U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III is scheduled to attend the first-day issuance of a U.S. postage stamp commemorating the centennial of President John Kennedy's birth. The congressman is a great-nephew of the late President Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Columbia Point, Boston, 10 a.m.
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| Blowback gets results: Baker in talks to alter business health tax plan |
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The Globe’s Jon Chesto reports that the Baker administration -- facing intense blowback from business groups over its call for a new $300 million assessment on companies that don’t offer adequate health insurance to their workers -- is now negotiating with business interests on an alternative plan that could ready by April, when House leaders take up the budget.
Boston Globe |
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| Hi, there: Trump pays visit to controversial Dana-Farber fundraiser |
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Whether Dana-Farber officials were happy or horrified (or a combination of both) isn’t quite clear. But amidst protests over the cancer institute’s posh fundraising gala over the weekend at President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, who shows up? Donald Trump himself, reports Ike Swetlitz at Stat News. For all we know, his presence may well have led to some attendees writing fatter checks. But some Dana-Farber employees and Harvard medical students, who have criticized holding the event at Trump’s Florida resort, are not happy.
STAT News |
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| The Big Seawall: City officials explore giant harbor barrier to hold back sea |
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This is going to create a cottage industry of people trying to come up with new nicknames for the project. From the Globe’s David Abel: “As rising sea levels pose a growing threat to Boston’s future, city officials are exploring the feasibility of building a vast sea barrier from Hull to Deer Island, forming a protective arc around Boston Harbor. The idea, raised in a recent city report on the local risks of climate change, sounds like a pipe dream, a project that could rival the Big Dig in complexity and cost. It’s just one of several options, but the sea wall proposal is now under serious study by a team of some of the region’s top scientists and engineers.” For now, we’re going with the Big SeaWall as a nickname. But that’s one syllable too many compared to the Big Dig.
As for the idea itself, yes, it will be mocked, here and elsewhere, but the city is absolutely right to start making plans for rising sea levels. They’ve arguably waited too long. We’ve reached a point where, moving ahead on climate change, the strategy should be twofold: How to reduce carbon pollution and damage control.
Boston Globe |
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| Massachusetts companies routinely fail to live up to their tax-break job pledges |
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All those quarterly press releases issued by Economic Development Incentive Program officials touting the new jobs to be created through targeted tax breaks? About a third of the pronouncements have little to do with reality, as firms routinely fail to produce the promised jobs, the BBJ reports in a pay-wall story. We’re talking dozens of companies, big and small, from BNY Mellon to a small Springfield manufacturer, not matching jobs to pledges.
BBJ (pay wall) |
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| Meanwhile, city grapples with bogus property-tax exemption claims |
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Don’t think that corporations have cornered the market when it comes to extravagant tax-break claims. From the Globe’s Meghan Irons: “Over the past six years, thousands of people in Boston who claimed the residential exemption on their property taxes did not qualify for those savings — in some cases, thousands of dollars annually — city records show. Even worse: There’s nothing the city can do to recover those funds.”
Boston Globe
| ‘Man tipped for US ambassador role in NZ a former nude model who supports waterboarding’ |
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How New Zealand sees the weekend report that Scott Brown is in line to be the next U.S. ambassador to their country, via the New Zealand Herald: ‘Man tipped for US ambassador role in NZ a former nude model who supports waterboarding.’ From the Dominion Post’s web site: ‘It’s an insult!’ We’re just passing the headlines along. |
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| About those suggestive Bernie & Phyl’s T ads … |
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Sex sells. Not necessarily quality, comfort and price, that’s nice. So that’s what Bernie & Phyl’s is doing with all those MBTA ads that look like giant classified advertisements, explains the BBJ’s Greg Ryan, who says the furniture retailer is trying to reach out to younger customers.
BBJ |
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| T’s reform board might get an extension, but not the Pacheco Law waiver |
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Gov. Charlie Baker may well get his wish of extending the authority of the MBTA’s Fiscal Management and Control Board to 2020, but it looks like an extension won’t include a continued waiver to the Pacheco Law, an exemption that has given the transit agency more freedom to pursue privatization at the T, writes the Herald’s Matt Stout. “The Senate was opposed to the (original) Pacheco Law freeze and I’d personally like to see this run its course,” said Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg.
