Happening Today
GE welcome and protest
Gov. Charlie Baker, Boston Mayor Martin Walsh, General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt and others will unveil additional details of GE’s move to Boston at a press conference. A reception is expected to follow the press event, State Room, 60 State St., 4:30 p.m.
Marty Baron at Harvard
Washington Post editor Marty Baron, formerly of the Boston Globe, will discuss the Globe’s award-winning Catholic Church sex abuse investigation and other journalism topics, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK St., Cambridge, 6 p.m.
Sox season opener
The Boston Red Sox start their 2016 season against the Cleveland Indians, Progressive Field, Cleveland, Ohio, 4:10 p.m.
Today’s Stories
Newsflash: GE is not a vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity
Is General Electric nothing more than a “great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money,” as Matt Taibbi once famously described Goldman Sachs? A number of community groups are organizing a demonstration today to effectively say just that about GE’s planned move to Boston. They view the incentive deal to lure GE to Boston in classic zero-sum terms, i.e. direct and indirect incentives must mean that much less money going to schools, parks, the MBTA and other services. Here’s some advice: Don’t believe it. As a weekend Globe article by Jon Chesto makes clear, GE will indeed be paying property taxes and providing numerous other tangible and intangible benefits once here. It’s not a zero-sum exchange. Not even remotely close.
‘Yale should follow GE to Boston’
Staying on the same GE theme, lawmakers in the Nutmeg State are reportedly eyeing the possibility of taxing college endowment funds of more than $1 billion, i.e. they’re specifically targeting Yale University in New Haven. Ira Stoll at NewBostonPost has a column poking fun of the Nutmeg State’s latest employer-relations fiasco, suggesting that Yale flee to Boston, similar to how GE is fleeing Connecticut partly due to high business taxes there. Still, one shouldn’t forget that revenue-hungry lawmakers proposed a similar thing in Massachusetts in 2008, specifically targeting Harvard University’s then $34 billion endowment. “It’s mind boggling that one entity not paying taxes has $34 billion,” a local lawmaker was quoted as saying at the time. Then it was pointed out that another entity not paying taxes, the state’s public pension fund, had roughly the same amount of money stashed away for its own future expenses. Maybe we should tax that too? Suddenly, the mind-boggled weren’t quite as mind-boggled.
In more ways than one, development dollars are pouring into Quincy
Developers are sinking a lot of money these days into new development projects in Quincy. Developers and their attorneys are also sinking a lot of money these days into the campaign coffers of the mayor and city councilors in Quincy, the Patriot Ledger reports.
How Walsh is like Menino — and how he’s not
Two years into his term as mayor, Marty Walsh has sky-high approval ratings and a hefty campaign war chest, but relatively few major successes to show for his time in office, Simon van Zuylen-Wood suggests in a lengthy Boston Magazine piece. While some of the city’s problems — think: economic disparity — may be all but unsolvable even by Walsh, the mayor’s political talents may mean he can hold the office as long as his record-setting predecessor, if he wants. “He’s not just someone you like — he’s someone you root for.”
Ruining a perfectly good Liz Warren argument with over-the-top superlatives
Robert Kuttner makes the non-original argument in the American Prospect that it’s indeed Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, not just Bernie Sanders, who’s pulling Hillary Clinton to the left on many issues and beyond. And that’s exactly what she’s doing. Yet Kuttner’s hero-worship superlatives about Warren are over the top and more than a little embarrassing: “a compelling life story…. hardscrabble roots… did it as a single mom … a hybrid of the breakthrough appeal … a shrewd legislator … progressive straight-talker … knows how to play both an inside and an outside game … many of the strengths of Clinton and of Sanders without the blemishes … shrewd … a mark of her tactical brilliance and toughness … mark of Warren’s influence and political acumen.” American Prospect
Why did the chicken cross the road?
If you answered “to star in a TV commercial,” you’d be right! … Anyway, the Globe’s Joshua Miller reports that animal-welfare advocates are already gearing up for a media blitz in support of a likely November ballot question that would mandate all eggs sold in Massachusetts come from cage-free hens. In other words: expect many a fowl on the airwaves this fall.
Big Data, big idea
In a Herald op-ed, House Speaker Robert DeLeo pushes his chamber’s $2 million proposal for a Big Data Innovation & Workforce Fund to promote the use of big data and analytics industries, provide tools for related career development and explore how analytics can help address problems of public concern like transportation, energy and public health.
