第八屆絲竹春吟師生同奏

 前右起，譚嘉陵，李平，翁慧，楊信宜，第二排左起，甄若矛，

郭雅志，第三排左起，陳志新，高宏偉等老師們合影。（菊子攝）

中華表演藝術基金會第八屆“絲竹春吟音樂會”，17日晚在波士頓第一教堂，安排師生同台，展現中樂之美。

中華表演藝術基金會會長譚嘉陵表示，今年沒辦青少年中樂演奏比賽，改以師生齊奏形式演出，藉以向中樂老師們致敬，也期許學生們在仔細欣賞老師們的演奏後，更受啟發。

 絲竹春吟音樂會演出人員合影。（菊子攝）

當晚參與演出的中樂老師包括指揮家陳志新，古箏演奏家翁慧，楊信宜，二胡演奏家高宏偉，琵琶演奏家甄若矛，楊琴演奏家李平，嗩吶演奏家郭雅志等人。他們的演奏全都各有特色，讓台下聽眾忍不住擊節拍掌。

指揮陳志新率領他創辦的「水底魚」打擊樂團，首先出場，演奏打擊樂曲「茶通」。

波士頓第一教堂，非常古雅。（菊子攝）

在新英格蘭音樂學院中首創中國音樂樂團的古箏演奏家翁慧，接著演出了「Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence」及瑤族舞曲。

二胡演奏家高宏偉獨奏「夜深沉」及「月牙五更」後，琵琶演奏家甄若矛及學生合奏「送我一支玫瑰花」，再獨奏「故鄉的太陽」。

創辦了波士頓古箏樂團的古箏演奏家楊信宜，率團員演出「茉莉花」及「趕花會」。

嗩吶演奏家郭雅志，吹奏王高林作曲的「山鄉春」，以及李德保作曲的「太行山歡歌」。他在演奏時，竟可以一口氣吹得那麼昂揚，悠長，讓聽眾們驚嘆的報以熱烈掌聲。

音樂會最後在揚琴演奏家李平和高宏偉領奏，李屏創辦的波士頓揚琴古箏青少年樂團合奏「戰馬奔騰」和瑤族舞曲中落幕。

大波士頓地區的其他中樂老師，如二胡演奏家林湛濤，琵琶演奏家祿艷蓉，揚琴演奏家黃少堅，擅吹笛子，葫蘆絲等多種中樂樂器的張正山等人，當晚或因人不在波士頓，或因另有要務，未能參加演出。

中華表演藝術基金會明年的「絲竹春吟」青少年中國器樂表演音樂會，將於2016年10月1日辦理徵選，並於8日舉行音樂會。查詢可洽譚嘉陵(781)259-8195，電郵Foundation@ChinesePerformingArts.net，網站www.ChinesePerformingArts.net。

           

           

            

昆士市長候選人辯論 與地產商關係成焦點

聯邦政府目前正在起訴昆士房地產商人，丹尼爾菲林三世（Daniel J. Flynn III）。兩名昆市市長候選人，週二（20日）在昆士鄰里俱樂部（The Neighborhood Club of Quincy）舉行的辯論中，都為自己和該名地產商所做的交易辯護。

            現在離11月3日的大選只剩兩星期了，昆士市現任市長柯奇（Tom Koch），前任市長費林（William Phelan）之間的市長大位競爭，也開始更激烈了，

            這場辯論是由亞當斯國基史蹟鄰里協會（Adams National Historic Neighborhood Association）舉辦，昆士社區電視台的Joe Catalano主持。

            本月份稍早時，丹尼爾菲林三世在波士頓聯邦地區法庭被控捲走私人投資者數以百萬計美元，罪項9條，他都辯稱無罪。

            丹尼爾菲林三世被控的罪行和他以前在昆士市的所作所為並無關係，但那並不能阻止費林藉以攻擊柯奇當政時，昆市府在2012年買下了位於Furnace大道20號，貸款贖回權被取消了的一塊空地。儘管市府的評估辦公室從收稅角度評估該筆土地的價值為135,000元，昆市府付給費林485,000元。市府找來的鑑定員估計該土地價值為595,000元。

