DOING THE SAME thing again and expecting a different result may be the definition of insanity, as the saying goes, but some legislative candidates are doing it anyway. This November, […]
Legislature
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Republicans allege power grab in rules debate
THE NORMALLY CONGENIAL dealings of the Massachusetts House of Representatives turned into a scene of vituperative charges and countercharges being hurled across the partisan divide on Wednesday as lawmakers struggled […]
Posted inPolitics
Baker tries to nudge House and Senate toward agreement
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER has seen House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s offer of a barebones closeout budget deal to break a logjam on Beacon Hill and, like any confident poker player, raised […]
Posted inPolitics
Kaufman: ‘No diversity of opinion’ in DeLeo’s inner circle
FORMER REP. JAY KAUFMAN continued his recent lambasting of House Speaker Robert DeLeo during a panel discussion Wednesday about the lack of racial and gender diversity in Massachusetts government. The […]
Posted inPolitics
Former rep backs up Kaufman’s account
FORMER STATE REP Cleon Turner remembers it well. Jay Kaufman was in an aisle of the House chamber in 2013 venting about how Speaker Robert DeLeo had told him that […]
Posted inPolitics
DeLeo to seek yet another term as speaker
HOUSE SPEAKER Robert DeLeo, who four years ago oversaw the scuttling of term limits on his reign, said he doesn’t plan to leave anytime soon and intends to seek another […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Families want to end prison phone call charges
AYANA AUBOURG MET her father Winchel Aubourg as an infant while he was behind bars for a drug-related crime. For the next 17 years, she spoke with him over the […]
Posted inOpinion
A resolution for Legislature: Finish last year’s work
IN A FEW short days, the next legislative session in the Massachusetts State House will begin. New legislators will be sworn in. The governor will give his State of the […]
Posted inOpinion
Do no harm on health care spending
WHEN THE LEGISLATURE reconvenes and takes up the unresolved challenge of shoring up the bottom lines of financially stressed community hospitals, lawmakers would do well to keep in mind the […]
Posted inHealth Care
Past time to get serious about health care costs
LAST SEPTEMBER, Pioneer observed that Massachusetts had dodged a federal bullet when the US Senate failed by one vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Had they succeeded, the Commonwealth […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Communities seek change on pot opt-out
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE UNCERTAINTY OVER THE PROCESS cities and towns must follow to opt out of the sprouting legal marijuana market has sparked confusion across the state and needs […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
For marijuana law, now the ‘Grown-Up’s Hour’
MANY OF US have listened to Longfellow’s poem that reminds us that there “Comes a pause in the day’s occupations, that is known as the Children’s Hour.” Now that democracy […]
Posted inPolitics
Not the usual faces in state Senate race
FOR DECADES, AN East Boston resident has held the state Senate seat representing the First Suffolk and Middlesex District, which extends north from the neighborhood to Revere and reaches west […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Criminal justice reform bill stalls
A BILL TO end the mandatory suspension of the driver’s license of any drug offender, which looked like it was sailing through the State House as a consensus-winning, early step […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion, Transportation
On ride-sharing, Legislature must embrace innovation
MASSACHUSETTS HAS BEEN the cradle of innovation since our country’s birth. Big ideas, groundbreaking solutions and global advances in technology, medicine, government and education have been launched in our Commonwealth. […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Earned sick time is good for workers — and businesses
MASSACHUSETTS VOTERS PASSED the earned sick time ballot question by an overwhelming margin last November and the Commonwealth’s new earned sick time law is scheduled to begin on July 1. […]
Posted inPolitics
Senate ups ante in battle with House
IN A SHARP escalation of the infighting gripping Beacon Hill, the Senate took a major step Wednesday toward remaking the legislative process by ending the longstanding system of joint committees […]
Posted inPolitics
Beacon Hill showdown looming
AN INCREASINGLY ACRIMONIOUS battle between the House and Senate over legislative rules is heading toward a breaking point, as Senate President Stan Rosenberg said on Tuesday afternoon that the Senate […]
Posted inPolitics
President-in-waiting
IF LIFE HAD taken a different turn, Stan Rosenberg might be an Orthodox Jewish rabbi today. That was his ambition while studying for his bar mitzvah in the early 1960s […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download, Transportation
Transportation transparency fantasy land
House Speaker Robert DeLeo misspoke. The Speaker, out on a swing through Western Massachusetts, admitted that describing Gov. Deval Patrick’s transportation finance plan as “fantasy land” was a “poor choice […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, The Download
Wind subsidy tucked inside spending bill
By Bruce Mohl A special interest wind power subsidy is tucked inside a spending bill that is the focus of a power struggle between Democrats and Republicans on Beacon Hill. […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
In gambling showdown, greed is king
By Michael Jonas News that things are getting testy among legislators trying to reach agreement on an expanding gambling bill is hardly surprising. When it comes to jockeying for position in […]