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charm
Senior Member
264 Posts |
Posted - 04/11/2009 : 1:09:35 PM
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Importing a taste of home
Diners flock to new Guatemala fast food franchise in Chelsea
By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff | April 11, 2009
CHELSEA - First and foremost, they come for the chicken. Thousands of hungry customers are pouring into this city from across New England, transforming a quiet corner of Chelsea into a virtual tourist attraction. People are lining up by the hundreds, waiting as long as two hours in the rain, wind, and sun.
After all, this is Pollo Campero.
Last week's arrival of Guatemala's most famous restaurant chain - which means "Country Chicken" in English - is drawing comparisons to the Krispy Kreme doughnut craze almost a decade ago. To astonished outsiders, it looks like just another chicken restaurant. But to Central American immigrants, it is a precious opportunity to be immersed in the tastes, sounds, and smells of a home far away.
"Just the smell of it," Miriam Rivas, a 30-year-old housewife of Chelsea, said dreamily, with a wave of her hand, after having lunch with her husband and two daughters yesterday. "Ay. Pollo Campero!"
Only a few weeks ago, the spot was a darkened, hidden corner off a side street downtown, surrounded by red-brick tenements and mom-and-pop shops. The building used to house a Riley's roast beef, but over the years the restaurant had declined in popularity.
Yesterday, police officers directed traffic as cars packed the parking lot and clogged the drive-through. Customers' faces lit up at the sight of the logo - a smiling chicken in a cowboy hat. Scores of families have even posed for pictures in front of it.
Some neighbors have complained about traffic jams, but the company is paying for police details.
"It is unbelievable," said City Manager Jay Ash. "I have never seen anything like it. I am telling people it must have been like when the first McDonald's opened up in Japan."
The Chelsea store is the 50th American franchise of a company that blossomed from a humble, slant-roofed store founded in Guatemala in 1971 to one of that country's most respected companies with franchises worldwide.
And it is finding a warm welcome here largely because Central American immigrants have boomed in the past two decades, especially from Guatemala and El Salvador, where Pollo Campero is most popular. More than a third of Chelsea's residents are foreign born, mostly from Latin America.
Many were clamoring to work at Pollo Campero, as well. More than 1,000 people, mostly immigrants, applied for 70 jobs at the store; the wage is about $10 an hour. The turnout surprised even the company's executives, who had picked Chelsea because of its immigrant base.
"It really does mean a lot in that community," said Jeff Ackerman, CEO of Chair 5 Restaurants, which owns the franchise in Massachusetts.
Pollo Campero decided to branch out into the United States when it realized that flights from Central America often smelled like fried chicken because travelers were bringing the chicken to relatives. The first US store opened in Los Angeles in 2002. In addition to Chelsea, stores are planned for East Boston and in Rhode Island this year.
Word that the company was opening spread quickly among immigrant from Maine to Rhode Island. Some waited until yesterday to visit in hopes that the line would be shorter. Most Latinos are Catholics, who avoid meat on Fridays during Lent.
Still, at lunchtime the line spilled out the door.
"At last we have a piece of El Salvador in Chelsea," said Francisco Ventura of Dorchester, a telecommunications worker at Harvard, who took the day off to visit with his wife and son. He smiled at a pile of bones on his plate. "It can't compare to anything else."
Diners dug into the lightly breaded chicken, closed their eyes, and waited to see if it tasted just like home.
"It's not exactly the same, but it's juicy," said Vilma de Perez of Chelsea, an El Salvador native who has lived in the United States for 21 years. Yesterday was her third trip to Pollo Campero.
Many of yesterday's diners could not afford to visit the restaurant very often back home because it was too expensive. But since they moved to the United States for a better life, they can dine here more often, and remember what it was like to be home. They savored the yuca fries, sweet plantains, and creamy flan for dessert.
"This place lets me travel in my mind," said Elba Umaña of East Boston, an immigrant from El Salvador who long ago celebrated her high school graduation at Pollo Campero back home. Her voice faltered as she recalled the trips, especially with her parents, who are now old and far away.
To succeed in America, analysts and others said Pollo Campero must attract an ethnically broad clientele. Pollo Campero executives say they are mindful of that, adding lower-fat grilled chicken to its menus, and providing menus in English and Spanish, and bilingual cashiers.
