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By Jay Fitzgerald and Keith Regan

10/05/2017

Rate shock | Inspect this, please | Lion’s den

Happening Today

SJC hearing, Capital bonding, Airbnb protest, IMF chief at Harvard

-- Cannabis World Congress & Business Exposition comes to Boston for the first time, bringing its marijuana trade show and conference for the legalized cannabis industries, Hynes Convention Center, 900 Boylston St., Boston, 8 a.m.

-- The Supreme Judicial Court will hear arguments in six cases, John Adams Courthouse, Courtroom One, Second Floor, Pemberton Square, Boston, 9 a.m.

-- National Grid and Vionx Energy are joined by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to introduce an energy storage project developed with Holy Name Central Catholic Junior/Senior High School and WPI, Holy Name High School, 144 Granite St., Worcester, 10 a.m.

-- Gov. Charlie Baker attends the 34th annual Trooper George Hanna Memorial Awards for Bravery, along with Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, Attorney General Maura Healey, Public Safety and Security Secretary Daniel Bennett and others, House Chamber, 10 a.m.

-- House Committee on Bonding, Capital Expenditures and State Assets holds a public hearing on a bond bill filed by the Baker administration seeking authorization for $3.795 billion over the next five years for capital needsstatewide, Hearing Room B-1, 10:30 a.m.

-- U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano is a guest on ‘Boston Public Radio,’ WGBH-FM 89.7, 12:30 p.m.

-- Gov. Charlie Baker joins Roxbury Community College President Dr. Valerie Roberson at the college's campus improvement celebration, 7 Elmwood St., Roxbury, 1:30 p.m.

-- Community Labor United, Chinatown Community Land Trust and Chinese Progressive Association hold demonstration and march to protect Chinatown and other communities from Airbnb and other short-term rental companies, Quincy School, 885 Washington St., Boston, 3 p.m.

-- Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, who graduated from UMass-Amherst and represents Amherst, attends the annual A+ Awards ceremony, Student Union Ballroom, 280 Hicks Way, Amherst, 5 p.m.

-- U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas hosts an annual U.S. Service Academy and Military Career Forum to highlight opportunities to attend the academies, participate in university ROTC programs and serve in the armed services, 50 Father Morissette Boulevard, Lowell, 6 p.m.

-- International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde will make a public address and then talk with Lawrence Summers, the former Harvard president and top official in the Clinton and Obama administrations, and Kennedy School professor Nicholas Burns, Kennedy School, Cambridge, 6 p.m.

-- Gov. Charlie Baker, Mayor Martin Walsh, U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, CNN's John King and others gather for the Codman Square Health Center's 20th Anniversary benefit Men of Boston Cook for Women's Health, Gala Tent, 637 Washington St., Dorchester, 6 p.m.

-- Attorney General Maura Healey participates in a moderated Harvard Institute of Politics conversation about her office's work on the opioid crisis, Kirkland House - Junior Common Room, 95 Dunster St., Cambridge, 7:30 p.m.

Today's News

Uncertainty over fed subsidies may mean health rate spikes as high as 30 percent

It all seems like a distant, abstract, policy-wonk issue: The uncertainty over future federal subsidies for ObamaCare health insurance coverage. But it won’t be a distant, abstract, policy-wonk issue to thousands of Massachusetts people who buy their insurance over the Massachusetts Health Connector and find out their premiums next year will rise at double-digit rates, sometimes by as much as 30 percent. The BBJ’s Jessica Bartlett and SHNS’s Colin Young at the Salem News have the details.

State troopers headed to Puerto Rico

The Baker administration is sending 69 State Police officers and 13 police cruisers to Puerto Rico to help maintain curfews and perform other security duties on the hurricane-stricken island, reports Jacob Carozza at the Globe.

Boston Globe

Sterling paramedic fired after ‘porch monkeys’ post

From Scott Croteau at MassLive: “A Sterling paramedic has been fired after authorities said she posted racist remarks on Facebook about the New England Patriots players while they kneeled during the national anthem before a game. Linda Kimball, an on-call paramedic for the Sterling Fire Department, was fired following a town investigation and a closed hearing with the fire chief and town administrator, Sterling Fire Chief David Hurlbut Jr. said Wednesday.”

As offensive as her “porch monkeys” rant was on Facebook, this is now a pretty obvious case of government punishing speech.

