Author: Joanna Malvas

  • Four years after fatal crash, ‘Charlie’s Law’ still stalled

    Northampton musician Charlie Braun died in 2021 on a Northampton street where he was riding a bicycle when he was hit by a driver who was making a FaceTime call. Four years later, a bill proposed by Sen. Jo Comerford that is designed to close a loophole in the state’s distracted driving laws has still not passed in the Senate.

    “I can’t say why. I wish it would pass. It would be a way to honor Charlie and his family,” the Northampton Democrat said. “Distracted driving is on the rise, as all reports indicate, and this is an extreme form of distracted driving, right?”

    The 69-year-old Braun died after being hit by a driver while riding his bike near the intersection of Woodlawn Avenue and Elm Street near Northampton High School. The driver was engaged in a 53-second FaceTime conversation with a friend on her cellphone and was further distracted by her young child in the back seat.

    In response, Comerford proposed “Charlie’s Law” to ban live broadcasting and video recording while driving. This bill was heard by the Legislature’s Committee on Transportation last month.

    Currently, distracted driving carries an escalated series of fines, including a $250 fine and mandatory completion of a safety course upon a second offense under the state’s Hands-Free Law, which was passed in 2020. Comerford proposed the bill to close loopholes on phone usage in distracted driving cases.

    Braun’s former partner, Joan Ringrose-Sellers, initially joined Comerford in advocating for the bill to prevent future distracted driving-related accidents.

    “I think it was really like some grief work for me, because I started noticing other people on the phone after my partner was killed,” Ringrose-Sellers said.

    However, as Ringrose-Sellers’ efforts faced opposition and the bill’s passage remained stagnant, she had to shift her focus to “grieve in other ways.”

    “I felt like I reached a point of not knowing what to do as an ordinary citizen,” Ringrose-Sellers said. “At that time, I was in graduate school, I was a single parent, running a household on my own, and I really needed to shift to getting this master’s degree and carrying on with my life.”

    According to Ringrose-Sellers, her efforts to get the bill passed were met with resistance from the Legislature due to the bill’s potential restrictions on people who need to film themselves for safety in cases like police brutality.

    Andrew Hahn, one of Braun’s close friends, described the impact of his death on the Northampton community.

    “Everything became really clear to me that this was like the equivalent of the mayor of the town being killed on a bicycle,” Hahn said.

    Northampton’s city government has worked with an engineering firm, Fuss & O’Neill, to research and enact a series of safety measures since Braun’s death. For example, the Northampton Transportation and Parking Commission voted to remove five parking spaces by Childs Park permanently and proposed the establishment of a school zone.

    Other proposed improvements included signalized intersections with pedestrian signals, buffered bike lanes, and a multiway stop control at the intersection of Milton Street and Ormond Drive. The Department of Public Works planned on bidding the project this year, according to the information page.

    Hahn said he thinks the intersection’s area remains unsafe and suggested making Woodlawn Avenue a one-way street to avoid Northampton High School’s rush-hour traffic.

    “That is a very dangerous intersection, no matter how you cut it,” Hahn said. “I worry that the next is going to be a high school kid.”

    According to Ian Reagan, a senior research scientist with the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, only 8% of fatal deaths are attributed to distracted driving. However, Reagan believes distracted driving cases remain widely underreported due to difficulties in finding the observable causes of crashes and discrepancies in how law enforcement reports on distracted driving across state lines.

    “It’s such horrible data,” Reagan said. “Human behavior doesn’t change that much just because you go across state lines and you don’t have distracted driving.”

    Reagan said more standardization is needed to accurately report on distracted driving cases, suggesting that telematics could shed light on how prevalent phone usage is among drivers. Telematics uses GPS and sensors to monitor the performance of the vehicle, such as speed and fuel use.

    According to Reagan, distracted driving data is collected from drivers who consent to insurance companies tracking their driving and phone usage with telematics data.

    Comerford said in a statement that the number of drivers recording videos while driving more than doubled from 2015 to 2021.

