Representative Don Humason



SUMMER RECESS By Representative Don Humason, Jr. August 4, 2007 Tuesday, July 31, was my 40th birthday. It turns out that it is the birth date of Governor Deval Patrick as well! I was at work Tuesday, walking through the halls of the State House, when I heard a group of children singing “Happy Birthday.” They were singing outside Governor Patrick’s office. So I enquired and was told it was Deval’s birthday and he was 51 years old. I went back to my office and wrote out a card to the Governor. I wished him a happy birthday from the people of Westfield, stated it was my 40th birthday, and let him know that we shared the same birth date with former Governor Bill Weld who was also a July 31 baby. I enclosed a little present for Deval. It was an “I Love Westfield” pin. The Legislature is now in our August summer break. The Speaker recessed the House without taking up any of the Governor’s vetoes of the state budget and without voting on the supplemental budget. We will not have any formal sessions, and no roll call votes on any legislation, until Speaker DiMasi reconvenes the House of Representatives in September. Some bills will still be able to proceed through the process informally and will be taken up during weekly informal sessions. Committees may still meet during summer recess but I doubt many of them will. Before the House recessed we passed a bill making the weekend of August 11 and 12 a sales tax free shopping weekend. This week the Senate also passed that bill and it is now before the Governor who has indicated he will sign it into law. Next week is the National Conference of State Legislatures' annual convention. This year Massachusetts is the host state and the convention is being held in Boston. State legislators from all across America will be convening in Boston for meetings, seminars, and social events. I’ll be skipping the festivities this year due to some minor surgery I’ve scheduled for next week at Noble Hospital, but I’m already thinking ahead to next year’s NCSL convention in New Orleans. Former House Speaker Tom Finneran is now a morning drive time talk radio host for WRKO AM 680 in Boston. The other day he was discussing a report in Money Magazine naming the top 100 cities to live in America. Massachusetts had a couple of those cities but only one community in Western Massachusetts, Wilbraham, was mentioned. So I called in to his show while driving to Boston and we spoke briefly about why I thought the list was not complete without Westfield on it. It gave me a chance to promote Westfield and to give Western Mass a little plug. It’s unlikely anyone from home heard it but a lot of my colleagues from Eastern Mass heard me touting Westfield on the radio. This month my cable show on Channel 15, the Westfield Community Programming Channel, features Westfield resident John Lewis, the director of operations at Springfield’s Forest Park Zoo. We went on location to tape the program at the zoo and take many shots of the animals. The show airs every Sunday at 4:30 PM, Wednesday at 8:30 PM, and Thursday at 10:30 AM and 10:30 PM. If beaches are more your thing than zoos, check this out: By state regulation, the Department of Public Health Bureau of Public Health, produces an annual beach report summarizing data on beach testing at marine and freshwater bathing beaches in the Bay State. You can view this report by going to www.mass.gov/dph/topics/beaches. For more information about my office, past columns, and missed press releases, go to my website at www.DonHumason.org. * * * Representative Don Humason and his new aide Sarah Latour may be reached at their Westfield District office, 64 Noble Street, Westfield, MA 01085, 568-1366. Their Boston address is State House Room 542, Boston, MA 02133, (617) 722-2803. Email address: Rep.DonaldHumason@Hou.state.ma.us
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SUMMER RECESS

By Representative Don Humason, Jr.

August 4, 2007

Tuesday, July 31, was my 40th birthday. It turns out that it is the birth date of Governor Deval Patrick as well!

I was at work Tuesday, walking through the halls of the State House, when I heard a group of children singing “Happy Birthday.” They were singing outside Governor Patrick’s office. So I enquired and was told it was Deval’s birthday and he was 51 years old.

I went back to my office and wrote out a card to the Governor. I wished him a happy birthday from the people of Westfield, stated it was my 40th birthday, and let him know that we shared the same birth date with former Governor Bill Weld who was also a July 31 baby. I enclosed a little present for Deval. It was an “I Love Westfield” pin.

The Legislature is now in our August summer break. The Speaker recessed the House without taking up any of the Governor’s vetoes of the state budget and without voting on the supplemental budget.

We will not have any formal sessions, and no roll call votes on any legislation, until Speaker DiMasi reconvenes the House of Representatives in September. Some bills will still be able to proceed through the process informally and will be taken up during weekly informal sessions. Committees may still meet during summer recess but I doubt many of them will.

Before the House recessed we passed a bill making the weekend of August 11 and 12 a sales tax free shopping weekend. This week the Senate also passed that bill and it is now before the Governor who has indicated he will sign it into law.

Next week is the National Conference of State Legislatures' annual convention. This year Massachusetts is the host state and the convention is being held in Boston. State legislators from all across America will be convening in Boston for meetings, seminars, and social events. I’ll be skipping the festivities this year due to some minor surgery I’ve scheduled for next week at Noble Hospital, but I’m already thinking ahead to next year’s NCSL convention in New Orleans.

Former House Speaker Tom Finneran is now a morning drive time talk radio host for WRKO AM 680 in Boston. The other day he was discussing a report in Money Magazine naming the top 100 cities to live in America. Massachusetts had a couple of those cities but only one community in Western Massachusetts, Wilbraham, was mentioned.

So I called in to his show while driving to Boston and we spoke briefly about why I thought the list was not complete without Westfield on it. It gave me a chance to promote Westfield and to give Western Mass a little plug. It’s unlikely anyone from home heard it but a lot of my colleagues from Eastern Mass heard me touting Westfield on the radio.

This month my cable show on Channel 15, the Westfield Community Programming Channel, features Westfield resident John Lewis, the director of operations at Springfield’s Forest Park Zoo. We went on location to tape the program at the zoo and take many shots of the animals. The show airs every Sunday at 4:30 PM, Wednesday at 8:30 PM, and Thursday at 10:30 AM and 10:30 PM.

If beaches are more your thing than zoos, check this out: By state regulation, the Department of Public Health Bureau of Public Health, produces an annual beach report summarizing data on beach testing at marine and freshwater bathing beaches in the Bay State. You can view this report by going to www.mass.gov/dph/topics/beaches.

For more information about my office, past columns, and missed press releases, go to my website at www.DonHumason.org.

* * *

Representative Don Humason and his new aide Sarah Latour may be reached at their Westfield District office, 64 Noble Street, Westfield, MA 01085, 568-1366. Their Boston address is State House Room 542, Boston, MA 02133, (617) 722-2803. Email address: Rep.DonaldHumason@Hou.state.ma.us

This Site Designed and Maintained by: The Barre Group