Thanks to Christopher for flagging this down: The SJC has made a rather uncomfortable "emergency" decision, in halving the number of signatures needed for some offices; extended deadlines; and required Sec. of Commonwealth Galvin to accept … [Read more...]
Rep. Connolly puts together a housing agenda
I mentioned the other day the foreclosure and eviction moratorium legislation that has passed the House. State Rep. Mike Connolly is putting together a coalition for a whole host of actions, at https://rentfreeze.org. ProgressiveMass is … [Read more...]
COVID19: Iceland
Iceland has been testing its population for COVID19 probably more than any other country: "The latest [April 6, 2020] figures on covid.is (https://www.covid.is) show that a total of 1,486 cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in Iceland, … [Read more...]
Right Now: Rent and mortgage relief; take care of gig workers
Wednesday was the first of the month. Rent was due. Unemployment claims for Massachusetts were 329,000 over the last two weeks. That's ... 4.8% of the entire population of Massachusetts, and 9% of the workforce, newly out of a job, right … [Read more...]
COVID19: Food and Agriculture Resources
Regional Northeast Regional Agriculture and COVID19 Wednesday, April 8 1:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Online RSVP at https://zoom.us/meeting/register/uJ0tcuihrT8ouZJuXnaDemygSBJUTBFyFQ Maine Farmland Trust and NESAWG will … [Read more...]
Our own Berlin Airlift: Patriots Plane defies Trump’s effective blockade
In a tale of logistical wizardry, persistence, and sheer physical endurance, Massachusetts is being whisked some 1.4 million N95 masks on the New England Patriots' plane. 300,000 some masks will go to New York. Bob Kraft is paying for some … [Read more...]
Open Sourcing Solutions to COVID19: Mutual Aid, Citizen Scientists, Makers, Gardeners, Artists…..
"You could say that civil society is what unimpaired mutual aid creates; or that civil society is the condition and mutual aid the activity that produces it.” - Rebecca Solnit, from A Paradise Built in Hell [my notes at … [Read more...]
MassDems likely to cancel convention; Markey wins convention endorsement
Well, this was pretty much inevitable: MassDems chair Gus Bickford is asking the state committee to agree that there will be no Massachusetts Democratic Convention this year; to continue with it would be unsafe and logistically … [Read more...]
Report from Taiwan: Friends Return to the USA to Compare and Contrast
My friends and former co-workers, Marc and Sally, love to travel the world and this year spent some of February and March in Taiwan. This is their account of the response of Taiwan to COVID19, the letter they sent to friends after they … [Read more...]
Hacking COVID19: Open Source Global Brainstorms and Mutual Aid
MIT COVID19 Challenge - Beat the Pandemic Friday, April 3 at 6:00pm - Sunday, April 5 Online RSVP at https://covid19challenge.mit.edu We invite you to attend the MIT COVID-19 Challenge event, Beat the Pandemic, a series of virtual … [Read more...]