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星期二, 3月 08, 2016
加斯林糖尿病中心“薑味”籌款會 4/4 MFA見
Two State Senators and State Senate Candidate Call for Moratorium on Late Night T Suspension
Two State Senators and State Senate Candidate
Call for Moratorium on Late Night T Suspension
Boston, MA – Today, after the MBTA voted to impose huge fare hikes on its customers, Senators Linda Dorcena Forry, Sonia Chang-Diaz and Senate-candidate Diana Hwang called on the MBTA’s Fiscal Management Control Board to place a moratorium on the planned suspension of late night service until the required equity analysis can be completed in compliance with federal civil rights guidelines.
“I believe the equity analysis will show what we already know, that the suspension of late night service will disproportionately impact low income riders,” said Senator Forry. “Late night service is not a luxury for many people in my district. It is unfortunate that the fiscal control board would move to end this valuable service without first completing the equity analysis required by federal civil rights guidelines.”
“The MBTA has moved forward in an unwarranted way to suspend service that is vital to so many of the hard working men and women here in North Suffolk,” said State Senate candidate Diana Hwang. “East Boston is ground zero for this concern. It is physically impossible for late-shift workers who work downtown or in other parts of the city to walk home to East Boston after their shift ends. And a cab ride can cost them hours of pay.”
Late night service, which was added in 2014, for Friday and Saturday evenings was to be cancelled on March 18, 2016. On Friday, March 4, federal officials said the MBTA had failed to follow civil rights guidelines that required the agency to fully examine whether the cancellation of late-night T service approved this week would disproportionately hurt minorities and low-income riders.
“It is deplorable that, even after an incomplete initial analysis showed disparate impact, the MBTA proceeded to eliminate service,” added Senator Chang-Diaz. “The MBTA must complete the analysis and take action in light of it, not in spite of it. The poorest members of our community should not bear the burden of decades of neglect by MBTA management.”
Linda Dorcena Forry serves as the State Senator from the 1st Suffolk (representing Dorchester and South Boston) and serves on the Transportation Committee. Sonia Chang-Diaz serves as the State Senator from the 2nd Suffolk (representing Mattapan, Roxbury and Jamaica Plain). Diana Hwang is a candidate for State Senate for 1st Suffolk and Middlesex representing Chinatown, Downtown, Cambridgeport and North Suffolk including East Boston, Winthrop and Revere.
星期一, 3月 07, 2016
富比士今秋進波士頓辦"30歲以下“千人青年創業峰會
(Boston Orange 周菊子報導)富比士（Forbes）雜誌今（7)日下午宣佈，將於10月16至19日藉“30以下峰會“等五項活動， 把全美及世界各地共約5000名最有潛力的年輕創業家，帶到波士頓市來。
麻州州長查理貝克（Charlie Baker），波士頓市長馬丁華殊（Martin Walsh）和富比士營運長Mike Federie，富比士雜誌編輯Randall
Lane，以及多名過去獲選進“30名30歲以下“名單的傑出年輕創業者，一起在芬紐廳宣佈了這一訊息。
富比士雜誌從2012年起舉辦這“30名30歲以下“活動。之前兩年都在費城舉辦，今年不但遷址波士頓，更把活動從美國擴大到以色列，以及亞洲的越南，新加坡等地，總共在37個地點舉辦，從20個行業種類各挑選出30名30歲以下的傑出創業家，請他們參加需獲邀請才能入場的峰會，彼此交流，激發火花。
在這預計有1000名來自全美各地優秀青年創業家參加的峰會之外，富比世還將在大專院校的校園內，舉辦四場公開讓全世界各地優秀青年創業者繳費參加的峰會，為這些年輕人提供平台，做更廣泛交流。
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| 左起，麻州州長查理貝克，波士頓市長馬丁華殊，General Catalyst David Fialkow，富比士營運長Michael Federle，富比士雜誌編輯 Randall Lane。（周菊子攝） |
富比士雜誌表示，“30名30歲以下“峰會不但將安排TED風格的主題演講，還將舉辦“三十歲以下音樂節”，“三十歲以下美食節”，並在峰會的最後一天舉辦全波士頓市的“服務日”，藉以回饋波士頓，鼓吹公益行動。