But what really attracted Marvin Hooker, a senior citizen who lives in Chelsea, were the long lines outside.
"I walked by and saw the lines and said, 'I gotta try this chicken,' " he said as he munched on a box of chicken. "So far, so good."
Maria Sacchetti can be reached at msacchetti@globe.com.
© Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company
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tetris
Moderator
2040 Posts |
Posted - 04/12/2009 : 07:43:33 AM
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Ex-lawmaker scores both a state job, full pension check
Finneran said to help secure deal
By Sean P. Murphy
Globe Staff / April 12, 2009
They were just 84 words of dense, technical language buried deep in a 556-page budget bill. But each "pursuant," "shall," and "provided" was pure gold for former state representative Timothy A. Bassett.
The obscure provision passed by the Legislature in 1999 enabled Bassett to accept a high-paying job as the chairman and executive director of the Essex Regional Retirement Board without giving up a dime of his $41,000-a-year state pension from a previous job. In effect, lawmakers decreed Bassett could receive a retiree's pension without being retired.
State law generally prohibits such practices for the vast majority of state retirees, who are required to accept reductions in their retirement benefits if they take new jobs. But the pension laws are frequently poked and tweaked by lawmakers for individual cases, demonstrating how the clubby politics of Beacon Hill frequently trumps attempts at reforms such as the pension legislation proposed by Governor Deval Patrick.
In Bassett's case, his gift came directly from one of the most powerful politicians of the time, former House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran, according to a lawmaker involved in crafting Bassett's amendment. Bassett secured Finneran's handwritten support for the provision on a piece of yellow legal paper, which he presented to Representative Harriet L. Stanley, for inclusion in a package of budget amendments, Stanley said.
Stanley, in an interview in her State House office last week, recalled that Finneran's note said something to this effect: "We are going to do this for Tim. Put it in the budget."
Finneran recently expressed surprise about the provision, which has thus far enabled Bassett, 61, of Marblehead, to earn about $328,000 in retirement compensation he otherwise could not have received.
"I have absolutely no memory of that," said Finneran, when shown a copy of the amendment. "But, wow, it's a lot of money. Not a bad outcome for Timmy Bassett. Not bad at all."
Bassett would not answer directly when asked if he lobbied anyone in the Legislature for the special provision. "That's the way the statute is written," he responded. Asked again, he repeated his answer. "That's the way the statute is written."
Bassett later canceled an appointment for a follow-up interview and instead issued a statement: "I have spent my entire adult life in public service and hopefully I have done some good."
Bassett's pension of $41,000 a year was confirmed by state records. Bassett repeatedly refused to disclose his salary as board chairman and executive director. William Martineau, a longtime retirement board member who helps set Bassett's salary, said Bassett is paid about $123,000 annually.
Martineau said he did not know about the special provision written into the law for Bassett until told about it last week by the Globe.
"I didn't think anyone had that kind of power," he said. "That's pretty good. I know I don't have the ability to do that. I didn't think anyone did."
The amendment allowing Bassett to keep both a government pension and a government salary does not refer to Bassett by name, but instead authorizes "the Essex County treasurer," an elected job that Bassett held at the time, to become chairman and executive director of the Essex Regional Retirement board without incurring any pension penalties for the additional income.
At the time, Stanley, a West Newbury Democrat, was assistant vice chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, which writes the budget. She said she did not believe the measure was appropriate, but she nonetheless inserted it because she felt she was not in a position to buck Finneran.
"That's how it got in," she said after being contacted by the Globe and presented with documents showing the roles she and Finneran played.
Stanley, a onetime Finneran ally, was dumped by Finneran as a chair of the Health Care Committee in 2003 because of her increasing insistence on acting independently. This year, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo appointed her to chair of the Health Care Financing Committee.
Bassett has been in politics since 1972. Elected to the House of Representatives from Lynn in his early 20s, he became a protégé of then-House Speaker Thomas W. McGee of Lynn, and rose quickly to chair the Commerce and Labor Committee. At about the same time, Finneran was moving up in the House as chair of the Banks and Banking Committee.
