Alewife Brook Water Quality

I am interning in Will’s office this summer and recently attended a hearing on sewer flows into Alewife Brook and the Charles and Mystic basins, which provided a helpful status update on projects to improve water quality.   The hearing was to extend the variance allowing for a certain level of Combined Sewer Overflows (CSO) into …

Illegal Immigration and Public Housing

Access to public housing is another matter where there is ambiguity and debate when it comes to illegal immigration.  Access to federal housing is restricted based on immigration status, but notably, access to state housing does not depend on immigration status.  This has been the case since 1977, when U.S. District Court ruled in Weeks …

Illegal Immigrant Employment and Benefit Use

Illegal immigration has become even more of a hot-button issue in our country due to the Arizona law and in Massachusetts from the proposed budget amendments on immigration.  I am researching the facts about the immigration situation in Massachusetts, and this post will explore the linked issue of immigrant employment and welfare use. The subjects …

State Stabilization Fund

The state’s stabilization (or “rainy day”) fund is designed to buoy the state through tough economic times, and it has certainly been used in the recent recession.  This post will examine the set-up of the fund, the recent history of its use, and its future in getting the state through the Great Recession. The stabilization …