BOSTON — A bipartisan group of lawmakers are hoping to close a “loophole” in state law that allows people who impersonate ICE agents and other federal authorities to shake down immigrants or sexually assault women to go without punishment.
The proposal, filed by state Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, Rep. Anne Margaret Ferranate, D-Gloucester, and others would make it a crime to impersonate a federal law enforcement official. Under current law, criminal charges can only be filed against someone accused of impersonating a state or local law-enforcement official.
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Minutes after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth trumpeted plans to “flood” Washington with National Guard members, a senior U.S. military official took the stand in federal court in California to defend the controversial deployment of troops to Los Angeles.
The move during protests this summer has since become the model for President Trump’s increasing use of the military to police American streets.
But the trial, which opened Monday in San Francisco, turns on the argument by California that troops called up by Trump have been illegally engaged in civilian law enforcement.
“The military in Southern California are so tied in with ICE and other law enforcement agencies that they are practically indistinguishable,” California Deputy Atty. Gen. Meghan Strong told the court Tuesday.
“Los Angeles is just the beginning,” the deputy attorney general said. “President Trump has hinted at sending troops even farther, naming Baltimore and even Oakland here in the Bay Area as his next potential targets.”
Senior U.S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer said in court that Hegseth’s statements Monday could tip the scales in favor of the state, which must show the law is likely to be violated again so long as troops remain.
But the White House hasn’t let the pending case stall its agenda. Nor have Trump officials been fazed by a judge’s order restricting so-called roving patrols used by federal agents to indiscriminately sweep up suspected immigrants.
After Border Patrol agents last week sprang from a Penske moving truck and snatched up workers at a Westlake Home Depot — appearing to openly defy the court’s order — some attorneys warned the rule of law is crumbling in plain sight.
“It is just breathtaking,” said Mark Rosenbaum of Public Counsel, part of the coalition challenging the use of racial profiling by immigration enforcement. “Somewhere there are founding fathers who are turning over in their graves.”
The chaotic immigration arrests that swept through Los Angeles this summer had all but ceased after the original July 11 order, which bars agents from snatching people off the streets without first establishing reasonable suspicion that they are in the U.S. illegally.
An Aug. 1 ruling in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals seemed to assure they could not resume again for weeks, if ever.
For the Department of Justice, the 9th Circuit loss was the latest blow in a protracted judicial beatdown, as many of the administration’s most aggressive moves have been held back by federal judges and tied up in appellate courts.
Trump “is losing consistently in the lower courts, almost nine times out of 10,” said Eric J. Segall, a professor at Georgia State University College of Law.
In the last two weeks alone, the 9th Circuit also found Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship unconstitutional and signaled it would probably rule in favor of a group of University of California researchers hoping to claw back funding from Trump’s war on diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Elsewhere in the U.S., the D.C. Circuit Court appeared poised to block Trump’s tariffs, while a federal judge in Miami temporarily stopped construction at the migrant detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz.
California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta has noted that his Department of Justice had sued the administration nearly 40 times.
But even the breakneck pace of current litigation is glacial compared with the actions of immigration agents and federalized troops.
Federal officials have publicly relished big-footing California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who have repeatedly warned the city is being used as a “petri dish” for executive force.
On Monday, the White House seemed to vindicate them by sending the National Guard to Washington.
Speaking for more than half an hour, Trump rattled off a list of American cities he characterized as under siege.
Asked whether he would deploy troops to those cities as well, the president said, “We’re just gonna see what happens.”
“We’re going to look at New York. And if we need to, we’re going to do the same thing in Chicago,” he said. “Hopefully, L.A. is watching.”
This image taken from video shows U.S. Border Patrol agents jumping out of a Penske box truck during an immigration raid at a Home Depot in Los Angeles on Aug. 6, 2025.
(Matt Finn / Fox News via Associated Press)
The U.S. Department of Justice argues that the same power that allows the president to federalize troops and deploy them on American streets also creates a “Constitutional exception” to the Posse Comitatus Act, a 19th century law that bars troops from civilian police action.
California lawyers say no such exception exists.
“I’m looking at this case and trying to figure out, is there any limitation to the use of federal forces?” Judge Breyer said.
Even if they keep taking losses, Trump administration officials “don’t have much to lose” by picking fights, said Ilya Somin, law professor at George Mason University and a constitutional scholar at the Cato Institute.