Bassett was tapped by former governor Michael S. Dukakis to head the state the Government Land Bank in 1985. A quasi-public agency, the Land Bank - now known as the Massachusetts Development Authority - was tasked with various development projects, including transforming Fort Devens in Ayer from military to civilian use.
The Land Bank board of directors fired Bassett in 1995, when Paul Cellucci, then lieutenant governor, moved his own political ally into that position. The fact that Bassett was fired made him eligible for an enhanced pension under another controversial section of state law which allows fired employees to begin collecting early pensions at a higher rate of pay.
The provision allowed Bassett to increase his pension from about $23,000 to $41,000 annually, and collect immediately, at age 47. Retirees also get medical benefits for life.
Bassett, whose salary as Land Bank director increased from $47,000 to $106,000 in his 10-year tenure, also received a generous severance package worth more than $225,000, including deferred payments, according to Massachusetts Development records.
In 1996, Bassett won election as Essex County treasurer. He was able to keep his pension then because of the provision of state law that allows elected officials to keep their full public pensions.
But three years later, a new law championed by then-Governor William F. Weld eliminated five of the state's most dysfunctional county governments, wiping out Bassett's elected Essex County treasurer job in the process.
But the law simultaneously named him the executive director of the newly created Essex Regional Retirement Board.
Finneran last week called Bassett's pension "a sweetheart deal" and said he could not think of a public policy justification for it.
But the former speaker, who, as host of a talk radio show on WRKO often rails against pension abuses on-air, said he would not call on Bassett to relinquish his benefits.
Said Finneran, "If the law says it is allowed, then I am not going to tell him to give it up."
Sean Murphy's e-mail is smurphy@globe.com
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company. |
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
 Posted - 04/14/2009 : 8:46:12 PM
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Missing woman found shot to death in Somerville
April 14, 2009 04:54 PM Email
By Globe Staff
A 23-year-old Everett woman, reported missing last week, was found shot to death in a car in Somerville Monday night, authorities said.
Charline Rosemond was found in a parked car outside 10 Webster Ave. at 6:30 p.m. Monday, police said. An autopsy conducted today concluded she was killed by a single gunshot wound to the head, a press release from the Middlesex district attorney's office stated.
Rosemond was reported missing to Everett police on April 8 after she failed to return home from work. Police said that when she was last seen, she was believed to be driving her father's car, a gray Honda Civic.
She was found dead inside the car. No arrests have been made in the case.
Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone's office said a probe into the murder is ongoing with State Police investigators from his office and the Everett and Somerville police departments.
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tetris
Moderator
2040 Posts |
Posted - 04/23/2009 : 9:24:38 PM
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Local officials: House budget is too painful
By John Laidler
Globe Correspondent / April 23, 2009
The budget plan released last week by the state House of Representatives is drawing chilly reactions from local officials, who say it offers more fiscal pain and no new remedies for struggling cities and towns.
The fiscal 2010 state spending proposal released by the House Ways and Means Committee would cut two key local aid accounts by a combined 32 percent, or $425 million statewide from original fiscal 2009 levels. The cuts are steeper than the 28.5 percent cut to those accounts Governor Deval Patrick proposed in his budget, released in January. Both plans would keep school aid at current levels.
"Our job as a Ways and Means Committee was to close a $3.6 billion gap," said state Representative Barbara A. L'Italien, an Andover Democrat who is the committee's vice chairwoman. "We were able to do that through a combi nation of federal stimulus money and cuts primarily. Given the dire situation which is occurring nationally and internationally, we had to make some tough decisions.
"Cities and towns are not alone in feeling they've been impacted," L'Italien said, noting that other state functions, such as services for the elderly and people with mental illness, also face cuts. "With limited money, everyone's going to feel the pain."
While acknowledging the state's fiscal troubles, local leaders warned the aid reductions sought by the House would mean steep cuts at the local level. Many voiced frustration that the House has not yet provided municipalities with the new cost-saving tools or revenue vehicles that could offset the aid reductions.
"Overall, I think it's a 'pass the buck' budget," said Gloucester Mayor Carolyn Kirk.
"They claim they leave school aid harmless, but that's just passing the buck back to municipalities when it comes to a 32 percent cut" in other local aid, she said. Similarly, she said, the House proposes eliminating the Quinn Bill, which provides police officers extra pay when they earn college degrees. But Kirk said communities that include the program in their police contracts will have to pay for it.
