Archive for the ‘Politics’ Category

By Tara Jayakar, Cape Cod Times

BOSTON — During heated testimony over a Senate bill that would deny a driver’s license to a truant student, Joe Sherlock — aka state Sen. Stephen Baddour, D-Methuen — argued that education level and driving aren’t connected.

“Because you can pass calculus does not mean you (wouldn’t) barrel down the 495,” he said.

Sherlock knows what he was talking about — the Haverhill High School senior is acquainted with both high school math and driving. The legislative process is newer to him.
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By Corey Kane, Patriot Ledger

BOSTON — For the third year in a row, state Rep. Geraldine Creedon has landed on the list of legislators most likely to skip votes. The Brockton Democrat who recently announced that she is stepping down at the end of the year, had one of the worst attendance records on Beacon Hill, as measured by the number of roll call votes she missed in 2011.

Creedon either voted or said she was present for 87 percent of the votes taken in the House during 2011. She missed 23 votes, tying her for the ninth worst voting record among the 160 members of the state House of Representatives.

Ahead of her on the worst-voting-record list in 2011 were two legislators called up to active duty in Iraq and three members with serious health issues.
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By Tara Jayakar, Cape Cod Times

BOSTON — Standing at his table by the Statehouse’s grand staircase, Truro Vineyards proprietor Dave Roberts described how his sales flowed after legislation last year allowed state wineries to market their products at farmers markets.

“We were at 67 different agriculture events, the average winery sales were up 66 percent,” Roberts said. “All because the farmers market legislation that was passed last year.”

Roberts was among the agriculture producers and purveyors displaying their wares at the annual Agriculture Day fair at the Statehouse. Among the tables of sustainable vegetables, berries and dairy products were Cape businesses showing off cranberries, aquaculture and seafood.
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By Neal J. Riley, The Lowell Sun

BOSTON — Marc Lombardo says he didn’t come to Beacon Hill to go along and get along.

That pressure to fit in became obvious when the freshman representative from Billerica joined with a small clutch of new and veteran Republicans to hold up a spending bill for two days last fall in order to get a detailed breakdown of what was being funded.

“Many of my colleagues said, ‘Hey let it go, just let it go,’” Lombardo says, sitting in his cramped Statehouse office lined with pictures of Abraham Lincoln, George H.W. Bush and more than one portrait of Ronald Reagan. “I did not come to Beacon Hill to be part of the problem. I came here to be part of the solution.”
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By Neal J. Riley, Sentinel & Enterprise

BOSTON — Scott Graves might still be in the pharmacology field instead of running for state representative if he didn’t find so distasteful the idea of chopping the heads off lab rats that he came to see as pets.

Before practicing law and getting into politics, the 48-year-old Gardner city councilor earned a master’s degree in pharmacology at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, where he researched Alzheimer’s disease. He trained 100 white lab rats to memorize a path through a maze, and then tested different drugs on the rodents to see which would impair their memory.

The only way to figure out if the drugs were affecting the rats’ minds was to decapitate them with a guillotine-like device, and Graves eventually decided he no longer wanted a career involving animal testing.
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By Neal J. Riley, The Lowell Sun

BOSTON — A legislative committee has endorsed a plan to allow 16 and 17-year-olds to “preregister” to vote that advocates say would add 20,000 registered voters to the state.

“As a result of these reforms, there will be increased voter participation and confidence in elections,” said Sen. Barry Finegold, D-Andover, the chair of the Joint Committee on Election Laws, said at a press conference yesterday.

The committee approved the comprehensive bill that would also make voter-registration forms available online, require post-election audits of voting machines and mandate training for local election officials on the proposed law.
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By Neal J. Riley, The Lowell Sun

BOSTON — The Lowell Police Department is backing a proposed bill to give police officers immediate access to a person’s conditions of probation. But while authorities say the goal is to make communities safer, a criminal-defense attorney says the proposal is unconstitutional.

“Essentially what we’re looking for is the ability to be the eyes and ears of the Probation Department,” Arthur Ryan, the Lowell Police Department deputy superintendent, told the Joint Committee on the Judiciary on Tuesday.

Currently, a police officer stopping individuals for minor offenses can check to see if they are facing an arrest warrant or if they are on probation, but not what the specific conditions of the probation are, such as a required curfew.
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By Neal J. Riley, The Lowell Sun

BOSTON – Republican state lawmakers yesterday outlined a broad economic package of tax cuts and government streamlining that they said would be more effective in creating jobs than proposals made by Gov. Deval Patrick.

“We were discouraged when we looked at the legislative agenda for the remainder of this session and saw very little in the way of economic development,” Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, told a Statehouse news conference attended by 30 members of the Republican caucus.

House Minority Leader Brad Jones, R-North Reading, said the party plans to file five large pieces of legislation and 25 smaller bills in two weeks on the topics of business regulation, education, energy, health care and taxes. The package is a mix of old and new proposals to improve the Bay State’s business climate, Jones said.
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By Neal J. Riley, The Lowell Sun

BOSTON — Opponents blasted a proposed bill to restrict parole for repeat violent offenders yesterday, arguing that a “three-strikes” law would cause massive prison overcrowding and disproportionately impact minority communities.

“I believe personally that this law is from hell,” said Rev. Clovis Turner of Citywide Outreach Ministries, a volunteer who has ministered to female prisoners at MCI-Framingham for 31 years. “We hope the governor and his people will wake up and realize this is a horrible, horrible bill.”

About 100 people attended the Statehouse press conference, held while a conference committee tried to iron out differences between a House bill focused on restricting parole for certain felony offenses and broader Senate legislation that would also scale back mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders.
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By Neal J. Riley, The Lowell Sun

BOSTON — State Sen. Jamie Eldridge is looking to make Beacon Hill a more ethical place.

The Acton Democrat has filed two bills he said will fight the public perception that campaign contributions taint the legislative process.

One bill would ban legislators from holding fundraisers during budget deliberations. Another would limit campaign contributions from those who do business with the state, a practice he said damages public confidence.
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