JUST OVER A YEAR AGO, on a busy Monday afternoon around 2 p.m., the State Police shut down the heavily congested southbound lanes of the Southeast Expressway in Boston starting near South Bay so they could escort a hearse carrying the remains of a Randolph police officer from the state medical examiner’s office to a […]
Colman M. Herman
Posted inState Government
DiZoglio defends releasing audits with redactions
THE STATE AUDITOR’S office regularly publishes its audits of state agencies, providing Beacon Hill officials with a review of their performance and giving the general public insight into how Massachusetts government is being run. Most audits are public documents, but over the last six months four audits have been released with major redactions. All four […]
Posted inState Government
Healey brings more women into governor’s office
GOV. MAURA HEALEY, the first woman to be elected governor of Massachusetts, is bringing more women into state government with her. According to the state’s diversity dashboard, Healey has 52 people working in her office at the State House – 36, or 69 percent, are women, and 16, or nearly 31 percent, are men. The […]
Posted inGovernment, Politics, Public Records
Wu got use of MGM Music Hall at no charge
BOSTON MAYOR Michelle Wu spent $62,000 on her State of the City address at the end of January, but there was no cost to actually rent the venue where she delivered her speech. According to invoices obtained under the state public records law, the Mayor’s Office of Tourism, Sports, and Entertainment spent just over half […]
Posted inGovernment
Boston retailers fined total of $92,000 for consumer violations
SEVERAL BOSTON RETAIL CHAINS were hit with a total of $92,000 in fines in 2022 for violating state consumer protection laws, including provisions intended to assure that customers pay no more than the marked price on merchandise and get the stated weight. Walgreens paid the biggest amount, $33,600, for violations that included price scanner overcharges […]
Posted inPublic Records
DAs ignore many requests for public records
A correction has been added to this story. THE STATE’S DISTRICT attorneys are sworn to uphold the law, but when it comes to one particular law – the Massachusetts Public Records Law– they often fall short. Under the records law, citizens can file requests for records with state and municipal government entities and are entitled to […]
Posted inPublic Records, State Government
Healey won’t file legislation subjecting her office to records law
GOV. MAURA HEALEY said on Monday that she will not introduce legislation that would make her office subject to the Massachusetts Public Records Law. ”I don’t think I need to file legislation,” Healey told Jim Braude, co-host of GBH’s Boston Public Radio. “I think that I can just implement along the lines that I’ve articulated, […]
Posted inPublic Records
Healey unveils new public records policy
GOV. MAURA HEALEY unveiled a new public records policy on her office’s website on Monday, but the wording leaves a lot of questions unanswered. Previous governors going all the way back to Paul Cellucci have cited a 1997 Supreme Judicial Court case to say the governor’s office is not covered by the public records law, […]
Posted inGovernment
Boston Planning and Development Agency headed by volunteer
MOST PEOPLE do volunteer work at places such as hospitals, food banks, or shelters. But not Arthur Jemison — he takes his volunteer work to a whole new level, volunteering as the director of the Boston Planning and Development Agency, where he oversees 269 employees and a budget of roughly $78 million. Jemison’s regular job is […]
Posted inHealth Care
Hospitals criticized for ‘low-value’ procedures
THE LOWN INSTITUTE of Needham has long argued that hospitals perform way too many procedures it has identified as being low-value, meaning they offer little to no clinical benefit to patients and, in many cases, are more likely to harm them than help them. Earlier this year, the institute looked at Medicare claims data and […]