Happening Today
Veterans Day observances, SJC hearing, Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse
— Veterans Day is officially tomorrow and will be observed by many today, but state executive offices and courts will be open today and on Monday.
— The Supreme Judicial Court will hear first-degree murder appeals from Carlos Seino, Thomas Gardner, Ryan Jones and Joseph Wright, John Adams Courthouse, Courtroom One, Second Floor, Pemberton Square, Boston, 9 a.m.
— U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III attends the Somerset veterans appreciation breakfast, Venus de Milo, 75 Grand Army of the Republic Hwy., Swansea, 9 a.m.
— Massachusetts Trial Court holds an event to recognize the official launch of the Franklin Family Drug Court MISSION-Hope Grant, with U.S. Reps. Jim McGovern and Richard Neal and Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, expected to attend, Franklin County Justice Center, 43 Hope Street, Greenfield, 10 a.m.
— Department of Public Utilities continues its evidentiary hearing on Eversource Energy’s plan to construct a controversial transmission line through Sudbury, Hudson, Stow and Marlborough, Hearing Room A, One South Station – 5th floor, Boston, 10 a.m.
— Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito visits the Chelsea Soldiers Home, 100 Summit Ave., Chelsea, 12:30 p.m.
— Gov. Charlie Baker visits Takeda Pharmaceuticals where he will make an announcement relative to women entrepreneurs in early-stage life sciences companies, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, 300 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, 12:30 p.m.
— Gen. Richard Neal, a Hull native and retired four-star Marine general, talks on ‘Radio Boston’ about the role of the generals in President Trump’s White House, WBUR-FM 90.9, 3 p.m.
— Gov. Charlie Baker, House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, Springfield Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, Reps. Benjamin Swan and Russell Holmes, Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph D. Gants, Trial Court Chief Justice Paula M. Carey, and the Honorable Roderick L. Ireland celebrate the renaming of the Hampden County Hall of Justice as the Roderick L. Ireland Courthouse, Symphony Hall, 34 Court Street, Springfield, 3:30 p.m.
— Framingham Mayor-elect Yvonne Spicer joins Newton Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Setti Warren and supporters to discuss his proposal to elevate the state’s veterans and elders affairs posts, B Sisters Cafe, 680 Worcester Road, Framingham, 3:30 p.m.
— Gov. Charlie Baker and Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno meet with the family of Gunnery Sergeant Thomas J. Sullivan following the dedication of the East Forest Park in his honor, Springfield City Hall, 36 Court Street, Springfield, 5:15 p.m.
— Westfield State University hosts a military appreciation night at a football game against Western Connecticut State university, 577 Western Ave., Westfield, 5:30 p.m.
— Gov. Charlie Baker visits the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, 110 Cherry St, Holyoke, 6 p.m.
Today’s Stories
Senate passes health-care reform bill after late-night session
While most of us were asleep, the Senate was burning the midnight oil at the State House and produced results. From Priyaank Dayal McCluskey at the Globe: “Massachusetts senators approved a sweeping bill at midnight Thursday that seeks to control the rising costs of medical care and prescription drugs, including a controversial plan that would fine hospitals if spending rises too fast. The legislation also would require pharmaceutical companies to submit to more scrutiny from state officials. The bill sailed through the overwhelmingly Democratic Senate by a 33-6 margin at the stroke of midnight, after two days of debate and much last-minute wrangling over technical language.”
Needless to say, Partners HealthCare, the state’s largest health-provider network, and the state’s hospital trade association aren’t happy with the financial fine and other proposals in the bill. Before the Senate vote, Gov. Charlie Baker was also questioning whether the bill would actually produce any cost savings, as intended, reports SHNS’s Colin Young at the Salem News. The bill now heads to the House, where its fate is unclear and where leaders haven’t detailed their own plans to deal with health-care costs.
Report: GE planning Boston layoffs
These are not the best of times for GE. From the Herald’s Dan Atkinson: “General Electric is planning layoffs even as it goes ahead with construction of its new Boston headquarters, and the money-hemorrhaging company readies for a reckoning with investors Monday — but Mayor Martin J. Walsh said he hasn’t been informed of the job cuts. GE officials confirmed to the Herald that the planned Boston headquarters — originally slated for 800 jobs — would see layoffs, but they would not give out figures, saying the effect would be limited.”
Baker and AG launch probes of Scrub-gate (formerly known as Trooper-gate)
We’ll see where all this goes. From Brian Dowling and Matt Stout at the Herald: “Gov. Charlie Baker and Attorney General Maura Healey have both launched probes into why a state trooper was ordered to scrub embarrassing details about the arrest of a judge’s daughter from his report, with Baker promising a speedy conclusion to what he dubbed a ‘significant’ investigation.”
