History, as the aphorism goes, is written by the winners. So are the tourism ads celebrating the victories 250 years later.
Public Records
Posted inPublic Records
Court orders DiZoglio to remove audit redactions
A judge ordered state Auditor Diana DiZoglio to release unredacted reports on two Massachusetts sheriffs’ departments, ruling that public disclosure of the information that had been blocked would not pose a risk to public safety or cybersecurity.
Posted inOpinion
It’s past time to move Bridgewater State Hospital out of the Department of Correction
THE REPORT RELEASED in March condemning Bridgewater State Hospital —Massachusetts’s state psychiatric facility — felt more like a broken record than a revelation. The 87-page document outlined issues that have plagued the facility for years, including allegedly illegal practices used to restrain and seclude prisoners and potentially lethal health risks, including exposure to mold, asbestos, […]
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 inPolitics
A digital push for more legislative participation
ONE OF THE most well-worn complaints among political watchers in Massachusetts is that the government can be, well, hard to watch. The state Legislature is one of the least transparent lawmaking bodies in the country – exempt from public records laws, with decisions often made in closed committee sessions with little revelation about who voted […]
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 inEducation
Boston Public Schools withholds 2d part of Mission Hill School investigation
TWO INDEPENDENT reports commissioned by Boston Public Schools figured prominently in the decision to shut down the Mission Hill K-8 Pilot School in Jamaica Plain this summer, but officials are refusing to release a large amount of the information they gathered as part of those investigations. The first report, produced by an attorney named Joseph […]
Posted inPolitics, Public Records, State Government
Tanisha Sullivan, Bill Galvin go head to head in testy debate
THE TWO DEMOCRATS running for secretary of the Commonwealth met in a testy debate Monday, which highlighted a fundamental disagreement over the nature of the job itself. Tanisha Sullivan, the Boston NAACP head who is challenging Secretary of the Commonwealth William Galvin in the Democratic primary, is pushing for a far more expansive vision of […]