True, Jean-Paul Sartre, who is credited with coining the phrase in his 1948 play Dirty Hands, had loftier ideas in mind — the abolition of class distinctions. So, too, did Malcolm X, who launched the line into popular culture when he delivered it in a speech on blacks’ determination to win fully equal standing, less than a year before his 1965 assassination..
But the idea of pursuing a desired end “by any means necessary” has quickly become the operating principle behind the chase for gambling licenses in Massachusetts. So it inevitably goes when the lure of easy casino lucre is at stake.
The latest chapter came with the news, reported by CommonWealth late last week, that Mohegan Sun was able to deflect a bid by Boston to claim host status of its Revere-based casino, in part, by jettisoning a secret provision in its lease agreement with the Suffolk Downs racetrack that would have let the track hand over its racing operations to Mohegan.The Globe catches up with the story today.
After a proposal for a casino at Suffolk Downs was shot down last fall by East Boston voters, developers rejiggered their plans by putting the entire casino footprint on the Revere side of the property and claiming it would operate entirely independently of the racetrack, which sits in East Boston. With the lease provision threatening to undermine that claim, however, Mohegan dropped it, according to a April 30 letter to the state gambling commission from a casino representative.
Even more startling is the fact that letter said Suffolk Downs would close the racetrack altogether if its continued operation in any way interfered with winning of a license to operate a casino on the Revere portion of its land. The claim that a casino was the last hope for preserving the struggling racetrack — and the hundreds of jobs linked to it — has been a major argument on the part of the Suffolk developers. But the Suffolk Downs team now seems willing to throw the horse operations — and jobs — overboard, if that’s what it will take.
The Globe reports that the April 30 letter to the commission was prompted by questions raised about the lease provision by a lawyer for the gambling panel. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh criticized the commission for helping Suffolk Downs beat back Boston’s host community status. Boston officials say the commission also inappropriately stepped in to help an applicant when it helped Wynn Resorts revamp its Everett casino plan after questions were raised about secret investors in the casino land with criminal backgrounds. Walsh suggested in a statement yesterday that the commission’s actions could aid a Boston lawsuit over the host community issue. (The city has not said yet whether it will file suit.)
–MICHAEL JONAS
BEACON HILL
The Senate budget avoid UMass tuition hikes and boosts funding for the Department of Children and Families and school buses, the Telegram & Gazette reports.
Sen. Brian Joyce of Milton is pushing for a sales tax on medical marijuana sales, the Sentinel and Enterprise reports.
A cost-cutting move in the state medical examiner‘s office has added months to the time it takes to receive a determination of cause of death.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
The Brockton City Council unanimously approved a contract for police that provides for a 13.25 percent pay hike over the life of the six-year deal, but the city’s chief financial officer warns without revenue increases or budget cuts, there’s no money to fund it beyond June.
The Salem businessman who earlier this week wanted to sell guns by private appointment quickly withdraws his proposal in the face of opposition, the Salem News reports.
Attleboro ‘s proposed meals tax is no slam dunk.
CASINOS
Massachusetts may be eager to open three new casinos, but Foxwoods in Connecticut is already struggling, announcing it is closing down one of its gaming areas on weekdays, a move that is likely to result in layoffs, the Day reports.
Casino owners talk jobs in Roxbury, while community leaders worry about gambling addiction.
MARATHON BOMBINGS
Defense lawyers for two college friends of accused Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev say FBI agents used manipulative and intimidating tactics to interrogate the students, who now face obstruction of justice charges in connection with the case.
A civil liberties group is demanding answers from state and federal authorities who cleared an FBI agent who was involved in the shooting of a friend Tamerlan Tsarnaev after it was revealed that the agent had a troubled record as a California police officer before joining the FBI.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
The economy may be improving, but state tax revenues in New Hampshire are tightening, so Gov. Maggie Hassan implements a spending freeze in many accounts, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
ELECTIONS
Keller@Large thinks the 11-day early voting window that looks like it’s about to pass in Massachusetts is a bad idea because anything can happen in those final days, including key debates.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Youth job funding is on the verge of being cut.
EDUCATION
Add this to the many arguments the Boston-based Pioneer Institute has put forward to oppose new Common Core education standards: They will kill off the teaching of poetry in schools. State education commissioner Mitchell Chester says nonsense. Sharp disagreement over Common Core between Pioneer and Chester is nothing new. Pioneer executive director Jim Stergios and Chester debated the merits of the move to Common Core in last summer’s issue of CommonWealth.
Westport officials have filed suit against chemical giant Monsanto to recover the costs of removing PCBs manufactured by the company from the town’s middle school.
Seton Academy in Fall River, which was scheduled to close in June, abruptly shut down after inquiries from the attorney general’s office following complaints including that some teachers at the struggling Catholic school were “volunteering” their time while collecting unemployment.
Common Core is producing tears over math.
HEALTH CARE
The annual struggle over Taunton Hospital continues as the Senate budget unveiled yesterday once again includes funding for 45 beds at the mental health facility that Gov. Deval Patrick has been trying to close for years.
A state panel has given the go-ahead for Lahey Hospital & Medical Center’s planned $76 million expansion of its emergency room services.
Measles vaccine eliminates cancer in a 49-year-old woman.
TRANSPORTATION
A long-planned Lynn ferry finally gets running, the Item reports.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
State health officials have eased beach closure rules for the upcoming summer but the relaxed regulations do not apply to five beaches in Wollaston, Dorchester, East Boston,and Lynn that have chronically tested positive for bacteria contamination.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott approves the construction of two nuclear generators, Governing reports.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Boston has paid $5 million to Shawn Drumgold to settle a wrongful conviction suit he brought for the 14 years he spent in prison for a notorious 1988 murder he did not commit.
John F. Cremens Jr., the former No. 2 official at the Probation Department, lays out the scheme at the center of the federal prosecution of former Probation chief John O’Brien and two of his top aides, CommonWealth reports.
A former Probation employee testifies that he gave a $100, cash donation for Rep. Thomas Petrolati to another Probation official, which would be a violation of numerous campaign finance laws. A current Probation employee testified on Tuesday that he had done the same thing, CommonWealth reports.
Norfolk Sheriff Michael Bellotti wants to expand a program he started where soon-to-be-released inmates are brought to meet Quincy police in an effort to steer them away from the old gang and put them on the police radar.
MEDIA
Ken Auletta, writing in the New Yorker, explains why Jill Abramson, the executive editor of the New York Times, was fired. Here is the Times story on her ouster. New York magazine argues that Abramson was never going to have a long tenure under Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger; an earlier New York profile of Times Co. CEO Mark Thompson depicted Abramson as being marginalized by the business side of the paper. The Wall Street Journal‘s report is here.
A Whitey Bulger hangout is remade and moved for the Black Mass movie featuring Johnny Depp, WBUR reports.
Dan Kennedy wonders if the Globe made the responsible decision in naming the FBI agent and two state troopers involved in the Florida shooting of a key figure in the Marathon bombings. He leans toward yes and points out the names and much of the information had already appeared on this website.