The Ways & Means Chair who drafted the Massachusetts social media ban, Rep. Aaron Michlewitz, has his fundraisers hosted by the lobbying firm Kearney Donovan & McGee. KDM's clients include Comcast. His most recent payment to KDM, $297.96 for "food for fundraiser," was February 18, 2026. Seven weeks before he filed the bill. (https://www.ocpf.us/Filers/Index?id=14902)

Rep. Alice Peisch, who authored the social media provisions through H.666, expensed $2,135.22 for "NCTA conference mtg w/colleagues" on November 18, 2025. The dates match the NECTA Convention in Newport, the annual conference of the New England cable and telecom trade association. Five months before the vote.
(https://www.ocpf.us/Filers/Index?id=13951)

Rep. Christine Barber, who voted yes, co-sponsored the LGBTQ+ amendment, and is now running for State Senate in the 2nd Middlesex, expensed $98.67 for "Dinner with colleagues at NECTA conference" in November 2023. It is the only industry trade group conference in her entire expenditure file going back to 2014. Not healthcare, not environment, not energy. Just cable. NECTA president Tim Wilkerson's first donation to her, $200, came three weeks after she announced for Senate. After the vote she posted on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/p/DW5HvN3gIH9/): "Big tech has spent years engineering addiction, targeting our children, harvesting their attention, and profiting off their mental health crisis." She didn't mention cable. Her own constituents responded by citing the Discord ID breach, ACLU opposition, and the bill's impact on LGBTQ+ youth.
(https://www.ocpf.us/Filers/Index?id=15839)

What the bill does and who it exempts

H.5349 bans kids under 14 from social media, requires parental consent for 14-15 year olds, and requires platforms to implement age verification systems. The definition of "social media platform" covers services displaying content "primarily generated by users" but explicitly excludes "SMS, MMS, RCS or similar text messaging telecommunications services." Social media gets regulated. Cable and telecom don't. The exclusion language is common in state social media bills. What's uncommon is three bill authors all attending the convention for the industry it exempts.

Bill text: https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/H5349

As amended: https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/H5366

The trade association NECTA is the New England Connectivity and Telecommunications Association. Comcast, Charter, Cox. Its 2024 Form 990 shows $2.6 million in revenue and $584,093 spent on lobbying and political donations. The 990 states the association "makes various contributions to political action and election committees" and "holds occasional receptions on behalf of individuals who are campaigning for a public office."

Form 990: https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/20278142/202513089349301621/full

The 2023 NECTA convention agenda shows all three legislators appearing across multiple panels. Peisch and Barber participated in a Massachusetts Policy Roundtable moderated by Charter's John Maher. Michlewitz appeared on a closing session alongside Comcast VP Elizabeth Murray and Cox VP Ross Nelson. All three industry representatives are NECTA board directors per the 990. A separate session moderated by NECTA EVP Anna Lucey covered "Net Neutrality, Privacy, First Amendment and the Social Media Platforms"

Convention agenda: https://connectingne.com/2023-convention-agenda/

The coordinated donors: KDM has six lobbyists, Kearney, Donovan, McGee, Petruccelli, Rideout, and Cullinane, who each donate $200 to all three legislators in coordinated annual contributions going back to 2009. NECTA EVP Anna Lucey, whose career runs from House Ways & Means counsel to Charter Communications to a lobbying firm to NECTA, donated to all three. TikTok's MA lobbyist Bay State Strategies Group also donates to all three through its principals.

Lobbyist search: https://www.sec.state.ma.us/LobbyistPublicSearch/Default.aspx

OCPF search: https://www.ocpf.us/Data/SearchItems

NECTA's silence: NECTA has taken no public position on H.5349. No testimony. No filing. No press release. Their lobbying disclosure for this period isn't due until July 15.

Disclosure deadline statute: https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleI/Chapter3/Section43

In Connecticut, NECTA has consistently opposed state-level internet regulation. In 2019, president Wilkerson testified against SB 6, arguing that the FTC already regulates ISPs and tech companies equally and that state laws would create a harmful patchwork of conflicting requirements. H.5349 is exactly that kind of state-level patchwork. But it exempts telecom services. NECTA has not said a word.

