachers Association President Merrie Najimy called it a “reckless decision.”
“The guidance issued today by Governor Charlie Baker’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is no guidance at all. Rather than adopt a plan in line with the guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics, DESE is essentially signaling that students, educators and families should not take seriously the reality of the alarming rise in the number of cases of COVID-19,” Najimy said in a statement.
The CDC has recommended that all K-12 students, teachers and staff members wear masks while indoors this fall, regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status. COVID-19 vaccines are not yet available to anyone younger than 12.
The MTA said there is time before the academic year for DESE to reverse course. The union called on school districts to require universal masking.
VaxMillions Second Drawing Conducted Monday
MassLive – The second VaxMillions drawing took place Monday, with Massachusetts officials planning to announce winners publicly on Thursday.
The drawing, open to anyone in the state who has received the COVID-19 vaccine, selected one $1 million winner who is at least 18 years old and another between 12 and 17 who will win a $300,000 scholarship. The program is meant to boost the state’s vaccination program, incentivizing the vaccine just as some communities remain vaccine hesitant and as the highly contagious delta strain sparks outbreaks across the state and country.
Darrell Washington, a BlueCross BlueShield case manager from Weymouth, and Daniela Maldonado, a 15-year-old student from Chelsea, became the state’s first pair of winners last week.
Pentagon Grappling with New Vaccine Orders; Timing Uncertain
Boston Globe – Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is vowing he “won’t let grass grow under our feet” as the department begins to implement new vaccine and testing directives. But Pentagon officials were scrambling at week’s end to figure out how to enact and enforce the changes across the vast military population and determine which National Guard and Reserve troops would be affected by the orders.
The Defense Department must develop plans to make the vaccine mandatory for the military and set up new requirements for federal workers who will have to either attest to a COVID-19 vaccination or face frequent testing and travel restrictions.
Austin said Friday that the department will move expeditiously but added that he can’t predict how long it will take. He said he plans to consult with medical professionals as well as the military service leaders.
Any plan to make the vaccine mandatory will require a waiver signed by Biden because the Food and Drug Administration has not yet given the vaccine final, formal approval. According to federal law, the requirement to offer individuals a choice of accepting or rejecting use of an emergency use vaccine may only be waived by the president and “only if the president determines in writing that complying with such requirement is not in the interests of national security.”
Mandating the vaccine before FDA approval will likely trigger opposition from vaccine opponents and drag the military into political debates over what has become a highly divisive issue in America.
Military commanders, however, have also struggled to separate vaccinated recruits from unvaccinated recruits during early portions of basic training across the services in order to prevent infections. So, for some, a mandate could make training and housing less complicated.
Labor Lobbies Beacon Hill To Spend Federal Relief Funds On Low-Wage Workers
WGBH – When the Massachusetts Legislature’s Democratic majority considers what to do with the $5 billion in relief provided by the federal government, they’ll weigh competing arguments from organized labor and progressive activists — who want to spend the money on housing security for low-wage workers and tax relief for families — and from Gov. Charlie Baker — who wants to boost the economy and home ownership.
Before a hearing of the Legislature’s Ways and Means committees and the special panel put in place to sort out a spending plan for the $5 billion in American Rescue Plan Act funds, labor unions representing low wage workers, alongside other left-leaning community groups, told lawmakers they want to see retroactive hazard pay for front-line workers who put themselves in harm’s way throughout the pandemic.
“The workers I represent need economic support, and they need it now throughout the epidemic,” union 32BJ SEIU’s vice president Roxana Rivera said to a crowd of a few dozen supporters gathered outside the State House prior to the virtual hearing.
The coalition of progressive interest groups known as Community Labor United is also pushing for a new, state-level $600-per-month child tax credit to aid families stung by the high cost of childcare.
“Massachusetts need to put the money where their mouth is, so that’s why we need to make sure that the American Rescue Plan money are centered around workers and community who are on the front line of COVID-19 pandemic, those who have been struggling to get back on their feet,” Chinese Progressive Association executive director Karen Chen told the crowd.
Polito Announces State Grants for Child Care Centers
Lynn Journal – Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito and Early Education and Care Commissioner Samantha Aigner-Treworgy announced $7.5 million in Early Education and Out of School Time Capital Fund (EEOST) capital improvement grants to 36 organizations to renovate childcare facilities that serve primarily low-income families like Lynn’s YMCA of Metro North and the Boys & Girls Club of Lynn.
Polito said the Baker Administration teamed up with the Children’s Investment Fund (CIF) and its affiliate the Community Economic Development Assistance Corporation (CEDAC) for $250,000 in grant money towards the Boys & Girls Club and $186,000 to the YMCA of Metro North. The 36 recipients all received grants between $100,000 to $250,000 to provide capital funding needed to address health and safety concerns related to COVID-19.
“These awards announced today – which mark the largest total amount awarded since the inception of the EEOST grants – will improve child-care programs across the state,” said Polito last week at the Social Centers. “Now more than ever, as families return to workplaces, investments in early education and care settings are vital to provide necessary resources to children and their families through high-quality early childhood education and out-of-school time programs.”
The capital grants will help continue to support major renovation and construction projects at the two Lynn organizations and improve the quality of learning environments for the over 300 children they serve.
The Early Education and Out of School Time capital improvement grants are financed through the state’s capital budget and provide matching funds that leverage private investment. More than $200 million in public and private investments have been leveraged throughout the life of the grant program. The Baker-Polito Administration’s FY21 Capital Budget Plan included funding for the Early Education and Out of School Time capital improvement grant program.
Who Might Replace Rachael Rollins as Suffolk District Attorney?
Boston Globe – When Daniel F. Conley announced he was stepping down as Suffolk district attorney three years ago, he gave Governor Charlie Baker a handful of recommended successors, he recalled Monday. Just two weeks later, Baker chose one from the list — Conley’s longtime chief trial counsel, John Pappas — to complete the three months left in his term.
With the Biden administration nominating Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins to be US attorney for Massachusetts, Baker may again have the chance to appoint the county’s top prosecutor. This time, however, his choice could serve more than a year in office before the 2022 election, a potentially considerable political advantage.
The Republican governor, who has clashed with Rollins on several occasions, is facing pressure from criminal justice reform advocates who are pushing for a candidate who will build on Rollins’s progressive legacy.
Vote-By-Mail Is Extended. What Does That Mean for Boston’s Mayoral Race?
WBUR – Several municipal preliminary elections in Massachusetts are less than two months away, and once again voters across the state will have the option to cast their ballots by mail — no excuse needed.
On Thursday, Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law a provision to extend vote-by-mail through Dec. 15. The law that allowed for no-excuse early voting by mail through the pandemic had initially expired on June 30.
The Boston mayoral race is one of the most-watched preliminary races, and the first open mayoral contest in the city in eight years. Many voters may opt to mail their ballots because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Unlike in 2020 — which featured a presidential election with unprecedented public safety challenges — there has been far less lead time this year for city and town electioneers to promote mail-in voting as they awaited word on whether the option would be renewed by lawmakers.
Last year, Secretary of State William Galvin’s office sent by mail postcards with detachable forms for people to request mail-in ballots for the statewide elections. That is unlikely to occur for municipal elections, according to a spokeswoman for the office, because mailers were not budgeted for this year, and there is a tighter window of time before most preliminary elections.
That said, while the messaging may be different, the process of voting by mail remains largely the same. And a quick reminder: There is functionally no difference between absentee voting and voting by mail. It’s just that there are rules around who is eligible for an absentee ballot, whereas the current law around voting by mail allows anyone to use it.
Why Massachusetts Keeps Postponing the Tax Break for Charity Donations
Boston.com – Back in 2000, more than two thirds of Massachusetts voters approved a small change to the state’s tax code: a tax deduction for charitable giving.
The slight change would have allowed residents, who already can claim donations to lower the amount of their income subject to federal taxes, to take an additional 5 percent deduction on their state taxes.
In other words, a tax filer could save $5 on their taxes for every $100 they made in donations; $5,000 in donations could save $250. The new law was purportedly intended to incentivize charitable giving in Massachusetts, which had been recently ranked the third-least generous state in the country at the time.
However, scrambling to address recession-induced budget shortfalls, legislators passed a law in 2002 to suspend the implementation of the deduction, as well as a ballot measure to lower the state’s income tax, until their fiscal situation improved.
That would have been this year.
But in the midst of the pandemic, Republican Gov. Charlie Baker and the Democratic-controlled state legislature agreed last year to delay it until 2022
Now, it will be delayed one more year. And more than two decades after voters first approved the deduction, the debate over if and when it will ever be implemented has spilled over from Beacon Hill to the opinion pages of The Boston Globe.
