POLITICAL HAPPY HOUR: July 29, 2014

Full audio from WGBH: http://bit.ly/1mZLgcA

TICK TOCK — BIG BEACON HILL DEADLINE LOOMS: Both chambers of the Legislature were moving bills today before formal legislative sessions for the year conclude on Thursday. Among the bills the chambers sent to the governor’s desk in recent hours: one meant to curb harassment and obstruction outside abortion clinics that was crafted after the June Supreme Court ruling striking down the state’s “buffer zone” law, which barred protesters from within 35 feet of clinics.

NO AGREEMENT ON ANTI-GUN VIOLENCE BILL, as chambers continue to wrangle over disputed provision, via Andy Metzger of the State House News Service: “The conference committee working out the particulars of gun legislation that passed both the House and Senate met Monday morning and has not yet come to agreement, chief conferee Sen. James Timilty (D-Walpole) [said]. Rep. George Peterson (R-Grafton), another conferee, said the ability for police chiefs to use discretion in issuing rifle permits was the main sticking point. Chiefs have discretion in issuing handgun permits. ...”

Some background on the emotional gun control provision dispute: http://bit.ly/1mAni7s

SHOPPERS SHOULD WATCH: What date the Legislature sets for this summer’s sales tax holiday. A Senate version of a bill schedules it for the weekend of Aug. 9-10, while the House version sets it from Aug. 16-17.

OFFICE MAKEOVER, BEACON HILL EDITION — SPEAKER DEFENDS $20 MILLION ON HOUSE CHAMBER RENOVATIONS, via Michael Levenson on BostonGlobe.com: “Speaker Robert A. DeLeo on Tuesday defended a planned $20 million restoration of the House chamber, even as he acknowledged the pricetag is just an estimate and not based on an outside analysis of the chamber’s structural needs. ‘We’ve got a lot of repairs that need to be done, anywhere from the roof to the floor,’ DeLeo said, a day after a few House members gathered in an informal session quietly approved the project without debate. ... The Senate hired an architecture firm ... to inspect its chamber’s deficiencies before proposing its own $20 million makeover last month. ... DeLeo said the House did not conduct a similar analysis before coming up with the same price — $20 million — for the repairs to its chamber. ...” http://bit.ly/1lSBqcV

Here’s Levenson’s original piece in today’s Globe: http://bit.ly/1tWA71U

IMMIGRATION DEBATE ROILS POLITICS A LONG WAY FROM SOUTHERN BORDER, via Alanna Durkin in Lewiston, Maine: “In the whitest U.S. state, thousands of miles from the Mexican border, the debate over immigration is becoming a central issue in one of the nation’s most closely watched governor’s races. ... Republican Gov. Paul LePage roiled the cultural waters when he criticized the federal government’s placement of eight immigrant children in Maine without advising him. ‘If we have eight kids in the state right now and if there are any state dollars going there, there are eight Mainers not getting services,’ he said during a visit to a homeless shelter in Lewiston. ... Since January, more than 30,000 children, mostly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, have crossed the nation’s southern border illegally and have been placed with sponsors throughout the country. ... [T]he issue has also crept into politics [in other states]. Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick’s offer to temporarily house children at two bases has drawn both praise and attacks ...” http://bit.ly/1qfvKME

SOME ANALYSIS OF PATRICK’S OFFER WITH A USEFUL Q&A, via Evan Horowitz on BostonGlobe.com: “... Virtually every aspect of this issue has become controversial: not just where to house these kids but even whether to refer to them as asylum-seekers or illegal immigrants. ... ” http://bit.ly/1oHaB06

DEM. RACE FOR MASS. ATTORNEY GENERAL HEATS UP, via David S. Bernstein of Boston Magazine: “Warren Tolman, in his campaign for Attorney General, has placed front and center his plan to mandate that all new firearms sold in Massachusetts include technology to prevent unauthorized people from firing them. Now, his opponent Maura Healey claims he has flip-flopped on the issue, or at least started to talk out of both sides of his mouth. Tolman’s campaign insists he hasn’t changed at all. ...” http://bit.ly/1qi1lgT

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER SUPER PAC, from me on BostonGlobe.com: “Local Democratic operatives today formed a new state super PAC today focused on turning out Democratic voters in November, with a particular eye toward training people in urban areas to rally their neighbors to get out and vote. ...” http://bit.ly/1tXdvOz

SPEAKING OF SUPER PACS, THIS IS META, via Akilah Johnson on BostonGlobe.com: “The New Hampshire US Senate race is one of two in the crosshairs of the super PAC to that hopes to end all super PACs. Mayday PAC announced Tuesday that it was supporting former New Hampshire state senator Jim Rubens, who is challenging former US senator Scott Brown and former US senator Bob Smith in a Republican primary. ... The PAC ... raised $12 million in about two months to get five candidates elected to Congress who are willing to change the way campaigns are funded ...” http://bit.ly/1zrtBmS

Alternatively tweet at me — @jm_bos.

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Joshua Miller can be reached at joshua.miller@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jm_bos.