Dear Neighbors,
Here are a few things I thought you might be interested in. Still working on newsletters on transportation, revenue, and the shelter crisis. Hard to keep up!
SOCIAL SECURITY: A "Dead Man" walks into an office
Ned Johnson is an 82-year-old man in Seattle. His wife received a condolence note from their bank, which had learned from Social Security that he was dead. Ned found out that his social security checks had stopped, the government had deducted over $5000 from his bank account, and that his Medicare had been cancelled.
It took Ned 3 weeks of multiple daily calls to get an appointment at the Social Security office. He stood in line for 4 hours, then cut the line. He was finally able to convince a worker that he was actually alive. The money was returned to his bank account, but as of last Saturday he hadn't received the two missing payments.
That Seattle office is one of the federal buildings Trump is planning to close. At the same time, Social Security will no longer allow people to verify their identity by phone. If they have trouble using the internet, they can go to the field office. But "Social Security managers have laid plans to eliminate 7,000 of its 57,000 employees (12 percent) and to close six of 10 regional offices (60 percent) and 480 of its offices (40 percent). Getting an appointment already requires waiting on the phone for two hours to get a call back, and then over a monthlong wait on average to get an appointment."
Musk claimed in early February that people over 150 years old were receiving Social Security. This claim was debunked by Wired the next week, but on March 4 Trump talked at length in his State of the Union address of the millions of people over 100 receiving benefits. More on this at Snopes.
MAIL
Recently, I saw our mail carrier being followed by someone with a clipboard on two days. Was this another DOGE activity? No, Postmaster General DeJoy had previously initiated this productivity study, hoping to reduce the number of carriers and increase the length of their routes. Already this carrier delivers paper and packages about 10 hours a day; I never see him relaxing.
Last Friday, Daily Kos reported that Postmaster DeJoy had agreed with Musk to lay off 10,000 of the Post Office's 635,000 employees. He had already reduced the number of workers by 30,000 in past few years. Trump once argued for gutting the post office because it would make it harder for people to vote by mail.
MORE NEWS IS GOOD NEWS
I've written about the loss of local news and some efforts to revive it.
The best recent news about news: Dan Kennedy wrote on Media Nation about the launch of Gotta Know Medford, a for-profit digital newspaper started by three journalists, including Nell Escobar Coakley, former editor of the departed Medford Transcript. Media Nation is worth following too, if you care about journalism. Medford has been a news desert for way too long!
GottaKnowMedford wrote about a visit to Community Family, a Medford adult day health center, by Representatives Paul Donato and Sean Garballey. Rachel Clinton, my constituent services director, went because I had other meetings. She reported "My new favorite spot!" The story points out that the governor's budget includes a cut to Adult Day Health, one of many "invisible cuts" we're learning about. More on that soon.
The Harvard Crimson wrote about the death and life of news sources in Cambridge here. The Crimson covers news from Harvard, Cambridge and sometimes Somerville. You can sign up for a targeted newsletter here.
The Tufts Daily sometimes writes about Medford and Somerville.
I wrote last year about:
Cambridge Day, both online and print, covers Cambridge AND Somerville
Winchester News online (subscribe at bottom of their page)
The Somerville Times both online and print
THINGS TO DO
These are some suggestions people have sent me:
1. April 5 will see rallies across the country by groups working together as 50501. Hands Off Massachusetts will rally at 11 am at the Parkman Bandstand in Boston. Info here.
2. Would you like a daily list of suggested actions? People have recommended signing up for Chop Wood Carry Water.
3. Musk has been saying that DOGE just plays an advisory role, but a judge ruled that the agency is exercising "substantial independent authority," and that makes DOGE subject to transparency rules. That means you can demand any data that DOGE has collected about you. It's called a Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) request, and all you need to make this demand is a stamp.
Rep. Jamie Raskin has demanded his data from DOGE, and he's made it easy for us to do it, too. Just follow this link to demand your data: https://jamieraskin.com/doge-privacy-act-requests/
4. Friends are organizing a volunteer-led national zoom event on Sunday, March 23, 7-8 pm to support Movement Voter Project Comeback Campaign—a concerted effort to fund the grassroots groups that are mobilizing people to block the MAGA/Project 2025 agenda, empower and protect vulnerable communities, and plant the seeds to win back power in 2026 and beyond. MVP info here. Register here.
FIRST THEY CAME FOR
This was a sign at last Sunday's Copley Square demonstration. It refers to a statement by Martin Niemoller, a German pastor who at first supported the Nazis, but then became a vocal critic and was sent to a concentration camp. After the war, he wrote:
"First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out--because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."
JALSA, Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action, issued this statement, resonant with Niemoller's.
Mahmoud is a green card holder who has not been charged with any crime. ICYMI, here's a CNN report on Mahmoud Khalal's arrest and planned deportation. You can watch his arrest here.
The Trump administration arrested Khalil and took him to detention in Louisiana, hoping for a more favorable court. But today (Wednesday) the federal judge who ordered the government not to deport Khalil while he appealed, ordered that the case be transferred to New Jersey, because that was where he was initially detained. We'll see if Homeland Security follows the court order.
ICYMI: REPRESENTATIVES' TOWN HALLS
You can watch Ayanna Pressley's conversation with the Globe's Joshua Miller here.
And you can watch Rep. Katherine Clark's town hall here.
HUMOR OF THE WEEK
It's officially spring! So why not try McSweeney's DOGE-inspired Spring Cleaning Plan.
Lots of good ideas, starting with "Start with your closet. Identify all the T-shirts you haven’t worn in three years. Then throw away all your clothes, including the ones you’re wearing."
IRONY?
"“It is madness. It is lunacy. It is pure lawlessness. It is the gravest assault on democracy. It must and will end.” -- Steven Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff, on courts ruling against the administration.
Stay in touch,
Pat Jehlen