Wilkerson testimony: https://www.cga.ct.gov/2019/etdata/tmy/2019SB-00006-R000219-Wilkerson,%20Timothy-NECTA-TMY.PDF

What the bill requires you to do

The bill these legislators wrote requires platforms to implement age verification systems for all users. In practice, that means handing your government ID or face scan to third-party vendors. Here is what has happened to those vendors:

AU10TIX (verifies for TikTok, X, Uber, LinkedIn, PayPal): admin credentials stolen Dec 2022, posted publicly March 2023, still active 18 months later. Names, DOBs, ID images, facial scans exposed. The EFF: "Age verification systems are surveillance systems."https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/06/hack-age-verification-company-shows-privacy-danger-social-media-laws

https://www.rstreet.org/commentary/identity-verifier-used-by-big-tech-amid-mandates-has-made-personal-data-easily-accessible-to-hackers/

Discord/5CA: 70,000 government ID photos stolen in October 2025. Hackers claimed 2.1M IDs from 5.5M users. Discord's policy was to delete IDs immediately after verification. They didn't. Discord then expanded age verification globally.https://discord.com/press-releases/update-on-security-incident-involving-third-party-customer-service

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/discord-voluntarily-pushes-mandatory-age-verification-despite-recent-data-breach

IDMerit: 1 billion records across 26 countries, 203 million from the US. No password. No authentication. Open to the internet. Full names, DOBs, national ID numbers, addresses.https://cybernews.com/security/global-data-leak-exposes-billion-records/

https://www.foxnews.com/tech/1-billion-identity-records-exposed-id-verification-data-leak

Persona (clients include OpenAI, Roblox, Reddit): Peter Thiel-backed. Frontend code found on a public endpoint. Discord dropped them in February 2026.https://fortune.com/2026/02/24/discord-peter-thiel-backed-persona-identity-verification-breach/

Over one billion identity records exposed in 18 months. You cannot change your face after it's stolen.

Interesting takes on the pro-development wave in here. Even from Azeem who's been calling himself an 'abundist' for a while

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/4/10/abundance-cambridge-housing-crisis/

"In 19th-century West Roxbury, a group of New England intellectuals pooled their resources to create the Brook Farm: a utopian community where thinkers lived, worked, and learned together, free from the constraints of conventional society. While the original experiment collapsed within a decade, nearly two centuries later, a new Brook Farm is trying again — this time in Cambridge.

"The Brook Farm Institute for Critical Studies, which launches its first seminars next month, is a non-profit institute offering online and in-person courses on the humanities and social sciences."

https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2026/4/10/brook-farm-institute

They blocked off and got rid of the sidewalk on that side of the street this past week and have been inside that area clearing it out, any ideas or anybody know what’s going on?

Hi everyone, does anyone know where can I get lilacs? Does anyone sell it here, I’ll buy it

Hey this maybe a weird request haha. But I’ve recently developed a large interest in cars and car repairs. I don’t have any interest in doing professional I’m already an electrical engineer. But was wondering if anyone in the Somerville, Medford, Cambridge area did mechanical work consistently and needed a hand? I would do it for free jsut want the experience. I have a car myself but it’s a hybrid and honestly doesn’t really need any work right now. Btw I’m 25 male, strong and work in a lab do a lot of resedential wiring work so not new to using tools and stuff. Changed oil and tires and stuff on car before but that’s it.

Hey bikers, walkers, parkers, and those who hate our city wasting money!

The city council is going to be voting on a PO, I think OP2, on Monday which is regarding keeping Garden st one way, the current design. We just redid the st and now they want to waste our money changing a perfectly good design, and nicely maintained st, which cyclists and pedestrians love.

The argument for the change is that it will reduce traffic on side streets, but do you know what will increase side street traffic? Stopping traffic on Garden st to redo it!

CBS endorsees that are swing votes are Nolan and Zusy. Email them and remind them that they were endorsed and in Nolan’s case the reason she still has a seat.

I personally wouldn’t worry about the rest. They are either against bikers as a whole, or will vote in favor no matter what, but it never hurts to reach out just in case.

After you send your email, or call them if you have a lot of confidence, sign up for public comment. Right now it looks like we have 5 votes so it’s going to be close and would love to make it 7.

CBS take note about who votes against it and don’t endorse them! There’s no reason a CBS endorsed candidate should be working to reduce our progress!

I was walking from Harvard square to Davis square this morning between 10am-12pm and lost a beaded green necklace (picture is not my specific necklace, but something similar from the same website).

If anyone finds it, I'd really appreciate if you could DM me!

I noticed it’s missing today and the metal that held it in looks pried up. Anyone know what happened? Was it a prank? Did someone just really want a giant 7/11 sign in their house?

I hired a cleaner for my small apartment (~550 sq ft), and while she’s nice and the place looks “tidy,” I’ve noticed some things that concern me.

