Massachusetts Politics

Late Wednesday afternoon, while my fellow prisoners of the MBTA were smashing their way out of a smoke-filled train at Back Bay station on the Orange Line, I was four stops away at State Street, having flashbacks to the brutal winter of 2014-15, a time when I did not descend into the tube without expecting to be delayed, stranded and ignored. At about 4:40 p.m. on Wednesday, a motor on a train pulling into Back Bay began filling with smoke due to what the T later described as a “propulsion issue.”   There was a fire of some sort, which, one T official said, “caused a large arc and an explosion.”   The fire “also caused trash to catch fire, creating an exorbitant amount of smoke,” that official said.   (Yes, there’s almost always enough trash on the T tracks to catch fire.) Three people, overcome by smoke, were taken to the hospital. Boston Magazine had an irreverent account of the episode up on its web site in no time, God bless them.   “The real story,” the magazine...

I’m hoping the U.S. Bureau of Prisons (BOP) does a bang-up job on the homework assignment it’s been given by Judge Mark Wolf in the matter of freeing Sal DiMasi, former Speaker of the Massachusetts House. Sal’s been in prison for more than four and half years.   He should have been paroled two years ago, if not earlier. On Oct. 13, the BOP filed a motion in the federal district court in Boston to grant DiMasi a “compassionate release” due to his age, 71, and poor health.   According to the motion, DiMasi suffers from “cancer of the tongue and prostate, atrial fibrillation, hyperlipidemia, esophageal stenosis, esophageal reflux, acid reflux, and musculoskeletal pain.” Four days later, Judge Wolf responded to the motion with an eight-page memorandum and order. In 2011, Wolf had presided at DiMasi’s trial and given him an eight-year prison term after the jury found him guilty. I was glad to see, when I read the memorandum/order, that Wolf had not expressed opposition to the relea...

The gambling industry tacticians who wore the clothes of the Revere Jobs and Education Committee got their heads handed to them yesterday in a special municipal election. This was a small-turnout event that wasn’t even close to being close.   Of the 4,549 residents of the Beach City who voted, 2,970 were against the idea of having a slots parlor on the site of an old trailer park near Suffolk Downs, while 1,574 were for it, and 5 left the question blank.   Even for an election in my hometown, the blanks were a quirky product. There was only one question, one item on the ballot, having to do with a slots parlor.   Five individuals schlepped to the polls, signed in, got a ballot, did nothing with it when they went behind the curtain, slipped it into the box, and walked out the door.   Ohhhh-K. Up till now, I always thought of blanking as something you did when there were multiple candidates and/or referendum questions on the ballot.   I blank guys I’m not enamored...

To force the City of Revere to hold a special election solely on the question of building a slots parlor in the community, the wholesomely named Revere Jobs and Education Committee had to collect the signatures of at least 4,808 certified local voters.   This it had no trouble doing. The committee, of course, had the dough to hire as many signature gatherers as were needed to fill up those petition forms.   This was no movement driven by volunteers with a few hours for a cause every other Saturday. It was a campaign with a capital "C," as run by well compensated professionals from the persuasion industry. Not having witnessed them in action, I don’t know if the signature gatherers told their prospects, the good people of Revere, that the election would cost the city, and hence its taxpayers, in the vicinity of $50,000.   I kind of doubt it. So, tomorrow, we shall see in Revere an election where voters are to be asked just one question.     In essence that q...

Article 48, an amendment to the Massachusetts constitution adopted in 1918, states that “the people reserve to themselves the popular initiative, which is the power of a specified number of voters to submit constitutional amendments and laws to the people for approval or rejection…” For many months now, a real estate developer with deep pockets has used the popular initiative to advance a plan to build a hotel and slots parlor on the site of an old trailer park in the City of Revere, not far from Suffolk Downs, the almost defunct horse racetrack that straddles the border of Revere and East Boston.   In doing so, he has thwarted the wishes of many city leaders, starting with the city’s young and idealistic first-term mayor, Brian Arrigo. When Massachusetts voters go to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 8, they’ll be asked to make a decision on this developer’s handiwork, Question #1, a proposed law that would allow the state Gaming Commission to issue one additional slots parlor licen...