CommonWealth Magazine: Deleo stepping down, House overrides Gov Baker's abortion veto

From CommonWealth Magazine:

"DeLeo stepping down; Mariano facing no opposition"

"IN A MESSAGE read by a tearful House clerk, Speaker Robert DeLeo announced he is resigning his position on Beacon Hill at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, setting the stage for the ascension of Majority Leader Ronald Mariano of Quincy to the top position in the chamber on Wednesday.

Shortly after the announcement just before 2 p.m., the speaker’s office said DeLeo would give a farewell address Tuesday afternoon and a caucus to elect a new speaker will be held on Wednesday."

Continue reading the article online

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/politics/deleo-stepping-down-mariano-facing-no-opposition/

"House overrides Baker’s abortion veto"

"THE HOUSE ON MONDAY voted 107-46 to override Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto of legislation allowing women as young as 16 to obtain abortions without parental or judicial consent and expanding when pregnancies can be terminated after six months.

The Senate on Tuesday is expected to join the House in overriding the governor’s veto, giving the Legislature a victory on the issue of broader abortion access at a time when President Trump has added several justices perceived as anti-abortion to the US Supreme Court. It’s not clear if a Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision protecting a woman’s right to have an abortion without excessive government intervention, would have any impact in Massachusetts."

Continue reading the article online

https://commonwealthmagazine.org/health/house-overrides-bakers-abortion-veto/ 

 

Student first amendment case coming to Supreme Court

In one of the first cases the Supreme Court will hear after the holiday break:

It was a Saturday in the spring of 2017, and a ninth-grade student in Pennsylvania was having a bad day. She had just learned that she had failed to make the varsity cheerleading squad and would remain on junior varsity.

The student expressed her frustration on social media, sending a message on Snapchat to about 250 friends. The message included an image of the student and a friend with their middle fingers raised, along with text expressing a similar sentiment. Using a curse word four times, the student expressed her dissatisfaction with “school,” “softball,” “cheer” and “everything.”

Though Snapchat messages are ephemeral by design, another student took a screenshot of this one and showed it to her mother, a coach. The school suspended the student from cheerleading for a year, saying the punishment was needed to “avoid chaos” and maintain a “teamlike environment.”

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/us/supreme-court-schools-free-speech.html

Franklin, MA: 1940 to 1949 (video)

Joe Landry provides this video about the history of Franklin, MA from 1940 to 1949. 

 

Direct video link:  https://youtu.be/EqzlZYWnzu4

:

"confused by infectivity, contagiousness & transmissibility, you might find this helpful"

Fatima Tokhmafshan (she/elle) 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈 (@DeNovo_Fatima) tweeted at 7:48 PM on Sun, Dec 27, 2020:

If like me, you're confused by infectivity, contagiousness & transmissibility, you might find👇🏽helpful.  

Big shoutout to @macroliter @KindrachukJason @angie_rasmussen, @sci_questions for helping clarify these concepts (would appreciate input if inaccuracies detected)

#scicomm https://t.co/3McqnBxwVY
Shared from Twitter:https://twitter.com/DeNovo_Fatima/status/1343358162578112513?s=03

confused by infectivity, contagiousness & transmissibility, you might find this helpful

"The margin surpassed the two-thirds majority needed in both houses to force enactment of the bill"

The Boston Globe has the following:

"The Democratic-controlled House voted Monday to override President Donald Trump’s veto of a defense policy bill.

House members voted 322-87 to override the veto, well above the two-thirds needed to override. If approved by two-thirds of the Senate, the override would be the first of Trump’s presidency."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/28/nation/house-expected-override-trumps-veto-defense-bill-setting-up-first-such-rebuke-his-presidency/

 

The Washington Post also has this article

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/house-override-trump-veto-defense/2020/12/28/49b50b20-4927-11eb-a9d9-1e3ec4a928b9_story.html

 

The New York Times also has this article

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/us/politics/house-overrides-trump-veto-military-bill.html

 

 

The election endgame is underway

Having completed watching "The Queen's Gambit" over the holiday weekend, the chess term is quite appropriate here. Some refer to politics as a game, I tend not to, especially since it affects our lives and livelihoods. Nonetheless, the term applies well. 

