Free Republic

<p>PITTSFIELD – A Massachusetts man severely injured in a 2019 crash in New Hampshire that killed seven members of his motorcycle club has sued the Massachusetts Registrar of Motor Vehicles for allegedly failing to suspend the driver's license of the man charged in connection with the crash.</p>

One of the biggest bulges in San Francisco's budget crisis is the $86 million a year that the city spends on premium pay - money that rewards employees and managers for everything from working nights to having toiled for the city for 10 years. For example, in addition to her $273,112-a-year salary, San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White earned enough in various pay premiums in 2009 to bring her total to $290,o27. The chief's extra pay comes in the form of a "fire education incentive premium," which goes to all firefighters who have an associate's or bachelor's degree or 10...

Howie thread starting with his Sunday Herald column

As he tells it, Randall Hinton is paid $93,803 a year to do nothing. He spends much of his workday at the State Insurance Fund donning headphones, listening to rock 'n' roll, blues or classical tunes and his superiors are cool with that. His work agenda involves placing his feet up on his desk, staring out his office window and counting cars on the New York State Thruway. He arrives at 7:30 a.m., leaves at 3:30 p.m., sees no one and talks to no one. He never does any work. It's been this way for Hinton for most of this...

Howie thread starting with his Sunday Herald column

The detective son of Mayor Thomas M. Menino moonlights as a “safety engineer” for a politically wired construction powerhouse that has landed millions in city contracts and regularly turns to the mayor’s team for necessary permits, the Herald has learned. Detective Thomas M. Menino Jr., a 13-year Hub cop, landed the plum, 20-hour-a-week post with Suffolk Construction in January 2008, even as he pulls down a taxpayer-funded $86,000 annual base salary in the department’s intelligence unit. In 2007, he made $137,000 as a police officer with overtime and detail pay, records show.

(BUT tolls within 128 to be raised??) Gov. Deval Patrick is planning to dismantle the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to improve efficiency and try to mollify public complaints about planned toll hikes, two government officials said Monday. (snip) One government official said dismantling the Pike "would keep a promise to the taxpayers, (snip; but...) According to the plan, tolls likely will be raised inside Route 128 to pay off debt associated with Big Dig. Toll booths outside Route 128 will be eliminated, except in West Stockbridge near the New York border and in Sturbridge, close to the Connecticut border.

On Election Day, Massachusetts will vote on whether to eliminate its state income tax. Advocates hope victory in a place long thought of as a free-spending liberal bastion will pave the way for similar initiatives in other states over the next few years. Critics insist a yes vote would lead to fiscal disaster. While Americans are focusing on the presidential and congressional races, voters in Massachusetts and other states will decide the fate of dozens of state and local tax and spending issues. It's still unclear precisely how many of these issues will be on ballots on Nov. 4. Some...

Many of those enhanced pensions went to senior commanders, including eight district chiefs who claimed injuries while filling in for deputy chiefs, mostly in desk jobs. They retired as deputy chiefs. One of them, John J. Ellard, acknowledged to the Globe in a January interview that he went on a previously scheduled golf trip to Ireland 15 days after he suffered a career-ending back injury during a fire. In the interview, Ellard said he played no golf on the trip. His annual tax-free pension is $89,532. VIDEO Arroyo competes in bodybuilding contest 4/17/08 FBI issues subpoenas in firefighter pension abuse...