第122屆波士頓馬拉松賽有41名菁英選手參賽

             (Boston Orange 周菊子整理報導)第122屆波士頓馬拉松賽即將於4月16日舉行，41名來自世界各地的馬拉松賽精英組選手，將在贊助商約翰漢考克公司支持下，於4月13日在費爾蒙柯普利廣場酒店亮相，並捐贈球鞋給麻州最大的流浪漢之家，聖法蘭西斯屋。

               這41名馬拉松賽精英選手中有6名波士頓馬拉松賽冠軍，15名美國馬拉松賽精英，包括曾贏得奧林匹克賽，世界冠軍賽，Abbott世界馬拉松大賽的冠軍。這些選手們贏過的世界級馬拉松賽金牌，加起來超過100個。

             目前，男子組和女子組都由埃塞俄比亞(Ethiopia)籍選手在杜拜(Dubai)締造了領先成績，依序為Tamirat Tola在2017年的2分4秒11，以及Aselefech Mergia在2012年的2分19秒31。

             美國歷年來跑得最快的6名馬拉松賽女選手中，有4人今年將參加波士頓馬拉松賽。半馬拉松賽的美國紀錄保持者Molly Huddle今年也將參賽。

             約翰漢考克公司今年是第33年贊助波士頓馬拉松賽。

2018 Boston Marathon John Hancock Elite Men’s Field
Elite Men's Field	Country	Personal Best Marathon
Tamirat Tola	Ethiopia	2:04:11 (Dubai, 2017)
Lemi Berhanu	Ethiopia	2:04:33 (Dubai, 2016)
Lelisa Desisa	Ethiopia	2:04:45 (Dubai, 2013)
Nobert Kigen	Kenya	2:05:13 (Amsterdam, 2017)
Wilson Chebet	Kenya	2:05:27 (Rotterdam, 2011)
Evans Chebet	Kenya	2:05:30 (Valencia, 2017)
Felix Kandie	Kenya	2:06:03 (Seoul, 2017)
Geoffrey Kirui	Kenya	2:06:27 (Amsterdam, 2016)
Philemon Rono	Kenya	2:06:52 (Toronto, 2017)
Yuki Kawauchi	Japan	2:08:14 (Seoul, 2013)
Abdi Nageeye	Netherlands	2:08:16 (Amsterdam, 2017) NR
Lusapho April	South Africa	2:08:32 (Hannover, 2013)
Arne Gabius	Germany	2:08:33 (Frankfurt, 2015) NR
Abdi Abdirahman	USA	2:08:56 (Chicago, 2006)
Galen Rupp	USA	2:09:20 (Chicago, 2017)
Reid Coolsaet	Canada	2:10:28 (Berlin, 2015)
Ryan Vail	USA	2:10:57 (London, 2014)
Stephen Sambu	Kenya	2:11:07 (Chicago, 2017)
Eric Gillis	Canada	2:11:21 (Toronto, 2014)
Elkanah Kibet	USA	2:11:31 (Chicago, 2015)
Timothy Ritchie	USA	2:11:56 (Sacramento, 2017)
Shadrack Biwott	USA	2:12:01 (New York, 2016)
Scott Smith	USA	2:12:21 (Frankfurt, 2017)
Andrew Bumbalough	USA	2:13:58 (Tokyo, 2017)

2018 Boston Marathon John Hancock Elite Women’s Field

Elite Women's Field	Country	Personal Best Marathon
Aselefech Mergia	Ethiopia	2:19:31 (Dubai, 2012)
Deena Kastor	USA	2:19:36 (London, 2006) NR
Edna Kiplagat	Kenya	2:19:50 (London, 2012)
Buzunesh Deba	Ethiopia	2:19:59 (Boston, 2014) CR
Jordan Hasay	USA	2:20:57 (Chicago, 2017)
Shalane Flanagan	USA	2:21:14 (Berlin, 2014)
Mamitu Daska	Ethiopia	2:21:59 (Frankfurt, 2011)
Desiree Linden	USA	2:22:38 (Boston, 2011)
Madai Perez	Mexico	2:22:59 (Chicago, 2006) NR
Caroline Rotich	Kenya	2:23:22 (Chicago, 2012)
Gladys Chesir	Kenya	2:24:51 (Amsterdam, 2017)
Serena Burla	USA	2:26:53 (Osaka, 2017)
Molly Huddle	USA	2:28:13 (New York City, 2016)
Krista DuChene	Canada	2:28:32 (Toronto, 2013)
Kellyn Taylor	USA	2:28:40 (Houston, 2015)
Kellys Arias	Colombia	2:29:36 (Hamburg, 2016) NR
Jessica Draskau Petersson	Denmark	2:30:07 (Chicago, 2015)
NR = National Record
CR = Course Record

SAVE 2020 CENSUS – “STAND UP AND BE COUNTED” ADVOCATES URGE

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SAVE 2020 CENSUS – “STAND UP AND BE COUNTED” ADVOCATES URGE

BY MARK HEDIN, ETHNIC MEDIA SERVICES

Mark Hedin is a reporter with the San Francisco Study Center

 The best response to White House efforts to disenfranchise ethnic communities is for them to stand up and be counted in the upcoming 2020 census, a wide

spectrum of experts and civil rights advocates agrees.

It’s a simple strategy to counteract myriad steps the Trump administration has taken to subvert an accurate count of everybody in the country – a count mandated by the constitution every 10 years through the decennial census.

“This is one of the most significant civil rights issues facing us today,” said Vanita Gupta, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights in a media telebriefing on April 5 hosted by major civil rights groups.

Data from the decennial count determine everything from how many congressional representatives a state gets to how much money the government allocates for schools, hospitals and transportation needs – and much more.

