If you’ve got something to say to the people in charge over at MBTA about their plans for the future of the transit service, now’s your chance. On Thursday, the MBTA announced a 21 day public comment period for their proposed five year, multi-billion dollar capital investment plan. This time period will give the public a chance to weigh in as the T looks to undertake over 600 independent projects from now until the end of 2029, according MBTA General Manager Phil Eng. “The MBTA’s five-year CIP is the framework that guides how the T plans critical investments in the system, and public feedback ..read more

The arrest of 108 at Emerson College in the pre-dawn hours had politicians taking shots at the police who warned the students pitching tents in a public way gave them no choice. Social media video of the police sweep shows protesters being forcibly removed from the Boylston Place location around 2 a.m. Thursday, with some refusing to move in a scrum that also had protesters linking arms and chanting, “We keep us safe.” https://www.bostonherald.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BPD_Emerson_Captain.mp4 Arrests were streamed live on some social media platforms as police moved in as community members ..read more

Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden has agreed to pay a $5,000 civil penalty for violating conflict of interest law by allowing his office to issue an official press statement aimed at discrediting his primary opponent days before the election. The State Ethics Commission said Thursday that Hayden was aware of, and took no action to prevent, his office staff from releasing a statement that undercut claims made publicly by former City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, who stated investigators had deemed decades-old sexual assault allegations against him to be unfounded. “The authority and prestige o ..read more

Holy cow, inflation is really getting out of control. Quincy Mayor Tom Koch’s salary could spike to $370,000 under a recommendation to the City Council — possibly a 132% jump from his current salary of less than $160,000. If Koch’s salary ends up soaring to $370,000, the mayor of the city with about 100,000 people would reportedly be the highest paid mayor in the country. The Patriot Ledger previously reported on the recommended salary increase for the Quincy mayor. The city had hired a firm to conduct an executive salary study, with Koch not seeing a salary increase in nearly a decade. The sa ..read more

House Democrats handily shut down a Republican-backed attempt to redirect millions set aside for no-cost prisoner calls to local aid for municipalities, a move that had representatives diving head-first into the second day of debate on their fiscal year 2025 budget. Lawmakers voted 29-127 to reject the proposal from Rep. Paul Frost, an Auburn Republican, before the branch approved a series of amendment bundles throughout the day that tacked on an additional $25.8 million to the $57.9 billion budget. Lawmakers were expected to continue working on the yearly spending plan into the evening after ..read more

Massachusetts lawmakers shipped Gov. Muara Healey a spending bill Thursday that hands her $426 million to spend on emergency shelters over the next year-plus and caps families’ time in the system at nine months. The dollars come at a crucial moment for the Healey administration, which has warned for months that cash to pay for shelter services was quickly running out and expected to run dry this month. But the decision to throw more money at family emergency shelters has drawn heavy scrutiny from Republicans in Massachusetts who argue the state needs reforms before greenlighting additional spe ..read more

David G. Savage | Los Angeles Times (TNS) The Supreme Court on Thursday heard former President Trump’s claim that he is entirely immune from prosecution for all of his “official acts” during his time in the White House, including his effort to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. Trump’s claim of absolute immunity has been derided by legal experts and rejected by a federal trial judge and the U.S. appeals court in Washington. But the former president and his lawyers have been winning delays with their losing arguments. Special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump for conspiring to subvert the ..read more

Danielle Battaglia | (TNS) McClatchy Washington Bureau WASHINGTON — An Arizona grand jury has indicted Mark Meadows, former President Donald Trump’s chief of staff and a former congressman, over his involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 election using a fake slate of electors from the state. He is among 18 people charged, though his name does not appear in the indictment. Trump is not charged. Prosecutors gave enough details in the indictment, dated Tuesday and posted on social media by a Politico reporter, to reveal Meadows as one of the defendants whose names are redacted. Trump i ..read more

The Federal Communications Commission has approved a rule which will reclassify broadband internet as a telecommunications service subject to federal oversight and reestablish “net neutrality.” In a 3 – 2 vote taken Thursday, the nation’s top communications regulators ruled that broadband internet is a communications tool of the same species as the service delivered by old-fashioned copper telephone lines and therefore subject to Title II of the Communications Act of 1934. “We know that broadband is a necessity and not a luxury, we know that it is an essential service. And when a consumer has ..read more

By JACQUES BILLEAUD, JONATHAN J. COOPER and JOSH KELETY (Associated Press) PHOENIX (AP) — An Arizona grand jury has indicted former President Donald Trump ‘s chief of staff Mark Meadows, lawyer Rudy Giuliani and 16 others for their roles in an attempt to overturn Trump’s loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. The indictment released Wednesday names 11 Republicans who submitted a document to Congress falsely declaring that Trump won Arizona in 2020. They include the former state party chair, a 2022 U.S. Senate candidate and two sitting state lawmakers, who are charged with nine counts each of ..read more