“The base likes it,” Somin said of the Trump’s most controversial moves. “If they lose, they can consider whether they defy the court.”
Other experts agreed.
“The bigger question is whether the courts can actually do anything to enforce the orders that they’re making,” said David J. Bier, an immigration expert at the Cato Institute. “There’s no indication to me that [Department of Homeland Security agents] are changing their behavior.”
Some scholars speculated the losses in lower courts might actually be a strategic sacrifice in the war to extend presidential power in the Supreme Court.
“It’s not a strategy whose primary ambition is to win,” said professor Mark Graber of the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law. “They are losing cases right and left in the district court, but consistently having district court orders stayed in the Supreme Court.”
Win or lose in the lower courts, the political allure of targeting California is potent, argued Segall, the law professor who studies the Supreme Court.
“There is an emotional hostility to California that people on the West Coast don’t understand,” Segall said. “California … is deemed a separate country almost.”
A favorable ruling in the Supreme Court could pave the way for deployments across the country, he and others warned.
“We don’t want the military on America’s streets, period, full stop,” Segall said. “I don’t think martial law is off the table.”
Pedro Vásquez Perdomo, a day laborer who is one of the plaintiffs in the Southern California case challenging racial profiling by immigration enforcement, has said the case is bigger than him.
He took to the podium outside the American Civil Liberties Union’s downtown offices Aug. 4, his voice trembling as he spoke about the temporary restraining order — upheld days earlier by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals — that stood between his fellow Angelenos and unchecked federal authority.
“I don’t want silence to be my story,” he said. “I want justice for me and for every other person whose humanity has been denied.”
A Salem woman who was arrested in 2023 for allegedly taking part in a ring selling stolen human remains claims her case should be dismissed because body parts are not legally considered “goods” — an argument a judge turned down this week.
Katrina Maclean, 46, owner of the Peabody-based “Kat’s Kreepy Kreations” and curator of Freaksantiquesuniques, argued in a brief filed in April that human remains are not considered property under the law.
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BEVERLY — Essex County’s “dirty deeds” containing discriminatory covenants are finally being cleaned up.
The Southern Essex Registry of Deeds recorded its first round of affidavits Monday to remove discriminatory covenants from real estate deeds in this area of the county. These covenants restricted people of certain ethnic or racial groups, particularly Black people, from buying homes or moving into specific neighborhoods years ago.
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SALEM — A New York man pled guilty to charges of rape, open and gross lewdness, and distributing obscene matter to a minor on Monday in Superior Court in Salem, according to the Office of Essex County District Attorney Paul F. Tucker.
Anthony Bowden, 34, of Albany, New York, was sentenced to four years in state prison to be followed by three years probation, during which time he must stay away and have no contact with the victim, have no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 16, undergo a sex offender evaluation, and register with the sex offender registry board (SORB). Bowden was represented by attorney Christina Rose Kenney.
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MARBLEHEAD — Voters overturned a plan to put the town in compliance with the state’s controversial MBTA Communities Act this week.
During a special election Tuesday, 3,542 Marbleheaders voted not to adopt an overlay zoning district that would allow multifamily housing by right as required by the law, also known as 3A, for all communities receiving MBTA service or abutting those that do.
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BOSTON — A pair of Republicans challenging Democratic Gov. Maura Healey in next year’s gubernatorial election are vowing to push for a statewide ban on “sanctuary” policies if elected, arguing that the state’s immigrant-friendly laws have made it a magnet for the undocumented.
Republicans Mike Kennealy, who served as former Gov. Charlie Baker’s housing and economic development secretary, and Brian Shortsleeve, a former MBTA head and venture capitalist, are vying for the GOP’s nomination to challenge Healey next year.
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BOSTON — Members of the state’s congressional delegation are demanding a probe of recent federal immigration raids in the state, accusing the Trump administration of using “excessive force” and “aggressive tactics” to apprehend people suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.
In a letter Thursday to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey lead calls for an investigation into claims of “increasingly aggressive and intimidating tactics” by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during recent enforcement actions.
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A former Market Basket employee who officials allege lit two fires in the back of the supermarket in March, pleaded “not guilty” during his arraignment in Salem Superior Court on Wednesday.
