The Occupy Boston protestors continued today with a morning march from the Financial District to the State House where they hope to get Fox25's attention at their Beacon Hill studio. Organizers want more media attention. Today's march appeared orderly with participants chanting and holding signs. One sign that summed up the anti-capitalism theme of Occupy Boston was “capitalism is organized crime.” Capitalism doesn't appear well organized lately.
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Vice President Joe Biden and Vicki Kennedy campaigned for William Keating in Quincy in his election against GOP candidate Jeff Perry, who campaigned in Scituate. [WCVB] Check out a summary of Question One. [WBZ]
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Massachusetts has become the 14th state to ban novelty lighters, although there is little hard data to indicate children are using them to start fires. [Boston Globe]
Believe it or not, tobacco companies continue their increased marketing efforts in low-income neighborhoods. [Boston Globe]
Some trees have begun to turn colors ahead of the usual fall foliage season. [Foster's Daily Democrat]
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Results tagged “beaconhill”
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo has cleared freshman Representative Mark Cusack, a Braintree Democrat, of any wrongdoing in an incident involving another lawmaker’s aide. in the House chamber after a budget debate in April. DeLeo said Cusack and the aide and other lawmakers and staff were drinking beer in his office on April 28. Cusack and the aide were in the House chamber for a few minutes.
Bay State lawmakers summoned the top corporate bosses of Evergreen Solar and Fidelity Investments to Beacon Hill to determine if tax breaks given to corporations really help the state's economy. Housing and Economic Development Secretary Greg Bialecki said the state needs to "get what the public expects out of the tax benefit."
That Governor Deval Patrick was "not hopeful" going into today's meeting with Fidelity executive/billionaire Abigail Johnson about saving the 1,100 jobs the company plans to transfer to Rhode Island and New Hampshire proved to be an accurate assessment. The Governor met with Johnson and other executives from the company today in his office on Beacon Hill and said the departure of those jobs is "not reversible" after the meeting.
For the second time in less than a week supporters of unions battling Wisconsin's governor over collective-bargaining rights rallied on Beacon Hill on Sunday. The Herald referred to "hundreds of people" involved in the rally, all seemingly loaded with exaggerated rhetoric.
Beacon Hill's legislative Twitter ban might be a thing of the past. The Herald reported that Twitter was blocked on legislator's office computers due to virus threats, and now House Speaker Robert DeLeo lans to lift the ban. The blocking of a social media tool caused a lot of chatter. Here's a tweet from Rep. Dan Winslow of Wrentham tweeted "Massachusetts is becoming the North Korea of the United States." Senator Robert Hedlund (R-Weymouth) said "There should be more sites that are blocked.".
Lawmakers and staffers on Beacon Hill are banned from using Twitter on their office computers. The Herald reported that a spokesman for Senate President Therese Murray said there is a threat from viruses that prompted the Legislative Information Services to block it.
Elizabeth A. Poirier, a Republican state rep. from North Attleboro, said members wore "inappropriate" clothes to the House chamber. On Thursday, lawmakers used a voice vote to approve the change to House rules to block informal fashion statements.
We thought the perfect day to present a gallery of pictures from Halloween would be an election day. Both are scary and involve people pretending to be something they're not. They both promise something for nothing.
- Gubernatorial candidates Deval Patrick and Charles Baker spent the final campaign weekend stumping for votes. Patrick visited Holyoke, Natick, Newburyport, and Lynn. Baker rolled through Foxboro, Natick and Worcester. Senator Scott Brown was with Baker. [Globe]
Bostonist is skeptical of Beacon Hill's "efforts" at making casinos a reality in Massachusetts. Local media outlets keep saying a compromise is almost certainly probably a tentative reality. Maybe.
The idea that Massachusetts will ever build a casino is not something Bostonist is counting on ever seeing.
- Flash Floods soaked Somerville last weekend, causing a surprising amount of damage. Representatives from FEMA are in the city beginning today to help prevent future floods. The police headqurters is closed, 26 police vehicles were damaged, the fire department lost 100 fire suits, and flood damage is believed to be in the millions.