Healey Charges Grubhub with Exceeding Pandemic Fee Cap
Commonwealth Magazine – During the pandemic, as restaurants pivoted to offering take-out meals rather than sit-down dining, they complained that third-party delivery apps were charging them exorbitant fees for providing delivery services. In response, the Legislature imposed a 15 percent cap on the commissions that apps like Grubhub and Uber Eats could charge restaurants during the COVID state of emergency.
But one major company – Chicago-based Grubhub – continued charging fees above 15 percent of a meal’s purchase price, according to a civil complaint filed Thursday by Attorney General Maura Healey in Suffolk Superior Court.
“We allege that Grubhub knowingly and repeatedly violated the fee cap statute, raising costs by thousands of dollars and harming restaurants that were already financially distressed and trying to survive,” Healey said in a statement.
Grubhub spokesman Grant Klinzman said in a statement, “Serving restaurants is at the heart of everything we do at Grubhub and we strongly disagree with the allegations in this lawsuit.”
The way Grubhub works is once a restaurant signs up for its services, the app lists the restaurant’s menu, processes orders and payments, transmits orders to the restaurant, and delivers the food – in exchange for a commission that is a percentage of the food’s purchase price.
According to the complaint, Grubhub charged a “marketing and delivery” fee that was 15 percent of the order price. It then charged another 3 percent fee for “collecting payments, fraud monitoring, [and] customer care.”
July 27
This Week’s Calendar
Tuesday July 27
Joint Committee on the Judiciary-Crimes II-Virtual Hearing-10:00am-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/3888
Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development-Workforce Development and Job Training-Virtual Hearing-10:30am-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/3874
House and Senate Ways and Means+ House Committee on Federal Stimulus and Census Oversight-TBD-11:00am-Virtual Hearing-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/3867
Joint Committee on Financial Services-Health Insurance and Dental Insurance-11:00am-Virtual Hearing-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/3871
Joint Committee on Municipalities and Regional Government-Home rules, housing, zoning, planning, fossil fuels-11:00am-Virtual Hearing-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/3873
Wednesday July 28
Joint Committee on Public Service-Agency Recommendations and Local Matters-Virtual Hearing-9:30am-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/3884
Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy-Competitive Suppliers, Grid Modernization, Electric Vehicles Legislation-Virtual Hearing-10:00am-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/3891
Joint Committee on Housing-Housing Production-Virtual Hearing-10:00am-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/3881
Joint Committee on Transportation-Transit Fares and Transportation Governance and Administration-Virtual Hearing-2:00pm-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/3876
Friday July 30
Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy- Proposed amendments by the Department of Energy Resources to the Class I and Class II RPS regulation-Virtual Hearing-10:00am-https://malegislature.gov/Events/Hearings/Detail/3894
There are no hearings or events scheduled for next week.
Baker, Legislative Leaders Resume In-Person Monday Meetings
State House News – Gov. Charlie Baker and Democratic legislative leaders resumed an old tradition on Monday afternoon: they sat down together at the State House to talk public issues and then met with the media afterwards.
During their post-meeting availability, the state’s top leaders discussed legislative hearings on ways to allocate American Rescue Act funds, Baker’s call for an extended sales tax holiday, the VaxMillions lottery, the nomination of Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins for U.S. attorney and the use of masks to guard against COVID-19 spread.
The News Service also caught up with Senate President Karen Spilka to discuss the outlook for a House-approved sports betting legalization bill in the Senate, and she confirmed it will not come up during this week’s Senate sessions.
“This will be something clearly that will be up for discussion in the Senate in the fall when we’re there,” Spilka said.
The Senate president said she is “not terribly fond” of allowing betting on college sports, as the House has recommended.
“I think it will change the way college does their sports,” she said. “I think it will change the feeling.”
While Spilka mentioned a fall debate, she also twice used the word “if” when discussing whether a sports betting bill will finally reach the Senate floor. The Senate has shied away from sports betting, while the House has passed bills twice and representatives said last week Massachusetts is “surrounded” by legal betting states and needs to pass its own law.
Monday’s meeting was held in the Senate Reading Room, which afforded more space for both the meeting and the media scrum that followed.
Tuesday Hearing Is First Of At Least Five More ARPA Hearings
State House News – The House and Senate plan at least five more hearings about how to spend close to $5 billion in federal relief funds, with the bulk of the dates after Labor Day, as lawmakers continue to move more slowly than Gov. Charlie Baker would like to see.
Baker testified last week before the House and Senate Ways and Means committees and other lawmakers about his plan to immediately begin spending $2.9 billion of the $4.8 billion in remaining stimulus funds. It was the Legislature’s first hearing, and the governor emphasized the importance of allocating the funding quickly.
Rep. Aaron Michlewitz and Sen. Michael Rodrigues, the chairs of the House and Senate Ways and Means committees, said Monday they planned to hold at least five more hearings this year, including one on Tuesday focused on housing, labor and workforce development issues.
Four additional hearings to be scheduled for after Labor Day will focus on health care, public health, mental health and human services; economic development, transportation, arts, tourism, climate and infrastructure; and education, social equity, safety net programs and families. The final hearing will be an open public hearing, the two chairmen said.
“We ask that the Baker Administration, stakeholders and members of the general public participate in this process, provide feedback and share ideas as we work collaboratively to address our most critical needs, while positioning our Commonwealth for equitable long-term success,” Michlewitz and Rodrigues said in a statement.
House Speaker Ron Mariano last week in an interview on Bloombrg radio said it was fine during the COVID-19 state of emergency to let Gov. Baker spend federal money allocated through the CARES Act where it was needed, but he said it’s the Legislature’s traditional responsibility to appropriate money and it has until 2024 to do so. “When it’s $5 billion you want some ground rules and you want some parameters,” Mariano said.
Tuesday’s hearing will be virtual, but the initial statement did not indicate what time it would take place or who might be lined up to testify.
Housing, Education Top Priorities for Boston ARPA money
Commonwealth Magazine – As American Rescue Plan Act funding begins to flow, Boston is expecting $558.7 million in municipal aid. The sum represents an opportunity to direct the future of the city, and city policymakers have a wide range of latitude on how to spend it.
So far, affordable housing and schools stand out as two shared priorities, though city councilors say they are considering a variety of possible projects.
“This is our opportunity to make sure we’re meeting the moment,” said Acting Mayor Kim Janey at a recent forum hosted by the Responsible Development Coalition, a housing and development advocacy organization. Janey is pushing for housing issues to top the priority list for funding. “With this money, we absolutely need to make sure that we continue to build in the city of Boston to meet the housing demand so that families who want to live in Boston, who want to raise their families here, who grew up here, can stay in Boston,” she said.
So far, Janey has budgeted for the use of $50 million of the ARPA money, which will be allocated to city and community programs to support “an equitable recovery and reopening for Boston residents, workers and small businesses,” according to the mayor’s press office.
Ten million dollars will support public health responses, including vaccine initiatives and treatment for behavioral and substance use issues. The same amount is headed to communities that were hit especially hard by the pandemic to be used for affordable housing investment and other housing services, health programs, support for childcare and early education, and support for language access.
Another $14.5 million will address the impacts of the pandemic on food access, housing, arts, culture, and tourism, and the remaining $15.5 million will assist small businesses in pandemic recovery.
Biden Picks DA Rollins for Top Federal Prosecutor
State House News – President Joe Biden on Monday nominated Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins to serve as the state’s top federal prosecutor, a historic move that could reshape the U.S. Attorney’s office and kick off a flurry of activity among elected officials and others who wish to succeed her.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Rollins could be poised to bring the same reform-minded approach to the U.S. attorney’s office that has drawn praise from progressives and criticism from police unions.
She would become the first Black woman to serve as U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts and only the second woman to hold that title, following President Barack Obama appointee Carmen Ortiz.
Rollins, who has been publicly linked to the position for months, did not remark on the nomination Monday morning and her office could not be reached for immediate comment.
Biden announced Rollins as one of eight nominees to serve as U.S. attorneys.
“These individuals — many of whom are historic firsts — were chosen for their devotion to enforcing the law, their professionalism, their experience and credentials in this field, their dedication to pursuing equal justice for all, and their commitment to the independence of the Department of Justice,” the White House said.
As part of its work to enforce federal laws, the U.S. attorney in recent years has also targeted political corruption and fraud. For instance, prosecutors successfully brought cases against former House Speaker Sal DiMasi, former Sen. Dianne Wilkerson, former Rep. David Nangle, and former Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia.
