波士頓華埠社區中心獲道富集團捐款85,000元

BOSTON – The Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, Inc. (BCNC) announces receipt of an $85,000 grant award from the State Street Foundation, to support BCNC’s Adult Education program. This grant will assist BCNC in its continued efforts to support educational and career advising services, further integrate technology into classrooms, provide training and support for volunteer tutors and mentors, and ensure the quality of program monitoring and evaluation.

“We appreciate the generous and continued support of the State Street Foundation, as we help our immigrant community members achieve higher degrees of economic success and well-being in our community,” said Giles Li, BCNC’s Executive Director.

This grant will also ensure continued support for BCNC’s Adult Education program, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). In recognition of the ESOL program’s strength, BCNC has been granted funding from the state of Massachusetts for more than two decades. Our Boston program scored 23 out of 25 Performance Standard points in FY15, and in FY13 the Quincy program was ranked third among all ESOL programs in the state. The program serves over 250 adult immigrant learners each year, offering participants English and citizenship classes, education and career advice, career readiness skills, and tutoring support.

The State Street Foundation has supported BCNC for over 10 years. Its grant-making program aims to increase an individual’s ability to earn and maintain a living, thus contributing to the overall health and well-being of communities around the world.

“The State Street Foundation is pleased to collaborate with BCNC in education and workforce development,” said Mike Scannell, senior vice president, State Street Corporation and chairman and president of the State Street Foundation. “We couldn’t be more proud of the success of our long-standing partnership, which has helped keep our citizens on track toward achieving academic success and obtaining meaningful career opportunities.”

MONEYGRAM TO PAY $13 MILLION IN MULTISTATE SETTLEMENT OVER WIRE TRANSFER SCAMS, AG HEALEY OFFERS TIPS FOR CONSUMERS

MONEYGRAM TO PAY $13 MILLION IN MULTISTATE SETTLEMENT OVER WIRE TRANSFER SCAMS, AG HEALEY OFFERS TIPS FOR CONSUMERS

Settlement Funds Provide Restitution to Massachusetts Consumers; Company to Improve Anti-Fraud Program

BOSTON – A national wire transfer service has agreed to pay $13 million to resolve a multistate investigation into fraudulent money transfer scams, Attorney General Maura Healey announced today. The settlement funds will provide restitution to eligible consumers and a payment to the states that participated in the multistate investigation. The settlement will also require the company to improve its anti-fraud program.

AG Healey’s Office, along with 48 other states and the District of Columbia, participated in the multistate settlement with Dallas-based MoneyGram Payment Systems, Inc. (MoneyGram). Today’s settlement resolves a multistate investigation into complaints from consumers who used MoneyGram’s wire transfer service to send money to third parties in foreign countries that turned out to be fraudulent. 

“Consumers should always be wary of any requests for an immediate transfer of money through a non-bank money transfer service or reloadable payment card,” said AG Healey. “These types of scams range from ‘grandparent’ scams to lottery and contest scams and rely on money transfer services because there is often no way to trace the money, reverse the transaction, or recover the money once it reaches the hands of the scammer.”

Under the terms of the settlement, MoneyGram has agreed to pay a total of $13 million, of which approximately $9 million will fund a nationwide consumer restitution program. The remainder of the settlement funds will go to the participating states for costs and fees, including $210,000 to Massachusetts. 

Consumers eligible for the nationwide restitution program will be contacted by a settlement administrator.

As part of the settlement, MoneyGram has also agreed to improve its anti-fraud programs to better prevent fraud-induced wire transfers. MoneyGram will be required to provide additional compliance training for agents, maintain guidelines regarding when an agent’s conduct warrants suspension or termination, operate a hotline system where employees and agents can report noncompliance with anti-fraud measures, and continually enhance its technology solutions to protect consumers.

AG Healey warns consumers to be extremely suspicious if they receive a telephone call from someone asking for money or personal information, including when:

·         The caller is a stranger — in this country or anywhere else;

·         The caller says he or she is a grandchild or relative in a crisis;

·         The caller is in another country or a far-away location;

·         The caller says he or she is in trouble and urgently needs money;

·         The caller requests secrecy;

·         The caller asks for the funds to be sent by wire transfer.

More information about this settlement is available at the Settlement Administrator’s website: www.MoneyGramSettlement.com.

