An excerpt from the memo, showing increased costs.
Councilor @jtforward2.bsky.social notes that we are obligated to a 2% raise for the police as soon as -any- body-worn cameras are deployed, and that there are also ongoing costs of $100k per year to administer the program.
Accepting this grant will cost us $450k per year.
52/?
Always appreciate this level of analysis from @somershade.bsky.social. It takes a lot of dedication and time to have a good handle of the constraints of managing a city.
Sometimes I like to imagine headlines in the newspaper if things were calmer. Can you imagine the front page saying something like "New playground opening delayed" and "Graffiti continues to mystify police", like, low-stakes things. Wouldn't that be so great?
Rich people used to contribute to society. They understood that a rising tide can lift all boats (and should, if you don’t want an unstable horizon).
Anyway, this is lovely for Somerville’s libraries.
This is monstrous. Just profoundly shameful behavior by our government.
www.nytimes.com/2026/04/21/w...
Haunting and evergreen.
"There is no more deadly place for women and children than in a family home...we cling to the false belief that what angry men do to women and children is isolated and doesn’t put entire communities at risk."
VERY BIG NEWS out of France a week ago:
"French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced on Friday, April 10, a ban on installing gas heating systems "by year's end" in new buildings, including multi-unit housing, to curb France's dependence on fossil fuels."
www.lemonde.fr/en/environme...
They are talking like traffic engineers haven't been trying - and failing - to fix traffic congestion for the last 70+ years
It's the wrong question to ask
And a good part of the reason we're in the mess that we're in
A coffee mug with a quote: “You should not have to own a car to prosper in this country, no matter what kind of community you're living in.” SECRETARY PETE
Good times
Where is this?
I didn’t realize so many of the people were from other towns.
Such a sad history.
"They were so lucky I was looking"
Ummm no. Stopping in time for a child running onto the street is not heroic/lucky, it is your goddamn obligation as a driver. Cost of entry. Kids are allowed to be unpredictable, you are not.
Promotional graphic for an In These Times article titled “Fortress Yellowstone” by Joseph Bullington. The background shows a rustic ranch gate at sunrise with a large cattle skull mounted on a wooden fence post, rolling hills and mountains in the distance, and golden light across a dirt road. Over the image, bold black text on white blocks reads: “Fortress Yellowstone.” Smaller text below reads: “The ultra-rich are fortifying themselves inside one of America’s last intact ecosystems—with money plundered from ecological sacrifice zones around the world.” The In These Times logo appears at the bottom.
Even as they profess to be conservationists, Joseph Bullington found that most of the billionaire landowners in the Yellowstone ecosystem accumulated their wealth through industries that help drive the destruction of nature elsewhere.
inthesetimes.com/article/yell...
Here's an infuriating fact: Elon Musk’s fortune could pay the average salary for every public school teacher in the US for three years.
Take a look at these charts that tell the story of oligarchy in overdrive.
THE HOUSE JUST VOTED TO EXTENDED TPS FOR HAITI!!! Thank you, Rep. Ayanna Pressley for your leadership on this. Proud to help co-lead this effort for our Haitian brothers, sisters, and siblings. What a day.
Yeah!!!!!
My 8-year old has long reserved that last moment before the lights go out to ask really difficult questions. What happens when I die? Who is Jesus? Why are we boycotting Disney?
Opinion Guest Essay Why Aren’t the Kids Out Protesting Against Trump? April 14, 2026
they are. next question!
IMPORTANT: “$30 million an hour: big oil reaping huge war windfall from consumers, analysis finds. Climate action blockers [excellent term] including Saudi Arabia, Russia and major fossil fuel firms set to make extra $234bn by end of 2026.”
Remember that when we’re pressured to drop tiny gas taxes.
A police officer was nearby, didn't see it, but came over to tell me and the driver that neither of us was wrong. I would think he shouldn't have been driving in the bike lane.
Figure shows that I, a bicyclist, was waiting to make a left turn. Car #1 in a one-lane road yielded to me. However, when I proceeded to make the turn, I almost got knocked over by Car #2, which had veered right of Car #1, into the bike lane, to get around them.
Came the closest ever to a bike crash today in Lexington. Luckily the driver stopped. He was driving in the bike lane to get around a car that had yielded to me. Themes:
- I can't see over an SUV
- Drivers should not be in the bike lane
- Lexington's detour for the bike path = terribly marked.
The amount of pain and misery that the US is heaping upon the world is staggering.
Everyone knows that fuel fertilizer food shocks are coming. While millions go hungry & governments are destabilized.
More here:
tinyurl.com/PolycrisisWe...
bsky.app/profile/bloo...
"A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights that the biggest and most powerful possess."
A. Philip Randolph, born on this day in 1889
We’re regularly committing murder here and it does not seem like anyone in America gives a shit.
Definitely a doctor.
@sightline.org thank you for funding this. I'm going to bring this conversation to my city.
I just learned so much about elevators. This seems like it will be important to fix if we want tall options for affordable housing. TLDR: (one issue) while the 95% world has the same elevator regulations, North America differs, and the 4 elevator companies willing to serve us have an oligopoly.
Promotional graphic for an In These Times article showing a large red-and-white gas tanker ship on the ocean beneath a black text block. White text reads, “We Need To Tax the Corporations Cashing In On the Iran War.” Smaller text below says, “Across the political spectrum, Americans support taxing windfall profits—and billionaires—to help working people weather the affordability crisis.” The byline reads, “By Meghan Schneider & Cass DiPaola,” with the In These Times logo at the bottom.
"The full cost to working families will be much steeper as high gas prices drive up prices on consumer goods across the board."
Meghan Schneider and Cass DiPaola report on what working people need in this moment of worldwide crisis.
inthesetimes.com/article/corp...
Last week the @npr.org team interviewed our researcher @godin.bsky.social about the obstacles faced by those looking for open source information on the Iran-Israel-US conflict and why the development of new tools is important within this space: www.npr.org/2026/04/10/n...