A Northeastern University School of Law graduate, Rollins worked as an assistant U.S. attorney from 2007 to 2011 before holding counsel positions at the state Department of Transportation and Massachusetts Port Authority.
In 2018, Rollins topped a five-person Democratic primary for Suffolk DA with 39 percent of the vote, then took 80 percent of the vote in the general election.
She made major waves early in her tenure, outlining a “progressive prosecution” strategy for her office in March 2019 that called for pursuing diversion or dismissal in many nonviolent, low-level cases.
That move drew criticism from Gov. Charlie Baker’s public safety chief, who told Rollins at the time that her prosecutorial policies “do not reflect the careful balance struck” in a 2018 criminal justice reform bill.
Rollins also called in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic for releasing some inmates from Massachusetts jails and prisons to reduce the risks of transmission, saying at the time that inmates were “essentially sitting in a petri dish.”
“As Suffolk County District Attorney, Rachael Rollins has demonstrated what a difference a DA makes; from moving to dismiss thousands of cases tainted by Massachusetts’ drug lab scandals to declining to prosecute several low-level offenses, she has prioritized racial justice and fairness in our legal system,” said ACLU Massachusetts Executive Director Carol Rose. “The ACLU looks forward to working with her if she is confirmed as U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts.”
Rose, whose organization does not endorse or oppose nominees, said she wants Gov. Baker to select a successor, interim DA “who will continue the work toward a legal system that is focused on transformation and healing — not convictions and incarceration.”
Baker, a Republican, would be responsible for selecting an interim Suffolk County district attorney to succeed Rollins until the 2022 election if she departs.
It would be a major decision for Baker, who has yet to announce if he will seek re-election in 2022. He could tap a member of his own party – which did not have a candidate on the ballot last cycle – but such a move could rankle legislative leaders and many Suffolk County voters.
The Boston Globe reported in May that Rollins would like to see Daniel Mulhern, her first assistant, succeed her as DA if she is confirmed as U.S. attorney.
In an April 15 tweet, Rollins said, “FYI, when DA’s leave, at least all the men that did before I was elected, they recommend (tell) the Governor who should replace them.”
In 1992, Suffolk County District Attorney Newman Flanagan departed to lead a national association of district attorneys. Republican Gov. William Weld named former federal prosecutor Ralph Martin as acting Suffolk DA, and Martin, a Republican, went on to win four-year terms in 1994 and 1998.
The Biden administration has returned to the Massachusetts on multiple occasions to fill federal jobs. Former Boston Mayor Martin Walsh is serving as U.S. labor secretary, former Massachusetts Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack took a job as deputy administrator at the Federal Highway Administration, and House Majority Leader Claire Cronin has been tapped as U.S. ambassador to Ireland.
Rollins’ departure would require Boston voters to select a new district attorney in 2022, one year after they will choose a permanent mayor to serve a full term.
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley and U.S. Sen. Ed Markey both praised the Biden administration for selecting Rollins, with Pressley calling her “my sister in service.”
“She has fought to transform our legal system by prioritizing racial justice, decarceration & reimagining public safety in MA,” Pressley tweeted.
Markey said he and fellow Sen. Elizabeth Warren “were proud to recommend” Rollins, adding that “we will work to make sure she is confirmed as quickly as possible.”
Trump administration appointee Andrew Lelling spent more than three years as U.S. attorney until he resigned in February. Nathaniel Mendell has served on an acting basis since then.
Three Disconnects Fueling Turnover in the Covid-19 Era
Boston Business Journal – After 14 months of considerable change and uncertainty, the employee-employer dynamic is rapidly evolving, and experts say several schisms have emerged that represent turnover threats during the COVID-19 era.
The divides and disconnects are intertwined and come amid a backdrop of labor shortages, rising burnout and a large-scale reinvention of workplace strategy for many employers.
Bridging those gaps won’t be easy, but the stakes are high — as the price of replacing talent is rising and difficulty finding employees is limiting revenue.
Here’s a look at three chasms experts say are weighing heavily on workplaces around the nation.
The WFH factor
The debate over flexibility and in-person frequency has emerged as a critical disconnect for many businesses as they call back employees to the office.
Some companies, such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., are drawing a line in the sand and requiring a wide-scale return, despite the turnover risks.
Many others are taking a hybrid approach with work-from-home flexibility.
But even companies that are embracing flexibility are realizing it’s tough to please everyone. Surveys have shown employees and employers have differing definitions of flexibility and varying expectations about how often they should be required to work in the office.
“I’m hearing a lot about people who feel like their company is saying they can work from home, but they don’t feel like their manager is really OK with that,” said Zach Dunn, co-founder and vice president of customer experience at Robin, which helps companies navigate hybrid strategies. “That’s a real problem.”
Dunn said the disconnect partially arises from managers and executives losing an element of control over decisions as simple as who is in the office on a given day. There are also trust issues at play.
“Those are the sorts of decisions which are uncomfortable to let go because they can’t always have visibility on what’s happening,” Dunn said.
At the same time, companies that are embracing flexibility are pouncing on the opportunity to poach workers who aren’t finding the flexibility they want amid a turnover tsunami that’s been punctuated by record quit rates.
The vaccination situation
For many businesses, the COVID-19 vaccine has emerged as a disconnect between employers and workers.
How companies approach the issue could affect morale, retention and recruitment, and the complex question is causing headaches for businesses.
Between Occupational Safety and Health Administration guidance, recent court rulings and rising COVID-19 cases due to the Delta variant, employment attorneys say more companies are mandating the COVID-19 vaccine.
But not all employees are happy about it, and experts say that’s giving some businesses cold feet about vaccine mandates.
Aimee Delaney, a partner at law firm Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, said many companies can’t risk potential fallout from employees.
“The acceptance level of the vaccine would create a workforce issue in a lot of industries that didn’t have the luxury of being able to get rid of 75% of their workforce that wasn’t vaccinated,” Delaney said.
But companies may have to weigh the cost of potential turnover or morale troubles against the pitfalls that could come from having an elevated percentage of unvaccinated employees.
A recent analysis by computational modeling company Epistemix Inc. and consulting firm Health Preparedness Partners found companies without a vaccination policy — which could include requiring, incentivizing or encouraging the vaccine — could lose an average of $798,000 in productivity and health care costs.
The costs could top $1 million in places with low vaccination rates, according to Epistemix CEO John Cordier.
Additionally, employment attorneys say companies are also grappling with a disconnect involving colleagues who don’t want to be around unvaccinated workers.
Delaney said federal law doesn’t provide for an exemption due to that type of fear factor, but employers could be required to make accommodations in cases where an employee is at high risk due to a medical condition.
The other disconnect
While workplace strategy and vaccination policies represent conflicts between employers and their workers, there’s another chasm at play that represents an even greater challenge: many workers are simply feeling disconnected from their companies or their missions.
Experts say a number of factors are at play. Many employees “sheltered in place” during the pandemic and are testing the waters in what quickly became a candidate’s market.
Others re-evaluated their circumstances and career options during the pandemic and are no longer in lockstep with their company’s mission, which can lead to burnout.
“You need a sense of purpose — a connection with a company’s mission,” said Bill Lyons, CEO of professional employer organization Lyons HR.
Lyons said the threat of burnout puts a huge emphasis on positive reinforcement. That’s an area where some companies have struggled during the pandemic.
Many employees emerged from the remote-work period disconnected from colleagues and feeling underappreciated or underpaid.
Regardless of the reason, experts say many companies have significant work to do to rebuild morale and reduce disconnects with their staffs.
One thing experts said companies should avoid is jumping to conclusions about what is causing burnout or disconnects, particularly for those who are transitioning back to the office.
Amina Moreau, CEO and co-founder of Radious.pro, an online marketplace for rentable home-office and meeting spaces, said some companies are making misguided assumptions about remote work’s connection to burnout, for example.
“Companies are making decisions based on statements like, ‘People get burnt out when working remotely,’ when really what is meant by that is people get burnt out working from home and living at the office,” Moreau said. “If you’re going to make long-term decisions based on that confusion, then you’re not considering the whole picture and you might end up seeing pretty big consequences.”
Instead of making assumptions, experts say the key to bridging this divide is having ongoing dialogue with workers, which could take the form of surveys, one-on-one conversations or group discussions.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Partners with Equity Now & Beyond to Provide Vaccine Clinics and Outreach to Local Immigrant Communities
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (“Blue Cross”) today announced a partnership with Equity Now & Beyond, a collaborative of five immigrant-led organizations, to host vaccine clinics and provide educational outreach in immigrant communities across Massachusetts. The organizations will work together through the summer and fall in an effort to reduce disparities in vaccination rates.
