| ‘Walsh hears footsteps’ Peter Lucas at the Herald wrote over the holiday weekend that Mayor Marty Walsh shouldn’t run for higher office, but he knows why he may be thinking of running for higher office: “Walsh hears footsteps, which is understandable given the changing demographics and diversity of a city where minorities now make up the majority.” Peter suggests Walsh might be better off waiting for a higher-office offer (hint: Kevin White almost got one 1972). Meanwhile, Lucas has another Herald column this morning, chronicling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ayanna Pressley’s first days in Congress – and he thinks the Republic may going the way of Rome. It’s begun: Rollins vs ICE This didn’t take long. From the Globe’s Maria Cramer: “Rachael Rollins, the new Suffolk County district attorney, is blasting Immigration and Customs Enforcement for arresting an undocumented immigrant in a Boston courthouse this month when he showed up for an arraignment on cocaine trafficking charges. Rollins vowed to launch an investigation to find out how ICE learned about the man’s whereabouts when he went to Suffolk Superior Court on Jan. 7.” The case isn’t as simple you might think. Both sides have good points. |
| Meanwhile, a star is born: Rollins is subject of possible Netflix documentary As she battles ICE, it’s also lights, camera and action time for Rachael Rollins. From the Herald’s Laurel Sweet: “Rachael Rollins has been Suffolk County’s first black female district attorney for less than a month, but a group of filmmakers recognized last year a star was born. All eyes were on the prosecutor Monday as a French film crew she said is making a documentary for Netflix recorded her every move, conversation and fan interaction at festivities honoring Martin Luther King Jr. at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. ‘So it’s exciting to have them here, but it’s awkward for sure sometimes,’ she said.” |
| Decisions, decisions: With so many Dem women running for president, it’s getting tough for feminists to choose Now there’s three: Elizabeth Warren, Kirsten Gillibrand and, as of yesterday, Kamala Harris, and more female Dem candidates for president may be on the way. But that poses a problem for some feminists: Who to support? The Globe’s Liz Goodwin has the gender dilemma details. Meanwhile, the Herald’s Jaclyn Cashman says the real dilemma is for the Democratic party as a whole, now that “three hard-left progressive women” are running and making Donald Trump’s re-election more likely. |
| Warren blasts Trump, welcomes Harris, and heads off Puerto Rico U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren had a busy holiday schedule on Monday, appearing at a local MLK Jr. event and a rally with workers at Logan Airport, and blasting away at President Trump for the ongoing federal government shutdown, reports Saraya Wintersmith at WGBH. Warren also found time to welcome U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris to the Democratic presidential race, saying it’s “terrific” that so many other Dems are running for president, reports the Herald’s Laurel Sweet. Now the Democratic presidential wannabe is headed to Puerto Rico today and to South Carolina later this week, reports Shannon Young at MassLive. |
| Lyons’ first priority as GOP chairman: Going after urban voters This strategy worked for Charlie Baker in 2014 and, so, newly elected state GOP chairman Jim Lyons is right to pursue roughly the same strategy, i.e. reaching out to cities and developing a plan to rebuild the party’s infrastructure in urban areas, as SHNS’s Michael Norton reports. It’s easier said than done – and the conservative Lyons is no moderate Baker. But it’s good to see Republicans not conceding urban areas to Democrats. Competition is good. |
| Mega-MAGA hat controversy and, of course, outrage One incident. Two political universes. Here’s competing coverage of the controversy over that viral video showing Kentucky students facing off against a Native American man at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. Starting off with the Herald, Sean Philip Cotter reports that Massachusetts conservatives say they’ve experienced similar hostile reactions for wearing MAGA (Make America Great Again) hats and other pro-Trump garb. The Herald’s Adriana Cohen says every American should be alarmed – yes, alarmed! – by the way the students are being treated. Meanwhile, the NYT applies its patented big-think approach toward controversies, coming from the opposite political spectrum, by declaring that the students’ hometown has been “ripped out of its overwhelmingly white, heavily Catholic, and largely Republican world and thrust into a national firestorm that touched seemingly every raw nerve in this polarized country — race, President Trump and the behavior of young white men.” A “firestorm” hitting a “raw nerve”? For some reason, our mind drifts to this NY Post headline from the other day: “How the media convinces us we’re all outraged – even when no one cares” |
| Trump congratulates Pats and … plugs Curt Schilling for Hall of Fame Speaking of President Trump, Spencer Buell at Boston Magazine reports that the Republican president was among those all excited yesterday by the Pats’ big win on Sunday, tweeting his congrats to best buds Bob Kraft, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, as well as the entire team. Trump obviously had Boston on his mind yesterday, because he also put in a plug for former Red Sox star (and conservative radio/Internet gabber) Curt Schilling to be inducted into the Hall of Fame, as Buell notes. |
| MLK memorial effort gets a $750K funding boost This was a great gesture on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. From the Globe’s Andy Rosen: “Efforts to memorialize the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King in Boston got a significant financial boost Monday, as the Boston Foundation and Boston University marked Monday’s holiday by announcing a combined $750,000 in support.” The story is accompanied by design sketches of the five finalists for the memorial. We happen to like the one at the top left, just fyi. It’s striking – and memorable. |
| Making her point: Weymouth compressor station foe resumes sit-ins at governor’s office Gov. Charlie Baker said his administration had “no choice” when it recently issued an air-quality permit for a proposed natural-gas compressor station in Weymouth. And now Andrea Honore is effectively saying she has no choice but to resume her daily sit-ins outside the governor’s office in protest of the controversial compressor. Jessica Trufant at the Patriot Ledger has the details. |
| Is the state’s tax revenue situation getting worse? State officials expressed hope that December’s huge decline in tax revenues might be only a one-month affair. Halfway through January, it doesn’t look that way, with tax collections down by $531 million, or 32.2 percent, in the first two weeks of the new year, reports SHNS’s Michael Norton |
