Blue Mass Group

I recognize that we’re in a bad economy and that tax revenue has fallen…but the budget priorities of this administration are certainly questionable.  Human services are not being just cut, they’re being eviscerated.  Today’s Boston Globe revealed that the Patrick Administration is speeding up the closure of Westborough Hospital, along with a host of other measures…which means 120 psychiatric beds will be cut.  120.  

http://www.boston.com/news/loc…

And the beds are at 97% capacity.  

For those of you who think this is no big deal…

Here's some excerpts from GLOBE'S Andrea Estes article Mass. lobbyists on pace to have a record year.

Jon Hurst, president of the 3,200-member Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said his group spent more than ever in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent an impending sales tax increase from 5 to 6.25 percent. His group and others argued that consumers would take their business to New Hampshire or to the Internet.

“It was the biggest issue we’ve had in the past 20 years,’’ Hurst said. “Our expenditures went way up. It was important to us, because we were trying to save consumers $900 million in new sales taxes. But it goes to show spending money doesn’t always mean you’ll get the outcome you want in the Legislature.’’ (italics mine)

So much for all of Jon's hard work.

On the other hand other “special interest groups” hard work hasn't paid off either (yet)

 crossposted at ONE Massachusetts

I offered to help Billxi get his photographs posted here for those who were interested in seeing them.  I’ve uploaded them to Photobucket from his email to me, and I’ve copied and pasted his commentary.  I haven’t changed anything and they appear (I hope) in numerical order.

The first set:

The phrase “end of an era” is surely overused, but it seems entirely appropriate on the occasion of Walter Cronkite’s passing at age 92.  Almost certainly, there will never be anyone like him again in American journalism.  There are appreciations all over the place.  Here’s one I found interesting: It’s almost impossible to convey the place Walter Cronkite held in American life for the 19 years he spent as the anchor of “The CBS Evening News.” It wasn’t just that he narrated the spikes in modern history, from the Kennedy assassination to the civil rights movement to the election of Ronald Reagan. People tuned in to his program even on routine days when his broadcast – Senate subcommittee hearings, gas prices, détente talks with the Soviet Union – was as dull as toast. Mr. Cronkite’s air of authority, lightly worn and unquestioned, was unusual even then, but nobody comes close to it now.

She’s leading in the BMG poll.

Hi! My name is Michele and I’m here to learn more about health care policy. This is my first Organize for America forum and I’m excited to hear what people have to say. We are just getting set up now.

Many well-meaning people are advocating for CORI reform — tightening the requirements for employers to get access to CORI, restricting the information that the Criminal History Systems Board can release, creating a new protected class of ex-offenders under our employment discrimination laws.

As well meaning as these folks are, they are missing the mark.  In today’s world, you just have to go to Google to get this information.  My local paper, like most local papers, has a weekly police log.  Find a name, include a word like “arrest”, Google it, and you’ll find that information.

 Let us chuckle over the outcry at Boston Mayor Tom Menino's offer to lend (not give) the town's black-owned newspaper money to keep it temporarily in business. In an environment of slavishly boosterism by nearly all other weeklies and the dailies, a range of folk have free-press indignation.

Over at one of my favorite spots, Universal Hub, the headline on this runs, “BRA loan to Bay State Banner: Hush money?” It links to the Globe piece on the proposed loan. Also, most of the comments are what a terrible idea this is. Likewise, Massachusetts Liberal blogs about what to him is a conflict of interest.

Prima facie, there is a whiff of impropriety. There's nothing generating any smell though. Consider:

• The loan would be to give Banner Publisher Melvin Miller time to arrange long-range financing or sell it.
• The money is in a fund administered through the Boston Redevelopment Administration, but is certainly not his, nor the city's, nor the BRA's.
• The cash would come from the Boston Local Development Corporation. This has lent similarly to many small businesses, mostly woman or minority owned. Some get more than the proposed $200,000 for the Banner.

Legacy note: This appeared at Marry in Massachusetts. It got some chatter, which suggested it might generate some discussion in this larger forum. As the expression goes, I'l put on my asbestos underwear.