Recent Massachusetts Department of Health data show significant gaps in vaccination rates among Black and Latino residents compared to White and Asian residents. There are also disparities in neighborhoods with large immigrant populations.
With financial support from Blue Cross, Equity Now & Beyond is hosting more than 20 vaccine clinics at local churches, schools and community centers across the state including Mattapan, Dorchester, Lynn, Brighton, Waltham, Brockton and Worcester.
The clinics, staffed by physicians from local hospitals and community health centers, are organized and operated by Equity Now & Beyond’s immigrant-led groups including African Community Economic Development of New England (ACEDONE), Haitian Americans United (HAU), Brazilian Women’s Group, Agencia ALPHA, and the Center to Support Immigrant Organizing.
In addition to the managing the clinics, volunteers from these groups help address potential barriers to vaccination among immigrant communities, including translation services, transportation support and one-on-one counseling.
“Many of Boston’s African, Haitian and other Caribbean Black immigrants have particular doubts and skepticisms of the vaccine and medical establishment,” said Kevin Whalen, Co-Director of Center to Support Immigrant Organizing and Coordinator of Equity Now & Beyond. “Our goal is to provide education on the COVID-19 vaccine and create an accessible environment where these communities feel safe and don’t fear retribution because of their immigrant or socioeconomic status.”
Manchin in the Middle: West Virginia Senator Puts his Stamp on Infrastructure, Spending Bills
Boston Globe – What does Joe Manchin want?
The question looms over the delicate negotiations on President Biden’s massive infrastructure package, which enters a crucial phase in the Senate this week, as well as pretty much any other item on the Democratic agenda.
The West Virginia senator has been at the center of the effort to draft a bipartisan, $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill to rebuild the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges that Biden has vowed will be accompanied by a much larger, $3.5 trillion bill addressing Democratic priorities such as climate change and health care. Manchin has refused to say whether he’ll get behind that second bill, which almost certainly will need all 50 Senate Democrats to pass.
Democrats’ razor-thin majority gives each Senate Democrat tremendous leverage. But Manchin, a moderate Democrat from deep-red West Virginia, is the one who most publicly threatens to use it, and he seems to relish keeping everyone guessing about what it will take to get his vote.
Black Business Owners in Boston’s Seaport Look to Grow their Ranks
Boston Business Journal – From his BBQ café in South Boston Maritime Park, Larry Jimerson has watched the Seaport’s high-rise hotels and multi-million-dollar companies rise around him since 2012.
As the wealth and population of the Seaport has grown over the years, so has his revenue, but one thing Jimerson has not seen increase is the number of people of color living, working and running businesses in the Seaport. Larry J’s BBQ Cafe is one of only two Black-owned businesses in the Seaport, according to Jimerson. There are no minority-owned Seaport businesses listed in the city’s directory.
Jimerson and other business organizations agree that increasing the number of minority-owned businesses in the Seaport would be beneficial to business owners, residents, tourists and the city’s economic growth. And despite the Seaport’s long history of building with little regard for diversity, they say it’s not too late to make some changes.
Hearing to be Held on COVID, Kids, and the Return to Schools
Boston 25 News – School districts in Massachusetts know when they’ll be welcoming students back for the 2021-2022 academic year. What they suddenly don’t know is what that year will look like, thanks to the sudden surge in Covid cases fueled by the Delta variant.
In the last three weeks, cases in Massachusetts exploded from just a relative handful each day to now, commonly, hundreds a day. Last Friday, the Department of Public Health reported 586 confirmed cases with a seven-day average positivity rate of 1.53 percent. The average hasn’t been that high since May 3.
State Rep. Marjorie Decker is already looking to Sept. 3.
Baker Releases Spending Plan for $186 Million in ARPA Funds
Commonwealth Magazine – Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday announced that he will spend $186 million in federal COVID relief funding with a focus on health care and workforce training.
“Our administration is putting this $186 million to work now because many communities throughout Massachusetts – especially low-income families and communities of color – have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 and cannot wait for assistance,” Baker said in a statement.
The American Rescue Plan Act money had been subject to a brief tussle between Baker and the Democratic-led Legislature over who had control of the money. Ultimately, the Legislature gave Baker $200 million to spend unilaterally, but lawmakers moved the rest of the $5.3 billion in direct government aid to a segregated fund, where they could control legislatively how the money is spent. Lawmakers have said they want to spend several months gathering input on how to spend the money, while Baker has urged quicker action.
Still no Answer for Massachusetts Businesses Forced to Shoulder $7 billion in Pandemic Unemployment Costs
Boston Herald – Business groups are accusing lawmakers of turning a blind eye to the festering insolvency of the state’s unemployment trust fund and saddling the debt on businesses rather than paying it down with the billions in federal aid and excess tax dollars at the state’s disposal
“There’s been very little talk about the debt publicly by legislators and it’s something trying to raise awareness of,” said Christopher Carlozzi of the National Federation of Independent Businesses.
Massachusetts’ unemployment trust fund — which funded through a payroll tax on businesses — is drowning amid an unprecedented number of claims throughout the pandemic and by the state’s accounting is on track to be $4 billion in the red by the end of next year.
This spring, lawmakers moved to separate out more than $7 billion in pandemic-era claims after businesses saw their unemployment insurance tax rates more than double, but Jon Hurst of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts points out, “they’re still getting the entire tab plus $1 billion in interest amortized over 20 years.”
More than 30 states in similar predicaments have opted to use federal CARES Act money and ARPA funds to pay down debt and take the burden off employers.
Report Details Crisis in Boston Early Childhood Programs
WBUR – Boston families with young children may have had a hard time accessing key child development screening and services during the first year of the pandemic, according to a new report.
Under the state’s Early Intervention program, kids under the age of three with developmental delays or disabilities can access therapy, specialized doctors and supports at no cost to the family.
The number of eligible Boston children receiving Early Intervention services fell 40% by February 2021 compared to a year earlier, according to the analysis by the Boston Opportunity Agenda — a partnership with the city of Boston and several philanthropies, including The Boston Foundation.
The decline varied widely across Boston’s neighborhoods. In Hyde Park, Roslindale and West Roxbury, there were 56% fewer children receiving Early Intervention services in February 2021, compared to February 2020.
Referrals to those services dropped 12% overall in the city. Referrals in central Boston and Roxbury fell most sharply, by 25%. Fenway/Kenmore was the only area that saw an increase in referrals, which went up 20% during that time period.
“Those early years are a critical time to be able to do skill building with parents about how they engage with young children, to be doing skill building with young children,” said Kristen McSwain, executive director of the Boston Opportunity Agenda. “There’s a large number of children for whom that did not happen.”
If those children are now 3 years old, it could fall to schools to assess their developmental needs and try to make up for the lost time when interventions could have helped those children and families.
Give a Boost to Non-Profits in Their Time of Need
Boston Globe – (Editorial) If ever there was a year to lend a hand to the state’s non-profits — everything from community centers and homeless shelters to pandemic-shuttered arts organizations — this is it.
Yes, this is the year to write the check. And what better way to encourage people to write that check than to give them a modest state tax deduction in return. Taxpayers benefit. Charities benefit. What could be better — and easier?
But that will require members of the Legislature to go along. For the state, it means a revenue hit of only about $64 million a year. But for the non-profits and the community members they serve that stand to benefit, it can represent a lifeline.
“Thousands of nonprofits are on a fiscal cliff right now,” Jim Klocke, CEO of the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network, said in an interview. “Some that got PPP [Paycheck Protection Program] loans have run out. Many nonprofits kept doing what they usually do, like running after-school programs, and then they did some more, like opening soup kitchens. . . . This is just the right time to reinstate this [charitable] deduction.”
The long and torturous history of the charitable deduction in Massachusetts goes back to 2000, when voters approved the ballot measure by a 72 percent to 28 percent margin. But in 2002 the Legislature put the measure on hold until the state hit a certain number of economic triggers — the same ones that eventually reduced the state income tax back to 5 percent. That should have happened as of Jan. 1, 2021, but lawmakers delayed it a year.
When Governor Charlie Baker filed his budget back in January for the fiscal year that began July 1, he proposed another year’s delay. In the midst of the pandemic, the administration was doing everything but checking the seat cushions for spare change. Flash forward six months and the state is now awash in unexpected revenue — but lawmakers still wanted to hang on to that additional $64 million.
