Happening Today
Cannabis Commission, new Orange Line cars, and more
— Cannabis Control Commission convenes to accept public input on their new draft regulations for the medical marijuana and adult-use sectors, 50 Milk St., 8th floor, Boston, 10 a.m.
— Gov. Charlie Baker, Secretary of Transportation Stephanie Pollack and MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak introduce the first group of new Orange Line cars being put into service, Wellington Station, 1000 Constitution Way, Medford, 10:30 a.m.
— 32BJ SEIU President Roxana Rivera and Brazilian Workers’ Center Executive Director Natalicia Tracy speak at a press conference with Massachusetts Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders in support of the program, Moakley Courthouse, 1 Courthouse Way, Boston, 12 p.m.
— U.S. Sen. Ed Markey holds a town hall discussion on the Green New Deal Resolution he introduced with U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Greater New Bedford Vocational Technical High School, 1121 Ashley Blvd., New Bedford, 6:30 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
Top education official resigns after name appears on list of ex-priests accused of child sexual abuse
From Adam Gaffin at Universal Hub: “Keith Westrich, associate commissioner for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, who long worked on programs to get high-school kids ready for life after graduation, resigned last week after his name was published in a list of former ‘clergy with substantiated allegations of sexual abuse of a minor’ issued by the Archdiocese of St. Louis.”
Shira Schoenberg at MassLive has more. Some questions: Should the state have at least suspected (and looked into) this sooner, considering his ex-priest status? Then again, could the state have known about this, considering the church’s secretive and shuffle-them-around practices?
Massachusetts police group blasts Warren over Ferguson ‘murder’ comment
If Elizabeth Warren wins the Democratic nomination for president, you can safely bet Republicans will be making an endorsement beeline to the Massachusetts Coalition of Police, which is blasting Warren for tweeting that police “murdered” an 18-year-old black man in Ferguson, Missouri in in 2014. Sarah Betancourt at CommonWealth has the details.
Meanwhile, the Herald is going full Herald on this one, with a front-page headline “Liz crosses blue line … again!” and an accompanying story by Joe Dwinell.
He’s doomed: Joe Biden is the new Mitt Romney?
Speaking of the presidential race, Dan Balz at the Washington Post sees a lot of similarities between Joe Biden’s current president campaign and Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012 – with both candidates managing to hold onto their respective primary leads despite their bumbling and stumbling ways. But if the similarities extend into the general election, don’t forget Romney lost in 2012, not exactly a welcome harbinger to come for Biden (or for Democrats in general).
Why wait? Somerville mayor plans supervised consumption site, feds be damned
He’s done debating. Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone says he will open a supervised consumption site — where opioid users can use the drug under the watchful eye of doctors and nurses — as early as next year, possibly setting up a major showdown with federal authorities, Bob Oakes and Martha Bebinger report at WBUR. U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling has said unless the Justice Department changes its stance, communities can expect federal enforcement action against such sites.
Meanwhile, Milton Valencia at the Globe reports that the Boston City Council is revisiting the idea of safe-injection sites, amid tensions over the South End police sweeps.
Nahant: Nice views, not so nice beaches
Shira Schoenberg at MassLive reports on a new report, released yesterday by the Environment Massachusetts and Frontier Group, detailing potentially unsafe levels of pollution at 200 Bay State beaches in 2018. Nahant has three of the top five questionable beaches. Quincy isn’t far behind in terms of tested beaches.
Back to the future: The Red Line’s antiquated signal-system technology
As Gov. Charlie Baker and others gather today for the launch of the Orange Line’s subway cars of the future, the Globe’s Shirley Leung steps back in time, literally and figuratively, as she tours the Red Line’s signal-switching station and finds technology so old that they can’t buy parts for it anymore.
Caught on video: A cautionary texting-and-driving crash in Berlin
George Barnes at the Telegram has a story, and an accompanying dashboard video, of a car crash in Berlin that police say was caused by a texting-and-driving motorist. The driver is damn lucky to be alive, that’s all we can say.
Schilling for Congress? Trump gives him a bump
We liked this lead from the Herald’s Sean Philip Cotter: “Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling — of bloody-sock fame and Rhode Island video gaming company ignominy — is getting a nudge to run for Congress from President Trump.”
There’s a catch: The conservative Schilling is mulling a run in Arizona, not Massachusetts, where he recently considered challenging U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The Globe’s Adrian Walker isn’t wishing Curt well.
