Boston Globe: For Black Businesses in Boston, NAACP Convention is ‘a Game Changer’

There’s a narrative about entrepreneurship in Boston that has been perpetuated for too long: Black-owned businesses don’t get contracts because they either don’t exist, or they don’t have enough experience to take on a big job.

The arrival of the NAACP convention in Boston this week presents an ideal moment to start rewriting that story. Already, the civil rights organization — which will spend millions of dollars here — has hired dozens of local Black-owned businesses as vendors. They represent the breadth of what the Black community has to offer: event planning, strategy, operations, public relations, marketing, website design, printing, transportation services, and more.

One of the biggest vendors is RoseMark Production, a Dorchester events planning firm owned and founded by Rose Staram. She has two six-figure contracts — one from the Boston NAACP chapter and the other from the City of Boston. RoseMark is organizing a variety of events, from an invitation-only golf outing at The Country Club in Brookline to a reception for 4,000 delegates at the Westin Hotel in the Seaport District.

State House News: Sides Still Far Apart On Overdue Massachusetts Annual Budget

With a fiscal 2024 budget compromise seemingly nowhere on the horizon, the House’s top negotiator asked the Healey administration Monday to consider filing a second interim budget to keep state services and payrolls funded beyond July.

House Ways and Means Chair Aaron Michlewitz said conference committee members are concerned about the existing interim budget expiring next week, as negotiators struggle to strike a deal on an annual budget that was due July 1. Democrats began talks on a compromise budget in early June.

“We’ve certainly been working diligently on this, but we still have a ways to go and aren’t there yet,” Michlewitz told the News Service Monday afternoon. “Certainly, the time has come to start considering” filing an interim budget, the North End Democrat said, describing the tactic as “fiscally responsible.”

Michlewitz declined to outline disagreements among conferees, who negotiate privately, saying he couldn’t get into “nuts and bolts of the negotiations.” Asked if August was a target for a budget accord, Michlewitz said he’s “hopeful to get it done as quickly as possible” but did not specify any timeline.

Telegram: Jobless Rate in Massachusetts Sinks to Record 2.6%

Massachusetts transportation officials continue to urge drivers to “ditch the drive” in order to avoid The Massachusetts economy continues to hum along in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic’s disruption, a trend that business leaders and analysts say could forecast more inflationary pressure on the horizon.

With employers across the state still struggling to fill open positions, labor officials reported Friday that the statewide unemployment rate ticked downward one-fifth of a percentage point to 2.6% in June – the lowest single-month rate since at least 1976.

The new record low is a preliminary estimate, and officials might revise the unemployment rate upward when they release the next batch of data in August. Some experts also caution against reading too much into the difference between a 2.6% unemployment rate and the previous record of 2.7% set each month between July and November 2000.

But the broader trend – nearly a year and a half with unemployment at or below 4% – still represents a significant turnaround since the public health emergency prompted massive layoffs in 2020.

Boston Herald – Patrick Leahy: Patent Office Proposals Hurt Small Innovators

(Opinion) Representing Vermont in the Senate for nearly 50 years will teach you how to fight like hell for the little guy. As the second smallest state by population, I worked hard to ensure that Vermont’s voice wasn’t drowned out by the larger states or the louder voices. That’s the same mentality I brought to the Judiciary Committee, where one of my top priorities was leveling the playing field in the world of intellectual property, especially for America’s small businesses and entrepreneurs.

That’s why I find the new proposed rules from the U.S. Patent and Trademark (USPTO) so concerning: they could wipe out much of the progress we made on behalf of the small innovators in our patent system.

Intellectual property is the backbone of our economy. Since our founding, our patent system has allowed the U.S. to grow into the greatest economic power in the world. At its best, our patent system incentivizes innovation, drives economic growth, fosters competition, and protects critical investments by individuals and businesses. At its worst, it hinders innovation and enables abuse.

During my tenure leading the Judiciary Committee, I reached across the aisle to write the America Invents Act (AIA), which passed both the House and Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support and was signed into law by President Obama. It’s one of my proudest accomplishments from my time in the Senate because it transformed our outdated patent system and created a more fundamentally fair and competitive innovation ecosystem for small inventors and businesses. The reforms cracked down on abusive litigation by non-practicing entities, also called patent trolls, that leverage patents that shouldn’t have been issued in the first place and sue productive businesses, often small, in the hopes of a settlement.

