Tag Archives: State: Massachusetts

BostonHerald.com: A probate judge’s order to abort a mentally ill woman’s unborn baby and sterilize her — if it meant she had to be “coaxed, bribed, or even enticed … by ruse” into the procedure — has prompted a legal tongue-lashing from an appeals court, and outrage from even abortion rights supporters.

How Appealing reports and links to the ruling.

Boston Herald: Police in Fairhaven say whoever crashed their vehicle through a Nativity scene in a public space in town did it deliberately.

BBC News: The number of visits by gay men to health clinics dropped significantly after same-sex unions were allowed in the state Massachusetts. This was regardless of whether the men were in a stable relationship, reported the American Journal of Public Health.

CNN.com: Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank, a 16-term Democrat, will announce Monday he does not intend to seek re-election in 2012, according to a statement from Frank’s office.

The New American: Before the law passed, Timothy Tracey, a lawyer with the conservative Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund, testified before the Judiciary Committee that the bill infringes on the religious rights of those who believe that men and women are different. Said Tracey, “The First Amendment mandates that no individual should be required to affirm, in act, word, or deed, that a man is a woman, or a woman is a man, against their sincerely held religious beliefs. Yet this is precisely what (the bill) will do.”

he Massachusetts legislature has passed a bill that elevates cross-dressing or transgendered individuals to a protected class, and grants universal access to sex-segregated areas such as bathrooms based on personal “gender identity or expression.”

Boston.com: Massachusetts lawmakers on Tuesday passed a final version of a bill designed to license up to three resort-style casinos and a single slots parlor in the state.

Fox News: A Massachusetts law professor has created a campus firestorm with an email to colleagues that declares it would be “shameful” to send care packages to U.S. troops “who have gone overseas to kill other human beings.” Michael Avery, a professor at Suffolk University Law School . . .

School holiday an ‘in-your-face’ gesture (OneNewsNow.com): Some Massachusetts residents don’t agree with a school district deciding to give students a day off in recognition of a Muslim holiday.

BostonHerald.com: The father of two went to the town’s three selectmen last month with a simple request: to hold a peaceful prayer vigil on the town common . . . The selectmen put their feet down. No way, they told Casey, invoking the Constitution’s separation of church and sta

LifeSiteNews.com: But the unlikely victory of a solidly pro-life candidate in the state’s 12th District in last month’s special election has some pro-family advocates saying that the tide may be turning.
Republican Keiko Orrall defeated Democratic candidate Roger Brunelle, Jr. in a special election held September 21st, claiming a seat in the state legislature that has been occupied by a Democrat for 30 consecutive years.

LifeSiteNews.com: Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston condemned the efforts of a pro-euthanasia group to legalize assisted suicide in Massachusetts in his homily at the diocesan Red Mass this past Sunday, CNA reports.

A pro-euthanasia group has won approval from the Massachusetts attorney general to allow voters to decide whether to allow individuals to kill themselves with the help of a physician on next year’s ballot.

AP: A group in one Massachusetts town wants to ban students from reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in the public schools, saying it has no educational value and is reminiscent of totalitarian regimes.

The Boston Globe: The bill would authorize three Las Vegas-style casinos in three regions, and a fourth gambling hall with up to 1,250 slot machines that could be located anywhere in Massachusetts – all of which backers say would generate much-needed jobs and income for the state.

AP: A convicted murderer suing Massachusetts prison officials for a sex-change operation says a recent federa

Boston.com: The Massachusetts Appeals Court has ruled the Sex Offender Registry Board can’t require an individual to register as a “Level 2″ sex offender based solely on a conviction of possessing child pornography.

Boston.com: Gov. Deval Patrick signed a sweeping overhaul of the state’s court system Thursday, even as he faulted lawmakers for not adopting one of his key proposals and tweaked the courts for pushing to add extra jobs in the bill.

