Latest news with #AdamGomez
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Valley groups aim to walk people back from financial cliff with new program
SPRINGFIELD — Springfield WORKS and United Way Pioneer Valley will host a celebration Thursday for the Bridge to Prosperity Cliff Effect Pilot Program launch. A community initiative of the Western Massachusetts Economic Development Council, this pilot program is designed to tackle the 'cliff effect,' which occurs when families experience a sudden loss of public benefits when their income rises, often leaving them financially worse off despite earning more. The initiative is crafted in collaboration with the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. The event will feature remarks from speakers including state Sen. Adam Gomez and state Rep. Patricia Duffy, and a moderated discussion with pilot program participants. The event will be held 12 to 1:30 p.m. at the TD Bank Building, 1441 Main St. 'Many people in our region work hard to lift their incomes but lose crucial benefits too soon, preventing them from earning a living wage. The Bridge to Prosperity Pilot bridges that gap by providing cash payments and financial coaching to support people as they transition off public benefits and into sustaining jobs,' said Laura Sylvester, public policy manager of the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts. 'We're ... hopeful it will inspire statewide change.' In the pilot program, participants benefit from personalized coaching to help navigate finances, employment, and career growth, and receive connections to additional support in the community as needed. Each participant receives a monthly bridge payment based upon their estimated cliff effect impact, with an additional $10,000 asset-building payment at the end of the program. These payments are designed to stabilize families and will help mitigate potential losses in benefits while they work toward moving up the career ladder and achieving lasting economic security. 'Our pilot launched in February with 18 participants, seven here in Springfield, and we're already making a difference,' said Kristen Joyce, Bridge to Prosperity program director. 'Bridge payments helped one family stabilize their housing and another purchase food when their SNAP ended. Another participant was able to start training to become a nurse after years of only dreaming of it.' The program is aiming to serve up to 100 families in 2025. To learn more about the Bridge to Prosperity Cliff Effect Pilot Program, visit or contact Kristen Joyce at Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Springfield officials support legislation to automatically seal criminal records
SPRINGFIELD — Saying people shouldn't be punished twice for the same crime, city officials are pushing for legislation to automatically seal records for those who committed nonviolent crimes three to seven years after conviction. The Clean Slate Initiative, which is now being debated in the Legislature's Joint Committee on the Judiciary, would automatically seal records of misdemeanor crimes three years after conviction and after seven years for a felony. The law has a clause exempting some, including sex offenders and others who have committed violent felonies, from having their records sealed automatically, according to the bill. 'The intent is to give people a second chance,' said state Sen. Adam Gomez, D-Springfield, who is one of the legislators who filed the bill spearheaded by Sen. Cindy Friedman, a Democrat who represents the Fourth Middlesex district. For Gomez, the bill is especially meaningful, since he got into trouble with the law and was charged with a misdemeanor when he was a teenager. He was able to seal his record, change his life and give back to his community, but many do not have the same opportunity. Currently employers, landlords and others do background checks through the state's Criminal Offender Record Information system and find out about an applicant's legal history. Even if a person was arrested and never convicted, the charge can appear on their record. That means people who have made a mistake are left struggling to find a place to live and having difficulty making ends meet, because they can't find a good-paying job, no matter how qualified they are, Gomez said. People can apply to have their record sealed, but the process is cumbersome, timely and can be difficult for people who can't afford a lawyer, officials said. Hampden County is one of the counties with the most arrests per capita, so the bill is even more important here, Gomez said. The City Council voted last month to support the bill in a resolution that passed unanimously. All councilors asked to be listed as co-sponsors of the proposal. Gomez said he was proud to have the largest city that he represents becoming the first to officially support the bill. City Council Vice President Tracye Whitfield, who proposed the resolution, called the bill a great piece of legislation, which already has been adopted in at least a dozen other states, including neighboring Connecticut and some conservative ones such as Oklahoma and Utah. 'Clean Slate really just levels the playing field. We know that Black and Latino individuals have been and are disproportionately arrested, prosecuted, convicted and incarcerated, and the best way to fix and address this problem is to automatically seal records for low-level, nonviolent misdemeanors and low-level offenses,' she said. Multiple advocates from a variety of agencies, such as Live Well Springfield, Greater Boston Legal Services and the Urban League, spoke in support of the bill. Several talked about people who had records that followed them their entire lives. 