MassLive

WBZ labor dispute leads to cancellation of mayoral debate

Mayor Marty Walsh avoids another debate, thanks to a local labor skirmish. From Meghan Irons at the Globe: “A local union representing dozens of behind-the-scenes workers at WBZ-TV has shut down a face-to face debate between Mayor Martin J. Walsh and City Councilor Tito Jackson. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 1228, sent a letter to both men this week urging them to boycott Tuesday’s proposed debate until the television station and its parent company, CBS Boston, agree to higher wages for longtime employees.” Walsh and Jackson said they would not cross picket lines, so WBZ canceled the televised showdown.

Boston Globe

Boston’s unhappy voters

Speaking of the mayor’s race: Mayor Marty Walsh may hold a commanding lead in polls in Boston’s mayoral race. But that doesn’t mean voters are happy with conditions in the city. A new MassINC survey for WBUR shows that residents are “dissatisfied” with public schools, cost of housing, race relations, traffic, level of crime, amount of gun violence, and gang activity. As David Bernstein notes at WGBH: “When attitudes toward the T are one of the high points (in a survey), you know there’s trouble.”

WGBH

So how’s that new auto inspection system going?

There’s yet more trouble to report on the state auto-inspection front: “Hundreds of Bay State service stations were still unable to perform inspections three days after the disastrous rollout of an updated testing system left shop owners and motorists seeing red, officials said. ‘This is the third day that it hasn’t been working and we’re still turning away a lot of customers, it’s getting ridiculous,” said Vicky Mantis, whose father, George Mantis, owns ALFA Auto Fuel in Roslindale.”

Boston Herald

Not so fast, Amazon bidders: Suffolk Downs investors say they’re owed millions

This may complicate things. From Greg Ryan at the BBJ: “Politicians are pushing Suffolk Downs as a possible future home for an Amazon.com Inc. headquarters. But a handful of investors say they have some unfinished business involving the property. Seven former minority owners of Suffolk Downs, including five local investors, have accused the developer Richard Fields and his firm of withholding $2.6 million they say they're owed from the sale of the property earlier this year. The investors filed a lawsuit in Suffolk County Superior Court last week.”

Meanwhile, Tim Logan of the Globe reports that Boston itself has multiple options beyond the oft-cited Suffolk Downs property to dangle to the e-tailer, including Widett Circle, the Beacon Yards in Allston and even a cluster of properties in the heart of downtown near South Station.

BBJ

Stonehill College dean not exactly impressed with Setti Warren’s headline-chasing antics

Stonehill College’s Peter Ubertaccio, writing at WGBH, starts out assessing whether the upcoming gubernatorial election will be more like the 1970 or 1974 gubernatorial races. But then he veers off onto the subject of today’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Setti Warren and his media battling spokesman and their recent shots at Gov. Charlie Baker and NECN host Sue O’Connell. Ubertaccio concludes: “It’s a flashback to earlier in the summer when Team Warren, seemingly angry at the press coverage of the Governor, tweeted that WGBH host Jim Braude was soft on Baker because ‘rich guys look out for each other.’”

Fyi: Ubertaccio compares Charlie Baker to former Republican Gov. Frank Sargent. That made us think of another comparison: How Setti Warren’s increasingly shrill and silly campaign to unseat an incumbent reminds us of Baker’s first shrill and silly campaign to unseat an incumbent in 2010.

Fyi II: At BlueMassGroup, Charley on the MTA isn’t impressed with Ubertaccio’s characterization of Baker as a politically attractive management type.

WGBH

Lion’s den: Ex-Equifax chief the latest to get the Liz Warren treatment

A day after she ripped into the chief executive of Wells Fargo, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth was served the former chief executive of Equifax on a platter. She didn’t waste much time ripping into him too, saying at a hearing that company executives should be held “personally accountable” for the massive data breach at Equifax and that the company should be subject to “severe financial penalties,” reports the Globe’s Victoria McGrane. What can you say? She’s right. The company blew it, big time.

Boston Globe

Of ‘empty gestures’ and the NRA …

U.S. Reps. Katherine Clark and Seth Moulton carried through on their vows not to participate in a House moment of silence yesterday for Las Vegas shooting victims, saying the ceremony was merely an ‘empty gesture’ without accompanying action on gun control, reports Kristin LaFratta at MassLive.

Separately, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren said that Congress is being “held hostage” by the National Rifle Association and called on colleagues to implement new gun control measures, reports Amanda McGowan at WGBH. The Globe’s Yvonne Abraham and Joan Vennochi, in their own ways, also take on the NRA lobbying juggernaut in columns this morning. But the Herald’s Adriana Cohen is praising President Trump for not buckling to the anti-NRA crowd.

