Kaine, Schiff, & Peters Introduce Bill to Protect Veterans and Low-Income Families from Housing Discrimination

Today, U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-VA), a former fair housing attorney, and Adam Schiff (D-CA), alongside U.S. Representative Scott Peters (D-CA-50), introduced the bicameral Fair Housing Improvement Act of 2025 to protect veterans and low-income families from housing discrimination. This legislation would expand protections to all veterans and low-income individuals by adding source of income (SOI) and veteran and military status to the list of protected classes under the Fair Housing Act of 1968, giving more people access to affordable housing.

Healey wants to speed up state review to encourage housing. Will it work?

Gov. Maura Healey unveiled plans last week to slash environmental review requirements for certain developments, a move aimed at accelerating housing construction across Massachusetts. Experts say the proposal is unlikely to immediately ease the state’s deepening housing crisis. But it’s a step in the right direction.

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?

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.