Results tagged “reform”

                    

It's a good day in the Common when the odor of fried dough is engulfed in the sweet aroma of Saturday's herbaceous guest of honor. More than previous Boston Freedom Rallies, affectionately known as HempFest, there was much to celebrate.

It's a time-honored tradition: when laws get tough, people scramble to avoid them. The latest instance of this phenomenon comes with Boston firefighters, who are hurrying to cash in their pensions before a new law goes into effect that would reduce the size of said pensions. Firefighters who were injured on the job while filling in for a (higher-paid) supervisor used to be able to get additional pension money when filing for disability, due to their temporarily elevated status. About 100 firefighters had filed for such benefits over the past six years, but the change in the law has prompted 29 former flame-battlers to try to get in on the hot action this week (perhaps before beginning their bodybuilding careers). The new law bases pension for disabled firefighters on the firefighters' own average salary, not that of supervisors.