    “The data are particularly troubling among young drivers: 44% of drivers aged 18 to 29 and 37% of those aged 30 to 39 reported recording video while driving,” Comerford said.

    Reagan also reported in a study that the crash risk of drivers who use a phone while driving is two to six times greater than when drivers are not distracted.

    While Ringrose-Sellers has not seen the bill enacted, she found satisfaction in finally being able to graduate in May of 2023.

    “I know Charlie would be really proud of me,” Ringrose-Sellers said. “He supported me 100% in going back to graduate school, and I’m just sad that he wasn’t there to celebrate with me.”

    Joanna Malvas writes for the Greenfield Recorder as part of the Boston University Statehouse Program.

  • Four years after fatal crash, ‘Charlie’s law’ still stalled

    Northampton musician Charlie Braun died in 2021 on a Northampton street where he was riding a bicycle when he was hit by a driver who looked away from her phone while making a FaceTime call. Four years later, a bill proposed by Sen. Jo Comerford designed to close a loophole in the state’s distract driving laws has still not passed in the Senate.

    “I can’t say why. I wish it would pass. It would be a way to honor Charlie and his family,” the Northampton Democrat said. “Distracted driving is on the rise, as all reports indicate, and this is an extreme form of distracted driving, right?”

    The 69-year-old Braun died after being hit by a driver while riding his bike near the intersection of Woodlawn Avenue and Elm Street near Northampton High School. The driver was engaged in a 53-second FaceTime conversation with a friend on her cellphone and was further distracted by her young child in the back seat, the Gazette reported after the crash.

    In response, Comerford proposed “Charlie’s Law” to ban live broadcasting and video recording while driving. This bill was heard by the Legislature’s Committee on Transportation last month.

    Currently, distracted driving carries an escalated series of fines, including a $250 fine and mandatory completion of a safety course upon a second offense under the state’s Hands-Free Law, which was passed in 2020. Comerford proposed the bill to close loopholes on phone usage in distracted driving cases.

    Charlie’s former partner, Joan Ringrose-Sellers, initially joined Comerford in advocating for the bill to prevent future distracted driving-related accidents.

    “I think it was really like some grief work for me, because I started noticing other people on the phone after my partner was killed,” Ringrose-Sellers said.

    However, as Ringrose-Sellers’ efforts faced opposition and the bill’s passage remained stagnant, she had to shift her focus in order to “grieve in other ways.”

    “I felt like I reached a point of not knowing what to do as an ordinary citizen,” Ringrose-Sellers said. “At that time, I was in graduate school, I was a single parent, running a household on my own, and I really needed to shift to getting this master’s degree, and carrying on with my life.”

    According to Ringrose-Sellers, her efforts to get the bill passed were met with resistance from the Legislature due to the bill’s potential restrictions on people who need to film themselves for safety in cases like police brutality.

    Andrew Hahn, a close friend of Braun, described the impact of his death on the Northampton community.

    “Everything became really clear to me that this was like the equivalent of the mayor of the town being killed on a bicycle,” Hahn said.

    Northampton’s city government has worked with an engineering firm, Fuss and O’Neill, to research and enact a series of safety measures since Braun’s passing. For example, the Northampton Transportation and Parking Commission voted to remove five parking spaces by Childs Park permanently and proposed the establishment of a school zone.

    Other proposed improvements included signalized intersections with pedestrian signals, buffered bike lanes, and a multiway stop control at the intersection of Milton Street and Ormond Drive. The Department of Public Works planned on bidding the project this year, according to the information page.

    Hahn said he thinks the intersection’s area remains unsafe and suggested making Woodlawn Avenue a one-way street to avoid Northampton High School’s rush hour traffic.

    “That is a very dangerous intersection, no matter how you cut it,” Hahn said. “I worry that the next is going to be a high school kid.”

