Tuesday, August 18, 2015
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By George Donnelly (@geodonnelly) with Keith Regan
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Today: Chinatown housing
Top housing and development officials will speak at a village dedication ceremony held by the Asian Community Development Corporation, which builds and preserves affordable housing where Asian Americans live. Department of Housing and Community Development Undersecretary Chrystal Kornegay and MassDevelopment President and CEO Marty Jones will speak, 339 Tremont St, Boston, 1:30pm... Freshman U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton will make the first of five stops on his "Congress on Your Corner" tour of the 6th District. He will speak with constituents and his staff will be available to help solve constituent problems with federal agencies, Reading Town Hall, 16 Lowell St., Reading, 4:45pm.
Breaking... Deportation politics heats up
COMING THIS MORNING IN the State House News Service: Via Andy Metzger... As an immigrant group plans to rally at the State House on Wednesday, Gov. Baker vows to veto bill that would give statewide legal protections to undocumented immigrants. The story explores multiple bills filed on Beacon Hill to shield non-violent immigrants without proper documentation from being reported to the feds. Visit www.statehousenews.com
Deportation speeds ahead despite Obama policies
On the theme of deportation, see Maria Sacchetti's report in today's Globe on the stories of several detained undocumented immigrants who face deportation. Although Homeland Security has initiated new policies to focus deportation on criminals rather than longtime undocumented immigrants with family ties in the US, Sacchetti interviews several in the latter category who sit in shackles at the Suffolk County jail.
Amazon and the wisdom of the crowd
The New York Times' story on the work culture at Amazon has been a sensation, and yesterday came the aftershock after the initial bombshell. Amazon's workplace was depicted as Darwinian, relentless, unsympathetic, and profoundly customer-focused. CEO Jeff Bezos responded to the story in a note to employees, saying he didn't recognize the company that was described in the article. But the fascinating thing was how many readers of the story did. As of this writing, the Times' article, some 5,900 words, has generated over 4,900 comments on the Times' website. Bezos can deny the conclusions of the Times after interviewing over 100 current and former employees. But he can't argue past the collective experience of the legions of people who commented either on the Times or other websites saying, basically, what this commenter said on the NYT site: "Here in Seattle Amazon has a well-deserved reputation for being a sweat shop; work life balance does not exist. I've known ex-Microsoft colleagues, people who were smart, innovative, hard working and who thrived in Microsoft's own brand of challenging work environment, who subsequently took jobs at Amazon, and who left after a year or two. All of them." Although there are many different takes on the story, a critical mass of readers give the reporting an extra level of credibility.
The scary thing isn't so much the callous behavior depicted in the article. What's more frightening is the Brave New World aspect of the place. Amazon simply is slightly ahead of its time in using all manner of metrics to assess and promote top performers while weeding out underperformers. Bezos, even if he pretends otherwise, has figured out that creating a business cult focused relentlessly on performance is the way to win in the marketplace. Amazon's stock went up $3.70 yesterday.
Local insurance cos. take it on the chin from Obamacare, drug prices
Massachusetts' leading insurance companies continued their string of losses, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, which lost $51 million in the most recent quarter. "Intense regulatory pressure, low reimbursements from the state, high taxes and fees associated with health reform, expensive drugs and costly IT upgrades were some of the many reasons insurers cited for negative operating margins," writes Jessica Bartlett of the Boston Business Journal. http://bit.ly/1DZljsX
Barney Frank -- expansive and still not Mr. Mellow
Barney Frank sat down with CommonWealth's Gabrielle Gurley for a classically interesting and combative interview covering race relations, banking regulation and more. Frank's memoir "Frank: A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage" was recently published. At one point Gurley pushes back on Frank's international policy views as he downplayed the threat of Russia and China.
FRANK: Neither one is threatening the United States.
GURLEY: Some people would disagree with that.
FRANK: Some people think Elvis is alive. That doesn't mean anything. Nobody argues that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a threat to the United States. Both of them threaten their own peripheries.
Fun stuff. See more here: http://bit.ly/1TQlMiN
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