By Bob Katzen

“The Green Communities program helps our cities and towns make important investments at the local level to achieve their own climate goals and lower carbon emissions. This moves us forward on our clean energy path and lessens our reliance on volatile fossil fuels, lowering costs and risks for our communities and their residents and businesses.”

— Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper announcing the awarding of $3.3 million in Green Communities competitive grants to 27 municipalities across Massachusetts to fund clean energy projects.

“We have taken meaningful strides in recent years to increase the sustainability and resilience of our state’s public transit system. From securing grants to fund environmental initiatives to reducing emissions through fleet electrification, the MBTA is firmly committed to building a greener, more climate-ready transit network.”
— MBTA General Manager and CEO Phillip Eng announcing the establishment of a new Climate and Resiliency Policy and Planning team as part of the Policy and Strategic Planning Division that will be tasked with decreasing the T’s and the commonwealth’s environmental footprint and increasing the resilience of the MBTA system.

“The data is clear – based on state testing results we know there is lead in most of the taps tested at schools and childcare centers across the state and we know children are the most impacted from exposure to lead. We need policies that get the lead out of faucets and fountains in our schools and pre-schools.”
— Deirdre Cummings, MASSPIRG legislative director state urging lawmakers to pass a bill to get the lead out of drinking water at Massachusetts schools and childcare centers.

“I was proud to file and testify in support of … [a bill] preventing false confessions, a necessary piece of legislation to prevent law enforcement from knowingly or recklessly engaging in deception in order to coerce a confession. Significant research demonstrates that deception can cause suspects to waive their rights and make false confessions. This leads to wrongful convictions and the incarceration of innocent persons, the denial of justice to victims and ongoing risks to public safety. It is time to end a practice that undermines the effectiveness of our criminal justice system.”
—Sponsor Rep. Kate Lipper-Garabedian (D-Melrose) testifying before the Judiciary Committee on legislation that would prevent false confessions in Massachusetts by ending the use of deceptive interrogation tactics.