  • ‘Perfect storm of food insecurity’: State Anti-Hunger Task Force ramps up listening sessions

    Even though the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are flowing again and the first of two major holidays this season has passed, experts who help people access food say those affected by the federal government shutdown still feel extreme unease.

    “The toll on people’s mental health was astonishing,” said Erin Ferrentino, food access manager at Grow Food Northampton, the nonprofit that runs a community farm. “We’re still dealing with that — people just not knowing when the other shoe is going to drop, when their benefits are going to get taken away.”

    As regional food banks continue to report an increase in sign-ups for free meals since the government shutdown ended on Nov. 12, the state’s Anti-Hunger Task Force is holding listening sessions throughout November and December to gather feedback as it prepares to advise the governor’s office on long-term solutions for addressing hunger, food insecurity and related economic hardships impacting communities.  

    Gov. Maura Healey created the task force in July, not long after Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill that contained reductions to SNAP benefits. In direct response to these reductions, the task force is bringing together leaders from state and local governments, food banks, nonprofit and business leaders and others to develop recommendations. 

    Just as this work was getting into full swing, “the shutdown happened, in the middle of our task force work,” said task force co-chair Allison Bovell-Ammon, referring to the federal government’s closure that started on Oct. 1.

    Bovell-Ammon, assistant undersecretary for Children & Family Services at the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, heads the task force with Ashley Randle, commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources, and Alana Davidson, director of communications at the Massachusetts Executive Office of Education.

    The task force is looking into solutions that would support existing food assistance programs, such as boosting labor in school breakfast programs, increasing funding of the Massachusetts Emergency Food Assistance Program and strengthening support for the state’s agricultural sector. 

    “We know that the food pantries and food banks are stretched because of the extra pressure that was placed upon them during the federal shutdown and the delay in SNAP benefits,” said Randle, a South Deerfield native who has served as agricultural commissioner since 2023.  

    According to Randle, one in three Massachusetts residents are considered “food insecure” and SNAP cuts “exacerbated the need” for food assistance. Bovell-Ammon also said approximately 9,500 immigrants in Massachusetts who have legal status in the U.S. and were previously eligible for SNAP benefits are at risk of losing their benefits over the course of next year. 

    Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, also a member of the Anti-Hunger Task Force, said that transportation is one major unique challenge that prevents people from accessing food in western Massachusetts. 

    “It’s a perfect storm of food insecurity,” Comerford said. 

    Springfield’s pressures are “continuing to grow,” Randle said, adding that the city has the “highest rate of individuals that are on SNAP.” 

    Comerford said she hopes the task force will expand collaboration between the state government and private agencies, such as encouraging tax credits for farms that donate their produce. 

    “I do think part of being able to survive the current administration and Congress is us, in Massachusetts, being as strong and as coordinated and strategic with the dollars that we do have as possible,” Comerford said. 

    Bovell-Ammon emphasized the task force’s role in finding long-term solutions to support immigrants and other communities declared ineligible for SNAP benefits under the One Big Beautiful Bill. 

    “While the impact of the shutdown was very deep even in that very short period of a delay of benefits, we know it had a destabilizing effect. We also know that there will be long-term impacts from the law change that we will continue to see in our emergency food system,” Bovell-Ammon said. 

    Need remains high

    Kaitlyn Ferrari, the interim program manager of Manna Community Kitchen, a Northampton nonprofit established by St. John’s Episcopal Church that provides hot meals to hungry people, said they recruited more labor to prepare for the influx of families in need of Thanksgiving meals. 

    A year ago, Manna fed 1,500 people for Thanksgiving, and prior to the holiday Ferrari said the organization was expecting about 2,000 people. Outside of the holiday, she said Manna has witnessed a steady increase in people since the COVID-19 pandemic, estimating before the pandemic, Manna saw at least 10 new people each day. Now, the food bank provides meals for more than 300 people a day. 

    Ferrari stressed the rising cost of food as another challenge Manna faces, estimating a box of chicken that previously cost $70 now costs more than $100. 