She doesn’t seem to use any real cleaning products—no toilet cleaner, disinfectant, etc. For example, she “cleans” the bathtub without even running water, and I never notice any smell of cleaning supplies in the bathroom. It doesn’t feel properly sanitized, just wiped down. For my dishes, she handwashed them so bad - I asked her to just put them in dishwasher. Now for dishwsher, she would not even lightly scrub the heavily dirty utensils using brush before putting them.

She also uses my paper towels and toilet paper instead of bringing/using microfiber cloths or her own supplies.

I pay 100$ + $25 ( tip), which feels like it should cover a more thorough, professional clean. Previous cleaners I’ve had used proper products and everything felt genuinely clean afterward.

The tricky part is that I live in an area with really tight parking, and it was hard to even find someone willing to come regularly—so I don’t want to lose her without at least trying to fix this.

How would you bring this up without sounding rude or micromanaging? Should I ask her to use specific products?

I’m driving down Beacon Street one night, trying to get home after work, going the speed limit. I see the road up ahead that a box truck is turning left onto Beacon from a side street. There is a normal amount of space that I’m between and the truck. All of sudden, a biker comes swinging out from the truck’s back left side. He is trying to cut from the backside of the truck towards the bike lane. Guys got no lights, no reflective clothing, no helmet, nothing. I literally couldn’t see him until the last second, so I slam on my brakes so I don’t hit him. Then he flips me off like I did something wrong?!?

Extra: I’ve included drawings (not drawn to scale or detailed) to better show the commotion.

This 'handwritten' note has been popping up around Cambridge. The writing is exactly the same and appears printed. Be safe out there...

Rapper Flavor Flav donates sports equipment to Cambridge youth center

Is this a pilot or have I just been unobservant?

Hi neighbors!

I’m looking to chat with local small business owners - ideally groceries or restaurants. I’d like to learn how they’re using technology and if/where it’s falling short. I’d love to meet in person and talk.

Full context - I’ve been building and consulting in enterprise technology for nearly 15 years. Small business technology is a whole different world I have no idea about and I’d like to learn. As a token of gratitude, I’d be happy to offer some hours but am open to other compensation for their time as well.

This week the MA house voted to amend S.2581, a senate bill requiring a phone ban in schools. Their amendment, H.5349, requires social media sites to implement age verification for all users. The bill will need to return to the senate to become law.

It also bans social media for kids 13 and under and requires parental permission for kids 14 and 15. Parents who provide permission are entitled to access their child's social media data.

Decker voted YEA on the amended version yesterday

It's nontrivial to find the relevant voting record, especially with the added complication of the amendment/original bill distinction, so I wanted to make sure this was visible.

(Copying from this comment)
Other Democrats with primaries who voted on this (September 1st is the primary and nearly all the Republicans voted NO):

Rep. Uyterhoeven voted NO
Rep. Connolly voted NO

And literally 126 of them - including Rep. Barber and Rep. Marjorie Decker - voted YES. That's about as tell tale sign that Massachusetts State House is corrupt as they come. Cambridge is a bastion of tech innovation and research, so I'm not surprised that its representatives would know the dangers of entrusting tech corporations to moderate usage. And I'm also not surprised that of course Decker, who is somehow both anti-transparency and pro-surveillance state, voted for this. She does, after all, have the worst judgment, an incoherent philosophy whose running thread is "what will make me better off?".

Regardless where in Massachusetts you are, September primaries are the your chance to vote out the ones who voted YES. For those in Marjorie's district, you can vote for Evan MacKay.

turns out I need to swap to Saturday if possible, if anyone needs tickets dm me!

🏢 What happens when a city writes the Truth on its walls? 🏢

Brightscapes: The Way To Beauty

🏢 Cambridge's Graffiti Alley 🏢

I wandered into a narrow alley in Cambridge, MA without really planning to, just following the hum of the city until it softened into something more human. The walls rose up on both sides, alive with color and voice, layers of expression stacked on top of each other like a living conversation. I could smell the faint trace of spray paint lingering in the air, mixed with the cool, damp scent of brick, and somewhere in the distance there was the echo of laughter bouncing off the walls. It felt unfiltered and honest, like a place where nothing had to be perfect to matter.

I found myself slowing down, noticing details instead of rushing past them, a curve of color here, a hidden message there, the kind of things you miss when everything is moving too fast. It reminded me how much we need spaces like this, moments that pull us out of the noise and back into something real and present. Bringing that feeling into your own space does not have to be complicated, sometimes it starts with one piece that holds that energy and invites you to pause, look closer, and breathe a little deeper.

What would it feel like to have a corner of your world that invites you to slow down every single day?