32-Year Old Woman Posed as Student at 3 High Schools, Including English High

A former Department of Children and Families employee posed as a student by allegedly falsifying paperwork to attend three Boston high schools, including Jamaica Plain's English High. Boston Police and the Suffolk County District Attorney's are investigating the 32-year old woman, whose father has told media outlets that his daughter was in need of mental health help and is receiving it now. Boston Public Schools said the woman attended the Jeremiah E. Burke High School, Brighton High School, and English High School. WCVB reported that the woman graduated from Sharon High School in 2009, earned an undergrad degree at Wheelock College and got her Masters of Education in School Counseling from UMass-Boston in 2016. The woman's alleged charade crashed down at her third high school stop in recent months, at English High, after an unidentified man went to the school and said she would be withdrawing his daughter because of bullying -- but she had just enrolled at the school less than a week before, report WCVB.

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There’s A Lot More Fish in Jamaica Pond After Last Week

One of the great benefits of being governor of Massachusetts means you have the option of participating in the annual stocking of Jamaica Pond -- and Governor Maura Healey didn't miss her first opportunity to do so. Healey was joined Boston Parks and Recreation Commissioner Ryan Woods, Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper, students from John F. Kennedy Elementary and Curley K-8 schools, and MassWildlife staff on April 27. According to Boston Parks and Recreation, more than 1,000 trout were released into Jamaica Pond -- approximately 800 rainbow trout averaging 14 inches long, 25 brook trout and 65 brown trout averaging 18 inches long, and 170 tiger trout, a cross between a female brown trout and a male brook trout, averaging 14 inches long. The fish for the stocking event were raised at state hatcheries.

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Governor, Mayor Announcing State’s ’23 Affordable Housing Funding Awards Including JPNDC Low-Income Senior Housing Project

Governor Maura Healey will be joined by Boston Mayor Michelle Wu on Wednesday in Jamaica Plain when the governor will announce the Commonwealth's affordable housing funds for 2023, including one JP project for low-income senior housing. Healey is making the announcement during a press conference at the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation's (JPNDC) Brewery Complex, where Wu will also deliver remarks. JPNDC will be receiving funding for two projects that will create 87 new affordable homes for low-income seniors, including 39 units at their project at 3371 Washington St. in Jamaica Plain.

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Sonia Chang-Díaz Drops Out of Governor’s Race

Saying she cannot win, state Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz announced on Thursday that she is no longer running for Massachusetts governor. A Jamaica Plain resident, Chang-Díaz was regarded as an underdog to win the Democratic Party primary in September against Attorney General Maura Healey. Only a few weeks ago Chang-Díaz qualified for the primary, but she saw she could not win. She said she will be stopping her campaign, although her name will remain on the ballot. Chang-Díaz made history by becoming the first Latina and first Asian American elected to the state senate.

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AG Healey Secures $800K from Bravo Pharmacy for Unlawful Auto-Refill Practices, Billing MassHealth for Unprovided Prescriptions

Attorney General Maura Healey announced an $800,000 settlement with Bravo Pharmacy for allegedly billing the state’s Medicaid program, MassHealth, for automatically refilled prescription medications, for a costly prescription multivitamin that was not provided to patients, and other prescriptions that were not authorized by a physician. Healey announced the settlement on Thursday, in which Bravo Pharmacy, located at 3158 Washington St., in Jamaica Plain, and its owner, Dmitry Linkov, will be required to pay $800,000 to resolve the allegations, according to a press release. Bravo must also implement a three-year independent compliance monitoring program to ensure future compliance with all laws, rules and regulations applicable to participation in MassHealth. “This pharmacy’s improper billing and automatic refill practices resulted in unnecessary overpayments by MassHealth,” said Healey. “This resolution brings money back to our state, puts an end to these unlawful practices, and requires strict compliance with state and federal regulations moving forward.”

The AG’s investigation reported that from May 2017 through July 2021, Bravo allegedly submitted numerous claims for an uncommonly used and expensive vitamin supplement known as Hylavite.

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Boston Police Commissioner Defends Meeting with AG Barr

U.S. Attorney General William Barr was in Boston on Thursday and met with Boston Police Commissioner William Gross. That meeting sparked criticism from many elected officials, and led to Gross defending why he met with the controversial head of the Department of Justice. The U.S. Department of Justice tweeted out a photo of Barr and Gross shoulder-to-shoulder, and not wearing masks together in Boston. Supposedly it was the first time a sitting U.S. Attorney General had visited the Boston Police Department. As chief legal counsel to the president, Barr has most recently been widely condemned for ordering peaceful protestors to be teargassed in Washington D.C. to clear the way for President Trump to walk where the protestors were occupying so he could do a photo op.

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ESAC Receives $240K Grant from AG Healey to Help Seniors

Local JP organization ESAC recently received a large grant close to a quarter million dollars to further its mission of helping senior citizens. Massachusetts' Attorney General Maura Healey announced nearly $3 million in funding through a new grant program to address issues that affect health, including nutrition, safe housing, violence prevention, substance abuse and more. In total, the Ecumenical Social Action Committee (ESAC) will receive $240,000 during the next three years to partner with the Uphams Corner Health Center to help senior citizens who would otherwise by in a nursing home, said Emily Morris Litonjua, executive director of ESAC. Seniors will be provided falls prevention assessments and related modifications integrated with occupational therapy and nursing care. "ESAC has identified falls prevention as crucial to enabling the seniors we serve to age safely in place, which is the most cost effective long term care strategy and what the vast majority of seniors prefer to do," said Emily Morris Litonjua, executive director of ESAC.  "This approach, piloted by the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, has been shown to result in a 26 percent reduction in emergency department visits, a quarterly $2,765 per patient reduction in Medicare expenditures, and a 50 percent reduction in depression symptoms. In addition, there was a 75 percent improvement in daily activities needed to remain independent.”

“As a state and as a country, we continue to spend most of our health care dollars treating people who are already sick, rather than investing to keep people healthy,” said Healey via press release.

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Jamaica Plain Election Info: Candidates, Ballot Questions, Where to Vote and More

Tuesday's Election Day is going to be extremely tame, at least in Massachusetts, compared to the fireworks of September's primaries, which already decided all of the major races. Not sure where you vote? Click here to find out where to vote. Races Already Decided

Jamaica Plain encompasses two congressional districts and there is only one candidate in the final of each. At-Large Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley is headed to Washington, DC after defeating 10-time incumbent Michael Capuano in the Democratic primary for the 7th District.

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AG Enters Into Agreement for Clean Up, Redevelopment of Contaminated Land in JP

Attorney General Maura Healey's office has entered into an agreement to facilitate to clean up a former automotive and industrial site on Washington Street. The property will then be made into a mixed-use development for retail space, apartments and condos. The agreement was agreed upon through the AG’s Brownfields Covenant Program, which provides liability protection to the current owner and to three development entities that are developing the former site of Flanagan & Seaton Motor Car Co., a 3.36-acre property at 3521-3529 Washington St. The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection received notification that the site was contaminated in October 2011. The property is currently contaminated with chlorinated volatile organic compounds, petroleum, polychlorinated biphenyls, trichloroethylene and heavy metals. The redevelopment will create a three-lot property with a parking garage, retail space and residential units on one lot, a four-story storage building on the second lot, and a four-story residential building with underground parking and a community garden on the third lot.

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