Happening Today
Youth Climate Strike, nursing homes, and more
— Young and adult activists plan a series of Youth Climate Strikes across the country, including in Boston, to demand action to address the climate crisis, City Hall Plaza, Boston, 10 a.m.
— Gaming Commission Chairwoman Cathy Judd-Stein joins Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno, MGM Springfield President Michael Mathis and chef Paul Wahlberg for the groundbreaking of the new Wahlburgers restaurant at MGM Springfield, MGM Springfield, One MGM Way, Springfield, 11 a.m.
— Boston Federal Reserve president Eric Rosengren speaks at a conference on credit markets, NYU’s Paulson Auditorium, Tisch Hall, 40 West 4th Street, New York City, 11:20 a.m.
— The Nursing Home Task Force, which was formed as a requirement of the new state budget and charged with examining the problems facing the nursing home industry, holds its first meeting, with state Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders chairing, 1 Ashburton Place, 21st Floor, Conference Rooms 1 & 2, Boston, 2 p.m.
— Senate President Karen Spilka speaks at an event titled ‘May We Forever Stand”: Massachusetts Commemorates 400 Years of Black Resiliency,’ Greater Framingham Community Church, 44 Franklin St., Framingham, 7:30 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
Is the school funding debate over, just like that?
In a surprise move, Beacon Hill lawmakers yesterday unveiled a $1.4 billion school aid and funding-formula package that, perhaps even more surprisingly, is generating widespread praise for its fairness.
As Michael Jonas at CommonWealth magazine writes: “The bill goes a long way toward meeting the calls of education advocates and district leaders to significantly increase funding for schools educating high concentrations of low-income students.” SHNS’s Katie Lannan (pay wall) reports on the wave of early positive reviews of the package that significantly boosts education spending without new taxes. From the Berkshire Eagle: “Berkshire legislative delegation gives thumbs-up to $1.5B education funding overhaul.”
Kennedy vs Markey: They’re already taking sides
The Globe’s Victoria McGrane and Laura Krantz report that Democrats, both nationally and locally, are beginning to take sides in the coming Kennedy-Markey showdown for the U.S. Senate. Some D.C. types are furious Kennedy is challenging a fellow Democrat. But others are psyched. The Washington Post is framing the contest as a generational showdown. But Sarah Betancourt at CommonWealth writes that Kennedy’s past record on fossil fuels could hinder him on the climate-change activist front. The Herald’s Howie Carr just wishes both of them could lose. Last but not least: Bill Weld, now running for president as a Republican, is endorsing Kennedy, though he admits “he doesn’t want my endorsement,” as the Washington Post reports.
Kennedy’s seat: Let the scramble begin
Actually, the official scramble won’t start until after tomorrow’s official announcement by Joseph Kennedy III that he’s running for U.S. Senate, but SHNS’s Matt Murphy gets a jump on the scramble coverage, dropping lots of names of those eyeing Kennedy’s U.S. House seat: Treasurer Deb Goldberg; Jesse Mermell, the former director of the Alliance for Business Leadership; state Sen. Paul Feeney; Dave Cavell, a senior advisor to Attorney General Maura Healey and former speech writer in the Obama White House; and there’s plenty of other names, some intriguing, some far-fetched, etc.
SHNS (pay wall — free trial subscription available)
This just in: Matt Drudge predicts it’s now ‘Elizabeth Warren’s nomination to lose’
Matt Drudge was having a merry old time trumpeting this one yesterday at the Drudge Report: A Fox News report quoting him as saying it’s now “Elizabeth Warren’s nomination to lose.” Meanwhile, the NYT’s David Brooks looks even further into the future (from the perspective of 2050) and sees a Warren presidency, albeit one in which she gets little done.
In another non-traditional coverage of the Dem presidential race, Stephen Colbert’s grilling of Warren the other day on his TV show has led to this Washington Post piece: “The question Elizabeth Warren won’t answer.” Hint: It has to do with how Medicare for All would really have to be funded. Here’s a more traditional political piece, via the Globe’s James Pindell: “The 2020 Dem race is about Iowa — and increasingly only about Iowa.”
Weld, Sanford and Walsh: ‘Three Musketeers’ or ‘Three Stooges’?
Supporters refer to them as the “three Musketeers,” i.e. the three GOP challengers daring to take on President Donald Trump. But the NYT reports that, in one tweet swoop, Trump has reframed Bill Weld, Mark Sanford and Joe Walsh as the “Three Stooges.” Care to guess which moniker is sticking among the GOP faithful?
Town-gown showdown: Newton mayor wants to seize 17 acres of BC land via eminent domain
Setting the stage indeed. From the Globe’s John Hilliard: “Setting the stage for a town-gown dispute, Newton’s mayor said she will press for the city to acquire approximately 17 acres of Webster Woods from Boston College through eminent domain. ‘They see this land as critical to their future, but we know it is critical to ours,’ Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said in the statement Wednesday.” BC is vowing to oppose a takeover “to the fullest extent possible using all legal avenues.”
