The spring issue of CommonWealth magazine is out, and you can not only read it all online here, you can listen to us chew over some of the stories in this week’s Codcast.
Bruce Mohl’s cover story takes at look at some very deluxe apartments in the sky — at the new Millennium Tower in Boston’s Downtown Crossing. The condos average $2.4 million and top out at at $35 million for a 13,000-square-foot penthouse bought by billionaire investor John Greyken. Bruce revisits the slightly embarrassing genesis of the story: He was puzzled in walking past the tower by what seemed to be unfinished gaps in some of the upper-floor units. “These were indoor terraces,” he says he learned, offering the favored terminology of luxe lexicon. Is the invasion of Downtown Crossing by moneyed moguls a good thing for the city overall? Or only for the tax coffers at City Hall?
We come down to ground level by the end of the Codcast to dig in at the grass roots — or maybe the lack of them — on what it means to have video game developer Brianna Wu coming after US. Rep Steve Lynch in next year’s Democratic primary. Our piece in the magazine, by Washington correspondent Shawn Zeller, asks whether Lynch’s more moderate, lunch-bucket brand of Democratic politics is out of step with a party base that is increasingly looking for its leaders to go to war against Donald Trump. The son of South Boston seems to have recently gotten a bit of the party religion, blowing off a White House invitation to discuss domestic policy. As Bruce points out, even liberal icon Elizabeth Warren felt pressure to make some quick course corrections after hostile reaction to her early support for Trump’s housing cabinet pick, Ben Carson. But can Wu, who admits she went district shopping to find the state’s most conservative Democrat and hasn’t even said where she plans to move in the 8th District, actually give a Lynch a run for it? Mark us down as dubious.
In between talk on those two topics, Michael Jonas tees up his piece on vocational high schools, which were once home to the castoffs from regular high schools, but are now offering solid academics and practical technical skills. That’s making them a sought-after twofer in this era of heightened concern about employment and earnings. But it means some of the very kids who once would have gravitated toward voc-techs and their hands-on learning are today getting turned away.
The intrigue in science labs doing cutting-edge research usually centers on the findings from the work. In “Death of a cancer lab,” Jack Sullivan explores how a couple of guys with questionable reputations were able to take over a research center connected to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Boston and basically drive it into the ground. The upshot? Somewhere in the neighborhood of $30 million of public grant dollars “basically wasted,” Jack says.
We talk about a Ted Siefer feature story on Holyoke mayor Alex Morse, who is rolling out the welcome wagon for marijuana businesses while other cities are taking a page from a certain national figure and looking to put up (figurative) walls at their borders.
And more.
Give a listen — and then a read.
–COMMONWEALTH STAFF
BEACON HILL
The evolution of Stephanie Pollack — why a lifelong Democrat has become a big supporter of Gov. Charlie Baker. (CommonWealth)
Automakers are warning legislators not to establish regulations for self-driving cars that drive innovators out of the Bay State market. (Boston Herald)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Ashley Mason, program director of the federal Women, Infants, and Children nutrition program, says less than half of the people eligible in Andover are taking advantage of the initiative. (Eagle-Tribune)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
The Trump administration turns increasingly hostile to Russia and warms to NATO, a complete reversal of Trump’s campaign rhetoric. Trump also backs off his vow to declare China a “currency manipulator,” more evidence that the Wall Street gang is winning out over the populists. (New York Times)
Never mind. Time details all the issues President Trump has changed his mind on
US Rep. Katherine Clark calls Trump a “danger to our democracy.” (Boston Globe)
Rep. Tom Marino, a Republican from Pennsylvania, is reportedly Trump’s choice as national drug czar. Marino is a hard-liner on marijuana and would like to put nonviolent drug offenders in some sort of “hospital-slash-prison.” (Washington Post)
Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort says he will register as a foreign agent. (Time)
ELECTIONS
Republican Gabriel Gomez, who lost a 2013 Senate race to Ed Markey, says he’s seriously weighing a run next year against Elizabeth Warren. (Boston Herald)
Two of three candidates for selectman in MIlton say they support a Proposition 2½ override. (Patriot Ledger)
East Boston district city councilor Sal LaMattina says he won’t seek reelection, opening up a third council seat for the fall election. (Boston Globe)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
What happens to the 50,000 pounds of clothes left at the Boston Marathon starting line? (WGBH)
Evan Horowitz says the decline of manufacturing jobs in Massachusetts isn’t such a tragedy. (Boston Globe)
A rejected medical marijuana facility in Gloucester sues every member of the City Council for approving a rival’s project without disclosing ties to that bidder. (Gloucester Times)
A Boston drain company was fined $1.5 million in connection with the collapse of a trench in the South End that killed two workers. (Boston Globe)
EDUCATION
Angry University of Massachusetts Boston students interrupt a Wednesday trustees meeting to protest campus cuts. (Boston Herald) Shirley Leung dissects the theater performance of Tuesday’s UMass board meeting where Keith Motley delivered his farewell offering no regrets and Barry Mills detailed with brutal honesty just how much there is to be regretful for. (Boston Globe) A Dorchester Reporter editorial by Bill Forry calls Motley’s forced resignation a “shameful moment” and wonders whether it greases the skids for a soccer stadium at Columbia Point.
