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Middleboro Review 2

NEW CONTENT MOVED TO MIDDLEBORO REVIEW 2

Toyota

Since the Dilly, Dally, Delay & Stall Law Firms are adding their billable hours, the Toyota U.S.A. and Route 44 Toyota posts have been separated here:

Route 44 Toyota Sold Me A Lemon



Friday, September 30, 2016

MASSterList: Policy bender | ‘Department of Crafty Republicans’ | Warren impressions




By Jay Fitzgerald and Keith Regan
09/30/2016

Policy bender | ‘Department of Crafty Republicans’ | Warren impressions



Happening Today
 
Frederik, His Royal Highness The Crown Prince of Denmark
 
Frederik, His Royal Highness The Crown Prince of Denmark, and Mary, Her Royal Highness The Crown Princess of Denmark, are in town today. The prince will be featured at a breakfast hosted by DONG Energy Wind Power Inc. this morning and Gov. Charlie Baker hosts a luncheon for the prince and princess, with Senate President Stanley Rosenberg and Treasurer Deborah Goldberg expected to attend, Great Hall, State House, 12 p.m. 
 
 
Civic Innovation Summit
 
City Awake, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce's "civic innovation lab," will launch its new City Awake delegates program with a daylong summit dubbed "Our Convention,” Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate, 210 Morrissey Blvd., Boston, 1 p.m.
 
 
Plymouth tour
 
Gov. Baker joins Sen. Vinny deMacedo, Reps. Mathew Muratore and Thomas Calter, and local officials to tour Plymouth's Cordage Park, Cordage Park Commerce Center, 10 Cordage Park Circle, Plymouth, 3:30 p.m.
 
 
Wellesley College inauguration
 
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is expected to speak at Wellesley College’s inauguration of its 14th president, Paula Johnson, Severance Green, Wellesley College, Wellesley, 2 p.m.
 
 
Cape fundraiser
 
Gov. Baker Is slated to attend a joint fundraiser for Cape and Islands Senate candidate Anthony Schiavi and 2nd Barnstable House candidate William Crocker, the Yarmouth House, 335 Route 28, Yarmouth, 5:30 p.m.
 
 
Megan’s House anniversary
 
Megan's House, a 28-bed long term recovery home for women ages 18-26, celebrates its first anniversary, with Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan to be honored at the event and Lt. Gov Karyn Polito, U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas and UMass Lowell Chancellor Jacqueline Moloney attending, UMass Lowell Inn and Conference Center, 50 Warren St., Lowell, 6 p.m.

Today's News
 
Poll shows Clinton with smaller NH lead
 
Hillary Clinton leads Donald Trump by 7 points in New Hampshire, about half the size of the lead she held in early August in what is again being seen as a critical swing state for both campaigns, according to a new WBUR poll. Anthony Brooks reports that the poll, conducted by MassInc., also found that voters think Clinton won Monday’s first presidential debate by a wide margin and shows particularly low approval ratings among women for Trump.
WBUR
 
 
Baker administration bends again in faceoff with low-wage workers
 
First, the Baker-controlled MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board, which had come under fire by a union representing low-wage janitors, listened to workers who complained of mistreatment by T janitorial contractors – and board members then surprised some by vowing to act on the matter. Now the Baker administration, which has been under pressure to change a pay policy tied to nursing home workers, has reversed itself and will issue new regulations to “ensure that thousands of low-wage nursing home workers will be included in a state-mandated pay raise,” reports the Globe’s Shirley Leung and Kay Lazar. Call it flip-flopping if you will, but this much is clear about the two incidents: The administration listened and changed policy.  Some might not believe it, but non-ideological flexibility is appreciated by most voters – and it’s one of the reasons why Baker scores so high in favorability ratings. Just pointing this out.
Boston Globe
 
