Page 18 THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, March 15, 2019 Beacon Hill Roll Call By Bob Katzen THE HOUSE AND SENATE Beacon Hill Roll Call records local senators' votes on the only roll call from the week of March 4-8. There were no roll calls in the House last week. Hey Readers: Keep your eyes on the 2019 Legislature and the rough and tumble political scene in the Bay State with something that you will read every weekday morning. There aren’t many things out there that are free and valuable. But MASSterlist is a rarity. WHAT IS MASSTERLIST? More than 15,000 people, from movers and shakers to political junkies and interested citizens, start their morning with a FREE COPY of MASSterList! MASSterList is a daily ensemble of news and commentary about the Legislature, Politics, Media and Judiciary of Massachusetts drawn from major news organizations as well as specialized publications selected by widely acclaimed and highly experienced editor Jay Fitzgerald. Jay introduces each article in his own clever and never-boring, inimitable way. IT’S FREE! SO, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? BEACON HILL ROLL CALL RECOMMENDS THAT READERS SIGN UP TODAY TO GET YOUR FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO MASSTERLIST. IT’S EASY! GO TO: www.massterlist.com/subscribe ~ LEGAL NOTICE ~ COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS THE TRIAL COURT PROBATE AND FAMILY COURT Middlesex Probate and Family Court 208 Cambridge Street Cambridge, MA 02141 (617) 768-5800 Docket No. MI19P1015EA Estate of: Geraldine F. Mini Also known as: Geraldine Frances Mini Date of Death: 11/22/2018 CITATION ON PETITION FOR FORMAL ADJUDICATION To all interested persons: A petition for Formal Probate of Will with Appointment of Personal Representative has Troy W. Mini of Malden, MA requesting that the Court enter a formal Decree and Order and for such other relief as requested in the Petition. The Petitioner requests that: Troy W. Mini of Malden, MA be appointed as Personal Representative(s) of said estate to serve Without Surety on the bond in an unsupervised administration. IMPORTANT NOTICE You have the right to obtain a copy of the Petition from the Petitioner or at the Court. You have a right to object a written appearance and objection at this Court before: 10:00 a.m. on the return day of 03/28/2019. UNSUPERVISED ADMINISTRATION UNDER THE MASSACHUSETTS UNIFORM PROBATE CODE (MUPC) A Personal Representative appointed under the MUPC in an tory or annual accounts with the Court. Persons interested in the estate are entitled to notice regarding the administration directly from the Personal Representative and may petition the Court in any matter relating to the estate, including the distribution of assets and expenses of administration. WITNESS, Hon. Edward F. Donnelly, Jr., First Justice of this Court. Date: February 28, 2019 TARA E. DeCRISTOFARO REGISTER OF PROBATE March 15, 2019 STUDY BROADCASTING INFORMAL SESSIONS OF THE SENATE Senate 38-0, approved an order requiring the Senate Committee on Rules to study and provide a report by December 31, 2019 on the feasibility of broadcasting informal sessions online in the same manner and format as formal sessions. The report would include the estimated cost and cost effectiveness of the broadcasting; the recommended format; and additional considerations for the Senate in implementing this proposal. Currently informal sessions are not broadcast. Informal sessions are ones in which there are no roll call votes and everything is approved or rejected on an unrecorded voice vote. However, at an informal session, a single legislator can hold up consideration of a bill until the next formal session by doubting the presence of a quorum. A quorum is when 21 members of the Senate are present. Since only a handful of legislators attend these sessions, the session would be adjourned for lack of a quorum. Supporters said that some informal sessions are not the brief, quiet sessions that they used to be. They said major legislation is sometimes approved at informal sessions and the public should be able to watch these online. (A “Yes” vote is for the study.) Sen. Jason Lewis Yes HOW LONG WAS LAST WEEK'S SESSION? Beacon Hill Roll Call tracks the length of time that the House and Senate were in session each week. Many legislators say that legislative sessions are only one aspect of the Legislature's job and that a lot of important work is done outside of the House and Senate chambers. They note that their jobs also involve committee work, research, constituent work and other matters that are important to their districts. Critics say that the Legislature does not meet regularly or long enough to debate and vote in public