Boston Mayor Martin Walsh is scheduled to appear on ‘NightSide with Dan Rea,’ WBZ NewsRadio 1030, 8 p.m.
| Today's News |
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| Cypher gets the nod for Supreme Judicial Court |
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Gov. Charlie Baker plans to announce today that’s he’s nominating Elspeth B. Cypher, a state appeals court judge, to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, replacing Justice Margot Botsford, who retires next month, reports the Globe’s Jim O’Sullivan and SHNS’s Andy Metzger at WWLP. As O’Sullivan notes, Cypher is Baker’s fourth nomination to the seven-member high court and, assuming she’s confirmed, it would cement the Republican Baker’s stamp on the SJC for years to come. |
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| Warren ‘red-carded’ off the Senate floor |
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Just when you thought it couldn’t get any crazier in Washington, it did. From the Globe’s Matt Viser and Victoria McGrane: “Senator Elizabeth Warren was ruled in violation of Senate rules late Tuesday night after quoting from a decades-old letter written by Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow — a rare rebuke that silenced Warren from further debate on the nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions as attorney general. The striking 49-to-43 vote, which occurred along party lines, marked yet another setback for decorum in a chamber that has long considered itself the world’s greatest deliberative body.” Warren later told the Globe: “I’ve been red-carded; I’ve been thrown out of the game.” The Herald has more on the red-carding of Warren. |
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| Markey, Warren fire their salvos, but it wasn’t enough to stop DeVos appointment |
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Before last night’s Senate-floor fireworks involving U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the state’ senior senator and U.S. Sen. Ed Markey were firing salvos at Republicans on another front, with Markey calling Betsy DeVos “too extreme” to be education secretary and Warren saying "this whole process stinks." But in the end Dems couldn’t stop DeVos’s Senate confirmation on an historic tie-breaker vote cast by Vice President Mike Pence, reports Shannon Young at MassLive.
MassLive |
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| Warren is definitely winning on the fundraising front |
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She may be losing rear-guard appointment battles in Washington. But U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren is definitely winning when it comes to raising campaign funds, to the tune of $5.9 million last year alone, according to an AP report at the Herald.
Boston Herald |
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| Next up for Markey: The fight over net neutrality |
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The dust hasn’t even settled from the bruising fight over Betsy DeVos’s appointment as education secretary and already U.S. Sen. Ed Markey has another battle on his hands, this one over the White House’s plan to loosen the Internet net neutrality regulations, reports Mike Deehan at WGBH.
WGBH
| ‘Most Famous Living Rhode Islander at This Particular Moment’ |
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The Globe’s Mark Arsenault takes a look at White House spokesman Sean Spicer, a Little Rhody native and arguably the “Most Famous Living Rhode Islander at This Particular Moment.” But it’s not your typical profile. Instead, Arsenault gets hold of Spicer’s “17 rules for life” and sees if he’s applying them in Washington.
Boston Globe |
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| Powerful Rasky Baerlein PR firm to split up |
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Speaking of spinmeisters, one of the city’s most powerful and politically wired public relations firms, Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications, is officially splitting up, reports the Herald’s Joe Battenfeld and the Globe’s Jon Chesto. They’re swearing and spinning that it’s an amicable split. Still, they’re splitting up into three separate firms (one each for Larry Rasky, Joe Baerlein and Amy Carter). Check out George Regan’s counter-spin in Battenfeld’s piece. Gotta hand it to George: He never misses a beat. |
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| Bruins find a good day to bury bad news |
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On yet another spinmeister front, the Boston Bruins used the cover of the New England Patriots’ Super Bowl parade yesterday to fire coach Claude Julien, taking a page right from the PR manual of the immortal Jo Moore, the U.K’s (and perhaps the world’s) spinmeister of all spinmeisters. The Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy is outraged at the timing. |
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| Division of insurance chief steps down |
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From the Globe’s Priyanka Daval McCluskey: “Massachusetts insurance commissioner Daniel R. Judson is stepping down to take a job in the private sector. Judson will leave the Division of Insurance Feb. 24, according to the division. He will begin a new job the following week as president of the Workers’ Compensation Rating and Inspection Bureau of Massachusetts, a private association of insurers.”
Boston Globe |
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| Springfield mayor slams latest refugee arrivals |
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Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno lashed out at local resettlement agencies who are helping refugees expected to arrive in the city from Bhutan and Eritrea this week, saying the city has already done more than its share to help displaced families, Peter Goonan of MassLive reports. “As I have continued to state to federal and state government officials, enough is enough,” Sarno said in a release.
