Sen. Katherine Clark Holds Forum on Gun Violence

Mostly pro-gun control experts weighed in at the discussion, part of the senator's 'Policy Forum Series.'

Numerous experts from throughout the commonwealth weighed in on gun control issues during a forum held in Malden by Stoneham's state Sen. Katherine Clark Wednesday night.  The panel mostly spoke of the benefits of increased gun control, and the challenges faced by policymakers at the state and federal level. The panel also accepted questions from the audience during a Q&A session.  "This is a topic brought to the forefront (here) by continued acts of violence, both on the news and right here in our community," Malden Mayor Gary Christenson said.  Panelists included Christenson, State Rep. David Linsky, Malden Police Chief Kevin Molis, Harvard professor David Hemenway, "Stop Handgun Violence" founder John Rosenthal, as well as Dawn Tringas …

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Clark: Time For Common Sense Budgeting

State Sen. Katherine said budget priorities include local aid and schools; investing in early education and care; supporting seniors, veterans and vulnerable citizens; and transportation.

Early Education and Care: A Common Sense Investment

Sen. Katherine Clark discusses one of her "top priorities" — investing in early education.

Sciortino Talks Run for 5th Congressional District

"I expect it will be a crowded primary," State Rep. Carl Sciortino said about a possible race to fill Ed Markey's seat in Congress, which represents Stoneham in the U.S. House, should Markey be elected to the U.S. Senate.

State Rep. Carl Sciortino, who represents parts of Somerville and Medford in the state legislature, spoke to Joe Lynch on "Greater Somerville" this week about his run for Congress. As the two discuss on the show, Sciortino has jumped into the race to represent the 5th Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives, which represents Stoneham, even though that seat, at the moment, is occupied by Ed Markey. However, with Markey running for Senate in this spring's special election, and with recent polls suggesting Markey's the favorite to win, candidates, including Sciortino, are lining up to fill his seat in Washington. David Bernstein, writing in The Phoenix, lists state Sen. Katherine Clark (D-Melrose), who represents Stoneham…

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Katherine Clark Announces She Is Running For Congress

Sen. Katherine Clark announced Friday to her supporters that she will be running for Congress.

In a letter emailed to her supporters on Friday afternoon, state Sen. Katherine Clark (D-Melrose) announced that she will be running for Congress. U.S. Representative Ed Markey (D-Malden), who represents Stoneham in the House, is currently running for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by newly appointed Secretary of State John Kerry. If Markey wins that Senate seat, it would leave open the Fifth Congressional District seat in the House, which Clark would run for. If he loses his bid, he would retain his current House seat. Two other Massachusetts legislators have also announced their intentions to run for Markey's seat, if he wins the Senate seat: state Rep. Carl Sciortino (D-Medford) and state Sen. Will Brownsberger (D-Belmont). Stoneham's …

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Lawmakers Propose Comprehensive Reforms To Sex Offender Registry

In wake of the John Burbine case, local lawmakers announce a comprehensive proposal to reform state sex offender reporting policies.

Local lawmakers told the Boston-area media Wednesday that they have filed comprehensive legislation aimed at improving the ways information about sex offenders is shared between law enforcement, state agencies, and the public. The legislation was motivated by the charges against John and Marian Burbine, both of Wakefield. John Burbine is facing 100 charges involving the sexual abuse of young children—including alleged victims from Stoneham—while his wife is charged with multiple counts stemming from the illegal day care she operated. John Burbine was classified as a level 1 sex offender after a 1989 case involving several young children—and with that classification level was able to avoid detection even when a local mother tried to check …

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Report: Senate GOP To File Bill In Response To Burbine Case

Fox 25 Report says Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr will introduce bill Friday aimed at closing loopholes in sex offender registration system. Back in December, State Senator Katherine Clark raised some similar ideas.

As promised last month after news of the John Burbine sex abuse case first broke, which includes alleged victims from Stoneham, state lawmakers are introducing a bill aimed at closing loopholes in the sex offender registration system. A Thursday report on MyFoxBoston says that State Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr will introduce a bill Friday that would allow Level 1 sex offender information to be made public, and which would also an offender to be reclassified if new information came up about them. The article also quotes Wakefield Police Chief Rick Smith as saying that he supports the previously mentioned items, while also citing the need for better inter-agency communication. In December, soon after Middlesex District Attorney Gerard …

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Mass. Politics Gender Problem? Women, Minorities Underrepresented in State Legislature

The strong majority of Massachusetts' legislators are white and male.

Despite the gains made over the past few decades, women and minorities continue to make up a smaller share of state legislators than their numbers in the population at large suggest they would. A series of maps published by Wicked Local Wednesday visually display the striking disparity. Blacks or Latinos together comprise 5.6 percent of the House (9 of 160 representative) and 2.5 percent of the Senate (1 of 40 senators) despite being 7.8 percent of the state's population and Latinos being 9.9 percent. Nationally, 8.1 percent of legislators are black and 2.9 percent are Latino, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, but these two groups comprise a higher percentage of the national population than they do of …

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Stoneham's Legislators Voted for 'Three-Strikes' Bill for Violent Crimes

The bill both aims to ensure violent criminals stay behind bars while easing prison overcrowding by reducing drug-offense penalties.

A bill that toughens sentences for violent repeat offenders passed the Senate last Thursday after having been overwhelmingly approved in the House on July 18.  The so-called "three-strikes" law eliminates parole for someone convicted three times of a violent crime, with at least one conviction having carried a minimum three-year prison term. It passed the House with a vote of 139-14. In the Senate, it passed 31-7. The movement to pass the law was fueled, in part, by outrage over two crimes. In one, Woburn police officer Jack Maguire was murdered by a felon. In the other crime more associated with the law, sometimes dubbed "Melissa's Law," 27-year-old Jamaica Plain schoolteacher Melissa Gosule was murdered in 1999 after being raped and …

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Clark Focuses on Keeping Our Students in School

Senator Katherine Clark discusses a bill aimed at raising the mandatory school attendance age from 16 to 18.

[Editor's note: The following is an opinion piece submitted by Sen. Katherine Clark.] During the last school year, nearly 8,000 Massachusetts high school students dropped out. As with any pervasive challenge, the reasons are not always clear: some students left school to pursue work; others indicated they would transfer to another school, but never did. But for the majority of these children, we really do not know why they dropped out or where they ended up.  According to data from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), though males and minority students have higher drop-out rates, this problem runs across gender, race and ethnicity lines – and even across grade levels. Over 2,000 (26 percent) of the …

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