Additional information and resources pertaining to consumer scams are available on the Attorney General’s website. Consumers with concerns can call Attorney General Healey’s Consumer Hotline at (617) 727-8400. The FTC also provides information about money wire scams on their website, www.ftc.gov. 

In Massachusetts, this matter was handled by Deputy Division Chief Monica Brookman and Legal Analyst Emily Garvey, both of AG Healey’s Insurance and Financial Services Division.

華美福利會代辦冬季暖氣補助申請

Asian American Civic Association starts accepting new applications to the FuelAssistance program on November 1 until April 30 2016. Would it be possible for you to place an announcement on your newspaper until April? Please see the text below.

暖氣補助計劃是幫助低收入家庭於冬季期間繳付暖氣費用.
申請日期: 11/1/2015 至 4/30/2016
申請資格: (1) 波士頓 (Boston), 布碌鄰 (Brookline)及牛頓市(Newton)居民. 凡合資格的申請者皆可獲得電費,
煤氣費及電話費等的折扣優惠. 歡迎有興趣申請的人士致電 (617) 426-9492 分機0號或到華美福利會預約.

家庭人數	稅前年薪        $	家庭人數	稅前年薪   $
1	33,126	5	73,897
2	43,319	6	84,089
3	53,511	7	86,000
4	63,704	8	87,912

Fuel Assistance Program is a Federally-funded program that helps
low-income households with their home heating bills in winter season.
All eligible Fuel Assistance applicants will receive discounted gas,
electric and telephone rates.

Application date: 11/1/2015 to 4/30/2016
Eligibility: (1) Residents of Boston, Brookline or Newton
To apply, please call (617)426-9492 ext: 0 or go to AACA to make an appointment.

Household Number	Gross Annual Income       $	Household Number	Gross Annual Income   $
1	33,126	5	73,897
2	43,319	6	84,089
3	53,511	7	86,000
4	63,704	8	87,912

Thanks,

Scarlett

On Tue, Dec 29, 2015 at 10:56 AM, Scarlett Wu <scarlettwu@aaca-boston.org> wrote:

Hi Chutze,

Asian American Civic Association started accepting new applications to the Fuel Assistance program on November 1 until April 30 2016. Would it be possible for you to place an announcement on
your newspaper from now to April 2016? Please see the text below.

暖氣補助計劃是幫助低收入家庭於冬季期間繳付暖氣費用.
申請日期: 11/1/2015 至 4/30/2016
申請資格: (1) 波士頓 (Boston), 布碌鄰 (Brookline)及牛頓市(Newton)居民. 凡合資格的申請者皆可獲得電費,
煤氣費及電話費等的折扣優惠. 歡迎有興趣申請的人士致電 (617) 426-9492 分機0號或到華美福利會預約.

家庭人數	稅前年薪        $	家庭人數	稅前年薪   $
1	33,126	5	73,897
2	43,319	6	84,089
3	53,511	7	86,000
4	63,704	8	87,912

Fuel Assistance Program is a Federally-funded program that helps
low-income households with their home heating bills in winter season.
All eligible Fuel Assistance applicants will receive discounted gas,
electric and telephone rates.

Application date: 11/1/2015 to 4/30/2016
Eligibility: (1) Residents of Boston, Brookline or Newton
To apply, please call (617)426-9492 ext: 0 or go to AACA to make an appointment.

Household Number	Gross Annual Income       $	Household Number	Gross Annual Income   $
1	33,126	5	73,897
2	43,319	6	84,089
3	53,511	7	86,000
4	63,704	8	87,912

Thanks,

Scarlett

On Mon, Nov 9, 2015 at 11:56 AM, Scarlett Wu <scarlettwu@aaca-boston.org> wrote:

Hi Chutze,

Asian American Civic Association starts accepting new applications to the Fuel Assistance program on November 1 until April 30 2016. Would it be possible for you to place an announcement on
your newspaper? Please see the text below.

暖氣補助計劃是幫助低收入家庭於冬季期間繳付暖氣費用.
申請日期: 11/1/2015 至 4/30/2016
申請資格: (1) 波士頓 (Boston), 布碌鄰 (Brookline)及牛頓市(Newton)居民. 凡合資格的申請者皆可獲得電費,
煤氣費及電話費等的折扣優惠. 歡迎有興趣申請的人士致電 (617) 426-9492 分機0號或到華美福利會預約.