2015年獲選的華裔，有健康醫療類，在波士頓地區創辦“MIT醫藥駭客（MIT Hacking Medicine）“，在“麻州挑戰”，以及“黑馬創業大賽”中都獲優勝的李想。
2016年獲選的華裔，有法律金融類，年僅23歲，與另外兩名合夥人集資25,000元，在矽谷一家汽車旅館裏創辦Fiscalnote的Timothy Hwang。
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| 麻州州長查理貝克（後右一），波士頓市長馬丁華殊（左一）和李想 （左三）等2015及2016的富比士30 以下獲選者合影，（周菊子攝） |
根據富比士網站上的介紹，FiscalNote
已獲得1800萬元投資，其中有700萬元來自華人的社交媒體平台，人人網（Renren）。該公司現已有員工約100人。
根據富比士網站上的介紹，FiscalNote 已獲得1800萬元投資，其中有700萬元來自華人的社交媒體平台，人人網（Renren）。該公司現已有員工約100人。
過去這幾年間，獲選入“30歲以下“名單的個人及種類，包括2016年的Timothy
Hwang，2015年為食品類，在舊金山開“魚子醬（Caviar）“的Jason Wang。去年八月，Jack Dorsey's Square以9000萬元收購了“魚子醬”，如今在美國 15個城市有分店。
2014年有29歲，在摩根史坦利擔任行政主管，做石油期權交易的Jeffrey Sun。
波士頓地區曾獲選入富比士“30歲以下“的傑出青年包括，Stripe的聯合創辦人John Collison，在富比世30以下食品節中獲得人們選擇獎的Chris Coombs。科技類曾獲獎的包括創辦臉書的馬克祖伯格（Mark Zuckerberg），創辦Instagram的Kevin Systrom，創辦Hello Alfred的 Marcella Sapone，創辦General Catalyst的Peter Boyce III ，創辦Thrive Capital的Josh Kushner 等等。
MAYOR WALSH JOINS BOSTON SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTS/AIA TO LAUNCH IDEAS COMPETITION FOR THE NORTHERN AVE. BRIDGE
MAYOR WALSH JOINS BOSTON SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTS/AIA TO LAUNCH IDEAS COMPETITION FOR THE NORTHERN AVE. BRIDGE
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Public Conversation Will Help Inform New Bridge Design
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BOSTON - Monday, March 7, 2016 - Seeking the practical and aspirational visions of designers and non-designers alike, Mayor Martin J. Walsh today joined the Boston Society of Architects/AIA (BSA) to launch a competition to solicit ideas for the future of the Northern Avenue Bridge. Mayor Walsh's administration is committed to facilitating a public process about the bridge's future, and the competition will serve as a way to engage a broad range of stakeholders.
"The Northern Ave Bridge represents a special piece of history for our city and for our people," said Mayor Walsh. "I welcome everyone to participate and help us generate ideas for this important challenge for the future of the bridge and Boston."
The Ideas Competition will be formally launched on Monday, March 21. A website, www.NorthernAveBridge.org, has been created to host the exchange of ideas. For now, visitors to the site can register their email address to receive updates. People are also encouraged to engage on social media using the hashtag #NorthernAveContest. The Boston Society of Architects and several City departments, including the Public Works Department and the Boston Redevelopment Authority are coordinating the competition.
The competition is part of Mayor Walsh's commitment to building a new Northern Avenue Bridge that is informed by public opinion. The Seaport continues to grow at a rapid pace and short-term fixes to the current structure are no longer viable.
When the competition opens on March 21, participants will be able to register ideas as either simple text or as a drawing, sketch, or rendering. Organizers intend to capture feedback around the following overarching goals related to the future of the bridge:
"This ideas competition fosters two essential requirements for planning and implementing the best direction forward for the bridge," said 2016 BSA president, Tamara Roy, AIA. "A public process that allows alternatives to be proposed and evaluated, and a commitment to superb design so that bold forms and engaging spaces can bring this corner of the city to life."
