In a spasm of suits, the United States Department of Justice challenged four states’ policies that blocked the feds’ use of confidential license plates. Last week, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced the Registry of Motor Vehicles would not provide Immigration & Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection with civilian plates to conceal their civil immigration operations.
A federal judge in Springfield has agreed to dissolve the consent decree that the city of Springfield and the federal government had agreed to in 2022. On Thursday, Judge Michael Ponsor granted the joint motion to end the agreement, which the parties had filed about 10 days ago. The ruling was not a surprise.
Just over four years after the City of Springfield, the Springfield Police Department and the federal government reached a court-monitored settlement, the pact may be coming to an end. Springfield and the feds jointly have filed a motion to terminate the agreement. If the court agrees, it will end a saga that has cast a pall over Pearl Street and City Hall for years.
The Springfield City Council authorized the renaming of a McKnight neighborhood street after former Ward 4 Councilor E. Henry Twiggs. It was poignant recognition of their late colleague, whose activism contributed to the revival of the ward representation. In a more ironic turn, the Council punted on a new labor contract for police supervisors.
The Springfield City Council will consider a labor contract at its meeting on Monday. However, unlike most union pacts, the administration did not technically agree to it. Rather, it was imposed on the city and union under interest arbitration, a means to settle labor contract
In what could be their only general election outing, Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno jousted with at-large City Councilor Justin Hurst in a debate WWLP aired Monday. The faceoff featured a range of issues from crime to the equitable distribution of resources.
In September, Britons uttered a phrase they had not uttered in 70 years. “God, Save the King” became the national anthem with the passing of Queen Elizabeth, II. But in Springfield, residents have been crooning this a tad longer.
About two years after first filing suit to obtain Donald Trump’s taxes, the House Committee on Ways & Means may finally get them. Late last month, the US Department of Justice released a memo authorizing the Treasury Department to disclose six years of Trump returns to the Committee. This was a reversal from the prior administration, which, obviously, had no interest in having the records make a trip to Capitol Hill.
A Mayor Called Sue(d) is an occasional series on litigation over the Springfield Police Commission The Police Commission litigation between the Springfield City Council and Mayor Domenic Sarno gingerly advanced this week as both parties filed post-argument briefs. Neither side raised any groundbreaking new theories
UPDATED 10:37AM: To include statements from the City Council. After a two-year investigation, officials from the Department of Justice have found a disquieting pattern excessive force, shoddy and false recordkeeping and crummy supervision in the Narcotics Bureau of the Springfield Police Department. The damning portrait