Tag: boston

Boston Mayor Wu’s office trip to DC hearing cost taxpayers $10k, records show

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu dropped nearly $10,000 of taxpayer funds on travel accommodations for her March trip to Washington, D.C., where she faced down a Congressional oversight committee probing the city’s sanctuary policies.

Wu brought along 11 staff members to her high-stakes D.C. appearance, at a total cost of roughly $9,909, when factoring in hotel, flight, ride-share and other accommodations, per receipts provided to the Herald after a public records request.

The mayor flew economy both ways. She spent $348.79 on her flight and $855.48 for a two-night stay at the Hampton Inn & Suites Washington DC-Navy Yard hotel, for a total of roughly $1,204, records show.

Wu arrived at her hotel Monday, March 3 and checked out on Wednesday, March 5, the date of the sanctuary city mayors Congressional hearing.

The mayor brought along 11 high-ranking staff members and cabinet chiefs. Collectively, those staffers spent about $8,704 on travel accommodations.

The staffers who tagged along were:

  • Tiffany Chu, Wu’s chief of staff: $1,142.08
  • Ricardo Patrón, deputy chief of staff: $767.95
  • Ezra Zwaeli, director of speechwriting: $348.61
  • Mariangely Solis Cervera, chief of equity and inclusion: $943.87
  • Michael Firestone, chief of policy and strategic planning: $791.64
  • Avital Robbins, deputy chief of policy: $720.49
  • Phyllis St-Hubert, director of scheduling and advance: $1,340.53
  • Louis Mandarini, senior advisor for labor: $1,136.92
  • Jessicah Pierre: chief of communications: $174.30
  • Mohammed Missouri, director of stakeholder engagement: $773.79
  • Sam Dinning, policy and strategic initiatives counsel: $564.66

Missing from the receipts were hotel costs for Zwaeli and return flight and hotel costs for Pierre. The mayor’s office reached out to the Herald to clarify that Zwaeli and Pierre stayed with friends and Pierre’s return was not at taxpayer cost.

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Civil Service Commission Rules Boston Mayor Wu’s Administration Lacked “Just Cause” for Wrongful Termination of Police Officer Over January 6 Tweets

In a major victory for free speech and a stinging defeat for political retribution, the Massachusetts Civil Service Commission overturned the termination of Joseph Abasciano, a former Boston Police Department (BPD) officer accused of misconduct related to tweets he posted on January 6, 2021, while attending the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C.

The unanimous decision allows Abasciano to retire medically, with his federal lawsuit against the city still pending.

Officer Abasciano, a former U.S. Marine with commendations for his service in Iraq and over a decade of distinguished work in Boston’s toughest neighborhoods, found himself under scrutiny not for his actions but for his conservative political views.

Abasciano’s case arose from a series of tweets on his anonymous account, @mailboxjoe, that neither identified him as a BPD officer, where he described attendees as “patriots” and referred to the Vice President as a “traitor.”

“I sent out some anonymous tweets while traveling home. Apparently, I was not so anonymous. It appears my conservative activism and attempts to expose (Democrat) union corruption exposed me and my anonymous Twitter account,” Abasciano told The Gateway Pundit.

He was terminated in 2023 following a second investigation into anonymous tweets he posted while returning home from the January 6 rally.

Notably, the Commission highlighted that Abasciano did not participate in any violent activities during the Capitol riot. Internal investigations initially cleared him of misconduct.

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Boston council member calling for ‘revolution’ alarms liberal colleagues with wild tirades, threats

A Democratic Boston city council member, who called to “dismantle the White backdrop” in America and “create a revolution,” is starting to disturb her liberal colleagues with her wild antics and threats, according to a source who spoke with Fox News Digital. 

The source is a city hall employee, who requested anonymity because council member Tania Fernandes Anderson has created an “unhealthy” environment. The employee believes Fernandes Anderson is a “troubled person,” who uses accusations of racism to get people to fall in line. The source discussed the challenges of having someone in the city’s government who has been – in their view – hostile, verbally abusive and antisemitic. 

“People are intimidated by her. And that intimidation does work,” the source said. They said some members would give into her because “no one want[s] to disagree with Tania because she’s unpredictable.” 

Fernandes Anderson was elected in November 2021, and is self-described as “the first formally undocumented African born immigrant & first Muslim elected in the city of Boston.”

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Citizen Journalist Aidan Kearney Details Mysterious Death of Boston Police Officer, Murder Trial Underway

The government may be covering up the true cause of death of a Boston police officer, citizen journalist Aidan Kearney, senior editor for Turtleboy Daily News, said during an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday, laying out evidence that indicates that the officer’s girlfriend may have been framed as the murder trial is underway.

Karen Read is on trial for the January 29, 2022, death of Boston police officer John O’Keefe, and her defense team is alleging a massive government conspiracy framing her.

As Kearney relayed, the two were invited to the home of a man named Brian Albert, “who was also a Boston police officer with a reputation of being a tough guy fighter” and known as an aggressive man.

“So they were gonna go back to his house, and he was invited back there by a woman named Jennifer McCabe, who is Brian’s sister-in-law — his wife’s sister. And so, Karen decides — it’s about 12:20 [a.m.] by the time they get there, and a blizzard’s coming and just starting, and Karen’s like, ‘I’m gonna go home. Call me, you know, let me know everything’s okay in there.’”

She did not hear from O’Keefe, and the next morning, she called Jennifer McCabe and asked where O’Keefe was, and she claimed he never came in the house. Ultimately, his body was found outside. Read reportedly tried to save his life by performing CPR, but he died, and she ended up getting charged three days later with manslaughter, which was later kicked up to murder, for allegedly hitting O’Keefe with her car.