Matthew R. Johnson, 35, who court records say is homeless, was indicted on felony charges of attempted burning of a building and burning a building, in relation to fires in two separate areas of the back of the store that filled the supermarket with smoke on March 14.
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BOSTON — An abortion rights group is asking a federal judge to toss out a lawsuit against them and Gov. Maura Healey by anti-abortion groups in response to a state-funded campaign targeting pregnancy ‘crisis’ center operators.
In a motion to dismiss filed in U.S. District Court in Boston on Tuesday, lawyers for the Reproductive Equity Now Foundation argue that the plaintiffs “lack standing” to file the lawsuit and blasted the legal challenge as an attempt to “silence” their advocacy work.
“Contrary to the allegations in the complaint, this case is not about any wrongful deprivation of the First Amendment or other constitutional rights …” lawyers for the foundation wrote in a court filing. “Instead, it is a blatant attempt to enlist this court’s assistance in its effort to silence Reproductive Equity Now Foundation and its president Rebecca Hart Holder, by enjoining them from exercising their constitutional rights.”
The lawsuit, filed in August by the Massachusetts Liberty Legal Center on behalf of Your Options Medical Center and others, alleges that the state and Equity Now violated their constitutional rights with a “campaign of harassment, suppression, and threats” against the Revere-based facility and other pregnancy centers.
At issue is a taxpayer-funded education campaign by the state Department of Health warning the public to avoid pregnancy crisis centers, which have emerged as the latest battleground in abortion access following the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling overturning federal protections.
The $1 million campaign, which began earlier this year, has blanketed social media platforms, billboards and radio, with ads emblazoned on MBTA buses, trains and depots.
The plaintiffs allege the campaign has forced them “to operate in a culture of fear and harassment” and that they continue to face “unprecedented investigations, including unnecessary subpoenas,” despite a prior state investigation clearing the operators of any wrongdoing.
But lawyers for Holder and Equity Now argue in court filings that the public education campaign hasn’t deprived the pregnancy centers of their free speech rights or interfered with their operations.
“To be clear, the public has not been prevented from seeking out and receiving YOM’s services, and YOM has not been prevented from expressing its viewpoints or fulfilling its mission consistent with those viewpoints,” they wrote.
The plaintiffs “utterly failed to allege facts that plausibly demonstrate this is one of those rare instances in which the conduct of private parties constitutes state action,” they added.
Hart-Holder calls the lawsuit “an attempt to silence our organization and prevent us from exercising our First Amendment protected right to free speech.”
“We will not be intimidated by this lawsuit, and we will always fight for New England patients and their ability to access the reproductive health care that is right for them,” she said in a statement.
Pregnancy crisis centers have emerged as the latest battleground in abortion access following the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning federal protections.
The centers, which advertise free services and counseling for women struggling with unplanned pregnancies, have proliferated in the wake of the high court’s decision overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
But Healey and women’s reproductive rights groups claim the facilities are funded by anti-abortion groups with the intention of blocking women from getting abortions.
In June, the state Department of Public Health partnered with the advocacy groups on a new campaign to educate the public about the “dangers and potential harm” of anti-abortion centers that advocates say are providing misleading information to women.
The $1 million taxpayer-funded public campaign features ads on social media platforms, billboards, radio and transit warning women about the pregnancy crisis centers.
Some communities have moved to limit or ban the centers amid complaints that they are using deceptive advertising and providing misinformation.
But anti-abortion groups say the centers are providing options to women other than abortions and being unfairly targeted by a “smear campaign” by proponents of the procedure.
The Pregnancy Care Alliance of Massachusetts said the network of pregnancy care centers in the state “provides millions of dollars in no-cost support and care for thousands of women annually who face planned and unplanned pregnancies.”
The alliance has accused Healey and other state leaders of “furthering their extreme abortion agenda by using a taxpayer-funded campaign to discredit our centers.”
“Our pregnancy resource centers are paying close attention to the case and look forward to learning the outcome, since a decision will directly impact our service to women and communities across the state,” the alliance said in a statement.
The conservative American Center for Law and Justice, which has helped former President Donald Trump fight his legal battles, is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit. It argues that the campaign targeting pregnancy centers is part of a strategy to “silence the anti-abortion movement.”
Healey, who is being represented by the Attorney General’s office, hasn’t formally responded to the lawsuit’s claims but was granted an extension this week to file her response until Dec. 13, according to federal court filings.
