Free Republic

As part of an overhaul of the juvenile justice system, Gov. Deval Patrick plans to file legislation Monday to prohibit mandatory life sentences without parole for youthful offenders convicted of first degree murder. The proposal is a response to the Supreme Court decision over the summer that ruled such mandatory sentences violate the Constitution’s Eight Amendment restricting cruel and unusual punishment. Patrick is also proposing to extend the jurisdiction of the Juvenile Jourt and the Department of Youth Services to 18-year-olds, and would eliminate the Superior Court and District Court’s jurisdiction over 17-year-olds. The bill would eliminate the state’s mandatory...

Candy, soda, tobacco, and bottles of water and sports drinks are all in Gov. Deval Patrick's crosshairs as he announced another $2 billion tax wish list in his $34.8 billion proposed fiscal 2014 budget at the State House this afternoon. Among the tax highlights: The cigarette excise tax would be hiked by $1 to $3.51 per pack. Taxes on cigars and smokeless tobacco would also increase. The state would essentially expand the bottle bill to include water bottles and sports drinks on deposits. Candy and soda would no longer be exempt from the state sales tax. Patrick last week proposed...

Senator Elizabeth Warren joined Mayor Thomas M. Menino on Friday to press for stricter gun control and throw her support behind three Senate bills that are expected to be filed next week in the wake of the massacre in Newtown, Conn. “We owe it to our children to start,” Warren said at a news conference at the Parkman House, the city-owned Beacon Hill residence where Menino is convalescing after a lengthy illness. On Dec. 14, a gunman with an assault rifle and two pistols killed 20 first-graders and six adults at the Sandy Hook Elementary School. Warren said she will...

Howie Carr Show thread for the second half of January starting with his Boston Herald column, "‘Forward’? You’ve been forewarned " Excerpt: "They’re planning to HAMMER the middle class! That’s all you need to know about this evening’s State of the State speech. Here you have the working population of Massachusetts still reeling from the 2 percent pay cut imposed by Barack Obama earlier this month, and now comes Gov. Deval Patrick’s tax-crazed scheme, 'The Way Forward'.""

Public Safety Secretary Mary Beth Heffernan — who is stepping down amid a flurry of controversy — may be in line for a judgeship, Gov. Deval Patrick suggested this afternoon. Asked by a Herald reporter at a State House press conference today whether he intended to nominate Heffernan to become a judge, Patrick grinned widely. “Well, you know, she’d make a great judge,” said Patrick. “And that’s all I’ll say about that right now.” Heffernan was listed as a reference on the job application of Sheila Burgess, the state’s ex-highway safety director who resigned after her checkered, four-page driving record...

Illegal immigrants in Massachusetts will become eligible for in-state tuition at public universities and community colleges, based on an interpretation of a new federal law by Democratic Gov. Deval Patrick. In June, Democratic President Barack Obama announced that the Department of Homeland Security will grant temporary relief from deportation to some illegal immigrants who immigrated as children and do not represent a public safety threat. The policy allowed the government to grant “deferred action” status to these immigrants, which means they would not be deported for two years and they would be granted work visas. The government has started accepting...

With a potential monster storm menacing the East Coast for Halloween week, Gov. Deval L. Patrick has given utility companies a Friday deadline to submit plans for dealing with the brewing storm, which some forecasters say could be a devastating sequel to last year's October storm. Early predictions indicate Hurricane Sandy, currently headed toward Florida's coast, might combine with two separate cold fronts – one from the North, the other from the West – to become a super storm capable of producing snow, gale-force winds and flooding. Patrick spoke firmly during a Thursday morning radio appearance on WTKK-FM, issuing a...

Organizers say the 2012 Democratic National Convention here will contrast the Republican convention in Tampa, Fla., a week ago by becoming the most open and inclusive political event in the history of the United States. And despite a shortened schedule running Tuesday through Thursday, Southern hospitality kicked off the week with several parades and concerts on Monday as the one-time first day of the convention was blended with CarolinaFest. Democratic National Convention CEO Steve Kerrigan said in a press conference on Monday that through public invitation and digital engagement, more average citizens will be a part of the action in...

In America, the wide-eyed and innocent believe in unicorns and the Tooth Fairy. In Massachusetts, they believe in “coincidence.” For 10 years a Lowell woman had been getting her welfare benefits at the local office without, she claims, being asked to register to vote. She never bothered to do anything about it until now. What a “coincidence.” So a group headed, “coincidentally,” by Elizabeth Warren’s daughter Amelia files a lawsuit on this woman’s behalf. Now, Demos has filed other such lawsuits in other states and in other years. But the one they filed against Massachusetts just happens to be while...

In America, the wide-eyed and innocent believe in unicorns and the Tooth Fairy. In Massachusetts, they believe in “coincidence.” For 10 years a Lowell woman had been getting her welfare benefits at the local office without, she claims, being asked to register to vote. She never bothered to do anything about it until now. What a “coincidence.” So a group headed, “coincidentally,” by Elizabeth Warren’s daughter Amelia files a lawsuit on this woman’s behalf. Now, Demos has filed other such lawsuits in other states and in other years. But the one they filed against Massachusetts just happens to be while...