While the House budget is balanced with the help of savings the state made to its health insurance program, Kirk said legislators have yet to grant municipalities the same authority to change the design of their heath plans without union approval.
"They are not giving us any tools at the local level to manage through this crisis," she said.
L'Italien noted that the House will be taking up a municipal relief package next month. The House also will be considering a number of revenue-raising proposals when it begins debate on the budget Monday.
"When you are mayor, you have to make hard decisions sometimes daily or monthly" on cutting budgets and raising revenues, said Melrose Mayor Robert J. Dolan. "This budget offers nothing of that." Rather than simply cutting local aid and other needs, the Legislature needs to come up with a plan that combines savings, reforms, and new revenues, he said.
Local officials say it is hard to imagine the impact the aid cuts would have on their communities.
"I'm at a loss for words," said Everett Mayor Carlo DeMaria Jr., whose community would lose $2.8 million in aid under the House plan. "To cut local aid that much is going to drastically impact services to this community - police, fire, public works."
DeMaria is still hoping legislators will be willing to move on the municipal relief measures local officials are seeking, including the proposal to let communities design their health plans.
Winthrop Town Council president Thomas E. Reilly said it would be "virtually impossible for us to sustain" the $1.7 million aid cut the town would have to shoulder under the House budget.
Already, Winthrop is preparing for a May 19 ballot vote on a collection of 10 Proposition 2 1/2 overrides totaling $2.6 million to help fund services next fiscal year. Even if all the tax increases pass, Reilly said the town would have to cut further to absorb that large a drop in state aid.
"At this point, I can't begin to figure out where we would go to find the cuts," he said.
"It's a very bleak situation," said Revere Mayor Thomas G. Ambrosino. While cities and towns were anticipating cuts in aid, "a 32 percent reduction in nonschool aid is beyond the pale for a lot of us."
"I think most municipal officials are simply hoping the Legislature will pass some tools for us to deal with the problem, like local option taxes or health insurance relief. We recognize there isn't a lot of money, but those two measures are no cost to the Commonwealth," he said.
For Revere, the House plan would result in a loss of $4.1 million in aid. "It means doing what we are doing now - layoffs, reductions in employee work hours, and closing of departments," Ambrosino said. "We've been doing it since February and would continue to do so."
Lawrence Mayor Michael J. Sullivan, whose city's aid would drop $7.9 million under the House plan, is not surprised by the reduction and is hopeful revenues from recent new growth, including private investment in the city's mills, will help ease the impact. He said one concern is to avoid making cuts in the police and fire departments, something he has avoided the past seven years.
Amesbury Mayor Thatcher W. Kezer III said his message to the state is, "I understand the challenge on the revenue side. Give me the tools on the cost side."
Kezer said that as a result of layoffs he announced in February and a spending freeze he imposed in January, the city is in a position to absorb the $782,265 drop in aid it would see under the House plan. But he said if he were able to realize savings in health insurance, it would put the city in stronger shape for next fiscal year.
Peabody Mayor Michael J. Bonfanti wants to see more leadership from Beacon Hill on addressing the fiscal crisis. He said that effort has been absent, evidenced by legislative inaction on the municipal relief measures.
"Some day, people are going to have to figure out that you were elected to make decisions, even if those decisions might not be palatable," he said. "We are all in this together."
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company. |
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michael
Senior Member
195 Posts |
Posted - 04/24/2009 : 05:34:42 AM
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Sales tax hike to 7 percent 'on the table'
Consensus builds for revenue booster
By Matt Viser, Globe Staff | April 24, 2009
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo has begun to seriously consider a plan to increase the sales tax from 5 percent to 7 percent, which would give Massachusetts one of the highest sales taxes in the country, said a State House official who has been briefed on the speaker's deliberations.
"It's something that's on the table," the official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record, said DeLeo has not come to a final conclusion. But sentiment has built in the House for taking just one conclusive vote on a tax increase instead of subjecting representatives to multiple tax votes, so House leaders are narrowing in on one, broad-based tax hike that could produce enough revenue to avoid the need for more votes later.