Commonwealth Magazine: Sending a Message on Beacon Hill

When the House and Senate chairs of a joint legislative committee began holding hearings separately rather than together in mid-June, House Speaker Ron Mariano dismissed the notion that the dispute was part of some broader battle between the two branches.

“Not to my knowledge. We have a couple of chairmen who have a disagreement,” he said. “Business goes on. There have been hearings, there’s been committee meetings.”

That business has hit several snags. Since Mariano’s remarks, the House and Senate couldn’t agree on which committee should hold a hearing on gun legislation put forward by Rep. Michael Day of Stoneham. The House on June 26 referred the bill to the Judiciary Committee, which Day co-chairs; the Senate on July 10 referred the measure to the Public Safety Committee, where a number of other gun bills are up for review.

With the branches refusing to budge, Day’s bill is stalled. Day called the bureaucratic standoff “a dispute between the chambers.”

To people not familiar with the workings of Beacon Hill, these types of disputes are hard to fathom. But they are part of the fabric of the Legislature, a place where messages often get sent using the arcane rules that govern the interactions between the two branches. That’s why there has been speculation that the dispute over gun control legislation may in fact be a Senate message to the House about the infighting over control of joint committees.

WCVB – Registry Hired 52 Employees after Drivers’ License Law Took Effect on July 1

The Registry of Motor Vehicles has hired 52 employees since the start of the month when a new law took effect allowing people without lawful proof of presence in the United States to seek out standard driver’s licenses.

New hires have been placed at service center locations across the state just as roughly 100,000 requests for learner’s permits appointments have come in since July 1, an agency spokesperson said this week.

Officials at the registry said they expected some 280,000 people to apply for a driver’s license within the first four years of the law, with the biggest demand in the first six months. The Healey administration set aside $28 million to pay for the implementation of the law.

Registrar of Motor Vehicles Colleen Ogilvie previously said the RMV wanted to hire more than 200 new employees in anticipation of the law. Most of those people would be frontline service center workers who handle most of the license application work.

The RMV is in the process of hiring 21 employees for the road test program and 10 employees for its contact center, the agency spokesperson said.

The law has been hailed by supporters as a way to make sure all drivers on the road are insured and understand safety rules. It survived opposition from former Gov. Charlie Baker and an unsuccessful Republican-led push to overturn the law after the state Legislature gave it final approval.

RMV officials said it will take about 15 weeks from start to finish to receive a driver’s license in the mail, assuming the required tests are passed on the first try.

Boston Globe: Religious Exemptions from Required Child Vaccinations under Debate

Religion would no longer be an accepted reason to exempt a child from mandatory vaccinations in Massachusetts, under legislation seeking to tighten current law.

Such exemptions are rare, but the number of parents seeking waivers for religious reasons has grown over the past 20 years and accounts for the majority of unvaccinated children reported in the Commonwealth.

The legislative effort to tighten vaccination requirements arrives amid an anti-vaccination movement reinvigorated by the COVID-19 pandemic, a presidential bid by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who shares false vaccine information, and a reappearance of preventable viruses in unvaccinated children that had virtually vanished from the United States. Massachusetts reported three measles cases in 2019 and one in 2020, according to the state Department of Public Health. Last year, New York state reported a polio case.

Parents like Jana Koretz, 38, are desperate for the bill to pass. Her daughter has to take immune suppressants due to an organ transplant in infancy, and the drugs make some vaccines dangerous to her. Being around unvaccinated children increases the toddler’s risk of contracting illnesses that could kill her.

WGBH: Does Building more Luxury Housing Drive Other Rents Up or Down?

Surging housing prices in Massachusetts are displacing families from their homes, some from the state as a whole.

“Many people are finding they cannot take up roots in Massachusetts like they used to,” Sen. Lydia Edwards, co-chair of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Housing, recently told GBH News. “Graduating from college, graduating from graduate school, getting your first job — that’s usually where you can get your starter home or your starter apartment, and they are out of reach.”

