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By George Donnelly and Keith Regan
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Today: UMass Lowell celebrates Moloney; New Englanders of the Year to be honored
Moloney inauguration: UMass Lowell celebrates the inauguration of Chancellor Jacquie Moloney,the first woman to lead the university. Participants include UMass system President Marty Meehan, who Moloney succeeds as chancellor, Sen. Eileen Donoghue, Lowell Mayor Rodney Elliott and city manager Kevin Murphy. The ceremony and an evening gala will raise funds for a new scholarship in Moloney's name. Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell, 300 Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Lowell, 10:00am.
Pilgrim protest -- 2019 isn't good enough: Representatives from Cape Downwinders, Pilgrim Coalition and other environmental and activist groups hold a public speakout to shut down Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station now, Grand Staircase, State House, 1:00pm
New Englanders of the Year: The New England Council holds its New Englander of the Year awards dinner. This year's recipients are Hill Holliday CEO Karen Kaplan, U.S. Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, Medal of Honor Recipient Ryan Pitts and longtime WBZ anchor Jack Williams, Seaport Hotel/World Trade Center, Boston, 4:30pm.
Taking a break from the Era of Good Feelings
Gov. Baker's brief tenure has been a case study in building trust and consensus with Democrats. One can sometimes forget there are significant differences between the two parties in what so far has been a Massachusetts Era of Good Feelings. Charlie Baker has been the James Monroe of our time.
Yet the partisan rhetoric is building in the race for the vacant senate seat in Plymouth and Bristol counties in a special election following the death of Thomas Kennedy in June. House members Michael Brady (D) and Geoff Diehl (R) are running for a promotion to the senate in a district that may be a reasonable proxy for the state as a whole. Heavily Democratic Brockton is surrounded by suburban towns that look like Charlie Baker country. Yet it may be unfair to place too much symbolism on the race. Even though a victory for Diehl would be attributed in part to Baker's popularity, whoever wins likely can thank the strength of their ground game, which is especially important in special elections.
The candidates expressed their differences at a debate Monday (Diehl, for one, doesn't like the idea of taxing fantasy sports). But the real sniping is coming from the state party operatives at the Mass. GOP and the Mass. Dems, whose job it is to caricature the candidates. "Brady took an extreme, hyperpartisan vote against the FY-2016 state budget because he stubbornly sided with special interests opposed to common-sense, bipartisan MBTA reforms," the state GOP states. As for Diehl, "His own Republican House leadership removed him from a key committee assignment due to his prioritization of Tea Party ideology over compromise and competent governance," the Dems state. Partisanship is alive and well, at least in one Senate district.
Outside money: The Herald's Matt Stout details the outside interests and money flow into the Senate race here: http://bit.ly/1Kq1hni
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Mass. millionaires on the run
The number of Massachusetts households earning over $1 million dipped considerably in 2013, the Boston Business Journal's Craig Douglas reports. Department of Revenue income data, the latest available, shows an 8 percent drop-off to about 12,500 million-dollar income homes. This, of course, is a politically inconvenient fact, one attributed in the story to the well-off trying to diminish their tax exposure by deferring asset sales in face of higher tax rates. Which towns have the most million-income households per square mile? Take a wild guess or click here:http://bit.ly/1kuGZUU
More scrutiny coming from Beacon Hill on fantasy sports
Now it's the Massachusetts Gaming Commission's turn to explore what it means when you can put down $25, select a bunch of players for your team, and hope to win $10,000 or more. Even though AG Maura Healey did not rule fantasy sports to be an illegal activity, the legitimacy of the business model remains an open question, not only here but across the country, and one the Gaming Commission will begin to ponder at a meeting later this month. Here's the update from the Globe's fantasy sports reporting team: http://bit.ly/1XlipnC
Green line expansion delays
Transportation officials are still mulling over a math problem for the Green Line extension: How to close a $1 billion gap for a project whose cost estimate ballooned from $2 billion to $3 billion earlier this year. Thus, the next major phase of the project won't move forward until the spring, at best. The Globe's Nicole Dungca has a report from the latest DOT meeting. http://bit.ly/1PBuBzl
A brief primer on taxpayer subsidies per ride (from Dungca's story):
Subway riders: 61 cents
Light rail (Green Line): $1.39
Buses: $2.86
Commuter rail: $5.75
The RIDE: $45.53
Cracked nuts in Big Dig tunnels no joke
First it was water, now it's cracked nuts: Hundreds of pieces of hardware holding up lighting fixtures in the Big Dig tunnels are failing and will need to be replaced, but transportation officials don't yet know the costs, the Herald reports. Transportation officials say the issue could date to the installation of the lights and that there is no danger to the public. And while the costs are not yet known, they say repairs could take six months. http://bit.ly/1Rq2pwQ
Oddly enough, today is National Nut Day. http://bit.ly/1RYbMVn
| SPONSORED Undemocratic charter schools siphon money from public schools. www.massteacher.org/chartermap #KeepTheCap |
Supplemental budget delay hindering release of state finance report
The delay in hashing out a final supplemental budget bill has an impact for the completion of the state's annual financial report, which is due Oct. 31, as the State House News Service's Michael Norton explains. Because the report is used by bond rating agencies, the delay is not insignificant. http://bit.ly/1MTOKPf (subscription required)
Opioid deaths continue to rise
Despite a host of efforts at all levels of government to combat the opioid crisis, the number of overdose deaths continue to rise, putting this year on pace to break last year's record number of deaths, the Globe reports, citing Mass Department of Public Health data. In the first six months of 2015, the state confirmed 684 deaths from overdose, an increase of 6 percent over the same time last year. The Globe notes that the data comes on the heels of Gov. Baker's proposals to deal with the crisis, some of which have received pushback from Democratic lawmakers. http://bit.ly/1Np9AVf
Healey: Lower prisoner phone costs
Attorney General Maura Healey wants federal regulators to change the system under which prisoners make phone calls, according to an Associated Press report carried by MassLive. The current system can be prohibitively expensive for inmates' families and may impede the formation of post-release plans, Healey wrote in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission. http://bit.ly/1XlPfVr
Indicted businessman becomes issue in Quincy debate
Both candidates for mayor of Quincy found themselves facing questions about their dealings with local real estate developer Daniel J. Flynn III, who is under federal indictment on fraud charges, the Patriot Ledger reports. Challenger William Phelan pressed Mayor Thomas Koch on why the city paid more than the assessed value for land Flynn owned, while Koch raised questions about an earlier deal between the city and Flynn that occurred when Phelan was mayor in 2007. http://bit.ly/1GrSDtm
In Waltham, mayor gets vote of no confidence
Police and fire unions in Waltham say they took a vote of no confidence in Mayor Jeannette McCarthy, citing the rapidly deteriorating conditions of their facilities and equipment, the Globe reports. McCarthy says the votes are politically driven: She recently sent out a campaign mailer that hit union leaders for their role in contract negotiations. http://bit.ly/1OUl04T
Package stores want in on mail-order delivery
Retail liquor stores are backing legislation that would enable them to sell their products vial mail order, the Gloucester Times reports. Supporters of a bill filed by Sen. William Brownsberger say it is a matter of fairness for them as the state opens up the mail-order market to wineries and distilleries from around the country. http://bit.ly/1Kq5XJW
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REMEMBER: To send your tips to me at gdonnelly@massterlist.com. Op-eds and other commentary invited for publication on Massterlist.
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