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GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS.
PROGRAMMING NOTE: This is the last newsletter of the week! Massachusetts Playbook will not publish on Thursday, July 4 and Friday, July 5. I hope you have a great holiday, and I look forward to being back in your inbox on Monday, July 8. To reach me between now and then, drop me a line: smurray@politico.com.
PRESSLEY DOUBLES DOWN ON DETENTION CENTER CRITICISM — As we head into the Fourth of July holiday, things are far from a vacation in Massachusetts. The scope of problems at the Registry of Motor Vehicles has only widened since Gov. Charlie Baker announced an investigation into the agency in the wake of a deadly motorcycle crash, the MBTA is struggling to provide service after disruptive train derailments, and members of Congress are sounding the alarm on conditions at migrant detention centers they visited in Texas and Florida.
Several members of the Massachusetts delegation — Rep. Katherine Clark, Rep. Joe Kennedy III, Rep. Lori Trahan and Rep. Ayanna Pressley — have described seeing conditions "rife with abuse" for immigrants detained near the U.S.-Mexico border. And back at home, more than a dozen people were arrested in Boston yesterday at a protest against what's going on at detention centers.
"The entire system is broken, rotten and rife with abuse . And Trump doubles down on it despite the growing horror," Kennedy wrote on Twitter after visiting detention centers in Clint and El Paso, Texas, earlier this week. Trahan described seeing traumatized children in Texas, and Clark described "cold and callous" practices that "dehumanize" migrant children after her visit to the Homestead detention center in Florida during an interview on WBUR.
Pressley took her comments a step further yesterday, saying she believes what's going on near the border is a testing ground for privately-owned prisons in the criminal justice system. Pressley ripped President Donald Trump's administration for its handling of immigration issues, and said she believes Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other government agencies are test sites for "human rights abuses" in the prison system.
"ICE is the largest law enforcement agency, but it has the least amount of transparency and accountability. And I do believe that it is used a testing site to pilot just how far they can go in terms of privacy violations and human rights abuses." Pressley said during a layover on her trip back from Texas, in a video shared with reporters.
"So if you care about mass incarceration , if you care about for-profit prisons and the industry that this has become, please understand there is a correlation," Pressley continued. "People are being ... criminalized for poverty, drugs, for addiction, for mental illness. In this instance, people are being criminalized for moving, for seeking refuge."
Have a tip, story, suggestion, birthday, anniversary, new job, or any other nugget for the Playbook? Get in touch: smurray@politico.com.
TODAY — Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Seth Moulton campaign in Nevada. Secretary of State William Galvin holds a press conference on the Fourth of July viewing of the state's copy of the Declaration of Independence.
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POLITICO's The Agenda: The New Moon Race issue, presented by Leidos, has landed. America is heading back to the moon, but so is everyone else. This special report brings together POLITICO's growing space expertise with pivotal industry players, including NASA chief Jim Bridenstine, to explore the stakes of the new moon race. Read the full issue now.
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 | DATELINE BEACON HILL |
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- "Is this the beginning of Charlie Baker's second-term blues?" by Matt Stout and Joshua Miller, Boston Globe: "Governor Charlie Baker rode onto Beacon Hill in 2015 pledging to make state bureaucracy hum and correct his predecessor's failures. But as he heads deeper into his fifth year in office, Baker is facing new problems — ones firmly rooted in his administration's own mistakes or, in critics' eyes, born from an inability to deliver on long-held promises. It's a well-worn pattern in Massachusetts politics: In a governor's second term, the number of problems seems to rise exponentially — just as the ability to blame others dips to near zero. But with a cascade of crises at the Registry of Motor Vehicles and MBTA, is this a short summer slump, or the beginning of Baker's second-term blues?"
- "Baker says RMV was in 'complete failure' when it ignored alerts on drunk drivers in other states," by Matt Stout, Boston Globe:"Governor Charlie Baker said Tuesday that the Registry of Motor Vehicles tumbled into "complete failure" when it ignored tens of thousands of alerts from other states about Massachusetts-licensed drivers, including hundreds of accused drunk drivers. But Baker, facing his own questions of management, also offered a vote of confidence for his top transportation aide, Stephanie Pollack, who's overseeing the fallout to not just the RMV's troubles but the MBTA's own continued struggles. The dual crises have cast a harsh spotlight on Baker, who twice ran successfully on the image of being an adept manager who would remake, among other agencies, the long-beleaguered RMV into an efficient hub of bureaucracy."
