Senate President Stanley Rosenberg will return to Boston after attending conferences in Canada.
| Today's News |
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| DPH accused of favoritism in rule making |
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In a lawsuit filed by a competitor of Steward Health Care System, plaintiffs contend that John Polanowicz, a former Steward executive later acting as Gov. Patrick’s health and human services secretary, directed health officials to “essentially rewrite the rules” to allow Steward to open a new heart center, sidestepping a statewide moratorium, reports the Globe's Liz Kowalczyk, who digs deep into court records and depositions to get a glimpse of the behind-the-scenes wrangling over the issue. In a statement sent by a Steward spokesman, Polanowicz, who eventually returned to the company, said one deposition contained “unfounded speculations’’ that are “demonstrably false.’’ The lawsuit against the state Department of Public Health and Steward was filed by Southcoast Hospitals Group.
Boston Globe |
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| T now wants audit of parking lot income dating back to 2013 |
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The MBTA has made its most public admission yet that it lost parking lot revenue to probable theft, telling the contractor that operates the lots that it wants operations audited back to 2013, Bruce Mohl of CommonWealth Magazine reports. Mohl began asking questions about anomalies in parking lot receipts earlier this year and the T launched investigations that led to firings at contractor LAZ Parking without actually acknowledging any of its revenue might have been pilfered. The T’s general counsel is now asking LAZ to audit parking receipts at 13 parking lots back three years.
Commonwealth |
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| Ethics 101: City officials bone up on the basics of good government |
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In response to an ongoing federal probe into alleged strong-arm tactics by City Hall officials on behalf of labor unions, top city administrators last month quietly attended a two-hour ethics seminar that covered everything from appearances of conflict of interest to the lure of abusing their positions to disclosure of confidential information, reports the Globe’s Meghan Irons. “This training was a broader session on the state ethics and public records laws and the resulting requirements for city employees,’’ a Walsh spokeswoman said.
Boston Globe |
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| Meanwhile, Teamster breaks ranks, expects to plead guilty in ‘Top Chef’ case |
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So why are city officials taking ethic courses? Here’s part of the reason: In an unexpected development, one of five Teamsters arrested last year on charges they tried to strong-arm the crew of the hit “Top Chef” show into hiring union labor is expected to plead guilty next month, a move that’s stunned attorneys for other defendants, reports the Herald’s Laurel Sweet. “It’s a surprise to everybody. It’s troubling that in some eyes (the) plea might legitimize this prosecution,” said Carmine Lepore, attorney for one of the defendants. Prosecutors have linked the Teamsters’ actions to Mayor Walsh’s former tourism and entertainment chief Kenneth Brissette, who allegedly intervened in the “Top Chef” labor dispute. Asked yesterday about Teamster Mark Harrington’s plan to plead guilty, Walsh said, “I don’t know anything about that. You’ll have to talk to him about that.”
Boston Herald
| After stepping down from SJC, Cordy heads back to McDermott, Will & Emery |
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They say you can’t go home again, but that’s precisely what Robert Cordy is doing, officially stepping down last Friday from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and then telling SHNS’s Andy Metzger he plans to return to his former law firm of McDermott, Will & Emery, though he apparently will take a late summer and early fall break first. He starts at the law firm in October. "I know the firm very well," Cordy told the News Service. "For me it's just the right place to go."
SHNS (pay wall) |
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| Warren: ‘God, I love this job’ |
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U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren told WBZ’s Jon Keller she “can’t imagine” leaving the Senate to join a potential Hillary Clinton administration, but she also refused to say for sure she’ll run for re-election in 2018, Gintautus Dumcius of MassLive reports. "You know, come on. This is not the place to announce a re-election bid,” Warren told Keller when asked if she was committed to keeping her Senate seat. “But I will tell you this: God, I love this job and I'm learning every day how to use it more effectively."
But the Herald’s Hillary Chabot is saying that Warren is actually overusing something she’s learned to use in office: Twitter. Apparently, Donald Trump is no longer biting at her tweet bait. |
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| The fate of the Citgo sign now rests with Related Beal |
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Related Beal has purchased a portfolio of Boston University properties in the Kenmore Square area, including one that currently hosts the city’s iconic Citgo sign sitting on its roof, reports Kyle Scott Clauss at Boston magazine. No word from Related Beal about the fate of the Citgo sign, but it’s assumed the real estate company will want to build taller buildings in the area, though historic preservation supporters are already expressing concern about possible re-development plans by Related Beal.
