Happening Today
Gaming Commission, MBTA Board, Lelling on the air
— Gov. Charlie Baker, UTEC staff, Safe and Successful Youth Initiative stakeholders and elected officials participate in a roundtable discussion on the Safe and Successful Youth Initiative, UTEC Haverhill, 241 Winter Street, Haverhill, 9:30 a.m.
— U.S. Sen. Ed Markey joins Quincy District Court Chief Justice Mark Coven, Clerk Magistrate Arthur Tobin, Mayor Thomas Koch, former lieutenant governor and attorney general Frank Bellotti, to celebrate Law Day, Francis Bellotti Courthouse, Quincy Center, 9:30 a.m.
— The Gaming Commission meets to receive a report on Encore Boston Harbor, vote on the casino’s independent traffic monitoring plan, receive a summary of changes since the casino’s design was approved, 101 Federal St., 12th floor, Boston, 10 a.m.
— Gov. Charlie Baker participates in a naturalization ceremony hosted by the Museum of Fine Arts, Shapiro Family Courtyard, Museum of Fine Arts, 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, 11 a.m.
— The MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board holds its weekly meeting with an agenda calling for discussion of the Commuter Rail Vision project, a ferry contract, bus service and more, State Transportation Building, 10 Park Plaza, Boston, 12 p.m.
— Gov. Charlie Baker meets privately with House Speaker Robert DeLeo, Senate President Karen Spilka, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr and House Minority Leader Brad Jones, Governor’s Office, Room 360, 2 p.m.
— U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Andrew Lelling is a guest on Jim Braude’s ‘Greater Boston,’ WGBH-TV Ch. 2, 7 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
Is the state looking at a $1B surplus this year?
To start the week off on a positive note: SHNS’s Michael Norton reports that state tax collections in April were way above projections, putting the state in the position to finish the current fiscal year with a nearly $1 billion surplus – if May and June revenue projections hold. That may be a big “if,” considering the up-and-down tax collection trends of late. We’ll see.
Show of force: Pelosi, Pressley, Clark and Ocasio-Cortez stand by DAs in ICE showdown
They’re rallying around their fellow women. The Herald’s Lisa Kashinsky reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who was at Tufts on Friday, was slamming president Trump for his criticism of Suffolk and Middlesex DAs Rachael Rollins and Marian Ryan’s lawsuit against ICE’s courthouse-detention antics. Kashinsky reports separately that U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is also throwing her support behind the dynamic DA duo.
Meanwhile, the Globe’s Victoria McGrane reports U.S. Reps. Katherine Clark and Ayanna Pressley are backing Rollins and Ryan as well. Btw: Ocasio-Cortez was in town this weekend stumping for a local candidate running for the select board in Brookline. Yes, the select board. Marcela Gracia at the Globe has more.
Meanwhile, DAs fire salvos at … state judges
From Mary Markos at the Herald: “A group of district attorneys are demanding that state judges stop using an unauthorized list of sentencing guidelines that hasn’t been approved by the Legislature. ‘This is not the time for the Massachusetts Judiciary to be ignoring the separation of powers and usurping the powers reserved to the Legislature, but that is what they are doing,’ Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey said. ‘As a former legislator, I can attest that this is not a grey area. It is a bright line.’”
The other DAs taking aim at judges are Essex’s Jonathan Blodgett, Plymouth’s Timothy Cruz and the Cape’s Michael O’Keefe.
Freed from prison after serving 30 years in Springfield rape case, man facing new rape charge in Lawrence
You’ll be hearing more, lots more, about this in coming days. From Patrick Johnson at MassLive: “George Perrot, a Springfield native freed from prison after serving 30 years for a rape he says he did not commit, is now awaiting trial in Lawrence, where he is accused of raping an unconscious woman on a city sidewalk in January, The Republican has learned. Perrot, 50, is scheduled to be arraigned in Essex Superior Court on Monday on charges of rape, open and gross lewdness, resisting arrest, and assault and battery on a police officer.”