In America, the wide-eyed and innocent believe in unicorns and the Tooth Fairy. In Massachusetts, they believe in “coincidence.” For 10 years a Lowell woman had been getting her welfare benefits at the local office without, she claims, being asked to register to vote. She never bothered to do anything about it until now. What a “coincidence.” So a group headed, “coincidentally,” by Elizabeth Warren’s daughter Amelia files a lawsuit on this woman’s behalf. Now, Demos has filed other such lawsuits in other states and in other years. But the one they filed against Massachusetts just happens to be while...

BOSTON — Gov. Deval L. Patrick on Monday signed a comprehensive new bill to control costs in health care, calling it the "next big step forward" in overhauling the health industry. The 349-page legislation is complex enough that several leaders of hospitals in Western Massachusetts said they are unsure of the bill's financial effects on their institutions. "This is your house," Patrick told a crowd that gathered inside Nurses' Hall at the Statehouse to celebrate the signing of the bill into law. "This is your day. This is your bill." The bill, submitted by Patrick in February of last year,...

With more than 130 in attendance and about a dozen onlookers on scene hoping to catch a glimpse of America's first lady, Michelle Obama delivered a stump speech aimed at energizing the local Democratic base as she campaigned for her husband's re-election efforts. Among the attendees joining Obama for lunch in the MassMutual Room of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield on Friday were NBA player Grant Hill, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, State Auditor Suzanne Bump, Congressman Richard Neal, D-Springfield, the recently retired former state Rep. Raymond Jordan, and Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno....

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has approved a bill that removes a requirement that food store owners place individual price stickers on each item for sale in their shops. The Democratic governor on Tuesday signed the law, allowing store owners to instead place price scanners throughout their stores. Customers can use the scanners to determine an item's cost. ... But consumer advocates say scanners can be unreliable, forcing consumers to play "guess the price" before heading to the checkout line.

The problem isn’t with private equity or, er, “raping” companies, he says, it’s simply a matter of challenging Romney’s claim of being a job creator. Which, of course, is a lie: Go back and watch Obama’s brutal ad about GST Steel, replete with a worker comparing Romney and Bain to a “vampire.” It’s an attack on Romney’s character, not his job-creating prowess, which is in keeping with the whole tenor of the battle over Bain. Ostensibly it’s an argument over employment numbers but in reality each side wants something deeper out of it. Romney wants voters to come away thinking...

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) defended Bain in an interview with CNN Tuesday, saying, “I respect what Bain does and its role in the free market system.” KING: [Clyburn] said Bain Capital rapes companies. He says he can’t support companies that go around “raping companies.” PATRICK: Look, the question is whether Mitt Romney has what it takes—the preparation and the experience and the empathy—to serve as president of the United States. It’s not about whether Bain is good or bad. I have friends at Bain; I have friends who supported the other candidate in my own campaigns. I respect what...

A state official who opted not to take a key Gaming Commission post amid controversy over past sex allegations will be welcomed back to his old job in the Patrick administration, the governor said yesterday. Gov. Deval Patrick indicated yesterday that Carl Stanley McGee can have his old job back but warned that the state’s powerful Gaming Commission needs to quickly regain its focus. “I think we have had a number of distractions from the central work of the Gaming Commission, and the central work is about getting a new protocol and new framework for expanded gaming up and running,...

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick compared Alabama and Arizona immigration policies to McCarthyism and Jim Crow in a speech Monday to students at Tufts University, according to a story on Boston.com. “The actions of various states to take matters into their own hands have been ham-fisted, self-defeating, and even racist,’’ Patrick was quoted as saying. The tone of Patrick’s speech Monday - he called much of the debate surrounding immigration reform “hysterical and poisonous’’ - has struck some state lawmakers and immigration policy specialists as more vehement than previous speeches, the story said. “The public discourse about immigration is as toxic...

Gov. Deval Patrick, who was first briefed on a long-running EBT-abuse investigation only hours before last week’s raids, defended the taxpayer-funded program again yesterday. Questioned about whether last week’s 53 arrests had changed his view of the program’s problems, Patrick responded: “This is a really important program. I think most people know that it provides modest benefits that help people with their housing, their employment, their education needs and obviously when that’s abused, that’s concerning to me, as it is to anyone else.” In recent weeks, Patrick had dismissed the Herald’s coverage of the welfare card issue as “the Herald...

A deadly armed robber once facing the death penalty, a Dorchester appliance store owner’s killer and a man who did nothing to stop a friend from pumping a Springfield resident full of bullets are the first three “lifers” to be set free since the state Parole Board was revamped by Gov. Deval Patrick following the Dec. 26, 2010, murder of Woburn Police Officer John “Jack” Maguire by a career felon paroled despite serving three life sentences. After 13 consecutive denials of parole applications, the board announced today it will release Vernon Miller, Benley Thompson and Raborn Allah on April 9....