Happening Today
Governor’s Council, Walsh in Denmark, and more
— Governor’s Council holds a confirmation hearing for Nathan Byrnes, nominated by Gov. Baker as clerk magistrate of Westfield District Court, and then holds a second meeting with a possible vote on the nomination of David Deakin to the Superior Court bench, Council Chamber, 11 a.m. and 12 p.m., respectively.
— U.S. Rep. James McGovern is a guest on ‘Boston Public Radio,’ WGBH-FM 89.7, 11:30 a.m.
— U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley will host a roundtable discussion on how Congress and advocates will put pressure on the Trump Administration to follow through on their reinstatement of the Medical Deferred Action policy, 211 Congress Street, Boston, 4th Floor, 2 p.m.
– Gov. Charlie Baker tours AIS to celebrate October as Manufacturing Month in Massachusetts, 25 Tucker Street, Leominster, 4:30 p.m.
— Boston Mayor Martin Walsh travels to Copenhagen, Denmark, to join the international C40 Mayors World Climate Summit, discussing climate solutions with other leading cities committed to upholding the Paris Climate Agreement. –
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
Evicted: Suffolk sheriff’s office gives the boot to ICE
From the Globe’s Danny McDonald: “The Suffolk sheriff’s department said Tuesday that it will end its controversial relationship with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement so it can provide rehabilitative services to more women who will soon be housed at a South End jail.”
The Herald’s Joe Dwinell reports the eviction is just the latest in a “clash between Massachusetts liberal pols and ICE.”
Warren thrown on defensive over her 1970s teaching job
Was she fired because she was pregnant? Or did she just voluntarily leave her public-teaching post way back in 1971? Elizabeth Warren has given varying accounts – and now the media is jumping on the discrepancies. The Globe’s Jazmine Ulloa and Ryan Wangma and the Herald’s Lisa Kashinsky have the details, or lack thereof, as does the New York Times. The Herald’s Howie Carr, naturally, is all over the story.
Frontrunner, Part II: Warren indeed leads the pack, but for how long?
As she fends off controversy over her long-ago teaching job, MarketWatch reports that U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is indeed now leading Joe Biden in three out of the four latest polls, putting her firmly at the top in the average of surveys of Dem presidential candidates.
But the Globe’s Scot Lehigh writes that Warren has obtained frontrunner status partially by default, i.e. Bernie’s heart attack and Biden’s bumbling. The question, Lehigh writes, is how long Warren can stay at the top, where she’ll attract a lot of unwelcome attention (from her standpoint), such as questions about her past (see post above).
Can Romney lead what appears to be rising GOP support for impeachment?
The Globe’s Laura Krantz is blunt about the matter: “Over his long career, Mitt Romney has been a political chameleon.” So one has to question whether the Utah senator and former Massachusetts governor has the staying power to lead any future Republican impeachment drive against President Trump.
Of course, you might be wondering: What future Republican support for impeachment? After all, Mitt seems alone in his GOP criticism of Trump. But he’s mostly alone among Republican politicians, not Republican voters, 28 percent of whom now support the impeachment inquiry of Trump and 18 percent of whom say they support his ouster from office, according to a new Washington Post-Schar School poll. Those are pretty ominous numbers for the president, if you ask us.
Count Andrew Card, the former Massachusetts legislator and chief of staff to former President George W. Bush, as among the Republicans who support an impeachment inquiry, reports The Hill.
Weld: Case to impeach Trump ‘ten times’ the one that took down Nixon
Speaking of Republicans in favor of impeachment, Bill Weld should know. The GOP presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor — who served as a staff lawyer during impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon — says the arguments in favor of impeaching President Trump are “ten times” as strong as the case against Tricky Dick in 1974, according a report at New Hampshire Public Radio.
E-Scooters deemed too spooky for Salem’s big month
Even for Salem, it’s just too scary. The city says it will ban e-scooters from its downtown core during the month of October, when streets in the Witch City are typically clogged with Halloween-crazed visitors, Dustin Luca reports at the Salem News. The 250 or so Zagster scooters in the city will have their speeds reduced to 5 m.p.h. on weekdays and won’t operate at all in the downtown on weekends.
