The SJC will likely have the final say on this - but it just goes to show how little sway the Democrats have with each other. It'd be way easier and faster to vote him out instead, but there's no real party leadership outside the state house it seems.

Could you imagine if his Republican counterpart in Florida or Texas tried bucking desantis or abbot? Gone instantly.

It seems everyone in town agrees the Karla’s Shoes building needs to go — except the people who actually own the building.

The decrepit, run-down red building sits on the southbound of Route 1 just ahead of the Main Street Wakefield exit, overgrown with weeds and covered in graffiti. It’s already been marked as a do not enter by the fire department, and local officials have repeatedly said they believe the building is a safety risk. Yet, despite its condition, the building’s owners are committed to trying to sell it, according to Director of Public Health John Fralick.

According to assessing records, Isabelle Smith has owned the building since January 1985. The building is now valued at $518,400 — with most of the value, $391,600, attributed to the land it sits on.

At the urging of Board of Selectmen Vice Chair Debra Panetta, Fralick provided an update on the status of the property at a Board of Health meeting Monday night. Essentially, he said, the town’s hands are tied.

“What we’re dealing with right now is just kind of a delusions of grandeur type situation where they think they’re going to be able to get so much money by selling the property,” Fralick said.

Panetta stressed that she believes the building is a safety hazard, noting the possibility of a piece of the building breaking off and falling onto the bustling highway below. The building is also an eyesore and does not have a place in Saugus, she said.

“It’s hugely problematic,” Panetta said.

Fralick said the town is considering options like commercial receivership, and has tried to convince the building’s owners that the property would likely be worth more as a patch of land on the side of the highway than as a decrepit building. But, he said, that suggestion has fallen on deaf ears.

He agreed with Panetta’s concerns, adding that the building is “definitely an imminent hazard” to pedestrians and to potential squatters who might try to enter it.

With the town having a bylaw outlawing graffiti, Fralick said Saugus is likely to use the building’s graffiti as a way to force some action on the property.

“At the very least they’re going to have to get down there and do some sort of work,” he said. “It’s kind of like a well, once you’re already down there why don’t you tear this down?”

“We are taking as much action as we can in the short term,” Fralick added.

3 of 4 of House Speakers prior to Mariano only resigned (note: resigned, not removed) after being tried and convicted of multiple felonies - so I think some oversight wouldn't be a bad idea.

And especially so for these politicians who have been in office longer than some of us have been alive.

The automotive right-to-repair law that won overwhelming approval from Massachusetts voters in a referendum nearly two years ago is still propped up on jacks in Boston federal court. And based on documents submitted to the court last week by two major automakers, it’ll be there for quite a while.

Cybersecurity executives for General Motors and Stellantis, the company that owns carmaker Chrysler, told the court that they’ve done nothing to prepare for complying with the law, because they can’t. Kevin Tierney, vice president of global cybersecurity for GM, said that “it remains my considered judgment that it is simply impossible to comply with the Data Access Law safely.”

The right-to-repair law requires that automakers who sell their cars in Massachusetts provide consumers and independent repair shops with wireless access to the car’s “telematics” — the digital data governing every aspect of how the vehicle works. This way, independent mechanics can repair these vehicles as readily as authorized dealers.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey contends that the carmakers are deliberately misreading the law to falsely argue that it contradicts federal auto safety regulations and to claim that obeying the law is technically impractical. “None of that is true,” said a filing from Healey’s office.

The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the international car manufacturers association, filed suit to halt enforcement of the law almost as soon as it passed in late 2020. The auto companies contend that only the federal government, not the states, may pass such a law. They also argue that the law makes it much harder to secure digital automotive data against malicious hackers. And they note that the law originally took effect with the 2022 model year, giving car companies far too little time to comply.

In September, US District Judge Douglas Woodlock ordered the carmakers alliance to reveal what steps they’ve taken to comply with the law, in case he decides to uphold it. Speaking for the alliance, the GM and Stellantis executives said that until they receive further guidance from the court, they can’t even begin to comply.

For instance, they noted that the law requires the establishment of an independent company that would provide car mechanics with access to telematic data from all carmakers. The companies said no one has created such an entity and claimed it would be illegal for the manufacturers to do so themselves, because it would not be independent.

“We’re close to the two-year anniversary, it’s sort of a sad anniversary, and the car companies have admittedly done nothing to comply with the will of the voters,” said Justin Rzepka, executive director of the CAR Coalition, a Washington-based group that represents independent car repair shops.

Rzepka called for the court to uphold the Massachusetts law and for the passage of similar legislation at the federal level.

As if that stopped the settlers from persecuting anyone