Today: A Walden groundbreaking celebration; Healey speaks
Gov. Baker participates in HUBweek, delivering remarks at Massachusetts General Hospital, Simches Research Building, 185 Cambridge Street, Boston, 1:30pm... Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton plans to join Department of Conservation and Recreation Commissioner Carol Sanchez and others to break ground on the new $7.2 million Visitor Center at DCR's Walden Pond State Reservation, 915 Walden Street, Concord, 12:00pm... Boston Globe political reporter Joshua Miller hosts a Live Political Happy Hour with Attorney General Maura Healey, Suffolk University, 20 Somerset St., Boston, 5:30pm.
Driving while impaired: Time to take the texting epidemic seriously
Texting while driving increases the risk of crashing by a factor of over 20, according to a UMass study. The data didn't seem to have reached a young woman I was driving behind on Beacon Street yesterday afternoon. She was rolling her car at 15 mph in the middle lane, obliviously out of tune with the rest of the traffic. It wasn't until I passed her that I realized her head was down, staring at her phone. (It's times like these that I am momentarily tempted to make a citizen's arrest. But of course I would be arrested for making a citizen's arrest.) She wouldn't have been less alert if she had just consumed three gin and tonics. Were she pulled over for that, she would lose her license for six months.
Lawmakers have soft-peddled the distracted driving epidemic, passing a texting law that is difficult at best to enforce. No one wants Big Brother telling us how and when to use our phone. But on Beacon Hill yesterday, the overwhelming evidence of multi-tasking motorists, and the tragic dangers that they risk to themselves and others, absorbed the attention at a hearing of the joint Committee on Transportation, where advocates pushed for a hands-free driving bill -- no phones to the ear or texting on one's lap. Distracted driving accounts for 3,000 to 4,000 deaths across the country annually, according to the American Automobile Association's Mary Maguire. Committee co-chair Sen. Thomas McGee said he thinks "maybe the timing is right" to get a tougher bill through the Legislature. See Nicole Dungca's overview in the Globe here: http://bit.ly/1MeaXmy
Fantasy sports and the emergence of a large political target
As fantasy sports suddenly becomes one of the nation's largest political targets, it's becoming clear that when big money is at stake, you can bet sophisticated pros will move in on the action. Yesterday, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman opened an investigation into fantasy sports operations following the revelation that a DraftKings employee won $350,000 playing in a game at competitor FanDuel. Both fantasy sports companies have temporarily barred employees from participating in fantasy contests, but both DraftKings and FanDuel will have to provide more transparency to reassure that average player. A team of Globe reporters has the latest on the controversy. http://bit.ly/1QWTUsN
Wynn's libel suit claims 'defamatory political abuse'
Steve Wynn threatened to file a libel suit in July, and he meant it. The suit, however, isn't specifically against the mayor or the city, but targets unidentified people who handed out city-generated subpoenas to the media that allegedly contained libelous statements about Wynn's operations. The legal action raises the tension in the Wynn-Walsh battle following the city's new lawsuit challenging the issuance of a critical environmental permit. "No individual or company who presents themselves honestly in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, by any measure of fair play, should be subjected to the defamatory political abuse that we have experienced," Wynn said in a statement reported in Mark Arsenault's Boston Globe story. http://bit.ly/1hq8Za9
Brady wins primary runoff, faces Diehl in final
It will be a Republican litmus test: Can the state GOP take an open senate seat? Yesterday State Rep. Michael Brady (D-Brockton) won the primary election over first-time candidate Joseph Lynch with nearly 90 percent of the vote to fill the seat previously held by the late Sen. Thomas Kennedy. He faces state Rep. Geoff Diehl, R-Whitman, and independent Anna Raduc, of Halifax in the final election Nov. 3. The Brockton Enterprise has more here: http://bit.ly/1MYc24T
Rosenberg turned down DSS job
During the Gov. Paul Cellucci's administration, Sen. Stanley Rosenberg was offered the top job at what was then called the Department of Social Services. He quickly turned it down, he told Boston Herald Radio yesterday. "I told them no way, I'll never take that commissionership. I'd never get a minute's sleep. I'd be worrying about those kids every day, every night. I wouldn't be able to close my eyes," the State House News Service reports on Rosenberg's interview, via MassLive. http://bit.ly/1ZbceV1 |
Mass. Transit: The future of transportation -- a MASSterList/State House
News Service event:
Join us for a panel discussion featuring Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, Charlie Chieppo, principal of Chieppo Strategies, and Rick Dimino, CEO of A Better City, on the vision for transportation in Massachusetts. It will be held Oct. 13, 7:30-9:30am at the Massachusetts Continuing Legal Education center, 10 Winter Place, Boston. More details and registration here: http://bit.ly/1KADgeC
The politics of weather: A mild December coming?
