By: Duncan Burns, Political Oberserver 4-18-16 This is not the story of a lottery winner, nor is it one of a successful rags-to-riches journey, no, this is the story of a Massachusetts Legislator. The Massachusetts State Representative in question name is Brian Dempsey, who has served on Beacon Hill for over two (2) decades. Over […]
By: John MacDonald – April, 2016 For generations Lowell, Massachusetts has been a city in America that is known to willingly accept immigrants from around the world. Immigrants built the city, lived here and often became successful. Legal immigrants made huge positive contributions as they assimilated to the city and the United States of […]
By: Tom Duggan, 4-4-16 Former Lawrence Mayor Willie Lantigua is in trouble again with the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF). The state’s political watchdog agency has fined Lantigua another $1,875 (as of 4-3-16) for refusing to file his 2015 year-end, campaign finance reports with the state. The reports were due on January […]
By: Dr. Bharani Padmanabhan – March, 2016 Healthcare costs are a huge percentage of the Commonwealth’s annual expense and a significant burden on both public and private employers’ budgets. Eventually all the spending gets reflected in the insurance premiums we all must pay. It naturally follows that huge attention must be paid to ensure that […]
By: Tom Duggan – March, 2016 Salisbury residents Stacie and Mark Warcewicz, owners of The Meadow at Red Ridge Farm have filed a lawsuit against the Town of Salisbury for illegally placing unenforceable restrictions on their business license. The Warcewiczs say that after years of holding weddings on their property with full consent from the […]
By: Tom Duggan, Feb, 2016 Last month, I had the displeasure of spending a day in Waltham at the state’s Board of Registration in Medicine, also known as BORIM. They are a state board appointed by the governor (this board was appointed by Gov. Patrick) to oversee the disciplining of doctors accused of wrongdoing. […]
By: Tom Duggan – 2-22-16 The Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OCPF ) has fined two Lawrence City Councilors and warned a third because of campaign finance violations from the last city election. Lawrence City Councilor at Large Nilka Alvarez-Rodriguez, who has served more than 10 years on the city council, was fined […]
RELATED STORIES The Massachusetts State Senate unanimously passed sweeping reforms of the state’s impotent public records law last month. Senate Bill 2120, “An Act Improving the Administration and Enforcement of Public Records Law”. The law will make sweeping changes to MGL Ch. 66, which currently states that public agencies and municipalities must turn over public […]
Senate Minority Leader Tarr Secures Passage of Several Amendments Boston- The State Senate today adopted legislation to make certain Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Retirement Board records subject to the provisions of a new public records access law. Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) successfully championed the legislation which will apply to all documents made or […]
Hansen repeatedly violated several sections of the conflict of interest law between 2009 and 2014 by directing Town printing business to his own printing company The Enforcement Division of the Massachusetts State Ethics Commission alleges that Howard Hansen, the Town of Moderator of Stoughton, violated G.L. c. 268A, the conflict of interest law, by directing […]
By: Kathy Runge – Jan. 2016 Happy New Year from recall central! Most of us in Lawrence are suffering from recall fatigue, with objections to signatures on the first recall petition due to be heard this month, while the second recall has until the 23rd to collect the required number of signatures. At the December […]
By: Senator Katy Ives – Jan. 2016 There have been a number of important legislative developments toward tackling public records reform. This month’s column is an opportunity to describe the status of public records legislation in the effort to produce meaningful public records reform this session. At the onset, Senator Jason Lewis filed S.1676, which […]
“We’ve turned a corner,” said Rep. Jim Lyons, “but we still have a long, long way to go.” Reflecting on the first half of the 2015-2016 legislative sessions, State Representative Jim Lyons (R-Andover) noted that it was a productive year marked by many legislative accomplishments, although vital challenges remain to be addressed. “From the beginning,” […]
By: John Macdonald – Jan. 2016 It’s an odd thing when the American entertainment industry blends popular couples by binding their names together. An example would be Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie that got the name “Bradgelina” or when Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez cursed tabloid covers with the name “Bennifer”. However, let’s not forget […]
By: Jeff Katz – Jan. 2016 Bill Cosby, once seen as the elder statesman of American family friendly comedy now stands charged with a felony count of aggravated indecent assault and is only free to walk around because he was able to post one million dollars in bail. Most of America now looks at The […]