Licensed hunters will return to the woods for the final two days of a state-sanctioned hunt aimed at reducing the deer population in the Blue Hills Reservation, starting at dawn.
| Today's News |
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| Budget forecast: Mostly cloudy, chilly, slim chance of hope |
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Anyone looking for good news wasn’t going to find it yesterday at a State House revenue hearing, where revenue forecasts for next fiscal year ranged from 2.65 percent (Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation) to 3.5 percent (Department of Revenue) to a not-so-modest 5.2 percent (Beacon Hill Institute). Those aren’t bad numbers, but they’re not good either, on average, considering that the state’s unemployment rate is a mere 3.3 percent and that the state hasn’t figured out yet how to dig itself out of the current fiscal budget hole. State House News Service’s Colin Young has all the details. Note: House Speaker Robert DeLeo still isn’t ruling out new taxes, but Gov. Baker is holding to his anti-tax stance.
SHNS (pay wall) |
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| Goldberg warns of falling Lottery profits next year, reiterates need for online games |
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While lawmakers grappled with disappointing revenue forecasts yesterday at the State House, Treasurer Deb Goldberg delivered more disappointing news: State Lottery profits that go to local aid are expected to continue falling next fiscal year – and she once again called on lawmakers to approve online Lottery games. "Moving onto smartphone apps and online will protect our long-term growth and allow us to continue delivering the local aid that cities and towns need," said Goldberg, as reported by Shira Schoenberg at MassLive.
MassLive |
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| Walsh on collision course with landlords |
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Mayor Marty Walsh has proposed new tenant-rights rules that would make it harder for landlords to evict people if they don’t give “good cause” and inform city officials in advance, reports Zeninjor Enwemeka at WBUR. While activists have been pushing for more eviction restrictions, Walsh’s action sets up for a major confrontation with landlords, who say the plan harms landlords and is only the first step toward re-introduction of rent control in the city.
WBUR |
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| Bag it: Mayor questions need for 5-cent fee on grocery bags |
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From the Herald’s Dan Atkinson: “Mayor Martin J. Walsh is opposing a 5-cent fee on all bags at grocery and convenience stores, questioning the proposed price and whether it would significantly reduce waste in the city. ‘It was a good idea years ago,’ Walsh told Boston Herald Radio yesterday, saying the proposal was similar to a fee for plastic bags in Ireland. ‘But right now I’m not supportive of it.’”
We don’t get the “good idea years ago” part, but we do get that he doesn’t want this idea right now.
Boston Herald
| New Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council comes under fire from left and right |
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Faster than you can say ‘let’s all get along,’ a new Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council, put together by a leading Jewish organization and a prominent Muslim umbrella group to fight anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, is already catching flak from the left and right. The Globe’s Lisa Wangsness explains.
Boston Globe |
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| SJC takes to YouTube |
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The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court will stream proceedings from Lawrence District Court live on the Herald’s YouTube channel today, part of an initiative by SJC Chief Justice Ralph Gants to increase transparency of the workings of the state’s highest court, Bob McGovern of the Herald reports. The SJC is scheduled to hear arguments in four different cases.
Boston Herald |
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| Confirmed: State House leaders eye pot regulations in coming weeks |
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Exactly what type of delays they have in mind isn't clear. But Senate President Stan Rosenberg and House Speaker Robert DeLeo yesterday confirmed a prior Globe report that lawmakers intend to start tinkering with the new marijuana law over the next few weeks, before the next Legislature comes into session in January, reports both the Globe and SHNS (pay wall). At this point, it’s doubtful that lawmakers can or will push back the actual legalization of pot on December 15, as stipulated in Question 4. “(But) anything thereafter, I think, would be much easier to delay,” DeLeo said.
Things that could be delayed and/or changed: Retails sale of marijuana products, establishment of a Cannabis Control Commission, implementation of a tax higher than the 3.5 percent rate stipulated in Question 4.