Not happy with ‘restorative justice’ handed out in Arlington
Speaking of justice (or lack thereof), Jerome Campbell at WBUR reports that more than a few people are upset with the “restorative justice” meted out to an Arlington police lieutenant who wrote controversial columns calling for officers to “meet violence with violence” and describing criminals as “maggots.” The officer is now back on the force following a restorative-justice process that, effectively, amounted to a form of shaming.
MBTA’s new all-electronic fare collection system will be delayed
And we thought the arrival of new trains was the key to success. From the Globe’s Adam Vaccaro: “The MBTA’s $700 million effort to convert to all-electronic fare collection is behind schedule, a blow to a high-profile project that the agency has cast as a near silver-bullet solution to many of its service problems and pricing limitations. … The delays apparently involve technology issues with the T’s vendor, as well as difficult policy decisions, such as how to conduct random fare checks that the new system will require.”
MIA: Baker’s appointees to T pension board seem to miss a lot of meetings
Meanwhile, the Globe’s Matt Stout reports that Gov. Charlie Baker has made a big deal about reforming the MBTA’s struggling pension fund, but three of his appointees to the seven-person fund board seem to regularly miss a lot of meetings. They must have more important things to do.
Warren: ‘What a frickin’ clown car I’ve found myself in’
OK, Elizabeth Warren really didn’t say that about her Dem rivals. Instead, SNL’s Kate McKinnon, reprising her spoof of Warren, said it. Ray Kelly at MassLive has more, including the full video of the SNL skit.
Bill de Blaiso: Bay State’s fourth contribution to the presidential race?
The Daily News reports that New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is poised to announce later this week that, yes, he too is running for president in the Dem primary, prompting Universal Hub’s Adam Gaffin to pronounce of the Cambridge native and heroic Red Sox fan: “We could soon have four people with Massachusetts ties running for president.” We would have had a fifth if Michael Bloomberg hadn’t chickened out.
Speaking of mayors running for president, Pete Buttigieg’s candidacy represents a new, and welcome, norm for gay candidates in America, says former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, reports the Globe’s Michael Levenson.
Boston Uber drivers to join nationwide strike this week over wages
This is interesting. From a report at WBUR: “Uber drivers in Boston announced Sunday they will be joining drivers in major cities across the country in a strike about wages on Wednesday, the day before the ride-hailing company is scheduled to go public. The Boston Independent Drivers Guild said its action is meant as a show of solidarity with striking drivers in cities including Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C. and others. The guild is asking drivers and passengers not to use ride-hailing apps for 24 hours.”
Judge blocks parts of Boston’s new Airbnb ordinance
Speaking of new-economy companies, from the Globe’s Jeremy Fox: “A federal judge has temporarily blocked the City of Boston from enacting two provisions of a short-term rental ordinance passed last summer but is allowing officials to proceed with a third element of the act regulating the growing online market for lodgings in private homes.”
Quincy dunks Walsh’s latest offer on Long Island
It’s an offer they could refuse. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has offered to give Quincy officials veto power over any private development that could occur on Long Island if a bridge to the harbor island is rebuilt, Jon Chesto reports at the Globe. But Quincy leaders — who control the spit of land where the bridge originates — aren’t budging and now appear to be suspicious of the city’s decision to include the island in a federal program meant to spur development.
So it’s come to this: Nonprofit running schools in Haiti rejects Kraft’s $100K donation
From the Globe’s Brian MacQuarrie: “The president of a Rhode Island-based organization that provides free schooling for hundreds of impoverished children in Haiti has rejected a $100,000 donation from Robert Kraft, the New England Patriots owner who is facing prostitution charges in Florida.”
The issue: Human trafficking.