Boston Herald |
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| Take a bow, Michael Haywood, and your T colleagues too |
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If you haven’t read this Nicole Dungca piece in the Globe yet, do so. The T has been getting bashed around a lot over the past two years. But this story will remind you that, in fact, there are a lot of really good, dedicated people at the agency, one of whom is Michael Haywood, who was told to think outside the box and that’s exactly what he did, creating an ingenious new snowblower for rail tracks.
Boston Globe |
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| Judge throws out two years of breathalyzer tests |
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As if state prosecutors and crime-lab officials don’t have enough on their hands with tens of thousands of criminal cases at risk due to the antics of former lab technician Annie Dookhan, they’re now facing the possibility that two years worth of alcohol breathalyzer tests could be in jeopardy as a result of a decision late last week by a state judge, who ruled that the crime lab failed to follow proper written protocols certifying testing equipment, as reported by Jim Haddadin at Wicked Local.
Wicked Local
| NRA is taking aim – again – at Healey, this time via bills |
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If you’re a legislator who suddenly gets a lot of calls this week (though not necessarily today) from gun-rights owners, thank the NRA. The pro-gun group is urging supporters to call their state lawmakers to support bills challenging Attorney General Maura Healey’s recent crackdown on copycat assault weapons, the AP reports at NECN. The NRA is already suing Healey (and Gov. Baker) over the copycat order.
NECN |
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| The rise of political southpaw sportswriters |
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A MASSsterList reader sends in this piece in Boston-homeboy Bill Simmons’s new media venture, The Ringer, by Bryant Curtis, who argues sports writing has basically become “a liberal profession, practiced by liberals who enforce an unapologetically liberal code.” Reading the NYT’s sports section, which more than one wag has suggested should be called the ‘Sociology of Sports Section,’ it’s hard to argue the point. But take a gander at Curtis’s own recent Ringer articles, the majority of which are political in nature. Everything is getting more political these days, it seems. |
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| ‘Science fights back’ |
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Though other media outlets pegged yesterday’s Copley Square rally by scientists worried about Donald Trump in the hundreds, Universal Hub, which reported the turnout to be in the thousands, still got this right: “The rally was something of a warmup for even larger science-based protests planned for April 22 in Boston and April 29 in Washington.”
Universal Hub |
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| Jackpot: Online Lottery could be a windfall for tech companies and their lobbyists |
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Online Lottery games may or may not be a boon for state revenues, but they’d sure help the bottom lines of some tech and lobbying firms, reports Sean Murphy at the Globe: “With state lawmakers slated to debate the (online gaming) proposal, private companies are stepping up their lobbying efforts, putting themselves in position to receive lucrative lottery contracts if the legislation passes.”
Boston Globe |
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| Massachusetts opioid deaths soar higher in 2016, fueled by fentanyl |
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From SHNS’s Katie Lannan at Wicked Local: “The number of people dying from opioid overdoses in Massachusetts each year continues to climb, according to a new state report projecting an estimated increase of between 13 and 24 percent from 2015 to 2016. A total of 1,465 people died of unintentional opioid overdoses in 2016, with another 469 to 562 suspected opioid-related deaths, according to the Department of Public Health's quarterly overdose report released Friday.”
Wicked Local
| JFK postage stamp to be unveiled today |
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The U.S. Postal Service plans to the commemorate the 100th anniversary of John F. Kennedy Jr.'s birth with a new ‘forever’ stamp, which will be dedicated today in a ceremony at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in Boston, reports Shira Schoenberg at MassLive. U.S. Rep. Joseph Kennedy III is scheduled to attend today’s dedication.
MassLive |
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| ‘Where does Keith McDermott go to get his reputation back?’ |
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The Globe’s Adrian Walker asks the right question now that Attorney General Maura Healey has cleared Keith McDermott of wrongdoing at the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center.
Boston Globe |
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| Slow news weekend: Kerry in 2020? |
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The last three throw-away sentences of this brief NYT blurb on John Kerry landing at Yale University sent the Herald into orbit over the weekend, as the newspaper blared how Kerry hasn’t ruled out running for president in 2020 and how it’s put him on a “potential collision course in a Democratic primary” with U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Howie Carr has an accompanying column. Hey, it was a slow news weekend. The Pats season has been over for two weeks, Trump was relatively quiet on Friday, etc.
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