-- Two men attacked Olympic gold medalist Jenny Thompson in Brookline on Monday while she was riding her Vespa scooter. The suspects approached her in a car and Thompson asked them "Did you know your headlights are out?" One suspect told her "your lights are out" and punched her in the face. As Thompson bled and screamed for help, the men fled. Later that night, police arrested three teens found riding on alleged stolen scooters. No connection to the Thhompson case was made yet. [WBZ]
Massachusetts lawmakers finally addressed distracted driving, according to a bill announced on Beacon Hill Tuesday. The bill bars all drivers, even police, from texting while driving. Drivers under 18 can't use cell phones at all without facing a fine and license suspension. The bill also requires drivers over 75 to get an eye test in order to renew their driver's license every five years. [WCVB]
Despite being a so-called "zero-tolerance policy," the MBTA's highly publicized cell-phone ban doesn't cover everyone. It obviously covers drivers of T vehicles, the Herald reports. Other employees, including a station official recently seen texting on a trolley, aren't covered since they aren't driving.
- Lawmakers on Beacon Hill spent $126,000 on takeout food and $227,000 on office improvement. Bostonist awaits a thank you note. [Boston Herald]
- Attention scooter people! Massachusetts plans to stop to your free wheeling ways by requiring plates for your bikes on steroids. [Boston Globe]
Bostonist loves when it when booze and history are combined. We’ve been known to spend afternoons watching Drunk History videos on YouTube and to sweep the history category at trivia night. But if you told us two years ago that we’d be able to knock back a few drinks in a formerly infamous and historically significant jail … well, we’d think that maybe you’d had a few too many yourself.
There is a pressing issue occupying "minds" on Beacon Hill: Jobs, taxes, budget cuts, infrastructure, healthcare, crime, global warming, killing zoo animals Dogs. Our elected officials want to create a dangerous dog database, or registry, that lists pooches with bad intentions and records of mischief. The MSPCA opposes the bill, sponsored by Stephen J. Buoniconti (D-West Springfield), which would post pictures of dogs and explain their reckless acts. The MSPCA wants to increase spaying and neutering of shelter dogs, training for animal control officers and define "dangerous dog" properly. The legislature is also considering a bill to allow cities and towns to ban specific breeds of canines. Certainly, caution should be exercised when dealing with any animal, even those that appear safe. However, the summer of 2009 presents us with a full plate of issues that push laws of this nature down on the list of priorities.
State Treasurer Tim Cahill is leaving the Democratic party, step number one on the way to a possible gubernatorial run next year. Cahill's excuse for the transition is an opposition to tax and spend policy, something you'd think he might have objected to a while ago as, y'know, treasurer. Cahill had previously claimed he would run as a Democrat if he ran for governor, which already instills confidence in his integrity and ability to keep promises.
Bostonist would like to extend two big thumbs up to Nate Lusk, a Beacon Hill resident who (allegedly) chased down an (alleged) attempted burglar and aided police in the capture.
-- Six Somerville High School students say that Somerville police assaulted them last week in what proved to be a misguided—and possibly racially motivated—gang bust. The six students, all Latino, are not gang members, according to teachers, coaches, and Somerville community leaders (including, apparently, Mayor Joe). But that allegedly didn't stop police from rounding them up and beating their heads against police cruisers. [Somerville Journal]
-- Norton Cartright, the 21-year-old Chelsea man who assaulted his mother with a claw hammer and left her to die in a closet, was sentenced to life without parole by a Suffolk Superior Court Judge today, according to the Suffolk DA's office. During sentencing, prosecutors read aloud a letter from Cartright's 10-year-old brother that read, in part, “I think he should stay in jail for the rest of his life because if he got out in 15 to 20 years he would be 30 or 40 something and he could get away with a lot, like he could kill everyone."
According to WalkScore.com, Boston is America's third most walkable city, behind San Fran and NYC. The city ranking system is slightly unclear, but appears to be based on averages of neighborhood walkability, or perhaps numbers of most walkable neighborhoods. Walk Score says Boston's best areas for walking are the Back Bay, Beacon Hill, Fenway, and the South End. Somewhat ironic that a wonderful walking city is in massive transportation debt.
The Globe reports that a former MIT chemist caused an all-out evacuation of her Temple Street brownstone by conducting some freelance science experiments. The woman, who has not been identified by name, had mixed a cocktail of chemicals on the floor of her apartment, directly behind the State House.
--The Department of Social Services, whose name has come up more than once in investigations of the deaths of children in this state, received a D minus from the watchdog group the Children's Advocacy Institute. [Boston Herald, DSS in Bostonist]
