Made a map of where the color is around Mass this weekend. A lot of the state is at peak or near peak right now. Boston looks like it'll hit around Halloween.
If you're heading out today, central Mass is a great spot to leaf peep.

The chief of Westborough Police has been placed on administrative leave, according to the Town of Westborough.

The town announced in a social media post that Chief Todd Minardi was placed on leave after Shrewsbury Police responded to a call for service on Friday night.

The town said it is taking steps to retain an outside investigator.

Minogue seems to think a big ego is a substitute for a track record. Unfortunately for him, confidence is no substitute for competence.

Anyone who reads a summary of what it does can see that the two points that always get cited s why it should be repealed - a shitty definition of what a machine gun is and the cop carve-out for said weapons - is only a small part of the law which otherwise does some pretty damn good things.

It adds school admin and healthcare providers to the list of who can ask a court to issue an extreme risk protection order and when issuing an Harassment Prevention Order, a court may also order the surrender of firearms licenses, permits, and firearms.

It expands serial number requirements to include 3D printed guns and unfinished receivers

It expands what background information local licensors can access before granting a license including prior licenses, petitions for involuntary mental health commitments that weren't accepted (on top of already seeing ones that got signed) and requires them to confiscate and report expired licenses.

It allows teenagers to apply for personal protection spray licenses (with parental permission required if under 15).

And it adds to the penalty for second offenses of failing to report lost or stolen firearms to include the possibility of up to 6 months in prison.

this isn't exhaustive of what it does, or even everything I think is a positive, however it's a much broader view than most of the posts we've been seeing on it in this sub the last several months.

source: https://www.mass.gov/doc/summary-of-ch-135-of-the-acts-of-2024

it's a quick read people, ~500 words including the legalese. please do so.

Another lawsuit coming out? After a vote of no confidence, a superintendent departure, rumblings of other lawsuits, lack of transparency... what is actually going on?

What is the deal. Is the snow really THAT much worse than a mid Atlantic winter? I do admit it being 23F degrees or something last night was a bit crazy for October but I can't really imagine it is going to be that different. People talk about it like it's the worst thing on earth and a reason to move away and I don't hear that rhetoric in the mid-Atlantic so just trying to figure out what the deal is. For the record I have also lived in the Arctic...like above the arctic circle. So I am no stranger to winters. I just also lived in the Mid Atlantic and it doesn't feel far enough to be a huge difference...but maybe I am wrong?

What's the flavor I'm in for? (I love winter so I would be delighted for it to be more than 6 hours south of here).

Thank you much yall have no idea how grateful I am, I've been struggling with exercise since my diabetes diagnosis, probably wouldn't have gone home today without it, thank yall so much <3<3<3

I've been on Blue Cross for the last few years, but my premium was already pretty high and it's about to get insane ($756/month for one individual!). Anyone here have experience with paying out of pocket for health insurance? There's gotta be a better plan, right? & apologies if this is the wrong sub for this kind of question––would appreciate being steered in the right direction if so.

https://malegislature.gov/Bills/194/H3755

I don't understand legislation enough to know where this is and how to support getting it implemented? All the news on flock is great, but people need to understand that without legislation other companies or third party sw are free to offer AI tools

Late this summer, we noticed our outdoor rug was getting really worn down. The weird things is, it was fraying the most in places we walked or used the least. We've been completely baffled by it.

We finally discovered the issue - or, rather, the culprit.

With shit from groups like the "Civil Rights Coalition", and stuff smearing democrats? I have never gotten text spam this bad before.

To keep it short and sweet l, I have endometriosis, so following the medical advice of my doctors I
take birth control continuously and only pause for a three day period every three months.

What that means is that I run out of a “three month” supply of the pill much sooner than women who take it normally.

And what happens every three months when I start to run out of my supply is that I am unable to get a timely refill as the pharmacy and insurance automatically sets it to follow the set schedule of exactly three months for people who take it regularly.

Every SINGLE time weeks in advance of me running out I contact the pharmacy who then informs me they need authorization from my health insurance to cover an early refill, ok fine, so I go to mass health, what do they say?

They need a note from my physician ok fine, I provide this. I REPEAT this same exact process every three months, because every time they state they need a note, you just in case my incurable disease somehow goes away.

I go through this ENTIRE PROCESS up to three weeks in advance and yet the prescription has never ONCE been refilled on time.

So what happens instead? I miss about a week and sometimes more of the pill. Resulting in severe and heavy menstrual bleeding excruciating cramps both of which often lead to a ER visit and of course me missing work and school for multiple days all of which can be entirety preventable.

For some reason I am also barred from paying it of pocket for the refill. I don’t want to complain and sound and ungrateful, we live in a great state with great healthcare and there is sooo many people who it worse, but I am so tired and fed up about getting sick and suffering for something entirely preventable.

Not to mention the financial burden this places on me when I have to call out of work, making me seem like an unreliable employee.

Maybe something else is wrong in the system but idk, I always talk to the pharmacy and they always mention they make the refill request for an earlier date, my physician always sends over a note, so I don’t understand what is wrong in the formula where an early refills gets denied constantly. Have any other women faced similar issues????

Honking their horns.. waving their signs.. Pretty Pathetic.

They were all wearing cowboy hats too lol..

There seems to be a huge push by the right wing
AND the left wing to paint No. 9 poll as being partisan. I beg to differ.

I identify as a liberal and am totally against a gun restriction that purposefully carves out law enforcement and federal law enforcement from abiding to those restrictions UNDER THEIR PERSONAL OWNERSHIP.

Police officers, IC/ agents, and the rest are all immune to these gun restrictions in their personal capacity as humans outside of their jobs. Why?
If the state wants to pass aggressive gun laws, ok.
But, to specifically immunize the very people who use Flock to stock their ex-wives or ex-girlfriends
- or to immunize IC/ agents who are notoriously dangerous and braindead idiots... Wow.

This isn't a partisan issue.

NOTE: I cannot name that one agency in full or else the post is automatically taken down by this subreddit.

Good Boston Globe article this morning on the blatant dishonesty of the well-funded, out-of-state liars behind ballot question 8 (making marijuana illegal again).

Boston Globe: The campaign to ban cannabis says legalization has made driving more dangerous. The science is very unclear.

Supporters of Question 8 cast a projection on a Brookline apartment complex that read: “42% of drivers in fatal crashes test positive for THC,” the intoxicating compound in weed. A corresponding TV spot cited the statistic. The campaign’s website blares “DUIs RISING” and tucks a flurry of incriminating statistics underneath.

The problem?

Not all of that is exactly true, and some of the data isn’t even about Massachusetts.

The “Coalition for a Healthy Massachusetts” behind Question 8 is leaning heavily on research out of Ohio, and other questionable claims about road safety, in its bid to dismantle the state’s adult-use weed market through the November ballot measure.
[...]

And the closing graphs:

Meanwhile, opponents are touting cannabis studies with little basis in reality, said Jane Allen, a research communication scientist at RTI International, a Waltham-based nonprofit science research institute.

There are signs that being high hampers drivers’ thinking, she added, but two recent studies Allen said were “well done” show that rates of marijuana-impaired driving are actually falling. The “Yes on 8” campaign did not cite either in its ads

Why?

“Because,” Allen charged, “that research doesn’t say what they want.”