Wednesday, November 24, 2015
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By Keith Regan and George Donnelly (@geodonnelly)
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Today: Get Away Day, Part 2; DraftKings Goes to Court
Although Tuesday was said to be the busiest pre-Thanksgiving travel day here in Massachusetts, you can expect plenty of company on the roadways and tarmacs today as well. The exception maybe around the Statehouse, where there is little formal activity planned. The few political items on the schedule are clustered in the early part of the day:
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy plans to tour Grendel's Den Restaurant & Bar in Harvard Square and join a roundtable with food related small businesses that also includes DoneGood cofounder Cullen Schwarz and Green Restaurant Association founder and CEO Michael Oshman. The event starts at 9.
At 11, House Speaker Robert DeLeo will serve Thanksgiving dinner at the Goodwill in downtown Boston.
At noon, Gov. Charlie Baker has his own pre-Thanksgiving meal, when he attends the Friends of Metro Boston Thanksgiving Dinner at Florian Hall in Dorchester. Senate President Stan Rosenberg will do the serving on Thursday, when he helps dish up turkey and all the fixings at the Pine Street Inn.
DraftKings has its day in court
Meanwhile, in New York, it's an extraordinarily high-stakes day for Boston-based fantasy sports firm DraftKings, which will ask a judge to block the Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's efforts to stop it from doing business in the Empire State. Schneiderman has taken an aggressive stance against daily fantasy sports, saying they amount to illegal gambling under state law.
The Globe previews the case DraftKings plans to make in court today and lays out what is at stake: New York players have pumped $100 million in entry fees into DraftKings so far this year, making it one of the most lucrative markets in the country, and losing this one case in court could open the companies up to additional legal challenges and even federal prosecution. Attorney David Boies plans to argue that fantasy sports is a game of skill, and point to the results as the ultimate proof. "If most people lose money and the same people continue to win repeatedly, that is absolute proof that this is a game of skill and not of chance," he said. "That kind of dispersion of results does not happen in a casino."http://bit.ly/1NsqjdA
The Governor gives thanks - for business success stories
The range of business in Massachusetts is, even for a longtime business editor, a source of wonder. Who knew there's a large suit maker in New Bedford, Joseph Abboud Manufacturing, making 1,300 suits per day? Or that a brewing company in downtown Framingham, Jack's Abby, just completed a 67,000 square foot expansion?
These were among the success stories celebrated yesterday at the annual MassEcon Economic Impact Awards Luncheon, a culmination of contest to honor investment in facilities and job growth across the state. MassEcon, led by Susan Houston, is all about facilitating economic expansion, including helping lay the groundwork for Amazon's big warehouse expansion, which was announced yesterday.
As it turns out, Gov. Baker let the crowd at MassEcon know he happened to know all about Jack's Abby - he came across the brewery during his recent campaign for governor. "They sell beer in... I hate to call it a bottle because it's not really a bottle, it's one of these things..." The crowd started calling out "growler!" - the term for the bottles. "The great part about it is, you and five of your friends can have just one." See more info here about finalists for the awards across the commonwealth. http://bit.ly/1NrH8Wd
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