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December 9, 2023 0

Know Superfund Sites Near You. Report New Ones

Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in 2021, a total of $3.5 billion was allocated for Superfund cleanup work. The “first wave” of funding of approximately $1 billion aimed to fund, initiate cleanup, and clear the backlog of 49 previously unfunded Superfund sites including the New Bedford Harbor Superfund site in Massachusetts. Between 1940 and the late 1970s, at least two manufacturers in New Bedford used PCBs while producing electric devices and disposed of industrial wastes containing PCBs directly into […]

December 9, 2023 0

Nobel Prize Winner Claudia Goldin ‘Made Women a Topic of Study for Labor Economists’

by Brandon Wong

Labor economist and historian Claudia Goldin will be honored on Dec. 10 as the 2023 Nobel Prize for Economics laureate for her contribution to understanding women’s labor markets outcomes. She was awarded the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences on Oct. 9. Born in the Bronx borough of New York to Jewish parents, Goldin initially studied microbiology because of her fascination with Manhattan museums. While at Cornell University for undergraduate school, she identified her passion for history and economics and […]

December 9, 2023 0

Massachusetts Has One of the Lowest Rates of Gun Violence in the U.S. But it’s Rising and Now Lawmakers Are Starting to Take Action

by Aditya Venkatram

Massachusetts has some of the strictest gun laws in the United States and consequently is among the states with the lowest rates of gun violence and gun deaths. Meanwhile, in contrast, in the last decade, gun homicides and suicides have been trending upwards in the US. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen weakened state gun control laws and particularly set back state legislation in place to protect their residents from […]

December 9, 2023 0

Biweekly Immigration News: Federal and State Updates

by Jeff Millman

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 […]

December 9, 2023 0

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

by Jeff Millman

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 […]

December 8, 2023 0

Asian American Civic Association Hosts Talk on Violence in Boston

by Brandon Wong and Yizhen Zhang

The Asian American Civic Association hosted Violence In Boston, another in its ongoing series of community forums on November 30, 2023. In a packed room of residents from Chinatown, South End, Quincy, Springfield, South Boston, Dorchester, Roxbury, Hyde Park, Jamaica Plain, Malden, East Boston, Chelsea, Charlestown, Brookline, Brighton, Newton, Somerville, Arlington, and Cambridge, they came to meet MBTA Superintendent of Transit Police Richard Sullivan; Deputy Superintendent of Community Engagement for the Boston Police Nicole Grant, Chief of the Civil Rights […]

December 8, 2023 0

Quincy Upper School to Open by Summer, Says Principal Chang

by Derek He

The new Josiah Quincy Upper School faced several challenges during its development — the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and a $30 million cost increase. But now the opening is near. To find out about the planned opening, Sampan spoke with Richard Chang, principal of the Josiah Quincy Upper School about the project to date. Sampan: How is the construction progressing as we close out 2023? Are there any structural changes from the original plans?Chang: The project management team anticipates […]

November 18, 2023 0

Immigration News: Federal and State Updates

by Jeff Millman

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 […]

November 18, 2023 0

Four Months After the Supreme Court Ruled Against the Use of Race in Admissions

by Zoe Liu

It all began with U.S. Supreme Court justices hearing two cases: Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina. These lawsuits argued that affirmative action was actively discriminating against Asian American applicants and, in the case of UNC, white students as well. For decades, colleges and universities have debated the consideration of race or ethnicity in the admission process for higher education. In June of this year, […]

November 18, 2023 0

Sunshine Brings Science to the Screen

by Harmony Witte

The Coolidge Theater screened Sunshine (2007) on November 6th as part of their “Science on Screen” programming, including a talk by Harvard astrophysicist Dr. Katharine Reeves. The talk that accompanied the Sci-fi/horror film was on the topic “What It’s Like to Fly Through a Solar Eruption.” The audience laughed along with Dr. Reeves throughout the entire half-hour presentation as she gave a humorous and accessible lecture to a room full of moviegoers. It provided a nice introduction to the very […]

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