Happening Today
9 a.m. | Supreme Judicial Court sits with six cases on the docket.
10 a.m. | Attorney General Maura Healey joins local elected officials for a tour of the Brockton Adult Learning Center, where she will also join staff from her office’s Community Engagement Division to welcome residents for a presentation on landlord-tenant rights.
11 a.m. | Boston Mayor Michelle Wu host press conference to announce an extension of the All-Inclusive Boston campaign, promoting small businesses and tourism.
12 p.m. | Board of Higher Education meets over Zoom to discuss its strategic plan for racial equity.
7 p.m. | Republican candidate for governor Chris Doughty will address the Brookline Republican Town Committee
Today’s Stories
Good morning.
I want to start by thanking Chris Van Buskirk, who has been your sherpa these past months to all the news you need to start your day. You can still read Chris in the State House News Service, but starting this morning I’ll be your new MASSterList trail guide, so please email, call or postmark with any tips or just to say hello.
Now for a bit of news….
Labor attorney and Democratic candidate for attorney general Shannon Liss-Riordan has seen enough to make her want to put more than just her time and energy into her own campaign. Liss-Riordan is putting $500,000 of her own money into the race after her campaign commissioned a poll that convinced the Brookline Democrat she has a “very clear path to victory.”
The campaign declined to share the poll with MASSterList, but advisors note that she was not shy about pulling the plug early on her U.S. Senate campaign in 2020 when it became clear the stars were not aligning in her favor.
“It made clear that our message is resonating and we just need to get our message out,” Liss-Riordan said in an interview.
Liss-Riordan has enjoyed a lot of early support from unions, with at least 30 labor endorsements, and in addition to her own money she will report raising $70,000 in March when her filing posts with the Office of Campaign and Political Finance. That haul will bring her fundraising total to date to about $325,000 and she will report approximately $700,000 in cash on hand.
“Our support is coming from across the state,” Liss-Riordan said. “They want an attorney general who will put money back into their pockets and that’s what I will do as attorney general.”
The personal contribution is the first Liss-Riordan has made to her campaign for attorney general, and gives her an immediate cash advantage over former Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell, who reported last week she had $502,481 in cash on hand after a strong month of March, during which she raised $237,329.
March fundraising figures for Quentin Palfrey, the third Democrat running to succeed Attorney General Maura Healey, are not yet available from OCPF.
And in case you missed it Sunday…..
Republican candidate for governor Chris Doughty was the guest on WCVB’s On the Record where he said if former President Donald Trump is the 2024 GOP nominee for president he will probably vote for him because he typically votes “party line” and appreciated Trump’s approach to trade with China.
Doughty, a Wrentham businessman, touted his executive experience as the founder of a manufacturing company as the differentiator between himself and fellow Republican candidate Geoff Diehl, and said he wouldn’t be shy about putting in more than the $587,000 he has already donated to his own campaign to win.
“I would certainly, if it was needed. I have felt a greater urgency in my campaign than I did initially. I thought we could make a difference, but now I feel in our state there really is a need for some balance in the State House,” Doughty said.
“If there’s ever a need and a time for a strong conservative Republican to hold back tax increases, it’s now,” he said. Catch the full interview here.
MGB withdraws controversial suburban expansion plan
As Friday news dumps go, this was a doozy. Mass General Brigham announced its was withdrawing its highly controversial plan to expand with three outpatient surgical centers in the Boston suburbs after being told by the Department of Public Health that agency staff would not support the plan ahead of a vote by the Public Health Council.
The hospital group’s planned expansion into Woburn, Westborough, and Westwood had been pitched as a way to deliver more cost-effective care closer to home for many patients by shifting them away from expensive downtown hospitals. But critics like Attorney General Maura Healey warned it could drive up overall health care spending in the state. House Speaker Ron Mariano even crafted a bill to tighten oversight of hospital expansions as a response.
Meanwhile, MGB’s expansion plans for two of its Boston hospitals – Mass General Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital – could get a green light. The Boston Globe’s Jessica Bartlett has more details.
VA realignment plan worrying western Mass. vets
Lat month, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs put forward a plan that would see health care services for veterans shifted and consolidated across its network of hospitals and clinics in Massachusetts. Part of that plan calls for the Edward P. Boland VA Medical Center in Northampton to be be shuttered, with patients redirected to facilities in Springfield and Connecticut, or to community providers for routine medical care.
MassLive’s Will Katcher wrote over the weekend about how that proposal has been received by local veterans, and why it’s not going over well in a community with unique medical needs. “It’s not that they don’t know what they’re doing medically,” James Oliver, 65, and a former military police officer, said about community health care providers. “They don’t know us that well.”