Feds: Terrorist suspect scouted Fenway Park and Prudential Center as potential targets
Federal officials in New York yesterday charged a man with ties to Hezbollah with scouting out potential targets for terrorism attacks in New York, Washington D.C. and Boston, where he reportedly scoped out Fenway Park and the Prudential Center, reports the Herald’s Lisa Kashinsky and Todd Prussman.
Scott Croteau at MassLive reports that State Police have announced there is no “current or specific threat” to Massachusetts.
Michelle Carter seeks early release in text-suicide case
Michelle Carter, 22, now serving a 15-month prison term for urging her despondent boyfriend to commit suicide, appeared before the Massachusetts Parole Board yesterday, reportedly to ask for an early release. The AP’s Philip Marcelo at WBUR and the Herald’s Stefan Geller have more.
‘Operation Clean Sweep’ sure swept up a lot of minor drug-possession offenders
The controversial “Operation Clean Sweep,” launched this summer after the assault on a corrections officer in the South End, was supposed to rid the area, once and for all, of drug dealers and violent offenders. But Jerome Campbell at WBUR reports that most of the arrests were for minor drug possession charges and old warrants.
Baker: National system needed to keep track of interstate driving violations
He may have a point, considering the incompetence exhibited by at least one state in terms of its driver-violation records, cough, cough. From SHNS’s Chris Lisinski: “Gov. Charlie Baker called Thursday for a national system to alert states immediately whenever one of their drivers incurs a violation in another state, a process that potentially could have kept a Massachusetts man off the road before he allegedly killed seven motorcyclists in a crash.”
SHNS (pay wall — free trial subscription available)
Post-employees walkout: Wayfair CEO says he likes prospective workers to be ‘non-political’
Three months after hundreds of Wayfair workers staged a walkout over the company’s ties to U.S. border-control agencies, Wayfair CEO Nirag Shah says that being “non-political” is one of the traits he looks for in potential employees. Lucia Maffei at the BBJ reports that Wayfair officials later tried to clarify what Shah actually meant by “non-political,” but we’ll let you decide what he may have meant.
State to towns: Time to pony up your own money for business tax-breaks
The BBJ’s Greg Ryan reports that the state Economic Assistance Coordinating Council yesterday approved a new policy tied to offering businesses incentives to expand in towns, to wit: “With some exceptions, it will reject (state) tax breaks for a project if the municipality does not also offer a tax incentive of its own.” In other words: Stop being so generous with state money.
Baker: State GOP condemnation of Muslim congresswomen was ‘wrong’
In the latest sign of the growing rift between Gov. Charlie Baker and conservative ideologues within the state GOP, the Republican governor said yesterday that a recently passed party resolution condemning two Muslim congresswomen from Minnesota and Michigan was the “wrong thing” to do in terms of public dialogue. Boston.com’s Nik DeCosta-Klipa and SHNSs Colin Young (pay all) have the details.
It’s official: The ‘Janus bill’ is the law of the land – if it survives a court challenge
It was as expected as anything can be expected on Beacon Hill: Lawmakers this week officially overrode Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto of the so-called “Janus bill,” which will allow unions to collect money from non-members to recover costs of effectively representing them in wage-and-benefit negotiations, reports SHNS’s Michael Norton (pay wall). But the conservative Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance is already vowing a court challenge to the new law, reports Shira Schoenberg at MassLive.
Trooper who posted racist rants indicted for shooting ATV driver during I-93 rampage
We noticed this story earlier this week, but Spencer Buell has added some context and facts that make it a lot more interesting, i.e. the racist rants and Cape Verdean angles. From Boston Magazine: “Matthew Sheehan, a state trooper suspended for allegedly writing deranged racist rants on a message board for Massachusetts police officers, has been indicted for shooting a Cape Verdean man on the highway last year, Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins announced Wednesday.”
Speaking of ugly rants, the Globe’s Gal Tziperman Lotan reports that a Boston police officer has been “placed on administrative leave after students from a Hyde Park charter school said he pushed them and used racist slurs last week while responding to a noise complaint at a fast-food restaurant.”
Report: State investigating MIT Media Lab for … environmental violations?
Already reeling from the resignation of its leader amid an outcry over donations from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the MIT Media Lab now has another problem on its hands: State investigators are looking into whether researchers at the lab dumped wastewater tainted with chemicals, potentially polluting waterways in Middleton, Max Larkin and Lisa Song report at WBUR.
Convention center board approves Hynes sale, but lawmakers will have the final say
The BBJ’s Catherine Carlock reports that the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority has approved the $500 million expansion of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, partly funded via the sale of the Hynes Convention Center in the Back Bay, as Gov. Charlie Baker has proposed. But Carlock note one big hurdle still remains: The Massachusetts General Court, i.e. Beacon Hill legislators.