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.
BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey is moving to implement a tough new gun control law in response to a lawsuit challenging its provisions and a effort to repeal the restrictions.
On Wednesday, Healey signed an executive order attaching an emergency preamble to the bill she signed in July that expanded the state’s bans on “assault” weapons and high-capacity magazines, outlawed so-called “ghost” guns and set new restrictions on open carry of firearms, among other provisions.
Gun control groups praised the rare maneuver, which they said is aimed at blocking an effort by critics of the new law to block its implementation as they gather signatures to put the issue before voters in two years.
“After years of advocating for these gun safety measures to become law, we weren’t going to stand by and let the gun lobby get in the way of our progress,” Anne Thalheimer, a survivor fellow with the Everytown Survivor Network, said in a statement. “We’re grateful to Governor Healey for standing with us and taking decisive action to ensure that this lifesaving law is implemented.”
But the Massachusetts Gun Owners’ Action League, which has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the law’s training and licensing requirements, said Healey’s “radical move” signing the executive order makes hundreds of thousands of lawful gun owners across the state into “felons in waiting.”
He accused the governor and Democratic lawmakers of waging a “consistent effort to silence our voices and mislead the general public.”
“Ever since this tantrum against the Supreme Court decision Bruen started last year, the so-called ‘process’ has become even more putrid,” said Jim Wallace, GOAL’s executive director, in a statement. “At every turn, the Legislature and now the governor, have avoided honest public input, especially from the 2A [Second Amendment] community.”
Wallace said despite the order the group is still urging the federal judge to issue a temporary injunction to block the law from going into effect as the ballot initiative and legal challenge plays out in court.
Besides the legal fight, critics of the new law or gathering signatures to put the question before voters in the 2026 election. They argue that the restrictions will hurt businesses, cost jobs and deprive legal gun owners of their constitutional rights.
The new law, which passed despite objections from the Legislature’s Republican minority, added dozens of long rifles to a list of prohibited guns under the state’s assault weapons ban, and outlawed the open carry of firearms in government buildings, polling places and schools, with exemptions for law enforcement officials.
It also set strict penalties for possession of modification devices such as so-called “Glock switches” that convert semiautomatic firearms into fully automatic, military-style weapons. The state’s red flag law, which allows a judge to suspend the gun license of someone deemed at risk to themselves or others, was also expanded under the legislation.
Massachusetts already has some of the toughest gun control laws in the country, including real-time license checks for private gun sales and stiff penalties for gun-based crimes.
Gun control advocates argue the strict requirements have given the largely urban state one of the lowest gun-death rates in the nation, while not infringing on the right to bear arms.
Despite those trends, Democrats who pushed the gun control bill through the Legislature argued that gun violence is still impacting communities across the state whether by suicide, domestic violence or drive-by shootings.
Second Amendment groups have long argued that the tougher gun control laws are unnecessary, and punish law-abiding gun owners while sidestepping the issue of illegal firearms.
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.
Keanna Rosenburgh faces up to 7 years in the Colorado Youthful Offender System for opening fire into a crowd after being denied entry into a bar.
A parked Denver Police cruiser. Sept. 30, 2021.
Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite
The teenager accused of shooting five people outside a bar in Denver’s LoDo neighborhood in September 2023 pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder in court Friday.
Keanna Rosenburgh faces up to 7 years in the Colorado Youthful Offender System and a 21-year suspended sentence in the Colorado Department of Corrections.
The Denver Police said Rosenburgh, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, was denied entry into the Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row bar and restaurant in the 1900 block of Market Street on Sept. 16, 2023. Rosenburgh returned shortly afterwards to talk with security. As she walked away, Rosenburgh pulled out a handgun and fired several rounds into the crowd behind her, and ran away. Five people were injured in the shooting. Eight different people were listed as victims.
Authorities arrested Rosenburgh in Barstow, California, on October 19, 2023. With help from the FBI and local law enforcement, she was extradited back to Colorado. That month, Denver District Attorney Beth McCann initially planned to charge Rosenburgh as a juvenile.
NEWBURY — A student has been charged with making a threat involving the football game Friday night between Triton Regional and Amesbury high schools.
Newbury police Chief Patty Fisher announced Saturday that the unidentified student was charged following an investigation that involved the Newbury, Amesbury and Salisbury police departments. There were no issues at the game, she said.