Increasing the sales tax from 5 percent to 6 percent would raise about $750 million a year, according to some estimates. Raising it another percentage point, to 7 percent could bring in a total of $1.5 billion in new revenue per year, according to the estimates.
Several other states have a 7 per cent sales tax, including Rhode Island, New Jersey, and Mississippi. California, in response to its own budget crisis, has raised its sales tax a percentage point, to 8.25 percent.
Associated Industries of Massachusetts, which represents businesses across the state, released a statement yesterday urging lawmakers not to raise taxes. It called tax increases "exactly the wrong solution to budget challenges facing the Commonwealth."
It said higher taxes would discourage investment and job growth and exacerbate budget shortfalls for state government.
DeLeo is expected to present tax increase options to his leadership team and committee chiefs during separate meetings today. The meetings will help House members prepare over the weekend for a budget debate Monday.
"We're hoping that they come up with a package in this leadership meeting that they can support," said Representative Matt Patrick, a Falmouth Democrat who has advocated for several different tax increases. "It's good to know that they're open to new sources of revenue."
Rank-and-file lawmakers have filed a range of proposed amendments to the $27.4 billion House budget that would increase taxes. The proposals include raising the meals tax from 5 percent to 8 percent, raising the gas tax by 25 cents per gallon, and increasing the state's income tax from 5.3 percent to 6.3 percent.
Some business groups have said they are opposed to sales tax increases, saying families and small businesses cannot afford it. But until yesterday's statement from Associated Industries of Massachusetts, organized opposition by business leaders has been notably absent.
The House also is considering expanding the sales tax to cover gasoline, instead of adopting Governor Deval Patrick's call for increasing the the gas tax, which is currently 23.5 cents per gallon. Such a move would give lawmakers the political benefit of avoiding votes to raise two different taxes.
Eliminating the current sales-tax exemption on gasoline would raise up to $400 million under current gasoline prices, according to Representative Jay Kaufman, a Lexington Democrat and the House chairman of the Committee on Revenue. That money would have to be earmarked for transportation needs, Kaufman said. If the sales tax is extended to gasoline, then House leaders would be unlikely to seek the full 2-cent increase, the official briefed on DeLeo's deliberations said.
Lawmakers have been cool to Governor Deval Patrick's proposal to raise the gas tax by 19 cents, which would raise about $500 million.
While he continues to send signals that he is willing to raise taxes, DeLeo has not come out clearly in support.
DeLeo said earlier this week that he was "open-minded" about raising the sales tax, as he was with other ideas.
He and Senate President Therese Murray have said that the only tax increase that is off limits would be a hike in the state income tax.
"I don't really have a sense yet of where there might be a proposition that is going to get a majority vote," Kaufman said yesterday in an interview. "There are a lot of ideas out there.
"But that doesn't make for a package that will get a majority," he said.
Matt Viser can be reached at maviser@globe.com.
I think this will put alot of businesses out of business |
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charm
Senior Member
264 Posts |
Posted - 04/26/2009 : 06:44:43 AM
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SOMERVILLE
City studies all options in budget crisis
By John Laidler, Globe Correspondent | April 26, 2009
Somerville Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone says the city is looking at an array of potential savings and revenues, including layoffs, as it seeks to close a projected $11.3 million budget shortfall for the next fiscal year.
"Everything is on the table. We are going to be as creative as possible," Curtatone said in an interview last week, "creative to find new revenues, creative to examine our staffing . . . and creative to identify new efficiencies."
City officials say the projected shortfall is the result of an anticipated sharp drop in state aid to the city and a continuing rise in certain costs, notably health insurance.
The House Ways and Means Committee fiscal 2010 budget plan released April 15 would cut the two key non school local aid accounts by a combined 32 percent over original fiscal 2009 levels. For Somerville, that would mean a $9.7 million loss of aid. Under Governor Deval Patrick's budget proposal issued in January, Somerville's aid cut would be $8.5 million. Both the House and governor's plans keep school aid level.
Curtatone said the city is projecting its healthcare costs to rise by about $3.1 million, which would roughly wipe out all of the additional revenue the city would generate through raising taxes the allowable 2.5 percent limit. (The state Proposition 2 1/2 law caps annual increases in the local tax levy to 2.5 percent plus revenues from new growth).