Herald resumes its offensive against long-closed newspaper’s adult ads
Technically (and distantly) speaking, this item is also related to human trafficking. But it also comes across as a weird continuation of a long-ago feud between the Boston Herald and the Boston Phoenix – both of which loathed each other. Anyway, from the Herald’s Joe Dwinell: “One of the city’s leading crusaders against sexual abuse in the Catholic church is calling on Northeastern University to explain to human-trafficking victims why it hosts the archives of the now-defunct Boston Phoenix — an alternative weekly fueled by prostitution ads.”
The Herald’s Wendy Murphy is rushed into the fray as a reinforcement. Meanwhile, Universal Hub’s Adam Gaffin fires a salvo at the Herald’s own long-ago transgressions, suggesting it might want to rethink the use of the word “woke” considering its own past.
SJC to hear Globe suit over ‘secret court’ records
Shira Schoenberg at MassLive reports on tomorrow’s Supreme Judicial Court hearing on the Boston Globe’s suit to obtain the records of “secret court” proceedings held by clerk magistrates behind closed courthouse doors.
It’s all quiet at pro-Palestine event at UMass – not so quiet 5,500 miles away
Only 10 protesters showed up outside a controversial pro-Palestinian forum held Saturday evening at UMass-Amherst, where more than 2,000 attendees packed an auditorium to hear largely pro-Palestinian speakers denouncing Israeli treatment of Arabs in Israel, reports Jim Russell at MassLive.
Meanwhile, Rick Sobey at the Herald reports that the “Boston Jewish community stood in solidarity with their brothers and sisters in Israel Sunday after four Israelis were killed in a barrage of rocket attacks in Gaza — the first Israeli fatalities from rocket fire since a 2014 war.”
Rep. Dave Nangle: A true DINO?
Some Lowell Democrats say there’s an out-of-control political species roaming in their parts: A DINO, not to be confused with a RINO, and they say it’s time for House Speaker Robert DeLeo to crack down on Rep. Dave Nangle’s frequent support for Republican candidates in Massachusetts, even though he calls himself a Democrat. Elise Takahama has the details at the Lowell Sun.
DeLeo: More drug-pricing legislation likely on the way
The House has already passed a bill allowing MassHealth to negotiate drug prices as a way to contain the state’s ballooning health-care costs – and House Speaker Robert DeLeo is signaling that more prescription price-control legislation may be on the horizon, reports Jessica Bartlett at the BBJ. Pharmaceutical lobbyists, you’ve been warned.
Massachusetts: Shining bright star of health care? Not compared to other countries
Speaking of health care, Harvard’s John E. McDonough and research assistant Maya Kiel crunched the data and found that, yeah, sure, Massachusetts stacks up well against other states when it comes to the quality of health care. But it doesn’t stack up so well against other advanced countries. In fact, we’re rather mediocre, McDonough writes at CommonWealth magazine.
Alex Cora decides not to attend White House celebration
We have an idea: How about ending the tradition of sports teams celebrating championships at the White House? Not because Red Sox manager Alex Cora has decided he won’t attend this Thursday’s event at the White House, saying he’s disappointed with the Trump administration’s response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, as the Herald’s Michael Silverman reports. It’s because these events have become too politicized in recent years, no matter who’s in the White House, and very few would miss them if they just disappeared.
Twisting in the wind: Falmouth looks for help exiting turbine business
Anyone want to adopt a couple windmills? Falmouth officials are seeking offers to move the town’s two shuttered wind turbines off public property and operate them in partnership with the community, Christine Legere reports at the Cape Cod Times. Finding a partner could help the town avoid having to pay back millions of dollars in grants used to erect and operate the turbines, before the courts ordered them stopped.
Town meeting goes (partially) virtual in North Andover
Residents in North Andover can now weigh in on warrant articles to be decided at Town Meeting via the web — and while the virtual votes are non-binding, some see the novel step as a move toward a more digitized version of the old New England town-meeting tradition, Paul Tennant reports at the Eagle-Tribune. The town’s moderator says he’ll release the results of the online votes on articles once town meeting is over.