Funds for Forests: Campaign Ramps up to Improve State’s Rural Lands Payment
Berkshire Eagle – Communities with large tracts of state land are being stiffed financially. That’s what a top Massachusetts official thinks.
In December, Auditor Suzanne Bump issued a 70-page analysis of how Massachusetts goes about compensating communities in which the state owns land exempt from property taxes.
Bump’s critique was clear: The system is increasingly unfair, especially to smaller towns in Western Massachusetts, and needs to be reformed to prevent an already weak financial support from faltering.
On Friday, Bump will join with local lawmakers in Deerfield and Hawley in a bid to build awareness of the problem and to push for change.
State Budget Scraps ‘Ineffective’ Tax Breaks
Newburyport News – A controversial subsidy for filmmakers was set in place as part of the state budget, even as lawmakers retired several other tax breaks.
A $47.6 billion spending package signed by Gov. Charlie Baker last week repeals three tax credits that a state commission deemed were not worth their weight in lost revenue.
One of the scrapped subsidies is a credit for medical-device user fees, which reimburses companies for certain fees they pay to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The tax credit, which costs the state upward of $600,000 a year, is being “claimed by a number of predominately large corporations,” the panel found in a report, and there are “no similar tax provisions in neighboring states.”
“The use of this credit by less than half a dozen large companies is a strong indication that it is not relevant,” stated the report by the Tax Expenditure Review Commission. “While its low cost suggests it might be easily justified, we conclude the average tax credit is too small to provide a meaningful incentive to the relatively large businesses that claim it.”
Another subsidy going away provides vessel owners a dollar-for-dollar offset of the federal harbor excise tax. It was also flagged by the commission for repeal.
“We conclude that while this credit does provide an incentive to use Massachusetts ports, we find it does not have a measurable benefit, and does not have any relevance today,” the report’s authors wrote.
Boston Community College, Jobs and Recovery Programs May see $2.3 Million Boost after Push from Rep. Ayanna Pressley
MassLive – A trio of community programs in Boston may see a boost of more than $2 million in the next fiscal year, Rep. Ayanna Pressley announced this week.
The proposed $2.3 million in federal funding for the city, if approved as part of the fiscal year 2022 federal budget, would expand Boston’s tuition-free community college program, bolster the Dimock Center’s substance use treatment and programming, and help the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology launch a green jobs Building Automation System associates degree program.
The federal spending is part of a series of Community Project Funding requests Pressley submitted to the House Appropriations Committee — and it’s now included in the House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies appropriations bill, Pressley’s office told MassLive. The Massachusetts Democrat says she’ll keep fighting for the funding as the bill moves to the House floor and “until the ink is dry on the president’s signature.”
“COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated many of the stark inequities facing Boston residents, and our health and education systems are no exception,” she said.
“Funding these three projects, which aim to support our students, people recovering from substance use disorder and those seeking good-paying careers in green jobs, will go a long way toward building a just and equitable recovery for everyone who calls Boston home.”
In a statement, Boston Mayor Kim Janey thanked Pressley for her advocacy for community residents.
Bill Would Boost Pensions for Pandemic Government Workers
WBUR – Critics say a measure to reward government workers in Massachusetts for their service during the pandemic could wind up costing billions of dollars and drain state and local pension funds.
The bill, which has drawn broad support in the state Legislature, would credit workers with three extra years of service for their pensions when they retire if they worked outside their home sometime between March 10 and Dec. 31 of last year.
An aide to one of the lead sponsors, Sen. John Velis, said he couldn’t say yet how many workers would qualify or how much the pension boost would cost. “This bill is still in an early stage,” said Gabriel Adams-Keane, the senator’s communications director and deputy legislative director.
But Geoff Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association, said the bill is written so broadly that it would likely benefit a large share of the more than 300,000 state and local workers in Massachusetts, including some legislators.
“There is zero analysis to see how much this would cost,” Beckwith said. “There is 100% certainty that this would be unaffordable.”
Gregory Sullivan, research director for the Pioneer Institute in Boston, estimated the change would likely add billions of dollars to the state’s pension costs over time.
Baker Skeptical of Move to Repeal Happy Hour Ban
Boston.com – Call him a “stick in the mud,” but Gov. Charlie Baker says he’s not on board with the sudden energy around repealing the ban on happy hours in Massachusetts.
A recent survey by MassInc Polling Group found that 70 percent of Bay Staters support allowing bars and restaurants to offer drinks discounts during happy hour, with just 20 percent of residents opposed. And state Rep. Mike Connolly, a Cambridge Democrat, announced Wednesday that a bill he introduced this session would “bring stakeholders together to revisit” the ban as part of a raft of restaurant relief measures in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rising COVID-19 Cases Spur Action on Face Coverings
Boston Globe – In one of the first signs the resurgence of COVID infections is causing concern among officials, Boston Acting Mayor Kim Janey on Thursday said all public-school students in the city will be required to wear face masks when they return to classes in September.
Already this week, officials in Cambridge, Provincetown, and Nantucket urged residents and visitors to wear masks in indoor public spaces as new outbreaks have been reported; Cambridge, for example, said that 42 percent of the 83 confirmed and probable infections in July so far are “breakthrough” cases involving people who are fully vaccinated.
The case numbers and official responses in Massachusetts are still modest compared to other parts of the country where infections are rising sharply. The trend is largely d riven by a worrisome combination of the emergence of the fast-spreading Delta variant and low vaccination rates, mostly in Southern and some Midwestern states.
On Thursday, Governor Charlie Baker, said he has no plans to reimpose statewide restrictions, but left the door open for local officials to set limits in their communities.
“We have a set of statewide standards, and they’re based on what we see on a statewide basis,” the governor said at an event on Cape Cod. “And if communities believe they need to pursue strategies that are more effective and appropriate to them, then they should do so.”
Janey revealed the safety precaution during a City Hall news conference, saying students in summer school and other city programs are currently wearing masks and noting that many children are not yet eligible for the vaccine.
“This fall they will be wearing masks still,” she said.
Janey’s comments came days after the American Academy of Pediatrics called for everyone older than age 2 to wear masks in school this fall, even if they have been vaccinated against COVID-19. The academy noted that federal regulators have not yet authorized COVID vaccines for children under age 12, leaving millions of youngsters vulnerable to infection.
Baker: No Plans to Bring Back Mass. COVID Restrictions Despite Rising Cases
NBC Boston – Gov. Charlie Baker said he has no plans to bring back coronavirus restrictions in Massachusetts as two communities on Cape Cod have issued mask advisories amid a spike in cases.
“We’re not looking at changing any of our existing rules or policies,” Baker said.
“We have a set of statewide standards and they’re based on what we see on a statewide basis. And if communities believe they need to pursue strategies that are more effective and appropriate for them, that they should do so, and that’s exactly what Provincetown did.”
He also said he has no plans to change mask guidance for school in the fall, despite a call from some lawmakers to revive a school mask mandate amid the spread of the delta variant.
Back from a recent trip to Colorado, Baker was holding two news conferences Thursday on Cape Cod, where several recent COVID outbreaks are contributing to a sudden uptick in cases across the state.
More than 250 coronavirus cases have now been confirmed as connected to a COVID outbreak in Provincetown, including at least 35 in Boston residents. The popular tourist town on the tip of Cape Cod issued a new mask advisory earlier this week in light of the increase in cases, many of them among people who had been vaccinated.
Equity Gaps in Vaccine Rates narrowing
Eagle Tribune – Massachusetts has given nearly 4.3 million people their COVID-19 shots and has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country. Still, gaps persist along racial and ethnic lines.
About two-dozen low-income communities with large minority populations — including Lawrence, Haverhill, Methuen, Revere and Lynn — still lag other cities and towns in getting shots into peoples’ arms, according to the state Department of Public Health.
The vaccination rate among whites still outstrips those of Hispanics and Blacks, though the gap is narrowing, the state’s data show.
In Lawrence, Hispanics are about 82% of the city’s population, but only 21% of the city’s Hispanics are vaccinated, according to the health department’s weekly vaccine report.
The city’s white population — about 12% of its overall population — had a nearly 80% vaccination rate.
Collectively about 47% of Lawrence’s population was fully vaccinated as of last Tuesday, according to the data.
In Methuen, the vaccination rate for Hispanics is 27% but 53% for whites.
In Haverhill, the rate for Hispanics is 29% and for Blacks is 46%, while 54% of white residents are vaccinated.