Advocates and policymakers agree the solution involves building more homes and apartments. There’s less agreement about who that new housing should be for.

Some activists argue the state’s most immediate need is homes for lower-income residents. Other advocates and experts counter that increasing the supply of market-rate housing, which comes with a higher price tag, could create a trickle-down effect that helps reduce costs for all residents.

Housing economists say determining which approach works better isn’t as simple as pointing to the basic supply-and-demand principle that holds if supply increases, prices usually decline. In fact, some economists say the construction of more market-rate housing often drives up costs for lower-income people.

The debate over which method is more conducive to lowering housing costs isn’t new. But which side Massachusetts policymakers come down on is particularly relevant right now as Gov. Maura Healey’s administration tries to develop new housing policies and allocate state money to build more homes and apartments.

Fall River Reporter: Organizations throughout Massachusetts Receive $26.3 million in Grants to Combat Food Insecurity

The Healey-Driscoll Administration announced more than $26.3 million in grants to strengthen Massachusetts’ food supply system and mitigate future food supply and distribution-disruption issues. During an event at the Fruit Fair Supermarket in Chicopee, Governor Healey, Lieutenant Governor Driscoll, Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper, and Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources Commissioner Ashley Randle joined state and local officials to announce the funding of 165 projects through the Food Security Infrastructure Grant Program.

The program was created to combat urgent food insecurity resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The recent flooding in Western and Central Massachusetts is expected to have a further impact on food security in Massachusetts, as many impacted farms play an important role in combating hunger. Healey-Driscoll Administration officials have been assessing damage at farms and discussing recovery and mitigation efforts over the past week. The FSIG program is designed to ensure farmers and other local food producers are better connected to a strong and resilient food system. For the first time in the history of this program, the administration prioritized projects that support organizations impacted by drought or extreme weather events.

Boston Globe: State Rolls out New Program to Help Immigrants with Legal Services

The state’s Office for Refugees and Immigrants is partnering with nonprofits to roll out a first-of-its kind program to provide legal services to new arrivals with the goal of better helping them integrate into Massachusetts.

The services, which will be offered to families staying in the state’s emergency assistance shelters and hotels, include helping migrants put together asylum applications so that they can eventually obtain permits to work legally.

Susan Church, a prominent immigration attorney and newly appointed chief operating officer of the state immigration office, said “this is something that is unique to Massachusetts.”

“This administration has recognized that this is a unique population, whose sole focus is obtaining work, and they don’t want to be in shelter,” said Church, who is known for her work with immigrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard last fall. “I have been an immigration lawyer for many years. And I think the number one question I’ve heard over and over again is, ‘When can I work?’ ”

Eagle Tribune: State Watchdogs Spend Little on COVID-19 Oversight

The state’s watchdogs have spent only a fraction of $1.5 million in funding they received more than two years ago to provide fiscal oversight of billions of dollars in federal pandemic-related aid flowing into the state.

Data from the state Executive Office of Administration and Finance shows that the Attorney General’s Office, comptroller, state auditor, and inspector general’s office have only spent $187,643 of the money the Legislature allocated in 2021 to fund audits, investigations and other oversight of COVID-19 spending.

The Inspector General’s Office has spent the most out of the four agencies as of June 30 at $174,943 of its $375,000 share; while the state auditor’s office has spent only $13,700, according to the figures.

The AG and Comptroller’s offices haven’t used any of their $375,000 allocations from the oversight reserve fund, records show.

Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr said the data is “concerning” and raises questions about how much oversight the state has provided to billions of dollars in federal funding received since the outset of the pandemic.

Health Care

Boston Globe: Drugmakers Turn to Courts to Halt Medicare Price Negotiations

The pharmaceutical industry, which suffered a stinging defeat last year when President Joe Biden signed a law authorizing Medicare to negotiate the price of some prescription medicines, is now waging a broad-based assault on the measure — just as the negotiations are about to begin.

The law, the Inflation Reduction Act, is a signature legislative achievement for Biden, who has boasted that he took on the drug industry and won. The provisions allowing Medicare to negotiate prices are expected to save the government an estimated $98.5 billion over a decade while lowering insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs for many older Americans.