Boston magazine |
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| ‘No place like home,’ if you can find one |
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As Gov. Baker prepares to make an announcement today on new funding for affordable rental housing in Boston, the Herald has a big and admirable package this morning on the mounting number of families with school children who are now homeless and simply can’t find a place to settle down, partly due to the high cost of housing in the city and state. The Herald’s Kathleen McKiernan wrote the mainbar piece of the special report. Other stories are linked to McKiernan’s article at the bottom.
Boston Herald
| Forgetting the little guy when it comes to immigration and refugees |
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Peggy Noonan, who we don’t always agree with, had a very powerful WSJ op-ed about global refugees and immigration and how there’s a growing divide between the elites, both of the Wall Street and academic-liberal varieties, and the working- and middle-classes, who are all too often denounced by people at the top as “xenophobic,” “narrow-minded” and “racist” if they so much as question refugee and immigration policies – policies, Noonan notes, rarely, if ever, truly effect the elites. The demographic disconnect is one of the reasons for the rise of Donald Trump. Fyi: Though Noonan’s op-ed is behind a firewall, copy the headline of the piece – ‘How Global Elites Forsake Their Countrymen’ – and put it into Google search and then click on the link prompt. It increases your odds of reading it free in its entirety. (Don't worry: It’s a trick Rupert Murdoch is well aware of and can’t do anything about.)
WSJ (pay wall) |
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| With ad revenue up, T eyes more digital |
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Ad revenue at the MBTA rose 32 percent in the just-ended fiscal year and the agency is eyeing even more growth by seeking a partner to help it launch more digital advertising, Hae Young Yoo of the Globe reports. The agency is reviewing proposals from consultants wanting to help grow the T’s digital ad capabilities beyond the 80 digital screens now in place at 10 stations. The T believes it can achieve digital ad growth of 200 percent and add as many as 500 more screens in the next three to five years.
Boston Globe |
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| Should Massachusetts get a new horse racing track? |
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Even though some say horse racing is a dying industry, Christian Wade reports in the Salem News on efforts by the New England Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association to build a new horse-racing facility in the state using funds accumulating in a casino-fed account. The effort got a boost, Wade reports, from a recent UMass study showing that a robust horse racing industry could create almost 1,000 jobs and generate close to $100 million annually in economic activity. Has anyone heard of this place called “Suffolk Downs”? Just asking.
Salem News |
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| Second Republican eyes Bradley seat |
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Republican Kristen Arute of Hingham will run a write-in campaign for the 3rd Plymouth District seat being vacated by Garret Bradley, the Patriot Ledger reports. Arute will face John Brannan of Hull in the GOP primary. On the Democratic side, Joan Meschino and Stephen Burns are also staging write-in efforts in the election that is unusual because Bradley announced his decision so late that his name will appear on the primary ballot.
Patriot Ledger |
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| Heliport idea generating lots of email |
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Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack and the state’s director of aeronautics have received or sent more than 3,000 emails about the possibility of launching a state-run heliport in Boston, something officials pledged to explore in its negotiations to bring GE to the Seaport, Matt Stout of the Herald reports in his Pols and Politics column. The Herald asked for heliport-related emails in a public records request and was told by the agency there’s too many to sort through and share.
Boston Herald |
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| Suffolk University’s big concern is with the feds, not the AG |
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Regarding our post last week, via WGBH, on former education secretary Paul Reville’s suggestion that it may be time for the state AG’s office to reassess Suffolk University’s non-profit status, MASSterList reader SR writes in: “No question about it, the AG may well have something to say, perhaps is overdue to have something to say, about how Suffolk is being run. And maybe some input into whether its Massachusetts property tax exemption continues. But the big tax exemption Suffolk cares about is federal, from the IRS, and the AG has nothing to do with that except as a commentor like anyone else.”
Whether it’s the feds or the AG, we think the idea of stripping Suffolk of its current non-profit status stinks. The school is dysfunctional right now, absolutely. But the entire higher-ed model – with its administrative bloat, tuition rate increases running far higher than inflation, students saddled with obscene loan burdens – is dysfunctional in its own macro-level way.
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