The city's fiscal crunch will be the subject of a public forum the Board of Aldermen's Finance Committee is holding Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the aldermanic chambers in City Hall.
"We want to give everybody a sense of where we're at right now and how we got there," said Maryann Heuston the committee chairwoman and Ward 2 alderwoman, referring to the city's financial situation. But, she said, the meeting is also intended to seek citizen input into how to address next year's shortfall.
"We want to know what's important to people so if we have to make tough decisions, we don't just make them from our perspectives as elected officials but from a general community perspective," she said.
Already this year, Somerville was forced to close a $3 million budget gap for this fiscal year resulting from a midyear cut of that amount to its local aid.
Curtatone said the city was able to eliminate that deficit without layoffs or major service cuts through cost savings it began implementing last fall in anticipation of the cuts. Included was a freeze on filling all noncritical personnel, and closely monitoring all purchases and contracts.
The mayor, who was president of the Massachusetts Mayors Association in 2007 and 2008, is outspoken in calling for the state to show greater leadership in addressing the fiscal plight of municipalities.
"Cities and towns understand we all have to make sacrifices. There just isn't enough revenue," he said. "But what we need is leadership and partnership. And that means we need every level of government, from the governor to the Legislature to cities and towns, to rally together to identify opportunities" to revive economic growth.
Curtatone said the House budget would return cities and towns to 1987 state aid levels. "And while cutting the legs out from under cities and towns, it is not giving them the flexibility the [state] has to manage fixed costs such as healthcare . . . or options to raise revenues locally via a hotel or meals tax, which takes the burden off the property tax payer . . . So it's a very frustrating scenario."
"The budget process is not even close to being complete. We have a lot more work to do. . . and I see our municipal officials as our partners in that process," said state Representative Carl Sciortino, a Medford Democrat who represents Somerville and sits on the House Ways and Means Committee.
"These clearly are difficult times for all our families across the state as well as state and local government, and we have a shared responsibility to meet the needs of our constituents, which includes addressing the needs for new revenue at the state and local revenue," he said.
Sciortino noted that that there are many House members, himself included, "who have been advocating . . . for passage of the Municipal Partnership Act, which would give cities and towns the tools they need to raise revenues at the local level, and I expect and believe that needs to be part of the solution."
In attempting to balance next year's budget in Somerville, Curtatone said the city will be assisted by a finance advisory committee he established in January that includes local business leaders and financial analysts.
"It's going to be a multitiered effort, involving identifying new local revenue sources, more efficiencies such as perhaps consolidating departments or personnel to deliver the same programs, or outsourcing different services in the city," Curtatone said. "In some cases, there could be cuts or staffing reductions where it make sense in terms of consolidations."
Anticipated funds from the federal stimulus package, including money for education and community policing, will be part of the solution for next year, Curtatone said.
He said the city has also asked its collective bargaining units - in negotiations over new contracts or revisions to existing ones - to accept a wage freeze and a one-week furlough next fiscal year. The police patrolmen's union has agreed to it and negotiators for the superior officers' union have agreed to it, subject to ratification by its members. Negotiations are continuing with other unions.
ISN'T THE MAYOR HIRING PEOPLE FROM SOMERVILLE MASS AT A TIME WHEN WE HAVE TO CUT OUR BUDGET? INTERESTING, WAIT HE WILL PULL A RABBIT OUT OF HIS HAT AND SAVE THE FIREMAN AND POLICE JOBS? I SMELL A SOMERVILLE SMELL IN EVERETT |
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 05/02/2009 : 07:44:05 AM
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The Boston Globe
Hundreds march for immigrants' rights
They advocate for workers, call for legal residency
Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff
Demonstrators marched from East Boston to Glendale Park in Everett, where they held a rally for immigrants' rights. (Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff)
By Maria Sacchetti
Globe Staff / May 2, 2009
EVERETT - Hundreds of people marched from East Boston to Everett under threatening skies yesterday to demonstrate for workers' rights and to call for legal residency for the 12 million illegal immigrants in the United States.
The annual May Day march was repeated across Massachusetts and the nation, in large part to back President Obama's pledge to pursue immigration reform this year. Obama is facing stiff opposition from groups that say the United States cannot afford increased immigration, legal or illegal, because of the economic crisis and high unemployment rates.
