The Baker administration has shut down a shadowy commercial website masquerading as the official Massachusetts Health Connector and referring customers to health insurers while collecting a fee in the process. […]
Colman M. Herman
Posted inUncategorized
Galvin upholds Jones decision on privacy grounds
SECRETARY OF STATE WILLIAM GALVIN’S OFFICE has ruled that the Foxborough Police Department acted properly in denying on privacy grounds a public records request for a surveillance video of New […]
Posted inPolitics
Baker administration making public records progress
A clarification has been added to this story. THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION is making significant progress in fulfilling the governor’s pledge to make it easier and cheaper for the public to […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Another approach on drunken driving
A TOUGH BUT fairly low-tech approach to drunken driving prevention is showing some promise in a handful of states and starting to pick up converts across the country. Called 24/7 […]
Posted inHealth Care
Falls are a concern at assisted living facilities
NEW STATE DATA suggest falls are a major problem at assisted living facilities across Massachusetts, with roughly two of every five residents ending up down on the floor over the […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
An exit sweetener
CAROL SANCHEZ, the former commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, pocketed $8,200 for doing nothing after she was apparently pushed out the door in early November. Sanchez served […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
IG condemns BRA-Red Sox deals
MASSACHUSETTS INSPECTOR GENERAL GLENN CUNHA on Monday condemned the procedures the Boston Redevelopment Authority followed in awarding lucrative property easements to the Boston Red Sox in 2013, but didn’t recommend […]
Posted inEducation
Students, schools play cat and mouse with online cheating
AS COLLEGES OFFER more and more courses online, school officials are scrambling to come up with innovative ways to prevent cheating by students taking tests and other assessments remotely. It’s […]
Posted inHealth Care
State down to one elder ombudsman
THE MASSACHUSETTS ELDER AFFAIRS office, which had been using two ombudsmen to respond to complaints from the 14,000 people in the state’s 237 assisted living facilities, is now down to one. […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, The Back Story
DCR forgives $23,000 of club’s unpaid rent
THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF CONSERVATION and Recreation is forgiving three-quarters of the back debt owed by a Quincy yacht club renting space from the state on Wollaston Beach. The Wollaston […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Baker’s public records silence
Gov. Charlie Baker isn’t saying where he stands on legislative efforts to update the state’s Public Records Law, possibly because he is not eager to disrupt the status quo. Like […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
DCR 2.0
IN LATE 2011, the commissioner of the state Department of Conservation and Recreation said the agency’s system for leasing public land was in disrepair, with many tenants enjoying sweetheart deals, […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
State House press gets free office space, parking
THE MEN AND WOMEN who are elected to state office are provided office and parking space at the State House when they arrive for work on Beacon Hill. The same […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Cunha probes BRA-Sox deal at glacial pace
BOSTON MAYOR MARTY WALSH said that if he were mayor in 2013 he would not have supported the agreement between the Boston Red Sox and the Boston Redevelopment Authority that […]
Posted inPolitics
Push on for changes in Public Records Law
FOR THE FIRST TIME in a long time, momentum seems to be building for making changes in the state’s Swiss-cheese Public Records Law. Attorney General Maura Healey, a newcomer on […]
Posted inMedia
Spotlight movie brings issue of credit to fore
THE TWO SCREENWRITERS of Spotlight, the upcoming movie about the Boston Globe Spotlight Team’s investigation of pedophile priests in the Catholic Church, paid a visit to a former reporter for […]
Posted inPolitics
Fired Elder Affairs worker sues state
A FORMER LONG-TIME compliance worker at the state Executive Office of Elder Affairs is suing the agency, alleging it violated his First Amendment rights and the state Whistleblower Act by […]
Posted inEducation
NU resumes Boston payments
NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY STOPPED making in-lieu-of-tax payments to the city of Boston last year, but now the school is back on board, possibly because of some hardball tactics by Mayor Marty […]
Posted inPolitics
DCR has another lease problem
THE MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT of Conservation and Recreation, which has had a lot of difficulty managing leases of state property in the past, has another problem on its hands. Newton Country […]
Posted inHealth Care
Aging in place
LAURA SHUFELT VIVIDLY remembers the February 2013 call from the assisted living facility in Centerville where her mother was living. A nurse at the facility told Shufelt her mother, who […]
Posted inPolitics
Reporter’s Notebook
FORMER GOV. DEVAL Patrick’s trade mission to Singapore in December 2013 must have been grueling because an aide who accompanied him on the trip ordered up a massage and what […]
Posted inPolitics
Elder Affairs aide fired
The Patrick administration has fired an employee at the state Elder Affairs office who has publicly criticized the agency’s oversight of assisted living facilities. Peter Antonellis, a compliance officer with […]
Posted inPolitics
Galvin orders DPH public records training
Secretary of State William Galvin is ordering officials at the Department of Public Health to attend training sessions on the workings of the Massachusetts Public Records Law. “In the past […]
Posted inEconomy
Boston’s PILOT program lagging
three years after the city of Boston launched a concerted effort to convince 49 of its largest nonprofit landholders to voluntarily make payments to the city in lieu of taxes, […]