Happening Today
Gaming Commission
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission meets in Everett to receive a quarterly report from Wynn Resorts and to review other matters, the Connolly Center, 90 Chelsea St., Everett, 10 a.m.
Workforce Summit
Gov. Charlie Baker is a featured speaker along with U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton at the 7th annual Massachusetts Jobs and Workforce Summit hosted by the Workforce Summit Group, Devens Common Conference Center, Secretary of Labor and Workforce Development Ronald Walker will speak at 2:20 p.m., followed by Baker at 2:30 p.m. and Moulton at 3:05 p.m.
Baker and Walsh honored
Gov. Baker is honored with the Lowell Richards Award at the Metropolitan Boston Housing Partnership’s Founders Celebration; Boston Mayor Martin Walsh will be presented the Founders Award, John Hancock Financial, 601 Congress St., 4th floor, Boston, 6 p.m.
‘Rethinking Boston City Hall’
The city of Boston holds a public presentation of the Boston City Hall and Plaza Study, which Mayor Walsh launched last year to “make City Hall and its Plaza a more thriving, healthy and innovative space,” Boston City Hall, Second Floor, Boston, 6 p.m.
Transportation Committee
The Joint Transportation Committee will hold an oversight hearing on MassDOT’s non-MBTA “assets and state of good repair issues,” Room A-1, 1 p.m.
Today’s Stories
Health care as an Achilles heel?
As far as pocketbook issues are concerned, hammering away at health-care insurance costs isn’t bad, particularly when ObamaCare premium costs are now spiraling out of control and health-care prices in general continue to take a bigger and bigger chunk out of people’s incomes, as the Globe’s Priyanka Dayal McCluskey reports today. In Massachusetts, families now pay an astounding 7.3 percent of their income on health care premium, up from 5.7 percent just five years prior, the Globe notes. So it’s not surprising that Donald Trump is now pounding away at ObamaCare and health-care costs in general, as reported by the Herald’s Chris Cassidy. But is it enough to truly help Trump? Maybe a little. But not a lot, considering the nation’s unemployment rate is only 4.9 percent and incomes are slowly rising.
All aboard: Walsh has his ex-aide consultants — and so does Baker
Mayor Marty Walsh has had all sorts of ex-aide consultants working in real estate, Indy car races, Olympic bids, you name it. But Gov. Charlie Baker’s ex-aide/advisors seem to gravitate toward commuter rail and charter school consulting, as Andrew Ryan and Mark Arsenault report at the Globe. Isn’t it amazing how all these ex-aides are so skilled in so many different fields? We should have gotten into consulting.
Help Wanted: Bay State workers, decent pay, free meals, apply to Team Trump
From the Herald’s Chris Cassidy: “Donald Trump’s Bay State campaign is offering paid jobs with free meals to canvass for the brash billionaire in the two weeks ahead of the Nov. 8 vote. An email from Trump Team Massachusetts touts ‘opportunities available for PAID POSITIONS.’” OMG. Paid positions, with free room and board? It’s almost as good as consulting! But it’s in N.H. It chilly up there!
Weld unofficially completes break with Libertarian Party
Former Gov. Bill Weld, still nominally running as the Libertarian Party’s vice presidential candidate, blasted away at Donald Trump yesterday, as he has promised to do in recent weeks, but there was something missing at his press conference yesterday in Boston: An outright call to back Democrat Hillary Clinton or a full-throated plea to back the Libertarian ticket, according to reports by SHNS’s Katie Lannan (pay wall) and the Globe’s Frank Phillips. “This is only about Trump,” said Weld, as Phillips reports. And it certainly wasn’t about Clinton or Libertarian presidential nominee Gary Johnson, either.
Hiller signing off at Channel 7
From the Herald’s Gayle Fee: “Longtime Boston TV political reporter Andy Hiller, who has been skewering local, state and national pols on Boston TV for nearly 40 years, is leaving Channel 7 after the presidential election. Word from inside is that Hiller, host of the 7News segment ‘The Hiller Instinct,’ will depart when his contract runs out around the end of the year.” Which, as Gayle notes, is when WHDH is expected to lose its NBC network affiliation. Hiller is apparently not retiring and will probably end up in another gig soon, Gayle notes.
