By Jay Fitzgerald and Keith Regan

05/19/2017

Shoe droppings | Lowell's loser lawsuit | Horse raids

Women in Law conference

Attorney General Maura Healey gives the keynote address at the annual Women in the Law Conference at Northeastern University School of Law. 240 Dockser Hall, Northeastern University, 65 Forsyth St., Boston, 9 a.m.

495/MetroWest Commission

Sen. Karen Spilka, Rep. Kate Hogan and Assistant Secretary for Communities and Programs Juan Vega co-chair a meeting of the 495/MetroWest Suburban Edge Community Commission, with Sens. James Eldridge and Richard Ross and Reps. Carolyn Dykema, David Muradian and Jeff Roy scheduled to attend, Dean College - Campus Center Atrium, 109 West Central St., Franklin, 9:30 a.m.

Cabinet meeting

Gov. Charlie Baker holds a cabinet meeting of his top department chiefs, Room 360, 10 a.m.

Warren’s Wheelock commencement address

U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren delivers the Wheelock College commencement address and receives an honorary degree, Temple Ohabei Shalom, Brookline, 10 a.m.

Forbes announcement

Gov. Baker joins Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and representatives from Forbes for an announcement tied to the return of the Forbes Under 30 Summit to Boston, Catalant, 25 Thomson Place, 3rd Floor, Boston, 1:20 p.m.

Dedham downtown grant

Gov. Baker tours Danvers businesses in recognition of the town's Downtown Initiative Grant, Kaffmandu Coffee House, 8 Maple Street, Danvers, 3:30 p.m.

Today's News

Caution: Falling shoes in Washington

The state’s political establishment, i.e. Democrats, are experiencing a wide variety of emotions these days regarding all things Trump: anger, agitation, impatience, frustration, fear, outrage, you name it, reports the Globe’s Joshua Miller. We particularly liked Rep. Katherine Clark’s quip about the “whiplash from trying to keep up with Trump’s chaos.” But there’s also more talk these days about dropping shoes in Washington, as in the “fear there will be many more shoes to drop in the not too distant future,” as Rep. Michael Capuano puts it. The Globe’s Indira A.R. Lakshmanan also ends her witch-hunt piece with references to more shoes to drop. So there you have it: Dropping shoes is the next political metaphor du jour, once we get all the "witch hunt" references out of the way.

Boston Globe

The greatest witch hunts ever

As for witch-hunt references, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, whose district includes Salem, is not impressed with President Trump’s claim that he’s the victim of the "greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history,” reports Dan Glaun at MassLive. Moulton’s tweet response to the president’s claim: “As the Representative of Salem, MA, I can confirm that this is false.”

The Globe’s James Pindell goes over some of the greatest witch hunts in political history, including, at the top of the list, McCarthyism, of course. We’re not too sure about his ‘birthersism’ and Julius Caesar examples, though. And, in New England, no mention of DeflateGate?

MassLive

Trump’s ultimate anti-impeachment shield: Hyper-partisan loyalty amid hyper-polarization

Democrats may sense another Watergate in the making. But Richard Parr and Steve Koczela write at CommonWealth magazine that all the Trump impeachment talk is just talk as long as Republicans control Congress and the Republican base remains loyal to Trump in the age of hyper-partisanship and hyper-polarization. But the Herald’s Howie Carr is already seeing cracks in that GOP base.

CommonWealth

First things first: Mueller to speak at Tabor Academy, then decide whether to bring down Trump presidency

Talk about timing. Tabor Academy has announced that former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller, who just earlier this week was appointed special counsel to investigate the White House’s Russian shenanigans, will be the commencement speaker at Marion’s Tabor Academy on May 29, according to a report at Wicked Local.

Wicked Local

Healey and other AGs file lawsuit to protect ObamaCare subsidies

Attorney General Maura Healey is joining other attorneys general across the country in filing a lawsuit to preserve ObamaCare subsidies that help people cover their copays and deductibles, writes the Globe’s Felice Freyer. Now if only the AGs could find a way to sue to preserve the billions of dollars in federal Medicaid subsidies flowing to states, including Massachusetts. SHNS’s Matt Murphy at the Berkshire Eagle has more on Healey’s action on the subsidies front.

