Milton seems unprepared, partly because of the fast-moving pace of legal action and mostly because town officials are as divided as the town they represent.
Courts
Posted inCourts
Unions launch pre-emptive strike against ride-share ballot questions
Massachusetts is Not For Sale, a coalition of labor organizations including the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, is arguing that the SJC should keep five different versions of the Big Tech-backed ballot initiative away from voters, claiming in a new brief that each petition “contains multiple unrelated policy choices” and “all the petitions appear designed to sow maximum voter confusion.”
Posted inCourts
SJC upholds Brookline’s phased tobacco ban
The retailers argued that the 2021 Brookline bylaw was pre-empted by a state law approved in 2018 that raised the minimum age for purchasing a tobacco product from 18 to 21. The retailers pointed out that the Brookline bylaw effectively means someone born after January 1, 2000 will not be able to purchase a tobacco product regardless of their age.
Posted inOpinion
Why we need more Parole Board members
The Massachusetts Parole Board, already stretched beyond its capacity to handle cases in a timely fashion, will soon have more because of a recent landmark Supreme Judicial Court ruling.
Posted inCourts
SJC asks, do you have to put down a dying dog?
The state animal cruelty statute, among other things, criminalizes an owner or person caring for an animal who unnecessarily fails to “provide it with proper food, drink, shelter, sanitary environment … or knowingly and willfully authorizes or permits it to be subjected to unnecessary torture, suffering, or cruelty of any kind.”
Posted inOpinion
Mass. on wrong track with child protection policy
In 2021, Massachusetts took children from their families at a rate 70 percent above the national average, when rates of child poverty are factored in.
Posted inCourts
Wolohojian confirmed on 6-1 vote
An Appeals Court jurist of 16 years and former partner at the firm now known as WilmerHale, Wolohojian’s nomination has drawn public scrutiny because of her past personal relationship with the governor. Healey and the judge shared a home in Charlestown for several years.
Posted inHousing
AG Campbell sues Milton over MBTA Communities law
Attorney General Andrea Campbell filed suit on Tuesday, asking the court to order that Milton has to comply with a sweeping state law requiring that communities within a certain distance of public transit rezone to allow for minimum amounts of multifamily construction as-of-right.
Posted inCourts
Healey’s former romantic partner poised to ascend to SJC
The Governor’s Council paid relatively little attention to Supreme Judicial Court nominee Gabrielle Wolohojian’s past romantic relationship with Gov. Maura Healey, focusing instead on artificial intelligence’s threat to the judiciary and a court case involving a dog named Peppermint.
Posted inOpinion
Why logic supports the merger of JetBlue, Spirit
The problem with the judge’s logical analysis is that it denies JetBlue and Spirit all the tools to take on the big boys. Together, Delta, American, Southwest, and United carry over three quarters of all US airline traffic, a share which gives them advantages that are difficult to match when it comes to both sales and operations.