Baker stars in pro-Question 2 television ad
Gov. Charlie Baker is expending some of his large stockpile of political capital by going all out in favor of Quesiton 2, campaigning door-to-door yesterday on behalf of the pro-charter school initiative and appearing in a new TV ad for Question 2, reports Janet Wu at WCVB TV. “Imagine if your kids were trapped in a failing school,” Baker says in the new 30-second ad. “Public charter schools give parents a choice.”
‘Drugged driving’
The issue of “drugged driving” has taken center stage in the battle over Question 4, which would legalize marijuana in Massachusetts, reports Gintautas Dumcius at MassLive. Opponents of the measure gathered outside the State House yesterday to warn of roadway mayhem and tragedies if Question 4 is approved. Supporters of Question 4 are countering that the presence of marijuana in somebody’s system is not an indication of impairment, Dumcius reports.
Talk about timing: Massive pot greenhouse for medical patients could get huge boost if Question 4 passes
A Colorado company is planning to build a giant pot greenhouse in Freetown, initially to provide an ample supply of marijuana for medical patients who need the weed to treat illnesses. But, whoa, if Question 4 passes next month and recreational marijuana is legalized in Massachusetts, AmeriCann Inc. says it will speed up its construction schedule and likely rent some of its cultivation space to a retailer of recreational cannabis, reports the Globe’s Dan Adams.
SuperPAC is throwing its weight behind GOP candidate in Cape senate race
The Jobs First Independent Expenditure Political Action Committee, a superPAC, has muscled into the contested race for the Cape senate seat now held by retiring Sen. Dan Wolf, reporting in a state filing that it’s prepared to spend more than $100,000 in support of Republican Anthony Schiavi, who faces Democrat Julian Cyr, reports Geoff Spillane at the Cape Cod Times. About $13,000 already has been spent by the group, leaving about $88,000 to be used in the final days of the campaign, Spillane writes.
Council postpones judicial hearing amidst planned protest
The Governor’s Council has postponed a hearing of a judicial candidate whose nomination has stirred opposition from gun-rights advocates upset with Attorney General Maura Healey’s recent crackdown on “copycat” assault weapons, reports Andy Metzger at State House News Service. The council said not enough members could make today’s public interview of Christopher Barry-Smith, the first assistant attorney general and Gov. Baker’s nominee for a Superior Court judgeship. But the postponement also temporarily defuses a planned protest at the hearing by Gun Owners Action League and, if a web site posting is true, by a white supremacist group that has urged people to attend the hearing, partly to network and “recruit” people to its cause.
Lawmakers call on Baker to create ‘Homeless Czar’ post
A number of state legislators are calling on Gov. Baker to create a new “homeless czar” post to immediately tackle the growing problem of teen homelesness, reports the Herald’s Kathleen McKiernan and Matt Stout. “Clearly someone needs to focus on this issue,” said state Rep. Russell Holmes, a Mattapan Democrat and vice chair of the Legislature’s committee on housing. Other lawmakers worried about the problem include Reps. Antonio Cabral, Kevin Honan, and Rep. Kevin Honan.
Senate will flip, House will flop, Part II
U.S. Rep, Joseph Kennedy III agrees with U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, who last week guessed that the U.S. Senate will probably flip to Democrats this election cycle, but Dems will probably flop in their efforts to take control of the House, reports SHNS’s Colin Young at the Herald News.
The ‘Voice of MBTA’ heads to WGBH
Frank Oglesby, who recently retired after years of serving as the “voice of the MBTA’ via his subway announcements, has taken is his “deep, smooth vocal chords” to WGBH, where he’s now doing an array of spots, from station identification pronouncements to show descriptions, reports Nik DeCosta-Klipa at Boston.com.
Rhode Island tries to clean up its act through its own Question 2
The state of Rhode Island has its own ongoing Question 2 battle, but it’s over clean government, not charter schools. The Ocean State ballot initiative would subject “the freewheeling R.I. legislature to supervision by the state’s Ethics Commission,” an apparently radical move in good old Little Rhody, reports Ciku Theuri at WGBH. Ross Cheit, chairperson of the R.I. Ethics Commission, was recently interviewed on the ballot issue on Morning Edition.
