If the Pawtucket Red Sox move to Worcester, would they be called the WorSox?
Questions like that are beginning to surface as headlines suggest the Red Sox farm team may be close to making a move to Worcester. There’s nothing definitive yet, and the rumors of an impending move are being spread by the mayor of Pawtucket, Donald Grebien, who is trying to prod the Rhode Island legislature into passing a bill that would provide $23 million for a new $97 million ballpark.
“With the city of Worcester finalizing a deal to build a stadium for the PawSox, Rhode Island’s leaders must act at the start of their session,” Grebien said in a statement accompanying an invitation to a press conference on Tuesday. The headline of the statement was “Now or Never on Ballpark at Slater Mill.”
It does seem like enthusiasm is waning in Rhode Island for using taxpayer dollars to build the PawSox a new stadium. The Senate is preparing to take a vote early next month on the stadium financing package, but prospects in the House are uncertain.
Rhode Island House Speaker Nicholas Mattiello said everyone would like the PawSox to stay, but not if it requires using taxpayer funds. “I’ve heard that pretty universally in my district and other districts,” he said.
Gov. Gina Raimondo said she hasn’t heard anything definitive about a PawSox move, but acknowledged the team has been waiting for months for the Rhode Island legislature to act. “I think they’re just looking for other options because they need some certainty,” Raimondo said of the PawSox. “I don’t know what [the legislature] is waiting for. I think they should take action before it’s too late.”
Meanwhile, Worcester officials still haven’t disclosed publicly what kind of deal they are offering the team. Team officials, including President Larry Lucchino, met with Worcester officials for about three hours last week.
BRUCE MOHL
BEACON HILL
Sen. Harriette Chandler, the “caretaker” Senate president, said the four senators who are interested in being the next president have agreed to put any campaigning on hold. (State House News) Meanwhile, the Senate Ethics Committee hires three lawyers to lead the investigation of the former Senate president, Stanley Rosenberg. (State House News)
A federal audit found unsafe and unsanitary conditions at Massachusetts group homes for foster children that are overseen by the state Department of Children and Families. (Boston Globe)
Al Norman, an advocate for elders on Beacon Hill for decades, said he’s calling it quits and citing a “difficult state environment.” (MassLive)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
A Herald editorial trashes the new Boston ban on thin plastic shopping bags at convenience and grocery stores that Mayor Marty Walsh signed.
The Springfield City Council gives initial approval to an ordinance raising the legal age to purchase tobacco to 21. (MassLive)
The Framingham Zoning Board of Appeals denied a request from the owner of a struggling industrial park to build a housing project next to the Staples headquarters, saying the decision should be made by the incoming city administration. (MetroWest Daily News)
Weymouth has selected the parent company of South Shore Hospital to provide the town’s ambulance service, ending a 16-year relationship with Fallon Ambulance and bypassing Brewster Ambulance, which built its headquarters in Weymouth. (Patriot Ledger)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
The tax bill quickly moving through Congress would end the deduction for home equity loan interest, a blow to those who use their home to help finance other expenses, such as tuition for a child’s education, a car purchase, or home improvements. (Boston Globe) A Lowell Sun editorial calls the tax bill a godsend. The bill would also end the deduction businesses can currently take for providing employees with transportation-related benefits such as transit passes or covering parking expenses. (Boston Globe) Departing Sen. Bob Corker, who changed his vote to yes despite the bill not addressing his deficit concerns, says he was unaware of a late addition to the bill that would result in a windfall for him. (U.S. News & World Report)
Joan Vennochi says actor Matt Damon, who is being pilloried by some for comments addressing the new reckoning with sexual harassment, was right to say no inappropriate conduct should be tolerated, but also that acts of widely divergent seriousness shouldn’t all “be conflated” either. (Boston Globe)
Matthew Peterson, who was nominated for a federal judgeship by President Trump, withdraws from consideration after a video of a Republican senator questioning his legal competence goes viral. (Associated Press)
Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for president in 2016 and a former candidate for governor in Massachusetts, is now caught up in a congressional committee’s investigation of Russian meddling in the US presidential election. (Buzzfeed)
Keller@Large asks the question we should all be asking: What can we learn from UFOs?
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Divers have recovered the bodies of two fishermen from the sunken boat who went missing when the fishing vessel Misty Blue went down about 10 miles off Nantucket two weeks ago. (Standard-Times)
Thirteen states have filed suit in federal court against Massachusetts, claiming the voter-approved ban on the sale of eggs and other farm products from animals confined in overly restrictive cages is unconstitutional. (Boston Herald)
Campbell Soup has bought the North Carolina-based snack company Snyder’s-Lance, the parent company of Cape Cod Potato Chips, in a $4.9 billion deal. (Cape Cod Times)
EDUCATION
Boston Public Schools parents spoke out against proposed changes to school starting times last night at a meeting in West Roxbury. (Boston Herald) A Globe editorial, like a Herald yesterday before, urges school leaders to push ahead with the plan to push back high school starting times — the main aim of the revamp — but it says consideration should be given to whether those changes could happen without as much disruption of elementary school schedules.