The personal touch: Moulton appeals to Ryan one-on-one but gets nowhere

Traditionally, a far more effective way of getting legislation passed in Congress, compared to sit-ins, tweets and other forms of megaphone protest, is old-fashioned one-on-one meetings with power brokers. But even that didn’t work for U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, who said he recently approached House Speaker Paul Ryan and asked if any gun-control measures were possible, reports the Globe’s Travis Andersen. Ryan’s reported response, according to Moulton: “He just gave me that kind of non-answer, like, ‘Oh no, I don’t really think so. Because, you know . . . there’s no way to do a little, because then everybody wants a lot.’ ”

Greater Boston makes short list of World Cup host cities

From Steve Watkins at the BBJ: “Greater Boston has made the short list of potential World Cup host cities for the 2026 event. Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, with a capacity of 65,892, is among a group of 32 sites selected by a joint North American bid committee to be presented to international soccer governing body FIFA early next year. The full list includes 25 U.S. cities, four in Canada and three in Mexico.”

BBJ

While cannabis commission gets earful in Holyoke, cannabis industry gets a 'no' in Lawrence

Two of the five members of the new Cannabis Control Commission traveled to Holyoke for the first in a planned series of listening sessions – and they sure got an earful from supporters, detractors and confused local officials, Bera Dunaus of the Hampshire Gazette reports. Several speakers urged the commission to craft regulations to ensure small growers and business people are able to compete in the new marketplace.

The city of Lawrence, meanwhile, became the latest community to say no to recreational pot shops, Keith Eddings reports in the Eagle-Tribune.

Koh’s shock-and-awe display doesn’t deter Matias

There are still some Democrats mulling whether to run for the U.S. House seat to be vacated by retiring U.S. Rep. Nike Tsongas. So maybe that partly explains why Dan Koh, a Democrat who’s made clear he’s running for the Third District seat, announced in a press release yesterday that he’s raised over $805,000 in just one month since he filed to explore a run. "I am humbled by the outpouring of support I have received,” Koh said in a statement. The Globe’s Joshua Miller and the Herald’s Dan Atkinson have more.

The ploy certainly made little impression on state Rep. Juana Matias, who announced yesterday she’s indeed running for Tsongas’s seat, reports Jim O’Sullivan at the Globe.

Hold on: Stoughton selectman wants resignation mulligan

On second thought ... A day after saying he would resign from the Board of Selectmen because he was unable to control his temper while discussing the tactics of a group pushing a recall of the entire board, Peter Brown said he was reconsidering his decision, Tom Relihan of the Enterprise reports. Brown, who must submit a written resignation letter to make the move official, says he’ll take a few days to think it over. A recall election is scheduled for Dec. 5.

Enterprise

Some DAs not happy with Senate’s justice reform package

Suffolk County DA Dan Conley may be showing signs of bending on some key measurers within the Senate’s ambitious criminal-justice reform bill. But others are voicing concerns about measurers tucked into the bill, reports the Globe’s Joshua Miller.

Boston Globe

He’s back! Sandy Tennant raises funds for Beth Lindstrom

You were missed, Sandy. From Frank Phillips at the Globe: “Sandy Tennant, once considered the colorful bad boy of the state GOP, is back at the table — at least to help a longtime friend raise money for her campaign to oust US Senator Elizabeth Warren. Tennant, whom Governor Charlie Baker once removed as a fund raiser because of his raffish reputation, is hosting a fund raising event for Beth Lindstrom at his Swampscott home Wednesday night.”

Boston Globe

Mass. bakery gets some ‘love’ after FDA chiding

The Food and Drug Administration came down on Concord-based Nashoba Bakery for incorrectly listing ‘love’ as an official ingredient in its granola, a move that seems to have caused a positive backlash for the business, the Associated Press reports at WBUR. The business says it has listed love among its ingredients for nearly two decades but will comply with the FDA directive and remove it.

WBUR

Today's Headlines

Metro

Northeastern dining hall workers vote to authorize strike - Boston Globe

St. Fleur takes seat on city zoning board - Dorchester Reporter

Massachusetts

T hope brass bonuses will boost performance - Boston Herald

Northampton City Council to vote on resolution opposing expansion of local Chinese charter school - MassLive

Ashland considers plastic bag ban - MetroWest Daily News

New machines leave some garages unable to do inspections - Patriot Ledger

Easthampton raises minimum age to buy tobacco to 21 - Hampshire Gazette

Nation