Chatham dock-fee meeting devolves into melee
In what may be the best argument ever for communities recording all of their public proceedings, no matter how arcane, a joint meeting last week between two committees to set docking fees in the town of Chatham devolved into a brief physical melee captured on video posted on the town’s web site, Ethan Genter of the Cape Cod Times reports. After verbal insults were exchanged, one committee member abruptly overturned his chair, then slapping, pushing and shoving ensued before cooler heads prevailed, in an excerpt of the video posted by the Times. Just before it ends, someone is heard reminding those gathered that “you’re on television.”
Don’t blame redistricting alone for dearth of State House diversity
With Rep. Gloria Fox stepping down after 31 years representing Roxbury and surrounding neighborhoods, maybe it’s time to ponder why there are so few people of color on Beacon Hill. And please don’t blame redistricting alone for the problem, says the Globe’s Adrian Walker. It also has to do with developing a deep bench of young leaders and recruiting candidates for office. “Great candidates produce more change than new districts ever could,” Walker writes.
Remembering the Trump shuttle
WBUR’s Fred Thys tracked down former employees of GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s Boston-to-New York shuttle service and found that after a promising start-complete with faux pearls for flight attendants and makeovers of the former Eastern Airlines planes-the Tump Shuttle soon ran into economic headwinds that sped its descent.
Free play pumps Plainridge take
A free-play promotion helped boost monthly revenues at Plainridge Park Casino but is raising questions about the long-term sustainability of the surge, Sean P. Murphy of the Globe reports. The state’s only casino spent $2.4 million on free credits in February — or about 20 percent of revenues — to entice gamblers with up to $500 in on-the-house play in exchange for signing up for a rewards card. But new revenue gains first seen in January were already beginning to slow a month later, data shows.
In Lowell, Cambodian politics impact legislative race
Politics from the other side of the globe are becoming an issue early in the race for the 18th Middlesex District representative seat, Grant Welker of the Lowell Sun reports. Republican Kamara Kay helped organize a mass protest that prompted city officials to cancel a planned meeting with the son of the Cambodian prime minister, prompting Democratic incumbent Rep. Rady Mom to suggest Kay was trying to manipulate the issue for his own benefit. Both candidates are of Cambodian descent.
Rail-ahs? Worcester’s new hockey team gets a name
Worcester’s new minor league hockey team officially got a name over the weekend and it’s one that seems to skate right into the wheelhouse of the Massachusetts accent. Scott Croteau of MassLIve reports that the new team will be called the Railers, a nod to the city’s railroad history, and that several other names were discarded along the way, including the Whitehawks and Wildcats.
Mort Zuckerman retires (sort of) after a highly enviable career
What’s the best way to break into political journalism at the national level? There’s the tried-and-true way of starting as a cub reporter and slowly moving up the journalistic ranks. Then there’s another approach: Make a fortune in commercial real estate, then buy up media outlets. Over the decades, that’s exactly what Mort Zuckerman did by founding Boston Properties, the national office developer, and using his wealth to buy US News & World Report, the New York Daily News and the formerly Boston-based Atlantic Monthly (since sold and moved to Washington). Besides writing political columns in his publications, he’s also been a regular panelist on TV political shows, most notably PBS’s McLaughlin Group. Not a bad career, right?
Today’s Headlines
Metro
Marty Walsh Is NOT Tom Menino – Boston Magazine
Calls intensify for Boston Public Schools race investigation – Boston Herald
Boston Chamber goes political – Boston Globe
Quincy developers investing in property and political candidates – Patriot Ledger
Cops: She tried to sell Trump-branded heroin – Boston Herald
Why did killings tumble in Mass. last year? – Boston Globe
Massachusetts
Drug testing a touchy issue on New Bedford’s waterfront – South Coast Today
It’s Complicated: Planning Massachusetts’ 400th Birthday – WGBH
Trump Shuttle’s Boston Workers Recall Its Lavish Start Before ‘Things Started To Go Down’ – WBUR
Fistfight erupts at a Chatham town meeting over very Cape Cod issue – boston.com
Five Statehouse candidates buck political trend – Cape Cod Times
NRC might feel heat at Pilgrim’s pending review – Cape Cod Times
Aerosmith star goes to bat for sheriff – Patriot Ledger
Wayward prosecutors go unpunished as prison time for victims piles up – MetroWest Daily News
Worcester’s new hockey team name revealed: Worcester Railers to take the ice in 2017 – MassLive
Plainridge boosts revenue with generous offers of free play – Boston Globe
Massachusetts among targets for minimum wage boost battle – Worcester Telegram
Cambodia politics stir rep. race – Lowell Sun
Pols and Politics: DCF breaks record for stalling – Boston Herald
After decades of stagnation, Springfield showing signs of life – Boston Globe
Nation
Trump calls on Kasich to drop out of GOP primary – Boston Globe
Electoral Map Is a Reality Check for Trump’s Presidential Hopes – Boston Globe
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