Harsh doses of reality

How much did the Daily News of Newburyport resist using a variation of that famous NY Daily News headline?

Rep. Mike Costello gave city leaders a harsh dose of reality Wednesday night: The state is unlikely to bail the city out of its school funding crisis this year, so they had better find solutions from within.

At a public forum organized to discuss local education funding at the Nock Middle School, members of the community attempted to lobby state and federal representatives for additional help.

"Quality education for children and proper funding is desperately needed from the state and federal governments," said former School Committee member Dick Sullivan, who organized the forum.

But the delegation on hand, which included city and state legislators and representatives from the governor's and Congressman John Tierney's offices, didn't have the answers local officials may have hoped for.

Costello, D-Newburyport, urged community members to push for a Proposition 21/2 override, enroll in the Group Insurance Commission plan immediately and to look closely at transportation costs of special education students. Small changes on the local level could mean savings, Costello said.

"The last override was not articulated well; fixing the problem can't come from the state," Costello said. "Let's face it, saying you can turn this around without an override is irresponsible.

"Secret agency man"

I missed this earlier in the week: A must-read from Banker and Tradesman (yes, really).

Sunshine is still in short supply at the Turnpike Authority, apparently.

Another Alan Moore interview

It seems there's one every 18 months or so. Maybe it's the long hair, his worship of a sock puppet snake, or the multiple rings on each longer finger.

Anyway, novelist Susanna Clarke interviews Moore, who's written V for Vendetta, From Hell, and Watchmen and pretty much every other influential comic in the last twenty years.

Oh, and he also sings. That's him in "The March of the Sinister Ducks." (Lyrics here.)

Pittsfield's voting on casinos on Nov. 6

From the Berkshire Eagle: "The non-binding referendum asks voters if they approve of legalized casino gambling in Massachusetts; the question will appear on the Nov. 6 ballot for the general election. It is the only ballot question on the warrant, which the City Council approved last night. Since the measure is non-binding, the city is not bound by its results."

AP's got the details

Or most of them, at least, on the casino bill.

The bill would require bidders to own land and put up a minimum investment of $1 billion, the second source said, ensuring the proposals would be resort-style casinos. License auctions would be staggered, likely over a period of nine months...

Daniel O’Connell, state secretary of housing and economic development, told Taunton area business leaders on Wednesday the governor’s plan also would include a protection and mitigation fund for neighbors.

"It’s very important for a host community to weigh the pluses and minuses and decide if they want this," he said, according to SouthCoastToday.com...

Region 1 on Patrick’s map includes Suffolk, Essex and Middlesex counties. Marlborough is on the western edge of Middlesex County. Suffolk Downs racetrack in Boston and Wonderland Greyhound Park in Revere are in Suffolk County. Operators of both tracks have signaled they’ll bid for a casino license....

Giant armored polar bears

Oh yes.

Casanova #8

For free on the internets. Forget downloading it. It's right under the MySpace entry. And the writer's note:

Comics are made for moms to take them away from us. Maybe it's the mobbed-up history comics have, maybe it's residual legacy from Kefauver and Wertham, or maybe it's that comics are small enough and invisible enough to fly under the radar of the Common Culture and have managed, in a lot of ways, to remain unhygienic, a little savage, and a bit too crass to sit at the table with the other civilized mediums.

It goes without saying, then, the following link is "not safe for work." But it is one of the best damn comics out there.

tales of two aides

One top one, whose six-month anniversary is coming up. And a former top aide, who's under a State Ethics Commission investigation.

Meanwhile, NY looks to get its own biotech legislation jumpstarted.

A look at what happens...

...after state officials leave town following an announcement involving a big check:

But before an actual design of the estimated $50-million-to-$55-million interchange and surrounding development is finalized, officials from Andover, Tewksbury and Wilmington will wait for early environmental and engineering work to get under way in the area, which is located in the southern-most portion of town between the Dascomb Road and Route 125 exits on I-93.