To incentivize participation, the organizers are currently determining prize money to award in several different categories. A competition jury comprised of individuals from various backgrounds will judge entries and select winners of a variety of different categories. Through online voting, a people's choice award will also be given.
The competition will run through the end of April, and organizers, together with the BSA Foundation, expect to hold an awards ceremony and exhibition in late May at BSA Space. Ideas from the contest will help inform a Request For Proposals (RFP) that Boston's Public Works Department will release this summer for design of a new bridge.
The Northern Avenue Bridge, which opened in 1908, is a steel three-span, triple-barreled, Pratt-type through-truss bridge. Perched atop the Fort Point Channel, the iconic structure, which connected downtown to the South Boston Waterfront, was closed to all traffic in December 2014 due to concerns about its structural integrity.
Prior to its full closure, the Northern Avenue Bridge endured a series of challenges in recent decades. During its lifetime the bridge carried automobiles, pedestrians, cyclists, and even train traffic for the Union Railway for over 50 years. The train tracks, however, were removed in 1970, and the span was closed to vehicular traffic in 1997, and ultimately pedestrian traffic in 2014, as a result of safety issues.
A detailed history is available in the 1998 Historic Preservation Plan for the Northern Avenue Bridge and a 1999 Boston Landmarks Commission study report, both of which will be available at the www.NorthernAveBridge.Org onMarch 21, 2016.
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REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN MEETING WITH FINANCIAL REGULATORS
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN MEETING WITH FINANCIAL REGULATORS
Roosevelt Room
**Please see below for a correction, marked with an asterisk.
12:08 P.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: I just has an opportunity to meet with our independent financial regulators to discuss the progress that we’ve made on our economy since the financial crisis. This is something that I’ve done on a regular basis. It’s worth remembering that it was eight years ago this month that Bear Stearns collapsed. And that was a key moment in an economic spiral that eventually cost millions of Americans home values, pensions, jobs, savings. It was devastating.
And it is a useful reminder of what happens when you have lax regulation on Wall Street -- eventually, it migrates to Main Street. And so irresponsible, risky bets with inadequate safeguards and that reward executives who take those risks greatly can cause enormous damage to our economy overall.
As we worked to recover from this crisis, we’ve also worked to prevent this crisis from happening again. And Wall Street reform -- Dodd-Frank -- the laws that we passed have worked. I want to emphasize this because it is popular in the media, in political discourse -- both on the left and the right -- to suggest that the crisis happened and nothing changed. That is not true. Let me repeat that. In fact, we went at financial regulation very hard to guard against another era of “too big to fail” and some of the systemic disruptions that occurred because of lax regulation. It has helped us crack down on irresponsible behavior. We have seen banks that now have much greater capital -- as much as $700 billion worth of additional capital, additional cushion inside of our financial system.
We have put in place requirements so that if you have a financial institution that is on the brink of collapse, we can engage in an orderly unwinding of that institution without having taxpayers forced to come in and bail it out. We have made sure that the monitoring and the reporting by these institutions is much more stringent than it used to be. We are moving in the derivatives sector a huge amount of oversight and regulation. And now you have clearinghouses that account for the vast majority of trades taking place so that we know if and when somebody is doing something that they shouldn’t be doing, if they’re over-leveraged in ways that could pose larger dangers to the financial system.
We created a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that has been very effective in cracking down on some of the dishonest predatory practices that financial institutions were engaging in and that, in part, led to the crisis in 2007 and 2008.
So I want to dispel the notion that exists both on the left and on the right that somehow, after the crisis, nothing happened. In fact, if you look at the speech that I gave at Cooper Union in 2008 addressing this issue, we are, by the end of this year, likely to have achieved all the goals that we set out in terms of firming up the financial system and making it much more secure and making sure that some of the excesses, recklessness, and dangers that took place can’t occur in the future.
The second thing that I want to correct for the record is the notion that somehow this would hurt business and the economy. In fact, the opposite has happened. Our businesses have created jobs every single month since this law was signed. Over the past six years, it created more than 15 14* million new jobs in all.