    “The cost is higher, the need is greater, and we’re just doing the best we can to provide free meals for anyone that needs one,” Ferrari said. 

    The Northampton Survival Center similarly saw the number of households signed up for its choice-pantry service double. The service enables people to choose from a variety of available free food options, rather than giving registered households prepacked food boxes. 

    According to Alexander Léger-Small, the assistant program director, about 90 households were registered for the service last year; since the beginning of October, more than 200 households have registered. Léger-Small said this increase occurred during the government shutdown, as households experienced the cuts to SNAP benefits. 

    “We are looking at our busiest year since the start of the pandemic,” Léger-Small said. 

    Highland Valley Elder Services provides food to the elderly community through its “Meals on Wheels” program, which delivers meals directly to individual homes and senior centers. Nutrition Director Riley Brown estimated the program delivered over 1,100 meals for Thanksgiving. 

    Brown said the federal government’s Commodity Supplemental Food Program has “dwindled” in its variety of options that it offers to elderly service programs , restricting the kinds of nutritious meals that it can provide. The CSFP is meant to serve low-income individuals over the age of 59 by distributing foods to organizations like Highland Valley for a reduced price. 

  • ‘There are too many patients to be patient’: UMass officials advocate for state funding amid federal cuts

    University of Massachusetts Amherst professor Bethany Bradley is comfortable talking about her 15 years of research regarding the detriments of invasive species exacerbated by climate change. But recently, she found herself testifying before state legislators about canceled grants, staff shortage and impending harm to the environment.

    “Invasive species cost the U.S. economy $10 billion per year in economic damages, and climate change is making them worse,” Bradley told the Legislature’s Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies two weeks ago. But the Trump administration’s funding cuts have been a “wrecking ball” to health and environmental research.

    As the co-director of the Northeast Climate Adaptation Science Center, she said that projects that typically require a full staff of 20 people are currently supported by one person.

    “The Trump administration has been and is a disaster for research,” Bradley said. “Shutting [funding] off means starting back from square one, which means that we’re set back five years, 10 years, [and] a generation, in some cases, depending on what the research projects are.”

    Bradley cited past cases of invasive species devastating ecosystems in Massachusetts, such as the outbreak of the Asian Longhorn beetle. To manage the outbreak, the Massachusetts Department of Agriculture and the state government cut down 30,000 trees in Worcester.

    Bradley was joined by other higher education professors and officials who testified about the strain of federal funding cuts to research in medicine, Alzheimer’s disease, AI, and other fields. These professors voiced their support for Gov. Maura Healey’s proposed bill that would fund $400 million to universities, hospitals, and independent research institutions.

    The measure, known as the Discovery, Research and Innovation for a Vibrant Economy (DRIVE) Initiative, would draw state funding from the Fair Share Amendment, a 4% tax on those who earn an annual income over $1 million. Known as the “millionaire’s tax,” it was passed by voters in 2022. Some funding would also come from a one-time, multiyear research funding pool, housed at MassDevelopment.

    Bradley expressed how “heartening” it was to see other university staff uniting for the bill at the hearing in spite of these losses. For example, UMass President Marty Meehan testified its medical school has two Nobel Laureate winners and brings in $869 million for research, just behind Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He noted that while UMass was awarded 356 grants last year, that total had dwindled to 156 grants this year.

    “Because of research for the federal government, the Massachusetts economy supports over 81,000 jobs, and it’s critical to future job growth in the commonwealth,” Meehan said.

    Meehan also opened up about his personal connection to cancer research during the hearing.

    “On a personal note, yesterday, my family and I buried my 66-year-old sister due to brain cancer,” Meehan said. “I know that a lot of the things that can solve the issue of cancer, they’re in research right now.”

    UMass Chan Medical School Chancellor Dr. Michael Collins also voiced concern for cancer research projects and explained how funding cuts forced the school to “reduce the staff.”

