News Archive
Dec 21 2018
Press Release: Senate Passes Legislation Extending Unemployment Insurance for Locked-out National Grid Workers
CONTACT
Tara Smith, Communications Director
Office of Sen. Pat Jehlen
617-722-1578
Senate Passes Legislation Extending Unemployment Insurance for Locked-out National Grid Workers
BOSTON - The Massachusetts State Senate yesterday passed legislation to extend...
Dec 17 2018
Friends of the Fells revs up campaign against hockey rink proposal
Medford Transcript
The Friends of the Fells and interested residents from Medford and surrounding communities have escalated their campaign in opposition to a proposed hockey rink and recreational facility in the Middlesex Fells near South Border Road.
Put forth by representatives from...
Dec 12 2018
How do you measure student success? Winchester teachers try new approaches
Winchester Star
A first-grade student, who often struggled with classwork, had correctly figured out the animal described by a series of clues. But her teammates convinced her she was wrong, and she agreed to a different answer.
Because of a new approach to assessing student performance,...
Dec 11 2018
Progressive Massachusetts gives top grade to 3 Cambridge legislators, few others
State House News Service
Advocacy group Progressive Massachusetts on Monday released its latest legislative scorecard, giving “A” grades to just three state representatives and four senators, and using the grades to call for more transparency on Beacon Hill. Three of the seven A-grade...
Dec 10 2018
Somerville passes resolution, supports State House bill expunging marijuana records
The Tufts Daily
The Somerville Board of Aldermen approved a resolution on Nov. 20 in support of Massachusetts House Bill 2785, which would expunge the criminal records of people charged with marijuana-related crimes.
The bill states that any record of a court...
Nov 19 2018
Rest homes in Mass. keep closing as financial pressures mount
Boston Globe
JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF
Elena Lowry, 78, has moved from the Somerville Home to an apartment in the VNA Senior Housing in Somerville.
By Robert Weisman GLOBE STAFF NOVEMBER 19, 2018
SOMERVILLE — When the Somerville Home announced in August that...
Nov 3 2018
For some, rollout pace for recreational pot in Massachusetts carries sense of deja vu
The Berkshire Eagle
By Sophia Eppolito , Boston University Statehouse Program
BOSTON — Nearly two years after recreational marijuana was legalized in the commonwealth, experts are concerned that the rollout will be caught up in delays and red tape like medical marijuana, another voter-...
Oct 25 2018
Elderly, sick inmates costing taxpayers thousands in medical care
WWLP 22 News
LUDLOW, Mass. (WWLP) - A lot of inmates in Massachusetts are sick and aging and the 22News I-Team discovered, taxpayers are fronting the cost of their medical bills.
The I-Team got an eye-opening look into the state's prison population, which is considered one of the...
Sep 28 2018
Medford’s Macdonald Park gets new Mystic River overview
Medford Transcript
Local and state officials celebrate additions to Macdonald Park, made possible in part by an individual donation.
Editor’s note: The following was submitted on behalf of the Department of Conservation and Recreation.
The Baker-Polito Administration hosted a ribbon...
Sep 18 2018
Jehlen, Connolly announce funding for East Somerville pedestrian infrastructure
Somerville Journal
State Sen. Pat Jehlen of Somerville and State Rep. Mike Connolly of Cambridge recently secured $95,000 in funding for improvements to Somerville’s Kensington Underpass in the Fiscal 2019 state budget.
Jehlen and Connolly filed successful amendments in the Senate and...
Sep 10 2018
Crumbling concrete, leaking roofs, and busted elevators: the state of the T
Boston Globe
By Adam Vaccaro GLOBE STAFF SEPTEMBER 10, 2018
The elevators at Aquarium Station have been out of service for months, roped off from passengers. Corroding ramps at the commuter rail station in Winchester are patched with plywood, and exposed rebar peeks...
Aug 31 2018
Mass. cannabis commission shouldn’t let towns shake down pot retailers
Boston Globe
It’s just pot — not a pot of gold.
The state’s new marijuana law limits how much lucre municipalities can extract from retailers, and for good reason: If cities and towns make it too pricey to operate retail businesses, fewer will open. And those retailers...