We learned last winter how dreadful weather can turn into dramatic politics. So when reports come out predicting the winter weather, however undependable, it's political news. A mild December is predicted, but: "We will have our chances for snow and even significant snow, and we think that will be more prevalent the latter part of the winter," said Bob Smerbeck, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.com, told the Boston Globe. Don't forget, we hardly had any snow last winter until late January. http://bit.ly/1OkR9T8
Alcohol ads on T will face high-profile foes
The MBTA will likely face a bruising battle with high-profile foes if it reverses a three-year-old ban on alcohol ads on the T, the Globe reports, including Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and former first lady of the Commonwealth, Kitty Dukakis. "It's just sad that we have to spend so much time fighting this, when it's just so crystal-clear to many of us that they shouldn't do this," Dukakis tells the Globe. http://bit.ly/1JRZF5K
Goldberg has designs on lottery fantasy
Treasurer Deborah Goldberg says the Massachusetts lottery should establish its own sports fantasy operation, telling the Herald the lottery already has safeguards in place to prevent the kind of insider activity now roiling the major private sites. The move would also expose the state lottery to an entirely new demographic. "We have to look at markets that have never been ours," she tells the tabloid. http://bit.ly/1Lhu6HH
With procedure changes, Lowell wades into gun control debate
Lowell officials found themselves thrust into the national debate over gun control after making changes to local permitting regulations that require anyone seeking a permit to complete a firearms safety course first and to provide some proof they are not a threat to public safety, the Sun reports. The City Council has asked Police Superintendent William Taylor, who has the power to modify regulations, to meet with gun rights advocates to see if compromises can be reached. http://bit.ly/1LxVZgS
Transgender accommodation bill gets high-profile backing
U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy, Attorney General Maura Healey and Senate President Stan Rosenberg were among those urging lawmakers to pass a bill protecting transgender individuals from public discrimination at a public hearing Tuesday, MassLive reports. Kennedy said Massachusetts is already behind some 17 states that have adopted public accommodations laws. "That Massachusetts' name is missing from that list does not go unnoticed," he said. http://bit.ly/1OXFZoV
Rosenberg latest Clinton endorser
Senate President Stan Rosenberg is the latest Massachusetts pol to formally back Hillary Clinton's presidential bid. Rosenberg told Herald Radio he supports the former Secretary of State, adding to Clinton's haul of Bay State endorsements even as focus turns to Vice President Joe Biden possibly entering the race, the Herald reports. http://bit.ly/1hqi3vK
State Police ordered to turn over crash documents
State Police have 10 days to release documents related to a fatal May car crash or better explain why they must be withheld, the state's supervisor of public records has ruled, the Patriot Ledger reports. The Ledger formally asked for the records in May, after state police said they would not release the names of other drivers involved in the crash. Supervisor of Public Records Shawn Williams also chastised state police for failing to respond to the Ledger's request in a timely manner-their initial denial took 40 days. http://bit.ly/1VEsI3i
Quote of the day:
"Personally, I'm aghast. This is mixed-income housing for veterans -- something that's never been done here before -- being held up largely because of one person. It shouldn't be done this way." -Rick Holahan, a Brighton resident who serves on the Boston Veterans Advisory Council, on Secretary of State William Galvin's concerns with the proposed project. See Globe story here: http://bit.ly/1OXKtvu
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