Massachusetts
Senator Markey, Massachusetts Colleagues Celebrate $189 Million in Federal Funding to Support Transition to Zero- and Low-Emission Bus Fleet | U.S. Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts
Boston (August 16, 2022) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) led members of the Massachusetts Congressional Delegation as we speak in celebrating the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) announcement that it’ll award $189 million in federal transportation grants to finance capital tasks and help the transition of Massachusetts transit authorities’ fleets to the bottom polluting and most power environment friendly buses.
“These federal investments will assist be sure that Massachusetts households have accessible, inexpensive, and environment friendly public transit match for the 21st century,” stated Senator Markey. “As transportation stays the highest polluting sector in our Commonwealth, transitioning to a extra environment friendly bus fleet is a important step towards attaining the emissions reductions we want for a more healthy, extra livable future.”
“Congratulations to the 5 recipients for receiving these federal transportation grants and to Massachusetts for the second highest quantity of funding within the nation! These grants will assist construct the following era of inexperienced public transit throughout our state by investing in electrical and low-emissions buses that can make commutes extra dependable and our air cleaner,” stated Senator Elizabeth Warren.
“Lowering carbon emissions and transitioning to wash power is important to our combat in opposition to local weather change,” stated Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark. “By electrifying our public transportation system, we’re bettering the standard of our air, bettering the well being of our communities, and placing us on a path towards a greener future. I’m thrilled to see this funding come to Massachusetts.”
“The Pioneer Valley Transit Authority and the Berkshire Regional Transit Authority are dedicated to lowering air pollution and making certain greener fleets,” stated Congressman Richard E. Neal, Chair of the Home Committee on Methods and Means. “This funding will go a great distance in assuring that they’re able to fulfill their missions whereas making certain that riders have secure, inexpensive, and dependable transportation.”
“Local weather change stays probably the most existential threats to the way forward for our planet,” stated Congressman James P. McGovern, Chair of the Home Guidelines Committee. “By investing in zero- and low-emission bus fleets, Massachusetts affirms itself as a nationwide chief in taking the daring and aggressive motion crucial to handle the harm brought on by human motion on our surroundings. By rising transit power effectivity, this funding reduces America’s dependency on Massive Oil, contributing to the extra sustainable and cleaner future our kids deserve.”
“Now’s the time for Massachusetts to make daring investments into cleaner, extra sustainable transportation choices. This funding for zero- and low-emission buses will assist to enhance air high quality whereas giving riders extra reliability,” stated Congressman Seth Moulton. “This is a crucial step on the best way to rebuilding the fashionable infrastructure that our state deserves.”
“I’m thrilled to see this transformative funding within the Commonwealth’s transition to low- and zero-emission transportation choices,” stated Congresswoman Lori Trahan. “Due to this federal funding, Massachusetts will proceed our management in clear, trendy, and inexpensive transit that each resident can afford.”
“Local weather change is an existential menace and it’s crucial that we advance insurance policies and investments to confront it head on,” stated Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. “With communities of shade bearing the disparate brunt of each environmental and transit injustice, electrifying our bus fleets within the Massachusetts 7th can be a crucial step in the direction of making our transit techniques extra sustainable and accessible. I’m glad to see this cash come to Massachusetts and I’m grateful to Senator Markey and our delegation colleagues for his or her partnership.”
The Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA) will obtain a grant from FTA’s Buses and Bus Services Aggressive Program to finance buses and bus amenities capital tasks. The Berkshire Regional Transit Authority (BRTA), the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), the Southeastern Regional Transit Authority (SRTA), and the Massachusetts Division of Transportation (MassDOT) will every obtain a grant from FTA’s Low or No Emissions Automobile Program to help their efforts in buying and leasing zero-emission and low-emission transit buses.
Particularly, these grants would offer:
- $54,000,000 to the PVTA to buy battery-electric buses, expanded the bus bay of the UMass Bus Upkeep Facility, and help transit electrification efforts alongside Cottage Road.
- $2,457,328 to the BRTA for substitute autos and heating, air flow, and air-con techniques.
- $4,143,750 to MassDOT to facilitate the commonwealth’s transition to zero- and low-emission transit techniques.
- $12,240,000 to the SRTA to exchange buses alongside fastened routes with hybrid electrical transit autos.
- $116,000,000 to the MBTA for Section I of its transition to a battery-electric bus fleet.
In June, Senator Markey joined his colleagues Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark (MA-05), Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) in sending a letter to FTA Administrator Nuria Fernandez in help of the MBTA’s software to the Low or No Emissions Automobile Program and Bus and Bus Services Program.
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Massachusetts
Scores of recruits injured at Mass. State Police Academy in recent years, data show
Broken bones, muscle tears, concussions, even a gunshot wound — those are just some of the injuries sustained by Massachusetts State Police recruits during their training in recent years.
After a recruit died following a training exercise in September, the NBC10 Investigators began asking how many other recruits have been injured during training.
There have been 185 injuries reported across recruiting classes since 2018, according to police records obtained by NBC10 Boston. Among the injuries are broken fingers and broken ribs, torn ACLs, dislocated limbs, back injuries, eye injuries and two cases of rhabdomyolysis, a potentially life-threatening condition caused by overexertion of the muscles
Dozens of these injuries have resulted in 180 recruits being awarded workman’s compensation, and from those recruiting classes, 49 recruits resigned from the academy following their injuries.
Asked about the data, a police spokesman said in a statement the agency is committed to all employees’ health and safety, and that an on-site medical team monitors trainees throughout their time at the police academy to ensure they can physically perform their duties “with excellence.”