            費林表示，柯奇未經市議會批准，就和他的長期好友丹尼爾菲林三世達成協議，使用以前曾為丹尼爾菲林三世工作鑑定員所給出的估計來定價。

            費林說，就在該物業即將被取消貸款贖回權，市府可能以欠稅為由沒收之前，柯奇卻以比估價高3倍，但比其兒時好友所估計低10萬元的價格買下了一塊沒有價值的土地。

            柯奇表示，市議會在投票通過2500萬元的控制洪水資產計劃時，使用來自那計畫的錢，來買下了Furnace大道20號。

            柯奇說，考慮到聯邦政府今年早前宣佈了530萬元的聯邦補助款，以期昆士可以在Furnace大道20號，建加油站。

.           柯奇說，如果昆士沒有這地段，他們不會從麻州緊急庇護局（FEMA）那兒獲得5百萬元補助款，來建泵水站，為米勒（Miller）街，十字街（Cross），

“

            柯旗反擊的指出，費林和丹尼爾菲林三世之間的土地購買交易，也很有疑問。2007年費林當市長時，以120萬元從丹尼爾菲林三世手中買下海街271號的鵝卵石屋，但市府估值才70萬元。

            費林表示，柯奇上任第一年，就把住宅物業稅的平均額提高了15%，約582元。因此市府財政收入比他在為六年的總數還多。

            柯奇則說，加稅是因為他所率領的政府必須支付費林當政時，許多背後並無財政支援的義務責任。所以加稅，其實是費林造成的結果。

            下星期一，市長候選人將在昆士高中，再做一場辯論，組織者是昆士市的共和黨籍民主黨市黨部。

OCA Honors AARP’s Grace Calvelo Rustia for Asian Pacific American Corporate Achievement

OCA Honors AARP’s Grace Calvelo Rustia for

Asian Pacific American Corporate Achievement

Click here to download image. Left to right: Michael W. Kwan, OCA National President; Rawle Andrews Jr., AARP Regional Vice President; Grace Calvelo Rustia, AARP Associate State Director, Multicultural Leadership in Pennsylvania; Linda Ng, OCA Vice President of Economic Development; and David Lin, OCA Business Advisory Committee Chair.

WASHINGTON, D.C., October 22, 2015 – Grace Calvelo Rustia, AARP’s Associate State Director of Multicultural Leadership in Pennsylvania, received a National Asian Pacific American Corporate Achievement Award last Friday in Arlington, VA. Organized by OCA - Asian Pacific American Advocates, a national membership-driven organization dedicated to advancing the social, political, and economic well-being of Asian Pacific Americans, the award recognizes individuals who exemplify the accomplishments of the employees within their corporation and a commitment to community service.

“AARP is very proud that Grace has been selected by OCA as an extraordinary corporate citizen,” said Daphne Kwok, AARP Vice President of Multicultural Leadership, Asian American and Pacific Islander Audience. “Grace’s leadership in the Asian American community in Philadelphia and the greater Philadelphia area is evident in engagements with multicultural communities bringing conversations and resources on caregiving, AARP’s Fraud Watch Network, personal fulfillment and so much more to people age 50 and older. Her work has been a model for us at AARP in reaching out to our multicultural communities.”

Grace Calvelo Rustia is AARP Pennsylvania’s Associate State Director and focuses on advocacy and community education for older adults. She increased the awareness and presence of AARP in multicultural communities, spearheaded events like the Multicultural Boomer Ball which brought together leaders and community members from the Greater Philadelphia area for four consecutive years, and brought together a core group of multicultural volunteers who serve at community events. Calvelo Rustia also hosts “Grace@50,” a weekly tele-magazine on The Filipino Channel that chronicles Filipino American success stories and communities.

