Just when ya thought we were rid of Former MA Guv Willard Mitt Romney, losing Presidential Candidate who campaigned for President his entire gubernatorial tenure.....YUP! The voice of the Republican Party!
Just who's the phony and fraud?
Republican Brain Fart below: PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION FUNDED LOCALLY?
Thursday, March 3, 2016
By George Donnelly (@geodonnelly) and Keith Regan
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Today: Mitt to go on attack in presidential race; big debate tonight
Gov. Baker will serve as the honorary chairperson for Jane Doe Inc.'s White Ribbon Day to call attention to domestic violence and encourage men to speak out against violence toward women. Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito also attends. At the Gardner Auditorium, 1:00 pm.
Local taxes for transportation: The Republican former mayor of Indianapolis and national advocacy group Transportation for America are headlining a special briefing for lawmakers on a proposed bill that would let Massachusetts municipalities and regions raise their own taxes at the ballot for transportation improvements. Sen. Benjamin Downing and Rep. Chris Walsh, lead sponsors of An Act relative to regional transportation ballot initiatives (S1474/H2698), are hosting the briefing, which also includes remarks from Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll and Kristina Egan, Executive Director of Transportation for Massachusetts. State House Room 437, 10:30 am.
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is scheduled to give a special address on the 2016 election, Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, 11:30 am. Former Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom told the Boston Herald Romney "is discouraged and dismayed by the direction the party is going in..."http://bit.ly/1SkBEgJ
Excerpts from Romney's prepared remarks surfaced this morning: "Here's what I know: Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University. He's playing the American public for suckers: He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat." More on the BostonGlobe.com website here: http://bit.ly/1Taybm4
Republican presidential candidates gather in Detroit, Mich. for a debate hosted by Fox News. The debate is scheduled to be moderated by Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly and Chris Wallace of Fox News, 9:00 pm. A preview of the debate, including the Kelly-Trump conflict, from the New York Times here: http://bit.ly/21JsKMu
How to build more housing in Mass.
It's another looming infrastructure issue, especially in and around Boston: Building enough reasonably priced housing to accommodate demand. A Senate committee issued a report yesterday full of interesting suggestions, including creating "Millennial villages" that could share common living space and are designed to be affordable for the next-generation workforce. But there's been a lot of talk about boosting the housing supply in the region for decades and not a lot of action. One fact from Katie Lannan's story in the State House News Service underscores the problem: 207 of the 351 Massachusetts municipalities have permitted no multifamily housing with more than five units in over a decade. And likely many of those permits only came after lengthy battles with local officials. The report endorses bills that change zoning to allow multifamily construction by right, but as Sen. Harriet Chandler said, "My fingers have been all over zoning for a long time, and I must tell you, I've never been successful." Read Lannan's story here: http://bit.ly/1oRrybj (paywall)
Millions of Massachusetts residents depend on community hospitals for access to quality care. Currently, a few wealthy hospitals are paid up to 500% more than community hospitals for the same quality and services. These excessive payments put our community providers at risk, drive down wages, and increase health care costs for all of us. It's time to bring fairness to the local hospital industry.
Together, we can protect community hospitals. Find out how much your community hospital will gain.
