The Globe is reporting today that Governor Patrick, Mayor Menino, and several casino executives are expected to testify next week at a hearing before the Joint Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures, and State Assets.
According to the Globe, the hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, but I cannot find any reference to it on the legislature’s public hearing webpage. Does that mean it will not be a public hearing (although it is not listed under Executive sessions either)?
BTW, the two houses of the Maine legislature provide video streaming of their sessions and audio streaming of their committee hearings.
Why isn’t the Massachusetts legislature, located in the state where supposedly “America’s Technological Highway” is located, doing that?
You raise two excellent points.
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p>#1: WHERE is the hearing where casino economics will get a star studded push? 10:00 AM onwards in the Gardner Auditorium in the State House. It takes reading between the lines, at State House News and elsewhere. But the economic [potential] impact of casinos will be explored at the same hearing that is also a hearing on the financial outlook and so forth. It was not “billed” as a casino hearing but it “sort of” is, or has been steered in that direction. So you are correct that there WILL be a hearing, in the MegaRoom with “stake holders” as well as that no “casino hearing” is officially on the schedule.
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p>#2: Why no cable, no consistent video streaming? This is a pet complaint of mine. The State House WAS on local cable up to last year. At one time, there were many cameras and it was possible to watch and see/hear quite a lot. One by one the cameras broke down, and then the contract was not renewed last year. There is “some” digital recording, with a link to the Great and General Court web site, see http://housetv.hou.state.ma.us/ which does have some archived, and “on demand” content.
because we’re pathetic. There really is no other explanation.
It is not enough to have local or Boston-metro cable coverage of legislative hearings. The bar needs to be set at nothing less than C-Span quality and quantity of coverage. It is not enough to have webcast coverage either. There is still a huge number of citizens not utilizing the internet. It is a choice for some, financially based for others, and not a choice for many. A legislature and executive branch with the fortitude to endorse equal marriage can take the radical steps to implement comprehensive multi-media accurate reporting of statehouse hearings.
But there does not seem to be ANY appetite for such media coverage and openness.
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p>I agree with you that “some” talking head style coverage by web cam is NOT the same as cable coverage. Video/media coverage of our legislature has gone downhill, and I do not hear any “buzz” at all about C-span level or type coverage. Maybe if they sold advertisements to pay for it?
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p>The response always is “how will be pay for it” NOT “Yes, we want openness to the puloic.”
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p>Some digi-cam coverage of the house and its doings, which the Speaker instituted, is of course better than NO coverage.
But it’s not the committee that matters. In essence, this committee’s chair kicked and screamed and got all angry, so the Speaker allowed them to have it, but it’s not their recomendation that matters at the end of the day. That recomendation belongs to Dan Bosley’s committee, which will be having its chief hearing at somepoint after the new year. I don’t know if it will be nearly as star-studded (which is why I presume this faux-hearing is taking place, so the media will be forced to cover this one first, with the bigger names, even though it’s not the hearing that matters), but Bosley’s hearing will almost certainly be public.
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p>I plan on attending both.
As a self-employed person with a mortgage and kids in college, I can only shut down and lose a limited number of days income – I am sticking to child welfare as I care about it a lot, and I don’t see any other private attorneys at THOSE hearings. No money in it. And it is only about vulnerable human beings – not voters!
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p>So I will depend – and look forward – to your report on Tuesday’s dog and pony show. I say that because only huge hearings expected to draw significant media are scheduled in the Gardner auditorium.
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p>The kind of hearings I go to are always in small, airless rooms with poor lines of visibility, poor acoustics, and minimal media attention. And the media leaves long before the citizens testify.
It is so UNexecutive for the Governor of the Commonwealth to attend and testify at the faux hearing. Even a casual observer can see it’s WhinyPants (aka Rep. David Flynn’s) attempt to have some power…stick to the Cialis boys.
The House does webcast all formal sessions and many committee hearing are now appearing on the site.
I have been made aware of the following relevant event:
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p>Monday – January 7, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Casino Gambling in Massachusetts?
A discussion from both sides of this issue
Co-sponsored by Weston DTC and 3rd Middlesex Area Democrats
Weston Middle School on Wellesley Street
Free and open to the public
Info.: jacqueline_Haas@yahoo.com or tomlarkin@verizon.net
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p>This is an entry in the calendar for the newsletter I distribute of Democratic events in Merrimack Valley legislative districts. Anyone wishing to subscribe can send a blank email to MVDems-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
That will keep this forum from “dropping off” when this post is no longer on the “front page”.
I’m new to BMG and still learning how this all works.