Will Brownsberger — State Senator, Democrat, 2d Suffolk and Middlesex District

Today the Senate passed a bill to strengthen the state’s response to prescription drug addiction. The bill now goes to the House for consideration.

Will Congratulations!  Best of luck and strength and inspiration, in all your efforts and collaborations Just a quick note regarding two current legislative initiatives. “3 Strikes”- I can’t tell you how glad I am that you’re resisting this effort.  It’s a blunt weapon that often disregards any sense of respective circumstances of individuals, and doesn’t [...]

The present House Education Chair, Rep. Alice Peisch, and her predecessor, Rep. Marty Walz, have taken a strong leadership role in shaping an approach to expanding virtual education in Massachusetts.

It appears that we can expect a more comprehensive sentencing package, which will require weeks or months to develop.

Dear Will, Thank you for voting “no” on this criminal centered legislation. You stood out bravely on this, and it is appreciated. Not a popular “no” vote, but true and fair.   Here is some more information passed on from colleague and former Social Work Dean from Salem State. “Massachusetts is poised to pass very [...]

Might we expect any new regulations that require manufacturers to take back the e-waste, and/or make sure it’s recycled safely?

While I voted against the gambling bill, I think that we got a number of other good things done in this session. The biggest may be the redistricting plan which has been widely praised for the increase it creates in the number of districts from which minority candidates may potentially be elected.

Here it is Black Friday, the malls have been mobbed since midnight, and retailers are saying they want to be allowed to open on Thanksgiving Day too. They argue that consumers should have the choice to shop on Thanksgiving, which state law now prohibits. Rep. Colleen Garry has in fact filed legislation (House Bill 00989; [...]

I took a tough vote last night that many might, at first glance, disagree with. I write to explain my vote.

The day before the final day of the 2011 session the House completed work on a number of good bills:

I’d appreciate input on a Cambridge redistricting issue that has arisen.

I think that people of color in Arlington should be in the same districts we have now. Too many districts put all the African Americans into one district, and that shouldn’t happen, now that AFrican Americans are already in several districts. Also if they are put into a district that where almost all of the [...]

The Special Joint Committee on Redistricting Committee has released its draft maps for comment. The legislature’s redistricting webpage now includes the proposed new maps.

Last week, I again voted against bringing casinos to Massachusetts. In 2008, when I first voted against gambling, I was voting in the majority.

You may have read about the recent Massachusetts legal cases involving parking and traffic ticket defense costs.  The current system imposes onerous charges simply to defend one’s self in court, and the NMA assisted in two cases to challenge the constitutionality of that system. In one of those cases, Vincent Gillespie was required to pay [...]

On the evening of February 5, 1988, Natick, Massachusetts police officer William Geissler observed a vehicle drive through a red light at a high rate of speed. Driving a marked police cruiser, Geissler quickly caught up to the vehicle which pulled over soon after when he signaled for it to do so. Upon approching the [...]

In Massachusetts and many other states, businesses are legally allowed to assess civil penalties against individuals whom they have caught shoplifting within their establishment. These penalties are in addition to any legal ramifications, such as fines, that a court may place on someone when they are found to be guilty of shoplifting. Currently the Commonwealth [...]

By Audrey Schulman You can look up your neighbor’s house value, what their mortgage was, how much they paid in taxes, what their home looks like from the street and from above. In many municipalities, you can look up how much water they use per month and if they are behind in the payments. Why [...]

On Tuesday, June 21, at 10AM in Room A-2 in the State House, the Education Committee will hear testimony on two pieces of legislation related to the membership of the board of education. Both bills — House 1088 (sponsored by Rep. Walz) and House 1917 (sponsored by Rep. Garballey) — are designed to assure that [...]

Representative Brownsberger will be participating in a meeting on Redistricting which is being held in Lexington at the Cary Memorial Library, 1874 Mass. Ave. at 7PM on June 9th. The major redistricting question for Massachusetts is how to shrink our Congressional delegation from 10 to 9, since that reduction is dictated by the 2010 Census. [...]