On Tuesday, Johnson & Johnson became the latest drugmaker to take the Biden administration to federal court in an attempt to halt the drug pricing program. Three other drug companies — Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb and Astellas Pharma — have filed their own lawsuits, as have the industry’s main trade group and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Boston Herald: BMC Doctors Rally for Wage Increase

Hundreds of Boston Medical Center residents gathered along the street outside the hospital Thursday afternoon, demanding a living wage and critical benefits in their new contract.

“We should not have to sacrifice ourselves to provide the great care that we do to our communities,” said Dr. Taha Khan, a resident physician in pediatric neurology. “We should be able to pour from a full cup. Our ask is very simple. Boston Medical Center needs to pay us enough and provide the benefits we need to live and work in one of the most expensive cities in this country.”

The Committee of Interns and Residents union representing the hospital’s 750 resident physicians has been in negotiations with the hospital since April, representatives said, and returned to the bargaining table with a proposal Thursday night.

That proposal, Psychiatry resident and bargaining committee member Dr. Anisah Hashmi said, includes a salary increase catching up with inflation and a living stipend tailored to help residents pay for rent, similar to ones offered at Tufts and Mass General Brigham.

The first-year resident salary at BMC is just under $67,000 as of July 2022, according to the hospital. This is less than the listed first-year salaries at area hospitals Mass General Brigham,  $78,540; Boston Children’s Hospital, $73,475; and Beth Isreal Deaconess Medical Center, $71,000.

Mass LIve: Mental-Health Call Centers Hope Funding Keeps Pace with Increased Demand

The nation’s new mental-health hotline number, 9-8-8, is now one year old, but as Massachusetts legislators are still negotiating the 2024 fiscal budget, call centers are curious if the state’s new spending plan will still support their life-saving work.

Eileen Davis, the director of Call2Talk, a call center with locations in Framingham and Springfield, said it would be a shame if the state reduced funding for mental health services and slowed the momentum built as a result of the new hotline number.

“When you have different administrations and different parties and different legislators in different states, it’s always a concern for call centers, ‘will they be able to sustain what they’ve built?’” Davis said.

Last July, The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s 10-digit number switched to the easy-to-remember 9-8-8 number as a result of the passage of the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act of 2020.

Budget and Taxation

Boston Herald: Lawmakers Poised to Enter Last Week of July without a Budget

No deal on a state budget Friday left lawmakers poised to enter the final full week of July without a yearly spending plan for the fiscal year that started 22 days ago.

Lawmakers adjourned Thursday morning sessions without producing a compromise fiscal 2024 budget and scheduled informal House and Senate sessions for Monday morning. Top Democrats did not indicate whether a compromise was in reach even as they started to stare down the final few days before their traditional August recess.

The longer the state goes without a plan in place, the more it impacts the ability to implement new programs or expand existing ones, said Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation and former senior policy advisor to Senate President Karen Spilka.

“There’s a whole lot that goes into how critical or impactful the timing of the budget finalization is to the state’s finances and its credit rating,” said Howgate, also a former budget director for the Senate Ways and Means Committee. “You don’t want that deadline to keep creeping and creeping and creeping, because if something goes wrong, then all of a sudden, you could be in a time of significant delay.”

It is unlikely state government will shut down because a full budget has not been signed by the governor. Gov. Maura Healey signed a $6.6 billion interim budget that keeps services funded through July, and if the delay stretches deeper into next week, another one could be in the mix.

After an event in Easthampton on Thursday, Healey did not say if her office was prepping another interim budget.

EXTERNAL: Boston Globe: In Step Forward for Aging Cape Cod Bridges, Senate Proposes $350 Million for Replacement

The US Senate included $350 million toward the replacement of the two aging Cape Cod bridges in a wide-ranging appropriations bill unveiled on Thursday, a potential step toward the billions of dollars needed to build the new roadways over the Cape Cod Canal.

Even those millions are far from ready for the bank, as a divided Washington is staring down a major fight over government funding this fall.

But the money’s inclusion in the Senate legislation signaled more of an appetite in Washington to help shoulder the estimated $4 billion replacement of the Sagamore and Bourne bridges, the 88-year-old federally owned arching structures that are the only roads on and off the peninsula.

