Free Republic

The state’s largest teachers union came in for sharp criticism on Wednesday after it asked school districts to defend educators from bullying and harassment for speaking out on the death of the conservative activist Charlie Kirk. In a joint statement, Max Page and Deb McCarthy, the president and vice president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, argued that the “ongoing campaign by extreme-right conservatives to discredit and defund public education has grotesquely exploited the shooting death of Charlie Kirk to launch attacks against people commenting on this public figure’s beliefs and statements.”

Massachusetts has released new state-specific recommendations saying people of all ages should be vaccinated against COVID-19, despite federal guidelines that would otherwise have made that difficult. “We are not going to let Donald Trump or Robert Kennedy take away your ability to make your own health care decisions,” Gov. Maura Healey said in a statement Wednesday. “Massachusetts will continue to lead with science and protect access to life-saving vaccines. We are taking this action today so the people of Massachusetts know that you will continue to be able to get the vaccines you want and need – no matter what...

The Massachusetts Teachers Association is calling on school districts not to punish educators who have reacted positively to Charlie Kirk’s assassination. MTA President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy are urging districts and public colleges and universities to be “partners with unions in the fight to defend educators from bullying and harassment and to protect their rights."

BOSTON (AP) — Immigrants are being detained while going to work, outside courthouses, and at store parking lots in Metro Boston as President Donald Trump targets so-called sanctuary cities in his effort to ramp up immigration enforcement. As families hole up in homes — afraid to leave and risk detainment — advocates are reporting an increased presence of unmarked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement vehicles sitting in parking lots and other public areas throughout immigrant communities, where agents appeared to target work vans. One man captured a video of three landscapers who were working on the Saugus Town Hall property...

Amid the decline in international and graduate students, vacancy rates have ticked up near major universities Longtime Cambridge real estate agent Dino Confalone manages a rental property north of Kendall Square, where housing demand is typically sky-high. Near MIT and the Red Line, it’s furnished with a leather sectional, an extra-wide fridge, and a manicured backyard. And despite rent of $6,250 a month, it’s usually a breeze to lease to visiting scholars who are only here for shorter periods and do not want to live out of a hotel. “I’ve never, ever had an issue getting people in there,” said...

BOSTON — Monica Cannon-Grant, the founder of the nonprofit Violence in Boston, plans to plead guilty to federal charges of defrauding people who donated to her organization. In a one-page document filed in federal court in Boston on Friday, Canon-Grant requested a change of plea hearing. Cannon-Grant faces a 27-count indictment on charges including wire fraud, mail fraud, making false statements, and filing false tax returns, among other offenses. Federal investigators have alleged that Cannon-Grant, and her husband, Clark Grant, “solicited and received over $1 million in donations and grants from individuals, charitable institutions and other entities.” The indictment alleged...

A distinguished Harvard Law professor and legal scholar was hammered on social media after spreading a debunked rumor that the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s assassination was "ultra-MAGA" and that Republicans were trying to "blame" liberals for the tragedy. Laurence Tribe made the comment in a post on X that shared a lengthy post from an account called Occupy Democrats, which attempted to paint a picture of suspect Tyler Robinson’s political ideology. "Kirk’s apparent assassin seems to have been ultra-MAGA, exploding the GOP/MAGA attempt to pin the blame for this tragedy on liberals," wrote Tribe, a professor at Harvard Law School...

There was a report of shots fired at UMass Boston, prompting a large police response on campus Thursday afternoon, the Boston Police Department confirmed. Shots were reported at 3:45 p.m. near 240 Morrissey Boulevard at the campus's location in Dorchester. Sky 5 video showed campus employees and students evacuating a school building with their hands in the air. One officer was seen with a rifle from Sky5 as police officers swarmed the area. According to several UMass Boston alerts, the incident is a "public safety threat" and is in/near a residence hall in the school's East Building. The school is...

White House Border Czar Tom Homan joined Mika Brzezinski on MSNBC today to discuss ICE actions in Boston, Massachusetts. Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Governor Maura Healey have both vowed to fight the Trump administration over deportations, with Mayor Wu calling them "oppression" while Maura Healey attacked the National Guard, saying they "do nothing" for public safety. Mika tried to defend Healey and Wu over their sanctuary state/city policies, and Homan was having none of it. Homan also brought the receipts, telling the audience exactly who ICE rounded up in Boston. That includes a 33-year-old illegal immigrant from Guatemala, arrested...

The Trump administration is escalating its immigration operations in Democratic cities in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling giving the government the ability to conduct immigration stops based on an individual’s ethnicity or whether they speak Spanish. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Monday morning announced “Operation Patriot 2.0” in Massachusetts and announced “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago roughly an hour after the Supreme Court decision came down. The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to lift a lower court’s ruling that barred racial profiling as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers roved Los Angeles. The timing of the...

