Holtec cited for violations related to spent fuel storage

By Christine Leger
Posted Apr 29, 2019

Potential Pilgrim owner not fined for issues with canisters.

PLYMOUTH — Federal regulators have cited the company looking to buy Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station with two violations related to canisters it manufactured to store radioactive spent fuel.

One violation was classified as “potentially safety significant,” but the Nuclear Regulatory Commission decided to forgo a civil fine against Holtec International because the company was quick to act and had no other federal violations during the last two years, according to a letter the commission sent to the company.

The infractions were related to a design change in the 4-inch stainless steel bolts used to help keep the baskets in the 18-foot storage canisters in position, so helium can circulate and adequately cool the radioactive spent fuel inside.

During a 2018 inspection before loading spent fuel at the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station in California, plant workers found a loose bolt inside one of the storage canisters. Loading of the canisters was halted, the letter states.

Read more Times coverage of the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station: capecodtimes.com/pilgrim

The canisters with the new bolt design were also being used at several other decommissioning plants, including Vermont Yankee, where loading was temporarily stopped while Holtec conducted a technical assessment of the cask design.

Although Holtec has been supplying casks for Pilgrim, none of the casks with the bolts were used, according to NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan.

Holtec conducted an after-the-fact cask evaluation.

“That evaluation showed that the functioning of the cask, i.e., proper heat transfer from the spent fuel, would not be adversely impacted even if the bolts were to come loose,” Sheehan said via email.

Holtec, however, stopped using the bolt design in its casks.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission classified the severity of the violation as a Level III, or “potentially safety significant.”

In the letter sent last week to Holtec, commission staff continued to say the bolt problem had the potential to affect safety.

The casks with the faulty support bolts were not loaded to their full heat capacity, the NRC staff said. If they had been, “it could have potential for significant consequence,” the staff wrote.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission noted it could have levied a fine of $36,000 or more for the Level III violation but decided against it.

“The loaded canisters do not and never have posed any risk to public health and safety,” Joy Russell, Holtec’s senior vice president of business development and communications, said via email, noting that “the NRC has determined that Holtec’s violations resulted in having moderate to low safety significance concern.”

“Holtec remains committed to safety in all we do and will continue to work with the NRC through the Enforcement Policy Process,” Russell wrote.

The second violation cited by the NRC was for failure to first secure federal approval for the design change it had made to the canisters. That violation was classified as carrying low safety significance.

Holtec hopes to buy Pilgrim to decommission it when the reactor permanently shuts down next month. The company also has deals in the works to buy and decommission several other plants.

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House moves closer to affirming Mashpee Wampanoag reservation

By Tanner Stening
Posted Apr 29, 2019

Tribal bill set for Wednesday markup.

MASHPEE — Federal legislation that seeks to clarify the status of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s reservation will be marked up and considered Wednesday by the House Committee on Natural Resources.

The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act, introduced by Rep. William Keating, D-Mass., earlier this year, is scheduled for a full committee markup to potentially advance the bill to the floor for a vote. Lawmakers use the markup to consider changes to legislation, proposing and ultimately voting on amendments to it.

The bill would end a legal challenge to the tribe’s 321 acres of reservation land in Mashpee and Taunton and prevent future legal challenges to the land.

Keating crafted the bill in response to a lawsuit brought by neighbors of the tribe’s proposed $1 billion casino in Taunton in 2016 in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts. That lawsuit resulted in the U.S. Department of Interior reversing a decision it made the year before to take the Mashpee and Taunton land into trust on the tribe’s behalf.

Read previous stories about the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe.

A federal judge ruled that the Secretary of the Interior did not have the authority to take the land into trust because the tribe was not under federal jurisdiction at the time of the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act in 1934, and therefore did not qualify under a definition of “Indian” used by the Interior Department.

Interior’s Sept. 7 reversal put the future of the tribe’s reservation in jeopardy — though it remains in trust until a final court order is issued. The tribe has since filed a lawsuit against the agency challenging that decision.

On April 3, the subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States held a hearing on the bill that opened a rift between Rhode Island politicians who oppose the Taunton casino and its supporters. The Ocean State delegation has garnered opposition to the legislation, claiming a tribal casino would curb the state’s gaming revenue and undermine competition.

“An Indian casino in Rhode Island’s gaming catchment area poses a serious threat” to that revenue, Claire Richards, executive counsel to Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, previously told the subcommittee. Keating responded by pressing Richards on the specifics of Rhode Island’s opposition, noting the bill’s purpose is to protect the tribe’s reservation and that Massachusetts already has approved a casino in that part of the state.

