Wednesday, September 2, 2015
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By George Donnelly (@geodonnelly) with Keith Regan
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The action today: AG to rule on the ballot questions
Attorney General Maura Healey's office will issue rulings on 32 proposed ballot questions and constitutional amendments submitted to her office. Among the pending petitions address a broad range of topics, fishing, work schedules, marijuana, fireworks, and taxation, among other subjects. The AG's rulings are expected at 11am. This AP story in the Herald has more: http://bit.ly/1NXmJ9u. Housing and Economic Development Secretary Jay Ash and officials from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) hold a press event announcing a $500,000 State Trade and Export Promotion grant to the Massachusetts Office of International Trade and Investment (MOITI). The money will be used to reimburse eligible state small businesses for qualified export promotion expenses, Room 157, State House, 2:15pm.
Uber granted class action status, and the battle is just beginning
Big news on the Uber legal front from San Francisco, where a federal judge yesterday granted class action status to a group of California drivers looking to be recognized as genuine employees, and not contractors. The plaintiff's lawyer is Shannon Liss-Riordan, the Boston attorney who has made a career out of representing wait staff, exotic dancers, and FedEx drivers, among others, against their employers. The Uber case promises to be an extended deliberation about who's an employee and who's a contractor, a distinction that often is not clear. Uber drivers, after all, use their own cars and make their own hours, and Uber claims it essentially is a technology company with a product that connects passengers and drivers. But Uber sets the prices and can fire its drivers at will. "If we are successful for California drivers, we intend to appeal the ruling that limited the case to California and will seek reimbursement for expenses, as well as tips that were not distributed to Uber drivers, around the country," Liss-Riordan said in a statement. What does this legal victory for the drivers mean for Boston and its legion of Uber drivers? Liss-Riordan also is seeking class action status in Massachusetts. Sooner or later state regulators, who enforce a strict independent contractor law, will also have a say in the matter. Here's the latest from Wired: http://wrd.cm/1Um20Bm
Globe's Jacoby sees no room for bikes on city streets
The bike people: I liken it to a revolution, but a slow and steady one. They're out there in ever-growing numbers, idealistic and determined, and sooner or later they'll take the streets back, or at least parts of most of them. And that would be OK. But some of us don't realize the inevitable revolution, insisting instead on law and order and common sense. One of those traditionalists is Jeff Jacoby, who says quite bluntly in today's column that bikes don't belong on Boston streets. Writes Jacoby: "Bicycles can be an enjoyable, even exhilarating, way to get around. So can horses, skis, and roller skates. Adding any of them to the flow of motorized traffic on roads that already tend to be too clogged, however, is irresponsible and dangerous." This, of course, cheered up the disgruntled motorists and did not sit well with the pedaling revolutionaries, and the comments alone are well worth reading. http://bit.ly/1N8RRDY
Breaking: UMass may create public policy school at Amherst
The State House News Service just posted this story on the possible move by UMass Amherst: "The university board's Committee on Academic and Student Affairs is scheduled to vote Wednesday on whether to recommend establishing the school out of the existing Master of Public Policy and Administration program and Center for Public Policy and Administration."http://statehousenews.com/news/20151719
Trump on the therapist's couch
We've gradually entered a new stage of Trumpism: the first one was, he's an blowhard egomaniac who will self-destruct, just wait and see; the second was, here's why the common man loves Trump (with analogies to international despots); and latest may be, let's get inside the mind of Trump and understand the psychic wounds that motivate him. For this stage I recommend this column in the New York Times by Arthur Goldwag, who takes us back to an interview Trump did in 1980, revealing his insecurities that may help explain some of the bluster and the bombast. http://nyti.ms/1UlzFep
Boston Herald editorial: Will councilors act like 'pigs at the trough'?
Today's Herald editorial puts a fine point on the pay raise controversy that is so thoroughly embarrassing the Boston City Council: "With many of their constituents struggling to earn a living and feed their families, will the councilors really act like pigs at the trough and demand more than the entirely too generous offer filed by Mayor Marty Walsh of $99,500?" http://bit.ly/1FjovKU
Elizabeth Warren, today and tomorrow
Sen. Warren, who said a whole lot of nothing about a potential VP bid yesterday at BU (see below), will chat with Globe political reporter Joshua Miller this evening at Suffolk University Law School, 5:30 pm. Tomorrow, the senator participates in a roundtable on college affordability at the Martin Institute for Law & Society at Stonehill College. 320 Washington Street, Easton, 1 pm.
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