Bins will also be at both Salem 5 Lynn locations the next 4 weeks. Donations can also be brought directly to The Salvation Army M-F 12-3 1 Franklin St.
(We will post info soon on how your child can receive school supplies.)

Also from the Salvation Army: “Please continue to watch here for updates… If the weather is not good tomorrow we may be forced to close our drive through food pantry for the safety of our staff and volunteers!”

Clean out your house at Covanta Days, happening this
month on Saturday, August 15th.

Updates from state government

• As of Sunday night, DPH reported a total of 110,430 cases of COVID-19. The state has now confirmed a total of 8,417 deaths from the virus.
• Legislators on Friday were unable to reach agreement on a police licensing and accountability bill. Legislative leaders and Gov. Charlie Baker had set July 31 as the target date to finalize a deal, and talks were active on Friday. House Speaker Robert DeLeo didn’t specify a timeline on the policing bill in a statement released after Friday’s session.
• The House adjourned at 12:34 a.m. Saturday morning after enacting a $1.8 billion information technology bill. The bill also includes $40 million to replace State Police cruisers and $20 million for policy body cameras. A climate change and emissions reduction bill cleared the House on a 142-17 vote earlier in the session, which began just after 11 a.m. Friday. The climate bill is now likely also headed to a conference committee. The House meets next on Monday at 11 a.m. in an informal session.
• The Senate on Friday met for more than 11 hours but dealt mostly with non-controversial local. After midnight, the Senate sent to Governor Baker’s desk a $1.8 billion information technology bond bill (H 4932), which had emerged a short time earlier from a six-member conference committee. The Senate meets again in informal session on Monday at 11am.
• Democratic legislative leaders were unable to reach late-July agreements on police licensing, health care, economic development, transportation spending and climate bills, but agreed to an order permitting formal sessions to continue for the rest of 2020, with the expectation that deals might be reached on those bills. Democratic leaders had previously hoped to wrap up policing reform by the end of July.
• Conference committees have either been set up or are being assembled to tackle five major areas: transportation spending, policing reform and accountability; economic development and housing production; health care reforms, and climate change and emissions reduction efforts. Other focus areas will include budgeting, both closing out the fiscal 2020 budget year and agreeing on spending plans for the rest of fiscal 2021, and bills that respond in some fashion to the unfolding impacts of the pandemic. Since conference committees operate in total secrecy, House and Senate members are essentially on call for potential formal sessions should the panels reach agreements and indicate their proposals are ready to be voted upon in each branch.
• On the budget front, lawmakers took care of two major pieces of business this past week: committing to local aid investments for the remainder of fiscal 2021 and passing a three-month budget, which Baker plans to sign, to keep state government and services open and functioning through October. The odd timeline means fiscal 2021 budget deliberations could unfold only weeks before the scheduled December start of talks on revenue assumptions for a fiscal 2022 state budget.
• New travel restrictions into Massachusetts went into effect on Saturday morning. Read more about these restrictions by clicking here.

Special thanks to MassAccess for the above information.

From Mayor McGee’s office: The Lynn Public Health Department has confirmed that as of today, the number of active, confirmed positive COVID-19 cases is 568 with 9 new cases today. 3,340 Lynn residents have recovered and 111 have died. The total number of confirmed positive COVID-19 cases in Lynn since March 21, 2020, including those who have died and recovered, is 4,019. Please visit the new City of Lynn COVID-19 Data Dashboard which is updated daily.

Summer meals for Lynn youth:

Please visit https://meals4kids.org/summermeals for information on the Summer Meals program, which is a federally funded program that provides meals to anyone 18 and under when school is not in session. All kids and teens are eligible, and no registration or ID is required to participate.

STOP THE SPREAD Initiative:

Please visit http://www.ci.lynn.ma.us/covid19/resources.shtml#p7GPc1_2 for more information on how you can get a free COVID-19 test in the City of Lynn through August 14th.