By: State Senator Ives – July, 2018 One of my budgetary priorities this year was to increase funding for the Foster Care Parent Campaign line item in the Fiscal Year 2019 State Budget. The House Budget maintained the funding levels at $250,000. The Senate version of the budget allocated $750,000 to expand the Foster Parent […]
By: Don Jarvis – June, 2018 In 2017 I started a volunteer group called Preserving Newbury, and last year we started a Community Flag Retirement Box which is located at the Byfield Fire Department. The high volume of flags the box continues to collect got me thinking – where are people replacing their flags? Why […]
By: Lenny Mirra – June, 2018 The mission was simple, get both sides to sit down with each other and discuss new ways to end gun violence that all sides could agree on. This was my initial feeling when the gun control group Moms Demand Action demanded to speak with me about this very issue, […]
By: State Senator Katy Ives – May, 2018 The State Senate included funding in the Fiscal Year 2018 supplemental budget for the Municipal Naloxone Bulk Purchase Trust Fund, which allows municipalities to purchase naloxone for municipal first responder agencies at a discounted rate. I filed an amendment to this supplemental budget that would allocate $150,000 […]
By State Senator Katy O’Connor Ives – March, 2018 One of the most important issues limiting our state’s economy as a whole, and families and residents individually, is the issue of childcare. The state of our economy is directly connected to the state of child care options for the work force. Though Massachusetts was one […]
By: Senator Katy Ives – Nov. 2017 The State Senate unanimously passed a comprehensive bill that would require higher education institutions in Massachusetts to set in place requirements on how campus police report and disclose an incident of dating violence, sexual assault or stalking. S.2191 filed by Senator Moore. An Act Concerning Sexual Violence on […]
By: Don Jarvis – Oct. 2017 For the third year in a row Preserving Newbury is hosting Wreaths Across America in Newbury, Massachusetts. Wreaths Across America is a national nonprofit organization founded in 2007, which continues to expand their annual wreath-laying ceremony. The wreath laying ceremony began at Arlington National Cemetery and now stretches to […]
By: Sen. Kathleen O’Connor Ives – October, 2017 I recently testified on a bill I filed S733, “An Act Relative to Access to Housing for First Responders,” This legislation would allow MassHousing, an independent, quasi-public state agency focused on providing financing for affordable housing, to create a special home loan program for first responders who […]
By: Senator Kathleen O’Connor Ives I recently testified before the Joint Committee on Public Health to encourage the favorable report of H1170 “An Act to Protect Little Lungs,” filed by Representative Paul Heroux. This bill would ban smoking in a car if a child is small enough to be in a car seat and carry […]
UPDATED: 9-8-17 LAWRENCE – Lawrence Police have apprehended a violent felon who was wanted by multiple area law enforcement agencies on numerous charges. In the early morning hours of Sunday September 3, 2017 – with the assistance of State Trooper Dolan of the Violent Fugitive Apprehension Squad – the Lawrence Police Department’s Emergency Response Team […]
By State Senator Katy Ives – Aug 2017 The Department of Children and Families (DCF) and the Department of Mental Health license youth group homes throughout the state that house adolescents removed from their families. Over the past few years, the City of Haverhill has seen a significant surge in calls from group home staff, […]
BOSTON – Today, the State Senate passed an omnibus property tax relief bill S2124 – An Act improving real property tax abatements, application deadlines, and deferrals. This bill improves the property tax deferral program for active military personnel, senior citizens and for persons who are deaf. O’Connor Ives filed a bill for an Amesbury resident […]
By: State Senator Katy O’Connor Ives – June, 2017 The Massachusetts State Senate debated the Fiscal Year 2018 state budget last month, where I advocated for key provisions that will be beneficial to the constituents of my district and the Commonwealth. One of the amendments in the Senate Fiscal Year 2018 budget, which I co-sponsored, […]
By: State Senator Katy Ives – April, 2017 Early Voting passed into law in 2014 and this past presidential election was the first in which residents were allowed to vote before Election Day. This is an advantageous concept for many people that want to vote but can’t get to the ballot box on one given […]
BOSTON – The Massachusetts Senate unanimously passed a resolution Thursday to condemn the recent Executive Order issued by President Donald J. Trump which bars entry to the United States for certain nationals from seven Muslim-majority nations. The resolution recognizes the unique importance of immigration to the history of Massachusetts since its founding, through the present. […]