SPRINGFIELD MAY BE one of the Massachusetts cities with a “strong mayor” form of government, but the mayor’s extensive powers over city government are not unlimited powers. That was the clear message in a Supreme Judicial Court ruling issued on Tuesday that represented a strong rebuke to Mayor Domenic Sarno, who had claimed unilateral power […]
Springfield
Posted inPolitics
Richie Neal’s big moment
RICHARD NEAL, consummate policy guy and inveterate old-school pol, had come to talk pensions. But after a March 21 roundtable in Boston, the new chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee was yanked back to the issue dogging him for months — when would he request President Trump’s tax returns? The question seemed to […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Springfield police cases not adding up
IF YOU BELIEVE THE WITNESSES who have testified in Jose Omar Ortiz’s bid for a new trial, then two decades ago Springfield police bullied their way to a confession for a murder and they got the wrong man. For starters, another person testified last week that he – not Ortiz – killed Eddy Reynoso in […]
Posted inThe Download
Springfield police cases not adding up
If you believe the witnesses who have testified in Jose Omar Ortiz’s bid for a new trial, then two decades ago Springfield police bullied their way to a confession for a murder and they got the wrong man. For starters, another person testified last week that he – not Ortiz – killed Eddy Reynoso in […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion, Transportation
Public transportation is investment in Springfield’s future
FORGIVE US FOR opening old wounds, but it was just two years ago this spring that our state was crippled with foot after foot of snow. There was perhaps no more striking example of how dependent our economy is on reliable transportation. One economic analysis reported that Massachusetts lost $1 billion in wages and profits […]