BOSTON/State House - Declaring Monday, February 8th the day "we start to take control of our commonwealth, our common health, and our common future," Green-Rainbow Party candidate Dr. Jill Stein announced she would run for Governor of Massachusetts this year at a rally on the State House steps.

Surrounded by supporters holding signs, Stein named some of the pressing issues on which she would focus during the campaign. "Crumbling schools, unjust and racially biased CORI and drug laws, regressive taxes, crushing costs of war, climate threats to our economy, and the list goes on."

BOSTON/State House - In the face of continued conservative resistance to immigration reform proposals nationwide, over 100 undocumented immigrant students and allies attended the Wednesday January 27th hearing of the Mass. legislature's Joint Committee on Higher Education in State House Hearing Room B-2 in support of "An Act Relative to Equal Access to Higher Education and Generating Revenue for the Commonwealth" (S. 603/H. 1175). The bill would allow undocumented immigrant students who attended at least 3 years of high school in the Commonwealth to pay for tuition and fees at public colleges at the in-state rate. Currently, undocumented students are allowed to attend Mass. public colleges, but are required to pay the much-higher out-of-state tuition and fee rate - which advocates say effectively bars most of the students from attending college at all, given that most of them are from poor families.

BOSTON/State House - After successfully pushing a reform bill through the Mass. Senate last year, over 125 advocates of changes to the state Criminal Offender Record Information system held a rally in State House Hearing Room B-2 Wednesday before lobbying key legislators that can help move the House version of the bill towards passage this year. The event was organized by the Commonwealth CORI Coalition - which represents over 90 organizations in support of CORI reform.

BOSTON/State House - The official quest to replace Edward Kennedy in the U.S. Senate began this past Monday, when MA Governor Deval Patrick announced January 19, 2010 as the date for a special election to fill the seat left vacant by Kennedy’s passing on August 25th.

BOSTON/State House steps - They came with a cake Thursday to celebrate the 44th birthday of the federal Medicare program.

About thirty union organizers and members of organizations such as Democratic Socialists of America (Boston Chapter), Jobs with Justice, MA Nurses Association, Physicians for a National Health Program, and others, spoke out in favor of using the best aspects of the Medicare program as a model to craft effective and comprehensive health care reform in the U.S. and Massachusetts.

BOSTON/State House - Activists and supporters of Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) reform testified to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary at the Statehouse Monday. Young supporters marched that morning from Reggie Lewis Track to the State house, where they held a rally and speak-out outside the building.

BOSTON/State House - Over 75 people representing immigrant, labor and health advocacy organizations spilled out into the hallway during a packed State House press conference where a campaign was launched Wednesday to restore funds for health benefits for 30,000 immigrants covered by the Commonwealth Care program in the 2010 Massachusetts budget. The attendees represented several members of the nearly 50-organization coalition Affordable Care Today, and pushed for enough funds to be added back to the budget as an attachment to an outside section to ensure no loss of coverage for the affected population next year.

BOSTON/State House - Mayor Thomas Menino joined other state officials Tuesday to voice support for CORI reform at a press conference held by Commonwealth CORI Coalition (CCC), a statewide coalition of more than 60 community organizations, labor unions and faith-based groups. CCC contends that Massachusetts' CORI system is broken and is promoting a CORI reform bill that they say would reduce criminal recidivism and joblessness.

BOSTON/State House - For months, economic democracy activists have been demanding that banks and other lenders take a more humane approach towards people having problems paying their home mortgages. Many of the protests have been directed at giant multinational corporations Bank of America and Deutsche Bank. Now, as the economy worsens for most people, groups with varying social, political, and economic agendas are collaborating on ways to promote their alternative solutions more widely.

BOSTON/State House - Over 200 labor and community activists gathered in front of the State House Steps on Tuesday to commemorate Workers' Memorial Day - the annual state holiday that honors all workers killed on the job over the previous year. The event was organized by the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health.

After a few quick introductory remarks, representatives of several unions and labor advocacy organizations slowly read the names of the 66 Massachusetts workers who died in workplace accidents last year. A bagpiper then played Amazing Grace as the crowd observed a moment of silence in the workers' honor.