The Anchor: The ongoing controversy at St. Cecilia’s Church in Boston over the scheduling, postponing and re-theming of a Mass originally planned to celebrate Boston’s gay “pride month” has brought to the surface issues that extend far beyond the boundaries of one parish or archdiocese. The controversy touches not only on the subject of the pastoral care of the Church toward those with same-sex attractions, but on the much larger matter of the purpose of the Church’s pastoral care to anyone and everyone: Whether the Church, her priests and parishes will faithfully, lovingly and courageously care for people with the fullness of the Gospel; or whether her ministers and ministries — perhaps out of too much fear to give offense, a lack of faith in the teachings of the Church, or a faint-hearted notion of what true love demands — will dilute the Gospel of its saving power by stripping it of the uncomfortable and countercultural teachings that some listeners most need . . .

LifeNews.com: A statewide pro-life group in Massachusetts is starting an effort tomorrow designed to target the repeal of the individual mandate in Romneycare, the government run health care program Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney instituted.

BostonHerald.com: Massachusetts Citizens for Life, an anti-abortion organization, intends to initiate a ballot petition that would repeal the requirement that all Massachusetts residents obtain health insurance, a core provision of the state’s landmark 2006 health care law.

Boston.com: Massachusetts lawmakers have given final approval to a bill aimed at overhauling the administration of the state’s courts, including the way job applications are handled.

Daily Mail Online: A Massachusetts middle school has sparked outrage after forcing students to answer questions about oral sex. Parent Arlene Tessitore made an official complaint after her seventh and eighth grade daughters were forced to take the Youth Risk Behaviour Study at Memorial Middle School.

Church delays priest’s gay-friendly Mass – BostonHerald.com: “Some people have said that by celebrating a liturgy we were supporting a Gay Pride agenda,” the Rev. John Unni told a standing room only crowd at St. Cecilia’s yesterday during his sermon. “I confess I don’t know what that is. As a Catholic, my only agenda — just like Jesus — is to love and accept one another.”

LifeNews: A Department of Health spokesperson says the controversial Massachusetts taxpayer-funded web site MariaTalks.com will remain online in its current format despite promoting abortions and Planned Parenthood.

Boston Globe : Barbara A. Lenk, a veteran Appeals Court judge, today won confirmation to a seat on the Supreme Judicial Court, becoming the first openly gay judge to serve on the state’s highest judicial body.

SouthCoastToday: Charles O. Cipollini repeatedly pressed Gov. Deval Patrick’s latest state Supreme Judicial Court nominee, Barbara Lenk, with questions about same-sex marriage during Wednesday’s confirmation hearing. Lenk, if confirmed, would be the court’s first openly gay justice in its history.

Wall Street Journal (via Google): Pop quiz: What political party, in what state, this week passed a bill in the dead of night stripping public-sector unions of their collective- bargaining powers? Republicans in Wisconsin? The GOP in Ohio or Indiana? Try Democrats in Massachusetts. Maybe the debate over public-sector benefits isn’t all that ideological after all.

Boston Herald: “A group of Massachusetts lawmakers is calling on Gov. Deval Patrick to cut off state funding for a sexual education web site aimed at teens, saying it uses “disgusting” language to describe sex acts and downplays the risks of abortion.”

Fox News: A state-funded sex education website that claims getting an abortion is “much easier than it sounds” has angered a Bay State pro-life organization that says the site glorifies the controversial procedure.

ACLU: The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court today ruled in an American Civil Liberties Union case that the mere smell of marijuana no longer justifies a search or seizure, because the possession of a small quantity of marijuana is no longer criminal in Massachusetts.

Boston Globe: Bishop M. Thomas Shaw of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts and several other clergy yesterday called on Massachusetts lawmakers to pass transgender-rights legislation and asked religious communities to throw their support behind the bill.

Reuters: Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick on Monday nominated Barbara Lenk, a lesbian, to fill an opening on the state’s highest court.

Washington Times: “Memo to Scott Brown. If you think budget cuts ‘disproportionately affect low income families and seniors,’ what do you think is going to happen when we have an economic collapse?” Phillips writes.

