Jeff Millman

Food December 23, 2023 0

Are Food Additives Bad for You?

Potassium bromate, propylparaben, brominated vegetable oil, and red dye number 3: no, this is not a list of materials for an organic chemistry experiment. Instead it’s a group of food additives that will be banned as part of the California Food Safety Act, which California Governor Gavin Newsom signed in October. The legislation won’t go into effect until January of 2027, but it’s made nationwide news – after all, these are common food additives present in everything from fruit cups […]

Front Page December 9, 2023 0

Biweekly Immigration News: Federal and State Updates

Migrant families continue to arrive in Massachusetts. They are sheltering at Logan Airport because they have nowhere else to go. Just before Thanksgiving, state officials announced a plan to house k in need of shelter in the second-floor conference rooms of the State Transportation Building in Boston. The Massachusetts House has discussed using Hynes Convention Center as another site. Few details have emerged regarding new overflow shelters however, as the weather gets colder the calls for action will grow more […]

Health December 9, 2023 0

Believing There’s an ‘Average’ Asian American is a Dangerous Assumption

In a collection of his autobiographical writings published in 1907, the American writer Mark Twain cited approvingly a little aperçu that there are three kinds of lies – lies, damned lies, and statistics. Would you cross a river that is four feet deep on average? Hopefully not, since it might be a foot deep in parts and seven feet deep in other parts: four feet deep on average, surely, but not necessarily safe to cross.What if you are diagnosed with […]

Immigration November 18, 2023 0

Immigration News: Federal and State Updates

As Congress works to avoid yet another government shutdown, immigration funding and legislation have been top of mind. Multiple states, including Massachusetts, have experienced the strain of a lack of funding and emergency shelter space for an unprecedented number of individuals and families traveling to the U.S. from Central and South America, India, China, and other countries. Last week, multiple immigration advocacy groups jointly released a memo demanding that Congress pass “common sense, bipartisan measures” to address the immigration system […]

Front Page November 18, 2023 0

Hate Crimes Against Muslims and Jews

A little over a month ago, on October 7th, a decade of tenuous normalization came to an end. The Sunni Islamist military organization Hamas invaded southern Israel and killed over a thousand people, taking over two hundred forty hostages. The Israeli government responded with an airstrike campaign and later a ground invasion of the Palestinian territory of Gaza. A new war has begun, and already over 11,000 Palestinians are thought to have been killed. In the United States, the Israel-Hamas […]

Metro November 3, 2023 0

State, Federal Govs. Attempt to Solve Migrant Emergency in Massachusetts

In August, Governor Maura Healey declared a state of emergency over increased migration to Massachusetts. More than 24,000 people are now living in state-funded shelters, hotels, dormitories, and emergency facilities in the state, and the Healey administration was concerned that these temporary dwelling units would soon be at capacity. In mid-October, Healey confirmed that the emergency shelter system would reach its limit by the end of the month and that Massachusetts would no longer be able to guarantee shelter for […]

Health October 20, 2023 0

A New Strategy for Mass and Cass – and the Opioid Crisis?

Ten years ago, the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard did not yet bear the moniker “Mass and Cass”. Millions of dollars were not spent on emergency services or police overtime in the area. City councilors did not debate about what to do there, and articles were not written about it in national papers. The area’s devolution into its present state as a full-blown humanitarian crisis mirrors the development of the opioid epidemic in the United States, which […]

Press Releases October 20, 2023 0

Frank Chin: In Memoriam

In 1969, Frank Chin started studying voter registration lists. A community activist, he had been appointed by Boston Mayor Kevin White to co-chair a grievance committee to address problems in Boston neighborhoods, and he wanted to see how many of Boston’s Chinese residents were able to vote. The numbers were not encouraging. “I looked at all the voter lists and there were only 300 registered Chinese voters,” Chin told the Boston Globe in 2007. Determined to change this, he and […]

Front Page October 6, 2023 0

What the U.S. Can Learn From the Tragedies in Libya, Morocco

While they are geographically close, Morocco and Libya are very different countries. And the tragedies that hit both recently hold some hard lessons for us all. In early September, a 6.8 magnitude earthquake struck the Marrakesh-Safi region of Morocco. Days later, Storm Daniel, a cyclone, made landfall in Libya. Dams along the eastern port city of Derna broke and 39 million cubic yards of water flooded the area. Storm Daniel is the deadliest Mediterranean cyclone in recorded history: Over 4,000 […]

Health September 16, 2023 0

Back to School Concerns as COVID Cases Increase: How to Stay Safe

As children in Boston return to school, the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) has some tips to stay safe and healthy. In mid-August, BPHC noted that COVID-19-related hospitalizations in the city were low but that the average level of COVID-19 particles in Boston’s wastewater was increasing. This trend has continued over the last few weeks. With the cold and flu season approaching as well, preparation is key to illness prevention. BPHC “strongly recommends that all families stay up to date […]

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