Jennifer Smith

2 weeks ago | commonwealthbeacon.org | Jennifer Smith

MONEY CAN’T BUY LOVE, according to the saying. It also can’t buy an employer the right to take action against a worker that, on its own, would qualify as illegal retaliation.  That is the essence of a Supreme Judicial Court ruling issued Thursday in a dispute between the City of Newton and a sergeant on the city’s police force.

3 weeks ago | yahoo.com | Jennifer Smith

Attorneys general from left to right: William Tong of Connecticut, Peter Neronha of Rhode Island, Andrea Campbell of Massachusetts, Charity Clark of Vermont, Aaron Frey of Maine. (Image from MassAGO livestream)Attorneys general from around New England struck a defiant posture at a town hall gathering on Friday evening.

3 weeks ago | commonwealthbeacon.org | Jennifer Smith

THE BOSTON CITY COUNCIL voted 8-4 to implement ranked-choice voting for city elections on Wednesday, tapping on what many consider the first domino in the latest round of ranked-choice voting pushes. The system asks voters to select their candidates in order of preference. In general terms, candidates with the fewest numbers of first choice votes are eliminated over multiple rounds of vote counting, until a candidate emerges with the largest amount of consensus support.

3 weeks ago | commonwealthbeacon.org | Jennifer Smith

IN HOUSING DEBATES, it’s only a matter of time before critiques of damaging “neighborhood character” and some flavor of “not in my back yard” clash with assertions that the Massachusetts housing market is so squeezed that building almost anything at all should be a priority. Common wisdom usually boils down to residents wanting to preserve their community while home values rise, suggesting that other communities would be better suited for more units.

1 month ago | commonwealthbeacon.org | Jennifer Smith

AN ATTORNEY FOR former state senator Dean Tran referenced famed attacks on the floor of Congress and 200-year-old case law as he argued before a somewhat skeptical high court that Tran should be immune from criminal ethics violation charges. Tran, a Fitchburg Republican, was indicted in 2023 for allegedly violating the state ethics law by directing members of his legislativestaff to campaign for him during two reelection campaigns.