“There’s going to be a reality check,” said Bob Halpin, president of the Merrimack Valley Economic Development Council. “This will be a process now where real engineering is done and cost constraints and physical restraints will kind of lead people to a final design.”

Keeping pollsters busy

See, gambling is providing economic development. Albeit the very, very targeted kind.

UPDATE: A Rhode Island state senator, citing Massachusetts' moves, proposes round-the-clock gambling.

Quincy people just aren't having a good week

A Sox fan is assaulted in New York.

In search of 'In Search of Steve Ditko'

The downside of YouTube: Things come down almost as quickly as they go up. Blink and you'll miss it.

Such is the way with the BBC documentary, "In Search of Steve Ditko."

Bah. Looks like I'll have to wait until it comes to BBC America:

Stan Lee is famous as the author of the Spider-Man stories, but the man who designed the characters, illustrated the comics and came up with many of the storylines, co-creator Steve Ditko, is virtually unheard of. In this documentary, Jonathan Ross, a lifelong fan of Ditko's work, hopes to tell his story.

Ditko is a recluse and has never revealed why he left Marvel Comics. He has never been interviewed and won't allow his photograph to be taken. As well as creating the commercially successful Spider-Man and equally influential Dr Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts, the artist was responsible for post-Marvel creations such as The Creeper, The Hawk and the Dove, and Mr A.

UMass jumps into casino fray?

That'd be UMass Amherst. Maybe. (The Dartmouth campus is already involved, through one professor unabashedly touting the economic benefits of casinos.)

According to Amherst's student paper, the university's Hospitality and Tourism Management department is looking into launching a "casino management program," setting up the university as the only one on the east cost to offer that kind of program.

The creation of the program coincides with Governor Deval Patrick's move to authorize three resort casinos in the state of Massachusetts. Patrick's proposal has caused a lot of debate, with opposition pointing out problems like the costs of gambling addiction and possible harm to the state's economy. But while different factions wage war over this issue, UMass's Isenberg School of Management is quietly preparing to make an entrance in the furor - by training students as industry executives and managers.

The problem? It appears it already exists, as a bunch of online courses.

So I'm not sure what to make of the story. Are they considering having physical face-to-face classes? Several Lexis-Nexis searches come up dry.

If it is an entirely new program, then it has to go through the university's Board of Trustees, which has some of the state's top movers and shakers on it. Could make for an interesting debate.

Separately, the state's district attorneys want some answers from the governor before they come out for or against his plan:

Along with the tax revenue, resort casinos like the three that Patrick wants to license in Massachusetts will bring increases in property crimes, child neglect, and possibly prostitution and organized crime, said Jonathan Blodgett, Essex district attorney and president of the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association.

"We have great concerns about the public safety implications," Blodgett told The Associated Press on Monday. "We're looking for the governor to meet us so we can express our concerns.

Supreme Court Sunday

In the NYTimes today. First a profile of Justice John Paul Stevens.

And next, a review of Jeffrey Toobin's book on the "Secret World of the Supreme Court."

Hats off to the artist who did up the illustrations for the review in the style of the Ocean's Eleven posters. If only they were for sale.

I want one

And these!



This is how you fight a fire:



These are from the National Library of France's collection of prints from 1910 showing life in the year 2000.

[via paleo-future]

Impressed

This is way old, internet time-wise, but still: They Might Be Giants have a new video out.

My favorite will always remain "Istanbul." Yeah, that links to a Tiny Toons version, but it's the one I prefer.

A possible answer

Back in June, Gov. Patrick held a big rally in the hall right outside the House speaker's office, exhorting the Legislature to pass all of his so-called Municipal Partnership Act. Lawmakers and local officials crowded the stage behind him, and about 250 activists filled the hall in front of him.

But afterwards, as Patrick made his way through the crowd, one supporter grabbed a Patrick aide behind the governor. "How come he didn't mention Sal DiMasi in his speech?" he demanded. The aide just kept following the governor.