About 62% of the state’s population is completely vaccinated.
In Shift, GOP Ramps up Vaccine Push as Resistance Hardens
Associated Press – Republican politicians are under increasing pressure to speak out to persuade COVID-19 vaccine skeptics to roll up their sleeves and take the shots as a new, more contagious variant sends caseloads soaring. But after months of ignoring — and, in some cases, stoking — misinformation about the virus, new polling suggests it may be too late to change the minds of many who are refusing.
In recent news conferences and statements, some prominent Republicans have been imploring their constituents to lay lingering doubts aside. In Washington, the so-called Doctors Caucus gathered at the Capitol for an event to combat vaccine hesitancy. And in Alabama, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey voiced exasperation as she pleaded with residents to protect themselves.
“Folks are supposed to have common sense,” she told reporters. “It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down. … I’ve done all I know how to do. I can encourage you to do something, but I can’t make you take care of yourself.”
The pleas come as COVID-19 cases have nearly tripled in the U.S. over the last two weeks, driven by the explosion of the new delta variant, especially in pockets of the country where vaccination rates are low. Public health officials believe the variant is at least twice as contagious as the original version, but the shots appear to offer robust protection against serious illness for most people.
Nearly all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. are now people who haven’t been vaccinated. Just 56.2% of Americans have received at least one vaccine dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“I think they’ve finally realized that if their people aren’t vaccinated, they’re going to get sick, and if their people aren’t vaccinated, they’re going to get blamed for COVID outbreaks in the future,” said GOP pollster Frank Luntz, who has been working with the Biden administration and public health experts to craft effective messaging to bring the vaccine hesitant off the fence.
But Luntz, who conducted another focus group Wednesday evening with vaccine holdouts, said there has been a discernible shift in recent weeks as skepticism has calcified into hardened refusal.
As VaxMillions Drawing Nears, Doses Continue to Decline
Commonwealth Magazine – One Massachusetts adult became $1 million richer when the first VaxMillions winner was pulled on Monday. But despite the trove of cash and scholarships on the line, most eligible residents still haven’t signed up for the lottery and vaccination rates continue to decline.
Thursday was the last day for fully-vaccinated residents to enter the state’s vaccine lottery—an initiative to encourage people to get COVID-19 shots—to be eligible for the first of five drawings. The governor’s office reported that nearly 2 million adults and 134,885 individuals ages 12 to 17 have entered the lottery. The total, just over 2 million, represents less than half of the 4.3 million people who are fully vaccinated in the state.
The numbers are up from 1.8 million adults and 122,207 children registered the week prior.
Those who weren’t vaccinated in time to enter the first round could still throw their name in the hat for the remaining four drawings. The allure of the million-dollar prizes for adults and $300,000 scholarships for minors doesn’t seem to be driving up vaccination rates, though.
What is Going on with the Transportation and Climate Initiative?
Boston.com – Over a year-and-a-half ago, Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration unveiled a “bold,” regional plan to cut down greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles and invest in more environment-friendly transportation.
The hallmark, interstate compact — named the Transportation and Climate Initiative — originally included a dozen states, from Maine to Virginia, as well as Washington, D.C.
However, a year passed, a pandemic hit, and by last December, the number of states actually committed to the program had dwindled to three: Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, along with D.C.
Then, it seemed to dwindle further. Lawmakers in Connecticut and Rhode Island recessed this summer without passing legislation to adopt TCI. Opponents seized on the developments to declare the initiative “dead.”
That’s not quite true. But the program doesn’t exactly have the wind at its back, either. And while the Baker administration remains committed to it, officials say Massachusetts will only take the jump if other states do, too.
TCI is known as a “cap-and-invest” program, under which participating states would place a limit on the total amount of emissions allowed from cars and trucks.
Then, states would auction off “allowances” to vehicle fuel suppliers for the portion of emissions they contribute to under the cap. In essence, fuel companies would pay for the right to sell a certain amount of gas and diesel.
July 13
Pfizer Meets with Scientists to Discuss Vaccine Booster
Boston Globe – Representatives of Pfizer met privately with senior U.S. scientists and regulators Monday to press their case for swift authorization of coronavirus booster vaccines, amid growing public confusion about whether they will be needed and pushback from federal health officials who say the extra doses are not necessary now.
The high-level online meeting, which lasted an hour and involved Pfizer’s chief scientific officer briefing virtually every top doctor in the federal government, came on the same day Israel started administering third doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to heart transplant patients and others with compromised immune systems. Officials said after the meeting that more data — and possibly several more months — would be needed before regulators could determine whether booster shots were necessary.
The twin developments underscored the intensifying debate about whether booster shots are needed in the United States, at what point and for whom. Many American experts, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser for the pandemic, have said there is insufficient evidence yet that boosters are necessary. Some, though, say Israel’s move may foreshadow a government decision to at least recommend them for the vulnerable.
Pfizer is gathering information on antibody responses in those who receive a third dose, as well as data from Israel, and expects to submit at least some of that to the Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks in a formal request to broaden the emergency authorization for its coronavirus vaccine.
CDC Issues New Guidance on Masks in Schools
ABC News – Students who are vaccinated don’t have to wear masks in school this fall unless they are riding the school bus or their school decides otherwise, according to new guidance released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The new federal guidelines aren’t mandatory but are expected to influence school officials, local health departments and governors who are in the midst of preparing for students to return to the classroom full time this fall.
The recommendation also could encourage parents who were previously undecided. Kids older than 12 qualify for the Pfizer vaccine, which requires two doses three weeks apart.
“Achieving high levels of COVID-19 vaccination among eligible students as well as teachers, staff, and household members is one of the most critical strategies to help schools safely resume full operations,” the CDC stated.
State’s $48.1 billion Budget Nets Unanimous, Bipartisan Support
Berkshire Eagle – More than a week into the fiscal year, the House and Senate agreed in bipartisan fashion to a $48.1 billion annual state budget and shipped the proposal to Gov. Charlie Baker’s desk.
Both branches voted unanimously to approve the revised spending plan, which calls for permanently enshrining the state’s controversial film tax credit program, continuing to delay implementation of a charitable giving tax deduction, and setting aside $350 million to buttress a multi-year education funding reform law.
House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, who co-chaired the conference committee that resolved differences between the House and Senate budget proposals, said the vote will “mark a capstone to a volatile 16-month odyssey we have seen since the pandemic first struck the commonwealth.”
At this time last year, budget writers were fretting about a potential tax revenue implosion and wondering if state reserves would be enough to hold public services together. But taxpayers have delivered robust collections for the state, enabling significant spending increases and allowing historic deposits into the rainy-day fund.
“We’ve been through a lot, and we’ve come out of the last year and a half in a stronger fiscal situation than any of us could have ever imagined,” Michlewitz, a North End Democrat, told his colleagues prior to the vote.
Rep. Todd Smola of Warren, one of two Republicans involved in the budget talks, praised the final accord as a “culmination of those good working relationships that we have with one another across the aisle.”
While all 160 representatives and 40 senators voted to accept the conference committee budget, two Senate Democrats running for higher office criticized some aspects of the spending plan before approving it.
New Unemployment Claims Ease in Massachusetts
Boston Business Journal – There were 8,943 new unemployment claims filed in Massachusetts during the week of July 3, according to the federal Labor Department.
That’s good news because the number of new claims in Massachusetts shot up by 2,994 the week of June 26 to 10,899. The state blamed that increase on the end of the school year and seasonal layoffs for workers.
Nationally, new unemployment claims were 373,000, an increase of 2,000 from the previous week’s revised numbers. The previous week’s level was revised up by 7,000 from 364,000 to 371,000.
But the U.S. Department of Labor said its four-week moving average was 394,500, a decrease of 250 from the previous week’s revised average. It was is the lowest level for this average since March 14, 2020, when it was 225,500. That was just as the coronavirus pandemic was setting in.
The new claims data, part of a regular Thursday news release, comes after last week’s announcement that the U.S. economy gained 850,000 jobs in June.
Local June jobless numbers are not yet available, but the Massachusetts total unemployment rate in May was down 0.3 percentage points to 6.1% following the revised April rate of 6.4%
Some Massachusetts Restaurants Were Shut Out of Federal Relief
Boston Globe – It seemed Cheryl Straughter finally had something going for her.
The chef-owner of Soleil in Nubian Square spent months working with an “alphabet soup” of advocacy groups to push for the creation of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. And it worked: In April, the federal government allocated $28.6 billion in grants for restaurants in the American Rescue Plan and put women and minority-owned businesses first in line.