Peabody decides to do a restart on the search for a new school superintendent, saying the candidates who applied for the job lacked sufficient experience. (Salem News) It’s a recurring problem, as increasingly the only way to find an experienced superintendent is to hire one away from another community, setting of a game of musical chairs. (CommonWealth)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
New data suggest rural areas and Gateway Cities have less access to supermarkets. (State House News)
It can be hazardous to live near marathon road races, a study shows, probably because of slower response times for emergency responders. (Boston Globe)
Telegram & Gazette columnist Dianne Williamson reports on Faustino Gomez, who is dying after years as a heroin addict and can’t find a nursing home that will take him in his final days.
A Lowell Sun editorial says it’s way past time to address the Medicaid funding gap at Massachusetts nursing homes.
TRANSPORTATION
There is little recourse for would-be Uber or Lyft drivers who do not pass a state background check. (Boston Globe)
The state inspector general is carrying out a “proactive” review of one of the MBTA contracts outsourced to a private vendor by the T’s control board. (Boston Herald)
They call it Hyperloop One, a futuristic way to travel from Somerset to Boston in 10 minutes or less. (Herald News)
Sen. Marc Pacheco of Taunton calls the interim Middleboro Phase One version of South Coast Rail a “bait and switch.” (Herald News)
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. gets the greenlight from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to start cutting trees in Otis State Forest for a pipeline project. (Berkshire Eagle)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
A Massachusetts Appeals Court rules 3-2 that a woman raped at Tewksbury State Hospital cannot sue for damages. (Associated Press)
A lawyer nominated for a judgeship by Gov. Charlie Baker withdraws hours before her confirmation hearing in the wake of a Globe report on her role supervising a probate court employee accused of making racist and vulgar remarks. (Boston Globe)
Police arrest a man who allegedly tried to break into the Worcester Islamic Center. (Telegram & Gazette)
A 43-year-old man was arrested after what police say was the third straight day he was stealing bicycles at Quincy High School. (Patriot Ledger)
The Dorchester Reporter’s editorial has an interesting perspective on UMass Boston Chancellor Dr. J. Keith Motley’s forced resignation by linking it to a Robert Kraft’s efforts to build a soccer stadium on land owned by UMass Boston at Columbia Point. Motley “engineered” the purchase of the Bayside Expose’s site ten years but “it has been poorly managed.” Here’s an excerpt: “Hovering out of public view amid the onslaught of negative press that preceded Motley’s removal this month is an ongoing, secretive effort aimed at delivering the Bayside parcels to Robert Kraft and his private sports and entertainment venture. UMass president Martin Meehan has all but endorsed the idea, promising a windfall for the cash-strapped campus. The fact that these talks with a private entity— leveraging land held by the state’s public university— have been happening without public scrutiny is itself a scandal in the making. Could it be that the real motive behind this campaign to discredit and jettison Keith Motley was the removal of a potential obstacle to a privately built stadium on Columbia Point? We’ll know soon enough.”