"I just don't understand why the governor doesn't just take him on directly," the supporter told me. "[DiMasi's] making him look kind of silly by stonewalling this."

The supporter might find an answer in this.

The second item in Governing magazine's Observer column had a bit on Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich:

It's hard to think of a contemporary state official who has misplayed a winning hand as badly as Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Sweptinto office in 2002, Blagojevich brought with him Democratic majorities in both chambers of the legislature for the first time inthree decades. The result has been heated acrimony and severe governmental dysfunction.

Blagojevich ran by railing against a "culture of corruption" and chose not to let up after taking office. During his first year, he characterized legislators as "drunken sailors" unable to curb their free-spending habits. He seemed surprised that they took offense but kept up the heat. For more than four years, he has acted in the belief that he can generate momentum toward change through public relations campaigns, rather than by cultivating legislative leaders, or evenfully briefing them about his plans...

Despite the fact that Democrats are in full control of the machinery of government, Springfield has devolved into an unproductive war of words worse than anyone can remember even in a famously fractious capital. The question now is whether Blagojevich and the legislature can learn to get along well enough to make something--anything--out of his remaining time in office.

This may not bode well...

...for the Municipal Partnership Act if this keeps happening across the state:

Swampscott’s town employee unions walked out of what was supposed to be a bargaining session to discuss health insurance last week.

Adam Forman, chairman of the Board of Selectmen, says he is disappointed with the actions of the union in dealing with a plan, unanimously endorsed by selectmen, to have town employees join the state employee group insurance plan, administered by the commonwealth’s Group Insurance Commission.

Such action would save the town between $500,000 and $800,000 in the coming fiscal year, Forman and many other town officials said in a joint statement issued Monday, Sept. 17. It would also result in significant savings for a great majority of town employees, they said.

However, 70 percent of town employees and retirees must approve the plan by Oct. 1 this year or lose eligibility for it until July 1, 2009.

God couldn't be reached for comment?

Or, "A request for comment through a prayer was not immediately returned."

This is almost like an Onion article.

Tanking

Awesome photo essay at Foreign Policy magazine. Brendan Corr took pictures of the place tankers go when they're being dissembled.

[via warren ellis]

Strange bedfellows

One of the more interesting things in the move toward expanded gambling, if that is indeed the direction the state will be headed towards, is the folks who will join together mount the fight to stop it.

That includes conservative religious groups and liberal interest groups, who just a few months ago were warring over gay marriage. Such as the League of Women Voters and the Massachusetts Family Institute.

Check out both their websites. On their front pages, both groups outline their opposition to gambling.

Also: The Pilot, which bills itself as the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston, writes up an editorial declaring "no" to a gambling "invasion."

Earlier, from an AP story this week:

Beside a handful of lawmakers, opposition to casino gambling has been limited.

The Roman Catholic church, historically outspoken on matters related to family values, has taken a reserved approach.

Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley has declined several interview requests on the subject. On his blog, however, he wrote that casino gambling "is fraught with many dangers for a community," including gambling addiction. He said the state should raise taxes rather than rely on casinos "which will result in many ruined lives, ruined businesses and ruined neighborhoods."

O'Malley didn't mention bingo, but did note that the church's position on gambling is "nuanced."

Something I just realized

But was at the back of my mind in the last day or so. Gov. Patrick did make the "failure of human understanding" remarks back at the commencement address for Mt. Wachusett Community College, as Dan Kennedy notes. (As does David Bernstein.)