    “There are too many patients to be patient, and we shouldn’t be killing research,” Collins said. “We should be killing cancer, and so I would say to those who think it’s a good idea to cut research that those are not good ideas and that we should be doing everything we can to keep America’s preeminent position in biomedical science.”

    Steven Cadrin, a professor at UMass Dartmouth, stressed the diminishing talent pool due to funding cuts.

    “Many talented young scientists are out of work. With few prospects for employment, many are leaving the state and many are leaving the country to continue research,” Cadrin said during the hearing.

    Cadrin specializes in marine science and fisheries. He claimed that nearly 100% of graduate students who emerge from his department’s program are employed in regional fishery science and management.

    Rep. Michael Soter, R-Bellingham, pushed back on pleas for more state funding, arguing that these institutions can draw on endowments to fund projects.

    “They pay no property tax, they pay no income tax,” Soter said. “So when they tell me that their endowment money is strictly for that, then how can we have so many more people that are not getting into these colleges, or can go to these colleges, or afford to go to these colleges?”

    Soter claimed that endowments make up billions of dollars and that universities could increase their endowments by asking for money from the biotech industry. He also claimed the biotech industry made $330 billion in profit over the last three years.

    Meehan said universities cannot redirect endowment funding to any research project they want, as private donations are dedicated to the university for specific reasons such as financial aid.

    While Soter expressed concerns over expanding the reach of the Fair Share Amendment, he also mentioned the harms of making budgetary changes, such as reduced funding to items currently supported by the amendment.

    “If you start playing a shell game with money, pre-K through 12 will get hurt,” Soter said.

    Paul Craney, executive director of the Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, argued that increasing tax through the Fair Share Amendment has made Massachusetts more unappealing to competitive businesses.

    If Healey’s DRIVE proposal were enacted, Craney argued it would lead to fewer jobs, less job growth and investment, and other economic setbacks.

    “There’s no guarantee that tax is going to bring in a billion dollars next year, because you’re dealing with such a small pool of taxpayers. Even the slightest change to that pool will have a huge impact on the collection of that revenue,” Craney said.

    When asked whether funding higher education could also create jobs, Craney said the money universities receive is “still fungible” with nothing stopping administrators from redirecting it to other projects.

    While Craney declared the Fair Share Amendment makes Massachusetts less competitive, Healey emphasized how the tax dollars generated are necessary. She argued the federal cuts make it harder for universities to hire talent, while making underfunded projects less attractive and competitive on both a statewide and international level.

    “This is about stabilizing and supporting public higher ed right now, at a time when it’s under attack,” Healey said.

    To Bradley, the federal funding cuts are the Trump administration’s political signal of what matters.

    “Nothing like this has ever happened before, and I think some of the big concern is not just general cuts to research, but is that these are very specific areas that the Trump administration is going after,” Bradley said.

  • ‘Food is medicine’: Congressman McGovern proposes bill to increase reimbursement for school meals

    U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern has proposed a bill that would increase federal reimbursement rates for free and reduced school meals in an effort to offset costs of labor and nutritious foods in public schools.

    McGovern said the bill is necessary as “Donald Trump’s economy has sent food prices through the roof.”

    The Worcester Democrat criticized Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, for failing to acknowledge the bill and promote school nutrition, despite his campaign to end artificial food dyes and to “Make Our Children Healthy Again.”

    “I hear Secretary Kennedy talk all the time [about] restricting this or restricting that, but I don’t hear him talk about how to actually provide our students with more nutritious and locally sourced foods,” McGovern said.

    The bill would increase the reimbursement level for lunches by 45 cents and breakfast meals by 28 cents, with an annual yearly adjustment. McGovern said the increased funding from reimbursements would incentivize public schools to source their food locally from farms, thus increasing business for local farms.

    “We grow and we raise almost everything in Massachusetts and I want to make sure that our small- and medium-size farmers can continue to not only survive, but to thrive in the future,” McGovern said.

    Kristen Osborn, director of food and nutritional services with the Greenfield School Department, expressed support for McGovern’s bill, explaining that her department has joined a food co-op with other schools to afford local foods amid rising costs.

