Local News

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced On Friday, she made a series of major changes to the state's overwhelmed shelter system as her administration tries to become familiar with costs and space constraints exacerbated by the high cost of living in Massachusetts and the influx of migrants.

The administration will implement a two-track system for eligible families: one offering homeless and migrant families a 30-day stay in a shelter and the opposite a six-month stay. The state may even begin “phasing out” the usage of hotels and motels to accommodate families in need of shelter.

The protection system, expected to cost nearly $1.1 billion in fiscal 12 months 2025, has change into “increasingly unsustainable” in recent times, Healey said. Despite “significant action” and “tangible results,” the changes announced Friday are needed to contain costs and help more families find stable housing, she said.

“More must be done to ensure Massachusetts taxpayers do not continue to be responsible for this federal problem. The changes we are making will reduce costs, phase out the use of hotels and better meet the needs of all families,” Healey said in an announcement.

When the shelter system reached capability last 12 months, authorities arrange a series of emergency shelters across the state. In August, Healey introduced a brand new prioritization system for families, limiting stays on the overflow sites or “temporary recovery centers” to 5 days for those not prioritized. Now, families placed at these sites may have the choice to remain for 30 days under the two-track system.

Starting December 10, families applying for shelter might be “assessed based on risk and need” and assigned to either the Rapid Shelter Track or the Bridge Shelter Track. Families cannot choose from routes.

The Rapid Track is meant for families the state believes are well placed to quickly secure self-sufficient everlasting housing. You are offered 30 working days within the respite centers, although a certain extension is feasible.

The bridge route might be reserved for “high-risk families” and folks with “complex needs,” reminiscent of individuals with mental or developmental disabilities or women with late-term pregnancies. Those admitted on this direction are entitled to a six-month stay, subject to legislative approval.

In the spring, the legislature limited the length of stay for accommodation to nine months. The Healey administration now desires to lower that cap to 6 months.

“We want to make it clear to the families: We are looking for six [months] So no one feels like they don’t have the right expectations,” said Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll . “We believe six months is achievable. I assume that if people find an apartment sooner than six months, they will accept it.”

Driscoll chaired the Special Commission on Emergency Housing Assistance Programs, which issued a detailed report through the shelter system on Tuesday. Friday's announcement was made based on the recommendations set out in that report, the federal government said.

According to the info, almost half of the 7,115 families within the shelter system were staying in hotels and motels on Thursday Condition data. However, contracting with hotels has been the “most expensive accommodation model” and doesn’t provide a super environment for those looking for accommodation, officials said. Therefore, the usage of hotels might be slowly phased out in fiscal years 2025 and 2026. The administration didn’t provide detailed explanations of how it will occur, but said the approach might be based on “discussions with providers” and that families might be notified of advance payment.

The government says it is targeted on expanding current programs to assist more families exit the shelter system. The commission's report found an “extraordinary increase” in monthly emergency shelters last 12 months, from a low of 163 in September 2023 to a high of 475 last September. A vital tool to assist families secure their housing is HomeBASEa program that gives money to cover rent, moving costs, utilities and furniture.

State officials at the moment are proposing legislative changes to HomeBASE that might increase temporary rental subsidies. Currently, families are eligible for a complete of $30,000 over two years or $45,000 over three years. The proposed changes would allow families to secure $25,000 per 12 months in rental assistance for 2 years.

Although Vice President Kamala Harris promotes clean energy and Donald Trump makes misleading claims and false claims None of the candidates have presented a comprehensive energy plan. Even if it did, a gridlocked Congress can be unlikely to pass it.

Instead, the subsequent president could have his best impact on clean energy by coping with the laws and regulations enacted since 2021 under the Biden-Harris administration. As Environmental engineer who studies Energy and climate changeI expect Harris, who has strongly supported these policies, to implement them, while Trump's record as president suggests he would seek to reverse them. Trade policy towards China, the leading producer of fresh energy technologies, may even be crucial.

Laws and regulations

Three bills passed by Congress under Biden and Harris – the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs ActThe Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act – have modified US energy policy. The three bills allocated a whole lot of billions of dollars to construct infrastructure, incentivize the production and buy of fresh energy, and fund clean energy research.

It is probably going that none of those measures will probably be completely repealed, as each of those measures provides quite a few resources Projects in red states. However, implementation by the subsequent administration will determine how effective they’re in promoting clean energy growth.

For example this Ministry of Finance And Energy departments will determine which projects can receive incentives and loans. Other agencies, equivalent to the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energyreferred to as ARPA-E, will provide clean energy research funding.

The Environmental Protection Agency may even play an important role. Under the Biden-Harris administration, the EPA enacted the strictest emissions control regulations ever Fossil fuel power plants And Motor vehicles. These rules could speed up the transition to scrub electricity and electric cars.

But a Trump-led EPA could reverse course, just as it might repeal Obama-era regulations designed to accomplish that Reducing CO2 emissions from power plants in 2019 and weakened emissions regulations for vehicles in 2020. Trump also appointed three Supreme Court justices who voted to limit the EPA's powers to scale back emissions.

