Somerville, MA - Saying that Americans already are paying more in taxes (and private insurance premiums) for medical care than any other country in the world but having worse “health outcomes” than citizens of other western industrialized nations, Dr. Rachel Nardin, President of the MA chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, explained Monday why her organization thinks a “single payer, universal coverage” type plan must be adopted as soon as possible.

BOSTON/Copley Square - More than one hundred declared supporters of democracy, free communication, and peace in Iran gathered at Copley Square in Boston this afternoon, as widespread protests against the present regime continued one week and one day after an illegitimate election.

The diverse crowd appeared to be just over half non-Iranian, in conversation and to a very untrained-at-profiling eye.

Chants included "Stop the brutality," and "Iran Election Fraud!"

Organized nationally by Where Is My Vote, which presents itself as a voice for the Iranian diaspora, and locally online with postings on Craigslist, Yelp, and especially a Facebook event page.

Your neutral, unbiased reporter held a sign "SOLIDARITY WITH IRANIAN PEOPLE".

Testimony on H.341, Globalization Impact Bill

Before Joint Committee on Economic Development & Emerging Technology

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

9 June 2009

I thank the chairperson [Senator Karen Spilka] for this opportunity to share my views.

My name is David Lewit. I am a social psychologist living in Boston, and come here as an active member of the Boston-Cambridge Alliance for Democracy.

I'm quite sure that the members of this Committee are familiar with the purposes and terms of this Globalization Impact bill H.341-how a citizen trade policy commission may help to protect our laws and people from the excesses of trade agreements negotiated and enforced without our participation or consent. Indeed, the economic reversals which most of our country is experiencing today are in some measure due to financial and trade agreements like WTO and NAFTA.

BOSTON/Chinatown - Venezuela's Adjunct Ambassador to the United Nations Julio Escalona and economists Richard B. Freeman of Harvard University, Julie Matthaei of Wellesley College and Arthur MacEwan of the University of Massachusetts Boston spoke on the Global Economic Crisis to an audience of over 60 people on Friday at the encuentro 5 movement space.

On June 12, Rep. Edward Markey became the seventh member of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation to co-sponsor H.R. 676, the "Medicare for All" approach to health care reform written by Rep. John Conyers.

Rep. Markey joins Massachusetts Representatives Michael Capuano, William Delahunt, Barney Frank, James McGovern, John Olver and John Tierney and 75 other members of Congress as a co-sponsor of H.R. 676.

BOSTON/Jamaica Plain - Calling himself a "professional bummer-outer," author and environmental activist Bill McKibben last night described to an audience of about one hundred supporters of the Jamaica Plain based Bikes Not Bombs organization, the monumental changes he said our planet will go through if humans don't stop polluting the Earth with carbon and other industrial wastes.