    “The rise in food costs is definitely challenging, and so this proposed bill would be really helpful to get extra funding given the rise in food costs,” Osborn said.

    Mistelle Hannah, nutrition director with Northampton Public Schools, also expressed the need for more funding.

    “Any increase in reimbursement is directly going to go into the quality of the food on the tray,” Hannah said. “The direct outcome is our students.”

    The federal government increased reimbursement rates for school meals during the COVID-19 pandemic, but since then, the reimbursement rates dropped.

    Jason Gromley, senior director for Share Our Strength and its No Kid Hungry campaign, said funding and resources for nutrition staff at public schools is still an ongoing issue, stating that the bill would benefit “all communities.”

    “It’s not anything that’s new. We saw it really intensely during the pandemic, especially where food costs continued to rise,” Gromley said.

    The School Nutrition Association conducted a survey and found that 97.9% of food directors cited challenges with the cost of food. Only 20.5% of directors thought the reimbursement rate was sufficient in covering the cost of lunch.

    In a response to potential opposition to the bill due to its costs, McGovern said the legislation will “save you money” in the long term as it will help prevent children from contracting food-related ailments.

    “Food is medicine,” he said. “If you are exposed mostly to unhealthy foods, well, then you’re probably going to end up with a number of chronic conditions that will not only stay with you the rest of your life, but will be incredibly costly to our health care system.”

    Joanna Malvas writes for the Greenfield Recorder as part of the Boston University Statehouse Program.

  • Smith College students drop a banner in support of Climate Superfund bill

    BOSTON — Smith College environmental justice advocates plan to deliver petitions to the Legislature’s Committee on Environmental and Natural Resources later this month, after recently dropping a banner saying “Make Polluters Pay” on the Lamont Bridge.

    The student advocates recently dropped the banner to raise awareness for a bill that would create a fund to support groups impacted by environmental pollution.

    According to Sen. James Eldridge, D-Malborough, one of the sponsors for the bill, the fund would be supported by a tax on fossil fuel corporations. This tax would be a “one-time fee” proportional to the company’s share of emissions from fossil fuels extracted between 1995 and 2024.

    The students who participated in the banner drop identified with the Sunrise Movement, a nationwide student-led activist group dedicated to stopping climate change and promoting the Green New Deal policy, which pushes for net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. Other Sunrise chapters at Mount Holyoke College, Harvard University and Tufts University also dropped banners on campus, while UMass Amherst students painted a mural saying, “Students rise up against pollution.”

    Shira Nathan, a student organizer at Smith’s Sunrise Movement, insisted that the state government does not provide enough disaster relief funding to communities impacted by climate change issues.

    “Climate change is here. The climate crisis is already affecting our communities. Western Mass. faced both extreme flooding and extreme droughts within like a five-year span,” Nathan said.

    During the Smith College Sunrise banner drop, students gave speeches, marched to Lamont Bridge and gathered signatures for the “Make Polluters Pay” petition. This petition already surpassed the campaign’s goal of 5,000 signatures, and the campaign set a new goal of 7,000 signatures by Oct. 21.

    The Northampton City Council passed a resolution to support the state’s climate superfund bill on April 17, becoming the first municipality in western Massachusetts to do so. Smith Sunrise students worked closely with At-Large Councilor Marissa Elkins and Ward Councilor Deborah Klemer, the sponsors of the resolution.

    “It solidifies [Northampton’s] reputation as a leader,” said Emma Coopersmith, a Smith Sunrise student. “We hope to inspire other cities and also the state to do a similar thing.”

    Jeanne Walker, vice president and special counsel of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, stated the bill would cost Massachusetts companies a “massive new retroactive fee” of up to $75 billion and would increase living costs for Massachusetts residents.

    In an emailed statement, Eldridge expressed concern over the ongoing litigation in other states that have passed climate superfund laws, such as Vermont and New York.

