State House Spotlight: Weed, housing, and ICE
BOSTON (WWLP) – This week at the State House in Boston, lawmakers' duties spanned from regulating weed to creating more housing to learning more about ICE operations.
The House of Representatives passed a major marijuana bill, changing the structure of the Cannabis Control Commission, regulating and taxing convenience store hemp products, and more.
Should Massachusetts keep religious exemptions to vaccine mandates?
The Healey-Driscoll Administration announced a new housing initiative this week, turning unused state land into 3,500 new housing units. 'If you are a city or town that's had state properties languishing for years, underutilized, now you're going to have a chance to do something about that,' said Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll. 'Not only providing new housing that's going to serve your community and serve the commonwealth, but also create new tax revenues.'
ICE announced that it made nearly 1,500 arrests during May. They say their focus is on illegal immigrants who have committed violent crimes and drug offenses. 'These are defendants who didn't simply cross a border, they crossed a line and jeopardized the safety of Massachusetts communities,' said U.S. Attorney Leah Foley.
This announcement comes just days after a Milford high schooler with no criminal record was detained. He has since been released on bail.
The governor once again spoke out against the Trump Administration. This week, they decided to shutter Job Corps centers that provide job training and housing to at-risk youth.
In western Massachusetts, over 300 students and 170 employees would be affected by the Job Corps closure, which has been temporarily delayed by a New York judge.
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on WWLP.com.
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