Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera on Thursday tried to drive a stake through the heart of the man he narrowly edged out in last year’s election by calling for William Lantigua to be prosecuted for botched street repaving jobs that will cost the city an estimated $600,000 to repair.
Lantigua last year ordered the repaving of a number of streets to shore up his political support during the race for mayor. The story probably would have ended there if Lantigua had followed paving protocols, but he had contractors cut corners so more streets could be paved. Many of those streets, unable to stand up to the weather, are now breaking up.
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Rivera, standing near a pothole on Osgood Street, which was repaved in October, said his press conference was not about scoring political points, but about seeking justice for taxpayers. He dubbed the latest Lawrence mess Pavegate and urged investigators to prosecute Lantigua, CommonWealth reports.
“I’m not sure why they’re dragging their feet over $600,000 that has been wasted and it appears that bidding rules have been broken or circumvented,” Rivera said. “If I wasted $600,000 in a private company, charges would be brought against me. There’s no reason why it should be any different in the public sector.”
Rivera was joined at Thursday’s press conference by Rep. Marcos Devers, who is seeking reelection to his House seat and facing a challenge from Lantigua, who is running as an independent. “We cannot run this city as a third-world country,” Devers told the Eagle-Tribune.
Law enforcement officials have been investigating the election year paving contracts, but the status of the probe is unclear. The Valley Patriot reports that the state Department of Transportation is working with the state Inspector General on a multi-agency criminal investigation.
Rivera has set a new political tone in Lawrence, establishing a dress code for workers and trying to reinvigorate the downtown. He’s received lots of help from state and federal elected officials, who have flocked to the city, often bearing gifts. But he also seems determined to erase Lantigua from the political scene. Earlier this year he removed Lantigua’s girlfriend from the city payroll, prompting a federal lawsuit from her. And now, with Pavegate, he is taking aim at Lantigua himself.
— BRUCE MOHL
BEACON HILL
The fallout from the state’s botching of the health connector website continues — in a big way — as the Globe reports that some 400,000 people who got temporary coverage when the site went on the blink will have to sign up for coverage again by January 1 or find themselves uninsured. The state is seeking another $80 million in federal funds to complete its connector website, bringing the total cost of the problem-plagued effort to $254 million, WBUR reports. Oregon, which scrapped its website after spending $248 million trying to make it work, is being sued by its vendor, Oracle Corp., for slander, Governing reports.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
The events in Ferguson, Missouri, have echoed loudly in Boston , where a protest took place last night and where police officials say they have been proactively taking steps to prevent a similar sort of rupture of police-community relations.
A nonprofit Brockton social service agency is appealing a ruling by city officials denying a permit to build housing for homeless people because the facility lacks the necessary parking.
Preservationists and library trustees are opposing a plan by New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell to put up a chain in front of the historic library building to deter “vagrants” from hanging out on the building’s front steps.
Franklin has a stake in how the latest marijuana controversy plays out: New England Treatment Access planned a cultivation facility for the town.
CASINOS
CommonWealth: Are the casino handouts of Mohegan Sun and Wynn Resorts a way to mitigate the impact of gambling or a way to buy support?
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
The state highway patrol leads protesters on a peaceful march in Ferguson, Missouri, the Washington Post reports . The Wall Street Journal spotlights Ron Johnson, the highway patrol commander who’s now in charge of policing the city. Sen. Rand Paul calls for demilitarizing the police in a Time essay. The Washington Post charts the preponderance of cities where police force demographics don’t match the citizens they serve. A Wall Street Journal editorial resists the movement to turn Ferguson into a national allegory, although it calls “sniper rifles, black armored convoys and waves of tear gas deployed across Ferguson neighborhoods … jarring in a free society.”
ELECTIONS
Super PAC money is starting to dominate the race for governor, CommonWealth reports . Scot Lehigh chimes in on the flood of super PAC spending, urging voters to ignore all the mud and mistruths the groups will be slinging. David Bernstein wonders why the Republican Governors Association is trying to downplay its presence in the gubernatorial race.
The four Democratic candidates for Congress in the sixth congressional district debate in Bedford and it turns into a game of three on one, with the one being incumbent John Tierney, the Lowell Sun reports.
Democratic Attorney General candidates Maura Healey and Warren Tolman have a 30-minute “conversation” with Emily Rooney on a variety of topics ranging from whether the riots in Ferguson could happen here, the role of the attorney general in the Market Basket feud, and legalization of recreational marijuana use.
A Globe poll shows overwhelming voter support for the ballot question expanding the state’s bottle bill.
The Herald spends a day on the campaign trail with Mark Fisher.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Massachusetts added 13,800 jobs in July, but the unemployment rate ticked up to 5.6 percent, WBUR reports.
If you still have an appetite for the endless Demoulas supermarket skirmish, the Globe provides a review of a full decade’s worth of the story.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy says nonprofit foundations, long a supporter of innovation and technology, are playing it too safe when it comes to investment in emerging industries because of the recession.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
In a Berkshire Eagle op-ed, Sen. Elizabeth Warren comes out against a proposed natural gas pipeline running to Dracut, but her opposition is based primarily on the feeling Massachusetts can do better.
A joint appeal of the new federal flood zone maps by Scituate and Marshfield officials is heading to a scientific panel in which each to the towns gets to pick two of the five members.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Whitey Bulger is back in the news (for a moment), as his lawyers file an appeal of his conviction, arguing he should have been allowed to make his claim that he was granted immunity decades ago for any crimes he committed. The timing of the appeal proves helpful to a Globe editorial ripping City Council President Bill Linehan‘s proposal to name the South Boston branch library after Bulger brother Bill. The editorial reminds all of William Bulger‘s stated wish while Whitey was on the lam to never be helpful to those trying to apprehend his serial slaying sibling.
A proposed ordinance would restrict where sex offenders could live in Gloucester, confining them to the western part of the city, the Gloucester Times reports .
A suit by a former Plymouth county prosecutor claiming he was fired for refusing to donate to District Attorney Timothy Cruz‘s campaign is likely headed to trial in US District Court after the two sides failed to reach a settlement in mediation.
MEDIA
The Christian Science MonitorĀ asks if the two journalists arrested during the Ferguson race riots “behaved appropriately.”
