Mass. lawmakers OK 10-day interim state budget

Mass. lawmakers OK 10-day interim state budget

Massachusetts lawmakers have approved a $1.25 billion stopgap budget designed to keep state government up and running while they complete work on a final spending plan for the 2012 fiscal year that begins July 1.

Secretary of Administration and Finance Jay Gonzalez has said the 10-day interim budget is designed to keep critical government services operating. Those include health care payments for children, families, unemployed adults and the disabled, and cash assistance for low-income families and seniors.

The 10-day budget will also pay for emergency services including state police operations, and will help the state continue to make its debt payments.

The House and Senate have passed separate versions of the spending plan totaling about $30.5 billion. A six-member conference committee has yet to produce a compromise budget.

Mass. pressing court to suspend DiMasi’s pension

Former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi is set to return in court for a hearing that will determine whether he loses his state pension following his conviction on federal corruption charges.

The state’s Retirement Board is asking a Suffolk Superior Court judge to allow it to vote to suspend DiMasi’s pension until a federal appeals court rules on his challenge to last month’s verdict. A hearing was scheduled for Tuesday.

A motion filed by the Attorney General’s office says the board hopes to put all scheduled payments in escrow until all appeals are exhausted.

Treasurer Steve Grossman says this will protect taxpayer money because payments to DiMasi have already exceeded the amount he put in the fund.

DiMasi’s attorney, Thomas Kiley, says payments should not be stopped or suspended until a final verdict is reached.

Film to launch new project on Boston busing riots

A documentary that’s to be unveiled this week is the start of a project that aims to show that the busing riots that roiled Boston in the 1970s and stained the city’s reputation were more than just a conflict between blacks and whites.

The Union of Minority Neighborhoods, a Boston advocacy group, was scheduled to unveil the documentary Tuesday at the Boston Public Library. It’s called “Can We Talk?” The film is part of the organization’s years-long Boston Busing/Desegregation Project.

The project’s coordinator, Donna Bivens, says the crisis was largely about equal access to education and not simply another episode of racial strife. She says organizers of the 10-year project plan to hold community meetings around Boston with victims of the riots and seek to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Harvard MBA program sees largest female percentage

Early statistics are showing that this year’s incoming MBA class at the Harvard Business School will have its greater percentage of women.

The school said this week that of the 918 students in the MBA class of 2013, 39 percent will be female. Women comprised 36 percent of the enrolled MBA students in the two previous classes.

School spokesman Brian Kenny said the school’s admissions strategy has evolved over the last several years on trying to find ways to increase diversity

He said Harvard Business School has no fixed targets when it comes to industry, geographical, or gender representation.

In addition, the class of 2013 will see greater representation from students with backgrounds in science, engineering, and manufacturing, leading to fewer students hailing from consulting and finance.

Associated Press