The markup comes amid a move by tribe members to recall Mashpee Wampanoag Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell and Vice Chairwoman Jessie “Little Doe” Baird.

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Zero Percent of Elite Commentators Oppose Regime Change in Venezuela view post on FAIR.org by Teddy Ostrow From the beginning, elite media have worked strenuously to narrow the options available for consideration (New York Times, 4/3/19). A FAIR survey of US opinion journalism on Venezuela found no voices in elite corporate media that opposed regime change in that country. Over a three-month period (1/15/19–4/15/19), zero opinion pieces in the New York Times and Washington Post took an anti-regime change or pro-Maduro/Chavista position. Not a single commentator on the big three Sunday morning talkshows or PBS NewsHour came out against President Nicolás Maduro stepping down from the Venezuelan government. Of the 76 total articles, opinion videos or TV commentator segments that centered on or gave more than passing attention to Venezuela, 54 (72 percent) expressed explicit support for the Maduro administration’s ouster. Eleven (14 percent) were ambiguous, but were only classified as such for lack of explicit language. Reading between the lines, most of these were clearly also pro-regime change. Eleven (14 percent) took no position, but many similarly offered ideological ammo for those in support. The Times published 22 pro-regime change commentaries, three ambiguous and five without a position. The Post also spared no space for the pro-Chavista camp: 22 of its articles expressed support for the end to Maduro’s administration, eight were ambiguous and four took no position. Of the 12 TV opinions surveyed, 10 were pro-regime change and two took no position. (The Times and Post pieces were found through a Nexis search for “Venezuela” between 1/15/19–4/15/19 using each paper as a source, narrowed to opinion articles and editorials. The search was supplemented with an examination of each outlet’s opinion/blog pages. The TV commentary segments were found through Nexis searches for “Venezuela” and the name of the talkshow during the same time period, in the folders of the corresponding television network: NBC News/CBS News transcripts, ABCNews transcripts, and PBS NewsHour. Non-opinion TV news segments were omitted. The full list of items included can be found here.) Corporate news coverage of Venezuela can only be described as a full-scale marketing campaign for regime change. If you’ve been reading FAIR recently (1/25/19, 2/9/19, 3/16/19)—or, indeed, since the early 2000s (4/18/02; Extra!, 11–12/05)—the anti-Maduro unanimity espoused in the most influential US media should come as no surprise. This comes despite the existence of millions of Venezuelans who support Maduro—who was democratically elected twice by the same electoral system that won Juan Guaidó his seat in the National Assembly—and oppose US/foreign intervention. FAIR (2/20/19) has pointed out corporate media’s willful erasure of vast improvements to Venezuelan life under Chavismo, particularly for the oppressed poor, black, indigenous and mestizo populations. FAIR has also noted the lack of discussion of US-imposed sanctions, which have killed at least 40,000 Venezuelans between 2017-2018 alone, and continue to devastate the Venezuelan economy. Many authors in the sample eagerly championed the idea of the US ousting Maduro, including coup leader Juan Guiadó himself, in the Times (1/30/19) and Post (1/15/19), and on the NewsHour (2/18/19). The Times made its official editorial opinion on the matter crystal clear at the outset of the attempted coup (1/24/19): “The Trump administration is right to support Mr. Guaidó.” Followed by FAIR’s favorite Times columnist, Bret Stephens (1/25/19): The Trump administration took exactly the right step in recognizing National Assembly leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s constitutionally legitimate president. It’s generally a nation’s supreme court that has the final say on who is constitutionally legitimate, but in this case they can apparently be overruled by a foreign government—or a foreign newspaper columnist. The Post editorial board also joined Team Unelected President (1/24/19): The [Trump] administration’s best approach would be to join with its allies in initiatives that would help Venezuelans while bolstering Mr. Guaidó. The New York Times (4/1/19) neglected to mention that, unlike most of her “fellow liberals,” Joanna Hausmann is the child of an official in the Venezuelan coup government. The Times even produced an opinion video (4/1/19) with Joanna Hausmann, “a Venezuelan American writer and comedian,” as she is described in her Times bio. Between sarcastic stabs at Venezuela’s “tyrannical dictator” and cute animations of “Ruth Bader Ginsburg in workout clothes”—Hausmann’s self-described “spirit animal”—come more serious declarations about the nation’s political situation: Juan Guiadó is not an American right-wing puppet leading an illegitimate coup, but a social democrat appointed by the National Assembly, the only remaining democratically elected institution left in Venezuela…. Let’s provide humanitarian aid and support efforts to restore democracy. Odd that the Times didn’t find it necessary to note a blaring conflict of interest: Hausmann’s father is Ricardo Hausmann, Juan Guaidó’s appointed Inter-American Development Bank representative. Mint Press News (3/19/19) bluntly described him as the “neoliberal brain behind Juan Guaidó’s neoliberal agenda.” It would be ludicrous to think the Times would withhold as blatant a connection to Maduro if one of his aides’ daughters made a snarky opinion video calling Juan Guaidó a would-be “brutal dictator”—even if our theoretical commentator was “an independent adult woman who has built a popular following on her own,” as Times opinion video producer Adam Ellick said in defense of the omission. Such a crucial relationship to a powerful Chavista politician would never go undisclosed—in the unlikely event that such a perspective would be tolerated in the opinion pages of an establishment paper. These are just a few of many media pundits’ endorsements of Guaidó—someone whose name most of the Venezuelan population did not even recognize before he declared himself interim president. Put more accurately, they are endorsements of a US-backed coup attempt. One of the more muddled regime change endorsements came from Rep. Ro Khanna’s Post op-ed (1/30/19), in which he says no! to military intervention, no! to sanctions, yet yes! to… “diplomatic efforts”: The United States should lend its support to diplomatic efforts to find some form of power-sharing agreement between opposition parties, and only until fair elections can take place, so that there is an orderly transition of power. “Diplomatic” is a reassuring term, until you realize that US diplomacy, as FAIR’s Janine Jackson explained on Citations Needed podcast (3/20/19), is “diplomacy where we try to get other countries to do what we want them to do”—in this case, effecting a “transition of power” in another country’s government. By viewing Venezuela through the lens of Russiagate, Fareed Zakaria (Washington Post, 3/28/19) was able to present backing an attempted coup as a pro-Resistanceposition. Francisco Rodríguez and Jeffrey D. Sachs (New York Times, 2/2/19) envision similar efforts for a “peaceful and negotiated transition of power,” and Khanna made sure to characterize Maduro as “an authoritarian leader who has presided over unfair elections, failed economic policies, extrajudicial killings by police, food shortages and cronyism with military leaders.” In other words, Maduro the Dictator must be overthrown—but don’t worry, the US would be diplomaticabout it. Those that didn’t take explicit positions nonetheless wrote articles blaming all or most of Venezuela’s woes on Maduro and Chávez. Economics wiz Paul Krugman (New York Times, 1/29/19) gave his spiel: Hugo Chávez got into power because of rage against the nation’s elite, but used the power badly. He seized the oil sector, which you only do if you can run it honestly and efficiently; instead, he turned it over to corrupt cronies, who degraded its performance. Then, when oil prices fell, his successor tried to cover the income gap by printing money. Hence the crisis. Note that Krugman failed to mention the 57 percent reduction in extreme poverty that followed Chávez’s replacement of management of the state-owned oil industry (which has been nationalized since 1976, long before Chavismo). Nor does he acknowledge the impact of US sanctions, or any other sort of US culpability for Venezuela’s economic crisis. Caroline Kennedy and Sarah K. Smith (Washington Post, 2/5/19) did not explicitly blame Maduro and Chávez for Venezuela’s “spiral downward,” but similarly ignored evidenced US involvement in that spiral. There are only so many places where you can point fingers without naming names. Dictatorship-talk—writers lamenting the horrific and helpless situation under an alleged “dictator”—characterized many of the ambiguous and no-position articles. In the Post (1/24/19), Megan McArdle asked: You have to look at Venezuela today and wonder: Is this what we’re seeing, the abrupt end of Venezuela’s years-long economic nightmare? Has President Nicolás Maduro’s ever-more-autocratic and incompetent regime finally completed its long pilgrimage toward disaster? By simply describing the declining situation of a country (Times, 2/12/19, 4/1/19) and using words like “regime” (Times, 2/14/19), “authoritarian” (Post, 1/29/19) and, of course, “dictatorship” (Post, 1/23/19; Times, 2/27/19 ) in reference to government officials, commentators create the pretext for regime change without explicitly endorsing it. The Sunday talkshows and NewsHour also couldn’t find a single person to challenge the anti-Maduro narrative. They did find room, however, for three of the most passionate advocates of regime change in Venezuela: Sen. Marco Rubio (Meet the Press, 1/27/19), Donald Trump (Face the Nation, 2/3/19) and Guaidó himself (NewsHour, 2/18/19). Other TV regime change proponents included Florida Sen. Rick Scott (Meet the Press, 2/3/19), 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls Peter Buttigieg (This Week, 2/3/19) and Amy Klobuchar (Meet the Press, 3/17/19), Sen. Tim Kaine (Face the Nation, 3/17/19), and Guaidó-appointed, Mike Pence-approved “chargé d’affaires” Carlos Vecchio (NewsHour, 3/4/19). But leave it to Nick Schifrin of the NewsHour (1/30/19) to bring on “two views” of the US intervention question that are both pro-regime change and pro-US intervention. View No. 1 came from Isaias Medina, a former Venezuelan diplomat who resigned from his post in protest against Maduro. Medina made the unlikely claim that 94 percent of the Venezuelan population—or 129 percent of the population over the age of 14—support US intervention to overthrow the Maduro government: Not only I, but 30 million people, support not only the US circumstance, but also the Latin American initiative to restore the rule of law, democracy and freedom in Venezuela. The PBS NewsHour (1/30/19) had a debate over intervention in Venezuela where the “anti” side saw the US’s goal as “assist[ing] the Venezuelan people [to] promote a peaceful transition in Venezuela.” View No. 2, the ostensibly anti-regime change take, came from Benjamin Gedan, who served on the Obama administration’s National Security Council as director for Venezuela and the Southern Cone. When asked if he supported Trump’s moves to sanction Maduro and possibly use US troops to oust him, Gedan responded: I think both of those steps are problematic. I think the sense of urgency that the United States administration has shown is absolutely correct…. The question is, how can we assist the Venezuelan people [to] promote a peaceful transition in Venezuela, without harming the people themselves, or fracturing the coalition that we have built over two administrations? In other words, how can we overthrow the Venezuelan government without destroying the country—or “fracturing the coalition we have built”? The US has many options on the table, but none of them involve not pursuing the overthrow of Maduro. In the “no position” camp for TV news, New York Times chief Washington correspondent David Sanger (Face the Nation, 1/27/19) noted that the problem with US support for Guaidó is one of  “both history and inconsistency”: Our history in Latin America of intervening is a pretty ugly one, and the inconsistency of not applying the same standards to places like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where the president has embraced strong men, I think may come back to make the United States look pretty hypocritical, not for the first time. Sanger indulged in the popular “hypocrisy takedown”: The problem, as presented, isn’t that the US disrupts democracies, destroys economies and kills people, but rather that it does so inconsistently. While vaguely acknowledging the US’s horrific track record of Latin American interventions, and Trump’s cherry-picking of governments worthy of regime change, Sanger didn’t take the logical next step of calling for the US to keep its hands off Venezuela. Instead, he called Maduro’s supporters—defined as “China, Russia and Cuba”—“not a great collection,” and failed to push back against the claim that Maduro “fixed the last” election. Without a formal declaration, Sanger did all the ideological preparation for foreign-backed regime change. That elite media didn’t find a single person to vouch for Maduro or Chavismo, and that almost all the opinions explicitly or implicitly expressed support for the ouster of Venezuela’s elected president, demonstrates a firm editorial line, eerily obedient to the US government’s regime change policy. This isn’t the first time that FAIR (e.g., 3/18/03, 4/18/18) has found a one-sided debate in corporate media on US intervention. When it comes to advocating the overthrow of the US government’s foreign undesirables, you can always count on opinion pages to represent all sides of why it’s a good thing. And the millions of people who beg to differ? Well, they’re just out of the question. Featured image: New York Times cartoon by Patrick Chappatte (1/31/19) featuring Nicolás Maduro and Juan Guaidó.

