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Finished attacking our
waitress? Stay for another drink
The headline at Universal Hub
says it all: “Manager at waterfront club loses job after he let guy who’d
just sexually attacked a server stay for more drinks with his pals.”
Pretty amazing. The bar in question is the Grand on Northern Avenue.
You don’t say: ‘Adult
entertainment industry is a very powerful lobby in R.I.’
We’re not picking on Rhode
Island. We like Rhode Island. We vacation in Rhode Island. But … The
Providence Journal stirred up things in Rhode Island over the weekend by
revealing that strip-club owners have allegedly been funneling campaign
contributions to top Democrats via a law firm with its own ties to the
adult-entertainment industry. It appears Dems didn’t know where the money
ultimately came from, but Republicans are still having a field day. “This sounds like
another sad episode of Rhode Island Vice,” state Republican Party
chairman Brandon S. Bell says.
GOP’s Lyons slams ‘socialist’
and ‘corrupt’ Dems at national and state levels
Maybe Gov. Charlie Baker, a
moderate Republican who stresses bi-partisanship at the State House, has
an opinion on this. From Joe Battenfeld: “Taking a cue from President
Trump, Massachusetts Republican Party chief Jim Lyons slammed Democrats
for ‘pushing a socialist agenda’ and called the Democratic-controlled
Legislature ‘corrupt’ in a blistering attack on the opposition party.”
Actually, his assessment of House Speaker Robert DeLeo is not that much
different from the views of progressives.
High rents, high eviction
rates, high tensions
There are two good stories
this morning about the terrible housing crunch in Massachusetts. The
first, by Jennifer McKim and Alejandro Serrano at the New England Center
for Investigative Report (the story is available at both WGBH and at the Boston Globe), looks at how high rents
have led to high eviction rates in Massachusetts. How high is the
eviction rate? It averages out to about 43 evictions per day in
Massachusetts.
Meanwhile, Qainat Khan at WBUR looks at how the
changing demographics in Boston’s Egleston Square are leading to housing
displacement pressures. Again, it’s all about higher rents.
The ‘win or die’ state: Warren
and Sanders to duke it out in NH
U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders made it
official yesterday: He’s running for president again. And that means he’ll
be taking on U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a fellow progressive and New
Englander, in the “win or die” New Hampshire primary battle for both
candidates next year, reports the Globe’s James Pindell.
But does Bernie still have his
2016 mojo? This time around he won’t be going head-to-head with only one
Democratic candidate in a primary. He’ll be going up against a number of
progressive Dems, reports the Globe’s Michael Levenson. The Globe’s Adrian Walker wonders if
Sanders appreciates “just how hotly disputed” the Democratic primary will
be this time around.
Btw, from the Daily Hampshire Gazette: “Valley residents
ready to ‘feel the Bern?’ Yes, no and meh.” Btw, II: The Herald’s Adriana Cohen says it all
probably doesn’t matter: “Hold the presidential election today — Trump wins
in a landslide.”
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But is the real Dem battle
between Warren and Harris?
The Globe’s Liz Goodwin and Jess
Bidgood report that U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris may share
a lot of progressive views as candidates in the Dem race for president. But
one thing they don’t share is the way they approach politics, i.e. Warren
as revolutionary, Harris as restorer of decency in politics.
For the Globe’s Renée Graham, she wants to make one
thing clear: Harris is “black enough.” Period. Now on to more pressing political
matters, please.
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Bill Weld: True NeverTrumper or
mere stalking horse for Charlie Baker? You decide
Speaking of local presidential
candidates: Liz Mair writes at the NYT that former
Gov. Bill Weld’s preliminary move to run for president as a Republican
offers a “glimmer” of hope that the NeverTrump movement may still be alive.
But she admits GOP opponents of President Trump are “now the political
equivalent of a doomed exotic species.”
Meanwhile, columnist Peter Lucas at the Lowell Sun wonders
aloud whether Weld, consciously or unconsciously, might be acting as a
stalking horse for moderate Republican Gov. Charlie Baker to run for
president. Then he all but dismisses the notion but asserts Weld may yet
“spur anti-Trump Republicans to look for a more viable candidate to dump
Trump.”
Btw: Baker isn’t saying whether
he might support Weld for president, the Globe’s Matt Stout reports. Btw, II:
Weld was on “Morning Joe” yesterday pounding away at Trump’s foreign
policy, reports the Globe’s Jeremy Fox.
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Spilka hints she dumped
Chang-Diaz to get education-reform results
She didn’t quite say it, but
Senate President Karen Spilka acknowledged yesterday that the decision to
replace the progressive Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz with the more moderate Sen.
Jason Lewis as the new chair of the Senate education committee was all
about finally getting education-reform results, not more rhetoric and
deadlock. The way Rep. Angelo Scaccia sees it: “They want to put a
pragmatist there to get something done.” CommonWealth magazine’s Bruce Mohl
and Andy Metzger have the details.
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