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| BPDA和CPA合作為華埠居民舉行R1地段公聽會。(周菊子攝) |
R1地段座落在泰勒街(Tyler)48-58號，以及乞臣街(Hudson)49-63號之間，佔地18,714平方英尺，從1996年迄今，由塔芙茨大學用作停車場。波士頓市府現在決定開發，並在2020年11月17日召開了第一次虛擬社區公聽會，希望聽取居民意見，再草擬招標書(RFP)。
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| 華人前進會主任陳玉珍做中文翻譯。(周菊子攝) |
知道華埠歷史的人都記得，R1地段早年被稱為”泡泡(Buble)”，由青年會(YMCA)用作體育運動館，以及華人社區的舞會，聚會等休閒場所。
華人土地信託會(CCLT)在發給華埠民眾的一份文件中，簡述了R1地段的背景，並說明該會和華埠居民會、華人前進會，以及亞美社區發展協會(ACDC)等機構合作，早從2016年起就陸續發起寫明信片運動，舉辦社區願景會議，研究各種土地發展的可行性，要求塔芙茨大學和波士頓市政府把這塊土地歸還給華埠社區使用。
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| BPDA的項目承辦人。(周菊子攝) |
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ON NATIONAL HUMAN TRAFFICKING AWARENESS DAY, AG HEALEY LAUNCHES TRAINING VIDEO TO DETECT LABOR TRAFFICKING AND HELP VICTIMS
AG’s Office
Partners with Local Officials and Community Advocates to Distribute Training
Materials
BOSTON—On National Human
Trafficking Awareness Day, Attorney General Maura Healey is launching a new
training video to help identify signs of labor trafficking and generate
referrals to her office for potential investigation and prosecution. The AG’s
Office is partnering with local officials, including the City of Boston, and
community organizations to distribute the video and other training materials
and has also created
a digital toolkit for widespread distribution and use.
“Labor trafficking is significantly
underreported because it can be difficult to detect—it’s a crime that often
leaves victims hidden in plain sight,” said Attorney General Maura Healey.
“My office created this training video to help assist victims and hold
perpetrators accountable. I want to thank our partners across the state who’ve
agreed to distribute this important information through their networks. My hope
is that by working together, we can eradicate labor trafficking in
Massachusetts.”
The AG’s Office has created a
five-minute animated training video—available in English
and Spanish—that
is designed to aid local officials, inspectors, first responders, and law
enforcement in formal training, and also aims to raise general public awareness
about labor trafficking. The video helps people to understand and uncover signs
of labor trafficking and allows them to refer suspicious information to the
AG’s Office for potential investigation and prosecution. Since forced labor
scenarios are often imbedded within legitimate commercial enterprises and
within private homes, labor trafficking and the victims impacted can be
difficult to identify and these crimes often go undetected and unreported.
The AG’s Office has partnered with the City of Boston to
implement trainings for Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s Office of Workforce Development
and for Boston’s Inspectional Services Department field staff, reaching key
municipal workers. The City of Boston will also be sending the video to tens of
thousands of city permit holders, including active construction permit holders,
food service permit holders, and permit holders within the long-term rental
housing and short-term rental registration database.
“Boston is a proud partner of the
Attorney General’s efforts to reach out to and inform staff and workers of ways
to prevent labor trafficking,” said Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh. “Our
workers will be equipped with knowledge and tools to identify and report labor
trafficking so it does not occur in any of our communities."
The AG’s Office has also
distributed the training video and digital toolkit to the following partners,
who will disseminate it to their staff, members, networks and on their
platforms and will facilitate additional language translations:
Alliance
for Inclusion and Prevention
Centro
Comunitario de Trabajadores (Community Workers’ Center)/CCT
Chinese Progressive Association
Greater Boston Legal Services
Lynn Rapid Response Network
and Pathways, Inc.
Massachusetts
Alliance of Portuguese Speakers
Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational
Safety & Health
Massachusetts Health Officers Association
Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee
Advocacy Coalition
Metrowest
Worker Center/Casa Do Trabalhador -
Casa Del Trabajador
The AG’s
digital toolkit is designed to assist in pushing out the video on various
digital platforms. The AG’s Office has also recorded a webinar geared toward municipal
employee audiences. The
webinar provides an overview of labor trafficking and ways that building and
health inspectors, code enforcement officers, assessors, licensing staff, human
services staff, school department personnel, police, fire, and emergency
management departments can help to identify and combat it.
This training
video
is a part of the AG’s efforts to combat human trafficking, and to raise
awareness about this crime throughout January, which is Human Trafficking
Prevention Month.
AG Healey has made combatting human
trafficking a priority of her office and her office’s Human Trafficking and
Fair Labor Divisions have been working together to address labor trafficking in
Massachusetts. In
Oct. 2019, AG Healey, faculty from Boston
University School of Law, and representatives from the BU Spark! Initiative at
BU’s Hariri Institute for Computing announced a new tool, the RESULT (Recognize & Evaluate Signs
to Uncover Labor Trafficking) web-based app,
which they jointly developed to help identify potential labor trafficking cases
and connect victims to resources. The Office has also conducted
trainings about labor trafficking for municipal employees, including a webinar
designed for health and building inspectors, first responders, social services
providers, and others. In Jan. 2020, AG Healey hosted
the office’s first Human Trafficking Summit, a
two-day conference to provide attendees with tools and information to help
address human trafficking in Massachusetts.
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| 波士頓是警察局局長葛羅斯(William Gross)很可能參選市長。 (檔案照片，周菊子攝) |
已經宣佈參選波士頓市長的兩名波士頓市議員，依序分別為吳弭(Michelle Wu)和Andrea Campbell。
維基百科上關於2021年波士頓市的市長選舉，除了前述2人，也已經列出10名可能人選。另有9人已經表態不會參選。
WBZ”夜面(NightSide)”主持人Dan Rea透露，波士頓市警察局局長葛羅斯告訴他，90%可能參選波士頓市市長，只是還要再和一些家人說，以確保每個人都支持這想法。
葛羅斯在波士頓警察局工作30多年，2018年才升任局長。Dan Rea說，他猜人們認為葛羅斯是一名很真誠的公僕，很多政客說要為民服務，只是為了贏得選舉，找個向上爬的墊腳石。
在維基百科上列出來的其他可能參選者，包括當年和馬丁華殊競爭市長一職的現任波士頓是經濟發展長John Barros，麻州參議員柯林斯(Nick Collins，波士頓市不分區市議員Annissa
Essaibi George，米高法拉提(Michael F. Flaherty，波士頓市議會議長Kim Janey，波士頓市健康及人民服務長Marty
Martinez，麻州眾議員Aaron Michlewitz，波士頓市第六區市議員Matt
O’Malley，麻州眾議員Jon Santiago，薩福克郡治安官Steven
Tompkins。
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