Boston’s big DEI experiment just delivered another insane comedy of errors, and this one comes complete with kickbacks, prison time, shaky immigration status, and a race-card meltdown. Former City Council member Tania Fernandes Anderson stood in court, fresh off a conviction for pocketing taxpayer cash in a City Hall bathroom, and her big takeaway wasn’t remorse. Nope. This DEI darling’s argument was that she shouldn’t be criticized because she’s Black. That’s it. Forget the corruption, forget the smug arrogance; apparently, race is now a permanent “get out of jail free” card in the DEI handbook. This is the handbook for...

Two 17-year-old suspects have been arrested in connection with the murder of congressional intern Eric Tarpinian-Jachym, federal prosecutors announced Friday. Authorities say a third juvenile suspect remains at large. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said the two teens, identified as Jalen Lucas and Kelvin Thomas Jr., will be charged as adults with first-degree murder in the June 30 slaying. Prosecutors indicated that additional charges could follow once the case is presented to a grand jury. Tarpinian-Jachym, 21, was gunned down late at night in Washington when stray bullets struck him multiple times, according to investigators. He...

After burying multiple Democratic Senators intent on trying to destroy his political career, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got his chance to dunk on arguably the most notorious Senators in America. As expected, he did not disappoint. As NBC News reported, Kennedy appeared before the Senate Finance Committee to answer questions. This comes one week after Kennedy pushed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director, Susan Monarez, to resign. The White House fired her when she refused, and three top CDC officials then resigned in protest. The hearing got testy in a hurry after far-left, Big Pharma hack...

Do you spend too much time in your car? Your local state authorities think you do — and they’re quietly pushing through laws that will give them the power to do something about it. Meet Massachusetts Senate Bill S.2246. Introduced by state Senate Majority Leader Cynthia Creem, it sets the stage for a future where the government tracks and potentially limits how many miles you drive each year. This isn’t a fringe proposal — it’s working its way through the legislature right now, and similar ideas are being tested in other states across the country. Is this really about emissions...

The 26-year-old man accused of killing a father who’d just dropped off his 6-year-old at school in Shrewsbury on Thursday morning is facing two criminal charges, according to court records. Snehal Ansh Srivastava is charged with armed assault with intent to murder and carrying a firearm without a license. He is set to be arraigned on those charges in Westborough District Court on Friday. Officials confirmed Friday the charges against Srivastava are in connection with the Shrewsbury incident. Shrewsbury police first responded to the incident shortly before 8:50 a.m. Thursday after the victim called 911 to report an altercation near...

The Trump administration is preparing an immigration enforcement blitz in Boston in the coming weeks, according to a current administration official and a former administration official. The latest plans, which could still change, would involve a surge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel and represent the latest Democratic-run city to be targeted by President Donald Trump. The Trump administration has frequently clashed with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, and criticized the city’s so-called sanctuary policy — which limits local law enforcement’s cooperation with federal agents looking to arrest and remove undocumented immigrants.

<p>Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte sent a new criminal referral against Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, intensifying the Trump administration’s pressure campaign against the central bank board member over allegations of mortgage fraud. The new referral, in a letter to US Attorney General Pam Bondi dated Aug. 28, concerns a third property in Massachusetts and follows a complaint earlier this month alleging that Cook fraudulently listed homes in Michigan and Georgia as her “primary residence” when she obtained mortgages in 2021, a declaration that typically secures more favorable loan terms.</p>

Parents of an 11-year-old girl have asked the Supreme Court to hear their complaint against a Massachusetts school district that secretly transitioned her to (sexual deviancy) — even having her work with a gender-transitioning nonprofit behind their backs. Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri say the Ludlow School Committee, a Massachusetts public school system, socially transitioned their daughter against their wishes. School officials at Baird Middle School in Ludlow allowed her to transition to a (censored) identity, use boys’ facilities, go by a male name and use nonbinary pronouns, the parents’ complaint states. “For more than a century, this Court has...

It appears that many of Boston's officers are quietly rebelling against the anti-ICE stance taken by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu's (D) administration. According to acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, Boston cops are secretly providing critical information to federal immigration officials to help arrest criminal illegal aliens—a bold move that flies in the face of the sanctuary city policies pushed by Wu and other extremist Democrat mayors across the country. For years, Boston, under Wu’s leadership, has been one of the loudest advocates of the sanctuary city movement. Her administration has consistently refused to cooperate with federal immigration authorities, shielding illegal...

Far-left Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu of Boston said yesterday that her city would not cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in deporting illegals, and that the Blue City would remain a sanctuary for illegals. Wu falsely claimed at a news conference that the Trump administration is “attacking our cities.” In response to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s warning that sanctuary cities must drop their policies or face federal legal action, Wu said the city would do no such thing. Wu now risks prosecution under several federal statutes, including those dealing with harboring illegals and interfering with the enforcement of...