BOSTON – With Memorial Day weekend around the corner and just two full months of formal sessions left for the Massachusetts Legislature, Speaker Robert DeLeo, who controls the agenda in the state House of Representatives, on Wednesday questioned the propriety of expending time and effort trying to pass a bill expanding the number of charter schools.
The Winthrop Democrat said he wasn't "holding out a lot of hope" for movement on charter schools given the likelihood, as he sees it, that ballot petitioners will take the issue to voters in November regardless of what the Legislature might be able to agree to.
BOSTON – Members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to send the first major overhaul of public records access laws in 40 years to Gov. Charlie Baker's desk.
In addition to requiring state agencies and cities and towns to designate records officers to field requests, the compromise proposal requires public agencies to provide requested records within 10 business days, while allowing for extensions beyond that deadline of no more than five business days for a state agency and 15 for a city or town. The bill further caps the length of appeals if records are denied and requesters appeal to the Secretary of State.