view on the thousands of pieces of legislation that have been fi led. They note that the infrequency and brief length of sessions are misguided and lead to irresponsible late-night sessions and a mad rush to act on dozens of bills in the days immediately preceding the end of an annual session. During the week of March 4-8 the House met for a total of three hours and 5 minutes while the Senate met for a total of fi ve hours and 12 minutes. Mon., March 4 House 11:01 a.m. to 11:36 a.m. Senate 11:00 a.m. to 11:12 a.m. Tues., March 5 No House session No Senate session Wed., March 6 No House session No Senate session Thurs., March 7 House 11:05 a.m. to 1:35 p.m. Senate 11:05 a.m. to 4:05 p.m. Fri., March 8 No House session No Senate session Bob Katzen welcomes feedback at bob@beaconhillrollcall.com by How Seniors Can Stop Frustrating Robocalls Dear Savvy Senior, Is there anything seniors can do to stop perpetual robocalls? It seems like I get fi ve to 10 a day on my home and cell phone, and I’m sick of it! Frustrated Frank Dear Frank, Robocalls make up around 50 percent of all phone calls today, and it’s only getting worse. Americans were hit with 26.3 billion robocalls in 2018, a whopping 46 percent increase from the year before. Fortunately, there are a variety of tools available today that can help you greatly reduce them. Register Your Numbers If you haven’t already done so, your fi rst step to limiting at least some unwanted calls is to make sure your home and cell phone numbers are registered with the National Do Not Call Registry. While this won’t stop illegal robocalls, it will stop unwanted calls from legitimate for-profi t businesses who are trying to sell you something. But be aware that political organizations, charities and survey takers are still permitted to call you, as are businesses you’ve bought something from or made a payment to in the last 18 months. To sign up, visit DoNotCall.gov or call 888382-1222. Home Landline Tools To stop calls on your home phone set up the “anonymous call rejection” option. This is a free landline-calling feature available from most telephone companies. It lets you screen out calls from callers who have blocked their caller ID information – a favorite tactic of telemarketers. To set it up, you usually have to dial *77 from your landline, though different phone services may have diff erent procedures to set it up. Call your telephone service provider to fi nd out if they off er this feature, and if so, what you need to do to enable it. Another solution is to sign up for Nomorobo, which is a free service for landline phones but only if you have a VoIP landline carrier. Nomorobo uses a “simultaneous ring” service that detects and blocks robocalls on a black list of known off ender numbers. It isn’t 100 percent foolproof, but it is an extra layer of protection. To sign up or see if Nomorobo works with your phone service provider, visit Nomorobo.com. Cell Phones Tools To stop unwanted robocalls and texts to your cell phone, ask your carrier about caller ID options that help identify, fi lter or prevent callers that aren’t legitimate. For example, AT&T provides their subscribers a free app called “AT&T Call Protect” that has automatic fraud blocking and suspected spam warnings, and you can manually block unwanted calls. Starting this month, Verizon is off ering free spam alerting and call blocking tools to their users. T-Mobile offers free “Scam ID” and “Scam Block” to combat robocalls and spam. And Sprint customers can sign up for its “Premium Caller ID” service for $2.99 per month to guard against robocalls and caller ID spoofers. Call Blocking Apps Another way to stop nuisance robocalls on your smartphone is with call blocking apps. These can identify who is calling you and block unwanted calls that show up on a crowd-sourced spam and robocaller lists. Some top call blocking app for iPhones and Androids include Nomorobo (Nomorobo. com), Hiya Caller ID and Spam Blocker (Hiya.com) and Truecaller (Truecaller.com). Nomorobo cost $2 per month, while Truecaller and Hiya apps are free to use, but off er upgraded services for $2 and $3 per month. Spam Proof Phones There are also phones you can buy, like the Samsung Galaxy S, Samsung Note, or Google Pixel phone that have built-in spam and robocall protection in place. Samsung’s Smart Call feature flags calls it suspects are spam, while Google Pixel phones have built-in spam call protection. With this feature, users with Caller ID enabled will get a warning if a suspected spam call or robocall is received. Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior. org. Jim Miller is a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book.
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