BEACON HILL
The chairman of the House Post Audit and Oversight Committee says the panel lacks jurisdiction to investigate hiring practices at the Probation Department because it is barred by statute from probing the Legislature, CommonWealth reports
The chairman of the House Post Audit and Oversight Committee says the panel lacks jurisdiction to investigate hiring practices at the Probation Department because it is barred by statute from probing the Legislature, CommonWealth reports.
Gov.-elect Charlie Baker taps Lon Povich, a well-regarded Democratic lawyer who served with him in the Weld administration to be his chief counsel.
Lowell Sun columnist Peter Lucas weighs in on Sen. Stan Rosenberg and his young partner Bryon Hefner. Some elements of the column concerning the timing of events are wrong, but he reports that Senate President Therese Murray was reluctant to turn the reins of power over to Rosenberg so he put the votes together to essentially oust her. Still, he makes no mention of the eight-year term limit she was approaching or of the jockeying between Rosenberg and retiring Sen. Stephen Brewer to succeed her.
Social impact bonds are being used to fund an effort to stem chronic homelessness, WBUR reports.
A Globe editorial says it’s not the right time, with the state facing a $329 million budget gap, for the whopping pay raises for top elected officials recommended by a compensation commission.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
A Haverhill couple found dead in their home by their 8- and 10-year-old children may have overdosed on heroin.
Pembroke selectmen declined a request from local clergy to restrict sports and other activities on town property on Sunday mornings because the ministers say it is hindering church attendance.
CASINOS
Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone calls the Massachusetts Gaming Commission a “kangaroo court” in an interview with Broadside’s Jim Braude.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
#BlackLivesMatter protests continue; demonstrators shut down I-80 in Berkeley. Even with their deep experience handling protests in the college town, Berkeley police found themselves in the same boat as their fellow officers in Ferguson.
Sen. James Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican who believes climate change is a hoax, will become one of the most influential voices the world when it comes to climate policy when he takes over the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works next month.
ELECTIONS
Fall River Mayor Will Flanagan has drained his campaign account to pay for lawyers and polling groups,among other items, to fight the recall targeting him but his expenditures apparently do not include a polygraph test that he says exonerates him from accusations he brandished a gun during a conversation with a city councilor.
The “Elizabeth Warren for President” brigade gets going again.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
A Quincy developer says the Boston Archdiocese rejected his plan to renovate a former church into housing because his proposal includes retaining the chapel to use for religious services, which Archdiocese officials forbid. CommonWealth reported two years ago on the church placing restrictions on the use of property it sold.
EDUCATION
After receiving nearly 400 emails from parents and teachers, the Andover School Committee backs off a proposal to increase the length of the school year by doing away with week-long vacations in February and April and replacing them with a single week in March, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
Hundreds of parents and teachers turned out for a contentious hearing in Brockton for a proposed charter school.
HEALTH CARE
Neighborhood Health Plan is bleeding red ink, and its owner, Partners HealthCare, is trying to figure out what to do about it.
The Blackstone Free Medical Program is shutting down because there are too few people without insurance who need care, the Telegram & Gazette reports.
A new study by UCLA says highly paid physicians may have a financial incentive to order unnecessary procedures for a few patients rather than spending time with multiple patients.
Many states set up programs to rein in the health care costs associated with so-called super utilizers, the small group of people who run up a disproportionate share of overall costs, Governing reports.
TRANSPORTATION
Former transportation secretary James Aloisi offers three out-of-the-box proposals for the new year.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Auburn, Worcester, and other central Massachusetts communities sign a deal that will lower the fees they pay to a Wheelabrator facility in Millbury for burning their trash and producing electricity, the Telegram & Gazette reports.
Federal regulators approve a one-year delay in the opening of the Footprint Power plant in Salem, the Salem News reports.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Massachusetts has been violating a federal law that requires separation of juveniles from adults in holding areas at courthouses, and that has resulted in penalties that have cut grant awards to the state intended to fund programs for at-risk youth.
With the focus on grand juries in the wake of the controversial decision in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York, Greater Boston takes up the question about whether we should get rid of the panels.
A Fall River man is suing a city police officer who he says arrested him and jailed him overnight and erased all his cellphone’s content after he took a video of the officer who was working a detail in front of his house.
More former students at the Fessenden School, a private academy in Newton, are alleging they were sexually abused by teachers there in the 1960s and 1970s.
MEDIA
Bob Unger, editor of the New Bedford Standard-Times, is stepping down, saying he asked to be added to the company’s layoff list to avoid cutting other staff members weakening the paper further.