- "It's a failure across the board." Advocates say RMV's blunder points to bigger issues," by Matt Rocheleau, Laura Crimaldi and Vernal Coleman, Boston Globe: "The dismal driving history of the man charged with killing seven motorcyclists in a New Hampshire crash last month — coupled with bureaucratic failures in Massachusetts that allowed him to keep his license — highlight weaknesses in the state and federal systems designed to keep unsafe drivers off the road, industry experts and advocates said Tuesday. "This crash is an example of a failing at all levels," said Harry Adler, executive director of the Truck Safety Coalition, an Arlington, Va.-based advocacy group. "It's a failure across the board." The case of 23-year-old Volodymyr Zhukovskyy has exposed a patchwork system of oversight that's reliant on the actions of individual states, many of which use a slow-moving, paper-driven communication network."
- "The Mass. RMV Scandal Is Only The Latest Screw Up Involving Licensing Drivers," by Ally Jarmanning and Christine Willmsen, WBUR: "The Registry of Motor Vehicles, which faces scrutiny this week for failing to suspend licenses and putting dangerous motorists on the road, has done it before. A 2008 state audit found up to 9,000 motorists should have had their licenses revoked or suspended for offenses like drunken driving and vehicular homicide, but didn't because the RMV had no tracking procedures."
- "Report backs Governor Baker tying strings to new education dollars," by James Vaznis, Boston Globe: "Governor Charlie Baker's proposal to overhaul state education aid would provide enough money to reduce the spending inequities between affluent and poor districts and takes appropriate steps to tie that money to specific efforts to boost student achievement, according to a report released Tuesday morning. "Some additional tweaking [of the funding formula] is warranted, but the fact remains that wholesale changes are not in order," according to the report by the Pioneer Institute, a Boston think tank that has produced research supportive of such educational ideas as school choice and standardized testing. Judicious use of public dollars is paramount, the report warns, because the state faces another looming financial crisis: the unfunded liability for the teacher retirement systems, which collectively amount to $27 billion. The report faulted lawmakers for setting up a payment schedule that leaves way too much debt for the later years."
- "LAWMAKERS BREAKING FOR HOLIDAY WITHOUT BUDGET DEAL," by Colin A. Young, State House News Service: "Unable to agree on an annual state budget by the July 1 deadline, House and Senate Democrats are breaking for the Fourth of July holiday and now hoping that a budget deal might come next week. After holding sessions open Tuesday while waiting to see if a budget accord emerged, the House and Senate adjourned early Tuesday afternoon and called for informal sessions Wednesday. After the session, Second Assistant Majority Leader Rep. Paul Donato of Medford told the News Service the House is not expecting the budget conference committee to file its report this week."
- "Sex education in the land of the Puritans," by Bruce Mohl, CommonWealth Magazine: "THE NORTHAMPTON HIGH SCHOOL student union surveyed students last year, asking them what they thought were the school's biggest problems. "We got a lot of people saying sex ed," said 16-year-old Brynt Goggins in a story by the Daily Hampshire Gazette that suggested students across Hampshire County are dissatisfied with the way sex education is taught in high schools. Students complained that not enough emphasis was placed on the issue of consent. Others said there was not enough information for LGBTQ students. Massachusetts is one of 26 states that don't mandate that local schools teach sex education. If schools do teach sex education, the state provides guidelines that teachers can follow, but those guidelines were written 20 years ago, in 1999. Revised guidelines are due out later this year."
- "NEW COALITION FORMS AROUND EARLY EDUCATION AND CARE," by Katie Lannan, State House News Service: "A new coalition, inspired by the success of groups who advocated for last year's paid family and medical leave law, is working to develop a plan to give Massachusetts families easier access to affordable, high-quality early childhood education and care. In a letter Tuesday to lawmakers on the Education Committee, the coalition made up of community, faith, labor and business groups, plus early educators and parents, said they are working to explore ideas including extended hours for early education and care programs, varying fees based on family income, and boosting pay and training for early educators. While the group works out its details, it is backing "placeholder legislation" filed by Rep. Ken Gordon of Bedford and Sen. Cindy Friedman of Arlington (H 470, S 288)."
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| FROM THE HUB |
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- "18 Activists Arrested During Citywide March Against ICE Detention Facilities," by Tori Bedford, WGBH News: "Eighteen people were arrested during a rally in Boston on Tuesday while protesting the detention of migrants in facilities along the southern U.S. border by the Trump administration. More than 1,000 protesters marched from the New England Holocaust Memorial to the Suffolk County House of Corrections, where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) houses some of its detainees. Protesters sang "Never again, para nadie" and held signs that read "No concentration camps" and "My grandparents were holocaust survivors." The rally, one of several protests scheduled this week in locations including Providence, Los Angeles and San Francisco, was organized by Never Again Action, a national group of mostly Jewish activists, including organizer Hannah Nahar of Somerville."
