PRESIDENT TRUMP’S secretary of labor, Eugene Scalia (yes, he’s the son of the late Supreme Court justice), has been on the road this month, touting the return of American workers to their jobs, even as COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to climb. In a stop on what might be called his “Whistling Past the Graveyard” tour, […]
Margaret Monsell
Posted inOpinion
Soldiers’ Home early retirements costly
IN A PRESS CONFERENCE last Wednesday on the scathing report by an independent investigator into the COVID-related deaths of 76 veterans at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, Gov. Charlie Baker lamented that “veterans who deserve the best from state government got exactly the opposite. And there’s no excuse or plausible explanation for that.” House Speaker Robert […]
Posted inOpinion
Healey UI attacks on Baker misplaced
As noted by Boston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi, Attorney General Maura Healey disapproves of the way the Baker administration is handling the spike in demand for unemployment insurance that’s coming from workers sidelined by the coronavirus. “Our hotline is flooded with calls from workers unable to speak to a live person at Dept. of Unemployment,” […]
Posted inOpinion
Shining a light on dark money
“WE CANNOT GUARANTEE the sun will rise tomorrow, but we can guarantee our donors will never be disclosed.” So vowed Paul Craney, spokesperson and board member of the conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance, in a 2018 CommonWealth op-ed that protested efforts by “powerful politicians, bureaucrats, unions, and far-left interest groups” to force the organization to reveal […]
Posted inOpinion
Speaker’s PAC provides incumbent protection
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S DOMINANCE in the Massachusetts Legislature is a matter beyond dispute. Since 1978, when a constitutional amendment reduced the number of seats in the House of Representatives from 240 to 160, the Democrats’ veto-proof two-thirds majority in that body has never dipped below 123 (17 votes more than necessary for a veto override). […]
Posted inOpinion
Bump follows lead of DAs
STATE AUDITOR SUZANNE BUMP has joined the debate over the legal status of the advisory sentencing guidelines that the state’s Sentencing Commission issued two years ago. Her audit of the Sentencing Commission, undertaken at the prompting of some of the state’s district attorneys and issued Thursday, merely confirms a point on which there is no […]
Posted inOpinion
Baker overreacting on vaping decision
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER says the courts are trying to restrict his authority to declare a public health emergency, but that claim seems like an overreaction. Baker’s emergency order banning the sale and display of all vaping products until January was challenged in court and on Monday a trial court judge issued a ruling that directs […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Baker administration tying up medical parole program
EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO, Peter Cruz began serving a sentence of life imprisonment for his role as an accessory in the armed robbery and murder of a Holyoke store manager. This past January, Cruz, by now 61, wheelchair-bound and suffering from end-stage renal disease, as well as diabetes, coronary artery disease, cervical degenerative joint disease, and a […]
Posted inOpinion
Bill would overturn local gun ordinances
THE LEGISLATURE’S PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE will hear public testimony on firearms bills on Wednesday. In roughly equal numbers, the 68 bills before the Committee would either tighten gun control in the state or loosen it. One of the bills proposing to loosen gun control, House 2122, would prohibit cities and towns from enacting or enforcing […]
Posted inOpinion
Sentencing guidelines raise thorny legal issues for DAs, judges
“WE’RE SAYING to the judiciary: ‘Stay in your lane.’” That’s how Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey summed up the letter he sent in May to Trial Court Chief Justice Paula Carey. In two rather truculent pages, he demanded that Carey order judges to stop consulting the new advisory guidelines that the state’s Sentencing Commission had issued 18 months earlier. […]