Those evil Rhode Islanders: Boston startup says R.I. firm stole quilt-making trade secrets
While R.I. voters contemplate an ethics-in-government ballot question in their state, the founder of Boston-based Project Repat, which makes quilts for customers out of their old T-shirts, is accusing a Rhode Island company of stealing their trade secrets and creating a rival business, according to a federal lawsuit filed in Boston, reports the BBJ’s David Harris. Fyi: We don’t know who made them, but we’ve recently seen various custom-made T-shirt quilts and they’re pretty damn cool.
Billionaire Sumner Redstone, 93, sues ex-girlfriends for ‘elder abuse’
Ah, the price of love: Boston native Sumner Redstone, the 93-year-old media mogul whose business empire still has strong ties to the Bay State, is suing two ex-girlfriends for elder abuse and alleging the women received more than $150 million during a “five-year spree that left the controlling shareholder of Viacom Inc and CBS Corp. ‘in debt’ due to tax obligations triggered by those ‘gifts,’” reports the Los Angeles Times.
Investor use of Airbnb raises housing concerns
Investors and landlords are increasingly buying properties in Boston specifically to use them as short-term rentals for Airbnb and other sites, a trend that has officials worried about the long-term impact on the city’s housing stock, Jordan Graham and Jack Encarnacao of the Herald report, citing an analysis of Internet listings and other data. “My issue is investors coming into neighborhoods, buying up properties, and using them as these virtual hotels,” said City Councilor Sal LaMattina.
‘Super Town Meeting’ rezones Devens land
Everyone knows that a special town meeting beats the regular old town meeting. But what’s better than a special town meeting? How about a Super Town Meeting? The three towns—Harvard, Shirley and Ayer—that make up the land at Devens all held such an event Monday night and agreed to create 33 acres of additional land for industrial development, Sam Bonacci of the Worcester Business Journal reports.
Baker ranks 13th—in salary
Charlie Baker may be among the most popular governors in the country, but he’s not among the best paid, Craig Douglas and Doug Banks of the Boston Business Journal report. Baker’s $151,800 salary ranks him 13th among the nation’s 50 governors, who earn an average of $137,000, led by Pennsylvania, which pays its chief executive $190,000 a year.
In Abington, you’ll need an ID to buy your Halloween prank supplies
Things you need to be 18-years-old to buy in Abington this coming weekend: Soap, eggs, toilet paper, etc. Starting this weekend, stores owners in Abington are being urged to sell common household items often used in Halloween pranks only to those of legal age, Anna Burgess of the Enterprise reports. Also on the banned item list, which the police department recommends every year: Toilet paper, shaving cream, and spray paint.
Today’s Headlines
Metro
Walsh will tout community college plan at White House – Boston Globe
Watchdog: City’s property sale leaves question of where money will go – Boston Herald
Lifting charter cap would be ‘apocalyptic’ for Boston, some councilors say – WBUR
Harvard reaches tentative deal with striking dining workers – WBUR
Massachusetts
Pols call for homeless czar – Boston Herald
Natick: TM rebuffs assisted living zoning measure – MetroWest Daily News
6 sites proposed for RMV branch – Gloucester Times
How Gov. Baker’s salary compares to rest of the U.S. – Boston Business Journal
Devens adds 33 acres for industrial development – Worcester Business Journal
New Bedford school react to allegations of ‘toxic’ environment – Standard-Times
Buying a bar of soap in Abington this weekend? ID, please – Brockton Enterprise
Health care taking a bigger chunk of families’ paychecks – Boston Globe
Fed prosecutor will monitor Mass. polls – Boston Herald
Nation
Donald Trump seeks Bay Staters to lend a hand in N.H. – Boston Herald
Colin Powell says he’s voting for Hillary Clinton – Boston Globe
Trump campaign turns infomercial – Politico
Weld tells voters: Not Trump – WBUR
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