- CONGRATS: "The 2019 New England Muzzle Awards: Spotlighting 10 Who Diminish Free Speech," by Dan Kennedy, WGBH News: "The Muzzles are published around the Fourth of July every year to call attention to outrages against freedom of speech and of the press. This year's round-up covers a wide range of offenders — from the police chief in Bridgeport, Connecticut, whose officers arrested a reporter covering a Black Lives Matter demonstration, to Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, whose administration slapped a gag order on (get this) the state ornithologist. Other recipients include former Maine Gov. Paul LePage, the Massachusetts State Police, and the Rhode Island Division of Taxation, for playing literary critic in its enforcement of a tax exemption."
- "THE ROAD TO ZERO," by Cole Rosengren, Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism: "Boston's plan to achieve "zero waste" by 2050 has drawn plenty of attention for its flashy prospects. What's been largely overlooked, however, is a policy shift decades in the making that will mean more money for low-wage recycling workers. For the first time in its 22-year history, Boston's living wage ordinance will be applied to the city's new recycling contract starting in July. This means all workers will earn at least $15.31 per hour for time spent working on the contract, with annual escalations. This is seen as a half-measure by critics who wanted the rate applied full-time, but the incremental change is still notable."
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| DAY IN COURT |
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- "Compressor foes stage Boston protest, vow court battle," by Chris Lisinski, State House News Service: "About 50 environmental activists protested outside the State House on Tuesday and called for an independent investigation into the administration's permitting of a proposed natural gas compressor station in North Weymouth. Residents of the Fore River Basin area gathered with members of about half a dozen advocacy groups and tried to tie Gov. Charlie Baker personally to the issue, alleging conflicts of interest. They urged State Auditor Suzanne Bump or Attorney General Maura Healey to step in."
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| WARREN REPORT |
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- "Voters give Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren top grades in debate," POLITICO: "Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren earned the highest marks among voters who watched last week's Democratic presidential primary debates, according to a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. More voters gave Harris and Warren — two of the six women among the field of 20 debaters — "excellent" marks than any of the other candidates, the poll shows. More than 1 in 4 debate-watchers, 27 percent, said Harris did an "excellent" job, while 23 percent said Warren did an "excellent" job. The two women are the only candidates for whom more than 20 percent said they did an excellent job."
- "Senator Warren asks former FDA chief Gottlieb to resign from Pfizer board," Reuters: "U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren urged former U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb to immediately step down from Pfizer Inc's (PFE.N) board, three months after his departure from the health regulator. In a letter to Gottlieb, Warren, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for the 2020 presidential election, said "this kind of revolving door influence-peddling smacks of corruption." Gottlieb, who won bipartisan support for his efforts to curb use of flavored e-cigarettes by youths, stepped down from the FDA in April, a role he had held since May 2017."
- MEME ALERT: "'Elizabeth Warren has a plan for that' memes are here to test your rhyming skills," by Nicole Gallucci, Mashable:"How many words can you think of that rhyme with plan? If the answer is "at least one" then we have great news: You can take part in the latest Elizabeth Warren meme! On Sunday, Twitter user @zoe_samuel started a thread of jokes about Warren inspired by the fact that the Democratic presidential candidate seems to have a plan for everything. The first tweet read, "When it's breakfast time, Elizabeth Warren has a bran for that," and from there the rhymes just kept coming."
- "'Inexcusable;' Elizabeth Warren, other Massachusetts lawmakers slam secret border patrol Facebook page mocking Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, migrant deaths," by Kristin LaFratta, MassLive.com: "Some Massachusetts legislators are speaking out against U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement this week after a ProPublica investigation revealed racist and sexist messages in a secret Facebook group for current and former Border Patrol agents. The news investigation shone a light on the three-year-old Facebook group, called "I'm 10-15," reportedly the numerical code for "aliens in custody." Inside the private webpage with about 9,500 members, ProPublica shared posts by confirmed border patrol agents who used vulgar and dismissive language to describe migrants and sexist images."
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| TRUMPACHUSETTS |
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- "Mass. businesses paid $180 million by border patrol agency," by Sarah Betancourt, CommonWealth Magazine: "LAST WEEK'S WALKOUT by workers at Boston-based Wayfair put a spotlight on the issue of businesses contracting to provide goods to detention facilities on the US-Mexican border. But the online retailer's sale of $200,000 of bedroom furniture to the detention centers is hardly the biggest contract with the border patrol agency of a Massachusetts company. Billerica-based American Science and Engineering Inc., which develops x-ray technology, has received $171 million in payments from US Customs and Border Protection since 2015. The payments include $140 million in July 2018 for the border agency's cargo, vehicle, and parcel inspection systems."