家庭人數	稅前年薪        $	家庭人數	稅前年薪   $
1	33,126	5	73,897
2	43,319	6	84,089
3	53,511	7	86,000
4	63,704	8	87,912

Fuel Assistance Program is a Federally-funded program that helps
low-income households with their home heating bills in winter season.
All eligible Fuel Assistance applicants will receive discounted gas,
electric and telephone rates.

Application date: 11/1/2015 to 4/30/2016
Eligibility: (1) Residents of Boston, Brookline or Newton
To apply, please call (617)426-9492 ext: 0 or go to AACA to make an appointment.

Household Number	Gross Annual Income       $	Household Number	Gross Annual Income   $
1	33,126	5	73,897
2	43,319	6	84,089
3	53,511	7	86,000
4	63,704	8	87,912

Thanks,

Scarlett

-- 

BOSTON COMMUNITY ENERGY STUDY TAPS INNOVATION EXPERTS TO ESTABLISH ROAD-MAP FOR LOCAL ENERGY SOLUTIONS REDUCING GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS AND INCREASING RESILIENCY

BOSTON COMMUNITY ENERGY STUDY TAPS INNOVATION EXPERTS TO ESTABLISH ROAD-MAP FOR LOCAL ENERGY SOLUTIONS REDUCING GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS AND INCREASING RESILIENCY

Community Energy Projects could provide over $1 Billion in Community Benefits and Savings over 25 Years, City will Provide Follow-On Technical Assistance to Communities through DOE Partnership

BOSTON - Wednesday, February 10, 2016 - The City of Boston in partnership with Boston Redevelopment Authority (BRA) released the Boston Community Energy Study (BCES) today. The study is a starting point to help Boston stakeholders better understand the potential for community energy solutions and identifies specific project opportunities to reduce costs, greenhouse gas emissions and make Boston's energy system more resilient.   The study was a collaborative effort with the MIT School of Architecture and Planning's Sustainable Design Lab, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Google's Project Sunroof and Eversource. Funding and technical support was provided from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center along with funding from the Barr Foundation, the US Department of Energy and the US Department Homeland Security.   "We see great potential in community energy solutions to provide low-cost and cleaner energy while also improving resiliency," said Mayor Martin J. Walsh. "This study is a critical step in understanding the benefits of these new approaches and laying out a roadmap to engage the many important stakeholders in the City of Boston."   To further help communities pursue potential projects identified in the study, the City will be able to arrange technical assistance through a partnership with the US Department of Energy (DOE) called the Climate Action Champions program. Through the program, the City will be able to connect property owners with experts that perform no-cost feasibility studies for combined heat and power for district energy loops and microgrids.    "Community energy solutions such as targeted energy efficiency, district energy, microgrids, local energy generation and energy storage represent an opportunity to fundamentally change the way our energy system works," added Austin Blackmon, Chief of Energy, Environment, and Open Space for Boston, "but to get there we need a better understanding of the existing system and a way to identify the most promising solutions."   In order to understand the potential for these types of solutions, the City needed much more precise data on how energy is consumed in the City. However, gathering data for every building's energy consumption for each hour of the day all year long would be a prohibitive task. Therefore, the City turned to MIT's Sustainable Design Lab to build a first of its kind energy model for the City. Eversource furthered this effort by providing energy-use data that was used to calibrate the model. "The City of Boston rightfully understands the potential of community energy systems and the daunting task of assembling enough data to assess the best approaches," said Christoph Reinhart, Associate Professor at the Sustainable Design Lab and one of the authors of the report. "To solve this problem, we built a first of its kind model that allows us to simulate the energy consumption of every building in the City."   Once the City had the baseline findings from the MIT model and calibrated it with data from Eversource, the next challenge was to understand what kind of solutions would be appropriate based on the energy consumption patterns that they discovered. To do this, the City turned to researchers at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, who used a software model called Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model (DER-CAM), developed to evaluate similar energy solutions for military bases. The Laboratory ran several different scenarios, some looking at maximizing the reduction of costs and others at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.   "We were able to help the City understand the viability of different solutions in driving down costs and emissions," said Eric Limpaecher, Assistant Group Leader of the Energy Systems Group MIT Lincoln Laboratory and another one of the authors of the report. "From this analysis, the City has now identified 42 different "hot spots" that represent the most viable opportunities for deployment of new community energy systems."   Using simulations and parameters from the MIT model, the BRA Research Division further evaluated the potential costs and benefits of the community energy solutions under the two scenarios: One for maximizing reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and the other to maximize costs savings. For each scenario MIT's LL provided upfront capital and long-term maintenance costs, which were compared to the reduced energy costs and GHG emissions benefits for residential, commercial and municipal consumers. The potential total benefits for both consumers and the City-at-large for the two scenarios ranged between $600 million and $1.7 billion over the 25 year analysis period. While more complete analysis is needed and much remains to be learned, the initial indicators are very positive.   The City also wanted to take a closer look at the potential to deploy solar energy through a new approach called Community Solar, where consumers without the appropriate space to site a system can get access to solar energy through a shared community system. To do this, the City turned to Google's Project Sunroof.  "Community Solar is an emerging business model for larger solar installations," said Carl Elkin, Engineering Lead for Project Sunroof. "Google Project Sunroof leveraged their rooftop-solar potential data set to show BRA where community-scale solar installations are most feasible."   "Identifying proper locations for clean community energy systems can help communities meet clean energy, resiliency and energy cost savings goals," said MassCEC Interim CEO Stephen Pike. "We are proud to support the City of Boston's innovative approach to mapping these opportunities, as it will provide lessons for municipalities around the Commonwealth."   Looking forward, the City plans to convene relevant stakeholders for the most promising projects that are identified in the study to discuss their viability and potential implementation. "The successful deployment of these new approaches will require the input of a wide range of stakeholders from consumers and utilities to technology companies and community leaders," said Brian Golden, Director of the BRA, "and we plan to act as a convener to bring all the players together."

