Monday, January 14, 2013
Sharon resident and columnist Paul Izzo discusses the Baseball Writers Association of America's decision not to elect any former Major League players to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
This week, our nation was abuzz with talk about the recent decision of the Baseball Writers Association of America not to elect any former Major League players to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The voting scribes snubbed hardball greats such as Roger Clements, Barry Bonds and Jeff Bagwell, players whose performance in prior decades would have easily qualified them for immediate admission, because they believe that these players probably used steroids and other performance enhancing drugs and, therefore, are somehow undeserving of this ultimate honor. One can understand the writers’ reluctance to award bad behavior. The problem is that no one knows for sure whether most of these players ever actually used drugs to improve their performance. …
Friday, December 14, 2012
In this week's regular opinion column, Sharon resident Paul Izzo weighs in on discussions at the recent Special Town Meeting on Dec. 3.
- GOVERNMENT
- Paul Izzo
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Friday, December 14, 2012
In 2010, more than 2,000 Sharon residents defeated a proposed Charter that would have made structural changes to Town Meeting. The message was clear – voters trust Town Meeting attendees to make decisions about our Town that are in the best interest of the community. Recently, however, at Special Town Meeting on Monday, Dec. 3, residents departed from their usual role of addressing the fiscal and regulatory needs of the Town and, instead, weighed into a matter of national concern. At 10 p.m., less than 200 voters approved by a narrow voice vote an Article that called for a US Constitutional amendment that would (1) eliminate all Constitutional rights and privileges enjoyed by corporations, labor unions, non-profit organizations and other “…
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Paul Izzo discusses the outcome of the race between Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Republican Scott Brown.
- GOVERNMENT
- Paul Izzo
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Saturday, November 17, 2012
In the state’s most dramatic race last week, Democrat challenger Elizabeth Warren defeated incumbent Republican senator Scott Brown by taking overwhelming majorities of the vote in Boston and surrounding communities. Statewide, Warren received 1,678,408 votes. Brown received 1,449,180, or 229,228 votes fewer than Warren. That’s pretty close, as Massachusetts races go. Warren, however, clobbered Brown in a group of densely populated northeast cities. In the area comprising Boston, Arlington, Brookline, Cambridge, Chelsea, Everett, Lynn, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Somerville and Watertown, Warren received over 234,000 more votes than did Brown. If one were to add up the votes in all the remaining cities and towns in the Commonwealth, Brown …
Friday, October 12, 2012
A look at how whether some schools' admission policies are unconstitutional.
In 2008, Abigail Fisher, then a senior in a Texas high school, applied for admission with the University of Texas in Austin, a school that admits automatically the top 10 percent of every high school graduation class. Fisher fell short of the mark, so she applied for one of the slots reserved for non-qualifying students that demonstrate other qualities attractive to the school. When Fisher’s application was denied, she sued the school, claiming that its admission policy was unconstitutional. The school, it seems, gives some preference to students of color – including Latinos and African-Americans. Fisher is white. On Wednesday, the United States Supreme Court heard the Fisher case. Eight justices listened as a parade of attorneys …
Friday, September 21, 2012
Question 2 on the ballot this November will ask voters whether the Commonwealth should enact a law similar to those now existing in a handful of states such Washington and Oregon.
- GOVERNMENT
- Paul Izzo
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Friday, September 21, 2012
With all the talk about the local Senate race and the epic contest between President Obama and Governor Romney, voters are not hearing much about a major ballot question that will be decided this November – whether Massachusetts should adopt a “right to die” law. Question 2 will ask voters whether the Commonwealth should enact a “Death with Dignity” Law similar to those now existing in a handful of states such Washington and Oregon. The law will permit a doctor to prescribe medication, at the request of a terminally ill patient, to end the patient’s life. To quality, the patient must be an adult that is medically determined to be mentally capable of making a health care decision; (2) has been diagnosed as having an incurable, irreversible…
Thursday, July 19, 2012
NYT report says 55 percent of law school graduates in 2011 found law-related jobs nine months after graduation.
For hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents, July means trips to the beach, backyard barbeques and ballgames on the radio. For several thousand recent law school graduates, however, these warm and humid days offer a last, desperate chance to prepare for the bar exam. This year, the state bar exam will take place on July 25 and 26. The first day will test the candidates' knowledge of basic legal principles – contracts, Constitutional law, property and so forth. The second day will focus on Massachusetts law. A candidate must demonstrate a thorough knowledge of all these areas of law in order to pass the test. Historically, over 75 percent of the candidates will pass the test. This means that sometime this fall, many thousand new …
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Always interview a potential attorney before hiring them.
For most of us, the process of hiring an attorney is stressful and intimidating. We often hire an attorney during some of the most stressful periods of our lives. When we make the difficult decision to sell a home. When our employment situation changes. When we want to go into a new business. When the IRS comes to call. When we suffer a serious injury, or, cause injury to others. It is understandable that finding the right person to help us navigate those challenging circumstances can be difficult. I have spoken to many people over the years, some clients, some not, that have had bad experiences with lawyers. In many cases, the problem was poor communication. The attorney failed to keep the client abreast of developments, leaving the …
Thursday, June 21, 2012
The retired pitcher maintained his denial in the face of evidence presented in the media.
The other day, retired baseball pitcher Roger Clemens was acquitted on charges that he lied to Congress when he testified, under oath, that he never used performance enhancing drugs. Technically, the case was about perjury, not PED use, per se. But the perjury charges hinged on the government proving that Clemens lied when he told lawmakers that he never used PEDs. Therefore, the big question before the jury as it deliberated had to be whether the government had demonstrated that Clemens had, in fact, used steroids, human growth hormone or some other illegal or improper substance during the latter part of his storied baseball career. The jury's answer – an acquittal on all counts – may not end the matter, but it does strongly suggest that …
Thursday, June 14, 2012
U.S. Supreme Court ruling likely later this month.
In April, the United States Supreme Court heard argument in a highly publicized case that likely will be decided later this month – the so-called Arizona immigration law case. Like the much anticipated ruling in the Obamacare case, the decision in the Arizona case no doubt will play a significant role in the upcoming presidential campaign. Critics of the Arizona statute claim that the law encourages so-called "racial profiling," mainly of persons of Hispanic origin. It is important to note at the outset, however, that the matter before the high court does not actually involve a challenge to law on those grounds. Four provisions of the Arizona law are before the court. One, that part of the law that requires police to check the immigration …
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Parents should discuss the risks with their kids, he says.
Parents of children that enjoy music, be warned. Illegally downloading copyrighted music off the Internet carries very serious penalties. Recently, in a case that attracted much attention in the music industry, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a lower federal court decision that imposed damages of $675,000 against a college student that downloaded 30 – that’s right, just 30 – songs off the Internet. Joel Tenenbaum was a student at Goucher College in Maryland. Rather than purchase music on I-Tunes or one of the other online music sources, Joel used some file-sharing software to download and distribute two-and-a-half dozen copyrighted songs belonging to major record labels such as Sony, Arista and others. …