But the 400 people who turned out yesterday, holding signs that read "Citizenship yes! Deportation no!" and "Amnesty now!" said immigrants will be a key part of the nation's economic recovery.
Some were advocates for immigrants, community leaders, and politicians, such as Sam Yoon, a Korean immigrant and Boston City Council member who is running for mayor. Still others were illegal immigrants hoping for legal residency.
Nancy Caballero, a legal immigrant from Peru, said she rushed to the march after working her shift cleaning houses to support those who do not have legal papers.
"I know a lot of people who don't have them," said Caballero, of Winthrop. "I arrived without them, and thank God I have them now."
For others, the march was deeply personal.
Estela, a housewife from Colombia who would not give her last name because she is here illegally, held signs calling for the government to allow undocumented children to pay in-state tuition at state colleges and universities. Two of Estela's four children are here illegally and cannot pay the in-state rate.
She wants her oldest to go to college, she said, but he doesn't believe he can afford it.
"He is losing faith," she said.
Rosa, a 45-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico City who also declined to give her last name, said she came to America 16 years ago illegally because, as a single mother, it was the only way she could give her boys an education. Now one is a doctor and another is a lawyer.
She has not seen them for seven years. As enforcement increased, she had to curtail her visits home.
"We want a reform, not just for me, but so that all of us can come out of the shadows," said Rosa, who cleans office buildings at night in Boston. "We want them to see us, to know that we deserve to work."
Others said legal immigrants and US citizens are also being exploited on the job.
Darian Chen, a 26-year-old naturalized US citizen from China, said he was laid off in March after he protested long hours and poor working conditions at the private bus company where he worked as a driver.
"There was no overtime pay and we were working as many as 18 hours a day," he said.
Antonio Amaya, executive director of La Comunidad Inc., an Everett nonprofit that organized the march with grass-roots groups such as the Chelsea Collaborative and the Centro Presente under the Boston May Day Coalition, said the rally aimed to galvanize advocates for the fight ahead.
"For the last five years we've been fighting for immigration reform," said Amaya at the rally. "Let's send a message to the Obama administration and to Congress . . . that we want immigration reform to happen now."
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
"Deb" |
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
Posted - 05/02/2009 : 11:08:44 AM
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I don't understand this at all. As far as I know, currently, to be an "illegal" IS illegal.
Why is rallying allowed, tying up traffic, and city services at Glendale, that the tax payers pay for?
Also, the Mayor was there. What is he saying, he approves of this? We have enough problems with over crowding, no jobs, layoffs and he knows plenty of houses that have illegal rooming houses and they are still there.
Don't get me wrong, I am all for LEGAL immigrants. We are all immigrants of some sort. My grandparents worked hard for many years in their country to save money and move here. They had jobs lined up and were hard working people contributing. I'm sorry, we have too many that just cross the boarder and once there here are eligible for all kinds of services. It's not right........come he legally, and do the right thing. Sometimes it takes years in the planning and a lot of hard work, but do it legally. |
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Tails
Administrator
2682 Posts |
Posted - 05/03/2009 : 07:31:00 AM
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EVERETT
TWO VETERAN OFFICERS RETIRE - Police Chief Steven Mazzie last Monday announced the retirement of two long-serving members of the department. Officers Philip Morris and Michael Hartnett, both of whose retirements were effective last Tuesday, had a combined 63 years of service to the department. Morris, a 39-year veteran, started in 1970 as a full-time officer. During his years of service, he worked in the patrol and traffic divisions. Hartnett, a 24-year veteran, started in 1985 as a full-time officer. During his service, he worked in the patrol division, and for many years was assigned to a walking beat in the Everett Square area. "Both officers are to be congratulated for their service to the community," Mazzie said. - John Laidler |
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 05/04/2009 : 10:30:40 AM
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News Alert 1:30 a.m. ET Monday, May 4, 2009
N.Y. Times to File Notice it Will Close Boston Globe
The New York Times Co. said last night that it is notifying federal authorities of its plans to shut down the Boston Globe, raising the possibility that New England's most storied newspaper could cease to exist within weeks. - By Howard Kurtz
For more information, visit washingtonpost.com
"Deb" |
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michael
Senior Member
195 Posts |
Posted - 05/04/2009 : 3:01:48 PM
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| I hope not I will have nothing to read on line in the morning |
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michael
Senior Member
195 Posts |
Posted - 05/21/2009 : 05:28:20 AM
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EVERETT
Budget would trim jobs
School cuts likely without US funds
By John Laidler, Globe Correspondent | May 21, 2009
A $131.8 million budget submitted last week by Mayor Carlo DeMaria Jr. calls for eliminating 36 nonschool positions as Everett anticipates rising costs and a drop of more than $4 million in state funding.
