Conservative Group Seeks Island Town Records on Migrant Flights

America First Legal Foundation, a nonprofit launched by Donald Trump’s senior policy advisor Stephen Miller, sent records requests to Chilmark, Edgartown, West Tisbury and Dukes County over the past several months.

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Vineyard Officials Discuss Proposed Public Records Bill at All-Island Meeting
Heather Hamacek

A spokesman for the Massachusetts Municipal Association told a gathering of Island selectmen and town administrators Friday that reform is needed for the state public records law — but the current bill to overhaul the law is flawed.

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Out of the Cellar

To understand just how outdated is the Massachusetts Public Records law, consider that it was enacted the same year Xerox introduced the Alto.

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Public Records Law Overhaul Aims for More Transparency
Julia Wells

A bill to reform and significantly strengthen the Massachusetts Public Records Law is attracting midsummer heat on Beacon Hill, as a bipartisan group of lawmakers backing the bill try to strike a compromise with an opposition group that represents commonwealth cities and towns, including on the Vineyard.

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Stop & Shop Review Had Two Tracks: One Public, One Private
Julia Wells

Four months after the Vineyard Gazette asked the town of Tisbury for public records surrounding the Stop & Shop expansion proposal, the town has complied. Executive session minutes and emails document private talks that went on for months among the selectmen, town administrator and Island attorney for the grocery chain.

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Tisbury Shuns Records Request Over Stop & Shop
Julia Wells

More than three months after the Vineyard Gazette formally asked for public records from the town of Tisbury relating to the Stop & Shop expansion proposal, the town has provided only a portion of what was requested.

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State Official Hit on New Bedford Stand

State Official Hit on New Bedford Stand

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

A prominent Boston attorney who represents the Steamship Authority
fired back yesterday at the state attorney general for climbing into bed
with the city of New Bedford in the latest political gambit around the
public boat line that is the lifeline to the two Islands.

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SSA Declines Release of Report on Accident

SSA Declines Release of Report on Accident

By JULIA WELLS

Three months after an accident that nearly claimed the life of one
of its employees during a routine training exercise, the Steamship
Authority is refusing to release the results of its own internal
investigation into the mishap.

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