The line item in the Senate’s draft “energy and water development” appropriations bill for the bridges follows a request by President Biden in his budget proposal for $350 million for the project, and is the product of a concerted effort by Massachusetts’ Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren and Edward Markey, to get federal money for the needed investment.

“Securing $350 million in the Senate Appropriations bill is a critical win in the decades-long effort to replace the aging Cape Cod Canal bridges,” Warren and Markey said in a statement. “We will continue pushing to ensure this funding is signed into law and appreciate our ongoing partnership with Governor

WGBH: What’s Next for Massachusetts’ Pandemic Policies?

When the State House closed this week after a basement electrical fire, elected officials and their staffs pivoted to remote work — including virtual votes Wednesday to approve seven pardons Gov. Maura Healey recommended.

It’s the kind of adjustment that might not have been feasible before work-from-home protocols took shape in the pandemic’s early days. Remote work is one COVID-19 innovation that’s found a place in this post-emergency phase, helping businesses and governments navigate not just public health crises but predicaments like fire investigations or commute gridlock from the Sumner Tunnel shutdown.

Over the past three years, state officials instituted a host of policies aimed at solving pandemic-era problems that popped up in town halls, restaurants, hospitals and other settings.

While some, such as the ability to remotely notarize documents, made their way permanently into the state’s law books, the fates of many others now rest in the hands of the Massachusetts Legislature. So far, lawmakers have mostly opted for temporary extensions rather than long-term policy decisions.

Energy and Environment

Boston Globe: More than 70 Massachusetts Beaches Remain Closed Due to High Bacteria Levels

It was a hot and muggy Tuesday afternoon at Lynn Beach, but the closest John Quigley could bring himself to the water was a bench far back from shore. As the unpleasant odor from the brown-stained water indicated, Lynn and nearby King’s Beaches were closed because of high bacteria levels.

“King’s Beach has been polluted for what seems to be forever,” said the 67-year-old Lynn native, noting he was frustrated but not surprised that he couldn’t go swimming.

King’s and Lynn beaches are among more than 70 in Massachusetts that remain closed during the height of summer after unsafe levels of human waste were detected in the water following weeks of heavy rains.

The main reason behind the closures: 19 communities in the state, including parts of Boston, use waste systems that carry both sewage and storm water runoff in the same pipe to treatment facilities. The systems, outdated and no longer built in newer cities, are mostly located in “older urbanized communities across the state, such as Boston, New Bedford, Worcester, and Springfield,” according to the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection.

Gazette Net: Online Flood Relief Fundraisers Grow

Besides the philanthropic Massachusetts Farm Resiliency Fund announced Thursday by Gov. Maura Healey, there are a number of online fundraisers where people can give money to help area farms recover from flood damage.

Donation links can be found either through GoFundMe’s centralized hub for fundraisers covering the four affected northeastern states (Massachusetts, Vermont, New York and Pennsylvania) or CISA’s flood relief page.

Philip Korman, executive director of CISA (Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture), said donations can also be made to the organization’s emergency farm fund, which provides no-interest loans to farmers in need.

CISA’s website includes a page of resources for farmers and a link to the state’s new resiliency fund.

Farms that are raising money through the GoFundMe site include Mountain View Farm in Easthampton, which had raised $156,201 out of a goal of $250,000 by mid-afternoon Thursday; Natural Roots Farm in Conway, with $75,961 raised out of its $85,000 goal; and Somali Bantu farmers in Hadley and Northampton, garnering $16,885 out of a $30,000 goal.

Boston Herald: Private Donors Commit $100,000 to Relief Fund for Flooded Farms

A series of torrential rains over the past two weeks caused roughly $15 million in damage to about 2,000 acres of farmland in Massachusetts, which the Healey administration hopes to help save with a private relief fund announced Thursday afternoon.

Farmers that have encountered multiple environmental setbacks this year, are now facing brunt of floods that left crops soaked right before harvest time. Gov. Maura Healey said she is “not holding” her breath for federal dollars and the newly created “Massachusetts Farm Resiliency Fund” is the best way to provide direct relief.