- "UMass Boston officials question Salesforce's ties to U.S. border patrol agency," by Lucia Maffei, Boston Business Journal:"Days after Wayfair employees walked out to protest the company selling furniture to the operators of the migrant detention camps, another technology company is facing questions over its ties to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency. Faculty members and administrators at UMass Boston have raised concerns about the role one of the university's vendors, San Francisco-based Salesforce, may be playing in security on the U.S. border with Mexico."
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| DATELINE D.C. |
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- "House Democrats sue for Trump's tax returns," by Brian Faler, POLITICO: "House Democrats on Tuesday sued for President Trump's tax returns, marking the beginning of a high-stakes legal fight over his efforts to keep his taxes secret. Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) filed suit in federal court to enforce a subpoena for the records rejected in May by the administration. "In refusing to comply with the statute, Defendants have mounted an extraordinary attack on the authority of Congress to obtain information needed to conduct oversight of Treasury, the IRS, and the tax laws on behalf of the American people," the suit says. Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow had a terse response to the suit."
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| ABOVE THE FOLD |
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— Herald: "FINAL FORCE," — Globe: "Crash exposes weakness in notification system." |
| FROM THE 413 |
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- "'Playdate protesters' gather at Congressman Jim McGovern's office in Northampton," by Hayley Johnson, MassLive.com:"Supporters in Northampton came together Tuesday with their children in a "playdate protest," joining immigration advocacy groups across the country in asking lawmakers that migrant detention centers be shut down, funding be cut off and families be reunited. A group of about two dozen parents and children filled the halls of Congressman Jim McGovern's office on Pleasant Street. While McGovern was not physically there, he was called in on FaceTime by a district representative in Northampton, Koby Gardner-Levine."
- "Employees Of Iron Horse Entertainment Group Planning Legal Action Over Alleged Wage Theft," by Alden Bourne, NEPR: "A workers' rights activist says about a dozen current and former employees of Northampton, Massachusetts, music venues are planning to take legal action over wage theft. Workers for the Iron Horse Entertainment Group, or IHEG, recently met with legal counsel to try to recover what they say are unpaid wages. That's according to Rose Bookbinder, an organizer with the Pioneer Valley Workers Center."
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| THE LOCAL ANGLE |
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- IT WAS BETTER ALL ALONG: "Worcester-based Polar Beverages is now the 2nd best selling seltzer in the United States, gaining ground on LaCroix," by Aviva Luttrell, MassLive.com: "Polar Seltzer is now the second best selling sparkling water in the United States, gaining ground on LaCroix, according to a new report. Worcester-based Polar Beverages sold $173 million in seltzer over the past two years, coming in second to LaCroix, which sold $478 million, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal.
- "Worcester human rights panel backs change to 'inactive' voting designation," by Nick Kotsopoulos, Telegram & Gazette:"The Human Rights Commission has come out in support of a bill filed with the state Legislature that would no longer require municipalities to designate registered voters as "inactive" if they fail to respond to the annual street listing. The bill, filed by state Rep. David LeBoeuf, D-Worcester, would give registered voters two years — or basically two election cycles — to respond to the street listing. If they fail to respond to the street listing for two consecutive years, then municipalities would be able to designate them "inactive" voters."
- "Researchers tag first great white sharks in Cape Cod Bay," by Jason Kolnos, Cape Cod Times: "Sink your teeth into this local shark history that was made on Monday. Researchers spotted 11 great white sharks and tagged two of them during an outing on Monday, according to the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. "These were the first white sharks to be tagged in Cape Cod Bay," wrote the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy on their social media pages. The two tagged sharks were 9-feet-long and 10-feet long. All the sharks were spotted on Billingsgate Shoal, an area in the bay several miles west of Wellfleet and Eastham and north of Dennis, the conservancy wrote."
SPOTTED: New York Sen. Chuck Schumer visiting Granite Telecommunications in Quincy yesterday morning.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY - to Barbara Lee, president and founder of the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, and state Rep. Mark Cusack.
HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY - to Chris Ingerson, who shares a birthday with the USA; and to Ben Binswanger, executive director of the Joyce and Irving Goldman Family Foundation and a Kennedy alum; Pioneer Valley Planning Commission manager of communications and public engagement Pat Beaudry and former Boston.com scribe Chris Caesar, who all celebrate Friday.
HAPPY BIRTHWEEKEND - to former state Sen. Richard Ross, Valley Advocate editor Dave Eisenstadter, Ludlow School Committee member Jake Oliveira and Tyler Pager, who celebrate Saturday. And to The Globe Post's Bryan Bowman, who celebrates Sunday.
DID THE HOME TEAM WIN? Yes! The Red Sox beat the Blue Jays 10-6.
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