Those remarks were actually made even earlier, at a May 3 bar association dinner that I popped in on and wrote up for the News Service:

Condemning the "politics of fear," Gov. Deval Patrick on Thursday night took aim at Bush administration policies and opponents of gay marriage, tighter gun control laws, and his plan to eliminate the tax exemption telecommunication companies receive in state. In a speech before 1,700 lawyers at the Boston Marriott in Copley Place, Patrick compared the lawyers who volunteered to take on the cases of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay as following in the tradition of John Adams, defending British soldiers implicated in the Boston Massacre. "It took real courage to take on those cases, because fear, fear as a device to manipulate and ultimately to govern is at large again in our times," Patrick, who was applauded several times, said. The September 11 attacks disrupted the nation's state of well being, but also represented "a catastrophic failure of human understanding," he said. "In its wake, I believe we have been governed by fear. Fear drove us to round up people of Arab descent, many of them American citizens and to hold hundreds without cause or charge. Fear led us to turn our attention from a known enemy in Afghanistan and invade Iraq instead. Fear justified what I believe to be the greatest assault on personal freedoms - the Patriot Act - and the greatest aggregation of presidential power in recent time." The use of fear isn't limited to national security, he added, drawing a connection to the debate over gay marriage. Four years after the Supreme Judicial Court signed off on gay marriage, "the institution of marriage has survived. But the fear-mongering persists, you see," he said...

Enough to make an Anglophile's heart beat like a big brass band

A fortieth anniversary DVD boxset for "The Prisoner."

Due for release on October 1, according to this site.

Another WSJ reporter jumps ship

First Robert Block left to cover NASA for the Orlando Sentinel.

Now Dan Golden, a Pulitzer Prize winner and former Boston Globe reporter. He's leaving to join Portfolio, the Conde Nast business mag headed up by former WSJ editor Joanne Lipman.

It goes without saying that this is a huge loss for the WSJ.

Via a friend

From Overheard in the Office:

Managing editor: Our system's down until 2:50.
Reporter: To the bars, then!
Other reporters: Yay!
Editor-in-chief: Why the hell not?

In the field's defense, it's possible to file a story from a bar nowadays. (Though I prefer a Panera.)

In the gambling debate

Won't someone please think of the bingo players?

Is it just me

Or does the title of Indiana Jones 4 sound like a piece of fan fiction?

(I almost wrote "a really bad piece of fan fiction," but then realized I'd be repeating myself.)

Then again, it was George Lucas who named Star Wars I and II "the Phantom Menace" and "Attack of the Clones," respectively.

Yes, yes, I know the titles are supposed to evoke the serial feel. But still. "Raiders," "Temple of Doom," "Last Crusade." Those were all actually cool titles, even if the "Temple" movie sucked.

Full disclosure: I've been feeling "eh" about an Indiana Jones 4 since it was first anounced. Two out of three wasn't bad.

Buffy never did it for me.

I dunno why. Good show, but it just never caught on with me. (Firefly, on the other hand...if only Fox didn't kick it to the curb like another awesome sci-fi western, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.)

Anyway. I still pick up creator Joss Whedon's comics, and that includes the newest one exclusively online: Sugarshock, as part of Dark Horse Comics Presents on MySpace. (First part more easily readable here, second part here.)

With the same artist who does the Casanova comic. Which everybody must own. Must.

Putting criminals out to sea

That's almost as wacky as Kentucky supporting the purchase of a submarine to hunt casino riverboats.

But one citizen activist, Vincent Zarrilli, liked the idea, and it made it as far as the Boston City Council:

After reading about a shortage of prison space in the late ’70s, Zarrilli proposed converting an aircraft carrier into a prison, and docking it near Deer Island in Boston Harbor. It gained some support from the Boston City Council, but never went further.

Zarrilli has been in the news lately 'cause he got the Turnpike Authority to conduct an analysis on whether lowering the speed limit in the Central Artery Tunnel is needed. He's also Turnpike Board member Mary Connaughton's father.

A few quick things

Before I go back to trying to wake up a friend for a Labor Day breakfast:

--Yes, it would've been a lot more fun to appoint (or re-appoint) Christy Mihos to the Turnpike Board. Not that the meetings haven't been entertaining without him. But come on. Who else, during the heat of the gubernatorial campaign, would call in to Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey on a radio show and whose cheery hello would be greeted by silence.

But anyway. There's a new guy on the Turnpike, who is in his own words "by no means one of the state's leading authorities on transportation issues, nor am I the brightest bulb in the pack." But he "hates traffic." He also gives "great deference to whatever the staff comes up with." (Is that really a good idea?)