'Clean slate is about fairness. It is about economic opportunity,' said Miles Gresham, policy director for Neighbor to Neighbor. 'It is also about public safety. People who cannot find a home and a job (are) more likely to reoffend.' There are now roughly 672,000 people statewide who are eligible to seal their records, many of whom have not committed a crime in decades. Some do not know they are eligible to clear their record, some have mental health issues, others find the petition process daunting, and some are just traumatized over the idea of returning to court, said Andrea Freeman, policy director for the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts. 'It is about fairness and opportunity, and it is also about health,' she said. City Councilor Lavar Click-Bruce said having an unsealed record is 'double jeopardy,' because people who paid the price for their crimes are still being punished because their record follows them when they apply for a job, an apartment and even to enter college. 'If you make a mistake, who are we to judge?' he said. 'It is a resolution that needs to be passed swiftly.' City Councilor Zaida Govan said she has been fighting for legislation like this for three decades. 'When you are in active in active addiction, you get caught up,' said Govan, who added she has been sober for 36 years. 'It is a long time coming. I'm really glad we are doing something about this.' Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Advocates call for state action to address the western Massachusetts Homelessness Crisis
HOLYOKE, Mass. (WWLP) – Housing instability and homelessness is on the rise in western Massachusetts. 'I fell in urine, cracked two ribs, my rent was out of the roof, I'm on disability, new owners bought the building, raised my rent by $50 more, so I had to move,' said Bennita Watford, a housing advocate from Springfield. 'There are a lot of issues when it comes to the grown market in job creation, mental health crisis, or the lack of work, or rising costs,' said Senator Adam Gomez. The Western Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness has laid out its legislative priorities for the upcoming session. Their focus is to keep people inside their homes and off the streets. According to the U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development, 3,560 people experience homelessness in this part of the region. Since 2021, rent rose 32. 5% in Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin Counties, and 39.7% in Berkshire County. Eviction filings rose 66% between 2022 and 2024. This is the reason why 58-year-old Bennita Watford moved away to live with her family in Pittsfield. 'It's good, but who wants to depend on their children. That's the part that hurts me more,' said Watford. Hundreds of tenants, renters, state and local leaders came together on Friday for the 9th Annual Gathering of the Western Massachusetts Network to End Homelessness. They want to change each other's pain into power. The network is seeking legislative action on 12 bills to help increase housing stability. 'Like my rent stabilization bill. I think we have to look towards the realization that individuals are struggling to pay their rent, and individuals who are not only working one job, but two or three jobs,' said Gomez. Other bills are looking to give tenants the opportunity to purchase their housing before being sold to an investment company, and enact a real estate transfer fee on the highest-selling homes to fund more affordable housing. You can join this fight at Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Cannabis competitor flowering in convenience stores
BOSTON (SHNS) – One representative called it a 'wonderful, reefer-smelling bag' and another worried a drug-sniffing dog might alert to him at the airport later as he passed the bundle of products down the Cannabis Policy Committee dais Wednesday. The bag didn't contain items sold in legal retail marijuana stores here, or even marijuana items sold on the illicit market. Inside were products purchased legally and without clear state regulation from gas stations, convenience stores and vape shops around Massachusetts, each one purporting to be a legal hemp product under federal law but offering the same kind of high as cannabis. These intoxicating hemp-based products largely fall into a gray area of the law and between the regulatory cracks. Since the gummies, energy shot-like drink bottles and seltzers proliferated across Massachusetts convenience store checkout counters and social media feeds in recent years, lawmakers and regulators have already expressed a desire to straighten out what is and is not cannabis, and how it should all be regulated. 'In my opinion, if it smells like it, looks like it, I think it is it,' Cannabis Policy Committee co-chair Sen. Adam Gomez said Wednesday after hearing concerns about hemp products from legal cannabis retailers and others. The products at issue get around the regulation that comes with cannabis by calling themselves hemp products, but the distinction between hemp and cannabis 'is really just a legal fiction, a legal creation,' Jesse Alderman, co-chair of Foley Hoag's nationwide cannabis practice, told the committee. Hemp is defined as cannabis that contains no more than 0.3% Delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the primary psychoactive compound of marijuana, by dry weight at the time of harvest. The 2018 federal farm bill removed hemp from the Controlled Substances Act and gave oversight of hemp production to federal and state departments of agriculture. Alderman said 0.3% Delta-9 THC by weight would be a very small amount in a plant, but can be equivalent to a far greater amount of THC in a processed final product 'so that while they have a concentration of less than 0.3% while measured dry, they are intensely psychoactive.' 