Massachusetts
Massachusetts reps slam Trump admin for ‘clawback’ of $106M in K-12 funding
Massachusetts’ congressional delegation said the Trump administration’s decision to “clawback” $106 million in COVID-19-era funding for K-12 schools is “harmful and incredibly frustrating to students, families, educators, and school district leaders.”
In a letter sent Thursday to the U.S. Department of Education Secretary Linda McMahon, the state’s entire Congressional delegation and Gov. Maura Healey said they were “alarmed at this abrupt termination” of congressionally authorized and appropriated funding for education in the state.
Springfield is set to lose out on the most cash — more than $47 million — while Boston is losing $3.4 million, according to the Healey administration. The elected officials said the “about-face” on the continued availability of the money was an “insult.”
“Massachusetts gives students the best education in the country. We urge you to reverse course and allow leaders in the Commonwealth to deliver for students and communities without continued chaos and disruption,” the group said in the letter.
The Healey administration said it was notified last week that it was losing access to money set to flow to Massachusetts through a pandemic-era fund that the governor claimed the state had until March 2026 to utilize.
Healey previously said the money was going to be used to stand up mental health care and math tutoring for students, as well as increasing school security and installing systems to clean the air in school buildings.
In a statement earlier this week, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Education said the COVID-19 pandemic is over and states and school districts “can no longer claim they are spending their emergency pandemic funds on ‘COVID relief’ when there are numerous documented examples of misuse.”
“The Biden administration established an irresponsible precedent by extending the deadline for spending the COVID money far beyond the intended purpose of the funds, and it is past time for the money to be returned to the people’s bank account,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said the agency would consider extensions on an individual, project-specific basis “where it can be demonstrated that funds are being used to directly mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on student learning.”
Healey and the Congressional delegation said the reversal on the cash affects 41 states and over $2 billion in funding.
The state’s congressional delegation said school districts and individual schools built their budgets based on the understanding they would have the money from the federal government.
“For example, the New Bedford school district allocated funds for a school-based health center. Some school districts were anticipating using the funding for mental health supports, security, air quality improvement, and math tutoring,” the lawmakers said in the letter.
The lawmakers said the withdrawal of the money “will force schools back to the drawing board, requiring them to fight these cuts, rework their budgets, and scale back or eliminate projects intended to help students, educators, and communities.”
Healey previously said Trump “suddenly ripped away more than $100 million in funding that is supposed to go right to Massachusetts students and schools.”
“At a time when students are still struggling to recover from the pandemic, we need to be doing everything we can to address learning loss and the youth mental health crisis,” she said in a statement earlier this week.
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Massachusetts
Massachusetts man awaits word from family in Iran after attacks
Watch CBS News
Massachusetts
How will the Iran war impact gas prices in Massachusetts?
With a widening conflict in the Middle East after the American and Israeli attack on Iran Saturday, global markets are bracing for a shakeup in the energy supply chain.
So, here at home, what can consumers expect at the gas pump?
An increase in oil prices is almost always followed by an increase in gas prices. And the oil market has already reacted to the war. NBC News reported on Sunday that U.S. crude oil initially spiked more than 10%, while Brent, the international oil benchmark, rose as much as 13%.
Early Monday morning, reports were coming in of black smoke rising from the U.S. embassy in Kuwait City.
While Iran’s oil reserves supply less than an estimated 5% of global production, the main concern is the Strait of Hormuz. This maritime passageway borders Iran at the bottleneck of the Persian Gulf, and more than 20% of the world’s oil passes through. If Iran closes or restricts Hormuz, the oil market could face severe disruptions.
Gas prices rise about 2.5 cents for every dollar increase in crude oil prices. As of Sunday, U.S. crude oil prices had already increased by nearly $5 a barrel.
“I fully expect that by Monday night, you could credibly say that gas prices are being impacted by oil prices having gone up,” GasBuddy analyst Patrick De Haan told NBC News.
GasBuddy characterizes their expectations for price increases as “incremental” rather than “explosive”. The group said to anticipate a potential 10-15 cent increase over the next couple of weeks.
Massachusetts
Body camera video shows Massachusetts police officer save 78-year-old man from burning truck – East Idaho News
EASTON, Mass. (WBZ) — Police body camera video shows an Easton, Massachusetts, officer rescuing a 78-year-old Raynham man from a burning car on Friday morning.
A Mack dump truck was experiencing problems on the side of Turnpike Street just after 2 a.m. when a Ford pickup truck struck the back of it, according to police.
The pickup truck then became stuck under the dump truck, trapping the driver, Francis Leverone, inside. A Toyota Camry then hit the back of the pickup truck and caught fire, police said.
Easton police officer Dean Soucie arrived at the crash and saw that the two vehicles were on fire. Video shows Soucie rushing over before breaking the driver’s side window and then, with the help of the two witnesses, freeing Leverone from the pickup truck. Soucie said he was confused but conscious.
“As I reached inside the vehicle, one of the passersby — he actually jumped into the cab of the truck, and he helped me free the individual,” Soucie said.
They then carried the driver to safety.
Leverone was taken to a nearby hospital before being transferred to a Boston hospital. He received serious but non-life-threatening injuries.
No one else was injured in the crash.
Dee Leverone told WBZ her husband is doing OK. “I’m just thankful for the people that got him out,” she said. “Very thankful.”
After watching the police body-cam video on the news she said, “I was shocked, I was like ‘Oh my God!’ I just couldn’t believe it. His truck is like melted.”
She says she realized that something was wrong last night when her husband never made it home from work.
“I kept trying to call him and call him, and I finally got a hold of him at like 4:30 a.m., and he was at (Good Samaritan Hospital) and he told me he’s gotten in an accident,” Dee said.
She says he’s recovering at the Boston Medical Center and being treated for a dislocated hip.
“He’s a trooper,” Dee said. “He’s a strong man — and you know he’s 78, but you know he’s a toughie. He definitely is a toughie.”
Soucie commended the help of the two witnesses and said that before he arrived at the crash, they had attempted to put out the flames with a fire extinguisher and removed a gasoline tank from the pickup truck before it could ignite.
“They jumped into action like it was nothing,” Soucie said. “Those two individuals were absolutely awesome.”
Easton Police Chief Keith Boone said that he is “extremely proud” of Soucie and the witnesses.
“He saved a life last night,” Chief Boone said. “He is an exemplary police officer and this is just one example. I think he’s a hero.”
Turnpike Street was closed for several hours following the crash. Easton Police are investigating.
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