Newbury police were notified by Triton on Wednesday that a student may have made a verbal threat about the upcoming football game, Fisher said in a release.
Salisbury police made sure the student did not have access to any weapons and Amesbury police were notified so they could ensure safety at the football game and that the student stayed away from the school, Fisher said.
“There are currently no credible threats toward public safety at Triton Regional High School or Amesbury High School,” Fisher said in the release Saturday. “Social media rumors can inflate understandable alarm amongst the community.”
“When there is a valid threat toward public safety, the police and school district will communicate those threats with the public and will work to cancel events we feel are unsafe,” Fisher added.
The Newbury Police Department uses its social media platforms and CodeRED to communicate with the public, she said. If an issue involves the school district, police work with the administration to communicate through the district broadcast notification system.
BOSTON — Opponents of Massachusetts’ new gun control law are gearing up to repeal the tough restrictions, which they say will hurt businesses, cost jobs and deprive people of their constitutional rights.
A law signed by Democratic Gov. Maura Healey in July expanded the state’s bans on “assault” weapons and high-capacity magazines, outlawed so-called “ghost” guns and set new restrictions on the open carry of firearms, among other provisions.
The move was in response to concerns about mass shootings and gun violence.
But critics of the new restrictions say they are unconstitutional and argue the changes will do little to reduce gun violence. They’ve started gathering signatures on petitions to put a repeal of the law before voters in the 2026 elections.
The chief organizer of the repeal effort, Cape Cod Gun Works owner Toby Leary, said on Thursday that the petition-gathering effort is well underway and he is seeing strong support for putting the question on the ballot.
“A lot of businesses and jobs are at stake,” Leary said during a livestreamed briefing sponsored by the state’s Republican Party. “The effects of this law on businesses will be catastrophic. Jobs will be lost. Businesses and livelihoods will be lost.”
Leary said among the many concerns gun shop owners have about the new restrictions is that the expansion of banned firearms will reduce the kinds of rifles and other weapons that can be sold in the state, which will hurt bottom lines. He estimates about 50% of his business will be “put on hold” if the law isn’t repealed.
“But this is also about freedom,” Leary said. “This law is so unconstitutional on every level. A lot of ordinary people are going to run afoul of this law.”
Massachusetts already has some of the toughest gun control laws in the country, including real-time license checks for private gun sales and stiff penalties for gun-based crimes.
Gun control advocates argue the strict requirements have given the largely urban state one of the lowest gun-death rates in the nation, while not infringing on the right to bear arms.
Despite those trends, Democrats who pushed the gun control bill thorough the Legislature argued that gun violence is still impacting communities across the state whether by suicide, domestic violence or drive-by shootings.
Second Amendment groups have long argued that the tougher gun control laws are unnecessary, and punish law-abiding gun owners while sidestepping the issue of illegal firearms.
The new law, which passed despite objections from the Legislature’s Republican minority, added dozens of long rifles to a list of prohibited guns under the assault weapons ban, and outlawed the open carry of firearms in government buildings, polling places and schools, with exemptions for law enforcement officials.
It sets strict penalties for possession of modification devices such as Glock switches that convert semi-automatic firearms into fully automatic, military-style weapons. The state’s red flag law, which allows a judge to suspend the gun license of someone deemed at risk to themselves or others, was also expanded under the law.
The repeal effort is one of several seeking to block the law. The Massachusetts Gun Owners’ Action League, which is affiliated with the National Rifle Association, plans to file a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the new law’s training and licensing requirements. Other legal challenges are expected.
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.
The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday sued a major real estate firm, alleging the company’s algorithmic software enables landlords across the country to set rent at artificially high rates.
The lawsuit, joined by several states including California, focuses on software from Texas-based company RealPage. The software is used by many landlords to set rent prices for both vacant units and renewal rates for existing tenants.
In a truly competitive market, authorities said, property owners would be forced to compete with each other, helping to drive down rental costs for Americans.
However, according to the lawsuit, RealPage enabled the opposite.
When becoming a client, supposedly competing landlords share nonpublic information — such as occupancy and rents on executed leases — with RealPage, which then uses that data to recommend rents at individual properties.
“As Americans struggle to afford housing, RealPage is making it easier for landlords to coordinate to increase rents,” Assistant Atty. General Jonathan Kanter said in a statement.