Lowell hit with voting rights lawsuit over at-large council elections

Prediction: Lowell will probably lose the Voting Rights lawsuit recently filed against its at-large council voting system and may want to settle ASAP. Ted Siefer at CommonWealth has details on the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice’s allegation that the city’s at-large system violates the Voting Rights Act and other constitutional provisions, leading to a lack of minority representation on the council. We’re pretty sure they have a good case, based on along-ago Voting Rights lawsuit that a certain MassterList author covered in Springfield, Illinois (yes, Abe Lincoln’s hometown), which also had at-large council elections. The city ultimately lost, resoundingly, after a prolonged, bitter and costly legal fight.

CommonWealth

Here’s one person who won’t miss Roger Ailes: Mike Dukakis

Former Gov. Michael Dukakis tried not to say anything unkind about Roger Ailes, the GOP media guru and political strategist who died earlier this week. But Dukakis, who felt Ailes’s tank-ride sting during the 1988 presidential race, couldn’t resist, reports the Herald’s O’Ryan Johnson. “He practiced a brand of politics that I don’t believe in, I don’t like, and that was true whether I was involved or if it involved other candidates,” Dukakis said of Ailes. “But he’s passed away and so I extend my sympathies to his family, and the people who knew and liked him. But he wasn’t in my ballpark when it came to politics.”

Btw: The Herald’s Joe Battenfeld writes that there’s no denying that Ailes changed the political and media landscape by building Fox News into a conservative-media juggernaut. The Globe’s Don Aucoin has a similar like-or-loathe-him piece on Ailes.

Boston Herald

Gonzalez tries to sweet-talk his way around soda-tax support

Goaded by Republicans, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jay Gonzalez has acknowledged that, yes, he’s a supporter of a proposed tax on sodas, both for state revenue and public-health reasons, reports SHNS’s Matt Murphy at the BBJ. But Gonzalez made clear that his first priority is not the soda tax, but rather building support to get the proposed “millionaire’s tax” passed in Massachusetts, Murphy writes.

BBJ

Meanwhile, Gonzalez pans SouthCoast rail re-route

Give Jay Gonzalez credit: He knows how to keep his name in the headlines by swinging away at Gov. Baker. The latest example: The Democratic gubernatorial tells editors of the Taunton Gazette that he is “very concerned” about Baker administration plans to use the Middleboro route to extend commuter rail service to the state’s SouthCoast region, Rebecca Hyman reports. Hyman has the details.

Taunton Gazette

The race is on to raid the state’s horse-racing fund

State Sen. Mark Montigny has yet another idea on how best to raid the $13 million state fund set aside to promote horse racing in Massachusetts: Use the money to fight sex trafficking, reports the Herald’s Matt Stout. But Montigny will have to get in line behind State Sen. Karen Spilka and the New England Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, both of whom have different ideas on how best to raid the fund, Stout writes.

Boston Herald

Forbes Under 30 Summit returns to Boston

The Forbes Under 30 Summit will be returning to Boston in October, bringing with it thousands of young entrepreneurs and hundreds of bigwig speakers, the Globe is reporting.

Boston Globe

Fate of higher tobacco age rests with House

With apparent support from Gov. Charlie Baker and a favorable Senate vote taken last year, the state’s House of Representatives is poised to decide whether the state will raise the minimum age for buying tobacco products to 21, Mike Deehan of WGBH reports. House supporters say they have widespread support among lawmakers, with 104 co-signers to the bill filed by Rep. Paul McMurty, which means the legislation’s fate may now rest squarely on the shoulders of House Speaker Robert DeLeo.

WGBH

Southie pols on full alert over convention-center study

The Massachusetts Convention Center Authority is quietly moving forward with plans to study how best to use 30 undeveloped acres surrounding the South Boston convention center, i.e. the authority may be angling to revive the previously shelved center-expansion plan. But Rep. Nick Collins and Sen. Linda Dorcena Forry are signaling they’re not going to be so quiet on the issue, the Globe’s Jon Chesto reports.

Boston Globe

State’s jobless rate rises for fourth straight month

It’s not time to hit the panic button. But it is time to start worrying, a little, about what’s going on with the state economy, with the jobless rate last month rising from 3.6 percent to 3.9 percent. Yes, it’s still below the national average, but it’s also the fourth straight month that the unemployment rate has inched up in Massachusetts, as the BBJ’s Greg Ryan reports. Granted, the payroll numbers, derived from a separate survey of major employers, were up, but four months is still four months.