Straughter is both, and had her application at the ready. Yet seconds after she hit submit she was rejected. At issue, she says, was the calculus involved in its eligibility requirement. At the end of 2020, Soleil had received a contract to produce hundreds of meals for people in need. It didn’t replace nearly a year’s worth of lost sales, but it skewed her revenue numbers.
“It appeared that we had this windfall,” she said. But that contract’s now gone, and so are her chances of getting the federal grant.
Warren and Pressley: Reconsider Change to COVID-19 Hospitalization Data Reporting
Boston.com – Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Ayanna Pressley are urging Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration to reconsider the state’s recent move to stop reporting demographic data on COVID-19 hospitalizations, calling the metric a critical part of ensuring an equitable recovery from the pandemic.
“Governor Baker must reverse course,” Pressley told Boston.com in a statement.
In separate statement, Warren also pressed the Baker administration to continue to report COVID hospitalization data broken down by age, race, and sex.
The administration announced its move to stop reporting demographic COVID-19 hospitalization data on its interactive dashboard last week. The small change was among a host of data reporting tweaks “to reflect the improving trends,” with 73 percent of Massachusetts adults fully vaccinated and infection rates subsiding across the state.
Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in Massachusetts have also dropped from over 2,400 to just 85 over the past six months. And the Department of Public Health is continuing to report COVID-19 cases and deaths by age, race, and sex.
However, with COVID-19 vaccination still lagging in communities of color and the more transmissible Delta variant of the virus on the rise, Warren and Pressley — who have consistently pushed for COVID-19 data at the national level broken down by race and ethnicity — say the state is losing an important tool to track and respond to the racially disparate impacts of the pandemic.
White House Calls Out Critics of Door-to-Door Vaccine Push
Boston Globe – “A disservice to the country.” “Inaccurate disinformation.” “Literally killing people.”
For months, the Biden White House refrained from criticizing Republican officials who played down the importance of coronavirus vaccinations or sought to make political hay of the federal government’s all-out effort to drive shots into arms. Not any longer.
With the COVID-19 vaccination rate plateauing across the country, the White House is returning fire at those they see as spreading harmful misinformation or fear about the shots.
When South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster tried this week to block door-to-door efforts to drive up the vaccination rate in his state, White House press secretary Jen Psaki did not mince words in her reaction.
“The failure to provide accurate public health information, including the efficacy of vaccines and the accessibility of them to people across the country, including South Carolina, is literally killing people, so maybe they should consider that,” she said Friday.
Help Women get Back to Work
Boston Globe – The typical trend in economic recessions in the United States is that men tend to lose more jobs than women. But during the pandemic, that trend has flipped: Women have been disproportionately impacted by job losses since the first COVID-19 shutdowns, and they’re not rebounding into the workforce as swiftly as men. One of the main reasons? Children — or, to be more precise, a lack of access to child care.
Unlike previous recessions, the pandemic prompted state governments to enact policies like closing schools or day-care centers — policies that were aimed at limiting the spread of the coronavirus — and the subsequent burden of child care fell overwhelmingly, and unsurprisingly, on women. That meant that in addition to adjusting to working from home or losing jobs that required in-person work, women also had to carry the brunt of unpaid domestic labor, from household chores to child or elder care. The result was a rise in unemployment for women with young children in particular, and women dropping out of the workforce at higher rates than men.
What’s especially alarming is that this reality has so far persisted despite the reversal of closure mandates as more people get vaccinated. According to a report from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, while the economic recovery has so far sent most fathers in the labor force back to work, working mothers have yet to recoup their losses. The pandemic, it should be noted, did not create this gender gap in the economy; rather, it exposed what was already an unfair economy for women and exacerbated it. That’s why states and the federal government ought to rebuild an economy that can not only add more women to the workforce, but also one that can finally be accommodating to women’s needs.
The Soaring Market that Threatens to Derail the Economic Recovery
Politico – Wall Street investors have bought into the Federal Reserve’s assurances that higher inflation won’t last, but a looming trend will test their composure over the coming months: soaring home and rental costs.
With home prices already up about 15 percent from last year and rents soaring at nearly triple their normal rate in just the first six months of 2021, there’s growing concern that housing costs could soon begin to nudge inflation higher. Since shelter makes up about one-third of a key inflation measure, that could undermine the Fed’s message that recent price spikes, which have showed up in everything from airline tickets to ride shares, will slow.
Housing costs could eventually boost inflation by as much as 2 percentage points by the end of next year, though the effects could be felt sooner, according to a forecast from Fannie Mae, the government-run company that stands behind half the country’s mortgages. A gradual buildup beginning later this year could spook markets and feed calls for the Fed to push borrowing costs higher, a move that could choke off economic growth as Democrats fight to hold onto control of Congress.
Officials at the Fed and in President Joe Biden’s administration say they expect the supply-chain bottlenecks that have stoked inflation to begin to ease later this year as the economy fully reopens. But housing-driven inflation could also start to rise as higher rents slowly cycle into the official tracking of price increases, a process that may have been delayed because leases are traditionally annual.
The Chin Mask is the Summer’s Latest Look
Boston Globe – Mariama Condé was the picture of cool. Strolling Fenway with friends in search of afternoon doughnuts, the actress and NYU drama major was rocking her look — tank top, mini skirt, socks folded just so, and, to pull it all together, the summer’s hottest trend: the under-the-chin mask.
Part beard, part fanny pack, worn with the loops over the ears and the business end stowed under the chin, the look is dominating all categories.
There it is on a yoga blonde exiting Whole Foods on Beacon Street; on a child pedaling a trike in Brookline; on drivers alone in their cars on Mass. Ave.; on a man wearing an electronic monitoring device on his ankle and trying to sell joints on Boylston Street.
And on Twitter, as a swipe at the middle-aged. “No need for a fake ID these days, kids,” @twistedrufus tweeted, “just wear your mask around like a chin strap in areas that still require masks and everyone will assume you’re over 50.”
It’s safe to say that people have become exhausted by the whole mask thing. We’re tired of shouting to be understood, the politicization, the fights on flights.
Genetics May Play Role in Severe Cases of COVID-19, Study Says
Boston Globe – Why do some people with COVID-19 end up in the hospital with life-threatening infections while others develop only mild symptoms or none at all?
Well into the second year of the pandemic, doctors have identified a number of risk factors that make someone more likely to develop a severe case, including old age; diabetes; chronic kidney, liver, or lung disease; and being overweight or a smoker.
Now, an international study published in the journal Nature on Thursday concludes that genetic factors also increase the likelihood that someone will be infected with SARS-CoV-2 and develop a serious case. The study has more than 3,300 coauthors and was led partly by researchers from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
The genetic sleuths scoured data from 50,000 people who tested positive for the virus and provided DNA samples for 46 studies in 19 countries. Researchers pooled the data and compared it with that of 2 million other people who hadn’t been infected, in one of the largest so-called genome-wide association studies ever.
The authors found that 13 spots on the human genome are strongly associated with infection or severe illness. Genetic variations at some of those locations are also implicated in the development of lung cancer, pulmonary fibrosis, and certain autoimmune diseases.
Slowly, Massachusetts Is Closing the Racial Gap in Vaccination Rates
WBUR – Since the approval of the first COVID-19 vaccines, the rate of vaccinations among white residents outstripped vaccinations in communities of color in Massachusetts. That gap remains, but it seems to be closing in recent weeks.
Back in May, only 37% of Black residents and 33% of Hispanic residents had at least one shot compared to 55% of white residents. Today, that near 20-point chasm has shrunk to 14 percentage points. As of Thursday, roughly 50% of both Hispanic and Black residents have received at least one dose, whereas 64% of white residents shared the same security.
Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that roughly 60% of people getting vaccines in the last 14 days were people of color.
There are two main reasons that the gap is closing, according to Dr. Charles Anderson, president and CEO of the Dimock Center, a health organization focused on underserved populations.
The first is access, which improved after the state switched from mass vaccination sites to community-based settings.
“Access has improved. Part of it was, ‘give it to me where I am used to going,’ ” Anderson said. “Health centers including doses in vans and going out into neighborhoods. It wasn’t just building lots of stuff. It’s an approach to make [the vaccine] more approachable.”
The other thing is that local and national health organizations have worked hard to build trust with communities of color. Anderson believes some people of color didn’t get the vaccine early on partly because many people of color have been wary of health-care systems. Studies have shown that people of color tend to receive worse treatment in health-care settings and have their pain and symptoms taken less seriously.
