| State House News Service Articles and Special Offer
Read these hot-off-the-press articles below courtesy of the State House News Service and check out their special offer for BBA Members.
The State House News Service is widely recognized by insiders as the best way to keep informed on the issues, activities and newsmakers of Beacon Hill. With Internet technology, it's become a desktop State House news bureau at an excellent price. Now, through special arrangement, that price is even lower for BBA members.
All members who subscribe to the News Service through the BBA will receive a five percent discount off the weekly rate of $58. Subscribers who pay a full year in advance will see another 10 percent taken off the special BBA rate, making the total discount 15 percent.
Sign up now for a month-long free trial subscription and then continue it with your BBA discount.
The BBA is the only legal association to offer this discount...if you need to follow state government and politics, you need the State House News Service.
SUFFOLK SHERIFF PEGS GAP AT $18 MILLION
Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral said she is facing a fiscal 2009 operating deficit of $18 million. “The fixed costs are just absolutely tremendous, and it’s everything from pension costs to increases in health care,” upkeep at her jail, house of correction, and a tenancy for community corrections work, Cabral told the News Service. She listed the following increases: $1.8 million in health insurance, $1.8 collective in bargaining and staffing moves, $1.5 million on maintenance on inmate unit control panels, $600,000 in retirement and PERAC costs, $550,000 in energy costs, $500,000 for inmate medical, and food costs of $150,000. She said a court ruling regarding bathroom use would result in a onetime cost of $7 million in renovations. Cabral said she’s been working to save money on energy costs: “We’ve been taking great pains to decrease our carbon footprint here. But when you run a place 24/7, maybe from 11 to 7 you don’t use many lights, but you’re starting food service at 5 o’clock in the morning.” Cabral and other sheriffs are due to testify today at a budget hearing in Palmer.
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AWARDS $3 MILLION IN GRANTS
Massachusetts education officials on Tuesday awarded 10 grants, worth $3.3 million, to spark interest in science and math fields at elementary and middle schools. Critics of the grants say state money is better spent creating more technology jobs. Supporters say the money is needed to help Massachusetts students keep pace with science and math students worldwide. The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education awarded the grants as part of its Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Pipeline Fund, designed to increase teacher preparation and student interest in STEM fields. Grants will fund engineering curriculum development, summer camps on biotechnology, and STEM teacher training. The grant winners include the University of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council and public school systems in Andover, Brookline and Worcester. “We need to show students at young ages that science, technology, engineering and mathematics can be fun,” said Rep. Daniel Bosley (D-North Adams), co-chair of the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, in a statement. In 2004 and 2005 the board awarded $2.3 million in STEM grants to fund 19 projects, which reached 4,500 students and 520 teachers in 115 school districts. Education and technology industry officials said that Massachusetts students are falling behind national and international students in the STEM fields. In 2003, 7 percent of Massachusetts students earned science degrees, compared to Germany, which produced 16 percent science graduates, according to a 2007 report by the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.
|
