News Briefs

Indian Flag Raising Aug.14

On Aug. 14. the Flag of India will be raised in front of City Hall noting the 75th anniversary of India’s independence.

As we all recognize, this COVID-19 pandemic re-routed our paths having adjusted to various new norms and has changed how we work, learn and interact. As social distancing guidelines have led to a more virtual existence, both personally and professionally, even as we got vaccinated in phases, we yet continue our pledge of virtual existence for the foreseeable future.

 We continue to comply with the guidelines and strive to find safer, low-key ways of celebrating various special milestone socio-cultural or historic occasions, which are traditionally and historically celebrated in a grand way welcoming a huge public gathering.

Last year, in August 2020, we created history by holding successful flag raising events in over 32 towns and cities, by raising and honoring the Indian and U.S Flags in the heart of each town/city, with the support of the local town and city officials.

Continuing last year’s success story in the current year 2021, we will be raising the Indian flags in over 40 towns/cities in MA, to commemorate the momentous India’s 75th Independence Day celebration.

We will have these events starting August 1st through the 14th, culminating into the grand finale cultural event, “IAGB India Day”, which is back to its core, at the Hatch Memorial Shell alongside Charles River on Sunday, August 15th starting at 3pm.

The City of Revere will raise the flag of India on Saturday, August 14th at 12:00PM in front of Revere City Hall, 281 Broadway. All are welcome to join this event and the grand finale on August 15th. Come join the festivity as we honor India’s 75th Independence Day celebration with style, pride and vigor!!!

Additional Package Sorters Are Installed

The Postal Service is preparing for the holiday and ready to meet the growing customer demand for package delivery.

Two of 118 new package sorters distributed nationwide have been installed in the Woburn and Worcester Post Offices in Massachusetts to provide more reliable service that customers expect through the holiday and beyond.

Last year’s holiday season was like no other for both USPS and its customers. Package delivery grew nearly 48 percent driven by the surge in online shopping and ecommerce due to the COVID pandemic. Last year, despite the challenges of the pandemic, the Postal Service delivered a record 1.1 billion packages.

Massachusetts Post Offices, like many facilities across the nation, relied on manual sortation of packages. The new package sorters will process thousands of packages an hour – up to 12 times faster than manual sortation.

As part of the 10-year plan to achieve financial sustainability and service excellence, the Postal Service is investing $40 billion on people, technology and equipment to modernize its operation and provide a world class service to customers, including the installation of new package sorters.

These new package sorters will meet our customers’ evolving mailing and shipping needs and help achieve long term service improvements.

With this immediate investment, the Postal Service is prepared to deliver the holiday season.

Massachusetts Tomato Contest to Be Held

The 36th Massachusetts Tomato Contest will be held in the KITCHEN at the Boston Public Market in downtown Boston on Tuesday, Aug. 24.

Tomatoes will be judged by a panel of experts on flavor, firmness/slicing quality, exterior color and shape. Always a lively and fun event, the day is designed to increase awareness of locally grown produce. 

Farmers can bring tomatoes to the market between 8:45 and 10:45 a.m. on Aug. 24 or drop their entries off with a registration form to one of the regional drop-off locations on Monday, Aug. 23.  Drop off locations include sites in Great Barrington, South Deerfield, Worcester, Dighton and West Newbury. These tomatoes will be brought in to Boston on Tuesday.

Be sure to include a  registration form with all entries.

The 36th Tomato Contest is sponsored by the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, New England Vegetable and Berry Growers Association and Mass Farmers Markets in cooperation with the Boston Public Market. 

For more information, contact David Webber, [email protected].

AFT Mass. Seeks Mask Wearing in K-6 Schools This Fall

In response to new guidance from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) that contravenes CDC recommendations by suggesting that only unvaccinated students, educators, and staff members in Massachusetts schools should wear masks indoors this fall, the 23,000-member AFT Massachusetts released the following statement from AFT Massachusetts President Beth Kontos:

“The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education needs to listen to health experts, including the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics, and require – not just recommend – universal mask wearing in K-6 schools this fall. If DESE continues to reject public health guidance and fails to act, local school committees need to step up and require universal mask wearing to keep us all safe and to maximize the likelihood of schools staying open this school year.

“We all want a safe and productive return to school in September, and with the surge of the incredibly contagious Delta variant and vaccine disinformation threatening the progress we’ve made against COVID, we need to use all the public health tools we have to stop the spread and keep schools open for in-person learning. Until we can get all school-aged kids vaccinated, basic public health precautions like masking are the bare minimum needed to keep our students and their vulnerable family members safe.”