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Robert Reich | In Fighting All Oversight, Trump Has Made His Most Dictatorial Move

30 April 19 We Are Not Close Enough for April We are actually significantly down from last month and the problems are sure to mount. Please do whatever you can to see to it that RSN can continue the important work it does. With urgency. Marc Ash Founder, Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! Update My Monthly Donation If you would prefer to send a check: Reader Supported News PO Box 2043 Citrus Hts CA 95611

30 April 19 It's Live on the HomePage Now: Reader Supported News FINAL DAY - WE SURELY NEED A GOOD ONE - This is the last day of the month and we are not even close to where we need to be. But we have made up a lot of ground in the past few days and we do have a chance to keep it close. Stop for just a moment and throw something in the hat. In peace and solidarity. / Marc Ash, Founder Reader Supported News Sure, I'll make a donation! Robert Reich | In Fighting All Oversight, Trump Has Made His Most Dictatorial Move  Robert Reich, Guardian UK Reich writes: "'We’re fighting all the subpoenas,' says the person who is supposed to be chief executive of the United States government. In other words, there is to be no congressional oversight of this administration." READ MORE William Barr. (photo: Chris Kleponis/Bloomberg) Trump Tightens Asylum Rules, Will Make Immigrants Pay Fees to Seek Humanitarian Refuge Maria Sacchetti, Felicia Sonmez and Nick Miroff, The Washington Post Excerpt: "President Trump ordered major changes to U.S. asylum policies in a White House memo released Monday night, including measures that would charge fees to those applying for humanitarian refuge in the United States." READ MORE A rally in front of the White House. (photo: Getty Images) Here's What the 2020 Candidates Say About Fighting White Nationalism Luke Barnes, ThinkProgress Barnes writes: "Plenty of Democratic candidates have spoken out against far-right violence. Few have offered concrete solutions." READ MORE 'Robert Porter, head of the 1890 census, who had overseen the adoption of Hollerith’s tabulator machines, was deeply impressed by their power to sort immigrant and non-white populations based on numerous demographic variables.' (photo: Getty Images) The Racist - and High Tech - Origins of America's Modern Census Yasha Levine, Medium Excerpt: "The tools built to conduct the U.S. Census fueled Nazi genocide, internment, and state-sanctioned racism - and helped usher in the digital age." READ MORE ‘There should be more of a push for men to get rid of their fears around their masculinity and virility.' (photo: Sarinya Pinngam/Getty Images/EyeEm) Are We Any Closer to a Male Contraceptive? Ammar Kalia, Guardian UK Excerpt: "The arrival of birth control for men has been '10 years away for the past 40 years' - but the industry is holding back the science." READ MORE Juan Guaidó, the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, at a rally with supporters in La Guaira in March. (photo: Carlos Garcia Rawlins/Reuters) Venezuelan Defense Minister Rejects Guaido's Calls for Coup teleSUR Excerpt: "The self-proclaimed 'interim president' of Venezuela, Juan Guaido, went live on Twitter this morning to call on the military and people to begin an uprising against the legitimate government of President Nicolas Maduro." READ MORE Alfred Brownell, one of the recipients of the Goldman Environmental Prize. (photo: Goldman Environmental Prize/Mongabay) Meet the Winners of the 2019 Goldman Environmental Prize Shreya Dasgupta, Mongabay Dasgupta writes: "Six grassroots environmental activists will receive the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize today. Dubbed the Green Nobel Prize, the Goldman Prize honors environmental activists from each of the six continental regions: Europe, Asia, North America, Central and South America, Africa, and islands and island nations." READ MORE Contribute to RSN Update My Monthly Donation

POLITICO Massachusetts Playbook: ICE fight — Moving toward CARBON PRICING — UNIONS make a comeback