MassLive |
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| Springfield's Sarno is definitely tilting rightward these days |
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Matt Szafranski at Western Mass Politics and Insight says Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno's outburst over Bhutan and Eritrea refugees is just the latest sign of him moving to the right: “Since the 2016 election, Sarno has put up a more public conservative show, involving himself in Hampshire College’s flag fracas and now making public declarations about Springfield not being a 'sanctuary city.' Until recently, he has also chased national conservative television coverage like Fox News.” Ah, the proof-positive Fox News evidence. End of argument.
WMPI |
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| Lowell sanctuary proposal gets chilly reception |
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Another city grappling with immigration: A citizens’ petition to establish Lowell as a so-called sanctuary city got a chilly reception from city councilors, who nonetheless referred the idea to the city manager for review, Todd Feathers of the Lowell Sun reports.
Lowell Sun
| Even fortune tellers get more licensing scrutiny than security guards |
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Question: How do you license a fortune teller? By how accurate he or she predicts the future? Anyway, the Globe’s Nicole Dungca and Evan Allen report that fortune tellers, hairdressers, kickboxing timekeepers and many others all have to be licensed by the state before operating in Massachusetts. “But not security guards,” making Massachusetts an outlier in regulating and training private guards, they report.
Boston Globe |
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| Bill takes tough stance on fentanyl traffickers |
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Trafficking in fentanyl would be added to the list of reasons prosecutors can seek to use the state’s “dangerousness statute” to hold suspects for up to 120 days without bail under a new bill filed by Rep. Chris Markey, Wesley Sykes of the Standard-Times reports.
Standard Times |
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| Worcester officials want rail summit |
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Hoping to press for more attention from both state and federal officials, the Worcester City Council is asking City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. to convene a summit on rail service to and from both Boston and New York City, Nick Kotsopolous of the Telegram reports.
Telegram |
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| Elizabeth Warren’s new book will be coming out on April 18 |
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Start the pre-ordering, if you’re so inclined. U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s new book, "This Fight Is Our Fight: The Battle to Save America's Middle Class," will be published April 18, Henry Holt and Co. has told the Associated Press, as reported at MassLive.
MassLive |
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| Mass. business confidence hits a 12-year high |
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We thought President Trump’s recent controversial moves – including his controversial immigration order, killing off the Asian trade deal and threatening to slap tariffs on imports – might dent the local business community’s enthusiasm for the president and the economy. Wrong. Business confidence last month hit a 12-year high in Massachusetts, reports SHNS’s Colin Young at the BBJ. It seems businesses like the state’s 2.8 percent unemployment rate more than anything else.
BBJ |
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| Better late than never: Local biotech execs slam Trump’s immigration order |
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Here’s one business sector that isn’t too happy. Nearly 100 biotech leaders and others tied to the industry are slamming President Trump’s controversial immigration order in an open letter, reports the BBJ’s Max Stendahl. “If this misguided policy is not reversed, America is at risk of losing its leadership position in one of its most important sectors,” the letter said. Stendahl notes that the biotech industry, which relies heavily on foreign talent and foreign corporations for its success, was strangely quite [sic] in the immediate days after Trump’s order.
BBJ
| Barney Frank fears Trump’s financial regulators more than actual changes to Dodd-Frank |
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Former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank says President Trump will probably fail in rolling back the substantive parts of the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill that he helped craft after the 2008 Wall Street meltdown. He’s more worried about Trump’s financial-sector regulators who Frank thinks can effectively ignore and gut rules on their own, reports Bob Oakes and Yasmin Amer at WBUR. “They will probably sadly cut back on the financial autonomy of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,” he said. “We may lose that one.”
WBUR |
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| Former anti-toll activist looks back on death threats and razor blades stuck in his car door handles |
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Doug Barth long ago pushed for elimination of tolls on the Mass Pike, not just removal of toll booths, and as a result he says at WBUR that he had to put up with death threats, denunciations, and razor blades stuck in his car door handles. So he’s not exactly thrilled that we now no longer have the booths but still have the tolls. He also doesn’t have fond memories of Stan Rosenberg and Charlie Baker, before they became State House leaders.
WBUR |
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| The widening income gap … in the Massachusetts House |
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Some House members are going to be happy if they land a coveted leadership post with the newly boosted pay stipends attached to them. But what of the other lawmakers who don’t get leadership posts? There may well be resentment in coming years among the House plebians, warn some lawmakers, as reported by SHNS’s Matt Murphy.
SHNS (pay wall) |
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| Brockton mayor orders outside hiring review in wake of $4M judgment |
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Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter is ordering an outside review of the city’s hiring practices in the wake of a $4 million judgment against the community for racially biased hiring procedures, Marc Larocque of the Enterprise reports. Carpenter also says the city will seek to overturn or reduce the judgment in the case.
Enterprise |
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