The steps taken by Watertown, Belmont, and Boston to implement An Act Relative to Background Checks, Chapter 459 of the Acts of 2012, as amended by Chapter 77 of the Acts of 2013, which requires national background checks for all private and public school employees, contractors, transportation providers, vendors and certain volunteers (those designated by schools), as well as for employees of early education centers licensed by the Department of Early Education and Care.
Justice
animal welfare, civil law and procedure, criminal law, disability, drug policy, family law, freedom of speech, guardianship, gun violence, housing law, immigration, indigenous agenda, lgbtq rights, policing, privacy, sexual child abuse, terrorism, women's rights
Police Militarization
Daniel Winter calls for the legislature to hold hearings and set state wide policy on when, who, how and which agency of the police are allowed to bring out SWAT and Military type equipment.
The final compromise on firearms licensing rules
After two years of negotiations, the bill on the Governor’s desk has become a bill about improving gun safety–as opposed to a bill about taking away guns or making it harder to legally own guns.
Farm Animal Cruelty
Mary Mahony asks about Will’s position on legislation banning gestation crates and veal crates, and he replies about the importance–symbolic for the present and possibly significant for the future–of passing it.
Unaccompanied Children
Clearly, it’s a tragedy that so many children would be feel the need to run away from desperate home conditions to a strange land–but the surge of unaccompanied children raises deep concern, perhaps about our immigration policies, but more broadly about the stability of our hemisphere.
Update on the Gun Bill
Yesterday, the Senate took up its version of the gun bill and moved it on to a conference committee with the House. The draft is about keeping guns out of the wrong hands and protecting against the harms of gun violence.