I would like to be be sacrilegious for a moment. Who would be interested in seeing another Democrat -- progressive or otherwise -- run against Deval Patrick next fall? It could be for political or policy reasons. Maybe you want to see the … [Read more...]

Strange, you say. Why would legislators be cheering -- albiet solely in their non-public cell phone calls to each other -- this decision by two of the state's biggest public employee union groups to challenge the upcoming pension changes? … [Read more...]

Charley did a great job summarizing the highlights within the ethics bill. Here are a few more interesting nuggets... Lobbyists can no longer get "paid for results," meaning they cannot have a direct financial stake if a bill gets passed or … [Read more...]

Lost within the hubbub of the major headline-grabbing transportation reform initiatives -- abolition of Mass. Turnpike, MBTA health benefits, etc -- are a few other less sexy, but still important reforms BMGers would be very interested to … [Read more...]

Want to know why Quinn Bill funding is one line item that receives so much attention from legislators? It's because Senate offices today have received hundreds, if not thousands of phone calls from police officers across the Commonwealth … [Read more...]

Sen. Jehlan deserves credit for pointing out the irony of ironies during yesterday's Senate debate on the pandemic prepardness bill. It's nice to have a pandemic prepardness plan that includes encourging those with symptoms to stay home. … [Read more...]

Today's Globe story on police unions gathering enough votes to restore $50 million in funding is very informative for a number of reasons. I don't want to necessarily argue the merits of the Quinn Bill -- ideally I think all police officers … [Read more...]

The Teabaggers who turned out yesterday for their histrionic protest are a bunch of hypocrites whose sole beef really lies in the fact that their side lost the presidential election. There. That's as plainly as I can say it. Here's the … [Read more...]

As reasonable, intelligent and largely rational adults, we know that the the state's budget problem won't be saved by cutting out the waste, pork, fat, hackarama, or whatever other adjective you want to throw out. We know that although … [Read more...]

The House, this afternoon, approved this measure 126-19 so i hereby rescind this post! :) My post from January on the Senate rejecting the proposed creation of an Independent Resdistricting Panel received alot of attention and generated … [Read more...]