“If people think that there’s going to be a whole bunch of money coming from the federal government this way, I’m not holding my breath, none of us are and I want to be really clear about that,” Healey said.

Even as the governor cautioned against waiting for federal dollars, the state’s Congressional delegation pressured U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack and Farm Service Agency Administrator Zach Ducheneaux to declare a disaster in Western Massachusetts counties, a move that would open up an emergency loan program for farmers.

At Mountain View Farm in Easthampton, Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said philanthropic organizations and private donors have committed $100,000 to the newly created private fund. Attorney General Andrea Campbell said her office would also chip in $10,000 from settlements reached by the state’s top prosecutor.

CBS News: MassDOT Installs New Gates in Ted Williams Tunnel, Hoping to Alleviate Some Gridlock

With more than a month left of Sumner Tunnel closure, drivers are growing more frustrated with traffic, especially the most heavily impacted.

East Boston residents and travelers from the airport are bearing the brunt of backups as traffic continues to clog commutes.

“It’s going to be awful, it’s going to affect our business, it’s also going to affect my commute,” said one East Boston local.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) has offered alternative travel options, including free T and ferry rides but for those who have no choice but to be behind the wheel the message has been clear – leave time to drive.

“It’s a bit of a set back, being that a lot people do have to use personal transportation to get to work,” said one Boston native.

But now MassDOT has implemented some new additions to help drivers taking the Ted Williams Tunnel. Flashing red gates with arrows warning drivers to move over will occasionally block one lane of traffic in the Ted Williams Tunnel to help free up space for emergency situations and to alleviate traffic for airport travelers.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

WCVB: NAACP National Convention Returns to Boston after 40 Years

For the first time in more than 40 years, the national NAACP convention is returning to Boston — and finding a changed and evolving city, leaders said.

“The last time the convention was in Boston was 1982, and as a — I count the generations — fourth generation Bostonian I can truly say, we are not the Boston of the 1980s,” said NAACP Boston Branch President Tanisha Sullivan said on a CBS Boston segment aired Sunday. “Thank goodness, we have made some progress, especially when it comes to race relations in the city. But we still have a lot of work to do.”

The 114th NAACP National Convention is scheduled to be held from July 28 to Aug. 1 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, overlapping with the organization’s ACT-SO youth competition from July 26 to July 29.

This convention is an opportunity for Boston to “reintroduce ourselves,” Sullivan said.

“We have to be honest about our reception nationally, and locally sometimes, that we are among this country’s most racist cities,” said Sullivan. “I don’t think we should run away from that. I think we should acknowledge it and use this as an opportunity to say to folks look, that may be where we’ve been, but this is where we’re trying to go.”

The convention features dozens of events, including a block party, Gospelfest, plenary sessions and workshops on climate justice, campaigns and health, and a wide list of speakers including Vice President Kamala Harris, former Secretary of State and ex-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, rapper and activist Meek Mill and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

BayState Banner: Salem Celebrates First Official ‘Negro Election Day’

The Massachusetts Legislature passed a law last year declaring the third Saturday of July “Negro Election Day.” Last Saturday, about 5,000 people gathered in Salem to celebrate with a parade from Shetland Park to Salem Willows Park and speeches, vendors, music, entertainment and food.

Black families in Massachusetts and beyond traditionally gather at Salem Willows each year on the third Saturday of July to celebrate what until recently was commonly referred to as “the Black Picnic.” But most didn’t know the history behind the event.

Recent research reveals that the tradition was first established in 1741 as the first Black governing system in the country and called Negro Election Day.

“The event has been held for 283 years, and everybody doesn’t understand what it is — why Black people first went to Salem Willows,” said Doreen Wade, president and founder of Salem United Inc., a nonprofit devoted to preserving Black history and the host of the first official celebration of the state holiday.

The Reminder: Oliveira, Duffy Sponsor Cultural Equity in Tourism Bill

A crowd filled the Polish Center of Discovery and Learning library in Chicopee on July 11 for the community launch of the Cultural Equity in Tourism bill sponsored by state Sen. Jake Oliveira (D-Ludlow) and state Rep. Patricia Duffy (D-Holyoke).

Emily Ruddock, executive director of Masscreative — a statewide advocacy and organizing group on behalf of the organizing center — shared that the importance of the bill comes from the last few years during COVID-19.