The role of market forces

Whatever policies the subsequent president decides on, domestic energy trends will depend largely on market forces. Both Trump and Biden ensured a boom in domestic oil and gas production. At the identical time as the associated fee of Wind turbines, Solar panels And Utility-scale batteries have collapsed, these technologies have collapsed dominated latest electricity generation capability.

There is currently one within the USA Order backlog of virtually 2,600 gigawatts of projects waiting to be integrated into the country's power grids. That's about eight times the quantity wind And solar Generation capability in US grids today.

However, Congress is deadlocked versus competing proposals to streamline licensing requirements. State and native governments in addition to regional network operators also play a key role and usually are not easily influenced by federal measures.

Nevertheless, the subsequent president can influence policy through the number of his commissioners Federal Energy Regulatory Commissionwhich regulates the interstate transmission of oil, gas and electricity. Presidents may also push Congress to pass licensing reforms.

Trade policy

As quickly as clean energy production and deployment has grown within the U.S. under the Biden-Harris administration, that increase is dwarfed by China's production. Chinese firms produce over three quarters of world production Solar cells and modulesgreater than half of the world's population Wind turbines and three quarters of it advanced batteries needed for power storage and electric cars. China too sells more electric cars than the remaining of the world combined.

Like it or not, for America to quickly deploy clean energy and electric cars, not less than some materials will should be imported from China. After a long time of backlog, there’s simply no technique to increase production fast enough within the United States achieve national climate goals. Even if solar panels, batteries or electric cars are installed here, they rely on it critical minerals that are mostly refined in China.

As president, Trump waged a trade war with China. He has promised to increase existing tariffs on other products from China if he’s elected for a second term.

Biden and Harris have also sought to vary the playing field in favor of US firms. The administration offers Loans And Incentives for domestic manufacturing and has also imposed a 100% tariff on electric vehicles and a 50% tariff on solar cells from China.

Such a policy may protect domestic manufacturers for some time, but is unlikely to make them competitive in global markets Switching to electric cars And Solar energy.

Also crucial will probably be compliance with the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, a legally binding treaty that sets goals to curb climate change. Countries all over the world have committed to switching to scrub energy to scale back emissions. The European Union enacts CO2 border tariffs This puts imports from manufacturers with high emissions at an obstacle.

If Trump again withdraws the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, as he did in 2017, and rolls back emissions regulations, U.S. manufacturers could face latest hurdles exporting their products abroad. For her part, Harris did supported the Paris Agreement and criticized Trump's decision to withdraw the US from it.

No reversal of the revolution

Markets are worldwide The rapid transition to renewable energy and electric carsthat will probably be cheaper, cleaner and more attractive than their fossil fuel alternatives. Popular Clean Energy Subsidies can be difficult to win back. China's dominance in clean energy technologies won’t be shaken anytime soon, irrespective of what trade policies the subsequent administration pursues.

Based on her record, Harris can be expected to construct on the laws and regulations passed under the present administration, while Trump would likely roll back some, but not all, of his advances. None of the candidates are proposing measures as transformative as those passed lately. Whoever is elected will govern in a clean energy landscape reshaped by these policies and by market forces beyond a president's control.

The company notified affected employees, who worked in several different teams in Senior Vice President Eddy Cue's services group, on Tuesday, said the people, who asked to not be identified since the move will not be public.

The layoffs affected some engineering positions, and the most important cuts were made to the team answerable for the Apple Books app and Apple Bookstore. There were also layoffs in other service teams, including the team that runs Apple News.

Apple Books has turn into less of a priority for the corporate and isn’t any longer seen as a vital a part of its service offering. According to the insiders, the Books app is predicted to realize latest features over time. As for Apple News, the layoffs usually are not an indication that the app is less of a spotlight, they are saying.

Layoffs are relatively rare at Apple, although the corporate has conducted not less than 4 rounds of layoffs in 2024. Earlier this 12 months, it laid off a whole bunch of employees when it shut down its self-driving automobile project in addition to an try and make micro-LED displays. It also closed a team in San Diego.

A spokesman for the Cupertino-based company declined to comment on the cuts.

Services have generally been a growth engine for Apple lately. In the last fiscal 12 months, they accounted for greater than 22 percent of revenue, in comparison with lower than 10 percent ten years ago. The increase has helped to cushion the occasionally weak demand for devices.

Many of the cuts occurred within the applications division, which is headed by longtime vice chairman Roger Rosner. Employees were told they’d 60 days to search out one other job at Apple before being laid off. Some of the staff worked on multiple teams, so other areas were not directly affected as well.

Some of Apple's Silicon Valley rivals are cutting much more jobs as they grapple with slowing growth and the shift to artificial intelligence. Cisco Systems Inc. is cutting its workforce by about 7 percent, while Intel Corp. is cutting greater than 15 percent.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

Originally published: August 28, 2024 at 9:29 am