Local politics & gov't

On Friday, February 11th, Neighbor To Neighbor held its first meeting with State Representative Michael Kane to ask for support on our 2005 agenda. Neighbor to Neighbor members were pleased with the meeting, and felt that the Representative was responsive to many of their needs, including supporting our proposals for health care expansion and restoration of MassHealth benefits, raising the minimum wage to $8.25 an hour, and protecting welfare for the families with the greatest barriers to employment.

Please join me in making it official.

On April 7th (from 5:30 - 7:00pm) at the Community House on the Longmeadow green, I will be announcing my candidacy for the Longmeadow School
Committee.

With the decisions the Finance Control Board has made up to this point, they are behaving more like an anchor than a life preserver. Ask any realtor what the most important things a community needs to maintain and improve its property tax base. At the top of that list, you will find the school system.

Peter Vickery, Governor's Councillor for Western Massachusetts, wants to hear from you about the Romney administration's latest judicial nominations.

Ed Collins, former Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO president and current IBEW international representative went to Boston recently to help cast the electoral college ballot for Massachusetts.
From the article: "It's a true honor," said Collins, also a member of the Democratic State Committee and an international representative for a union of electrical workers. "It's once in a lifetime."

City Councilor Rosemarie Mazza Moriarty went to bat for Springfield's city workers and retirees, telling the control board in a letter that "we need to balance the budget, but not on the backs of the employees." She admonised them for "making decisions that affect us all behind closed doors" and requested that citizens have more input in the decision making process.

The Pioneer Valley AFL-CIO would like to thank Coucilor Mazza-Moriarty for going to bat for Springfield's workers and citizens. Click below to read her letter.

As your representative on the Governor's Council, I want to know your opinion about Governor Romney's latest judicial nominee, Daniel J. O'Shea. Currently, O'Shea is a judge in the Department of Industrial Accidents (DIA). The key role of a DIA judge is to decide Workers Compensation cases.