“These awards recognize the significant contributions corporate individuals are making in our community,” said OCA National President Michael W. Kwan. “We congratulate Grace and thank her for her tireless work on the ground to ensure that our communities have the opportunity to live a fulfilling life.”

For more information about how AARP helps Asian American & Pacific Islander families get more out of life, visit www.AARP.org/AAPI, www.facebook.com/AARPAAPICommunity andwww.twitter.com/AARPAAPI.

COFFEE SHOP CHAIN CITED $47,000 FOR CHILD LABOR, WAGE AND HOUR VIOLATIONS

COFFEE SHOP CHAIN CITED $47,000 FOR CHILD LABOR, WAGE AND HOUR VIOLATIONS

Young Employees at Dippin’ Donuts in Leominster and Littleton Worked Late-Night Unsupervised Shifts in Violation of State Law

            BOSTON – A coffee shop chain with locations in Leominster and Littleton has been fined close to $47,000 forviolating Massachusetts child labor and wage and hour laws with its employees, Attorney General Maura Healey announced today.

A total of four civil citations have been issued against Delgado Donut Shops, LLC, and Route 13 Donut Shop, Inc., which do business as Dippin’ Donuts, along with owners Fernanda Delgado and her husband Hilario Delgado. The AG’s Office ordered the defendants to pay more than $15,000 in restitution and close to $32,000 in penalties.

“Employers must comply with the law to ensure the health, safety and proper payment of their workers,” AG Healey said. “Our child labor laws are designed to protect minors by limiting the hours and times they can work. We want to make sure that this business provides its staff with better working conditions and does not interfere with the earnings that they depend on.”

A review of the labor practices at their four locations, including audits of the business’s records, revealed various violations dating back to 2012. According to the AG’s Office, the defendants scheduled three employees under 18 years old after 8 p.m. on 60 occasions and one employee prior to 6 a.m. on one occasion at its Leominster location.

The Massachusetts Child Labor Laws include restrictions on both the occupations in which minors may be employed, as well as the hours during which they may work. It is illegal for minors to work past 8 p.m. without adult supervision.

An audit of the business also revealed that the Delgados did not properly distribute the tips received to employees as required by Massachusetts law. Supervisors, including the owners and managers, allegedly collected money from a tip pool with regular hourly employees.

Management and non-service employees are specifically prohibited from receiving or sharing tips. A review of the Delgados records shows that more than $15,000 in tips were unlawfully retained by management.

                                                     

The AG’s Office enforces the laws regulating the payment of wages, including prevailing wage, minimum wage, overtime and tip and record keeping laws. Workers who believe that their rights have been violated in their workplace are encouraged to call the Office’s Fair Labor Hotline at (617) 727-3465. More information about the state's wage and hour laws is also available in multiple languages at the Attorney General's Workplace Rights websitewww.massworkrights.com. Further information about youth employment may also found at www.mass.gov/ago/youthemployment. 

This matter was handled by Assistant Attorney General Drew Cahill and Investigator Leah Lucier of Attorney General Maura Healey’s Fair Labor Division

MIT students sit-in at President’s office in protest against MIT’s decision to not divest from fossil fuels, ignoring calls from thousands of MIT members and president’s own committee

MIT students sit-in at President’s office in protest against MIT’s decision to not divest

from fossil fuels, ignoring calls from thousands of MIT members and president’s own committee

Cambridge, MA — Today at 6.30AM EDT, a dozen students began a sit-in at the doorstep of their president’s office in opposition to MIT’s announced decision yesterday to “not divest [its $13.5 billion endowment] from the fossil fuel industry”, including climate denying corporations, and instead “bring them closer”. It is the first time in a quarter century that MIT has seen such unrest.

MIT’s divestment campaigners are particularly furious that their president has chosen not to sell stocks from coal and tar sands companies, an action backed 9-to-3 by the president’s own advisory committee in June.

“Divestment from coal and tar sands is a no-brainer, and would have unified rather than ostracized MIT’s community” commented Geoffrey Supran, an MIT PhD student sitting-in, and a member of President Reif’s climate advisory committee and of the student group advocating divestment, Fossil Free MIT. “With $2.6 trillion of precedent—including at Stanford, Oxford, and UC—divestment from coal and tar sands is financially prudent, scientifically consistent, morally right, and politically effective.”