All the cuts would be achieved by not filling jobs that recently became vacant, including those of 22 employees who accepted a city incentive to retire or resign by May 1.
The budget as submitted also called for 21 jobs, six of them firefighter positions, to be cut through layoffs originally set to take effect May 15. But DeMaria delayed the layoffs and asked the City Council to authorize using $947,701 from free cash reserves to restore funding for the jobs. The Common Council approved the request on Monday night, and the Board of Aldermen was set to take it up at a special meeting on Tuesday.
DeMaria said the layoffs would be "too much, too fast, and a little too deep" and affect the morale of the community.
Meanwhile, the School Committee on Monday approved a $48.8 million budget that would cut spending by $513,989 and eliminate 250 jobs, 190 of them teacher positions. School officials said the cuts would be needed for the school budget to stay within the figure set by the mayor, equal to the minimum spending amount for Everett schools set by the state.
But many of the targeted school jobs will be restored if Everett receives $3.8 million in anticipated federal stimulus money, according to Superintendent Frederick Foresteire. He said the district did not budget for the stimulus funds because they are not yet in hand.
"We can't budget what you don't have," he said, noting that applications have not even yet become available for the stimulus money.
The City Council's budget committee was set to begin its review of the overall budget on Tuesday.
The city hopes to have the budget finalized by the start of the new fiscal year, July 1.
"It's a lean budget," DeMaria said of his plan, pointing to the decline in state funding as the cause.
DeMaria said the state could help Everett and other communities by passing measures to better control costs, notably in healthcare. He said the city's fiscal constraints also could be eased by revenues from new development activity he hopes will occur this year.
City auditor Larry DeCoste said the proposed budget "cuts all discretionary spending" and provides no money for raises for nonunion personnel. Spending would decline overall by $1.3 million, or just under 1 percent, from this year's levels.
DeCoste said the city's budget constraints are largely the result of an anticipated $4.3 million decline in state funding, and a sharp rise in several fixed costs.
The drop in state funding includes an anticipated $3.2 million reduction in the city's two major nonschool local aid accounts; a loss of $555,000 in state funding for a police educational incentive program; and a $600,000 reduction in state reimbursements for charter school tuition.
On the expense side, the city has to absorb a $965,000, or 10 percent, increase in retirement costs; a $541,000, or 4 percent, increase in health costs; and a $788,000, or 8 percent, increase in water and sewer charges from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.
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massdee
Moderator
5299 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2009 : 2:59:37 PM
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Former Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi and three associates were expected to face indictments from a federal grand jury this afternoon, according to a lawyer for one of the men. The US Attorney?s office has scheduled a 3:30 p.m. press conference ?to make an announcement in a public corruption matter,? according to a statement issued by the Justice Department.
To read more, visit You must be logged in to see this link.
"Deb" |
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carlost everett
Member
41 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2009 : 8:39:57 PM
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SO..... Did anyone see yesterday's METRONORTH section of the Globe. It did a comparison of City Services costs per city/towns in the area. Big Surprise! Everett was almost five (5) times higher than ANY city of town. Most cities and towns spend $150.00 per resident for DPW. Everett, on the other hand, spends a whopping $450.00 per resident.
It must be due to the exceptional job they do on potholes and beautification. NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Perhaps its the excessive amount the vendors receive?
DOES ANYONE see ANYTHING wrong with this? Talk about rubbing salt (road salt, that is) in the wound.
CarloST Everett |
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Paul
Senior Member
158 Posts |
Posted - 06/12/2009 : 9:35:54 PM
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| I read it but it was for 2007, |
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BOSTON GLOBE 2009