RealPage did not immediately return a request for comment.
The company previously called similar allegations false and misleading, saying clients can decline its recommendations, which at times include dropping rent.
But in its complaint, the Justice Department pointed to instances where RealPage described its software as a tool for maximizing rent and outperforming the market. Authorities also alleged the company made it more difficult for landlords to reject its recommendations than accept them.
“There is greater good in everybody succeeding versus essentially trying to compete against one another in a way that actually keeps the entire industry down,” a RealPage executive said, according to the lawsuit.
At another point, RealPage described its tools as ensuring landlords are “driving every possible opportunity to increase price even in the most downward trending or unexpected conditions,” the complaint says.
Antitrust enforcement has been a focus of the Biden administration. The Justice Department has sued major companies such as Google and Apple, alleged they engaged in anticompetitive behavior.
Vice President Kamala Harris has also criticized the use of rent-setting algorithms while running for president.
In a statement, Atty. Gen. Merrick B. Garland said the Justice Department would continue to aggressively enforce antitrust laws.
“Americans should not have to pay more in rent because a company has found a new way to scheme with landlords to break the law,” Garland said.
BOSTON — With Gov. Maura Healey and other Beacon Hill leaders out of state for the Democratic National Convention, state Auditor Diana DiZoglio is using the Statehouse bully pulpit to draw attention to the issue of nondisclosure agreements.
On Tuesday, DiZoglio proposed an executive order that would — if she had signed it as acting governor — ban state agencies from using such agreements if they involve claims of discrimination, harassment or retaliation and require existing agreements to be posted on the state comptroller’s website for the public to view.
“This is just a proposal to make meaningful change for transparency and accountability and prevent the use of taxpayer dollars for these agreements,” the Methuen Democrat told reporters at a briefing. “We want to work with the administration.”
The proposal comes after DiZoglio’s office released an audit of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, claiming the agency violated state laws and its own procurement policies by failing to secure board approval for a no-bid media contract and a nondisclosure agreement for a $1.2 million settlement with an employee alleging racial discrimination.
“That is absolutely unacceptable and we need to take bold and meaningful action across our state government to prevent that type of abuse of power from continuing to occur,” DiZoglio said.
DiZoglio said she hopes the governor will considering signing the order, or work with her to adopt restrictions on the use of NDAs by the state government and quasi-public entities. Her office is conducting a statewide audit of NDA settlements.
A Healey spokeswoman issued a statement Tuesday, saying only that the governor is “cooperating with the ongoing audit and will continue to discuss this issue with the auditor.”
Under state law, the state auditor is fifth in the line of gubernatorial succession behind the lieutenant governor, secretary of state, attorney general and treasurer if the governor dies in office or leaves the state for vacation or official business.
With Healey and top Democrats attending the Democratic National Convention in Chicago this week, DiZoglio was possibly in line to take over as acting governor.
That didn’t happen, because Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll stayed behind and Secretary of State Bill Galvin returned from the DNC on Tuesday, taking over as acting governor. Driscoll departed for Chicago on Tuesday afternoon, according to Galvin’s office.
But that didn’t stop DiZoglio — who is rumored to be eyeing a run for governor in the 2026 elections — from using the brush with the governor’s office to highlight a key initiative.
DiZoglio said she likely would have signed the executive order as acting governor if Healey’s predecessor, Republican Charlie Baker, were still occupying the governor’s office.
“Because the previous administration repeatedly and consistently opposed any and all reforms to the abuse of taxpayer dollars that are used in these non-disclosure agreements,” she said. “That is not the case with this current administration.”
As a state lawmaker, DiZoglio pushed for a state ban on nondisclosure agreements, which are commonly used by large companies to protect trade secrets, resolve arbitration cases and settle workplace conflicts.
DiZoglio, victims rights advocates and other critics who are pushing to restrict the practice, say NDAs are increasingly shielding powerful men from accusations of abuse or rape.
Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein and former Fox News star anchor Bill O’Reilly are among those who’ve been accused of hiding allegations of sexual harassment for years with out-of-court settlements and nondisclosure agreements that forbid the parties from talking about the cases.
A firestorm surrounding the public accusations of sexual harassment against Weinstein and other men, fueled by the #MeToo movement, focused public attention on the ability of wealthy and powerful people to avoid scrutiny for decades despite repeated allegations.