ICE fight — Moving toward CARBON PRICING — UNIONS make a comeback

Apr 30, 2019 View in browser   BY STEPHANIE MURRAY GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. THE ICE FIGHT — Issues around immigration have come front and center on Beacon Hill, as officials very publicly grapple with whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement belongs near state courts. Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling ignited a firestorm last week when he charged Judge Shelley Joseph with obstruction of justice for allegedly helping an undocumented immigrant escape ICE officials at a courthouse. Attorney General Maura Healey slammed the legal move as "politically motivated," while Lelling countered that he can't pick and choose which laws to follow. Gov. Charlie Baker Baker pushed back on the suggestion that Lelling's legal move was "politically motivated," and said he thinks the state needs a detainer policy, pointing to legislation his administration filed. "I think there's a big debate and a big discussion here about the role of state government and the role of local government and the role of the federal government and how we handle these issues associated with detainers," Baker told reporters yesterday. "We should be pursuing something like the law that we proposed because that would clear this up and establish a framework for dealing with this stuff at the state level." But Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins and Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan want to answer that big-picture question in a different way. The attorneys teamed up to file a separate lawsuit aimed at blocking ICE from Massachusetts courthouses, a first-of-its-kind move Ryan said has been a year in the making. Rollins went so far as to say she'd be "honored" to face arrest for her actions barring ICE from state courts. Healey praised the lawsuit, saying her office will support "efforts to ensure public safety and the fair administration of justice." "Recent actions by immigration agents in our courthouses deter victims and witnesses from coming forward and prevent our justice system from working properly," Healey spokesperson Emalie Gainey said. Meanwhile, the MassGOP is on the offensive, criticizing Healey in a digital ad that says "judges are not above the law." The party is also targeting state lawmakers with a series of immigration-focused Facebook ads in their districts. At least one House Democrat is fundraising off those ads. Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for the Playbook? Get in touch: smurray@politico.com. TODAY — Gov. Charlie Baker votes in the Swampscott local election, then makes an energy efficiency partnership announcement in the lobby of the Charles/MGH station. Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito promotes the administration's housing legislation in Williamstown. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh launches Boston's Safest Driver competition. Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Robert DeLeospeak at Prostate Cancer Awareness Day at the State House. Pete Buttigieg holds a fundraiser in Somerville and is a guest on WGBH's "Boston Public Radio." Boston City Councilor Annissa Essaibi-George is a guest on WGBH's "Morning Edition." The Joint Committee on Higher Education, the Joint Committee on Children, Families and Persons with Disabilities and the Joint Committee on Housing hold hearings DATELINE BEACON HILL - "Environmental Secretary Leaving Cabinet Post In Baker Administration," by Matt Murphy, State House News Service:"Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Matthew Beaton is stepping down after more than four years in the position, having helped the Baker administration implement a major expansion of clean energy, including a contract for what could become the country's largest offshore wind farm. A Shrewsbury Republican and former House member, Beaton left the Legislature to join the Baker administration in 2015. He was one of Gov. Charlie Baker's earliest cabinet selections after he won the 2014 election for governor. As a member of the Legislature, Beaton was one of the go-to Republicans in the House on energy issues, including the development of the solar industry in Massachusetts." - "State Police, other public safety agencies failed to pay $7 million in taxes on employee perks," by Matt Rocheleau, Boston Globe: "More than a dozen Massachusetts public safety agencies failed to pay a combined $7 million in taxes to the IRS on public employee perks — money for travel, commuting, buying work-related clothing, and cleaning it — over a recent three-year stretch, officials said. To pay back the federal tax agency, the state this month emptied an account set aside for legal expenses, but that only covered about half of what's owed. Coming up with the rest of the money will require special approval from lawmakers." - "Speaker DeLeo defends back-door budget process," by Mary Markos, Boston Herald: "Speaker Robert DeLeo defended the covert nature of the House budget process amid criticism that the back-door deliberations lack transparency. "People have the ability to debate whatever they want," DeLeo said yesterday. 'When I had the ability to talk to the members during the whole week, everyone that I spoke to was pleased with the process and felt it was one of the best budgets they were involved with.'" - "Mass. Congestion Fueled By Strong Economy, Baker Says," by Michael P. Norton, State House News Service: "Again attempting to tap the brakes on attempts to raise taxes to fund transportation improvements, Gov. Charlie Baker over the weekend called on Beacon Hill to address his housing production bill, saying housing costs are causing frustrated commuters to weigh moving out of Massachusetts. Saying he appreciates the concerns about congestion in Massachusetts, Baker said he's seen his own commute from Swampscott to Boston change over the past four years. "Part of the issue we face is driven by the success we've had economically," the governor told " On the Record" hosts Ed Harding and Janet Wu of WCVB in an interview that aired Sunday morning." - "Support grows for bill that would curb patent trolls," by Jon Chesto, Boston Globe: "As Senator