Sununu roasts Trump at D.C. soiree
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu took a pass this cycle on running for U.S. Senate, despite some in the Republican party seeing him as a viable prospect to flip a blue seat in November. He may be running for reelection instead, but unlike some Republicans around the country who live in fear of angering former President Donald Trump, the popular governor had no such apprehension when he chose to skewer Trump at Saturday night’s Gridiron Club spring dinner.
“The press often will ask me if I think Donald Trump is crazy. And I’ll say it this way: I don’t think he’s so crazy that you could put him in a mental institution. But I think if he were in one, he ain’t getting out!”
Public health experts warn COVID is not gone
As the new BA.2 subvariant fuels yet another rise in COVID-19 cases, local public health experts say booster shots remain the best defense against severe disease. “We are expecting an increase in cases; all signs point to a new wave. But that alone isn’t cause for concern,” Boston University School of Public Health professor Matthew Fox told the Globe’s Jon Hilliard. “What we are looking to see is how much of an increase [we are] going to see. The hope is this will be a shorter and smaller wave than previous ones.”
Hilliard notes that the state reported 1,440 new confirmed cases on Friday, and the seven-day average as of March 30 is 970 cases a day, up from about 600 earlier in March.
War in Ukraine leaving mark on campuses
Classes have been cancelled. Study abroad programs have been put on hold. And joint research ventures are in jeopardy. The Boston Globe’s Laura Krantz on Sunday explored the ripple effects Russia’s war on Ukraine is having in academia in Massachusetts.
“Even if the war ends tomorrow, there is so much damage, and at so many levels,” said Emily Channell-Justice, a Harvard anthropologist.
JetBlue passengers seeing red
Dozens of flights scheduled to depart from Logan International Airport were cancelled Sunday, creating travel nightmares for thousands of passenger. JetBlue was responsible for the bulk of the cancellations, with the company citing severe whether in the southeastern region of the country and air traffic control delays. The Boston Herald’s Rick Sobey reports JetBlue had canceled 72 flights scheduled to depart from Logan as of 5:30 p.m. out of 103 overall cancellations on Sunday.
Five cited near Wu’s home under new protest rules
It didn’t take long for Boston’s new restrictions on protesting outside private homes to get a workout. The Globe’s Danny McDonald and the Herald’s Sean Philip Cotter report police issued fines to five people who gathered outside Mayor Michelle Wu’s home early Friday morning, just a day after the rules took effect – and that at least one of those ticketed plans to sue in response.
A GOP recruit in the Berkshires
Can a Republican break into the Berkshire County delegation? The Berkshire Eagle’s Danny Jin reports that six-term Democrat and House Progressive Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Tricia Farley-Bouvier will face a GOP challenge in November. Gina Divola, 32, of Pittsfield, describes herself as an “America First” Republican and plans to compete for the 2nd Berkshire House District seat. She’s the only Republican running for any of the legislative seats representing the Berkshires, and she recently left her job as a nursing assistant for local nursing homes due to COVID-19 vaccination requirements.
Worth it: Defendant tells court dispute over 2019 election still matters
With an appellate court judge suggesting that its case might be moot, the lawyer for a 2019 city council candidate told the Appeals Court his case involving a city council race decided by a single vote definitely still matters, especially in the light of the national debate over mail-in and absentee voting. Dustin Luca of the Salem News has all the details.
This day in history: A city is born
On this day in 2017, voters in Framingham – at the time the state’s largest town – narrowly approved a measure to convert the community to a city form of government. The Globe’s Jennifer Fenn Lefferts reported that the margin was close enough to prompt a recount and followed years of heated debate and failed attempts to make the leap. https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/04/04/narrow-margin-framingham-votes-become-city/QsSIOZsqIyxaMBJ0TigAAO/story.html
Correia seeks another delay of prison term
Former Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia is asking a judge to delay for a seventh time his reporting date to federal prison in New Hampshire. Jo C. Goode of the Herald reports Correia is due to start serving his six-year sentence on Tuesday unless Judge Douglas Woodlock grants his request. Correia is appealing his conviction.
Today’s Headlines
Metro
Boston’s racial homeownership gap has widened. What will it take to fix it? – WBUR
Boston-area coronavirus wastewater jump shows ‘a new wave has begun’ – Boston Herald
Massachusetts
Town Meeting supports bid to expand Select Board in Wenham – Salem News
Nation
Why Democrats hope Romney will support Ketanji Brown Jackson – Washington Post
How Amazon Workers in New York Became First to Unionize – Wall Street Journal
How to Contact MASSterList
Send tips to Matt Murphy: Editor@MASSterList.com. For advertising inquiries and job board postings, please contact Dylan Rossiter: Publisher@MASSterList.com or (857) 370-1156. Follow @MASSterList on Twitter.