Note: Billerica Town Meeting will be voting on whether to slap on moratorium on the sale of marijuana in town, the Lowell Sun’s Rick Sobey reports. Meanwhile, Treasurer Deb Goldberg and state Revenue Commissioner Michael Heffernan also told lawmakers to forget about revenues from recreational marijuana sales or licensing in the fiscal year that starts July 1, 2017, reports the Telegram. It’s simply too early. Indeed, Goldberg said her office still needs state funds to implement marijuana legalization. |
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| Yes, cleaning companies treated their employees like trash |
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Just as workers have been saying, two cleaning companies contracted by the T cut their costs by slashing jobs, hours and health benefits of dozens of employees, the agency’s general counsel said Monday, as reported by the Globe’s Nicole Dungca. No decision has been made about what to do about the situation, though some T board members are not happy about the treatment of the employees and the way “efficiencies” were achieved.
| High school – and college – students snubbed by Walsh and Baker |
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As expected, there was indeed a walkout yesterday by Boston high school students protesting the election of Donald Trump, but the number of protesters was much smaller than anticipated and about half of the 250 demonstrators were actually college students, reports Universal Hub’s Adam Gaffin, who posts a lot of photos of the sometimes not-so-young looking class skippers. Bottom line: The students were basically snubbed by Mayor Walsh and Gov. Baker after they marched from the Common to the State House and City Hall, UH reports.
Universal Hub |
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| Add Ed Markey to the growing list of those backing Senate bill |
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U.S. Sen. Edward Markey is the latest local pol to throw support behind a massive piece of federal legislation that includes $1 billion for opioid recovery and treatment programs, but which is opposed by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren because she believes its gives away too much to the pharmaceutical industry, reports the Globe’s Felicia Gans.
Boston Globe |
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| Moulton: Dems’ status quo strategy is ‘dead wrong’ |
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A day after U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano warned that Dems need to craft a more inclusive message that attracts working-class voters, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, who opposed the re-election of Nancy Pelosi as the House minority leader, said the party must rethink both its message and its messengers, writes SHNS’s Katie Lannan at Wicked Local. "We need to do a lot of work, because clearly the status quo isn't working, and the idea that we can just go forward with the same plan, the same strategy, the same message and the same messengers, and suddenly start winning again in 2018 or 2020, I think is dead wrong," Moulton said .
Wicked Local
| Harvard’s Lessig offers help to anti-Trump electors |
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Harvard law professor Larry Lessig has teamed up with a California law firm to provide support to members of the Electoral College who may want to cast votes against Donald Trump in violation of their states’ laws, Kyle Cheney of Politico reports. Lessig, who flirted with running for president exclusively to do away with the EC, has dubbed his effort “the electors trust.”
Politico |
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| Town-by-town early voting stats |
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As previously reported, nearly one in four eligible voters cast early ballots in last month’s election in Massachusetts, the first time the state allowed early voting here. But did you know that no one in New Ashford voted early or that 47.43 percent of voters cast ballots in Eastham, for the highest rate in the state? Wicked Local’s Caitlyn Kelleher has all the other town-by-town early voting stats. Btw: we were surprised to see that only 11.6 percent of registered voters cast early ballots in Boston.
Wicked Local |
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| And the highest paid college president in Massachusetts is … |
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Boston University's Robert Brown is the highest paid college president in Massachusetts, earning $1.2 million in base pay and various perks in 2014, according to a Chronicle of Higher Education survey, as reported by Fred Thys at WBUR. Brown was followed by Northeastern University's Joseph Aoun at $1 million; Harvard University's Drew Gilpin Faust at $969,830; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's L. Rafael Reif at $954,830, and Brandeis University's Frederick Lawrence at $937,752. That’s a lot of students’ tuition payments, folks.
WBUR
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| Senate committee wants dual surgeries ban |
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The Senate Finance Committee will issue a report today calling for hospitals to ban the practice of simultaneous operations, in which surgeons work on multiple patients at once, Jonathan Salesman and Jenn Abelson of the Globe report. The Globe highlighted the issue of simultaneous surgeries in a Spotlight report last year that focused on doctors at Mass. General Hospital.
Boston Globe |
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| Anti-deer hunt petitions delivered as hunters take the field |
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Anti-deer hunt advocates delivered more than 1,000 signatures to Gov. Charlie Baker’s office yesterday, reports Gintautas Dumcius at MassLive, but hunters were nevertheless expected take to the field this morning for another controlled-hunt sanctioned by the state to reduce the deer population within the Blue Hills Reservation. Cynthia Haigh, one of the co-founders of the Friends of the Blue Hills Deer, said her group believes there isn't a deer overpopulation problem.
MassLive |
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| Brockton mayor reimburses city |
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Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter issued a mea culpa on Monday and said he has repaid the city for more than $7,400 in various purchases, including flowers sent to funerals in his own name, Marc Larocque of the Enterprise reports. Carpenter maintains that many of the purchases were reviewed by the city auditor before they were finalized, but he seemed eager to put to rest the controversy that was sparked by dogged digging by Larocque.
Enterprise
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