Prevailing sentiment in progressive haunts is “2016, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.” Between a stressful election season, acts of terror, and the crisis in Syria, many of us will be glad to see the calendar page turn on Sunday night. Still, to every cloud there is a silver lining, and at least when it comes to tackling climate change in the US, Massachusetts was a bright spot amidst the clouds of 2016.

The Library of the Royal Irish Academy wants to identify the people in the photograph below. Please contact the Library if you recognize any of the subjects. The Library can be reached via Twitter @Library_RIA, or by email at www.ria.ie/library/contact, citing "8 May Photo Query Tweet."

If more information regarding the location, subjects, time, et cetera, of the photograph become available, I will update this post.

We need to stop litter and keep Massachusetts clean by spreading the word about the Yes on Question 2 campaign.

The Bottle Bill is the most effective recycling tool we have. Eighty percent of bottles covered by the Bottle Bill’s 5-cent deposit are recycled. Yes on Question 2 would add a bottle deposit to water, sports drinks, tea, juices, and other drinks that were not included in the original bill because they were not popular when the law was passed in 1982.

We need your vote on November 4 to update the Bottle Bill.

read more at bluemassgroup

Common Cause Massachusetts is hosting a Redistricting Olympics this summer. We will be taking citizen drawn Congressional, State House, and State Senate maps all summer, evaluating them, declaring a winner, giving out prizes and submitting the winning maps to the MA Legislative Redistricting Committee for consideration.

The purpose of the redistricting Olympics is threefold: to educate the public about the steps in the redistricting process, to initiate public participation in the political arena, and to pressure the legislature to draw the districts so that the citizens are appropriately represented.