Happening Today
OneCape Summit, Pressley on the air, regulatory hearings
— Secretary of Housing and Economic Development Jay Ash delivers early morning remarks at the annual OneCape Summit hosted by the Cape Cod Commission, Wequassett Resort and Golf Club, 2173 MA-28, Harwich.
— Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley, who is challenging U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano in the Democratic primary, is a guest on ‘Boston Public Radio,’ WGBH-FM 89.7, 11 a.m.
— Executive Office of Health and Human Services and its Division of Health Care Finance and Policy hold a hearing on proposed regulations affecting freestanding ambulatory surgery centers and repeal of an old regulation related to freestanding ambulatory surgical facilities, 100 Hancock St. – 1st floor, Quincy, 1 p.m.
— Executive Office of Health and Human Services holds a hearing to consider proposed regulations affecting prostheses, prosthetic devices, and orthotic devices, 100 Hancock St. – 1st floor, Quincy, 2:30 p.m.
— Boston Mayor Martin Walsh attends Bowdoin-Geneva Community Day, Reverend Allen Park, One Parish St., Dorchester, 5:45 p.m.
For more calendar listings, check out State House News Service’s Daily Advances (pay wall – free trial subscriptions available) and MassterList’s Beacon Hill Town Square below.
Today’s Stories
Report: PawSox strike deal to move to Worcester
The Worcester Telegram and MassLive report that a big announcement will be made this afternoon at Worcester City Hall regarding the Pawtucket Red Sox. But WBUR’s Callum Borchers reports what others strongly suspect: “The city of Worcester and the Boston Red Sox’s top minor league affiliate have struck a tentative deal that would move the team to central Massachusetts to play in a new ballpark, according to a person with knowledge of the agreement. Team and city officials plan to unveil details of the deal at a Friday afternoon event at Worcester City Hall, the person said.”
The day after: Trump attacks Globe, Globe responds, security beefed up at newspaper
President Trump launched a Twitter counter offensive after hundreds of newspapers, prompted by the Boston Globe, ran editorials yesterday touting the free press and denouncing Trump’s declaration that the media is the ‘enemy of the people.’ The Globe’s Michael Levenson and Christina Prignano and the New York Times and the Washington Post have the details of Trump’s Twitter tirade that took direct aim at the Globe, even going so far as to belittle the paper’s financial losses over the years. The president’s full tweets are here and here.
Universal Hub’s Adam Gaffin reports on the beefed up police security at the Globe’s Seaport offices, after it “received several threats” yesterday morning. The BBJ’s Max Stendahl reports on some inaccuracies contained in the president’s Twitter barrage. Boston Magazine’s Spencer Buell concludes that the editorial campaign clearly got under the president’s skin. Btw: The U.S. Senate did approve, by voice vote, a resolution declaring that the press isn’t an enemy of the people, the Globe reports.
LA Times: No ‘groupthink’ from us
Along with the Washington Post and Boston Herald, the LA Times and San Francisco Chronicle and Pittsburgh Post-Gazette also declined to run pro-press editorials yesterday as part of the Globe-organized campaign, with Nicholas Goldberg, editor of the Times’ editorial pages, writing that the coordinated action played into conspiracy theorists’ hands about media collusion and that it might “leave the impression that we take our lead from others, or that we engage in groupthink.” To its credit, the Globe highlighted their objections in today’s main story on the editorial campaign.
Boston Herald plans to lay off most of its advertising staff
After yesterday’s rally-around-the-press campaign organized by the Boston Globe, it seems it’s back to newspaper-industry reality, at least for the Boston Herald. From Don Seiffert at the BBJ: “The Boston Herald will lay off nine advertising representatives — more than half the department — in what’s being called a ‘consolidation’ with others newspapers that are owned by its parent company, Digital First Media.”
New England Power Pool seeks to ban press coverage of proceedings, citing need to ‘foster candid discussions’
Speaking of the media, from Bruce Mohl at CommonWealth magazine: “The New England Power Pool, an organization that helps develop policies and procedures governing the region’s wholesale electricity markets, is seeking federal regulatory approval to bar reporters from its meetings. NEPOOL has always had an unwritten policy excluding the press, but it decided to make it a formal policy after a reporter with a trade publication calledRTO Insider tried to gain admittance to the meetings.”
The organization argues that those pesky enemy of the bureaucrats “would adversely impact NEPOOL’s ability to continue to foster candid discussions and negotiations in its stakeholder meetings.” But couldn’t town selectmen, city councilors, school and planning board members, numerous agency commissioners etc. etc. make the exact same candid-discussions argument for banning the press (and the public, it should be noted) from all their meetings?
