House of Representatives

The proposed state House and Senate redistricting maps are out (Boston-area House districts / Senate). The thing that hit me immediately, since, of course, I looked at our place on the map, is that a piece of Roslindale (specifically, ours) would get shifted from Mike Rush to Sonia Chang-Diaz.

Blue Mass. Group and state Rep. Gene O'Flaherty, D-Chelsea, are in a bit of a tiff right now because O'Flaherty refuses to let a BMG commenter see any of the testimony submitted for a recent Joint Committee on the Judiciary hearing on something called the Uniform Foreign Court Money Judgment Act.

When Ted Folkman asked why not, O'Flaherty responded that he doesn't want to scare off rape victims by releasing public testimony given at a public hearing. It's unclear whether rape victims attended the hearing on the Uniform Foreign Court Money Judgment Act.

Sal DiMasi found guilty, appeal planned, of course.

The State House News Service has announced a 128-22 vote in favor of repealing a gift ban instituted by the state only 3 years ago. This ban prevented pharmaceutical and medical device companies from lobbying doctors with gifts like dinners and other free swag.

Opponents of the ban claim it hurts the local restaurant industry because they can't spend lavish amounts of money on dinners for doctors to hear the wonderous benefits of their products. However, the article doesn't mention how much money must have been spent by these same lobbyists at Beacon Hill restaurants instead in order to convince the current House to vote in favor of this gift ban repeal. In fact, supporters argue that the local economy and convention center hasn't been hurt at all by the ban. They argue that meal tax revenue is up and the BCEC has plans to grow.