Friday, April 07, 2006

Friday Combination Platter

Sorry for the light posting this week. I feel like I'm still catching up from my vacation and I've got a million things I should be doing. In any case, here are some of the things I didn't have time to talk about this week:

  • Overrides on the Rise: The Globe reported this that the number of Proposition 2 1/2 override attempts almost tripled between 2000 and 2005. Cities and towns are being starved of local aid, and that is putting a lot of pressure on their budgets. Without that extra money, the only tool in their toolbox is to raise property taxes. This is why talk of lowering the income tax doesn't make sense to me. It's the wrong tax! Let's handle the property tax crisis first before we potentially cripple the state's ability to help cities and towns.

  • Globe: Gabrieli too Boring to be Gov: Yesterday's Boston Globe had this curious article in advance of Chris Gabrieli's announcement. I'm not sure why they felt they had to write a whole article which basically said "some people think Gabrieli is boring" rather than make this a sidebar in the article they knew they would be writing for today. It's almost as if they went out of their way to have a negative article about him on the day he made his run for governor. Anyhow, judge for yourself.

  • Patrick Endorsed by DFA: Deval Patrick has been officially endorsed by Democracy for America. The endorsement sites how he "earned the support of DFA members across Massachusetts by empowering people to participate in his campaign and the democratic process" and could bring in donations from out of state, as well as publicity. In other Patrick related news, his campaign has upgraded their blog and is starting to fill it with audio and video content. The Phoenix's Adam Reilly is excited, and I think it has a lot of potential.

  • Bloodsucking Vampire, Tom DeLay: I really liked this post from Whitescreek Journal. I'm not even sure how I came across it, but it's really well written and worth checking out.

  • Good News for Fish: Mercury levels in fish from Massachusetts lakes and streams are down by as much as 32% in the seven years since tough regulations were put on local incinerators. This is great news because it really shows how changes in the law can really effect the environment, even in the short term. Not only that, but these results prove that local efforts can have a dramatic effect on the local environment, and we can make strides to clean up Massachusetts even if the Federal Government is not interested.

  • It Could Be Worse: Even though Congressman Marty Meehan (D-Lowell) wants to hamstring political blogs with campaign finance regulations, it could be a lot worse. In Singapore, they just banned political podcasts in the weeks before an election. (via BoingBoing)
There are also a few other things that I feel I owe larger posts, so look forward to that. It's been another busy political week in Massachusetts. What's on your minds?