And it’s definitely the political witching hour in Salem
Speaking of Salem, the city’s infamous witch-hunt history is once again playing out on the national political stage. This time, it’s Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, who blasted out a tweet saying that “even Salem witch trials didn’t use anonymous testimony,” Abbi Matheson reports in the Globe. U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton is countering with his own Salem tweet.
Lawmakers: Nice $18B transportation bill. But how are you going to pay for it all?
Gov. Charlie Baker yesterday pitched his $18 billion transportation bill, the one that allegedly doesn’t include new taxes, if you assume a future “cap-and-invest” payment scheme isn’t really a tax even though motorists would be paying more at the pump for gas. Yet, Rep. William Straus of Mattapoisett and Sen. Joseph Boncore of Winthrop say the state needs to bring in new money to pay for its wide-ranging infrastructure needs, beyond, we assume, the envisioned “cap-and-invest” revenue. Bruce Mohl at CommonWealth magazine and SHNS’s Chris Lisinski (pay wall) have more on yesterday’s legislative hearing on the bond bill.
Speaking of transportation, Bruce Gellerman at WBUR reports that the Conservation Law Foundataion plans to sue the state for DOT allowing all drivers to use I-93’s high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane.
‘Pure politics’? Candidate for mayor accused of outing high schooler over intercom
Holyoke mayoral candidate D. Joseph Morrissette is dismissing as “pure politics” an accusation that he outed a gay high school student by allowing a conversation about a sexual encounter to be broadcast over the school’s intercom system, Janet DeForge reports at MassLive. Timothy Vadnais made the accusation in a lengthy YouTube video. Morrissette called the charge “pure politics” and notes that the father of the accuser is himself a candidate for a seat on the Holyoke city council.
Calling State Police chief Gilpin: Hello? Anyone there?
Maybe she’s on radio silence? The Globe’s Matt Rocheleau and Matt Stout report that the head of the Massachusetts State Police, Colonel Kerry A. Gilpin, has been awfully quiet and hard to spot amid a seemingly unremitting wave of scandals hitting her agency. The Baker administration is standing by Gilpin’s out-of-the-spotlight/below-the-radar/radio-silence style of leadership.
Springfield’s mayor on facial recognition ordinance: ‘I will veto it’
Springfield is not Somerville. Dominic Sarno is not Joseph Curtatone. And that, in a nutshell, partially explains the former’s adamant objection to a proposed ban on the use of facial recognition technology by police in Springfield. Douglas Hook at MassLive has the details.
Hong Kong’s street battles come to Emerson’s campus
Emerson College students from Hong Kong and mainland China apparently had a heated exchange the other day over a campus demonstration in support of street protesters in Hong Kong, which has recently been convulsed by anti-government protests and violence. Anna Kusmer at WGBH has the details.
Healey expresses concerns over withheld documents in RMV case
Zoe Matthews at WGBH reports that Attorney General Maura Healey has some concerns about transparency related to the recent independent audit of the RMV, noting that tens of thousands of documents were withheld from auditors during their review.
Meanwhile, the RMV has its share of other problems …
Speaking of the RMV, the Globe’s Matt Stout reports the agency may finally be sorting out its interstate driving-license records, but a recent outside audit shows it has host of other administrative backlogs that may take years for the agency to fix.
‘BESS’: The biggest battery in New England comes to the rescue of Nantucket
Bruce Gellerman at WBUR reports on “BESS,” the huge energy storage installation (i.e. an array of powerful batteries) designed to provide Nantucket with emergency backup power until a third undersea electrical cable is connected to the island. Check out the accompanying photo. That’s one hell of a big battery.
Pot shop in Dorchester: ‘A conflict between equity and NIMBYism’
Many in the minority community have lobbied hard for pot licenses to be issued to those in neighborhoods hard hit by the war on drugs, saying it’s a matter of social and economic equity. But Saraya Wintersmith at WGBH reports that many in Dorchester’s Grove Hall support the drive for equity, but “don’t necessarily want the drug being sold in their backyards.”
Walsh to business community: We need more middle-class housing
Mayor Marty Walsh yesterday urged business leaders to support efforts to build more affordable and middle-class housing in the state, saying the state’s economic future is at stake. The BBJ’s Gintautas Dumcius has the details.
