"Christmas Tree Collection DaysWeek of January 11, 2021"
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| Christmas Tree pick up schedule = Week of Jan 11 |
You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"
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| FM #424 Planning Board Meeting - Food Pantry segment - 12/2120 (audio) |
"The Commonwealth has made an additional $668M available to support businesses. @MassGCC will target a portion of these funds to sectors experiencing the most significant economic hardship & loss of revenue due to #COVID19MA. #MAbiz"
Details: http://ow.ly/P72Z50CVyHy
Shared from Twitter: https://twitter.com/MassEOHED/status/1343612866801315846
Go direct to grant info: https://www.empoweringsmallbusiness.org/covid-19-response/sector-specific-relief-grant-program-massachusetts-businesses
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| $668M available to support businesses in MA |
"DeLeo stepping down; Mariano facing no opposition"
"IN A MESSAGE read by a tearful House clerk, Speaker Robert DeLeo announced he is resigning his position on Beacon Hill at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, setting the stage for the ascension of Majority Leader Ronald Mariano of Quincy to the top position in the chamber on Wednesday.
Shortly after the announcement just before 2 p.m., the speaker’s office said DeLeo would give a farewell address Tuesday afternoon and a caucus to elect a new speaker will be held on Wednesday."
"House overrides Baker’s abortion veto"
"THE HOUSE ON MONDAY voted 107-46 to override Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto of legislation allowing women as young as 16 to obtain abortions without parental or judicial consent and expanding when pregnancies can be terminated after six months.
The Senate on Tuesday is expected to join the House in overriding the governor’s veto, giving the Legislature a victory on the issue of broader abortion access at a time when President Trump has added several justices perceived as anti-abortion to the US Supreme Court. It’s not clear if a Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision protecting a woman’s right to have an abortion without excessive government intervention, would have any impact in Massachusetts."
It was a Saturday in the spring of 2017, and a ninth-grade student in Pennsylvania was having a bad day. She had just learned that she had failed to make the varsity cheerleading squad and would remain on junior varsity.
The student expressed her frustration on social media, sending a message on Snapchat to about 250 friends. The message included an image of the student and a friend with their middle fingers raised, along with text expressing a similar sentiment. Using a curse word four times, the student expressed her dissatisfaction with “school,” “softball,” “cheer” and “everything.”
Though Snapchat messages are ephemeral by design, another student took a screenshot of this one and showed it to her mother, a coach. The school suspended the student from cheerleading for a year, saying the punishment was needed to “avoid chaos” and maintain a “teamlike environment.”
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If like me, you're confused by infectivity, contagiousness & transmissibility, you might find👇🏽helpful.
Big shoutout to @macroliter @KindrachukJason @angie_rasmussen, @sci_questions for helping clarify these concepts (would appreciate input if inaccuracies detected)
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| confused by infectivity, contagiousness & transmissibility, you might find this helpful |
The Boston Globe has the following:
"The Democratic-controlled House voted Monday to override President Donald Trump’s veto of a defense policy bill.
House members voted 322-87 to override the veto, well above the two-thirds needed to override. If approved by two-thirds of the Senate, the override would be the first of Trump’s presidency."
"A Republican congressman from Texas sued Vice President Mike Pence in the latest long-shot effort to reverse President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)
In the lawsuit, Representative Louie Gohmert seeks a court order forcing the vice president to acknowledge what Gohmert claims is Pence’s power to disregard states’ chosen Democratic electors and instead select competing slates of GOP electors on Jan. 6.
That’s the day the Senate and House meet jointly to open and count certificates of electoral votes from the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The vice president has the constitutional role of presiding over the Senate, which has traditionally included overseeing the formal acceptance of the Electoral College vote."
You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"
FM #422-324 School Committee Meeting - In two parts - 12/22/20 (audio)
"SINCE THE SHOT heard around the world at the battle of Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts has been at the forefront of modern democracy. The Massachusetts Constitution – which was drafted by John Adams – formed the model for the United States Constitution and remains the oldest continuously-operating constitution in the world. Despite this history of democratic leadership, in recent years Massachusetts has fallen behind other states in ensuring that all eligible voters can register, vote, and have their votes count. The upcoming legislative session is an opportunity to change that and build on the work done in 2020 to open up voting to more people during the pandemic.
It was encouraging that Massachusetts leaders, like those in many other states, took important steps this year to expand early voting and to send vote-by-mail applications to every registered voter."
"RETIRED SALON OWNER and daycare provider Marcia Donnelly did not want to fight City Hall. She just wanted to sell home-baked sourdough bread from her kitchen in Southbridge.Homemade food businesses are common and easy to start in 48 states, and have become increasingly popular during COVID-19. Worried about global supply chains and general uncertainty, the pandemic has boosted demand for fresh, locally sourced products. Unfortunately, Massachusetts has resisted the trend, along with New Jersey. “It was a battle from the get-go to set up my business,” Donnelly says."
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| Memory Cafe' Monday, Dec 28 at 2 PM |
"Ten days ago, the @RockefellerFdn released a white paper on how we could reopen all US schools over the next new months with aggressive government investment in frequent proactive COVID testing and more.
I think it's an important report. Some highlights:" https://t.co/VLAyty3Dbu
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| "Taking Back Control - A Resetting of America’s Response to Covid-19" |
From The Hill
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Saturday issued a new guidance stating that people with underlying health conditions can receive a coronavirus vaccine.
The guidance explains that “adults of any age with certain underlying medical conditions are at increased risk for severe illness from the virus that causes COVID-19.”
Thus, the CDC added that those vaccines that have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration “may be administered to people with underlying medical conditions provided they have not had a severe allergic reaction to any of the ingredients in the vaccine.”