 
Report: Negotiators making ‘good progress’ in talks to avert janitors strike
 
Speaking of low-wage workers, the union representing thousands of city janitors and building owners are apparently making “good progress” in talks to avert a possible citywide strike, after building owners made a major concession in contract talks, the Globe’s Kathleen Conti reports. “It wasn’t the hill to die on,” Matt Ellis, a spokesman for the contractors, said of the concession. “Good progress is being made in general. We feel right now we’re very close as we head into the last day here. There should be no talk of a strike.”
Boston Globe

 
https://www.change.org/p/charlie-baker-call-for-paul-sagan-s-removal?recruiter=204169216&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
 
 
‘Department of Crafty Republicans’
 
The Herald’s Matt Stout reported yesterday that someone at the party-hearty Department of Conservation and Recreation tweeted a link to a Bay State Banner endorsement of the Question 2 initiative, which happens to be backed as well by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, using an account under the tag MassDCR@MassDCR. “Melvin Miller of the @BayStateBanner agrees: it’s time to #LiftTheCap for the sake of the kids,” the tweet reads. A DCR spokesman said the tweet was “mistakenly sent” by a staff member. But Democrats quickly coined a new name for DCR, the center of a more serious controversy over staffers using state resources for a GOP bash: “Charlie’s Department of Crafty Republicans,” reportsSHNS’s Andy Metzger (paywall).
 
 
Sleeping on the job
 
From the Herald’s Joe Battenfeld: “An MBTA surveillance camera captured a union worker in the much-maligned “money room” lying face-down on a yoga mat while cash lay scattered on a nearby table, T officials confirmed to the Herald. The incident on Feb. 19 was never investigated and the worker wasn’t identified because it happened before the MBTA’s GM installed new employees to supervise the money-counting operation, officials said.”
Boston Herald
 
 
Capuano does his best Warren impression
 
For the second time in as many weeks, embattled Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf has faced off with a fierce Massachusetts lawmaker on Capitol Hill. This time it was U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano who sought to pick up where U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren left off after her blistering criticism of Stumpf last week. After sarcastically thanking Stumpf for uniting an otherwise splintered Congress, the Somerville lawmaker yesterday predicted even worse days ahead for Stumpf, reports Boston.com. “You think today is tough?” Capuano asked. “It’s coming; when the prosecutors get a hold of you, you’re gonna have a lot of fun.”
Boston.com

 
Sponsored
The chairman of BESE, Paul Sagan, just donated $100,000 to further charter expansion. He actually oversees operations, approvals and expansions of all charter schools. Sagan’s ridiculous donation is a clear power grab. Please click here to join the No On 2 campaign in calling for Sagan’s resignation.
 
 
‘Big Papi Bridge’
 
Sure, they’re jumping on the Big Papi bandwagon. But it’s a nice – and appropriate – gesture by Beacon Hill lawmakers to name the Brookline Avenue bridge over the Pike after retiring Red Sox star David Ortiz, as reported at WCVB. “As a lifelong Red Sox fan, I am thrilled to be able to help our commonwealth create a lasting ‘thank you’ to Big Papi through the renaming of this bridge," said Gov. Charlie Baker.
WCVB
 
 
Lawmakers stop short of asking for declaration of war against Sweden over lobsters
 
The state’s Congressional delegation has put forth to the European Union the eminently reasonable argument that a Swedish proposal to ban the import of American lobsters into Europe is unfair and would cost the Bay State export market $125 million, reports SHNS’s Andy Metzger at the Boston Business Journal. If this diplomatic initiative fails, an Ikea boycott should follow. If that fails, it’s war. 
BBJ
 
 
Channeling “Daisy” and the “Day After”
 
