President of the Boston City Council

CLSA had a useful discussion with Boston Council President Michael Ross

Key points of discussion will be added here later this week.

JALSA Friday,  January 8, presentation and discussion with Michael Ross, President of the Boston City Council
JALSA First Friday Brown Bag Series

Mike Ross represents District 8 on the Boston City Council since his election in 1999. A diverse collection of neighborhoods, the district includes Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Fenway, and Mission Hill.  District 8 is home to some of Boston’s greatest institutions and landmarks: Fenway Park, the Longwood Medical Area, the Museum of Fine Arts and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, a number of our city’s finest academic institutions, and world-renowned public spaces like the Boston Common, and Frederick Law Olmstead’s historic Emerald Necklace.

Mike is a first-generation American. His father, Stephan Ross, survived 10 concentration camps during the Holocaust, and was rescued by American soldiers at Dachau. Mike holds a Bachelor’s Degree from Clark University in Worcester, an MBA from Boston University, and a Law Degree from Suffolk University. Mike currently lives in Mission Hill. Previously he was a Beacon Hill resident, where he was actively involved in the community as a board member of the Democratic Ward 5 Committee.

One of Mike Ross’s earliest actions on the Boston City Council was to get an ordinance passed requiring that all uniforms purchased by the City had to be from factories paying “a living wage.”  On September 30, Michael presided over the Council when it passed a resolution declaring no City Council members would stay at or attend functions at the Hyatt Hotels until the 100 workers who had been unjustly fired were reinstated. We look forward to our meeting with the Council President.
RSVP on-line or call 617-227-3000.

JALSA’s testimony before the Joint Education Committee indicates our concern for the long-term effects of bullying and the need for schools to be prepared to intervene.   Bullying creates a hostile and unwelcoming atmosphere in schools, which is not the arena in which we want our kids to learn.   The bullying is bad for the victim; it is bad for the bully, and it is bad for the schools.  Schools which deal with bullying report improved academic learning for all.   We are concerned about LGBT kids as well as those that get harassed for wearing a kippah or a prayer shawl, or because someone else perceives them as different.

Responding to Brian Camenker’s testimony that such legislation reflected special interest groups and a hidden agenda, Sheila Decter, indicated that JALSA was proud to consider itself a special interest group, as noted on this website:    Our special interest is promoting the general welfare; safeguarding access to equal opportunity; and eliminating the legal, societal and economic barriers that stand between too many and the promise of the American dream. We are a membership organization that believes that education is an important basic right.   If that agenda feels like a conspiracy, then it is a conspiracy of a lot of groups that care about the success of every school child.

Sunday,  November 15, 7 o’clock p.m.

Bethel AME Church, St. Andrews Campus, 86 Wachusett Street, Jamaica Plain (corner Wachusett Street and Walk Hill Street)

Congressman Michael Capuano
Attorney General Martha Coakley
CityYear Co-Founder and CEO, Be the Change, Alan Khazei
Venture Capitalist and Celtics Owner, Steve Pagliuca

Join JALSA and the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization to hold all four candidates accountable on issues we consider important

Administrative Support of Paid Sick Days

The Deputy Secretary of the Department of Labor, Mr. Seth Harris,
testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Children and Families,
Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and announced the
Obama Administration’s support for the Healthy Families Act during the
hearing: “The Cost of Being Sick: H1N1 and Paid Sick Days.”

The Healthy Families Act offers an important opportunity to provide
workers with economic security by assuring that they have the ability to
stay home if they are sick without fear of losing their jobs or being
forced to go to work sick because they cannot afford to stay home.

“It is regrettable that Congress has yet to pass legislation requiring large employers to offer paid days off for workers who are sick or have to care for family members.”