Eric Lesser wages his war on patent trolls, reinforcements have arrived on Beacon Hill. Lesser came close to victory before. He had tucked a measure to discourage bad-faith patent claims into a broad economic development bill, one that sailed through the House and Senate last summer. But Governor Charlie Baker vetoed the patent-troll language in August, stopping it in its tracks for the year. (Time had run out for any override.) The issue has become a serious crusade for Lesser, who worries about the toll these trolls are taking on the state's innovation economy." - "Massachusetts lawmakers ponder removing 'God' from oath of office," by Christian M. Wade, CNHI News: "Nearly every elected official in Massachusetts, from the governor to members of town boards, recite the phase "so help me, God" when taking the oath of office. But a proposal to amend the Massachusetts Constitution and eliminate the phrase has gained favor with a key committee in the Democrat-controlled Legislature. Approved last week by the influential Joint Committee on the Judiciary, the bill calls for substituting a secular version, known as the Quaker oath, which states, "This I do under the pains and penalties of perjury." The measure was filed by 14 mostly first-term Democratic lawmakers, who also back a proposal to amend the constitution to make it gender neutral, changing the pronoun "he" to "they" within the document." FROM THE HUB - "Rent control gets a second look in Cambridge," by Tim Logan, Boston Globe: "A growing debate over rent control in Massachusetts has people in Cambridge harkening back to an era when apartment-living in this city was quite different: the 1990s. Specifically, they're revisiting 1994, the year Massachusetts voters narrowly outlawed restrictions on what landlords could charge tenants. Today, amid a housing crunch that grips much of Greater Boston, some lawmakers are saying it may be time to reconsider that decision." - "'It would be my honor' to be arrested for challenging ICE courthouse arrests, Suffolk County DA Rachael Rollins says after filing lawsuit," by Steph Solis, MassLive.com: "Suffolk County District Attorney Rachael Rollins made a clear distinction on Monday between her employees notifying her of federal immigration enforcement in their courthouses and a district judge allegedly helping a man evade immigration agents. But she's not afraid to go to jail for challenging the arrests at courthouses, either. She argues that Immigration and Customs Enforcement's practices of arresting people of civil immigration violations is illegal, disrupts criminal prosecutions and scares off witnesses, victims and defendants." - "Fierce competition for votes, money in 2019 council race," by Yawu Miller, Bay State Banner: "St. Guillen's themes of fighting gentrification and supporting strong protections for immigrants may well resonate with Boston residents who are being slammed by high rents and hemmed in by luxury developments beyond the reach of most current city residents. But in a crowded field of candidates vying for voters' attention, St. Guillen will likely need more than a good message to stand out. She'll need money." - "Unions are on frontlines of fight against inequality," by Katie Johnston, Boston Globe: "Stop & Shop's stores were ghost towns during the recent strike. With workers standing outside in picket lines, customers stayed away , leading to one of the most effective strikes in recent memory. The grocery clerks and bakers and meat cutters holding signs were protesting proposed cuts to their benefits, but their plight also resonated with the public because they represented something bigger: working Americans across the country whose wages are barely budging while the cost of living skyrockets in such places as Boston and corporations rake in record profits." DAY IN COURT - "Judge orders State Police to accept recruit who was rejected, discriminated against," by Joshua Miller, Boston Globe: "A federal judge has ordered the Massachusetts State Police to admit a black recruit to the training academy after a jury found the agency had denied him entrance because of his race. Orlando Riley, a New Bedford police officer, had asked the judge to force the department's hand after the jury in December returned a $130,000 discrimination award. On Friday, US District Judge Denise J. Casper agreed, ordering the State Police to put Riley in the next training class, which could begin as soon as later this year. Riley would still have to complete the 23-week training program before becoming a trooper ." - "Lawsuit against Juul demands funding of statewide treatment and research programs," by Ysabelle Kempe, Boston Globe:"Public health advocates based at Northeastern University on Monday initiated a class action lawsuit against e-cigarette titan Juul Labs, demanding that the company fund a statewide treatment program for teenagers who begin using the company's e-cigarettes before age 18 and want to quit. This is one of the first lawsuits in the country asking for this type of action from Juul, the company facing criticism — and a rash of lawsuits — for marketing to young people." - "Robert Kraft's lawyers demand 'favorable' info from prostitution probe," by Laurel J. Sweet, Boston Herald: "Lawyers for Robert Kraft filed an emergency motion today asking a Florida judge to demand prosecutors turn over any "favorable" information from the investigation of Orchids of Asia Day Spa ahead of a hearing on their ongoing fight to keep jurors from seeing alleged surveillance video that police say shows New England Patriots' owner having sex with prostitutes." WARREN REPORT - "Some 2020 Democrats work with GOP more than you think," by Elana Schor, Associated Press: "Elizabeth Warren has a habit that she doesn't talk about a lot on the campaign trail: working with the GOP. The Massachusetts Democrat is running for the White House on an unapologetically liberal platform that includes a tax on the ultra-wealthy and universal child care. But in Washington, she's partnered with at least one Republican on 39% of the bills she's introduced as chief sponsor since becoming a senator in 2013. That's according to an Associated Press analysis of legislation using GovTrack, an independent clearinghouse