“[COVID-19] has challenged all of us and it has challenged the creative sector quite a bit,” she said.
Last fall, Masscreative traveled around Massachusetts and met with cultural leaders, artists, creative workers and advocates to talk about the new challenges and what could be done to fix them.

Through that, this idea was born, Ruddock shared. “Making sure that tourism in Massachusetts and marketing in Massachusetts included our most hidden gems and made sure to lift up the economic benefits that come with tourism to every corner of Massachusetts,” she added.

Boston Globe: Campbell among Democratic Attorneys General calling on Companies to Increase Diversity Efforts

A group of Democratic attorneys general — including Massachusetts AG Andrea Campbell — told CEOs from the country’s Fortune 100 companies Wednesday to “double down” on diversity efforts and ignore Republican calls threatening legal action for doing so.

This comes after 13 Republican attorneys general signed a letter last week warning companies about using racial hiring quotas or preferences in light of the recent US Supreme Court decision that ended race-based affirmative action by many colleges.

“This Supreme Court decision provides absolutely no basis to conclude that a private company cannot engage in efforts to recruit a diverse applicant pool and to ensure their workplaces are welcoming and supportive of people of all backgrounds,” Campbell said during a virtual press conference Wednesday with some of 20 Democrats who signed onto the response letter.

Campbell, who took office in January as the first Black woman to serve as the state’s highest prosecutor, said having a “diverse set of lived experiences and backgrounds” is beneficial to companies, and they should keep seeking ways to create that.

Boston Globe: Convention Center Authority Hires its First Chief Diversity Officer

The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority has hired a seasoned Black diversity and inclusion executive from the Minneapolis area as it responds to concerns about the lack of Black and Latino people in top-paying positions, as well as other racial equity issues.

On Thursday, executive director David Gibbons introduced Herschel Herndon, who joins the organization next week as its chief diversity officer, to a newly constituted MCCA board. It was the board’s first meeting since the Healey administration installed seven new board members, intending to increase the number of people of color.

The MCCA came under fire in March following Boston Globe coverage showing the lack of a full-time diversity officer and people of color in top positions on the nearly 400-person staff. Soon after, the MCCA board of directors hired law firm Prince Lobel to study the issue and report back. That study is expected to be completed soon, but not before the NAACP brings its annual convention to the MCCA’s Boston Convention & Exhibition Center next week.

Herndon’s appointment to the $160,000-a-year job represents the first time the MCCA has had a full-time employee focused on diversity issues since 2016, when an employee who focused on contracts and procurement left for a different job. Gibbons had hoped to revive that position as part of his proposed expansion of the convention and exhibit center. After not getting the green light for that project from the Legislature, Gibbons said he decided last year to instead create a higher-level diversity position with a broader focus on shaping a more diverse, equitable workforce and culture at the MCCA. That position was first advertised, he said, in January.

In March, following the Globe coverage, he decided to hire Minnesota-based headhunting firm SearchWide Global to help with the search.

Education

Boston Herald: Lawmakers Call for $60 Million to Help Rural Schools ‘Survive’

Rural schools have long been cripplingly underfunded, lawmakers, rural educators and students testified last week, calling for a massive influx of funding to address the issue.

“We found that many rural schools do not benefit from education with the same level of resources and breadth of opportunities as their peers in the rest of the state,” said Lisa Battaglino, a Dean at Bridgewater State University and member of the state’s Commission on the Fiscal Health of Rural School Districts. “In other words, the rural schools and the children in the rural schools are getting less than what they need and deserve.”

Legislators, education organization representatives and others gathered virtually for a legislative briefing on rural and declining enrollment schools.

Attendees discussed the currently proposed “Act to provide a sustainable future for rural schools,” filed as House Bill 3567 by Rep. Natalie Blais and Senate Bill 2388 by Sen. Joanne Comerford.

The bills would broadly contribute funding — including increasing the state’s Rural School Aid from $5.5 million to $60 million — and other resources to address issues identified in the Rural Schools Commission Report released in July 2022.

The “heart of the problem,” Battaglino said, is insufficient per pupil funding in rural districts.