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Councillor dubs Boston the ‘most racist city in the country’ and seeks millions in reparations to help black residents buy organic food at farmers’ markets

A Massachusetts council woman has slammed Boston as the ‘most racist city in the country’ and called for a multimillion dollar reparations package so that black residents can improve their diets with organic food.

Julia Mejia, a Boston councilor-at-large, said the city had only spent $2.1 million to address the ‘historical trauma that’s been carried from generation to generation’ and that much more was needed.

Speaking at Harvard University, Mejia, called for a $300,000 maternity clinic for ‘birthing people’ and payouts, so the descendants of slaves could shop at farmers’ markets for organic syrup and other healthy items.

Reparations activists in Boston seek $15 million to repay black residents for injustices against their slavery-era forefathers — an eye-watering sum that’s nearly four times the city’s annual budget.

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Fury as Boston plans to fill former veteran housing with migrants as city asks residents to take people in

Massachusetts residents are outraged at recently announced plans to turn a former Boston area veteran housing unit into a homeless shelter as the city is inundated with migrants.

Democrat Governor Maura Healey revealed the government will turn the former Chelsea Soldiers’ Home facility, which is vacant and scheduled for demolition, into a safety-net site in April.

It will be able to accommodate 100 families who are eligible for the state’s Emergency Assistance family shelter system, which has been operating at capacity for months. 

Residents of the Bay State, however, are furious that the former veteran housing facility is being turned into migrant shelter when on a single night in 2023 there were 545 veterans experiencing homelessness in Massachusetts, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Local Dick McGrath said on Facebook: ‘Is it me, or is there something wrong with putting migrants in the Chelsea Soldiers Home instead of homeless veterans?’

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‘We Want It Now’: Black Clergy Demand $15 Billion in Reparations From ‘White Churches’ in Boston

Black clergy in Boston are demanding a $15 billion reparations package paid for by “white churches” in the local area.

The demands were made during a press conference the Resurrection Lutheran Church, organized by the Boston People’s Reparations Commission, according to The Boston Globe.

Among the speakers Reverend Kevin Peterson, who previously led a campaign to rename the popular tourist site of Faneuil Hall because of the name’s links to a slaveowner.

“We call sincerely and with a heart filled with faith and Christian love for our White churches to join us and not be silent around this issue of racism and slavery and commit to reparations,” Peterson declared.

“We point to them in Christian love to publicly atone for the sins of slavery and we ask them to publicly commit to a process of reparations where they will extend their great wealth — tens of millions of dollars among some of those churches — into the Black community,” he continued. 

Also speaking at the event was Danielle Williams, the director of a social justice group called Prophetic Resistance Boston, who claims her great-great-grandmother was a slave in North Carolina.

“Black people, the descendants of slavery, have been washing the feet of our oppressors for well over 400 years,” Williams reportedly said. “Now it’s time for you to wash our feet. The descendants of slavery, we want our reparations. We want it now.”

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Man, 62, in Boston is given a PIG’S kidney just days after Chinese doctors transplanted liver from hog into 50-year-old patient, in twin medical breakthroughs

Animal to human transplant science took a major step forward this week after surgeons transplanted a kidney and a liver from pigs into humans.

In Boston, an ailing 62-year-old man received a genetically-altered kidney from a pig in a world first.

The new organ began to produce urine almost immediately, doctors at Mass General said, and the patient is already walking the hospital’s halls. He may soon be discharged.

At the same time in China, a 50-year-old man became the first person to receive a genetically-engineered liver from a pig — which was kept in his body for ten days.

Surgeons say the organ’s color and texture appeared ‘normal’ upon extraction and that it was even secreting bile — a fluid aiding digestion — in a sign it was working. 

Both breakthroughs could offer hope for new ways to supply hospitals with organs for transplants, as the waiting list runs into years. 

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“So We Get No Say?” – Wealthy Elites from Affluent Neighborhood in Sanctuary City Boston Outraged Over Local Migrant Shelter Plans 

These leftist elites are all alike.

Residents from Boston’s Fort Point neighborhood gathered this week to complain about a planned migrant facility that is opening soon in their affluent community.

When these elites approved of the Boston’s sanctuary status they sure didn’t agree to this!

The local residents complained to city officials, “So we have no say?” After the plans were announced for the shelter in their area.

It’s just not right.

The Blaze reported:

Residents of a wealthy neighborhood in Boston expressed outrage at a recent community meeting after they learned that a new migrant shelter would soon open up nearby.

On Tuesday night, residents gathered to meet with General Scott Rice, the emergency assistance director for Democratic Gov. Maura Healey, to discuss their concerns about a temporary migrant shelter opening up in Fort Point, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the Seaport area of Boston.

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Boston’s migrant shelter luxury: State pays $16 for breakfast, $17 for lunch and $31 for dinner as they live in hotels for free after entering the US illegally

New documents show the rising public cost of sheltering migrants in Massachusetts, as the state grapples with a strain on its emergency shelter system.

The state has 17 contracts totaling $116 million to house migrant families through June, including a no-bid $10 million contract for a company providing meals, CBS News Boston reported, citing documents obtained by the outlet. 

In some cases, the state is paying hotels $64 per person each day for meals, including $16 for breakfast, $17 for lunch and $31 for dinner.

Last August, Massachusetts Governor Maura T. Healey declared a state of emergency, saying the state had more than 20,000 migrants in its shelter system.

Capacity overruns have necessitated the use of hotels for emergency shelter, but earlier this month the state opened a new temporary facility with 400 beds in Boston’s Melnea Cass Recreational Center.

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