Actual policy differences spotted during Massie-Gonzalez debate
Like the Seventh Congressional primary race, the Democratic gubernatorial contest hasn’t been marked by major policy differences between the two candidates, Bob Massie and Jay Gonzalez. But during the last night’s debate on WGBH’s ‘Greater Boston,’ small differences did emerge over rent control, congestion pricing and the need for more state revenues, reports Shira Schoenberg at MassLive.
Separately, the Globe’s Scot Lehigh recently tried to get the two progressive candidates to explain how they’d pay for all the new programs they’re touting. He didn’t get very far. Meanwhile, Eli Sherman at MetroWest Daily News has a good overview piece on the Democratic and Republican primaries for governor.
‘Anatomy of a smear’: Galvin’s questionable ‘dark money’ attack on Zakim
CommonWealth magazine’s Jack Sullivan takes a look at Secretary of State Bill Galvin’s charge that his primary opponent, City Councilor Josh Zakim, has accepted ‘dark money’ in the campaign and finds that the facts don’t exactly match what Galvin claims. Meanwhile, the Globe’s Milton Valencia takes a look at the throw-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink ad campaigns waged by Galvin and Zakim.
Tingle puts campaign on pause after the death of his mother
From SHNS’s Katie Lannan: “Lieutenant governor candidate Jimmy Tingle is putting his campaign on pause until next week after the death of his mother on Wednesday. … Frances Tingle, a Cambridge resident, was 90 years old when she died after a long illness, according to an obituary that said she was known as ‘Mama Tingle’ and is survived by her four children.” The suspension of campaign activities will last through Aug. 20.
SHNS (pay wall — free trial subscription available)
Lockouts: The new weapon of choice by employers against unions
As National Grid’s lockout of 1,250 workers continues, the Globe’s Katie Johnston reports that, when it comes to work stoppages in general these days, it’s more often than not the result of employers using a lockout to get their way in contract talks. “This shift suggests that strikes have become a much weaker tool for unions, while management continues to lock out workers as a way to call the shots at the bargaining table,” she writes.
No matter who wins the Capuano-Pressley race, there will be a lot of progressive soul-searching after it’s all over
David Bernstein at Boston Magazine says that, sure, there’s not many police differences between U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano and City Councilor Ayanna Pressley. But he writes that, not matter who wins the Seventh Congressional primary battle, it “will be almost impossible not to read the result as a harbinger of what’s to come” for the Democratic party in general and progressives in particular.
In an editorial, the Bay State Banner, the region’s premier African-American paper, writes about how tough a call it is to choose between Capuano and Pressley – and it doesn’t make a call. “It’s up to the sophisticated voter to determine whether it’s prudent to sacrifice the performance already provided by Capuano for perceived racial or gender progress.”
Michael Dukakis: ‘Still walking the walk’ at 84
David Abel at the Globe has a brief but nice story about spotting former Gov. Michael Dukakis on a path near Northeastern University, picking up someone’s else trash, without anyone looking, just as he did 15 years when Abel last wrote about Dukakis’s cleaning-up penchant. “At 84, the Duke is still walking the walk,” Abel writes.
Big dividends: State pension fund nets 9.5 percent return last fiscal year
More good news on the financial front for the state. From SHNS’s Colin Young (pay wall): “The return on investment for the state’s $72 billion pension investment fund exceeded estimates at 9.5 percent after accounting for fees in fiscal year 2018, the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board announced. Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer Michael Trotsky made the announcement this week and said PRIM’s private equity portfolio, which returned 19.9 percent net of fees, and the 11.7 percent return from its global equities portfolio led the way for PRIM in fiscal 2018.”
About Baker’s support for Rep. Lyons …
Christian Wade at the Eagle-Tribune reports on the pushback Republican Gov. Charlie Baker is getting for his support of Rep. Jim Lyons, who has “drawn criticism from Democrats and liberal groups who point out that the Republican conservative has bucked the governor on transgender protections, abortion and LGBT rights.”
Boston reduces chronic homelessness even as it rises nationally
File this one under: ‘Very good news.’ Lynn Jolicoeur at WBUR reports that new federal data shows Boston has cuts its chronic homelessness by 20 percent since 2016, thanks to an aggressive program of keeping track of the homeless and finding them temporary or permanent housing as soon as possible. The city’s positive trend stands in contrast to the rest of the nation, where chronic homelessness increased by 12 percent between 2016 and 2017.
But Boston isn’t declaring victory, with plans to build over 200 more small-sized units of “permanent supportive housing,” reports Kathleen McKiernan at the Herald.