Markey and Warren bill targets proposed compressor station in Weymouth
It’s not really about export issues, as we all know. From SHNS’s Michael Norton: “Singling out a project in Weymouth that they say will help send natural gas to Canada, Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren announced plans Tuesday to file legislation blocking construction of any compressor station built as part of a pipeline project meant to export natural gas internationally.”
SHNS (pay wall — free trial subscription available)
Making the Sacklers pay …
One step close to making them pay. From Martha Bebinger at WBUR: “A Massachusetts judge has denied a motion to dismiss a lawsuit that claims members of the Sackler family and the company they own, Purdue Pharma, helped create the nation’s opioid epidemic. In a decision released late Tuesday afternoon, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Janet Sanders said Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey has jurisdiction to pursue the 17 individuals named in the suit.”
Almost unanimous: Riders (mostly) support making Worcester bus rides free
A transportation advocacy group surveyed Worcester Regional Transit Authority customers and found 90 percent in favor of making the system’s bus service entirely free, Cyrus Moulton reports at the Telegram. The Worcester Research Bureau has pitched the idea as a way of boosting ridership. The 9 percent who were opposed to free rides said they didn’t want to see their taxes increase or service suffer from a flood of new riders.
Forever at Home – An Evening to Celebrate and Support Boston Senior Home Care
Boston Senior Home Care’s Annual Fundraiser will be held at the beautiful Mandarin Oriental in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood on October 16, 2019. This annual event raises about $175,000 each year for BSHC thanks to our sponsors, donors and attendees. The event is a fun night filled with music from Boston’s own Rich DiMare, delicious food and drink, and amazing auction items to bid on!
Race in the Public Dialogue: History, Free Speech and Civil Rights
Panelists will focus on the history of free speech and civil rights in the context of academia and the university campus.
Museum of African American History
Boston Speakers Series: Zanny Minton Beddoes
Named one of the “Most Powerful Women in the World” by Forbes, Beddoes is the first female editor-in-chief of The Economist, a post she has held since 2015. Prior to her 25-year tenure with The Economist, she was an economist at the International Monetary Fund.
2019 Financial Experience Design Conference
FXD, a one-and-a-half-day conference, is a select gathering of more than 150 executives, experts, visionaries, and progressive thinkers from across the insurance, banking, wealth management, and fintech industries.
Revolutionize – Presented by Aging2.0 Boston & Age Friendly Foundation
The Boston Chapter of Aging 2.0, together with the Age Friendly Foundation, is pleased to announce “Revolutionize”. Join us on October 25, 2019 at the Seaport Hotel in Boston for our inaugural conference. Let’s revolutionize our approach to aging by promoting creative collaborations among the varied sectors engaged in aging services.
Aging2.0 Boston & Age Friendly Foundation
The Good Fight, ADL’s Forum on Confronting Anti-Semitism
Join the Boston community for an informative and hands-on day dedicating to combating anti-Semitism. This one-day forum will include presentations by leading experts on anti-Semitism and skill building workshops for adults, students, and families. Participants will leave with an actionable toolkit for confronting anti-Semitism.
WorldBoston 10th Annual Consuls Reception
The Consuls Reception convenes the 60-member local Consular Corps and some 200 leaders from business, government, academia, and the arts for a lively evening of networking, hors d’oeuvres, and drinks – all against the sparkling backdrop of Boston Harbor by night. Ambassador Susan E. Rice, the former National Security Advisor and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, will provide remarks.
Today’s Headlines
Metro
The first new red line trains have arrived in Boston – Boston Magazine
Marty Walsh calls on businesses to hire Bostonians – Boston Herald
Massachusetts
‘Residents’ advisory commission’ floated for Worcester school committee – Telegram & Gazette
Arthur Vigeant, David Garceau will joust for mayor of Marlborough in November – MetroWest Daily News
Barnstable loses appeal over parking overlay district – Cape Cod Times
Nation
Unpaid bills pile up in Trump rallies’ wake – Politico
Sanders says he will ‘change the nature’ of his campaign after heart attack – New York Times
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