New ordinance requires steps to protect workers from extreme heat
For some workers in the city of Boston, a new ordinance passed by the City Council will mean better protection against extreme heat next summer. That local legislation requires the city of Boston and its contractors to develop a heat illness prevention plan that would include providing employees with opportunities to access shade, water and rest as well as to receive training on heat-related illness and develop response plans in case of emergency.
Louisville inches toward implementing 2023 anti-gentrification law
Almost two years after Louisville Metro Council passed an ordinance to combat gentrification, the city still has not fully implemented it.
Standing outside a city-owned building on South Fifth Street last month, advocates with the tenant union PUSH Louisville held signs saying “Stop playing, we’re staying” and “Fight displacement — use the tool.”
Researchers Partner with Nonprofits to Track Health Effects of Federal and State Environmental Policies
Since the start of 2025, the Trump administration has issued nearly 200 executive orders, including directives that have dramatically altered the trajectory of the country’s environmental policy, challenging climate-related initiatives and ending environmental justice programs. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has followed suit, attempting to roll back an array of environmental protections that the administration has deemed a burden to domestic oil, gas, and coal production. The agency has characterized these efforts as the “biggest deregulatory action in U.S. history.”
Historical Trial to Test Limits of Military Power in US Law Enforcement
The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, a post-Reconstruction law that bars the use of military troops for domestic law enforcement, will head to a bench trial Monday for the first time in American history to determine if the Trump administration’s federalization of the California National Guard and deployment of the Marines is legal.
2 ways cities can beat the heat: Which is best, urban trees or cool roofs?
The temperature in an urban neighborhood with few trees can be more than 10 degrees Fahrenheit (5.5 Celsius) higher than in nearby suburbs. That means air conditioning works harder, straining the electrical grid and leaving communities vulnerable to power outages. There are some proven steps that cities can take to help cool the air – planting trees that provide shade and moisture, for example, or creating cool roofs that reflect solar energy away from the neighborhood rather than absorbing it. But do these steps pay off everywhere?
As Trump’s raids ramp up, a Texas region’s residents stay inside — even when they need medical care
As the Trump administration intensifies deportation activity around the country, some immigrants — including many who have lived in Texas’s southern tip for decades — are unwilling to leave their homes, even for necessary medical care.
Amid housing crisis, Boston’s building boom has gone cold. How much of that is due to Mayor Wu?
Just a few years ago, Boston’s skyline was dotted with cranes, the visual manifestation of a building boom reshaping the city. Today, those cranes are all but gone. And construction has fallen sharply. Amid a shortage that has driven rents skyward and pushed some residents from the city, 2023 and 2024 were the slowest years for housing construction since 2011, city data show. Nationally, Boston is building fewer homes than many other peer cities, including Seattle and Washington, D.C.
As housing pressure rises, planners seek public’s help
On Thursday, June 26, the Planning Department will host a public workshop at William Hall Library, focused on housing and traffic safety. The event is part of Phase 2 of the city’s Comprehensive Plan update, which emphasizes public engagement and will guide land use and development in Cranston for the next 20 years.
Trump’s threat to Chinese international students puts academic exchange and tuition dollars at risk in Massachusetts
But on Wednesday, the US effectively pulled the welcome mat out from under the Chinese international students here, some 277,000 by most recent count. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the federal government would “aggressively” revoke visas of Chinese students, “including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.”
Housing and the Pitfalls of Public Meetings
Wilson’s principle is being tested right now in Seattle, where Mayor Bruce Harrell has proposed an update to the city’s Comprehensive Plan that, among other things, would create as many as 30 “neighborhood centers,” a new zoning type that would allow multifamily housing in areas with a concentration of single-family homes.