Former House speaker Sal DiMasi’s tragic story of failing to get prompt treatment from prison officials for tongue cancer is touching off a wave of sympathy, but it’s unclear whether […]
Ethics and Open Government
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Budgeting efficiency
For bloodless efficiency, you couldn’t beat the House deliberations over a $32 billion budget, which were wrapped up Wednesday night after just three days of debate, an antiseptic process that […]
Posted inPolitics
Lawmaker using exile as platform
No one had to put Charley Murphy’s desk out in the hall, but they might as well have. In December, Murphy resigned as House majority whip, one step ahead of […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Tim-ber
This is the way the Legislature wanted it. If Tim Cahill had launched a quixotic gubernatorial run in 2006, and in the middle of this quixotic run, had he unleashed […]
Posted inPolitics
Cahill lawsuit leads to indictment
Attorney General Martha Coakley learned about the alleged political connection to a 2010 Lottery ad blitz the same way everyone else in Massachusetts did – she read about it in […]
Posted inPolitics
Murray now tangled in Probation web
Senate President Therese Murray, whose name had been mentioned but who has been largely on the periphery of the Probation Department scandal, is now fully enmeshed after a federal indictment made […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Uncategorized
“C” on integrity report nothing to write home about
When everyone around you is getting Ds and Fs, a C can feel pretty good. Beacon Hill insiders probably breathed a sigh of relief at the Bay State’s fair-to-middling ranking […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
HR department key to reform
In December, the Supreme Judicial Court Task Force on Judicial Hiring issued its sixth and final report, completing an exhaustive year-long review of hiring and promotion practices in all of the judicial branch. These reports mark a […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
How corrupt is Massachusetts?
We tend to think of Massachusetts as a pretty corrupt place. Let’s see, three House speakers in a row have been convicted of crimes. Sal DiMasi, the most recent speaker […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
DiMasi moves, Beacon Hill quakes
Last month, the Globe reported that federal prosecutors had “essentially completed their investigation” into rigged hiring at the state’s Probation Department, saying indictments “could be imminent.” Soon after, the Lowell […]
Posted inPolitics
Coakley closes DiPaola probe
Despite evidence of a “pay-to-play culture” in the Middlesex County Sheriff’s office under the late James DiPaola, Attorney General Martha Coakley today announced the conclusion of an investigation into public […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Lt. Gov. to release black box data
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray today directed the State Police to release the data contained on the “black box” of the car he was driving the morning […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
A bump in the patronage road
The charade the Boston City Council is engaged in as it attempts to hand off the $100,000-a-year city clerk position to barely-former city councilor Maureen Feeney held its opening act […]
Posted inPolitics
State rolls out Open Checkbook
Massachusetts officials today unveiled a new $1.8 million website that allows the public to review and ask questions about most government expenditures, including payments to vendors and the salaries and […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Winn pleads guilty to 2 misdemeanors
The prominent Boston developer Arthur Winn is pleading guilty to a pair of misdemeanor campaign finance violations, and a development company formerly headed by Winn agreed to pay a $1.5 […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
IG sees subculture of corruption
Inspector General Gregory Sullivan, who has a broad mandate to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse in state and local government, sat down recently with CommonWealth to discuss corruption […]
Posted inPolitics
Arraignment question: Who did O’Brien bribe?
Former Probation Commissioner John J. O’Brien pled not guilty this morning in Suffolk Superior Court to conspiracy and bribery charges but the longest shadow cast over the proceedings was by […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Feds, in Worcester, investigate probation
CORRECTION: Because of a reporting error, the location of the federal grand jury investigating patronage at the state’s Probation Department was misidentified in the original version of this story. The […]
Posted inPolitics
Coakley indicts O’Brien, Cahill aide
Indictments unsealed today by Attorney General Martha Coakley allege the commissioner of the state’s Probation Department and the one-time chief of staff to former state Treasurer Tim Cahill engaged in […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
DiMasi sentenced to eight years
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, once arguably the most powerful man in Massachusetts, was hit Friday with an eight-year jail sentence for his conviction on charges […]
Posted inPolitics
4 in 10 think corruption is widespread in Legislature
The prevailing view among Massachusetts voters is that corruption on Beacon Hill is limited to a few isolated incidents, but nearly 4 in 10 voters think the problem is widespread, […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
The real “culture of corruption”
There has been plenty of talk in the wake of the Sal DiMasi verdict about whether or not Massachusetts has a “culture of corruption.” The DiMasi situation is the standard […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
Contract dispute
when officials at the Clarence Edwards Middle School in Charlestown needed someone to work as a lunch and hall monitor, they did what often happens in the Boston Public Schools. […]
