Sitting Somerville City Councilor-at-Large Jake Wilson announced his intention to run for mayor in the upcoming November election, on Dec. 16, 2024, becoming the first to challenge two-term incumbent Mayor Katjana Ballantyne.
On Jan. 29, an annual point-in-time (PIT) count of sheltered and unsheltered people took place in the state of Massachusetts. This year the cities of Medford, Everett and Malden came together with Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD) to organize the count with the help of volunteers from across the three areas.
The Medford City Council passed a Welcoming City Ordinance on Jan. 14 with a 6–1 vote to establish Medford as a sanctuary city for immigrants and to ensure the Medford Police Department continues its policy of non-involvement with federal immigration enforcement.
Somerville residents and wildlife experts are raising concerns over the high frequency of bird deaths over the past months. Two owls were reported dead in Somerville over a two-week period in December 2024 with necropsies revealing internal bleeding indicative of anticoagulant rodenticide poisoning, according to the founder of the nonprofit Save Arlington Wildlife.
The Tufts Community Union Senate willhold special elections this week to fill vacant positions for the spring semester of the 2024–25 academic year. Voting will begin at noon today and end at the same time on Saturday.
The City of Medford is launching a new program to offer participating landlords up to $750 per year for renting to veterans as a result of an ordinance passed by the City Council in January. Veterans will be vetted by the city and then partnered with landlords through Housing Families, a local non-profit that works to ensure housing stability. The city is prohibited from giving money directly to citizens.
The Tufts Community Union Senate tackled club funding and discussed a resolution calling for the expansion of language offerings during their weekly meeting on Feb. 2. Parliamentarian Kunal Botla introduced the first resolution of the semester: Class of 2028 Senator Jesse Kitumba’s call to expand language proficiency testing options beyond the languages included in the UPenn Language program.
The Medford School Committee voted unanimously to appropriate $7 million to retain over 14 positions across the school district, fund infrastructure upgrades and reserve funds for a new collective bargaining agreement on Jan. 13. The city’s approval of Proposition 2 ½ override questions 7 and 8 in the November 2024 election, generating $3 million and $4 million, respectively, for Medford schools.
Unionized full-time lecturers in the School of Arts and Sciences rallied on Monday and Tuesday during a two day walk-out, following 10 months of negotiations with Tufts administration. The 122 A&S lecturers, represented by Service Employees International Union Local 509, seek salary adjustments to compensate for rising costs of living in the Greater Boston area and increases in student enrollment.
Coalition for Palestinian Liberation at Tufts reiterated their demands for Tufts to divest from Israeli corporations in a protest on Wednesday, three days after a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect. Drawing roughly 30 protestors, the protest was announced by CPLT in a joint Instagram post with Somerville for Palestine and Medford for Palestine on Jan. 18.
The Tufts Community UnionSenate covered committee work, handled supplementary funding requests and voted on critical policy issues during a packed meeting Sunday night.
About 80% of full-time union lecturers in the School of Arts and Sciences are walking out on Monday and Tuesday in an effort to bargain for a third contract with Tufts administration. The full-time lecturers will not be working for two days in support of livable salaries and manageable workloads.
Tufts’ Institutional Neutrality Working Group hosted a total of five listening sessions to hear input from faculty, staff and students on a potential statement of institutional neutrality. On Jan. 15 and Jan. 16, the working group held two final virtual listening sessions for all Tufts community members to voice their thoughts, questions and concerns.
The Somerville Municipal Employees Union ratified a new contract with the city of Somerville on Jan. 9. Mayor Katjana Ballantyne and union leadership signed a tentative agreement that includes wage increases across the board and family leave, among other benefits.
Following President Donald Trump’s inauguration on Monday, political student groups on campus including Tufts Democrats, Tufts Republicans and Planned Parenthood Action at Tufts are preparing for a semester under the new presidential administration.
Three community journalists are revitalizing local coverage in Medford with a new digital newspaper: Gotta Know Medford. This effort to produce more Medford news comes years after Gannett, the Medford Transcript’s parent company, forced the paper to merge with the Somerville Journal in 2022, leaving the city without a devoted paper of its own.
Khan Asfandyar Shairani will permanently serve as the Muslim Chaplain,the Tufts University Chaplaincy announced onJan. 16.Previously serving as the Muslim Chaplain ad interim, Shairani will continue supporting and educating students interested in the Islamic tradition.
Medford residents and city officials are raising concerns about the potential impact of the 401 Boston Ave. dorm on the community. The dorm, scheduled to open in 2027, is set to be a two-building complex with 300 apartments, housing nearly 700 upperclassmen.
The Tufts School of Engineering will launch a new master’s program centered on artificial intelligence in the fall of 2025. The first applications will close on March 15.
On Dec. 16, Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn announced that her office sent an updated draft of a new city charter to the Medford City Council. The Medford Charter Study Committee – established in December 2022 – reviewed and made recommendations for a new city charter in a nearly two year process. The charter has not been changed since the 1980s.