Four women allege discrimination and retaliation at BPD
The Globe’s Meghan Ironsreports on four recent lawsuits in state and federal courts charging the Boston Police Department with gender, sexual and racial discrimination against four women – as well as retaliation in some cases when they complained.
Sports betting bill may determine future of horse racing in Great Barrington
Great Barrington is at the gate and raring to go, but whether the Berkshires town will host live horse racing starting next year will likely be determined by legislative action on proposals to legalize sports betting in the state, Heather Bellows reports at the Berkshire Eagle. The company that runs Suffolk Downs — where live racing in likely in its final lap this season — has already begun evaluating the track in Great Barrington and now awaits action on bills to allow both live racing and simulcast betting, which lawmakers say will likely be combined into a sports betting mega-bill.
Military history buffs alert: New war museum in Hudson
The Collings Foundation, the same nonprofit outfit that hosts the annual ‘Battle of the Airfield’ reenactment in Stow every fall, has opened a new 70,000-square-foot museum in Hudson that houses one of the largest tank and military-vehicle collections in the United States. Wicked Local and WBUR’s Dan Guzman have the details. We briefly visited the new American Heritage Museum over the weekend — and it’s indeed pretty amazing.
Advanced Analytics and Artificial Intelligence Impact on Healthcare
This forum will provide attendees with the opportunity to hear both pros and cons as the healthcare industry moves forward with these types of advancements in technologies. In light of Governor Baker’s comments regarding the space, we welcome further dialog as to what is real and what is science fiction.
Sen. Jo Comerford, Rep. Paul Mark, and SAS
Offshore Wind Panel
YPE is excited to announce that we will be hosting a panel discussion on offshore wind energy at WilmerHale later this spring! Our panelists and moderator represent a diverse group of stakeholder interests from the growing offshore wind industry here in Boston, from finance and development to engineering and manufacturing.
NETWORK Conference
The Massachusetts Coalition for Adult Education (MCAE) brings together over 500 adult educators, counselors, administrators, volunteers, and activists for its annual NETWORK Conference, the largest gathering of its kind in New England.
Massachusetts Coalition for Adult Education (MCAE)
Intro to Construction Management Onsite Course
This is a two-part course that will be held on May 10, 2019, and May 17, 2019. Introduction to Construction Management will provide students with a practical understanding of the planning, design and construction processes from project initiation to closeout.
Book Talk: Boston’s 20th-Century Bicycling Renaissance
Author talk and book signing with Lorenz J. Finison, author of the new book Boston’s Twentieth-Century Bicycling Renaissance.
State Library of Massachusetts
A Conversation With Bill Cummings
Young professionals are invited to hear from Cummings Properties founder Bill Cummings as he discusses his career, dedication to philanthropy and new self-written memoir.
Poverty and Inequality in Boston: A Tale of Two Cities?
Join us for a discussion about what we can do about income inequality in Boston.
JALSA 2019 Annual Meeting
The Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action is devoted to engaging the community in promoting civil rights, protecting civil liberties and achieving social, economic, racial, and environmental justice.
Massachusetts Clean Community Awards Gala
The Massachusetts Clean Community Awards Gala recognize volunteers, nonprofit leaders, government leaders, businesses, and educators for exceptional environmental protection and community improvement efforts. This celebration will be chock full of inspiring stories, good food, drink, and entertainment! WCVB news anchors Emily Riemer and Ben Simmoneau will emcee the event.
Today’s Headlines
Metro
Walsh dismisses concerns over incoming superintendent’s past – Boston Herald
Bellotti revs up for Quincy College rebound – Patriot Ledger
Massachusetts
MidTown Mall in Worcester, eyed for eminent domain, sold for $4 million – Worcester Magazine
Residents react with dismay, sadness after swastika found on Foxboro school grounds – Sun Chronicle
Mass. bill would stiffen penalties for harassing hunters – MassLive
Nation
Want to fix presidential elections? Here’s the fastest way – Politico
U.S. deploys aircraft carrier to Middle East in show of force aimed at Iran – Washington Post
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