Brodeur: State Transportation Bill 'A Work in Progress'

Melrose State Rep. Paul Brodeur voted in favor of the $500 million transportation funding bill that passed 97-55 Monday evening.

Melrose State Rep. Paul Brodeur voted in favor of the $500 million transportation funding bill that passed 97-55 Monday evening. Tuesday afternoon, Brodeur said that the current plan is "a work in progress" with considerable differences to be worked out between Governor Patrick and members of the House. Brodeur indicated that "there's been a little bit of hard feelings right now between the House and the Governor," with Patrick having indicated he would veto that version of the bill.  "I think it's important to not come away from the table with nothing, and we have some very serious transportation needs," said Brodeur, citing for example the importance of MBTA funding to the Melrose area. "We certainly can't not have a bill."  In January, …

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Visit With State Rep. Brodeur at Milano Senior Center

State Rep. Paul Brodeur is expected to be available to meet with his constituents at 1 p.m. Thursday at the Milano Senior Center in Melrose.

Middlesex Sheriff Talks Scams, TRIAD Program With Melrose Seniors

Middlesex Sheriff Peter Koutoujian, accompanied by a few local officials, visited with seniors at the Fuller House in Melrose Thursday morning.

We've all gotten the emails or the phone calls: a Nigerian prince wants to cut you in on a multi-million dollar diamond deal, a Middle Eastern oil company just found out you have stock in their business, or a Chinese textile company shows that you are the new heir to its vast, centuries-old fortune. “If it sounds too good to be true,” said Middlesex Sheriff Peter Koutoujian, warning a room full of Melrose seniors at the Fuller House Thursday morning, “it probably is” responded Koutoujian and the crowd in unison. Koutoujian was at the elderly care facility to talk about the latest inclusion of his new TRIAD program, an initiative he spearheads aimed at helping seniors avoid being scammed over the phone, online and through the mail. The …

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Meet State Rep. Paul Brodeur on Monday

He'll be holding office hours at the Milano Senior Center from 12-1 p.m. today.

Governor to Sign 'Three Strikes' Crime Bill

Patrick calls the bill "a good start."

Gov. Deval Patrick on Tuesday ended speculation that he might kill the mandatory sentencing bill he had objected to but the Legislature supported. Calling the bill "a good start," Patrick said he would sign it but wants to see changes made to it in the next legislative session. "I still believe there is a necessary role for judicial discretion when it comes to sentencing and many of the advocates of this bill have pledged to support that next year," he wrote on his website Tuesday. "The Senate President and the Speaker have pledged to return to the subject of mandatory minimum sentencing early in the next session. I take them at their word." As it stands, the so-called "three strikes" bill, also dubbed "Melissa's Law" after a Jamaica Plain…

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Melrose's Legislators Vote for 'Three Strikes' Bill for Violent Crimes

The bill both aims to ensure violent criminals stay behind bars while easing prison overcrowding by reducing drug-offense penalties.

A bill that toughens sentences for violent repeat-offenders passed the Senate last Thursday after having been approved overwhelmingly in the House Wednesday evening.  The so-called "three-strikes" law eliminates parole for someone convicted three times of a violent crime, with at least one conviction having carried a minimum three-year prison term. It passed the House with a vote of 139-14. In the Senate, it passed 31-7. The movement to pass the law was fueled, in part, by outrage over two crimes. In one, Woburn police officer Jack Maguire was murdered by a felon. In the other crime more associated with the law, sometimes dubbed "Melissa's Law," 27-year-old Jamaica Plain schoolteacher Melissa Gosule was murdered in 1999 after being raped …

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Clark and Brodeur Unopposed In Fall Election

Melrose's state legislators, Sen. Katherine Clark and Rep. Paul Brodeur, don't have any challengers in their 2012 re-election campaigns.

Editor's note: This article was corrected at 11:35 a.m. on Thursday by adding the Winchester Wards now included in the 5th Middlesex Senate district. While the presidential campaign between incumbent Democrat Barack Obama and presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney will heat up this year, the 2012 election will be a little sleepier on the Melrose front. Neither Sen. Katherine Clark, D-Melrose, nor Rep. Paul Brodeur, D-Melrose, the city's representatives in the state Senate and House respectively, will face a challenger in this fall's election on Nov. 6, 2012. Would-be candidates for district and county offices, which includes the state Legislature, had until the end of the day on May 1 to submit nomination papers to local election …

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