“Communities of color are at risk of being undercounted and left behind,” Gupta said. “The stakes are too high to remain on the sidelines.”

Cuts in funding have already disrupted efforts to improve the accuracy of the data collection.  As things stand now, Gupta said, the agency will face a shortfall of $933.5 million from what it needs to keep 2020 preparations on track.

Amplifying concerns, on March 26  Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced the addition of a new question about respondent’s citizenship status, despite opposition from six former Census Bureau officials, two former Commerce Secretaries and experts in the field.

The timing of Ross’ proposed question is unprecedented. It comes too late to allow the Census Bureau to conduct the careful testing it typically performs prior to making such significant changes.

  

“We know that adding this question on citizenship status will cause participation in the census to plummet,” Gupta said.  She called the decision “deeply flawed…a failure of leadership and a capitulation to President Trump’s nativist agenda.”

“This is a tactic to scare people away from participation in the census,” said Arturo Vargas, executive director of NALEO, the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Education Fund.  “The purpose is very clear: the administration does not want Latinos to be counted.”

Vargas noted that Latinos, at almost 58 million, are the nation’s second largest population group – almost 18 percent of the total population.

 “Already we had expressed our concerns about what an online census would mean to the ability of all people to be counted,” he said, referring to the 2020 census’ reliance on digital participation.  Most at risk for an undercount are very young children.  In 2010, an estimated 1 million very young children went  uncounted, of whom 400,000 were Latino.

Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League, called the changes “a thinly veiled, back-door effort to suppress” the representation of non-white Americans in official consideration.  “The prospect of an epic undercount of African Americans and all people of color in the 2020 Census is becoming more of a reality each day.”

The African American community has always been undercounted, Morial noted, starting with the 1790 Census when slaves were considered three-fifths of a person.  In 2010, African Americans were undercounted by more than 2 percent, and African American children by 6.5 percent.  By contrast, whites were overcounted – by 1 percent in 2000 and again by 1 percent in 2010.

Morial also noted that last month’s decision to continue what he called a “prison based gerrymandering” policy – counting prisoners where they are incarcerated rather than where they come from – will further ensure a geographic miscount.

“I have no doubt that had it been left to Census Bureau professionals, that decision would have been reversed. But when the administration came in, politics prevailed.”

John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, pointed out that decisions to cut the number of census workers and offices by 50 percent will undermine outreach to the very communities the census has struggled to reach in the past, and trim the followup efforts to reach those who don’t respond to the initial survey.

Asian Americans were identified by the 2010 census as the fastest growing ethnic group in the nation, increasing by 46 percent since 2000, Yang said.  Some 80 percent of Asian Americans either immigrants or children of immigrants, putting them at high risk for an undercount.

Pointing to widespread fears among immigrant communities of exposing vulnerable family information, Yang emphasized that the Census bureau has the most stringent confidentiality rules of any government agency.  Even that, he warned, may not be enough to ensure participation in today’s charged political climate. Responding to a reporter’s question, he agreed that the confidentiality protocols were adopted following revelations that the census during World War II helped identify Japanese Americans for internment.

“How do we explain that the best way to fight back, the best way to have a voice in policy discourse, is to be counted,” NALEO’s Vargas challenged.  Noting that “there is a great amount of fear in Latino communities and in immigrant communities across the country,” Vargas said the advocates’ task now is to turn that fear into empowerment.   “We will not cower in fear and not be counted…we will be the ones to defend American democracy.”

“The fight to save the census is not over, by any stretch,” Gupta said. She cited lawsuits already filed by the state of California against Ross’ proposed citizenship question, another by a group of states led by New York, and efforts by the Conference of for oversight hearings followed by legislation in Congress.

“Together we can make sure the Census is fully funded and the decision to add the question on citizenship is overturned,” she said.

Mayor Martin J. Walsh Speaks to Nonprofits on Collaboration, “Pushing Back” Against Changes on Federal Front

Mayor Martin J. Walsh Speaks to Nonprofits on Collaboration, “Pushing Back” Against Changes on Federal Front

 

© Meri Bond Photography

BOSTON, MA- On Monday, April 9, Mayor Martin J. Walsh addressed a room full of nonprofit leaders in the Boch Center's Grand Lobby, thanking them for their organizations’ contributions to the health and vitality of Boston and highlighting the impact of cross-sector collaborations on the city’s most pressing issues.

In his remarks, Mayor Walsh emphasized building partnerships between the nonprofit, public, and private sectors as a path towards solving some of the city’s most pressing challenges, including homelessness, addiction, affordable housing, and immigrants’ rights.

“We have to use every possible resource we have. When we work together we can be successful. It’s important to build partnerships, and important to do it together,” said Mayor Walsh.

Mayor Walsh also spoke about changes over the past two years happening at the federal level, including the tax reform legislation passed by Congress and signed into law this past December. “We should push back on this tax reform package, which will likely discourage some charitable donations,” he said.

According to a recently-released Massachusetts Nonprofit Network report, the impact of the tax reform bill could include lower the amounts of charitable giving to nonprofits in Massachusetts and across the country.

“Running a nonprofit has never been easy. But now, facing changes on the federal front, the gaps that you’re being asked to fill are bigger than ever,” said the Mayor. “We will need everyone’s skills and hands to collectively move forward.”

In addition to his prepared remarks, Mayor Walsh responded to questions and comments posed to him by audience members representing numerous nonprofits based in the Boston area.

Mayor Walsh was the latest featured speaker in a series of special forums hosted jointly by the Highland Street Foundation and the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network. The forums are dedicated to providing fresh perspectives on issues impacting the nonprofit sector.