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State pension problems only getting worse
The number of the day is 59 cents. That's the number of pennies on the dollar the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has salted away for its pension obligations as of Jan. 1., 2015, according to a story by Craig Douglas of the Boston Business Journal. "Some three years after the state passed a much-ballyhooed reform to its pension laws, the commonwealth's pension fund is in its worst shape in recent memory," Douglas writes. The state has some $33.4 billion in unfunded liabilities, which has attracted the attention of credit analysts. http://bit.ly/1QnaHGN
DeLeo's noncompete plan called 'half measure'
House Speaker Robert DeLeo announced he's introducing compromise noncompete contract legislation after an attempt to ban them failed in the last legislative session in a battle between startup tech and large, more traditional tech. The big boys won. The startup community wants a noncompete-free state, like California. The Speaker's proposal would limit noncompetes to 12 months, require companies to disclose that noncompetes are a condition of employment before the offer is made, eliminate them for low-wage workers. The startup community seemed unimpressed. "These half measures will give lawmakers and bureaucrats a reason to not revisit a full solution for 3-5 years, claiming they addressed the problem," said Allan Tear, co-founder of Betaspring, a startup accelerator, in an article for BostInno. http://bit.ly/1LWC8TP
Green Line extension scales back, critics weigh in
The new spartan plans for the Green Line extension have some residents grousing, for they eliminate enclosed stations at five of the seven stops, reports Nicole Dungca of the Boston Globe. The stripped-down station plans, which are not final, could save over $200 million and are part of an effort to cut costs for the project so it can get a green light as it faces up to $1 billion in cost overruns. We're wondering how $200 million plus in enclosed stations were built into the plan in the first place.http://bit.ly/1p0qGBL
Victory for Baker in Republican state committee push
While Tuesday was a landslide victory for team Trump in Massachusetts, Gov. Baker succeeded in ushering in many of candidates on his slate of moderate Republicans in the state committee election. "A source within Baker's political team who is familiar with the results from Tuesday's balloting for the Republican State Committee said 51 of 74 candidates endorsed by the governor won or retained seats on the 80-member governing body of the state party," Frank Phillips of the Globe reports.http://bit.ly/1poQIP1
Public records bills being reconciled ... in public
The conference committee seeking to reconcile House and Senate bills seeking to modernize the state's public records law left their doors open to the public and press, a rare occurrence on Beacon Hill, reports Mike Deehan of WGBH. Some advocates say it was once standard procedure for outside input to be sought when bills were being reconciled, but most such work now happens out of the public view. http://bit.ly/1TakLX7
Lawrence ordered to release stipend info
The Secretary of State's Public Records Division is ordering the city of Lawrence to release records of public employees who receive stipends in addition to their salaries, Keith Eddings of the Eagle-Tribune reports. The newspaper first sought the records in late November after City Council President Modesto Maldonado suggested Mayor Daniel Rivera was making the payments without authorization. http://bit.ly/1OSYCVz
Brockton police reach out to addicts
Police in Brockton are following the lead of their counterparts in Gloucester, who made national headlines when they offered to help and not prosecute addicts who reach out to them, Johanna Seltz of the Globe reports. The Champion Plan would instead assign a volunteer to help route addicts to detox and other assistance already available from existing organizations in the city. http://bit.ly/1RJN4IV
JetBlue eyes Boston-to-Cuba flights
JetBlue has asked federal regulators for permission to launch daily flights to Cuba from Logan International Airport, David Harris of the Boston Business Journal reports. The once daily flights could begin as soon as September if approvals are received in time. http://bit.ly/1nj4JMy
Organizers criticize shorter parade route
Organizers of the St. Patrick's Day Parade criticized the city's decision to shorten the route for the South Boston event and asked the public to rally behind them, Travis Andersen of the Globe reports. "Changing this route unnecessarily disrupts and insults our community and our heritage," parade organizer Tim Duross said. The route was shortened last year because Southie streets were clogged with a brutal winter's worth of snow and officials say it was also easier and less expensive to oversee and keep secure. http://bit.ly/1L6pAyi
Clap like you're supposed to
Unlike former presidential candidate Jeb Bush, when House Speaker Robert DeLeo asks an audience to applaud, the tone is less hand-wringing and more arm-twisting. After praising Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce President Jim Rooney at a chamber breakfast on Wednesday for, among other things, his prior role leading the state's Convention Center Authority, DeLeo ribbed Rooney for failing to clap at the mention of his prior workplace. "I'm disappointed," DeLeo said. "When I used the word 'convention center' you haven't applauded as you usually do. I guess you are in a new position." The speaker gave it another shot, this time with feeling and a heavy emphasis on the applause words. "That is something I could always depend on: At least one round of applause whenever I talked about convention center and especially added the word growth to it," DeLeo said, whereupon the room finally put their hands together.
- Andy Metzger, State House News Service
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