No gondola, but developer is offering new privately funded bus route
Universal Hub is reporting that the developer of the old Boston Edison power plant site has filed revised plans for a massive mixed-use re-development of the South Boston property, going so far as to offer a new privately funded bus route as a possible solution to waterfront traffic gridlock. No gondola is mentioned, unlike a proposal by a certain other developer in the Seaport area.
Lowell’s historic textile mills now featured on U.S. quarters
This is pretty cool. From WBUR: “A ‘mill girl’ working at a power loom in Lowell will soon be depicted on a new quarter, the U.S. Mint announced this week. The new 25-cent piece is part of the Mint’s America the Beautiful Quarters Program, in which quarters represent a national park or other site in each state and U.S. territory. 2019, with the Massachusetts quarter and four others, will be the 10th year of the program.”
MBTA buses would honor Rosa Parks annually under bill passed by House
Finally, this is a simple and nice idea. From SHNS’s Katie Lannan (pay wall): “All MBTA buses would display a sticker or other designation honoring civil rights icon Rosa Parks during the month of February under a bill given initial approval by the House Thursday. The bill (S 2410), sponsored by Milton Sen. Walter Timilty, was endorsed by the Transportation Committee in June and passed the Senate with no discussion on July 16.”
Brew at the Zoo at Franklin Park Zoo
Don’t miss the ninth annual Brew at the Zoo! Brew at the Zoo is a beer-tasting event that offers guests the opportunity to walk on the wild side as they sample offerings from local breweries and restaurants.
Examination of Laboratory, Medical and Device issues including Performance, Risk and Validation following Regulatory and ICH Statistical Guidelines
Strategies for Improving Effectiveness and Efficiency of your Quality Management System
Parks for All: How City Parks Address Inequity
The Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center invites a panel of experts to address the question of how cities can achieve equitable access to open spaces.
Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library
Former Governor Michael Dukakis kicks off Canvass for Katie McBrine for State Senate
Join Michael and Kitty Dukakis for coffee and breakfast pastries before heading out to canvass for Dr. Katie McBrine. Please arrive by 11AM to hear the Duke introduce Katie. Canvassing will begin about 12PM. Bring the kids!
Committee to Elect Katie McBrine
International Conference on Planetary Science and Particle Physics (CSE)
Conference Series LLC Ltd cordially invite all the participants from all over the world to share their latest research in the field of Planetary Science and Particle Physics at International conference on Planetary Science and Particle Physics which is going to be held on August 27-28, 2018 at Boston, USA.
21st International Conference on Past and Present Research Systems on Green Chemistry
Conference Series is glad to announce 21st International Conference on Past and Present Research Systems on Green Chemistry, August 27-28, 2018 at Boston, USA. Green Chemistry 2018 will be organized around the theme “Encouraging World Towards Pure Techniques”.
International Conference on Clinical Pediatrics and Medicine (CSE) A
ConferenceSeries LLC Ltd is privileged to announce its “International Conference on Pediatric Hospital Medicine” with the innovative theme “Dynamic and Collegial approach of Pediatric Hospitalists” which will be held during August 29-30, 2018 inBoston, USA.
4th Annual Congress on Infectious Diseases (CSE) A
Conference Series LLC LTD Conferences invites all the participants from all over the world to attend “4th Annual Congress on Infectious Diseases” during August 29-30, 2018 Boston, USA which includes prompt keynote presentations, special sessions, workshops, symposiums, oral talks, poster presentations and exhibitions.
John Angus & Harvard RTC hosting: Meet & Greet for Candidate Rick Green
John Angus and the Harvard Republican Town Committee invite you to Meet Congressional Candidate Rick Green at the Hildreth House (15 Elm Street Harvard, MA) from 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM on Wednesday, August 29th. This is your opportunity to speak with Rick about any issues or concerns you might have about Massachusetts’ 3rd Congressional district. We hope to see you there!
Today’s Headlines
Metro
Trump criticizes Boston Globe in wake of editorials supporting the free press – Boston Globe
Boston Herald lays off most of its advertising reps – BBJ
Boston Reduces Chronic Homelessness As It Rises Nationally – WBUR
Blue Bikes Are Coming To Mattapan, Roslindale And More Parts Of Dorchester – WBUR
Massachusetts
Worcester officials to hold announcement on PawSox deal Friday – MassLive
Lowell’s Mills Will Be Featured On New U.S. Quarters – WBUR
Nation
Aretha Franklin, Indomitable ‘Queen of Soul,’ Dies at 76 – NYT
Omarosa releases secret recording of $15,000-a-month job offer from Lara Trump – Boston Globe
How to Contact MASSterList
Send tips to Matt Murphy: Editor@MASSterList.com. For advertising inquiries and job board postings, please contact Dylan Rossiter: Publisher@MASSterList.com or (857) 370-1156. Follow @MASSterList on Twitter.