But DiZoglio says NDAs are also being used by the state to shield actions by the state government and quasi-governmental agencies like the convention authority.
Still, legal experts say a total ban on nondisclosure and arbitration clauses raises constitutional issues.
Pro-business groups such as the Associated Industries of Massachusetts argue that arbitration and other non-judicial remedies are crucial to resolving workplace conflicts. Banning the practice would clog the courts with employment law cases, the group asserts.
To date, at least six states — California, Maryland, New Jersey, Tennessee, Vermont and Washington — have banned the use of nondisclosure agreements in settlements involving claims of sexual assault, harassment or discrimination.
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.
BOSTON — A national gun rights group pledges to help fund a legal challenge to overturn the state’s tough new gun control law that critics say will do little to prevent gun violence while depriving people of their constitutional rights.
The Firearm Industry Trade Association said it has donated $100,000 to the Massachusetts Gun Owners’ Action League to support the group’s legal challenge against new restrictions on firearms licensing signed into law by Gov. Maura Healey.
“Massachusetts is known as a birthplace of the American Revolution, but these lawmakers have turned their backs to rights that belong to the people and instead are instituting an Orwellian state over the citizens of the Commonwealth,” Lawrence G. Keane, the association’s senior vice president and general counsel, said in a statement.
“The fight to protect liberty and individual rights begins anew and we are confident that when federal courts apply scrutiny to this law, it will be relegated to the trash bin where it belongs,” Keane said.
The new law, signed by Healey last month, adds dozens of long rifles to a list prohibited under the state’s “assault” weapons ban and outlaws the open carry of firearms in government buildings, polling places and schools, with exemptions for law enforcement officials.
It sets strict penalties for possession of modification devices such as Glock switches that convert semiautomatic firearms into fully automatic, military-style weapons. The measure also expands the state’s red flag law, which allows a judge to suspend the gun license of someone deemed at risk to themselves or others.
Massachusetts already has some of the toughest gun control laws in the country, including real-time license checks for private gun sales and stiff penalties for gun-based crimes.
But Second Amendment groups argue tougher gun control laws are unnecessary and punish law-abiding gun owners while sidestepping the issue of illegal firearms.
GOAL, which is affiliated with the National Rifle Association, has dubbed the restrictions the “The Devil’s Snare” and say it represents the greatest attack on civil rights in modern U.S. history. The group has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to overturn the new law’s training and licensing requirements. Other legal challenges are expected.
Members of the group have also filed a petition with the Secretary of State’s Office to begin gathering signatures on a petition to put a repeal of the law before voters next year. The group wants to suspend the law ahead of a 2026 statewide referendum.
Christian M. Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for North of Boston Media Group’s newspapers and websites. Email him at cwade@cnhinews.com.
The Dec. 31 deadline for this commuter rail community to comply with state MBTA Communities Act requirements to create multifamily zoning districts near train stations is zooming down the tracks.
With less than five months to go, Gloucester’s Planning Board is scheduled to meet in person and on Zoom Thursday afternoon to review multifamily zoning district scenarios and changes to zoning ordinance meant to bring the seaport into compliance with the law known as Section 3A.
The meeting is scheduled to take place in person at the Harbormaster’s Conference Room at 19 Harbor Loop on Aug. 8 at 5 p.m. A link to the meeting on Zoom, https://gloucester-ma-gov.zoom.us/j/86065315420, and the agenda can be found on the city’s website at www.gloucester-ma.gov.
The Planning Board is scheduled “to review and discuss districts and draft zoning amendment language to comply with Chapter 40A 3A/MBTA Communities requirements,” the single-item agenda states.
Planning Board Chair Rick Noonan said the board will be presented with the proposed multifamily zoning districts, the draft zoning amendment language and use table changes from the city’s consultant, RKG Associates.
The Planning Board is expected to make a recommendation on the draft language for the ordinance changes for the City Council to take up. The council’s three-member Planning and Development Standing Committee will also weigh in.
Both the Planning Board and the City Council would then hold public hearings on the proposed changes, and a public forum is being planned.
“It’s been a fairly tight choreographed effort by all of us,” Noonan said. The work has involved digesting the public input as best the board and consultants could and work to craft sensitive zoning “as best we can.