    “We know that this movement contradicts the Trump administration’s campaign to achieve so-called ‘energy dominance’ by polluting our environment and risking public health in expanding oil and gas projects, supporting the coal industry, and cutting promotion of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power,” Eldridge said.

    Last year, a previous version of the bill failed to pass. The current bill expands the scope of climate projects supported by the superfund, including relief from extreme weather events and medical care treating illnesses or injuries caused or aggravated by the effects of climate change.

    Additionally, Nathan said Sunrise chapters nationwide plan to do a walkout in protest of the current administration on Nov. 7, marking one year since President Donald Trump was elected.

    Nathan explained the need for activism, in spite of their student schedule.

    “My homework is due tomorrow, and the climate crisis is ongoing,” Nathan said.

  • Smith College students drop a banner in support of Climate Superfund bill

    BOSTON — Smith College environmental justice advocates plan to deliver petitions to the Legislature’s Committee on Environmental and Natural Resources later this month, after recently dropping a banner saying “Make Polluters Pay” on the Lamont Bridge.

    The student advocates recently dropped the banner to raise awareness for a bill that would create a fund to support groups impacted by environmental pollution.

    According to Sen. James Eldridge, D-Malborough, one of the sponsors for the bill, the fund would be supported by a tax on fossil fuel corporations. This tax would be a “one-time fee” proportional to the company’s share of emissions from fossil fuels extracted between 1995 and 2024.

    The students who participated in the banner drop identified with the Sunrise Movement, a nationwide student-led activist group dedicated to stopping climate change and promoting the Green New Deal policy, which pushes for net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. Other Sunrise chapters at Mount Holyoke College, Harvard University and Tufts University also dropped banners on campus, while UMass Amherst students painted a mural saying, “Students rise up against pollution.”

    Shira Nathan, a student organizer at Smith’s Sunrise Movement, insisted that the state government does not provide enough disaster relief funding to communities impacted by climate change issues.

    “Climate change is here. The climate crisis is already affecting our communities. Western Mass. faced both extreme flooding and extreme droughts within like a five-year span,” Nathan said.

    During the Smith College Sunrise banner drop, students gave speeches, marched to Lamont Bridge and gathered signatures for the “Make Polluters Pay” petition. This petition already surpassed the campaign’s goal of 5,000 signatures, and the campaign set a new goal of 7,000 signatures by Oct. 21.

    The Northampton City Council passed a resolution to support the state’s climate superfund bill on April 17, becoming the first municipality in western Massachusetts to do so. Smith Sunrise students worked closely with At-Large Councilor Marissa Elkins and Ward Councilor Deborah Klemer, the sponsors of the resolution.

    “It solidifies [Northampton’s] reputation as a leader,” said Emma Coopersmith, a Smith Sunrise student. “We hope to inspire other cities and also the state to do a similar thing.”

    Jeanne Walker, vice president and special counsel of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform, stated the bill would cost Massachusetts companies a “massive new retroactive fee” of up to $75 billion and would increase living costs for Massachusetts residents.

    In an emailed statement, Eldridge expressed concern over the ongoing litigation in other states that have passed climate superfund laws, such as Vermont and New York.

    “We know that this movement contradicts the Trump administration’s campaign to achieve so-called ‘energy dominance’ by polluting our environment and risking public health in expanding oil and gas projects, supporting the coal industry, and cutting promotion of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power,” Eldridge said.

    Last year, a previous version of the bill failed to pass. The current bill expands the scope of climate projects supported by the superfund, including relief from extreme weather events and medical care treating illnesses or injuries caused or aggravated by the effects of climate change.

    Additionally, Nathan said Sunrise chapters nationwide plan to do a walkout in protest of the current administration on Nov. 7, marking one year since President Donald Trump was elected.

    Nathan explained the need for activism, in spite of their student schedule.

    “My homework is due tomorrow, and the climate crisis is ongoing,” Nathan said.

    Joanna Malvas writes for the Gazette as part of the Boston University Statehouse Program.