Banning hand-held cellphones, finally?

I continue to be shocked by the extreme road rage exhibited Friday on the Mass. Pike by Mark Paul Fitzgerald, 37, of Ashland, and Richard Kamrowski, a 65-year-old Framingham man . After a side-swiping encounter, after which SUV driver Fitzgerald refused to exchange information with Kamrowski, the older man grabbed a water bottle from Fitzgerald's …

Continue reading Banning hand-held cellphones, finally?

Cong. Lori Trahan: up close and personable

Newly elected Massachusetts 3rd district Congresswoman Lori Trahan has a warm smile and comes across as intelligent, charming, and poised.  As a former chief of staff to Congressman Marty Meehan, Trahan also brings a dimension of Capitol Hill experience not typical of your usual breathless freshman Congressperson.  She spoke yesterday for the first time to …

Continue reading Cong. Lori Trahan: up close and personable

Walsh’s “State-of-the-City”: a clarion call

If you want to hear everything our national government now is not, listen to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh's state-of-the-city address.  In a rousing half-hour speech at Symphony Hall, he credibly held out Boston as a model to be emulated nationally. It was a spirited reminder of how pathetically the federal government is failing to meet …

Continue reading Walsh’s “State-of-the-City”: a clarion call

Getting beyond the wall

It's motif  #1, the President bragging about having the biggest, being the smartest, (“I alone can fix it,”), master negotiator and  uber deal maker.  We can dispute his hyperbolic claims, but we all can agree that under his leadership Americans now  have the longest-lasting (partial) government shutdown in our  nation's history.  800,000 government workers and …

Continue reading Getting beyond the wall

Elizabeth Warren: U.S. President or Massachusetts Senator?

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren's first televised interview as a nearly announced presidential candidate was with MSNBC's Rachel Maddow.  The interaction was about as challenging as a Donald Trump interview with Sean Hannity.  From there, she went on to Iowa, where the questions got a little bit tougher and are just a foretaste of what she …

Continue reading Elizabeth Warren: U.S. President or Massachusetts Senator?

Return to checks and balances brings hope

I have to post quickly before events reactivate the despair and cynicism of the last two years.  I felt a smile emerge when watching the swearing-in of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House of Representatives. Imagine the pleasure of hearing about Article 1 of the U.S. Constitution, establishing the Congress as a coequal branch …

Continue reading Return to checks and balances brings hope