STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH A DISTRACTED DRIVING BILL bill stuck in private negotiations for more than three months and frustrated advocates ramping up their criticism, House Speaker Robert DeLeo said the solution might be splitting off the more contentious components of the legislation. After meeting with Gov. Charlie Baker and Senate President Karen Spilka, […]
Chris Lisinski I State House News Service
Posted inTransportation
Union slams RMV report for naming names
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AS QUESTIONS CONTINUE to swirl over who knew what and when about persistent record-keeping failures at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, the union representing two RMV employees slammed a national audit firm for naming them in a summary of its investigation. Grant Thornton, the auditors tapped by the state to conduct […]
Posted inTransportation
Red Line won’t be at full strength until Oct.
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE MBTA OFFICIALS pushed back the target completion date for full Red Line repairs from Labor Day to sometime in October, but declined to say what prompted the change. Some progress has been made to repair signal infrastructure damaged by a June 11Â derailment, and the Red Line is now running as many […]
Posted inTransportation
MBTA releases video of Red Line derailment
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MBTA RELEASED video Friday of a June 11 Red Line derailment that officials say will continue to cause delays through most of the summer, the same day T officials said service on a stretch of track will return to normal two weeks earlier than expected. After being instructed by […]
Posted inTransportation
Walsh unloads on T
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE BOSTON MAYOR MARTY WALSH called Wednesday for the MBTA to invest about $9 million in running Red Line and commuter rail trains more frequently, slamming the system — wracked with ongoing delays after a derailment last month — as “not currently a functional service” for much of the city. His request, […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
License suspensions now total 1,607 after RMV review
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE REGISTRY OF MOTOR VEHICLES has not only been failing to review out-of-state violations by Massachusetts drivers, but has often failed to warn other states about infractions by their drivers in the Bay State. State officials said Friday that license suspensions here in Massachusetts stemming from a mishandled notification backlog had […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
29 senators urge DEP to block Weymouth gas facility
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Nearly three-quarters of the Senate penned a letter Thursday urging the Department of Environmental Protection commissioner to rescind approval for a controversial natural gas compressor station in Weymouth, a significant escalation from what had been mostly staunch local opposition. The two-and-a-half page letter, signed with bipartisan support by 29 of the Senate’s […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service
State: New toxins data don’t change stance on Weymouth gas facility
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE DESPITE CONCEDING that a handful of samples showed concentrations of toxins above standard limits, state regulators believe a new batch of air-quality data does not change the conclusions that greenlit a controversial proposed natural gas compressor station. Both the Department of Environmental Protection and Department of Public Health reviewed the new […]
Posted inUncategorized
Weymouth gas compressor permit based on incomplete data
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE LAST YEAR, the Department of Environmental Protection sent air samples from the site of a proposed natural gas compressor station to a private laboratory and asked scientists to test for the presence of 64 different potential toxins. What they initially got back — and what was used to perform a health […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, State House News Service
Newton judge indicted on federal obstruction charge
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A NEWTON DISTRICT COURT judge and former court officer were indicted Thursday on federal obstruction of justice charges for their alleged involvement in helping an undocumented immigrant evade immigration authorities. U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling announced the charges Thursday, alleging that Judge Shelley Richmond Joseph, 51, and former court officer Wesley MacGregor, […]