Vax Express Keeps Rolling but Vaccine Inequity Remains
WGBH – At Union Station in Worcester the mood was jubilant, the tunes from a local DJ were hits of the 80’s and 90’s and Massachusetts’ lieutenant governor couldn’t have been more excited about what the state’s “Vax Express” is trying to do — get needles in the arms of people who might otherwise not get a vaccine.
“We need to go to places where there has been hesitancy and reach people where they are, which is where we are, on the commuter rail literally going to the gateway communities to bring the vaccine,” said Lt. Governor Karyn Polito. “We have pop up clinics. We’ll literally go to your home.”
The express, run by CIC Health, has vaccinated more than 250 people, with four more train stations to go. It’s been stopping in the spots where vaccination rates are low: Boston, Worcester, Lowell, Lawrence, and Fitchburg.
Nearly 4.3 million people — about 62 percent of the total population — in Massachusetts are completely vaccinated.
But the numbers don’t tell the whole story, said Carlene Pavlos, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association. While she and other advocates for low income communities appreciate the state’s efforts, they question why communities hardest hit by the pandemic are being treated as an afterthought, with what they see as a kind of second tier urgency.
“We are, in essence, climbing out of a hole. Because of the decisions that the state made in how to initially roll the vaccine out across Massachusetts, there is a significant gap by race and ethnicity in terms of who has been vaccinated and who still does not have adequate access to the vaccine,” she said.
The Transparently Uncompelling Arguments against State House Transparency
Progressive Mass – At the start of the last legislative session, the Massachusetts House of Representatives had a spirited debate about transparency and the top-down nature of the House
That the House was having a robust debate about anything was a breath of fresh air, given the chamber’s aversion to showing division among members. But we also got to see progressive Democratic representatives roll call their own amendments about the rules of the chamber, in contrast to prior rules debates that had historically consisted of Democrats voting in lockstep to defeat a series of Republican-backed proposals. (Admittedly, the Republican caucus tends to actually be in favor of more open and small “d” democratic rules–even if they are not allies on the vast majority of policy).
At the start of the new session this year, the House decided to punt on voting on new rules, instead creating a task force to make recommendations and pushing off the discussion until July. It’s now July, and the House voted on a new set of rules yesterday.
The task force had some positive recommendations, like continuing a recent reform that makes it easier to locate roll call votes on the Legislature’s website and supporting continued use of virtual participation accessibility to build on accessibility gains from the past year. But systemic issues were left untouched.
Boston’s Acting Mayor Offers Reprieve to Some City Employees on Return to Work
Boston Globe – Acting Mayor Kim Janey offered a last-minute reprieve to city employees whose union filed an unfair labor practice over her order to return to work immediately following the July Fourth weekend.
Janey’s administration has agreed to let some SEIU Local 888 employees delay their return to work, if a review of their individual circumstances warrants it. The union then agreed to drop the complaint it filed last month with the state’s Division of Labor Relations.
“I tip my cap to the mayor for her ability to be amenable,” said Tom McKeever, president of the union, which represents roughly 1,600 city workers.
The agreement reached on July 2 allows employees who work behind the scenes in the city’s Department of Neighborhood Development to continue to work remotely through the summer.
“Respectfully, we asked the mayor for this specific group to allow them to get their affairs in order until after Labor Day,” said McKeever. “And then we’ll revisit or bargain maybe a hybrid method or our folks returning to work in a safe manner.”
Mariano: Complete State House Re-Opening Not Expected by Oct. 1
State House News – The State House will not have a “complete reopening” before the start of October, House Speaker Ronald Mariano said Wednesday, adding that he is hopeful that the building will be at least more populated at that point as legislative leaders target some time in autumn to welcome the public back to Beacon Hill.
While introducing a package of House rules for debate, House Speaker Pro Tempore Kate Hogan, the chamber’s number-three Democrat, said their Oct. 1 effective date “will coincide with the timeline of the reopening of the State House.” However, asked if Hogan’s description was accurate, Mariano replied, “No, not a complete reopening.”
“The hope would be that we would have people in the building before then, and by Oct. 1, we should be able to give a pretty accurate prediction on when we would reopen the building,” he said. “It’ll be done in stages, I think, is the most intelligent way to do this.”
The state capitol has been mostly closed for more than 15 months due to the pandemic, during which the majority of elected officials have participated remotely in hearings, sessions and votes. Gov. Charlie Baker lifted the COVID-19 state of emergency on June 15, and more than three weeks later, the State House reopening plans are still murky.
“It’s a pretty big task, a little bit bigger than people think,” Mariano told reporters, referencing the 40 senators and 160 representatives who will each have at least one staffer back at work. “If you’re bringing 40 people in with an aide, that’s a little bit easier than 320. I want to make sure there’s no significant mistakes.”
Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka said on June 30 they were developing a “comprehensive and nuanced reopening plan” to bring more employees and outsiders back in the fall, but they did not offer more details on a date.
Massachusetts Joins Suit against Google
Worcester Business Journal – Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey announced on Wednesday her office is joining 37 other attorneys general in filing a lawsuit against Google over alleged monopoly conduct as it relates to its Google Play Store for Android.
The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in the Northern District of California San Francisco Division.
The suit, per Healey’s office, alleges Google violated the federal Sherman Antitrust Act and other state antitrust and consumer protection laws by shutting out competing app distribution channels.
Additionally, the suit alleges that Google requires developers using its store to use Google Billing, forcing them to pay exorbitant fees of up to 30% on in-app purchases made by consumers.
“We are filing this lawsuit today to end Google’s web of restrictive contracts that have unlawfully inflated the cost of many digital goods, services, upgrades or other purchases made through apps downloaded from the Google Play Store,” Healey said in a statement.
“This lawsuit seeks to protect both consumers and innovative app developers from these unlawful practices.”
Housing Shortage Bring In-Law Apartments to Boston
Boston Globe – Wesley Williams Jr. can’t help but get a little excited when he shows off the apartment he built in his Mattapan basement. Sure, the sparkly quartz countertops in the kitchen cost extra. So did the heated floor in the bathroom. But he wanted it to be nice.
The 73-year-old retiree is among the first homeowners in Boston to complete a legally permitted rental unit in a single-family home. Often called in-law apartments or granny flats, these sorts of units have grown in popularity elsewhere in the country but have long been severely restricted in most Boston-area cities and towns.
Teachers Union Says Lack of Funding in Fiscal 2022 Budget Hurts Students of Color
MassLive – The Massachusetts Teachers Association has said the Legislature passed a “status quo” budget for fiscal 2022 and that the lack of funding creates a disproportionate negative effect on working-class students and students of color.
“Bold action” is needed to support students, public schools, colleges and communities as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, MTA President Merrie Najimy said in a statement.
The nearly $48.1 billion budget agreed to create a Student Opportunity Act fund to preserve money needed to phase in the landmark education law by fiscal 2027. The budget proposal sets aside $350 million, which can be used to boost Chapter 70 spending, charter school reimbursements or special education circuit breaker.
Climate Goals Clash with Incentives that Promote Fossil Fuels
Boston Globe – Massachusetts has ambitious climate goals, and not a lot of time to achieve them, which has some clean energy and climate experts questioning why a state program continues to promote fossil fuels with cash incentives for oil and gas home heating systems.
The state’s climate plan demands that 1 million households be converted from fossil fuels to electric heat by the end of the decade, part of a sweeping transition meant to help stave off the worst of climate change’s consequences. And yet the state’s only incentive program, and its best tool for helping convince businesses and homeowners to make that switch, is sticking with rebates for new carbon-emitting systems likely to remain in service long past that deadline.
The program, Mass Save, is run by utility companies with oversight by the state, and hands out between $640 million and $700 million a year in rebates that are funded by a surcharge on utility customers’ bills. It is credited with successfully reducing carbon emissions from home heating across Massachusetts since its inception in 2008. But in the past, those cuts have come largely by encouraging conversions from oil to gas, a less-dirty fossil fuel that the state plans to phase out.
Baker Seeks $100 Million for Offshore Wind Port Infrastructure
Commonwealth Magazine – As the offshore wind business ramps up in Massachusetts and along the East Coast, Gov. Charlie Baker is proposing to spend $100 million in federal money on marine port infrastructure to support the emerging industry.
The proposal is part of Baker’s $2.9 billion package for how to spend more than half the money from the federal American Rescue Plan Act. Officials from the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs released more details about the offshore wind proposal at a briefing Friday.
The marine port development money is the newest section of Baker’s plan, added in June after the Legislature rejected Baker’s initial proposal that would have given the governor the ability to spen