Remember the old “Daisy” television commercial by LBJ when he was running against Barry Goldwater in 1964, the one in which a little girl gets obliterated by a nuclear blast while picking petals off a daisy? Or the TV movie “The Day After,” the one in which the whole world is obliterated by nuclear blasts after Ronald Reagan rejects the nuclear-freeze movement’s call not to put missiles in Europe? The tactic of stirring up nuclear hysteria never ends. Albeit on a much smaller community-newspaper level, we now have 2016’s version of “Daisy” and “The Day After,” courtesy of Tom Mountain, the Massachusetts Trump campaign director for Jewish Outreach, who has a piece in the Newton Tab, via Wicked Local, about a future nuclear obliteration of Israel if Hillary Clinton is elected president and pre-emptive nuclear salvation if Donald Trump is elected. It’s political nuclear hysteria at its finest.
P.S. – We did remember Dick’s Cheney’s “1 percent” warnings about WMDs in Iraq, another attempt to whip up nuclear hysteria, but that wasn’t fiction, unfortunately, unlike “Daisy” and the “The Day After.”
Wicked Local


Rome drops out of Summer Olympics bid, no longer a world-class city
 
We knew Rome’s mayor was no fan of her city’s bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics, but we didn’t know till now that she actually pulled the trigger on the idea. Good for her. But we guess this means Rome is no longer a world-class city, as boosters of the Boston Olympics might put it. Anyway, Sports Business Journal’s Ben Fischer, writing at the BBJ, says Los Angeles is now the odds-on-favorite to host the Olympics eight years from now.
BBJ
 
 
Conservation Law Foundation goes after Exxon Mobil
 
From Chris D’Angelo at Huffington Post: “The environmental advocacy group Conservation Law has made good on its threat to sue Exxon Mobil Corp., filing what it says is the first U.S. legal action aimed at holding the oil giant accountable for its well-documented climate change cover-up.” CLF ties the overarching suit to Exxon Mobil’s bulk storage and distribution terminal in Everett. Besides grabbing headlines and squeezing possible money from Exxon, we’re not sure what the suit will accomplish. What did similar they-knew-all-along suits against tobacco companies accomplish? Not much.
Huffington Post

Lottery wins, even when it loses
 
The Mass. State Lottery recoups about $12 million a year, on average, from unclaimed winning tickets, netting $60 million in extra profit over the last five years, Jack Sullivan reports at CommonWealth Magazine. The unclaimed winnings run the gamut from small purses that winners likely thought weren’t worth the bother to claim to some more substantial prizes. One $15 million ticket remains outstanding from the now-ended $30 scratch-off game and the clock is ticking down to next September for the ticket to be cashed.
CommonWealth
 
 
Lawmakers free up cash to end home-care wait list
 
Lawmakers have freed up $3.78 million to address a lengthy waiting list of seniors who want and qualify for home health assistance, Kay Lazar of the Globe reports. Gov. Charlie Baker created a waiting list on Sept.1 and a spokesperson would not say whether he’ll veto the funds, which come from the federally funded Community First Trust Fund. 
Boston Globe

Portraying Hitler as ‘normal’
 
MASSterList posted another item late yesterday afternoon on our Facebook page, this one on a NYT review of a new biography of Adolf Hitler by German historian Volker Ullrich. We were a little alarmed by Ullrich’s stated intention of trying to portray Hitler as a “normal” human being. But we ended up turning off the alarm. See why at Facebook.
Facebook MassterList
 
 
Sunday public affairs TV
 
This Week in Business, NECN, 11 a.m. Senate President Stanley Rosenberg talks about economic development and business; Health Policy Commission chairman Stuart Altman weighs in on his group’s concerns over the planned $1 billion expansion of Boston Children’s Hospital; and Shirley Leung of the Boston Globe talks about the BRA’s new name, plans for Gov. Baker’s trade mission to Israel and other business matters.    
On The Record, WCVB TV Channel 5, 11 a.m. Sunday’s focus is debate over Question 4, the ballot initiative that would legalize marijuana in Massachusetts, with former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank and state Sen. Jason Lewis.
CEO Corner, NECN, 11:30 a.m. FLEXcon CEO Neil McDonough talks about his Spencer-based company that makes films, labels, packaging and adhesives for many of the products consumers use every day. 
CityLine, WCVB TV Channel 5, 12 p.m. With host Karen Holmes Ward, this week’s focus: Nat Turner & the movie The Birth of a Nation.


Today's Headlines
 
Metro
 
 
Massachusetts
 
 
Nation
 




 

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