Everything you need to know about today’s Youth Climate Strike
Thousands of young activists (and adults) are expected to descend on Boston today for a “Youth Climate Strike” rally, and WBUR’s Miriam Wasser and the Globe’s Zoe Greenberg have details about the planned event that will coincide with similar rallies across the country and globe today.
Developer to trot out plan for $60M race track in Rowley
The bid to revive live horse-racing in the state is about to become a three-way contest. A local investment firm on Monday will officially present its plans to build a $60 million horse racing track in Rowley, Jim Sullivan reports at the Salem News. The Rowley Group says it has control of a 284-acre plot of land in the town, in partnership with the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, and it will seek state approval to offer simulcast betting. Competing racecourse proposals are already on the table for Wareham and Great Barrington.
Green sticker shock: Amherst faces big bill for net-zero school
Being green costs some serious green. That’s the lesson Amherst is learning as it looks to build its first new elementary school since passing a bylaw that requires new buildings to create as much energy as they use, Scott Merzbach reports at the Daily Hampshire Gazette. Consultants say the town will have to pony up $7.7 million extra to comply with the bylaw, the vast majority of that on solar panels.
Sunday public affairs TV: Joseph Kennedy III, Wairfair CEO Niraj Shah and more
Keller at Large, WBZ-TV Channel 4, 8:30 a.m. This week’s guest: Body language expert Don Khoury analyzes the most recent Democratic presidential debate.
This Week in Business, NECN, 10 a.m. Nariman Behravesh, IHS Markit chief Economist, takes a look at the economy, including the Fed rate cut and Saudi oil attacks; Jim Rooney, CEO of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, talks about the proposal to expand the BCEC and sell the Hynes; and Doug Banks, editor of the Boston Business Journal, reviews the top local business stories of the week.
CEO Corner, NECN 10:30 a.m. Wayfair CEO Niraj Shah talks about the importance of technology to his mostly online furniture and home décor company, while his wife, Jill Shah, president of the Shah family foundation, discusses the work they’re doing to provide healthy and fresh foods to students in the Boston Public Schools.
On The Record, WCVB-TV Channel 5, 11 a.m. This week’s guest: U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III, who talks with hosts Ed Harding and Janet Wu, followed by a roundtable discussion with Democratic political analyst Mary Anne Marsh and Republican political analyst Rob Gray.
CityLine, WCVB-TV Channel 5, 12 p.m. With host Karen Holmes Ward, this week’s main topic: Making an Impact.
Boston Trade Compliance & Policy Seminar 2019
International trade regulations change constantly—old rules are updated and new regulations are added every day. Attend one of the full-day seminars in a location close to you to stay up to date on the latest information. Learn about changing international trade regulations with industry experts—C.H. Robinson’s Kevin Doucette and Jeff Simpson—who are passionate about the subject.
Boston Speakers Series: John Kerry
Kerry served as United States Secretary of State during President Barack Obama’s second term. He represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate for nearly thirty years, and was the Democratic Party’s nominee for president in 2004.
12th Annual Public Performance Conference
This year’s National Center for Public Performance (NCPP) Public Performance Conference marks the 12th year the nation’s top government and nonprofit performance professionals and academics will convene to emphasize the use of data to improve efficiency and efficacy of public services.
ADL’s Breaking Barriers Speaker Series Presents: Survivor’s Club with Michael & Debbie Bornstein
ADL’s Breaking Barriers Speaker Series presents: Survivors Club with Michael and Debbie Bornstein. Please join us on Thursday, September 26, 2019 to hear from Michael Bornstein, one of the youngest survivors of the Auschwitz death camp, and his daughter Debbie Bornstein, co-author of Survivors Club. Register by Wednesday, September 25: www.adl.org/breakingbarriers2019
Starr Forum: Iran Reframed
A discussion about the evolution of the Islamic Republic and its reaction to President Trump’s Iran strategy
MIT Center for International Studies (CIS)
Boston Speakers Series: John Kerry
Kerry served as United States Secretary of State during President Barack Obama’s second term. He represented Massachusetts in the United States Senate for nearly thirty years, and was the Democratic Party’s nominee for president in 2004.
Today’s Headlines
Metro
City Council plans hearing on sexual, domestic violence – Boston Herald
Closing time: Board approves sale of Doyle’s liquor license – Universal Hub
Massachusetts
DEA will increase enforcement and outreach on SouthCoast – Standard-Times
Framingham investment firm buys Boston women’s hockey team – Worcester Business Journal
Nation
Colt suspends production of AR-15 for consumer market – Associated Press
North America has lost 3 billion birds in 50 years – Washington Post
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