Oped: Better Government

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2864021/posts The institutional separation of church and state—a revolutionary accomplishment of the American Founders—does not entail the separation of religion and politics. On the contrary, as the Northwest Ordinance states, “religion, morality and knowledge” are “necessary to good government.” For America’s Founders,...

http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/The-Download/177-Boston-Cambridge-Google-wars.aspx “It’s too bad.” That’s how the president of the Boston City Council greeted last night’s news that Google had won approvals to expand its Cambridge headquarters. Google ran into a surprisingly contentious expansion fight in Cambridge, raising hopes in Government Center...

http://backbay.patch.com/articles/back-bay-resident-honored-by-mass-women-s-political-caucus Back Bay resident John Hailer, President and CEO of Natixis Global Asset Management, will be honored by the Massachusetts Women’s Political Caucus for his work supporting women in the corporate world. Hailer will receive the award on March 16 at the...

http://www.politico.com/politicopulse/0312/politicopulse699.html DEMS FLEE IPAB BILL – Well, that didn’t take long. Just 72 hours after Republican leaders hinted they would pair repeal of the Independent Payment Advisory Board with medical malpractice reform, it’s no longer looking like IPAB repeal will be such...

http://seattletimes.com/html/opinion/2017712347_will12.html Two policies of the Obama administration illustrate an axiom: As government expands, its lawfulness contracts. Consider the administration’s desire to continue funding UNESCO and to develop a national curriculum for primary and secondary education. In 1994, Congress stipulated that no U.S....

http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/print-edition/2012/03/09/frank-talk-on-transportation-funding.html?page=all While the MBTA’s budget struggles have captured the region’s headlines, there is also an increasing awareness of a statewide transportation funding problem. Unfortunately, the public process around the issue seems headed in a familiar direction — float a whole bunch of...

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/its-official-daniel-grabauskas-now-highest-paid-city-employee/123 It’s official – Daniel Grabauskas is now the highest paid city employee. The former chairman and senior strategic adviser of the Bronner Center for Transportation Management and former general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority was confirmed today by the...

http://www.wickedlocal.com/arlington/news/x1569726331/Open-Checkbook-State-vendors-in-Arlington#axzz2O6UfvORR Earlier this month, state Treasurer Steve Grossman launched Open Checkbook,  fulfilling a campaign promise creating a new window into the inner-workings of  government. The site contains a trove of data, listing every state employee’s salary,  the line-by-line spending in each department...

MuckRock is an online startup that helps journalists streamline, track, and fulfill their public records requests. Since May 2010, when the beta version of the site debuted, they’ve had 851 requests filed, 232 requests successfully completed, and 66 requests denied. The site...

http://www.lowellsun.com/editorials/ci_19909427 Last month, the federal government declared lights out on the incandescent light bulb. Now we’re supposed to convert over to compact florescent bulbs, or jars filled with fireflies. Thomas Edison’s hot-filament-in-a-bulb technology lasted more than 130 years and would have kept...