 

"A Republican congressman from Texas sued Vice President Mike Pence in the latest long-shot effort to reverse President-elect Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump.

In the lawsuit, Representative Louie Gohmert seeks a court order forcing the vice president to acknowledge what Gohmert claims is Pence’s power to disregard states’ chosen Democratic electors and instead select competing slates of GOP electors on Jan. 6.

That’s the day the Senate and House meet jointly to open and count certificates of electoral votes from the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The vice president has the constitutional role of presiding over the Senate, which has traditionally included overseeing the formal acceptance of the Electoral College vote."

Continue reading the article online (subscription may be required)

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/12/28/business/pence-is-sued-by-republican-congressman-long-short-effort-reverse-bidens-victory-over-trump/

The Boston Globe headline "Pence is sued by Republican congressman in long-shot effort to reverse Biden’s victory over Trump". 

The podcast "What Trump Can Teach Us about Con(stitutional) Law" provides insights into this recent development in the Presidential Election of 2020  https://trumpconlaw.com/47-lame-duck

 

 

What Trump Can Teach Us About Con Law

 

FM #422-423 School Committee Meeting - In two parts - 12/22/20 (audio)

FM #422-423 - This is the Franklin Matters radio show, another one in the series. 

This session shares the Franklin, MA School Committee meeting held on Tuesday, Dec 22, 2020. 

The meeting was conducted in a hybrid format: some of the School Committee and Central Office personnel were in the Council Chambers, the remainder of the Committee was remote via conference bridge, all to adhere to the ‘social distancing’ requirements of this pandemic period.

I’ve split the just over two hour and thirty minute meeting into two logical segments:

• First - covers the opening through the Guests/Presentations (approx. 1 hour and 23 minutes)
• Second - picks up from the Superintendent's goals through to the end of the public meeting as they entered Executive Session (not to return to public meeting) (approx. 1 hour and 9 minutes)

The show notes contain links to the meeting agenda and to my notes. The meeting packet folder will hold the other documents released for the meeting (as we go to press, the Superintendent’s Report is not yet updated due to the holiday break)

Let’s listen to this segment of the School Committee meeting of Dec 22, 2020

Audio files: 

First #422 -  https://www.hipcast.com/podcast/HDbNY59S

Second #423 - https://www.hipcast.com/podcast/HXmz9VVS

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Agenda doc
https://www.franklinps.net/sites/g/files/vyhlif4431/f/events/scagenda_12-22-20.pdf

Meeting packet folder
https://www.franklinps.net/district/school-committee/pages/december-22-2020-school-committee-meeting-packet 

My notes from the meeting
https://www.franklinmatters.org/2020/12/franklin-ma-school-committee-meeting.html  

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We are now producing this in collaboration with Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) or 102.9 on the Franklin area radio dial. 

This podcast is my public service effort for Franklin but we can't do it alone. We can always use your help.

How can you help?

• If you can use the information that you find here, please tell your friends and neighbors

• If you don't like something here, please let me know

Through this feedback loop we can continue to make improvements. I thank you for listening.

For additional information, please visit Franklinmatters.org/

If you have questions or comments you can reach me directly at shersteve @ gmail dot com

The music for the intro and exit was provided by Michael Clark and the group "East of Shirley". The piece is titled "Ernesto, manana"  c. Michael Clark & Tintype Tunes, 2008 and used with their permission.

I hope you enjoy!

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You can also subscribe and listen to Franklin Matters audio on iTunes or your favorite podcast app; search in "podcasts" for "Franklin Matters"

FM #422-324 School Committee Meeting - In two parts - 12/22/20 (audio)