for congressional data." IT'S NOT EASY BEING GREEN - "Baker admin taking the lead on carbon pricing effort," by Andy Metzger, CommonWealth Magazine: "WHILE GOV. CHARLIE BAKER has resisted entreaties from his own appointees to come up with new revenues for transit, his administration has taken the lead on a multi-state effort to do pretty much that, or something similar. The Transportation Climate Initiative, which will hold an all-day workshop at the Boston Public Library on Tuesday, is designing a mechanism to put a price on vehicle carbon emissions. The so-called cap and invest approach would increase the price of motor fuels by requiring industry to buy emission allowances at market rates, with states then investing the proceeds into greener mobility options. A similar regional cap-and-trade system for the electricity market has both reduced carbon emissions and been found to benefit participants economically." EYE ON 2020 - "Can Bill Weld unseat Trump? Let's look at the history of challenges to incumbent presidents." by Adam Hilton, Washington Post: "Unseating a president from his own party isn't easy. Weld plans to target the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary as the most promising venue for starting a political upset, and to go on to primaries with less restrictive rules about who can participate and where the GOP has suffered setbacks, such as Wisconsin. Can he succeed? Past primary insurgencies may offer clues." - "Biden, followed by Sanders and Buttigieg, leads among Democrats in N.H. survey," by James Pindell, Boston Globe: "In the unwieldy field of more than two dozen Democrats, Joe Biden leads in the New Hampshire primary with support from 20 percent of likely voters, according to the first poll of the state since the former vice president officially entered the 2020 contest last week. A Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll released Tuesday showed Biden followed by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who pulled support from 12 percent of those likely to cast Democratic ballots in the first-in-the-nation primary, which is expected to be in February." MOULTON MATTERS - "Rep. Seth Moulton says US would be 'no better friend, no worse enemy' if he's elected president," by Jeff Schogol, Task & Purpose: "Iraq war veteran Rep. Seth Moulton is distinguishing himself from the other 20 Democrats running for president right now by arguing that he would make a better commander in chief than President Donald Trump. "I think our motto as a country should be the same motto we had in the 1st Marine Division: No better friend, no worse enemy," Moulton (D-Mass.), a former Marine captain, told Task & Purpose. 'That means standing with our allies and confronting our enemies, not cozying up to them.'" ABOVE THE FOLD — Herald: "'IT WOULD BE MY HONOR' TO BE INDICTED," —Globe: "Unions rebuild clout as income gap grows," "Two DAs join in suit targeting ICE arrests," "Enough bleeping bleeps." FROM THE 413 - "Legislators work to boost 'successful' preservation program," by Anita Fritz, Greenfield Recorder: "Dwindling state funds for the Community Preservation Act have some officials in the seven Franklin County towns that adopted it concerned about what that will mean for future projects. "This money is a reinvestment in our towns," said Lara Dubin, chairwoman of the Community Preservation Committee in Northfield. "We use the money we raise and the money we receive from the state, and we put it back into our town." Dubin said she and the committee are concerned about dwindling funds but hope that state legislators are able to give the program the boost it needs." THE LOCAL ANGLE - "Trahan seeking federal funds for Merrimack River," by Elizabeth Dobbins, The Lowell Sun: "Last year over 800 million gallons of untreated sewer and stormwater runoff flowed into the Merrimack River, a symptom, local leaders say, of infrastructure unable to keep up with current demands even after years of improvement projects and spending. At a meeting with leaders from communities along the river Monday morning, U.S. Rep. Lori Trahan announced several efforts to secure federal funding for these improvements." - "AG Healey: 5 nursing homes placed in receivership," by Jennette Barnes, Standard-Times: "Five area nursing homes have been placed in receivership after bounced paychecks and unpaid bills put residents in danger, The Standard-Times has learned. Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey's office successfully petitioned a Suffolk Superior Court judge for receivership on Monday, saying more than 200 residents could be at risk of injury or death. The facilities lack critical supplies, and they could soon reach dangerously low staffing levels, Healey's office told the court." REMEMBERING TOM ELLIS, from Boston.com: "Tom Ellis, the Boston television news anchor whose career spanned four decades across the city's networks, has died at the age of 86, WBZ-TV reports. Ellis was the only person to have anchored number-one newscasts on each of Boston's primary network affiliates." Link. HAPPY BIRTHDAY - to comms consultant Matt Wilder, Martin Kessler of WBUR, Assistant Secretary of Business Development and International Trade at EOHED Nam Pham, Nikko Mendoza, Matt Segneri and James Barron of Barron Associates Worldwide. DID THE HOME TEAM WIN? Yes! The Red Sox beat the Athletics 9-4. Want to make an impact? POLITICO Massachusetts has a variety of solutions available for partners looking to reach and activate the most influential people in the Bay State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you're promoting? Seeking to increase brand awareness among this key audience? Share your message with our influential readers to foster engagement and drive action. Contact Jesse Shapiro to find out how: jshapiro@politico.com.   Follow us on Twitter Stephanie Murray @StephMurr_Jour   Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook  |  Playbook PM  |  California Playbook  |  Florida Playbook  |  Illinois Playbook  |  Massachusetts Playbook  |  New Jersey Playbook  |  New York Playbook  |  Brussels Playbook  |  London Playbook View all our politics and policy newsletters FOLLOW US

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