And because of Wall Street reform, our financial system is safer and stronger than it was before the crisis. It is much better equipped to withstand any systemic blows that may occur not just within our borders, but in the international financial system generally. So we did not just rebuild this, we rebuilt it better and we rebuilt it stronger.
Now, that doesn’t mean that there’s not still work to
do. One of the things that we discussed was the fact that there is a shadow banking system -- a set of institutions that under current law aren’t always regulated in the same way that banks are regulated -- hedge funds, asset managers, et cetera. And one of our projects is to make sure that we are covering some of those potential gaps. We may need at some point help from Congress to do that. But in the meantime, the joint committee of these agencies has been working very effectively to try to monitor some of those areas that are outside the traditional banking system.
We still have work to do to complete regulations related to executive compensation to make sure that individuals who are working in these financial institutions are less incentivized to take big, reckless risks that could end up harming our financial sector overall.
And we also spent a lot of time talking about cybersecurity, an area where there’s going to be increasing vulnerability. And as part of my Cybersecurity National Action Plan, we have already seen these independent regulators working together with Treasury and with the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies to start tightening up our financial sector and to identify those areas where we might be weak and might be vulnerable.
So there’s going to continue to be a lot of work to do. The financial system operates very quickly. It is innovative. There is a lot of technology involved. And so the task for regulators is challenging because it’s a moving target; it doesn’t stay static.
But these institutions have worked really hard, and overall, undoubtedly have made our financial system much better. So when you read articles, whether on the left or the right, that suggest somehow nothing happened and everybody just went back to the same go-go years that they were engaging in before, those are factually incorrect. They’re not true. And the reason I want to emphasize that is because when there’s a perception that nothing happened, that that feeds cynicism that actually weakens our ability then to make further progress in regulating this sector.
A lot of work has been done by a lot of really smart, dedicated people to try to make this system work better. And we’ve made vast improvements, and we now have to build on that.
The last point I would make -- if there is a significant challenge in terms of regulating Wall Street and regulating our financial sector, it is primarily coming from certain members of Congress who are consistently pressuring independent regulators to back off; who want to strip away the authorities that were granted under Dodd-Frank; who tried to weaken those regulations, tried to water them down; or tried to starve these regulators of the resources and the budgets that they need to hire enough personnel to track everything that’s taking place in the financial sector.
So whether you are a Democrat or a Republican or a Tea Party member or a socialist, if you are concerned about making sure that Wall Street is doing the right thing, check to make sure that your member of Congress is not trying to cut the budgets of these various agencies, starve them of the resources that they need, or roll back some of the authorities that were created during Dodd-Frank.
That should be the target of your concern and your wrath. Because unless we have strong, independent agencies like this that can provide the oversight that’s necessary, it is absolutely true that these financial institutions with enormous resources and mountains of lawyers and accountants and analysts will run circles around the government and will end up engaging once again in the kinds of disruptive behavior that caused so much damage to so many people in the first place. So that’s where everybody should be focused.
And let’s make sure that as you reporters are doing your work in this area, shine a spotlight on who is it that’s trying to weaken Wall Street reform and regulations and who’s trying to strengthen them; who’s trying to strip out budgets and who’s trying to add additional resources to make sure that we’re doing the job. And the American people should take some comfort from the fact that the people around this table, at least, have been working really hard, and they’ve actually made some really significant progress.
We got more work to do. And there are a whole set of issues that fall outside the issues of this regulatory body in terms of making sure that folks on Wall Street are also paying their taxes and that the tax structure is fair. And that gets into a whole other set of arguments that I may make at another press event.
All right? Thank you very much, everybody.
Q Any comments for the camera on Nancy Reagan?
THE PRESIDENT: I had the opportunity to meet Mrs. Reagan once. Obviously, she was already advanced in age, but could not have been more gracious and more charming to myself and Michelle when we first came into office. I think it’s been well documented the extraordinary love that she had for her husband and the extraordinary comfort and strength that she provided him during really hard times. As somebody who has been lucky enough to have an extraordinary partner in my life as well, I know how much she meant not just to President Reagan but to the country as a whole. He was lucky to have her -- and I’m sure he’d be the first to acknowledge that. So she will be missed.
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