Meanwhile, the Herald and the Globe’s Andrea Estes report that a second trooper says she’s defying an order to alter her police-report description of the arrest of the judge’s daughter. This much is clear: Either the two state troopers are lying, or someone, or some people, up higher are issuing really stupid and damning orders. SHNS’s Matt Murphy at New England Public Radio has more on Scrub-gate, which is a better sounding name than our original Trooper-gate, we’ve determined.
American Circus
Switching to national politics for a moment: Can it get crazier than it is now in Alabama? The Washington Post’s bombshell report that Roy S. Moore, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate and an evangelical Christian, has a sexual thing for teen girls is causing Republicans to hit the panic button and dive for cover, as the NYT reports. Now Moore is actually using the controversy to hit up donors, sending a fundraising message to supporters asking them to chip in to fight the “Obama-Clinton Machine’s liberal media lapdogs,” according to a wire report at the Herald. It doesn’t get any more pathetic and sickeningly entertaining as this. OK, back to our comparatively tame and boring local politics …
Warren backs off her ‘rigged’ assertion
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth is backing off her pandering-to-the-paranoid-left assertion that last year’s Democratic primary was ‘rigged’ in Hillary Clinton’s favor, telling the Springfield Republican that the process was actually “fair,” though there might have been some “bias,” reports Shannon Young at MassLive. The Globe’s Annie Linskey is all over Warren’s about-face. Btw: Former DNC chair Donna Brazile is also backing off her ‘rigged’ charge.
Polls: Warren and Baker flying high, Trump not so high
Her ‘rigged’ fiasco and his Scrub-gate woes aside, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Gov. Charlie Baker are heading into their respective re-election campaigns next year with particularly strong poll numbers in Massachusetts, according to a new survey by the Western New England University Polling Institute. MassLive’s Shannon Young has the Warren numbers, while MassLive’s Shira Schoenberg has the Baker stats, as well as the strong numbers for Attorney General Maura Healey and the relatively strong numbers for U.S. Sen. Ed Markey. And then there’s Donald Trump’s numbers in Massachusetts. They’re kind of inverse to Warren and Baker’s stats. Shannon Young has those details.
If Dem gubernatorial candidates debate and few know about it, did it really happen?
Speaking of gubernatorial poll numbers and next year’s elections, you may not be aware that the three Democratic candidates for governor, on the night after Tuesday’s election, held a debate in Longmeadow. The big issue at the debate that attracted about 100 people: Transportation, namely the idea of a Springfield-to-Boston commuter rail line. Sean Teehan at MassLive has the details.
Marijuana dispensaries to state: Give us a competitive head-start against rivals
And it’s so sweetly and logically worded, too. From Dan Adams at the Globe: “Long-simmering tensions between the activist and business wings of the Massachusetts marijuana community boiled over this week, after several medical dispensaries urged the state to grant them a significant head-start in the recreational market while delaying or limiting the licensure of less established players.”
‘Pot primer’ for next week’s Mass. Marijuana Summit
Speaking of marijuana, State House News Service’s ‘Mass. Marijuana Summit’ is scheduled for next Wednesday (details for the event are right here) – and as a “cheat sheet” for the upcoming forum, SHNS’s Craig Sandler at Wicked Local has produced an impressive “pot primer” on the history of legal and illegal marijuana in Massachusetts. Fyi: Cannabis Control Commission chairman Steven Hoffman and Senate President Stan Rosenberg are expected to appear at the event, along with other guests and industry experts.
Globe hit be cyberattacks
It’s been a rough two days at the Globe. From the paper’s Hiawatha Bray: “The Boston Globe was hit with a second day of attacks by unknown cyberassailants Thursday, leaving (the paper’s web site) and the company’s other websites unavailable for parts of the day. The Globe’s websites and internal servers were subjected to a distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attack, one of the most common forms of computer vandalism.”
Plymouth DA, former prosecutor settle lawsuit over whistleblowing and fundraising
Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy Cruz has settled a four-year-old lawsuit brought by a former prosecutor in his office who said he was retaliated against and fired for being a whistleblower and for not contributing to the DA’s campaign account, the Patriot Ledger reports. Neither Cruz nor the attorneys for John Bradley, who later left to work in the Worcester County DA’s office, would disclose terms of the deal.
North Adams teacher changes his mind about serving after unlikely election win
Is there a winning campaign formula here? A retired teacher who tried to get his name off the ballot only to be told it was too late and then did not campaign has, you guessed it, been elected to the North Adams school board and now says he will serve his term, Adam Shanks reports in the Berkshire Eagle. Despite laying low during the campaign, James Holmes finished with the second-most votes and says he was ‘shocked’ by the results.
Galvin on seeking a seventh term: ‘I’m running’
And he’ll win too. SHNS’s Michael Norton at WCVB has the details on Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s plans to seek a seventh term next year.
After securing slots parlor license, Plainridge cuts number of racing dates
Turns out good horses are hard to find, too. Plainridge Park, which was required by state officials to boost the number of harness races it held each year in order to get the state’s only slots parlor license, is now cutting back on how many races it holds, Jim Hnad reports in the Sun-Chronicle. After hosting 125 races this year, the track will host 110 next year—a compromise number after the casino sought to cut the number to 100. The park says it often can’t find enough horses to make races competitive.