'I mean, they can knock your socks off,' he said. On the committee's docket Wednesday was H 168 from Newburyport Rep. Dawne Shand, which would require the Cannabis Control Commission to regulate hemp-derived cannabinoid products and require a hemp endorsement from the CCC for their sale and transfer of such products. It would define or redefine CBD, cannabinoids, Delta-8 THC, Delta-9 THC, and more. Something would be considered a 'hemp-derived cannabinoid product' if it is derived from hemp, intended for human consumption and contains more than 0.5 milligrams of THC per serving and 2.5 mg per multi-serving package. 'The intoxicating hemp industry makes a mockery of cannabis laws in states like Massachusetts, where we have attempted to create a fair, legal and safe cannabis market,' Shand said. 'The intoxicating hemp products are pure product competitors — beverages, edibles, pre-rolls, vapes — same high.' Peter Gallagher, CEO of the licensed cannabis producer and retailer INSA, passed the bag of hemp products among committee members and explained that he bought more than 100 hemp products from more than 20 stores around the state and sent them out for testing. 'What we found was quite alarming. Approximately 90% of those products would qualify as cannabis, meaning that the percentage of Delta-9 was well above 0.3%. In fact, in some cases, it was well north of 10%. Not only that, about a third of those products wouldn't have passed the strict regulatory testing that's required by the state of Massachusetts, and would have failed for microbials, pesticides, in some case banned pesticides in the United States, as well as heavy metals and residual solvents,' he said, adding that none of the stores checked an ID and some were not charging sales tax at all. He said among the products purchased was a package of edibles that contained 1,200 milligrams of THC per piece and about 36,000 mg for the entire package — well in excess of the state's legal limit for cannabis of 5 mg per piece and 100 mg per package. 'What we're seeing is cannabis is being sold in gas stations, convenience stores and vape shops under the guise of hemp. This really looks a lot like what we saw in 2019 with the vape crisis, where illegal, unregulated, untested vape cartridges were being sold with cutting agents in them and ultimately led to people harming themselves,' Gallagher said. 'I think a lot of consumers today don't understand that what's being purchased in these gas stations, convenience stores, vape shops, or even online, is different and potentially more damaging, especially with the synthetic cannabinoids, than what you're able to purchase in the regulated dispensaries.' Republican Rep. Michael Soter of Bellingham has also filed legislation to regulate CBD and hemp products (H 179) and to regulate Delta-9 THC (H 173). He said Wednesday that his bills are based on conversations with the owner of a CBD store in his district, someone who has many of the same concerns as Gallagher. 'My biggest part of it is that I think there are a lot of CBD shop owners that are very concerned, like you are, about the Delta-9 levels and making sure that we regulate that, because I think what we're seeing in the level of that stuff out there is extremely toxic and we need to regulate it and we need to put more focus on that,' he said. 'I just want to make sure that we're kind of all aligned in what we're trying to do. We're not trying to hurt your industry, and I'm not trying to kill a CBD industry.' Local News Headlines 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 Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Springfield College hosts MLK Jr. lecture panel
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – A thought-provoking discussion was held Monday night during Springfield College's 12th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Lecture. The panelist featured state senator Adam Gomez, president of Mount Holyoke College Danielle Holley, and Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services CEO Shannon Rudder. The discussion covered a wide variety of topics related to MLK Jr. and his legacy. The guest speakers were also asked to reflect on the current social and political climate under the new presidential administration, especially as diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives disband nationwide. 'You cannot celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King and not believe in diversity, equity, and inclusion,' says Honey. 'To me, this kind of 'Santa-Claus-ification' of Dr king is something that when we celebrate the holiday. We have to fight actively against that, I encourage people to read more than just, 'I want my children to be recognized for the content of their character and not the color of their skin.' The lecture also celebrated the 61st anniversary of Dr. King's commencement address to Springfield College back in 1964. 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 Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