Aug 29 2018
Officials Disagree on Cities and Towns Negotiating With Marijuana Shops
NECN
By Mike Manzoni
Published at 8:44 PM EDT on Aug 29, 2018
The Cannabis Control Commission and Massachusetts lawmakers who oversee marijuana policy can't agree on whether the commission is allowed to review the required agreements between cities and towns and...
Aug 28 2018
Do your job, lawmakers tell pot agency
State House News Service
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE
AS THE CANNABIS CONTROL COMMISSION weighs asking legislators to revisit the marijuana law to clarify requirements related to the agreements marijuana businesses are required to enter into with their host municipalities, the two lawmakers who...
Aug 21 2018
Mystic Ave to see improvements to pedestrian safety
Medford Transcript
By Miranda Willson
mwillson@wickedlocal.com
Posted Aug 21, 2018 at 9:29 AMUpdated Aug 21, 2018 at 9:29 AM
Rep. Christine Barber helped secure state funding to make it easier to cross the busy...
Aug 14 2018
A Look at the State of the MBTA
NECN
Visitors to Boston's City Hall Plaza got a look at what riders of the MBTA's Red Line can look forward to next year — shiny new trains.
The update is long overdue, based on the comments of Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack.
"The average Red...
Aug 14 2018
Press Release: Jehlen Expresses Frustration Over Crumbling Conditions at Alewife Garage
BOSTON - On Monday, Senator Patricia Jehlen (D-Somerville) joined Sen. Cindy Friedman (D-Arlington) and Rep. Sean Garballey (D-Arlington) to ask the Fiscal Management Control Board for immediate action on a long-term solution for the Alewife MBTA station parking garage....
Aug 13 2018
Local pols vent over state of MBTA’s crumbling Alewife parking garage
State House News Service/Wicked Local
A trio of state lawmakers on Monday pressed transit officials over the condition of the parking garage at the MBTA’s Alewife Station, which reopened in the morning after deteriorating concrete forced a weekend shutdown for repairs and assessment.
Saying she was...
Aug 10 2018
Press Release: Legislation to Help Families Struggling with Alzheimer's Signed Into Law
BOSTON – Legislation to help the hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents with Alzheimer’s and dementia and their families was signed into law yesterday by Governor Charlie Baker.
The bill, which passed the Massachusetts Senate unanimously,...
Aug 8 2018
Mass. lawmaker: Losing jobs over cannabis is 'counter-productive'
Boston 25 News
BOSTON - A woman who was fired from her job for using marijuana at home is firing back by lobbying state legislators to protect workers who engage in what is, in Massachusetts, legal behavior.
Bernadette Coughlin was a good employee who did not show up at work...
Aug 8 2018
Worker Fired For At-Home Marijuana Use Seeks Legislative Response
WBUR/State House News Service
Bernadette Coughlin hopes she is the last person in Massachusetts to be fired for having a toke of pot at home off work hours.
The 55-year-old former patient services manager at Holy Family Hospital in Methuen visited the State House with her lawyer on Tuesday, hoping to...
Aug 8 2018
Legislator calls for workplace protections on pot
Eagle Tribune
BOSTON — It won't get her job back, but Bernadette Coughlin said the potential for a bill being filed in the Massachusetts Legislature providing workplace protections for recreational pot users is a significant step forward.
Coughlin, 55, of Methuen, lost her...
Aug 1 2018
Tempering The Cost Of Aging, Dying In Prison With The Demands Of Justice
NPR
A Massachusetts state prison is expanding the graveyard where it buries inmates who die in custody, one consequence of the state's huge increase in aging prisoners. And as more inmates age and die behind bars, the cost of their care is skyrocketing, fueling new efforts...
Jul 27 2018
Press Release: Senate Passes Bill to Provide Warning During Sewage Spills
BOSTON – Yesterday the Massachusetts Senate passed S.2617, An Act promoting awareness of safe recreation in public waterways, filed by Senator Pat Jehlen (D-Somerville) and Representative Denise Provost (D-Somerville).
The bill addresses a major problem for...
Jul 26 2018
Pot Regulators Asks Cities and Towns to Restrain Demands
Associated Press
By BOB SALSBERG, Associated Press
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts cannabis regulators urged city and town officials Thursday to keep within the boundaries of state law when negotiating local agreements with recreational marijuana businesses.
The Cannabis Control...