Window into the State House provides our readers a synopsis of important issues of interest, past and current, that are being proposed, debated or acted upon by the Massachusetts Legislature. Many issues that are not related to local city government services are acted upon and have a direct impact on daily life. They are tax policy, transportation infrastructure, judicial appointments, social services and health, as well as higher education. We will excerpt reports from the gavel-to-gavel coverage of House and Senate sessions by news sources focused on this important aspect of our lives. These sources include a look ahead at the coming week in state government and summaries and analyses of the past week, re-caps of a range of state government activity, as well as links to other news. |
| Lahey Clinic accused of bribing Bermuda leader |
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| Somehow, somewhere this can’t be good for Lahey Clinic’s planned merger with Beth Israel Deaconess, via the Globe’s Liz Kowalczyk and Shelley Murphy: “The Lahey Clinic is the target of a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday by the government of Bermuda, which is accusing the Burlington hospital of bribing the island’s former leader in order to secure health care business there.” Lahey is vehemently denying the allegations. |
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| Is Seth Moulton the new John Kerry? |
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| At WGBH, David S. Bernstein ponders whether Seth Moulton is on a John F. Kerry track, noting that if he chooses to run for the U.S. Senate in 2020 (yes, that presumes a lot), he’d be entering the Senate at the same age as the former secretary of state and presidential candidate. Moulton may also follow a similar political path as Kerry—positioning himself as an insider-friendly outsider. Moulton downplays the comparison: “He’s a different generation,” he says. |
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| Senate adds another leadership post – with a $35K stipend |
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| Unless we’re reading this wrong, all Senate Democrats will now be in the position to receive special legislative stipends, as a result of the Senate leadership move yesterday. From Brian Dowling at the Herald: “The state Senate has added a second assistant majority whip position that’ll let another lucky Democratic member pull down a $35,000 leadership stipend — riling Republicans and government watchdogs who called the new post a ‘taxpayer-funded gift’ to political insiders.” |
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| Commission eyes minimum health-care rates for smaller hospitals |
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| From SHNS’s Katie Lannan: “Officials examining variations in prices charged by medical providers on Tuesday floated the idea of setting a minimum rate for hospitals at the bottom end of the price spectrum. The potential policy fix surfaced at a meeting of a 23-member commission that has until March 15 to release its report and recommendations.” Needless to say, insurance companies aren’t happy. |
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| Dentists vs Hygienists, Round 2 |
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| State Sen. Harriette Chandler is once again leading the charge on Beacon Hill to let dental hygienists handle more complicated dental-office duties, including pulling teeth and filling cavities, and once against dentists are opposing the move. The same legislation passed the Senate last year but died in the House. What’s the difference this year? The feud just got the front-page treatment in the Globe this morning, via reporter Laura Krantz. It’s an interesting look at what’s effectively a professional turf war that frequently breaks out on Beacon Hill. |
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| GE drops helipad request, but the city pushes ahead anyway |
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| Theoretically, General Electric’s decision to withdraw its request for a new South Boston helipad, as reported by the Globe’s Jon Chesto, should lift the political pressure off of Mayor Walsh, who’s been getting a lot of flak for supporting the controversial idea. But the Herald’s Jordan Graham is reporting that city, and state, officials are moving ahead anyway with plans for a public heliport in the Seaport area. “We’re happy for GE, but what we’re hearing is there’s a lot more interest and need for a heliport in Boston,” said John Barros, chief of economic development for Boston. |
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| And the winner of perhaps the nastiest space-saver note ever is … |
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| In a post headlined ‘It just isn’t a Boston winter without parking threats and violence,’ Universal Hub’s Adam Gaffin runs a photo of a note left on the car of a Boston newcomer from a very angry and nasty individual. Lots of comments from readers. We’ll decline repeating what the note says. |
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New spin on privatization: Secret take home cars for T managers, courtesy of private contractors |
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| Who knew? The T has been engaging in an entirely different type of privatization for decades, according to the WBZ I-Team at CBS Boston: “For possibly more than 30 years, some managers at the MBTA have enjoyed a perk that’s been hidden from the public: Unmarked take-home cars that are owned by construction companies. The I-Team discovered the cost to taxpayers is almost impossible to determine because the vehicles have been buried in the overall price of multi-million dollar projects.” We’re talking Ford Escapades, Toyota Highlanders, a Ford F-150, etc. Also from WBZ: “MBTA General Manager Brian Shortsleeve told the I-Team the contractor-owned vehicles are another example of trying to change ‘decades of mismanagement’ at the agency.” Ah, this isn’t just mismanagement. The IRS might be interested in this, not to mention a few other fed agencies |
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‘Trump Campaign Aides Had Repeated Contacts With Russian Intelligence’ |
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| What the …? Members of Donald Trump’s campaign team and other Trump associates had “repeated contacts with senior Russian intelligence officials in the year before the election,” as the NYT reports this morning? Intelligence officials, as in the successors to Yuri Andropov’s KGB, Lavrentiy Beria’s NKVD and the Tsar’s Okhrana? Yeah, an investigation is order, we suspect. See next item for the Massachusetts angle, of course. |
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Warren, Markey call for probe of Trump administration ties to Russia |
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| The ouster of national security adviser Michael Flynn over his contacts with Russia have prompted U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, both Massachusetts Democrats, to call for a probe of the ties between Russia and Trump administration officials, reports the AP at WWLP. Indeed, top Congressional Republicans, as well as Democrats, are pledging to deepen various investigations into the Russian ties, the Washington Post is reporting. |
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| State GOP Job Opening: U.S. Senate candidate, minimal experience and name recognition required, likely DCR posting after election |
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| The Senate’s recent rebuke of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and the almost daily controversies coming out of the White House are only making it harder for state Republicans to find a candidate to run against Warren in 2018, reports the Globe’s Frank Phillips. Check out some of the names being floated and see if you can identify all of them with title (no cheating, please): Geoffrey Diehl, Curt Schilling, Lewis Evangelidis, Rick Green, Gabriel Gomez and Allen Rodney Waters.
The Globe’s Adrian Walker: “It isn’t that there aren’t Republicans willing to take Warren on. It’s just that they are, in various ways, problematic.” |
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| Aww, how nice, valentine flowers for Liz |
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| This is what a GOP Senate candidate would be up against: Full adoration of Elizabeth Warren on the left, so much so that yesterday she received $1,600 worth of pink roses, hydrangeas, freesia, and calla lilies, from a psychoanalyst and her new crowd-sourcing friends. The Globe’s Akilah Johnson has the details. But just to show you how much of a bubble Liz worshipers are in, take a gander at this Politico survey: Donald Trump, despite his incredibly low approval ratings, still beats Warren in a head-to-head poll match up. We’re talking national numbers here, of course, not blue state numbers. |
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