Just as lawmakers are putting down their right hands from being sworn in for the new term, they’ve decided to take up a two-year-old report that portrays them as woefully underpaid […]
Massachusetts Legislature
Posted inPolitics
Baker throws cold water on pay hikes
LAWMAKERS WILL FINALLY take up the recommendations for salary hikes for elected officials laid out in a 2014 report but the plan could be dead on arrival as Gov. Charlie […]
Posted inPolitics
Now Beacon Hill may mess with time
BEACON HILL REGULATES just about everything – cars, pot, schools, taxes, death – and now lawmakers are looking at making their influence known in one more of life’s essentials: time. […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
Why trash talk amounted to nothing
EVEN FOR BEACON HILL, the wrangling over recycling legislation late Tuesday night was one of those can-you-believe-it moments. It was the last night of the 2015-2016 legislative session, and the […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Two longtime reps skip speaker vote
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE TWO LONGTIME MEMBERS of the House, both with a prickly history with Speaker Robert DeLeo, opted out of voting for DeLeo’s reelection to the post, even asking […]
Posted inEnvironment
Trash commission stalls over reporting date
WITH TIME RUNNING OUT in the 2015-2016 session on Tuesday night, the Legislature failed to reach agreement on legislation to boost municipal recycling and reduce trash disposal to no more […]
Posted inEnvironment
Trash debate coming to head on Beacon Hill
WITH MASSACHUSETTS RUNNING OUT OF OPTIONS to bury and burn its trash, the long-neglected issue of recycling is getting some attention in the final days of the 2015-2016 legislative session. […]
Posted inPolitics
Baker signs pot sale delay into law
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Friday signed into law a bill that will delay retail sales of marijuana for at least six months, capping an unusual series of holiday-week power moves […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Accountant group pushes tax filing change
IN THE SEEMINGLY ARCANE world of tax filing deadlines and extensions, timing is everything. And a simple change in Massachusetts tax filing deadlines to match new federal regulations would save […]
Posted inThe Download
Ortiz’s shrinking role on corruption
US Attorney Carmen Ortiz is vowing to continue bringing corruption charges against public officials, but the overturning of her convictions of former Probation commissioner John O’Brien and two of his […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
O’Brien conviction overturned; DeLeo cleared
A US APPEALS COURT overturned the convictions of former state probation commissioner John O’Brien and two top aides, saying prosecutors failed to prove key elements of their case and should […]
Posted inPolitics
Joyce hit with bigger tax bill
MILTON ASSESSORS HAVE hiked the value of Sen. Brian Joyce’s home because of a real estate listing that showed an opulent finished basement, a livable attic, and more bathrooms than […]
Posted inPolitics
Tax revenue forecasts all over map
THE STATE’S TAX REVENUE FORECASTERS are more than $1 billion apart in their projections for fiscal 2018, the largest gap between high and low estimates in the last six years. […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics, The Back Story
Clinton outperformed Obama in Mass.
HILLARY CLINTON didn’t do as well on Election Day in most states as President Obama did in 2012 – except in a handful of spots, including Massachusetts. In fact, Clinton […]
Posted inPolitics
DeLeo, Rosenberg agree to a set of rules
HOUSE SPEAKER ROBERT DELEO and Senate President Stanley Rosenberg on Wednesday announced they had bridged their differences and found common ground on rules for running the Legislature, an issue that […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Baker seeks changes in pot law
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AFTER MASSACHUSETTS VOTERS just said yes to legalizing marijuana Tuesday, Gov. Charlie Baker, an outspoken opponent of the referendum, said he wants a more efficient process […]
Posted inUncategorized
Pot proponents hit critics on ‘scare tactics’
A LAWYER WHO helped draft the initiative to legalize adult recreational use of marijuana said critics of the referendum are using decades-old scare tactics to defeat the proposal and twisting […]
Posted inThe Download
Yes and no on Question 4
The reviews are in and it appears the view is near-universal – Question 4, as written, is a dumpster fire that would legalize having and using pot but not the ability to […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Airbnb launches charm offensive
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH A POLICY BATTLE on the Beacon Hill horizon, the short-term rental company Airbnb has launched a TV advocacy campaign framing itself as a boon to […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
DeLeo open to changing pot law
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE HOUSE SPEAKER ROBERT DELEO is poised in 2017 to make changes to a marijuana legalization proposal should voters adopt it in two weeks. “I will not […]
Posted inThe Download
Slot questions come up lemons
Revere residents said “no, thanks,” to a proposed slots parlor in their burg yesterday, but they don’t have the last word. The Revere special election ballot question was nonbinding but state […]
Posted inThe Download
No question, 2018 election will be in the toilet
Opponents of the state’s new public accommodations law, which prohibits discrimination against transgendered individuals, have gathered enough signatures to place a referendum for repeal on the 2018 ballot. If voters think […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Crime and punishment
Nobody thinks teenagers should be carrying guns on the streets of Boston. Jail may be the best—or only—way to deal with many of those carrying and shooting guns there. But was it the right thing to do in this case?
Posted inPolitics
Youth movement
Photograph by Frank Curran THE SCENE: The Amherst town cemetery, sitting on a stone wall circling an old burial plot, not far from Emily Dickinson’s grave. Solomon Goldstein-Rose, who won […]