IT DEPENDS UPON WHAT YOU MEAN BY ‘PENDING.’ On June 30, the
Massachusetts Department of Fire Services issued a press release noting the
upcoming anniversary of a tragic rooming house fire in Beverly, and drawing
attention to a bill that would give cities and towns the option of requiring
sprinkler systems in new one- and two-family homes. “This July 4 will be the 30th
anniversary of the Elliott Chambers Rooming House fire in downtown Beverly that
killed 15 residents and injured nine others,” the release said. “This tragedy led to swift passage of
legislation allowing communities to choose to require sprinklers in boarding
and lodging houses…leading to a decline in rooming house fires and especially
fatal rooming house fires. It is one of
the great fire prevention success stories.”
State Fire Marshal Stephen C. Coan was quoted as saying there’s legislation
“pending right now” in Massachusetts that would give communities “the ability
to choose to require sprinklers when new homes are built.” He was apparently referring to House Bill
2121, An Act Relative to Enhanced Fire
Protection in New One and Two Family Dwellings.
The legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland
Security sent that bill to “study” on March 20, meaning it was for all intents
and purposes killed at that point. Now bills can be recalled from study and
acted on, but they almost never are. Opposed
by many in the construction and real estate fields, H2121 will not be resurrected from study
before the legislature ends formal sessions on Thursday, July 31.
THE ACTUAL DOCUMENT CONTAINER ARRIVED LATER, OF COURSE. At the Democratic State Convention in
Worcester, Juliette Kayyem gave a wonderfully passionate speech about why she
wanted to be the party’s nominee for governor this fall. According to the official text of the speech
released by the Kayyem for Governor Committee, she said, in part: “This is no
time for caution. We can’t simply dream
of a Commonwealth that might be. We must
plan for the Massachusetts that SHOULD be.
My inspiration and optimism about this journey comes from my
grandmother, my Situ. She moved here
from Lebanon in 1938 and raised 9 children on her own. She could barely read English. But she achieved the goal of educating all
her children. She carried the proof of her journey with her in a Ziploc bag:
birth certificates, citizenship forms, her American Passport.” According to the Dow Chemical Co. web site,
the first Ziploc bags were test-marketed in 1968. (Kayyem came in fourth in the convention balloting
for the nomination, with 12.1 percent of the votes. She needed at least 15 percent to qualify for
the September primary.)
BARNEY AIN’T BUYING LIZ’S ‘NOT ME’ ROUTINE. Elizabeth Warren is almost single-handedly maintaining the bottom lines of three different airlines. Her
speaking obligations beyond Massachusetts seem to be without end. Everywhere she goes, Warren is asked if she
intends to run for President in 2006, and everywhere she denies having any such
intention. Retired Congressman Barney
Frank was asked recently by the State House News Service if he thought Warren,
despite her disclaimers, is inclined to seek the presidency. “Oh, I think yes,” Frank said. “In the first place, why would you want to
get into a profession and have no interest in rising to the top of it? I don’t know anybody who has that.” Frank is eager to see Hillary Clinton run. “I’m a great admirer of Hillary Clinton,” he
said.
MOULTON COMES UP WITH INVENTIVE LINE OF ATTACK. Several months back, the Boston Herald asked
former Massachusetts Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei about candidates he
had recommended for jobs in the Probation Department. Apparently, there’s at least one letter of
recommendation from Tisei in the files. Tisei,
who’s running again for Congress in the Sixth Massachusetts District,
reportedly told the Herald that “a letter from me I don’t think was very
helpful,” and that he had “never talked to O’Brien. I don’t think I ever met him the whole time I
was in (the Senate).” O’Brien is former
Probation Commissioner John O’Brien, now on trial in federal court for
allegedly rigging the hiring system. Tisei’s exchange with the Herald inspired
Seth Mouton, an Iraq war veteran running in the Sixth District as a Democrat, to
issue a press release under the headline, “Richard Tisei to Boston Herald: I’m
Ineffective.” Moulton was quoted in the
release as saying: “At issue isn’t that Richard Tisei sent a letter to a now
disgraced ex-department head making a job recommendation. The issue is that Richard Tisei has proven
time and time again to be just another Republican who stands for the status
quo. It’s not something to brag about
that, after 20 years in the state senate, a letter with his name on it ‘wasn’t
very helpful.’ Nor is it impressive that, 20 years into his tenure, he hadn’t
met with the head of a major department.
How many other department heads did Richard Tisei not meet.” Think how worked up Moulton could get if it
was revealed that Tisei got someone a job.
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