President Reif’s decision to also not address climate science disinformation is another reason why many are protesting. Just this week, congressmen such as presidential candidate Bernie Sanders have called for a federal investigation of ExxonMobil's decades of climate lies. Meanwhile, MIT’s plan “deplores” climate science disinformation, yet proposes nothing to deal with it, entirely ignoring the unanimous recommendation of the president’s committee for an Ethics Advisory Council to “explicitly combat disinformation and avoid inadvertently supporting disinformation through investments.” In fact, the plan argues that MIT ought to strengthen its relationship of "great respect", "candor and collaboration" with fossil fuel companies (even including coal companies), described as “the same” as that between MIT’s administrators and its students.

“We’re sitting-in because MIT has put money before morals and its students' futures, choosing to side with Big Oil and the Kochs instead of the thousands of students, staff, faculty, and alumni—not to mention our president’s own committee—calling for divestment,” added Supran.

President Reif’s decision comes during a $5.5 billion capital campaign—the largest in the Institute’s history. MIT receives more industry funding than almost any other university in the country, its research sponsors including ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, Eni, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Statoil, Total, and the American Petroleum Institute and its 600-plus members. Climate disinformation bankroller David Koch has given MIT $185 million and is a Life Member of MIT’s Board of Trustees. Last November, MIT signed a five-year $25 million deal with ExxonMobil, which has in recent days cited its affiliation with MIT in an effort to greenwash its history of denialist campaigns.

Jeremy Poindexter, an MIT PhD student working on solar cells explained why he is among those camped outside President Reif’s office: “We won't stand idly by while divestment gets tossed aside despite support from thousands of MIT community members. It’s ironic that in a climate action plan inspired entirely by divestment, our administration claims that engagement with the fossil fuel industry is a better action. In reality, divestment has a proven theory of change toward limiting warming to 2 degrees C. What’s President Reif’s? What have MIT’s decades of inside-access to fossil fuel interests gotten us? The answer is an industry that has lied about climate science, pours hundreds of millions of dollars every year into lobbying against renewables, and spends hundreds of billions of dollars pursuing a business model scientifically incompatible with holding back catastrophic climate change. And yet MIT has decided to continue investing more than half-a-billion dollars in this industry undermining our own work.”

On the action plan’s other proposals, Supran commented, “This plan is business-as-usual repackaged. It’s a campus emissions target consistent with an unacceptable 3.5 degrees of global warming. It’s MIT’s ordinary fundraising for energy research, wrapped up in a “$300 million” soundbite. It’s too little, too late.”

MIT’s divestment decision, part of its Plan for Action on Climate Change, flies in the face of over 3,500 petition signatures from MIT community members, the recommendations of the MIT president’s own committee to divest from coal, tar sands, and climate denying corporations, a resolution from Cambridge City Council, and separate open letters from MIT student groups, faculty, alumni, and 33 prominent climate scientists and advocates, among them James Hansen, the President of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Noam Chomsky, and Mark Ruffalo.

CITY OF BOSTON, SUFFOLK COUNTY CELEBRATES 10 YEARS OF CRITICAL WORK FROM THE FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER OF BOSTON