UMass Boston’s chaotic budgeting process …
Most casual observers already knew this. Now an audit report officially confirms it. From Laura Krantz at the Globe: “A new audit of UMass Boston’s finances paints the first detailed picture of the chaotic budgeting process at the school over the past two years, including multimillion-dollar swings in tuition revenue estimates and rapidly shifting reports on the size of the deficit. The audit, sent to university trustees Thursday afternoon, points to faulty record-keeping, a lack of discipline, and a poor understanding among University of Massachusetts Boston officials of how the campus’s major construction projects would affect the day-to-day budget.”
With or without Amazon, it’s full steam ahead for Suffolk Downs’ redevelopment
From Catherine Carlock at the BBJ: “The HYM Investment Group has has formally kicked off development-review for Suffolk Downs in Revere and East Boston, planning around 11 million square feet of new development and 40 acres of open space to be built out over the next two decades.” The owners previously said their plans would proceed whether or not Amazon decides to put its new ‘second’ headquarters there – and the new filing shows they mean it.
Lowell’s single-issue election over a $300M high school
Ted Siefer at CommonWealth reports that Lowell voters made it clear on Tuesday – and very clear to some candidates, in particular – what they felt about the uber-expensive proposal to relocate and build a new high school. City officials are now clicking their heels and are expected to backtrack on previous council decisions.
Getting City Hall’s tangled web of fiefdoms, unions and managers talking and working together
Ken Brooks, an executive at Step By Step Behavioral Solutions, Inc., spent a lot of time at City Hall working as a project manager on a human-resources system upgrade project – and he came away with deep respect for all the workers there. But he also found it an institutionally frustrating place with “entrenched factions unable to move beyond an antiquated ‘us-them’ mentality that exists between management and labor, and internecine jealousies across departments.” He has some suggestions on how to overcome it all at WGBH.
Holliston selectmen kick trash vote to curb
Selectmen in Holliston have decided to go against the wishes of town meeting voters, who voted last month to offer municipal trash collection to residents of private condo projects. In tossing voter sentiment aside, selectmen noted the TM vote—which passed by a nearly two-to-one margin—was non-binding, Alison Boma of the MetroWest Daily News reports. Gotta love those technicalities.
Veterans Day: Remembering
Veterans Day is officially tomorrow – “the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month” – but is celebrated by some today. WGBH has interviews with two vets, Chris Morse and Kimberly Walker, one of many news features out there on veterans. Fyi: We’re eager to start reading the new book we ordered, Back Over There, by Richard Rubin, who went back to France to survey, and tell stories about, what happened over there 100 years ago. Next year’s 100th anniversary of the end of WWI is going to be huge, obviously.
Sunday public affairs TV
Keller at Large, WBZ-TV Channel 4, 8:30 a.m. This week’s guest: Kirsten Hughes, chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party, who speaks with host Jon Keller about this week’s election results and the state of the GOP heading into 2018.
This Is New England, NBC Boston, Channel 10, 9:30 a.m. With host Latoyia Edwards, this week’s main topics: Rosie’s Place and Reporter Stories in the community.
This Week in Business, NECN, 10 a.m. Shirley Leung of the Boston Globe and Doug Banks of the Boston Business Journal weigh in on Tuesday’s elections in Massachusetts, women fighting sexual harassment at work, state lawmakers approve free birth control, debate over the GOP tax plan, TripAdvisor loses $1 billion in one day and more.
CEO Corner, NECN, 10:30 a.m. Rapid7 CEO Corey Thomas talks about the rapid growth of his cybersecurity company, now with 15 offices around the world and clients in 120 countries.
On The Record, WCVB-TV Channel 5, 11 a.m. This week’s guest: Gov. Charlie Baker, who talks with anchor Ed Harding and co-anchor Janet Wu.
CityLine, WCVB-TV Channel 5, 12 p.m. This week’s topic: We Are Boston & Golden Anniversaries.
Witnessing Hope: Cristo Rey Schools & Catholic Education
Mass. Marijuana Summit: Understanding the challenges and opportunities in the new age of legalization
Today’s Headlines
Metro
Boston mayoral results mapped – Universal Hub
Changing of the guard in East Boston – CommonWealth Magazine
Massachusetts
Billerica auto auction faces $267G in fines for accident in which 5 died – Lowell Sun
Setti Warren pledges to give voice to elders, veterans – Boston Magazine
Reported rapes increase at central Mass. colleges – Telegram & Gazette
Williamsburg ZBA restricts shooting at private range; owners vow lawsuit – Hampshire Gazette
Nation
‘I don’t feel wealthy’: The upper middle class is weary of paying for tax overhaul – Washington Post
Gifford gun group sues Trump administration – The Hill
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