News in Brief: August 4, 2014

Tufts Educational Daycare Center – Medford
A coalition of parents, their children, Tufts faculty, and community members staged a ‘play-in’ protest on Thursday to demand that the school retain ownership of the Tufts Educational Daycare Center. The center is due to be managed by the for-profit daycare chain Bright Horizons as of the beginning of September. According to the campaigners, “No staff or families were consulted about the decision or informed of the possibility that TEDCC would be transferred to Bright Horizons, even as [school officials] were making critical decisions about the 2014-2015 school year. The decision to rid itself of TEDCC has been met with a loud outcry from nearly every [c]enter parent, as well as faculty members unaffiliated with the [c]enter, who have flooded the administration with letters and phone calls, and last week organized an on-campus protest. So far, Tufts administration has failed to make a single concession or even explain why the Center is being closed or why parents and staff were kept in the dark.”

No Fracked Gas in Mass – State House
Environmental activists with the No Fracked Gas in Mass campaign held a demonstration outside the State House on Wednesday calling for a halt on the proposed construction of the Kinder Morgan pipeline, which would carry gas extracted using hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking,’ from Richmond in eastern Massachusetts to Dracut in the northeast of the state. According to the groups, the rally was “a milestone in our efforts to inform the public, our legislators and the Governor about the dangers of continued reliance on toxic hydrocarbon fuels and the necessity of removing the fossil industry's grip on solar energy potential by shifting investments away from fossil fuel technology and into renewables.”

IBEW 2222 – Bowdoin Square
Verizon workers and members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Worker local 2222, held a rally on Thursday that begin their mobilization efforts in advance of the end of their contract with the company. The contract is set to expire in August, 2015.