CITY OF BOSTON, SUFFOLK COUNTY CELEBRATES 10 YEARS OF CRITICAL WORK FROM THE FAMILY JUSTICE CENTER OF BOSTON

BOSTON - Thursday, October 22, 2015 - Chief of Health and Human Services for the City of Boston Felix Arroyo, Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley, Boston Police Deputy Superintendent Norma Ayala-Leong, Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC) Interim Director Dr. Huy Nguyen and City Councillor Ayanna Pressley today joined partner agencies to celebrate 10 years of valuable work at the Family Justice Center (FJC) of Boston. The FJC of Boston is a program of BPHC and an initiative of the Mayor's Office, DA Conley and the Family Justice Group of the Boston Police Department. FJC agencies provide direct services to individuals and families in the Greater Boston area who have been affected by and/or exposed to domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse or human trafficking. The FJC provides a safe and welcoming environment where individuals and families benefit from the availability of services offered by diverse nonprofit and governmental partner organizations, and is committed to complementing and enhancing the health of victim service organizations throughout Greater Boston. As a hub of cooperative activity, the FJC facilitates continuous learning and serves as a resource center for professional development. "The Family Justice Center has become a national landmark for helping thousands of victims to recover and grow," said Mayor Martin J. Walsh. "Thanks to the dedication of all of our partners, many Boston families are given the dignity and justice they deserve, and are connected to invaluable resources to get through some of the most difficult times of their lives. Because of the Family Justice Center, we are a better, stronger City, and I look forward to the work and achievements the next 10 years will bring." "For 10 years, the Family Justice Center of Boston has offered hope and protection to survivors of abuse, neglect and exploitation," said DA Conley. "It revolutionized the delivery of services to victims and helped make our criminal prosecutions stronger. This anniversary is more than a milestone. It's proof that Boston's law enforcement, social service agencies, clinical care providers and other partners are national leaders in our approach to victim services." "The Family Justice Center of Boston continues to be a valuable resource for the Boston Police Department and has provided much needed services for individuals and families over the past decade," said Commissioner William Evans.  "I congratulate the FJC on 10 years of making a difference in the lives of many and wish them many more years of success." In Fiscal Year 2015 alone, FJC partners provided services and/or direct outreach to nearly 9,000 victims. In addition, during the same time period, the FJC filled nearly 1,700 seats at trainings provided by its partners. FJC partners listen and provide information and support while individuals and families consider whether or not to seek help from the police or prosecutors. Partners can also: conduct forensic interviews and specialized medical exams for children and youth; provide counseling, advocacy and help with restraining orders and civil legal assistance; and help obtain financial assistance and discover new options for housing, education and employment. FJC partners also help individuals and families with other community-based services and government programs that can open up even more possibilities. FJC partners serve all victims and survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, sexual exploitation and child abuse - including non-English speakers, immigrants (regardless of immigration status), and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals. Childcare is also provided during visits and all services are offered free of charge. FJC partners include: Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence Association of Haitian Women in Boston/ Asosiyasyon Fanm Ayisyen nan Boston Boston Area Rape Crisis Center Casa Myrna Vazquez Eva Butler Center GLBTQ Domestic Violence Project Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers The Network/La Red My Life My Choice Children's Advocacy Center of Suffolk County Dress for Success Boston Recently, working with the six agencies located at the FJC that provide services for victims of domestic violence, along with BPD and the DA's office, BPHC was able to secure additional federal funding on behalf of the City to conduct a cross sector, city-wide research project to assess systems of data collection, information-sharing and best practices to combat domestic violence. This type of multi-disciplinary effort positions the City and County to more effectively protect those in danger and reduce the risk of domestic violence. Agency partners have also collaborated on training projects that focus on how to respond to disclosures of child sexual abuse, how to identify children's behaviors that might result from abuse and how to respond to children and their families in a trauma-informed way. Additionally, partners involved in providing services for victims of sex trafficking have worked together as part of the Cities Empowered Against Sexual Exploitation (CEASE). Mayor Walsh is among 11 mayors in the CEASE network, which launched in February. CEASE Boston targets men who are buying sex on the streets, and quietly using the Internet to solicit sex. The program aims to reduce online demand activity by 20 percent, as well as street level activity by 80 percent, over the next two years. The FJC of Boston, one of the first in the Nation, was launched in 2005 thanks to the collaborative efforts of then- Mayor Thomas M. Menino, DA Conley and the Boston Police Department. Now, thanks to the ongoing efforts of Mayor Walsh and his Administration, DA Conley and community partners, the FJC is continuing to work to address and prevent domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking and child sexual abuse.