Enrique Delgado-Garcia died after a defensive tactics training exercise. His mother Sandra Garcia told NBC10 Boston at the time that the training is too brutal. An outside investigator was tapped to look into Delgado-Garcia’s death.
The NBC10 Investigators were invited inside the academy walls to get a firsthand look at what it takes to become a Massachusetts state trooper and the extremely demanding training involved after we began asking questions about the high attrition rate of this class.
Massachusetts
Massachusetts military secrets leaker Jack Teixeira sentenced to 15 years in prison
The Massachusetts Air National Guard tech support member responsible for “one of the most significant leaks of classified documents and information in United States history” will spend a decade and a half behind bars.
U.S. District Court Judge Indira Talwani sentenced Jack Teixeira to 180 months, which is 15 years, in federal prison at a sentencing hearing in federal court in Boston’s Seaport on Tuesday afternoon. She also ordered, among other conditions, that he enter a mental health treatment program and barred him from taking any jobs where he would have access to sensitive government materials. She did not impose a fine because he did not have the resources to pay a fine.
“I wanted to say I’m sorry for all the harm I’ve wrought and I’ve caused,” Teixeira, wearing an orange Plymouth County Correctional Facility jumpsuit, said before Talwani delivered her sentence.
“I can’t really sum up how contrite I am that my behavior has caused such a maelstrom,” the 22-year-old continued, “affecting my family and everyone overseas. I understand that all of the responsibility and consequences come on my shoulders alone and I accept whatever that will bring. I’m at your mercy, your honor.”
Teixeira, of Dighton, was arrested in April 2023 and pleaded guilty in March to six counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information under the Espionage Act.
Teixeira, who served as a Cyber Defense Operations Journeyman at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, leaked more than 40 highly classified military documents, including many regarding Russia’s war in Ukraine, to a cadre of fellow video game players on the social media platform Discord.
He was looking at a maximum of more than 16 years for his crimes, if Talwani had followed the plea agreement, which she wasn’t bound by in calculating sentencing. Teixeira entered the plea agreement in late February and finalized with his guilty pleas days later on March 4.
Boston FBI Special Agent in Charge Jodi Cohen called Teixeira “a textbook example of an insider threat.”
“His actions compromised military plans, sources and methods, and allowed our most significant adversaries access to some of our most closely guarded intelligence,” she continued in a press conference following sentencing.
Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy at the same press conference said that the “heavy price” of the sentence “sends a powerful message to every individual who holds a top secret clearance.”
“I expect that starting tomorrow, Jack Teixeira’s name will be mentioned when people are trained about the gravity of a top secret clearance and the consequences if you leak information,” Levy said.
Sentencing arguments
The federal prosecutor, Jared Dolan, in arguing for a sentence of 200 months, called Teixeira’s crimes “exceptionally serious” and compared his actions to those of Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning. He said that the sentence should be large enough to be a huge deterrent to anyone else who is considering such disclosures.
“Our military is built on a backbone of people his age and younger,” Dolan said. “And we trust that the training for those individuals put them in a place to succeed and that’s what they do every single day.”
“The defendants job was to not tell anyone else, what he promised to not tell anyone else,” he continued. “Youthful brains make impulsive decisions, but this was not an impulsive decision and if it was then it was an impulsive decision that he made every day for more than a year.”
Talwani spoke at length about her thought process on sentencing a crime for which there was “very little case law.”
“It seems to me that this is not one harm, this is multiple harms,” Talwani said when arguing that she disagreed with the plea agreement’s argument that the crimes could be grouped. She compared it to rape or robbery, to where even if the victim remained the same each new offense was a different crime.
“Yes the victim is the same here, the victim is the United States,” she continued. “But I don’t know how you can say it’s the same if he did it for one month instead of 13 months. … Each time you are creating a new risk, each time is new information, new disclosure.”
In sentencing memos filed last month, the defense recommended a sentence of 11 years whereas the prosecution recommended a sentence of 16 years and eight months, citing not only the need for Teixeira’s adequate punishment but to deter anyone else from even considering similar actions.
Defense attorney Michael Bachrach argued that Teixeira had no intention whatsoever to harm the United States, and that “motive matters.”
Unlike Manning and Snowden, who each chose to disclose secrets with purpose, Bachrach argued that Teixeira’s “truly bad decision making” was built on both his youth and his autism and wanting to find a community.
“What he cared about was having a community to speak to because he didn’t have that community at Otis Air Base,” Bachrach said, adding that his recommended sentence of 11 years is “significant” and is more time than half of the defendant’s life at the time of the crimes.
Talwani took some exception with Bachrach’s argument but did agree that she was leaning toward a downward departure based on Teixeira’s age.
Originally Published:
Massachusetts
Winning $50,000 Powerball ticket sold in Massachusetts
A lottery player won $50,000 playing Powerball in Massachusetts on Monday.
The winning numbers for the Powerball drawing on Nov. 11 were 3, 21, 24, 34, 46 and Powerball: 9. The multiplier was a 3X.
The $50,000 ticket sold in Massachusetts matched four of the first five numbers, and the Powerball number. It was sold in Waltham at a 7-Eleven.
Overall, at least 200 prizes worth $600 or more were won or claimed in Massachusetts on Monday, including eight in Springfield, seven in Worcester and 20 in Boston.
The Massachusetts State Lottery releases a full list of winning tickets every day. The list only includes winning tickets worth more than $600.
So far, the largest lottery prize won in Massachusetts this year was worth $1 million a year for life.
The prize was from the lottery’s “Lifetime Millions” scratch ticket game. The winner claimed their prize through a trust on July 10, and opted to receive a one-time payment of $15.4 million.
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