Happening Today
Committee hearings, ground breakings, and more
9 a.m. | Joint Committee on COVID-19 and Emergency Preparedness and Management hosts virtual listening session focused on the Health and Medical Coordinating Coalition (HMCC) Geographic Region 2. Committee is seeking “to better understand the Commonwealth’s pandemic preparedness status, capacities and capabilities, pre-pandemic and moving forward.”
10 a.m. | Baker administration and elected officials attend a groundbreaking ceremony for North Meadow on the Greenway, a new park space on the Greenway’s former Parcel 2.
10 a.m. | Joint Committee on Public Safety holds virtual public hearing on a thick docket of bills broadly summed up in the category of public safety services.
11 a.m. | Governor’s Council interviews Superior Court nominee Brian Glenny, a 34-year prosecutor in the Cape and Islands district attorney’s office.
3 p.m. | ACLU, Committee for Public Counsel Services, and Goulston & Storrs ask a single Supreme Judicial Court justice to call for an investigation into the Springfield Police.
For the most comprehensive list of calendar items, check out State House News Service’s Daily Advances (pay wall – free trial subscriptions available).
Today’s Stories
If it opens up, he’s running for it
If the First Suffolk and Middlesex Senate seat opens up, Revere School Committee member Anthony D’Ambrosio says he’s running for it.
“If the seat is open, we will fully run for it and we will run hard,” he told MassterList in an interview. “The group of people I’m around and myself, we pride ourselves on being the hardest working people in the room. There are always hard-working people but the one thing we can control in this race is that we’re going to outwork the other candidates.”
Of course, this all hinges on whether or not Sen. Joseph Boncore steps down to take the top job at the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council. Boncore filed documents Monday with the State Ethics Commission disclosing that he is in conversations with a search committee “concerning a position at the council” after it was reported last week that he had been telling associates he expected to get the CEO job.
So who is D’Ambrosio?
Well, he’s a 25-year-old son of immigrants, his father having come to the United States in the 1970s from southern Italy. He’s a graduate of Yale University, earned a master’s at the University of Cambridge in England, interned for U.S. Sen. Markey, and has served on the Revere School Committee member for the past two years.
“[Markey is] just an incredible public servant who has given so much to the state in every single way possible,” D’Ambrosio said. “And learning the ropes, particularly with regard to the issue of constituent service, which is so often overlooked in public service, it was just incredibly instrumental for my development in a pretty critical time in your life. So I was able to sort of watch a master at work during those experiences.”
And where does he put himself on the political spectrum?
“I would place myself as a working-class supporting Democrat,” he said. “My political views don’t align cleanly with many, if any, establishment figures in the country right now. And there is an opportunity to bridge both a generational and ideological gap that is growing ever wider as we proceed forward here. So we are going full-on supporting the working-class Democrats in this race.”
D’Ambrosio filed paperwork with the state’s campaign finance office to begin raising money to seek the office on Monday. And while D’Ambrosio hasn’t officially announced his candidacy, he says he wants to focus on getting people back to work and educating children.
“I’m an education guy. The school committee has really been my life in Revere, sort of a backbone of my own experience in the city and one of the highlights of my life and honors of my life to serve on it,” he said. ‘I’m going to extend that work and effort to fight to educate the children of the 21st Century, for the economy of the 21st Century, which is the backbone of this Boston economy.”
Report: Life will never be the same after the pandemic
Queue the forbidding yet somewhat soothing movie music as we all wonder whether or not work will ever return to pre-pandemic norms. The answer? No, says one report. And, honestly, it’s both fascinating and daunting.
A report from consultancy group McKinsey & Co. crafted for the Baker administration says the Boston-Cambridge economy will never be the same after the pandemic created more opportunities to work remotely and shifted commuting and travel trends, reports Boston Globe’s Jon Chesto.
More MassLive’s Steph Solis: “Massachusetts’ post-pandemic economy will likely pave the way for permanent remote work, higher demand for e-commerce and more automation, potentially displacing about 25 percent of workers over the next decade, Gov. Charlie Baker’s future of work study suggests.”