中華民俗藝術工作坊 2/14 迎新春

MAYOR WALSH SIGNS MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING WITH LYON, FRANCE VICE-MAYOR KARIN DOGNIN-SAUZE

MAYOR WALSH SIGNS MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING WITH LYON, FRANCE VICE-MAYOR KARIN DOGNIN-SAUZE

BOSTON - Wednesday, February 10, 2016 - Mayor Martin J. Walsh today joined Vice-Mayor of Lyon, France Karine Dognin-Sauze to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the cities of Lyon and Boston. They were joined by the Ambassador of France to the US Gérard Araud.  The MOU commits both parties to fostering economic development, innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainable development, culture, tourism, and quality education to its residents. "We're honored that Lyon has become a growing partner to the City of Boston. Our partnership will continue to expand upon economic, social, cultural and environmental goals that mutually benefit both cities," said Mayor Walsh. "In order to be competitive in an increasingly global economy, we must strengthen our partnerships with cities around the world that share our goals." "There is a natural partnership between Boston and Lyon, as both cities are committed to innovation and entrepreneurship," said  Karine Dognin-Sauze, Vice Mayor of the City of Lyon. "I am very glad to witness the development of relationships between Lyon and Boston," said Ambassador of France to the US Gérard Araud. "This MOU, aiming at fostering structured collaborations in innovation, transportation, and culture, is the result of several high-level exchanges between the two cities for the past years. Both share the same passion for entrepreneurship and excellence in bio-technologies, clean technologies, and robotics, and I really wish them the best for their future collaboration." The MOU calls for both cities to identify opportunities to generate new initiatives to further nurture economic, social, cultural and environmental based relationships, as well as: Continue to develop cooperation in the economic sectors that are strategic for Boston and Lyon, e.g. biotechnology, sustainable energy systems and green industries/cleantech, robotics, security and digital sector (moving images, gaming etc.); Encourage the exchange of experience and professional contacts related to business creation and entrepreneurship in order to promote a vibrant business culture; Support the development of companies abroad and exchange best practices to promote the development of internationally-integrated innovation ecosystems. Share best practices and encourage cooperation on innovation-focused initiatives and policies targeting social and economic equity, including measures aimed at closing the gap in living conditions, income disparity and multi-racial & multi-ethnic social integration. Contribute to knowledge sharing with regard to place-based and tourism-destination development. Lyon is France's second-largest city and a major banking and industrial center for chemical, pharmaceutical, biotech, and software companies. On Tuesday, Mayor Walsh welcomed a visiting delegation of 20 entrepreneurs, government, and industry leaders to Big Booster's week-long boot camp program in Boston, a program initiated by Lyon in collaboration with Boston. Boston and Lyon continue to celebrate and promote innovation across the two partnering cities and this agreement further solidifies that effort. More information about Boston, Lyon and the Big Booster program can be found, here: http://ow.ly/Y8vPN. MOU (English Version) MOU (French Version)