Beacon Hill Institute via Insider Online: his study demonstrates that charter schools outperform non-charter public schools on the 8th and 10th grade Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exams by statistically significant margins after controlling for socio-economic differences among the student populations. We offer several explanations to account for these findings, paramount among them being the freedom charter schools enjoy from bureaucratic restrictions. This freedom allows charter school teachers to innovate with methods denied to their non-charter counterparts.

AP: Democrats haven’t found a solid challenger to GOP Sen. Scott Brown in liberal Massachusetts next year, stoking concerns the party could blow its best shot to take back the seat held for nearly a half-century by the late Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Boston Globe: “The Cranston School Committee is scheduled to vote on whether a prayer banner at a city high school stays up or come down.”

Telegram & Gazette: “A group opposed to the possibility of a Planned Parenthood office in downtown Gardner changed the direction of its petition last night in an effort to gain approval from the Planning Board and City Council.”

Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued this order in litigation that challenges the Federal DOMA.

Boston Globe: “Governor Deval Patrick today quietly issued an executive order banning discrimination against transgender workers in state government, a move that advocates view as a first step toward passing statewide legislation.”

Boston Globe: “Massachusetts education commissioner Mitchell Chester today endorsed 17 out 23 applications to launch new charter schools, including 10 in Boston.”

TheBostonChannel.com (includes video): “If you live in the state of Massachusetts, there’s one thing that never ends: alimony. It’s a life-long financial obligation that can turn lives and finances upside down. Now a new legislative proposal could radically change that mandate.”

Boston Globe: “It is a surge in growth unlike any we have ever seen,’’ said Paul Grogan, president of the Boston Foundation, a charitable organization that urged the state to let more charter schools open. “We have a very strong cadre of charter schools that are proven providers and ready to expand.’’

Boston Globe: “But Patrick, over the long run, is unlikely to transform the ideological imprint of a bench that, even when dominated by Republican appointees, became the first high court in the nation to legalize gay marriage.”

CNA: “The U.S. Bishops and the Massachusetts Catholic Conference have joined a list of 17 religious groups moving to appeal the state’s rejection of the Defense of Marriage Act last year.”

Boston Herald: “A Massachusetts anti-abortion group proposed legislation today that would allow individual taxpayers to opt out of paying for publicly-funded abortions in the state.”

Boston Globe: “Supreme Judicial Court Associate Justice Judith Cowin announced Monday that she will retire in April, giving Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick another opportunity to continue reshaping the state’s highest court.”

National Catholic Register: “The Archdiocese of Boston has decreed that children of same-sex couples can enroll in its parochial schools, reversing a controversial 2010 decision at the parish level refusing one such admission.”

Boston.com (AP): “Appeals Court Associate Justice Fernande ‘Nan’ Duffly endured a close vote Wednesday to take her place as the first Asian-American member of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.”

Boston.com (AP): “The governor on Monday said he wants to instead hire about 1,000 staff attorneys. Patrick said the change could save the state an estimated $45 million a year.”

Christian Post: “On Thursday, former state-Supreme-Court-judge-turned-religious-freedom-advocate Roy Moore filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit defending the constitutionality of DOMA . . . Several other conservative groups have also criticized DOJ for not fully defending DOMA. Alliance Defense Fund Legal Counsel [Dale Schowengerdt] criticized the DOJ’s defense as ‘deficient.’”

ChristianNewsWire: “Roy Moore, former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice, and theFoundation for Moral Law, a religious liberties legal organization in Montgomery, Alabama, filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit today defending the constitutionality of the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), passed by Congress in 1996. Read the Foundation’s brief in Massachusetts v. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services.”

Boston.com (AP): “Attorney General Martha Coakley is joining with lawmakers and police to push a bill to toughen criminal penalties against pimps and others profiting from human trafficking.”

Religion Clause: “In Roman Catholic Bishop of Springfield v. City of Springfield, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 345 (D MA, Jan. 4, 2011), a Massachusetts federal district court rejected a number of constitutional challenges as well as a challenge under RLUIPA to action declaring a closed Springfield, Massachusetts Catholic church to be a local historic district.”