“We are at a good place to start the review,” he said, noting the amount of work that’s been done to get to this point. He said there are plans for a joint meeting among the Planning Board and the City Council, making sure to get as much public input as possible “keeping in mind there is a drop dead date.”
The MBTA Communities Act requires each of the 177 designated MBTA communities to provide for at least one district of reasonable size permitting multifamily housing by right, according to a slide presentation on the law in May by RKG Associates and Innes Associates.
The zoning cannot have age restrictions and it must be suitable for families with children. The zoning must have a minimum gross density of 15 dwelling units per acre and a portion of the district must be located within a half mile of a commuter rail station, in Gloucester’s case.
Two new officers who are also Gloucester natives have joined the ranks of the Gloucester Police Department.
Officers Ryan Muniz and Kalyn Koller bring a wealth of knowledge, enthusiasm, and a commitment to serving Gloucester, the department said.
Muniz graduated from the Massachusetts Police Training Committee Northern Essex Community College Police Academy in May. He attended Gloucester Public Schools and graduated from Gloucester High in 2019. In high school, he played hockey, golf, and tennis, and captained the hockey and golf teams.
After high school, Muniz attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, graduating in 2023 with a bachelor’s degree. Following his graduation, he worked at the Essex County Sheriff’s Department before joining the Gloucester force. Muniz recently completed his field training and is now eager to make a positive impact and engage with the community he has always called home, the department said.
Koller graduated from the MPTC Lynnfield Police Academy last Tuesday and began her field training shortly thereafter. Koller, 24, is a Gloucester native who graduated from Rockport High in 2019, where she played softball and basketball. She earned her criminal justice degree from Endicott College, graduating with dean’s lst honors. During her time at Endicott, Koller interned with the Gloucester Police Department, an experience that solidified her dedication to a career in law enforcement.
“I am honored to announce my appointment as a new officer with the Gloucester Police Department. I look forward to serving and giving back to the community I have always called home,” she said.
Chief Edward Conley expressed his confidence in the new officers, saying, “We are thrilled to welcome Officers Muniz and Koller to our team. Their dedication, local roots, and commitment to service will undoubtedly strengthen our department and enhance our ability to serve the Gloucester community.”
WASHINGTON — A massive prisoner swap involving the United States and Russia is underway.
That’s according to a person familiar with the matter on Thursday. The Americans considered by the U.S. to be wrongfully detained in Russia include Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, a corporate security executive from Michigan.
Both had been convicted of espionage charges that the U.S. government considered baseless. Russia has long been interested in getting back Vadim Krasikov, who was convicted in Germany in 2021 of killing a former Chechen rebel in a Berlin park two years earlier, apparently on the orders of Moscow’s security services.
Speculation had mounted for weeks that a swap was near because of a confluence of unusual developments, including a startlingly quick trial and conviction for Gershkovich that Washington regarded as a sham. He was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum-security prison.
Also in recent days, several other figures imprisoned in Russia for speaking out against the war in Ukraine or over their work with the late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny were moved from prison to unknown locations.
Gershkovich was arrested March 29, 2023, while on a reporting trip to the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg. Authorities claimed, without offering any evidence, that he was gathering secret information for the U.S. The son of Soviet emigres who settled in New Jersey, he moved to the country in 2017 to work for The Moscow Times newspaper before being hired by the Journal in 2022.
He had more than a dozen closed hearings over the extension of his pretrial detention or appeals for his release. He was taken to the courthouse in handcuffs and appeared in the defendants’ cage, often smiling for the many cameras.
U.S. officials last year made an offer to swap Gershkovich that was rejected by Russia, and Biden’s Democratic administration had not made public any possible deals since then.
Gershkovich was designated as wrongfully detained, as was Whelan, who was detained in December 2018 after traveling to Russia for a wedding. Whelan was convicted of espionage charges, which he and the U.S. have also said were false and trumped up, and he was serving a 16-year prison sentence.
Whelan had been excluded from prior high-profile deals involving Russia, including the April 2022 swap by Moscow of imprisoned Marine veteran Trevor Reed for Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian pilot convicted in a drug trafficking conspiracy. That December, the U.S. released notorious arms trafficker Viktor Bout in exchange for getting back WNBA star Brittney Griner, who’d been jailed on drug charges.
Litvinova reported from Tallinn, Estonia.
By Eric Tucker, Dasha Litvinova and Matthew Lee | Associated Press
