BOSTON/State House - A jubilant group of over 50 activists from the Student Immigrant Movement and allied organizations held a press conference on Friday to announce a victory in their campaign to get the Mass. legislature to overturn several provisions of an amendment to the Senate budget proposal for FY 2011 that they believe was an assault on immigrant rights.

The event was called on short notice after the Conference Committee - made up on an equal number of state representatives and senators - released its budget proposal on Thursday. Immigrant advocates quickly discovered that some of the contested provisions of Senate budget amendment 172.1 - including the proposed language that would have made it illegal for the children of undocumented immigrants that had grown up in the Commonwealth to ever qualify to attend Mass. public colleges at the in-state resident tuition rate - had been removed from the Conference Committee budget proposal.

BOSTON/State House - Over 11 days ago, activists from the Student Immigrant Movement began a vigil outside the State House to protest a budget amendment recently passed by the Mass. Senate that would - among other things - bar them from attending public colleges in the Commonwealth at the same in-state tuition rate as other area students.

SIM is led by children of undocumented immigrants who have attended public K-12 schools in Massachusetts, and has been organizing to win in-state tuition reform for the last few years. Many of its members were at the top of their classes in high school but have been denied state scholarships and financial aid solely because of their families' immigration status - and ultimately thanks to what they view as a broken federal immigration system.

BOSTON/State House – Supporters and opponents of a proposed Senate bill that would allow 3 resort-style casinos in Massachusetts packed a Senate Ways and Means Committee hearing at the 600-seat Gardner Auditorium on Tuesday, June 8th, and listened to hours of testimony from both perspectives.

Coming on the heels of a House casino bill passed in April, which calls for 2 casinos and slot machines at the racetracks, the hearing gave advocates on both sides of the debate a chance to present their testimony before a final vote.

BOSTON/State House - Over 200 immigrant, labor, religious and community advocates held a rally in front of the Grand Staircase in the State House on Thursday to protest anti-immigrant legislation that was recently passed by the Mass. Senate, and to demand that Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) start speaking out on immigration issues. Organizers said that Brown has "remained silent" on the immigration reform debate since taking office.

BOSTON/State House - Outraged at the recent passage of Mass. House Budget Amendment 26, 50 local advocates for prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families held a rally and press conference opposite the State House steps on Tuesday. The amendment would allow county jails to charge prisoners $5 a day out of their canteen fund to defray some of the costs of their incarceration - in addition to other smaller fees. The Senate will be voting shortly on 3 similar amendments. If any of the amendments remain in the final state budget this summer, the proposed changes will be enacted into law in some form.

BOSTON/State House - The New Sanctuary Movement, an interfaith coalition of religious leaders and congregations, gathered at the State House on Thursday to publicly speak out against Arizona SB 1070, the law recently passed by Arizona Governor Jan Brewer. SB 1070 requires that immigrants carry identity documents at all times or risk detainment, arrest, or deportation.

BOSTON/State House - Advocates from serveral organizations rallied in front of the State House on Thursday to push for reforming the Criminal Offender Record Information system. The event was sponsored by the Commonwealth CORI Coalition, a statewide coalition of over 110 organizations that are dedicated to passing comprehensive CORI reform.

About 80 people gathered in front of the State House steps, including representatives from organizations such as the Boston Workers Alliance and the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.

BOSTON/State House - Over 75 people gathered in State House Room 437 on Tuesday for a press conference called by the Green Justice Coalition - the Massachusetts affiliate of the Apollo Alliance - to announce the release of a new report, "An Industry at the Crossroads: Energy Efficiency Employment in Massachusetts." According to its mission statement, the Apollo Alliance is a "coalition of labor, business, environmental, and community leaders working to catalyze a clean energy revolution that will put millions of Americans to work in a new generation of high-quality, green-collar jobs." The Green Justice Coalition is a similar grouping on the state level and is spearheaded by Boston-based Community Labor United.

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.