Yahoo / PRWeb: “The historic marriage of Episcopal Divinity School, dean and president, the Very Reverend Katherine Hancock Ragsdale and Mally Lloyd, Canon to the Ordinary, took place today at the Cathedral Church of St Paul in Boston.”

The Boston Globe: “Senator Scott Brown’s decision to buck his party leadership in recent days on the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ military policy and on a nuclear arms treaty has set off a new wave of anger among some of the activists who helped elect him — and renewed talk among conservatives that he might face a primary challenge.”

Fox News: “The principal of a public school in Brookline, Mass., is asking parents to fill out permission slips before their children can participate in a weekly recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.”

Boston Globe: “Governor Deval Patrick, deepening his imprint on the state’s highest court, nominated what would be its first Asian-American justice yesterday, declaring that the highest ranks of a state’s government should reflect the diversity of its people. He nominated Appeals Court Justice Fernande R.V. Duffly, 61, to fill the seat held by Roderick L. Ireland, who on Monday was elevated to chief justice, becoming the first African-American to lead the Supreme Judicial Court.”

Associated Press: “Gov. Deval Patrick has sworn in the first black chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.”

Associated Press: “A Massachusetts doctor sentenced to six months in jail for performing an abortion on a woman who later died has been released from jail early.”

Sentinel and Enterprise: “The Governor’s Council on Wednesday approved the nomination of Roderick Ireland as the first black chief justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.”

Boston Globe: “The Boston Teachers Union is accusing city and school leaders of “meeting secretly’’ last week to offer charter school officials the chance to lease city schools slated for closure, even before parents and students at those schools knew their fate.”

“. . . the Republican unexpectedly announced he would support allowing gay troops to serve openly in the military . . . ”

Wicked Local Boxborough: “The committee will meet Dec. 2 to discuss and vote on the school calendar. Superintendent Steve Mills recommended that the calendar remain as it is, based on the results of the survey.”

Boston Herald: “Harvard will formally bring ROTC back to campus if Congress acts to let gays serve openly in the military, the university’s president pledged Wednesday night in her most pointed comments on the subject to date.”

Boston Herald: “Gov. Deval Patrick says he’ll use his second term to try to implement the rest of an advisory panel’s recent recommendations on immigration reform, including in-state tuition for illegal immigrant students and more English classes.”

Boston.com / Dedham: “Also winning quick approval was a new ‘adult use’ zoning district, which includes all of the Legacy Place shopping complex and nearby Stergis Way. The zoning would allow strip clubs and stores selling sex toys and X-rated materials.”

The Boston Globe: “Dedham’s Special Town Meeting will take on a number of questions when it meets tomorrow night, from approving the police contract to setting new boundaries for an ‘adult use’ district in town.”

Boston.com (AP): “Abortion opponents have added to their ranks in the Massachusetts House, while abortion rights supporters say they still have a slim majority.”

UPI: “Robert ‘Michelle’ Kosilek, 61, is living and dressing as a woman at the all-male MCI-Norfolk state prison . . . Kosilek is suing the Department of Correction to have taxpayers pay for electrolysis and a sex-change operation, the newspaper said.”

Wicked Local: “Preservationists say it would be a Whopper of a mistake for a Haverhill congregation to sell its 163-year-old church to a developer who wants to tear it down and build a Burger King.”

The Boston Globe: “Governor Deval Patrick nominated a court veteran yesterday, Associate Justice Roderick L. Ireland, to lead the Supreme Judicial Court, an appointment that would make Ireland the first black chief justice of the nation’s oldest appeals court.”

Associated Press: “Voters in a western Massachusetts city have decided not to lose their shirts over at least one ballot question. Pittsfield voters soundly rejected on Tuesday a measure pushing for women to be allowed to walk around town topless.”

“The District of Columbia leads the nation in male same-sex households, while Massachusetts is tops in lesbian-led homes, a university-based research center says in a new report.”