SJC reinstates judge’s salary as she fights immigrant-escape charges
From Shannon Dooling at WBUR: “A suspended Newton district court judge accused of helping an undocumented immigrant evade arrest at a courthouse will now be paid after a decision issued Tuesday by the state’s Supreme Judicial Court. The ruling essentially reverses the SJC’s original order issued the same day as the judge’s indictment.”
The original suspension was a punitive move that deserved to be reversed, in our humble opinion, for she’s innocent until proven guilty. Btw: She makes $181,000 a year.
The City of Champions’ campaign donation champ: Donald Trump
More proof that Brockton is no Brookline. Mina Corpuz at the Enterprise reports that President Trump is the top recipient of campaign donations from residents in the Brockton area, beating out all Dem presidential candidates.
Speaking of the presidential campaign, the Herald’s Lisa Kashinsy reports that hundreds of Democratic activists are planning to protest Trump’s rally in New Hampshire tomorrow.
Running for mayor of Brockton, one month at a time
Speaking of Brockton, the Herald’s Howie Carr gives Mark Lawton, the former state representative and judge who’s now running for mayor in Brockton, the Howie treatment, getting Lawton to admit he signed a month-to-month apartment lease in the city the day of the late mayor Bill Carpenter’s funeral.
Walsh can now scratch ‘run for governor’ off of his bucket list
Political columnist Peter Lucas at the Lowell Sun writes that it’s now highly unlikely that Mayor Marty Walsh, a former state representative, will ever run for governor, thanks to the recent Boston Calling convictions. Not that modern Boston mayors have had much luck running for governor anyway, as Lucas writes.
Mystery moves: South Shore Health CEO and another executive suspended by board
South Shore Hospital’s leadership team is in turmoil this morning following the surprise suspensions of the parent health system’s CEO and another top executive for unexplained reasons, report Jessica Trufant at the Patriot Ledge. The Globe’s Priyanka Dayal McCluskey reports the suspensions come “amid merger discussions between South Shore and Wellforce, the parent company of Tufts Medical Center, and after the abrupt departure earlier this month of Pamela Whelton, who had worked in the organization for more than 20 years, most recently as president of South Shore Hospital since April.”
‘The administration capitulated to the loudest voice in the room’
Catherine Elton at Boston Magazine interviews Ronald J. Sullivan Jr., the Harvard law professor who was recently ousted as a house dean at Harvard for having the audacity to legally represent an unpopular figure, i.e. Harvey Weinstein. Sullivan makes clear who’s to blame for the action against him: “The administration capitulated to the loudest voice in the room.” He also makes clear that the issue of campus free-speech is now on his activist radar screen.
Alan Dershowitz vs. David Boies: The battle of aging legal titans
Is it wrong to hope both of them lose? The Washington Post reports on the never-ending feud between aging legal titans Alan Dershowitz and David Boies, with their latest skirmishing centering on the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case.
EEE clampdown in southeast Massachusetts
They’re cancelling evening concerts, youth football and other outdoor events in southeast Massachusetts as a result of the Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE) alert put out by the state. The Globe’s Johanna Seltz has the details on the mosquito-borne disease that’s hit “critical” levels in nine towns.
Thanks, Midwest. Methadone finally migrates to Massachusetts
The Globe’s Felice Freyer reports that methamphetamine, the highly addictive drug that can wreak absolute havoc with one’s body and brain, has most definitely made the migration from the West and Midwest to New England, alarming health officials and causing various social woes, such as those recently seen in the South End’s so-called ‘Methadone Mile.’
Norwood: A media capital to rival NYC?
Not quite. But Norwood’s National Amusement Inc. is at the corporate heart of the mega-merger between CBS and Viacom, thanks to the efforts of Shari Redstone, a member of the Redstone family that controls 80 percent of the voting shares of CBS and Viacom. The Globe’s Jon Chesto explains.
As merger wobbles, GateHouse continues layoffs, including showing the door to long-time columnist
Speaking of the media, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette is now without a news columnist for the first time in memory after GateHouse Media made another round of staffing cuts at its Bay State publications. The Telegram cut loose Clive McFarlane after 26 years, and the columnist said he was not allowed to write a farewell piece on his way out the door, Grant Welker reports at the Worcester Business Journal.
Meanwhile, Poynter.org reports that two reporters were cut from Cape Cod Times and that both the Standard-Times in New Bedford and the Herald News in Fall River lost two staffers as part of a nationwide culling.
Fed study of offshore wind could stretch into 2020?
