STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE FEDERAL TRANSPORTATION officials dealt a major blow to a voter-approved Massachusetts law boosting access to motor vehicle telematic data, warning that the measure on the state’s books “poses significant safety concerns.” The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Tuesday effectively told major automobile manufacturers not to comply with the state’s “right […]
Courts
Posted inCourts
Cypher stepping down from SJC, giving Healey a pick
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SUPREME JUDICIAL Court Justice Elspeth Cypher plans to step down in January, giving Gov. Maura Healey a chance to appoint someone to the state’s highest court early in her first term. The SJC announced Monday that Cypher, who turned 64 in February, will retire from the court on Jan. 12, 2024 […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
To address police recruit shortage, raise standards
POLICE DEPARTMENTS across the Commonwealth and around the country are concerned about declining numbers of qualified recruits. The Boston Globe reported two months ago that the number of officers who have “voluntarily resigned from the Boston Police Department in recent years ballooned from zero in 2018 to 36 last year, a trend that is exacerbating […]
Posted inRace/Racism
Could Harvard affirmative action ruling threaten Boston exam school policies?
ALL EYES IN the higher education world are on the Supreme Court, which is expected to rule any day on whether universities can use race as a factor in admissions decisions. But the case – involving Harvard and the University of North Carolina – could have ripple effects into K-12 education that land squarely in […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice, Politics
Attention turns to Arroyo’s role in Rollins scandal
RACHAEL ROLLINS wasn’t sending out text messages into the void. City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo was answering. Two scathing reports on Rollins’s conduct as US attorney showed that she crossed all sorts of lines in leaking non-public Department of Justice information to reporters and exchanging hundreds of texts with Arroyo as she tried to boost his candidacy […]
Posted inCourts, Criminal Justice, Media
Rollins wheeled and dealed with the Globe, Herald
SIPPING CHABLIS WITH Jill Biden, it turns out, was the least of Rachael Rollins’s transgressions. Ever since reports last summer that Rollins attended a Democratic National Committee fundraiser at an Andover home where the first lady was the headline guest, the Massachusetts US attorney has been under scrutiny for possible violation of the Hatch Act, […]
Posted inCourts, Government, State Government
SJC punts on individual contributions to super PACs
THE STATE’S HIGHEST COURT decided on Tuesday not to rule on whether limits can be placed on individual campaign contributions to political action committees, putting those who favor limits in a difficult position. The Supreme Judicial Court considered an initiative petition proposed in 2022 that would place a $5,000-per-year cap on contributions from individuals to […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
AG Andrea Campbell picks her targets
ATTORNEY GENERAL Andrea Campbell has waded into some politically thorny topics so far, trying to balance an advocacy lens as “the people’s lawyer” with the practical demands of being “top cop.” A former city councilor and Boston mayoral hopeful whose legal background focused on education and employment, Campbell is about five months into the attorney […]
Posted inCourts, Government
SJC wades into face-off over online stock trading
IT’S A NICE THOUGHT that “broker-dealers” who handle transactions in the ever-changing world of online securities trading platforms should show a basic standard of care to clients, but that may not be Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s call to make. That’s the central issue at play in a case heard on Wednesday by the Supreme Judicial […]
Posted inCourts, Opinion, Politics, State Government
Isn’t winning by 1 vote enough?
IN LAST NOVEMBER’S election, Kristin Kassner, a candidate for state representative on the North Shore, flipped a seat from red to blue by a one-vote margin. But it didn’t come easily. Despite the will of the people being affirmed by a district-wide recount and court challenges to the election running their course, the Republican incumbent […]