Wednesday, January 13, 2016
By George Donnelly (@geodonnelly) and Keith Regan
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Today: House vote set on opioid bill; US AG in town
Joint Committee on the Judiciary hears 23 bills, including a bill from Rep. David Rogers and Sen. Patricia Jehlen to legalize marijuana and establish a tax on the cannabis industry (H 1561). Room A-1, 1 pm.
Meanwhile, eight Senators have landed in Colorado as part of a fact-finding mission on the legalization of marijuana. The Boston Globe's Joshua Miller has been with the group, who seem particularly concerned with the impact of edible marijuana products. More here: http://bit.ly/1P0DAuX
Attorney General Loretta Lynch will be in Boston today to discuss the Obama administration's work on criminal justice reform. Lynch is expected at the South Bay House of Correction at 12:30 p.m.
Treasurer Deb Goldberg moderates a Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy panel on running for office, featuring Boston College Law School alumni. Panelists are Sen. Jamie Eldridge, former Boston City Councilor John Connolly, Plymouth County Registrar of Probate Matt McDonough and Newton Charter Commissioner Bryan Barash. It's at the Rappaport Center for Law and Public Policy at Boston College, 885 Centre St., Newton, 5:15 pm
Also today: A raging epidemic confronts the legislative process
An opioid crisis is ravaging the state. Momentum began building to disrupt the status quo with new ideas because business as usual, as Gov. Charlie Baker stressed, wasn't going to fix anything. "I don't want to be the governor who ends up presiding over 2,500 deaths, or 3,000 in one year... or 3,500," he said in November.
But Baker's exhortations and bold plans seem to have confronted a more measured reality. One of Baker's most aggressive proposals, to allow doctors to involuntarily commit addicts seeking emergency room treatment for up to 72 hours, has been dropped from the House version of the opioid bill scheduled for a vote today. Another disruptive proposal - limiting the length of a first-time prescription of opiates to 72 hours - has been lengthened to a week.
There are good arguments for softening Baker's opioid plan, covered here in Jack Sullivan's CommonWealth magazine story. The Governor is hoping for a bill by the end of the month, but it's an open question how effective the legislation that emerges will be in combatting the problem.
The Herald weighs in on the bill today, noting: "One promising measure that hasn't drawn as much attention but has wide support is the requirement that physicians cross-check the state's Prescription Monitoring Program when they prescribe certain drugs." http://bit.ly/1PWTiEa
Baker: Joyce's dry cleaning arrangement deserves to be investigated
Gov. Baker made a lot of news yesterday in his noontime radio interview on WGBH, especially his reaction to the Globe's story on Sen. Brian Joyce's free dry cleaning arrangement with a former business owner in Randolph. While Joyce claims the free dry cleaning was in exchange for discounted legal services, the business owner says otherwise. "The facts of that matter as they are described in that story justify a pretty quick and pretty immediate review," Baker said.
Powerball math: Why someone will win, but probably not you
There are some 292 million combinations in the Powerball game, now with a swelling jackpot of $1.5 billion. Although the odds of an individual winning are miniscule, the probability of there actually being a winner tonight is becoming more certain as most of the combinations are being purchased. See how the pot has steadily grown since early November in Matt Rocheleau's Globe story. http://bit.ly/1mWti2C
Fantasy sports industry pushes back on some regs
The fantasy sports industry, which has experienced intense scrutiny and is fighting to keep operating in New York, had some criticisms for Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey's proposed regulations yesterday, including setting the age limit at 21. MassLive's Gintautus Dumcius has more:
Boston remains in the hunt for GE headquarters
General Electric is expected to make its decision about relocating its headquarters this week, and the Seaport district in Boston remains among its top options, Shirley Leung and Jon Chesto of the Globe report. "If GE does move to Boston, it would probably provide a massive psychic boost, on top of an economic lift, to the city, highlighting the burgeoning high-tech climate in the state's business community," they write. http://bit.ly/1RCWlVH
Inculcating frugality, one invoice at a time
Can T staff be convinced of the need for frugality by a top-down attention to spending? MBTA Chief Administrator Brian Shortsleeve hopes so. The T's money man elicited some murmurs at Monday's control board meeting with the following anecdote: "I think small things matter. There was one of our departments that runs a $25 million business. I called about a $13,000 invoice that came down that didn't strike me as particularly essential. And he apologizes. Said he had submitted it before he realized we needed to focus on cost-control. So I think the message hopefully in the organization is that we're really starting to focus on this." Interesting that the average fare hike of 23 percent in 2012 and successive state bailouts hadn't driven that message home. -Andy Metzger, State House News Service
A public records win for the press
When a consultant provided a report to the MBTA's Fiscal Management and Control Board about why the Green Line Extension price tag had ballooned by about $1 billion, the T withheld the full report, claiming it was protected by attorney-client privilege. Last month CommonWealth magazine filed an appeal for the record (followed by Adam Vaccaro of Boston.com later that month). The Secretary of State ruled in their favor, saying the full report is indeed a public record. If the T does not respond within 10 days, Galvin could refer the issue to Attorney General Maura Healey for enforcement. More here from CommonWealth: http://bit.ly/1ZZZrV2
Battles loom over tribal casino plans
Opposition is coalescing against a potential tribal casino in Taunton, which the Masphee Wampanoag tribe hopes to start building this spring, the Globe reports. Landowners are being recruited to challenge the Federal decision to allow the tribe to take hundreds of acres of land into trust and raise funds for a potential appeal of the Bureau of Indian Affairs decision. http://bit.ly/1TUsu8K
MGM: We're hitting hiring targets
Officials from MGM told a subcommittee of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission that they are making progress toward hitting targets for involving veteran-owned businesses in their resort casino project in Springfield, MassLive reports. At year's end, MGM said, 2.9 percent of construction contracts were being awarded to veteran-owned companies, up from just a fraction of a percent a month earlier. http://bit.ly/1ni7Epj
Fire department says it was neglected under Menino
Boston Fire Commissioner Joseph Finn is pointing to years of underfunding during the administration of Thomas Menino as the cause for substandard conditions in the city's firehouses highlighted in a recent audit, according to the Herald. The report calls for $22 million of spending over the next decade-and-a-half to replace aging equipment. Auditors found 10 of the city's 34 fire stations to be "old and in poor condition." http://bit.ly/1J2x0l0
Boston school budget $50 million in the red
Boston Schools Superintendent Tommy Chang says the district is facing a $50 million budget shortfall for the next fiscal year. Chang said no schools will be closed, according to the Globe, but plans to trim $20 million from the central district office budget and up to $12 million more subtracted from funding for individual schools. http://bit.ly/1mXSoOK
Long-running investigation at UMass
The University of Massachusetts at Amherst has the ignominious distinction of having the nation's longest-pending Title IX sexual assault investigation, Boston.com's Allison Pohle reports, with a compliance case the university opened on its own in June of 2011 still unresolved. http://bit.ly/1Pb0tph
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