This is no mere short delay. From SHNS’s Colin A. Young: “With a critical permit for the Vineyard Wind project on hold so the federal government can launch a new study of the burgeoning offshore wind industry and its potential consequences, the agency conducting that study said Tuesday its review could stretch into 2020.”
SHNS (pay wall — free trial subscription available)
Group launches draft Kennedy for Senate campaign
If this is a trial balloon, we suspect it will only rise an inch or two higher. Jim Hand at the Sun Chronicle reports on a push for U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy to challenge U.S. Sen. Edward Markey in next year’s Dem primary election. The notion moved out of the realm of political fantasy a couple weeks ago, when a mystery poll began asking voters about such a run and has grown since to include Facebook groups asking Kennedy to jump into the race. Kennedy’s camp says he’s focused on winning re-election to the House in 2020.
Btw: Politico’s Stephanie Murray yesterday first reported on the Kennedy-draft movement.
Rollins: ‘Better to be a social justice prosecutor than a social injustice one’
Suffolk DA Rachael Rollins is hitting back against U.S. Attorney General William Barr, who recently criticized progressive ‘social justice’ prosecutors, Sean Philip Cotter reports at the Herald.
Some worry about lack of Lawrence preliminary election
Lawrence will likely have a preliminary municipal election in just one of its voting wards next month, saving the city tens of thousands of dollars but raising worries about voter turnout in November, Bill Kirk reports in the Eagle-Tribune. The city clerk informed the city council this week that not enough candidates have come forward to legally justify a preliminary vote for possibly the first time in city history.
PLAN: Downtown Public Alleys Walking Tour
Join the Boston Planning & Development Agency (BPDA) for a walking tour of Downtown Boston’s public alleys.
Boston Planning & Development Agency
Make Our Voices Heard – “Our Fight For Healthcare”
This event is designed to discuss the disparities that Black Women, the elderly, and other underserved demographics in America face during their experiences with the American healthcare system.
The Mary J. Harris Foundation, Inc.
Commercial Leasing Onsite Course
The course will provide an overview of the commercial leasing process and educate students on pertinent leasing issues and clauses in lease transactions for office, industrial and retail.
Deal Winning: Political Mapping and Execution (Braintree)
Identify opportunities by locating critical information. Ask yourself why your company is the best choice by developing a message of value to convey to the executive sponsor. Develop a competitive strategy and avoid traps. Formulate a political strategy to gain enough support to win the sale.
Greg Nanigian and Associates – affiliate Sandler Training
Kiosk Unveiling and Reception: State of-the-art kiosk makes available the complete volumes of Susan B. Anthony’s Newspaper
The Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum now has a state-of-the-art, interactive kiosk that displays the complete, unedited Susan B. Anthony newspaper, The Revolution, from 1868-1872. The kiosk indexes the period, January 1868-May 1870, the years Anthony was the owner and publisher. The unveiling coincides with the opening of the National Suffrage Centennial, when women won the right to vote.
Susan B. Anthony Birthplace Museum
Authors@MIT | Nolen Gertz in Conversation with Robin James
Nolen Gertz in Conversation with Robin James discussing Gertz’s new book Nihilism
Town Hall Meeting on Climate Change with Sen. Edward Markey and Rep. Katherine Clark
A community discussion will be held at Framingham High School with Sen. Edward Markey and Rep. Katherine Clark, with plans to discuss “the Green New Deal resolution, a bold set of goals that calls for a national mobilization to transform the economy, fight climate change, and create millions of jobs.”
Tenant Rights and Responsibilities
A housing professional will provide an overview of tenant rights and responsibilities.
City of Boston’s Office of Housing Stability
2019 Malden Democratic City Committee Annual Summer BBQ
We hope you’ll join us for our summer BBQ! This annual event is always a lot of fun and a great chance to catch up with old friends while supporting MDCC.
Malden Democratic City Committee
Global Engagement Networking Night
Join WorldBoston, BNID, and UNAGB, three local international relations organizations, for an exciting evening on international affairs!
Today’s Headlines
Metro
Boston rates a B- in small business rankings – Boston Business Journal
GE’s largest union votes to ratify contract, Lynn branch calls off strike – Lynn Item
Massachusetts
NRC to approve Pilgrim license transfer – Cape Cod Times
Nation
How a McConnell-backed effort to lift Russian sanctions boosted a Kentucky project – Washington Post
Guards at jail where Jeffrey Epstein died were sleeping before his death – New York Times
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