Beacon Hill spent all of last year looking over one shoulder, waiting for federal probation indictments that never came. Former probation boss John O’Brien got hauled into the House of Pain on Fan Pier last spring, but a second shoe has yet to drop. Mike McLaughlin, the embattled former head of the Chelsea Housing Authority, didn’t stand up nearly as well as O’Brien. The former Merrimack Valley power player was cooperating with federal prosecutors before his indictment ever got rung up. He pleads guilty today. Like the stalled inquiry into O’Brien’s legislative ties, McLaughlin’s plea isn’t about what happened in Chelsea. It’s about the bigger game that prosecutors are chasing.

McLaughlin’s plea deal covers charges that he repeatedly lied to federal authorities about his salary. It does not address the $200,000 he paid himself while he left Chelsea, shredding documents and fleeing state and federal investigators. But ever since he admitted concealing his inflated salary, comparing himself to Joe Montana and blaming the scheme on “the rebel in me,” the McLaughlin saga has been about a lot more than Mike McLaughlin. It’s been about Lt. Gov. Tim Murray. McLaughlin’s plea, in which prosecutors offer to trade leniency if McLaughlin provides “substantial assistance” in the prosecution of others, does nothing to soften that impression. Prosecutors tend to trade up for cooperation. They rarely trade down.

McLaughlin and Murray were partners in politics and patronage. The lieutenant governor sponsored McLaughlin’s son, Matthew, for a no-show spot on a board reviewing driving violations, despite the younger McLaughlin’s own checkered driving history. The two were linked to a failed coup at the housing authority in Dracut, where McLaughlin lives. The Globe has called McLaughlin Murray’s “go-to guy” in Middlesex County, and reported that, despite other pols warning Murray away from the roguish McLaughlin, the two “were as tight as you can get.”

While dooming one’s own political future is neither a state nor a federal crime, this is: The Globe has spoken to several former Chelsea housing employees whom McLaughlin shook down for cash donations that would allegedly be funneled to Murray. “He always wanted it in cash. No checks,” one employee told the Globe. The paper has even pinned Murray’s mysterious early-morning car crash on McLaughlin-induced insomnia.

Prosecutors love fistfuls of cash, whether collected via the shirt, the preacher’s handshake, or that old standby, the paper bag. By a happy coincidence, cash handoffs are also far less messy to explain to jurors than, say, kickbacks associated with software bond bills.

So it comes down to this. On one hand, there’s the beleaguered lieutenant governor, a lame duck whose best hopes include two more years on Beacon Hill, and then a hasty retreat to Worcester. Last month, a Murray spokesman insisted that Murray “never authorized Michael McLaughlin to do any fundraising on [his] behalf.” And on the other hand, there are scores of Chelsea housing employees who apparently gave cash to a man whose freedom now hinges on his ability to land a trophy for Carmen Ortiz’s wall. Mike McLaughlin may be pleading guilty today. But his trips to Fan Pier are only beginning.

                                                                –PAUL MCMORROW

BEACON HILL

Four of the seven Massport administrators overseeing the nearly-empty Worcester regional airport pocketed over $100,000 last year.  

Three firms submit bids to construct a state marine terminal in New Bedford to service Cape Wind.

Personal emails, if they deal with public business, are subject to the state’s Public Records Law, the Secretary of State’s office rules.

NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON

California raises taxes on the wealthy, becoming a case study for policymakers in Washington. Early indications are that the higher taxes are not causing wealthy residents to flee the state, the Washington Post reports.

With the March 1 deadline looming for Social Security recipients to arrange to have their checks electronically deposited, 4.2 million people still get their monthly checks in the mail.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren gets applause from The Berkshire Eagle after her grilling of federal regulators on failing to take Wall Street banks to trial.

Congressional gun control opponents may be willing to make a deal to limit the size of ammunition clips.

ELECTIONS

Reps. Stephen Lynch and Ed Markey get kudos from The Republican for signing on to the People’s Pledge during the primary campaign. Meanwhile, The Berkshire Eagle likes Lynch’s idea of encouraging municipalities to reschedule their town meetings on primary day to save money and increase turnout.

Barbara Buono is the lone Democrat willing to challenge New Jersey Republican Chris Christie for governor, the Daily Beast reports.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Attorney General Martha Coakley is pushing banks to make sure they are complying with all the terms of a new state law designed to help homeowners stave off foreclosure. CommonWealth’s Paul McMorrow, in his weekly Globe column, says foot-dragging by the two big government mortgage companies, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, is behind some of the persistence of the national foreclosure crisis.

The Republican supports getting rid of the penny.

The Atlantic recounts the first epic minimum wage fight.

Women are accounting for an increasing share of household income, a new study reports.

EDUCATION

The Adams Scholarship program, the signature education initiative of former Gov. Mitt Romney, may be on the way out, CommonWealth reports.

Salem State University is not only offering courses on the gaming industry but trying to land a research contract with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, the Salem News reports.

A new US Department of Education scorecard is making available a scorecard showing the net cost of colleges and universities, a figure that often differs markedly from the “sticker price” because it factors how generous schools are with financial aid.

HEALTH CARE

The Globe reports that state officials have yet to make more comprehensive data on disciplinary actions against physicians available online, as promised.

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

Advocates say heating assistance for many low-income households has already been exhausted and they fear many will go cold unless the state comes up with more money.

In an op-ed in the Fall River Herald News, two officials from Clean Water Action bemoan Gov. Deval Patrick’s support for lifting the 22-year-old moratorium on building new waste incinerators.

A new report by J. David Hughes of the Post Carbon Institute suggests the talk of enormous shale gas reserves in the United States may be overstated. A second report by Deborah Rogers for the Energy Policy Forum suggests Wall Street firms are behind the inflated projections for shale gas.

The Environmental League of Massachusetts presented its “Green Budget,” calling on
legislators to dedicate at least 1 percent of the state budget to environmental programs.

New England fishermen worry that consumers will not notice their plight since most fish consumed in the region are imported.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Keller@Large interviews Globe reporters Shelley Murphy and Kevin Cullen about their new book on the hunt for James “Whitey” Bulger, which is getting rave reviews from students of Whitey lore.

The New York Times links long prison sentences to long-term urban poverty.

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis’s son is arrested on drunken driving charges in New Hampshire.

MEDIA

The Poynter Institute has an interview with new Boston Globe editor Brian McGrory in which he says, among other things, he’s looking to “untangle” boston.com from the Globe’s premium content, further reducing free access to in-depth pieces. Via Media Nation.

Officials trace the source of Chinese hacking in the United States to a unit of the People’s Liberation Army, the New York Times reports.