Medfield Town Online

Gov. Deval Patrick on Saturday hammered his campaign rivals, arguing that their political fortunes are inversely tied to the state’s broader performance.

A day after receiving the Democrats’ nod for a second term, Attorney General Martha Coakley finds herself in the crosshairs of gambling opponents who say she’s been too quiet on their concerns.

As the stock market rebounded from a 2008 collapse, Massachusetts’s $44 billion pension fund failed for the second straight year to keep pace with the investment gains of smaller local retirement systems, according to a new report.

Gov. Deval Patrick sounded a theme of "finish what we started" to an optimistic group of delegates and elected officials at yesterday's state Democratic convention.

UPDATE: The Democratic party’s contested races have taken the stage at today’s state convention.

Basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson, who led the Los Angeles Lakers to five NBA titles and dueled Celtics great Larry Bird in memorable battles, is headlining a fundraiser next week for Gov. Deval Patrick.

Decrying new federal regulations he said could devastate the Massachusetts fishing industry, Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker called Democratic Congressman Barney Frank his “new hero” for taking on the Obama administration on the issue.

Senate President Therese Murray is planning a one-week trip to Ireland later this month, temporarily removing a key player from the high-stakes Beacon Hill negotiations that will unfold before a July 31 deadline.

A veteran Republican senator raised concerns Thursday about presumptive GOP nominee Charles Baker’s gubernatorial bid, saying the campaign had failed to present Baker effectively through media channels.

“People in Massachusetts deserve state government take the financial crisis as seriously as they take their own,” candidate Charlie Baker said. “We have to reform the way state government works.”

Baker is going up against incumbent Deval Patrick, a Democrat, and State Treasurer Tim Cahill, a former Democrat who is running as an independent.

Draft Senate gambling legislation calls for oversight of three casinos by a bifurcated agency modeled after Nevada’s regulatory structure, with a policy-making commission handling licensing and adjudicatory responsibilities and a gaming control board responsible for regulatory oversight and industry monitoring, according to a summary of the bill.

Senate leaders on Wednesday confirmed long-rumored plans, saying they will present to members on Thursday draft legislation calling for three casinos in Massachusetts but no racetrack slot parlors, a main feature of House-approved expanded gambling legislation.

Reliance by the Patrick administration and the Democrat-controlled House and Senate on nearly $700 million in additional federal health care funds has grown into a riskier proposition, as Congress balks at extending the funding, potentially ripping a major hole in the state’s fiscal 2011 budget just as legislative conferees begin to work out differences in their proposals.

Federal funding to help operate cash-strapped transit systems like the MBTA will likely be on the table as billions of dollars of transportation spending are meted out by Congress, a top Obama administration transportation official said Wednesday.

State pension fund officials, saying they’ve been less active than their other major funds in tapping into emerging markets like East Asia and South America, told members of the $44 billion fund’s board Tuesday to expect more forays into those regions in the coming months.

The Senate’s abolition last week of two controversial public employee holidays turns out to lack the teeth proclaimed by both Democrats and Republicans as examples of good-government, taxpayer-attuned reform.

Karyn Polito says she’s the “independent thinker” the state needs for its next treasurer, saying she would use the bully pulpit of the office to tell Beacon Hill leaders they’re spending too much — and, if necessary, refuse to put her signature on new debt.

While she focused on her own campaign and ideas, in an interview with GateHouse Media reporters and editors on Friday, Polito took a shot at her likely Democratic opponent, Steve Grossman, when asked why he would not be an independent thinker in the role.

Most lines will operate on a Sunday schedule.

Steve Murphy ran for state treasurer in 2002. But he didn’t come out a winner.
Now the Democrat, back for another try at the office, hopes everyone in Massachusetts can be a winner.

“People don’t feel like a winner when they get their dollars back [from scratch tickets],” said the longtime Boston city-councilor. “I’d like to see more prizes that are a clear winner.”

The commissioner of probation would serve a maximum term of five years, the head of the Trial Court would confer with the commissioner on all probation appointments and disciplinary action, and a task force would investigate whether to move the department of probation into the Executive Branch, under a plan unveiled by a state senator Tuesday and eyed for passage Wednesday in the Senate.