BBJ

Critics getting mileage out of Mayor’s innocuous comments on bikers and pedestrians

Mayor Marty Walsh walked into it when he dared to mildly criticize (if you can even call it that) bikers and pedestrians in Boston. The Globe’s Nestor Ramos and Steve Annear have more on the ensuing brouhaha.

Boston Globe

iBoss plans to ‘hire thousands’ after it settles in Boston

A day after Gov. Charlie Baker officially welcomed iBoss Inc.’s move from San Diego to Boston, the BBJ’s Kelly O’Brien is reporting that the cyber-security firm’s CEO is vowing iBoss will “hire thousands of people” here and cement the state’s status as the "number one cybersecurity hub in the world." O’Brien has more details.

BBJ

Tufts grad students vote to unionize, beating out NCAA athletes who should have done it long ago

Though they have no particular beef against school administrators, Tufts University’s graduate students have voted to join SEIU Local 509, as part of a growing trend across academia of low-paid and over-worked grad students joining unions, reports Max Larkin at WBUR. Now if only NCAA Division 1 football and basketball players, arguably the most abused students within academia when it comes to working their tails off to enrich others, would unionize.

WBUR

New Bedford plan trades nine holes for 1,000 jobs

The city of New Bedford released details of its plans to partner with the state to redevelop half of a city-owned golf course into a new business park, saying it would create 1,000 high-paying jobs and generate as much as $2 million annually in property taxes, Michael Bonner of the Standard-Times reports. The city still has to get state blessing for reducing the 18-hole course to just 9 holes.

SouthCoast Today

Martha's Vineyard gaming hall opponents to make plea to U.S. Supreme Court

The town of Aquinnah and other opponents of a plan to turn a tribal community center on Martha’s Vineyard into a gaming hall plan to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn appeals court victories for the Wampanoag tribe of Gay Head, Bob McGovern of the Herald reports.

Boston Herald

Motel 6 won’t be leaving the lights on for at least 7 weeks

The Motel 6 in Braintree where a local police officer was shot while trying to serve an arrest warrant on May 5, will voluntarily close for at least 7 weeks to give managers time to work out issues with the town, Fred Hanson of the Patriot Ledger reports. Motel officials say they will raise the room rate, stop accepting cash payments and put more security in place at the trouble-plagued motel. The shutdown begins June 1.

Patriot Ledger

Sunday public affairs TV

Keller at Large, WBZ-TV Channel 4, 8:30 a.m. This week’s guest: House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who speaks with host Jon Kellerr about the state budget shortfall, tax hikes, the differences between the House and Senate, and other issues.

This is New England, NBC Boston, 9:30 a.m. With host Latoyia Edwards, this week’s topics: Mental Health Awareness Month, Italian Home for Children, Red Nose Day.

This Week in Business, NECN, 10 a.m. Jim Rooney, president of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, discusses the WannaCry malware, the latest state employment figures and the state Senate budget; Tracelink CEO Shabbir Dahod discusses regulations to track and trace manufacturing in the drug supply chain; and Doug Banks, editor of the Boston Business Journal, reviews the week’s top business stories.

CEO Corner, NECN, 10: 30 a.m. Jose and Zoraida de la Rosa, the co-founders of Guardian Healthcare, talk about their company and its mission to provide at home healthcare services for populations facing language or cultural barriers.

On the Record, WCVB-TV, Channel 5, 11 a.m. This week’s guest: Mayor Marty Walsh, who speaks with anchor Ed Harding and co-anchor Janet Wu.

CityLine, WCVB-TV Channel 5, 12 p.m. With host Karen Holmes Ward, this week’s focus: The Ride Hailing Economy. ******

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Today's Headlines

Metro

Boston’s first-ever chief digital officer leaves job for Philadelphia - Boston Business Journal

Franklin Park allies eye benefits from sale of city-owned garage - Dorchester Reporter

Tufts graduate students are latest to vote to unionize - WBUR

Jeb Bush is coming to Boston College - Boston Magazine

Massachusetts

State senator seeks money for sex-trafficking victims from horse racing fund - Boston Herald

High stakes for Vineyard tribe - Boston Herald