Santiago drops out out of mayoral race
Marty Walsh’s path from the Legislature and Beacon Hill to City Hall just wasn’t meant to be for state Rep. Jon Santiago. The South End Democrat bowed out of the Boston mayoral race Tuesday morning, announcing his departure in a video posted to social media in which he says his “intention to serve remains as strong as ever.” Boston Herald’s Sean Philip Cotter reports that the lawmaker couldn’t turn high-profile Beacon Hill endorsements into popular support.
And the Boston Globe’s Matt Stout: writes: “The 39-year-old struggled to break through a historically diverse field and beyond the South End and Roxbury neighborhoods he represents on Beacon Hill. He is the first major candidate to leave the race ahead of the Sept. 14 preliminary election, departing a field that is currently led by four women of color.”
Billion-dollar tax break included in state budget
Boston Business Journal’s Greg Ryan is right: billion-dollar tax cuts for small businesses would typically get a lot of attention. But a tax break the Legislature included in the fiscal year 2022 budget drew little notice.
More from Ryan: “The new budget provision would allow owners of pass-through businesses to save an estimated $1.1 billion a year in federal taxes by skirting the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions put in place during the Trump administration. Gov. Charlie Baker must still sign the budget into law.”
Alternate route: Study of northern path for East-West passenger rail study kicks off
Maybe the high road is the way to go. State transportation officials have kicked off what is expected to be an 18-month study of a possible East-West passenger rail connection across the state using a northern route that largely tracks Route 2 across the state, Larry Parnass of the Berkshire Eagle reports.
‘Its a very [not] nice’
The movies are hilarious. The prospect of a Massachusetts cannabis company using Sacha Baron Cohen’s likeness on a billboard without permission? Not so much. MassLive’s Cassie McGrath reports the actor sued Solar Therapeutics, Inc. and its president, Edward Dow III, for $9 million for allegedly using his character on a billboard, a move the actor’s lawyers say “falsely” conveyed endorsement of the company’s products.
Parting shot: West slams Harvard after tenure denial
He’s not going quietly. Cornel West released his letter of resignation from Harvard University, saying the revered institution is suffering from “intellectual and spiritual bankruptcy of deep depths,” Deepa Shivaram of WBUR reports. West will rejoin the faculty at Union Theological Seminary after his long quest for tenure at Harvard stalled.
Twisted tale: Former Worcester official now on trial for corruption wore wire for year
File under: deeply ironic. The former top housing official for the city of Worcester was a secret informant for the FBI for years and even wore a wire to work in City Hall, an FBI agent revealed in court. Brad Petrishen of the Telegram reports that shortly after Jacklyn M. Sutcivni became an informant, investigators turned their attention to her actions instead.
A $20M ‘leap of faith’
What can $20 million and a little faith buy you? A former college campus and aspirations of a campus-style high school that could attract students outside of the community. That’s what Leicester town officials are set to debate: whether or not to spend $20 million to buy the campus of former Becker College which includes a 2-year-old athletic field, 19 buildings, and a host of IT equipment, reports Telegram & Gazette’s Kim Ring.
Muzzled: ACLU says Fall River school board violated residents’ free speech rights
The ACLU of Massachusetts is warning the Fall River School Committee that its rules for public comments at meetings are unconstitutional and suggests that if changes aren’t made, the city could find itself in court, Audrey Cooney of the Herald-News reports.
Baker isn’t surprised at MassGOP donors threatening to pull support
He isn’t surprised that MassGOP donors are threatening to pull their support if the state committee doesn’t make changes. But, really, when does Gov. Charlie Baker ever key the public in on whether or not something catches him off-guard.
State House News Service’s Michael P. Norton reports that Baker said it doesn’t shock him that a number of donors and supporters have raised “serious concerns” about recent controversies. This comes after both of Boston’s major dailies reported that 16 donors will stop giving to the party unless it takes action to restore its reputation.
‘Unsafe’ levels of fecal bacteria in water
Crap. Crap. Crap. Okay, enough of that. Here’s what you need to know: Boston Herald’s Meghan Ottolini reports that a new report reveals “potentially unsafe” levels of fecal bacteria detected at more than 200 beaches in the state in 2020.
Today’s Headlines
Metro
Boston changes up lawyers in Dennis White case – Boston Herald
Massachusetts
Council rejects building moratorium in Amherst – Daily Hampshire Gazette
Despite rain, drought conditions persist on Cape, Islands – Cape Cod Times
Nation
Biden rips Trump’s ‘big lie’ in voting rights address – The Hill
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