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
Tufts Medical Center and the Massachusetts Nurses Association reached a tentative agreement on new contract following 20 months of often acrimonious disagreement. (Boston Globe)
A coalition formed to oppose the proposed merger of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Lahey Health is helmed by executives at Northwind Strategies, the firm headed by former Deval Patrick aide Doug Rubin, which has strong ties to rival Steward Health Care System. (Boston Globe)
Eight volunteers, most of them with ties to the recovery community, have agreed to assist the Worcester Police Department in finding help for people struggling with addiction. (Telegram & Gazette)
TRANSPORTATION
A train that derailed in Washington state, killing at least six people and injuring more than 100, was the result of the train speeding 50 mph over the 30 amph limit, according to investigators. (New York Times)
The T’s controversial plan to outsource bus maintenance work at three garages is facing even more challenges as prior privatization initiatives are struggling and internal reforms at existing garages appear to be working. (CommonWealth)
Using a new approach to delays, the MBTA and Keolis dramatically improved on-time performance on the commuter rail’s Worcester Line. (CommonWealth)
T notes: Dedicated bus lanes do save time…T officials working on plan to improve speed and service on the Green Line…more ridership estimates on West Station. (CommonWealth)
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved a request by the owner’s of the troubled Pilgrim power plant to forego installing mandated cybersecurity systems for the facility’s final 18 months of operation before it is permanently shut down. (Cape Cod Times)
A Falmouth clean energy non-profit whose members include scientists from Woods Hole has filed an an appeal with the state Appeals Court to overturn a lower court’s decision to shut down the town’s two wind turbines. (Cape Cod Times)
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week approved Spectra Energy’s Atlantic Bridge Project, a natural gas pipeline expansion that includes a controversial compressor station in Weymouth. (MassLive)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
A new report from the Giffords Center spotlights Massachusetts as one of three states with gun control legislation and programs that could be models to adopt nationwide to reduce gun violence. (State House News Service)
MEDIA
Sources say Beacon Hill encounters cost Boston Globe political reporter Jim O’Sullivan his job. (CommonWealth)
A CommonWealth editor should assign a reporter to investigate what’s going on with the new Boston Public Schools start times. Nothing about it makes any sense. If you go on the BPS website then you’ll see “On 12/6/2017, Boston School Committee voted to approve a new policy for school start and end times” and the memo from the Office of the Equity supposedly detailing the “equity impact” is dated 12/11/2017 or five days later. In other words, “equity” has nothing to do with those new bell times. That’s an afterthought. By the way, the MBTA’s website states: “…most middle and high school students in Boston take it (the T) every day!” So middle school and high school start times have nothing to do with kindergarten and elementary school start times…NOTHING! There’s no reason to link them at all. Just recently BPS revealed a $6.6 million transportation deficit. Weren’t those algorithms developed by MIT engineers supposed to save $5 million in transportation costs this year? So that translates into $11.6 million…GONE! Where did it go? I read somewhere that BPS spends $2,100 per student to transport regular ed students but a whopping $2,700 to transport charter school students. Why the difference in cost? And finally, in this school year BPS has only five schools with the very early 7:15 a.m. start time. How are they doing? Not too good:
Clarence R. Edwards Middle School – Level 3 – “Among lowest performing 20% of schools…”
Washington Irving Middle School – Level 3 – “Among lowest performing 20% of schools…”
Jackson Mann – Level 3 – “Among lowest performing 20% of schools…”
Madison Park High School – Level 4 – “Among lowest achieving and least improving schools…”
John W. McCormack Middle School – Level 3 – “Among lowest performing 20% of schools…”
The only 5 BPS schools with a 7:15 a.m. start time have low accountability ratings and next year BPS will increase the number of schools opening at 7:15 a.m. from 5 to 21. I don’t see that working out for the thousands of students assigned to those schools.
At no point has the Boston Public Schools or Mayor Marty Walsh announced how charter schools start times will change to save money on transportation costs. So I looked up Neighborhood House Charter School where Mayor Martin Walsh is listed as a Trustee for Life to find out that charter school’s start times:
K1 – 5th grade Arrival/Breakfast 8:15 a.m. Class Begins 8:30 a.m.
6th – 7th grade Arrival/Breakfast 7:40 a.m. Class Begins 8:00 a.m.
8th – 9th grade Arrival/Breakfast 8:00 a.m. Class Begins 8:15 a.m.
There’s no 7:15 a.m. start time for the Mayor’s Neighborhood House Charter School.
How about someone at CommonWealth look into the timeline of the IRS audit where Mayor Marty Walsh’s administration handed a $944,000 check to an IRS agent ON ELECTION DAY? And never disclosed the audit, its findings or the almost $1 million in penalties to voters in the months, weeks, days leading up to voters casting their ballots. And what about when the new start times for the public schools were announced just a few weeks after the election? If those times has been made public prior to November 7th wouldn’t Walsh’s clear sailing to reelection hit some choppy waters? And what about the big raises Mayor Walsh and his top administrators are in line for – just disclosed – again a few weeks after the election? Walsh shouldn’t be getting away with any of that…but so far he is.