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 […]
Ethics and Open Government
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Raising a stink at Boston City Council
Resolved: There is no good time and it never looks good for elected officials to propose and vote on their own raises. But, really, doesn’t City Councilor Bill Linehan, in rejecting […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Walsh claims he can’t grab texts, LOL
The Boston Globe and Mike Beaudet, a longtime investigative reporter for Fox 25 and journalism professor at Northeastern University, made multiple and separate requests for texts between Walsh and his chief […]
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 inGambling, The Back Story
Mystery figure in Crosby ethics probe revealed
THE MYSTERY FIGURE who spurred a state ethics investigation of Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby turns out to be Charles A. Baker III, a lawyer and top Democratic political […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Democrat Ash loads up on GOP staffers
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. CHARLIE BAKER has won plaudits for bringing Democrats into the fold as he built a senior team around him, but the governor’s administration has also […]
Posted inThe Download
The rush to be first, the need to be right
The Boston Herald and the Boston Globe each had exclusive stories last week that sent some warning temblors through Beacon Hill. The Globe reported that a sworn affidavit from […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion, The Back Story
Fact-checking the state’s incarceration rate
In the debate over mandatory minimum sentences and corrections reform, those resisting major changes say there is little need for wholesale reform because the state incarceration rate is so low. […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Public records reform gets Galvinized
Secretary of State Galvin, who oversees the state’s public records law, recently unveiled his nuclear option in his push for reform: threatening lawmakers with a referendum. There is no shortage of pending […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Public records issue gets heavy coverage
Updating the state’s Public Records Law is gaining some traction, at least in the media. The problems with the law — the lackadaisical enforcement, the high charges imposed for obtaining […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Globe suits come with deep pockets
There was a time not so long ago that newspapers, from big to small, had the resources available to ensure that state and local agencies complied with open meeting and […]
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
House plan exempts T from Pacheco Law
THE HOUSE BUDGET COMMITTEE unveiled on Wednesday a $38 billion spending plan for the coming fiscal year that tracks fairly closely to Gov. Charlie Baker’s proposal and even gives the […]
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 inPolitics
Markey’s strategy in Washington
IT WAS A COLD February 5 when Ed Markey took the stage in the Radio and TV Gallery of the US Capitol. There were only a few reporters there to […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Baker’s leak strategy
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER’S press strategy for this week’s MBTA advisory panel report — which involved a steady diet of leaks in advance of its official Wednesday release — was masterful, […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Union chief criticizes T’s commuter rail oversight
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A TRANSPORTATION UNION chief laid into the MBTA on Tuesday, referring to new equipment as “wrecks on wheels” and charging the transit agency with micro-managing the […]
Posted inThe Download
A story about nothing
The television show Seinfeld famously referred to itself as a “show about nothing.” There’s a new genre of news reporting emerging in the same vein, something that essentially tells readers […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Probation drama not over yet
For months during the federal trial of former Probation commissioner John O’Brien and two top deputies, defense attorneys continually drew attention to the fact that only O’Brien, Elizabeth Tavares, and William […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Galvin dishes out blame pie — but none for him, thanks
There is an old saw about accountability that says when you point a finger of blame at someone else, there are three more pointing back at you. Secretary of State […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
Tuning into two trials
There are two trials right now in Boston that are riveting those who live here as well as people across the country. In the US District Court on Boston’s waterfront, […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
House paid Boston law firm $262,000
THE MASSACHUSETTS HOUSE paid $262,000 to a Boston law firm in 2013 and 2014 for work on ethics investigations. House officials are declining further comment on how the money was […]
Posted inThe Back Story
No good deed goes unpunished
Good deeds, they say, are their own rewards and a Dorchester charter school teacher may soon have to settle for that. Nicole Bollerman, a third-grade teacher at UP Academy Dorchester, […]
Posted inPolitics
Fix the broken Public Records Law
WE IN THE cradle of liberty think of ourselves as national leaders when it comes to government openness and democracy. After all, Massachusetts colonists used public “broadsheets” to inform people […]