AS A GROUP, the 11 district attorneys in Massachusetts are not big spenders when it comes to dining out or traveling on the state’s dime. But within the group, there […]
Public Records
Posted inUncategorized
State: Wellesley can ignore public records request
THE STATE’S SUPERVISOR OF PUBLIC RECORDS for the first time has allowed a governmental entity to ignore a citizen’s bid for documents because the request was a form of harassment […]
Posted inUncategorized
Public records harassment tough sell
WELLESLEY RESIDENT RONALD ALEXANDER seems to be exactly the sort of guy lawmakers had in mind when they included a harassment provision in the new Public Records Law. Alexander has […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Tracking assisted living ‘incidents’
Massachusetts assisted living facilities reported 305 cases of abuse, neglect, and exploitation involving residents in 2015 – and half of the reports were filed late. Reports are supposed to be […]
Posted inPolitics
Advocates hail challenge to Baker on public records
TWO ADVOCATES for greater government transparency are applauding the state supervisor of public records for questioning Gov. Charlie Baker’s assertion that his office is not subject to the Public Records […]
Posted inPolitics
Baker public records stance referred to Healey
THE STATE’S SUPERVISOR OF PUBLIC RECORDS said Gov. Charlie Baker failed to comply with an administrative order to produce documents and referred the matter to Attorney General Maura Healey for […]
Posted inUncategorized
Nickeled and dimed
THE TOWN OF Dartmouth is certainly a stickler for the rules, unwilling to forego a nickel copying fee for a document disclosing a legal settlement involving hundreds of thousands of […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download
Ortiz sides with Walsh on records
US Attorney Carmen Ortiz, whose office is suspected of being the source of leaks for Boston Globe stories about her investigation of union strong-arming tactics, is now saying that investigation […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
“Dark money” on the right
First came the news last month that Gov. Charlie Baker was raising big bucks from Republican honchos — some $300,000 in all — to win seats for his allies on […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
All aboard the transparency train
Who you gonna believe, us or your lying eyes? That seems to be the stance the overseers of the secretive MBTA Pension Fund had been taking as more and more […]
Posted inUncategorized
Galvin upholds Jones decision on privacy grounds
SECRETARY OF STATE WILLIAM GALVIN’S OFFICE has ruled that the Foxborough Police Department acted properly in denying on privacy grounds a public records request for a surveillance video of New […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Senate unanimous in support of Public Records Law update
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE ACKNOWLEDGING THAT ADVANCES in current technology has rendered the decades-old law ineffective, the Massachusetts Senate on Thursday passed a public records reform bill updating the statute […]
Posted inPolitics
Senate puts teeth into public records reform
THE STATE SENATE unveiled its version of Public Records reform, potentially the first major overhaul since the law was enacted in 1973, placing a hard time limit on responses, requiring courts […]
Posted inTransportation
Report: MBTA knew two years ago about Green Line ext. overruns
MBTA OFFICIALS KNEW or should have known more than two years ago that the price of the Green Line extension was running far beyond initial estimates, long before officials say […]
Posted inTransportation
Galvin orders T to release Green Line ext. report
THE SECRETARY OF STATE HAS ORDERED the MBTA to release a sealed consultant’s report on the botched Green Line extension, saying the embattled agency could not withhold the document because […]
Posted inThe Download
The appeal of public records
No one, if they’re being honest, will dispute the contention that Massachusetts’s public records law is toothless and the lack of penalties for refusing to comply with it leads agencies at […]
Posted inUncategorized
House okays panel to review public records exemptions
THE HOUSE ON Wednesday unanimously approved a watered-down Public Records reform bill but beat back an attempt to lift the exemption covering the Legislature, instead agreeing to form a commission […]
Posted inPolitics
Public records bill does little to open access
THE HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS Committee is set to unveil a bill that would allow those who are thwarted in seeking public records to collect attorney fees, a stick designed […]
Posted inThe Download
Public records law may get boost, but it won’t come easily
The Globe’s Todd Wallack has been all over the story of problems with the state’s weak public records law. But his latest installment, on the front of Sunday’s paper, was […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, Transportation
Boston’s data doldrums
The Globe reports today that nobody in Boston City Hall or in the state’s transportation bureaucracy knows whether Boston streets are models of safety or hotbeds of carnage because Boston […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Is editing our digital footprint a good idea?
The recent ruling by the highest court in the European Union on the “right to be forgotten” has sent ripples around the world and has prompted many US citizens to […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
State salary numbers don’t tell full story
To read the headlines in the two Boston papers last week would lead one to think that government salaries are spiraling out of control: “More than 1,000 state employees get […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Public Records Law changes likely
The Massachusetts House seems poised to make some changes to the state’s Public Records Law, and will even explore bringing Beacon Hill lawmakers under the law’s purview. A bill drafted […]
Posted inPolitics
Tracking the cash
after decades of shrugging off campaign finance disclosure mandates, Massachusetts lawmakers have finally turned the tide in reporting what their donors do for a living, giving watchdogs the tools to […]