Massachusetts Politics

FORRY FAREWELL, PART 1.   It’s been about a month since Linda Dorcena Forry left the Massachusetts Senate for the more remunerative pastures of John Fish’s Suffolk Construction Co. and already the State House seems a less exciting place.   Former Senator Forry, a proud daughter of Haiti, oozes charisma.   She’s got a smile and a laugh so good as to make a portrait of J. Edgar Hoover break into a grin.   When she goes out in public, men and women who want to be her friends form a line behind her. This past Valentine’s Day, when Forry gave her farewell speech in the House chamber, the place was filled with bold-faced names, including Governor Charlie Baker, former Governor Deval Patrick, former Senate President Therese Murray, State Treasurer Deb Goldberg, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Boston City Councilors Frank Baker and Ayanna Pressley, New England Council President (and former Dorchester rep) Jim Brett and Israeli Consul General Yahuda Yaakov.   “There is no one ...

“Wynn Boston Harbor,” the name of the Las Vegas-style casino under construction now in Everett, is sinking faster than a gambling addict’s spirits. Wynn Resorts founder Steve Wynn has been revealed as an alleged abuser of women and our governor and attorney general say the casino cannot possibly bear his name.   Countless women no doubt share that view with Governor Baker and AG Healey. But if all Wynn Resorts had to do now was devise a new casino moniker, the folks running the show would be sitting prettier than a high roller in a penthouse suite. With the Massachusetts Gaming Commission trying to determine if persons in the company hierarchy other than Wynn helped conceal Wynn’s reputed history of sexual misdeeds in its license application, Wynn Resorts could forfeit its right to do business here. “A central question,” Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby has said, “is what did the (Wynn Resorts) board of directors and staff know, and when did they know it, about the settlement (wi...