--How green are Massachusetts politicians? Some respond to a MetroWest Daily News questionnaire. Some don't: "While Beacon Hill leaders have a host of policy and legislative solutions to make the Bay State more environmentally friendly, most refuse to reveal what they are doing in their own homes."

--Widespread belief on Beacon Hill comes down on the side of the governor deciding to go through with casino gambling, according to the New Bedford Standard-Times. Dan Kennedy urges caution, recounting the last few weeks' events. As does the Salem News. Connecticut's casinos certainly aren't waiting for Patrick to make a decision.

--Low turnout predicted at tomorrow's Fifth CD primaries.

--Mr. Tux in Braintree closes; 110 employees to lose jobs, according to the Patriot Ledger.

--And finally, where organized labor is at in Massachusetts, one of the first states to make the day a holiday, on this Labor Day.

Jackson Publick checks in

The creator of the Ventures Bros. toon updated his LiveJournal this week with backgrounds from the show.

Season 3 can't come soon enough, lemme tell you.

Publick also points us to this delightfully odd website. I'm a fan of "Nobody Wants to Play Sega with Harrison Ford," "Signifier and Signified," and "Two Warriors Come Out of the Sky."

I've been due to change my wallpaper on my laptop. I think I found a new one in the Ford picture.

More Big Dig mistakes?

Seriously, the Big Dig, and by extension the Turnpike Authority, is just the gift that keeps on giving in the form of news stories. From Bloomberg:

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority faces the possibility of higher borrowing costs because of derivative agreements it made with UBS AG and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. involving $800 million of debt for Boston's `Big Dig' highway project, credit-rating analysts and officials said.

UBS may exercise an option it bought from the authority to start an interest-rate swap on the bonds on Sept. 4. Should Lehman exercise a similar option it purchased, the authority may end up paying variable interest rates on more than a third of its debt, a prospect credit raters said is risky given the agency's pinched finances from cost overruns on the $14.8 billion Big Dig.

No go on Hawaii Five-O for Tarantino

This is hilarious: Quentin Tarantino declined to direct a movie remake of the Hawaii Five-O tv series: "I tried to watch the old TV show, but it sucks. I don't even like Hawaii."

It's tough to deny, though, that it's got one of the best theme songs ever. (Along with the Rockford Files.)

[via film ick]

My own horn

I've got a front-page story in this week's Dorchester Reporter on court interpreters.

Starting earlier this month, I've been covering court proceedings, and to a certain extent, law enforcement, over at Dorchester District Court several days a week for the Reporter.

(I still freelance at the State House the rest of the week, with plans to get some classes in between when school starts up next week.)

Just a tip: reading the PDF is much easier.

Botsford confirmed

But, as AP notes, "it didn't come easy."

The Lawrence Eagle-Tribune tracked down the cop who was shot in 1991. The guy who shot him got 10 years, prompting some, including at least one Governor's Council member to call her a "soft on crime."

At her four-hour hearing Wednesday, she and others in the legal community said she was mainstream in her sentencing and defended her against charges that she was soft on criminals.

The Boston Globe also weighed in this morning in support.

Two other things:

--To answer the Cambridge Politics blog's question: It was the Blacksmith House.

--And another random bit I stumbled upon while Googling Botsford the night her appointment was announced via the Globe and an AP Newsbreak: An October 2006 comment on the Health Care For All Blog.

The blog had posted about an event honoring Botsford's husband, Steve Rosenfeld, and had high praise.

But a commenter, signed in as "Margot Botsford" had this clearly tongue-in-cheek, witty post below:

These are nice comments, but who do you think gets up at 6 am to walk the dogs? Not Himself. There he is, snoozing away. And I wish he’d remember to put food out of reach of those dogs. A whole plate of smoked salmon, gone, because of his carelessness. Believe me, he’s not perfect.

There's a reason why

I don't do subscriptions. It's hard to justify picking up an expensive magazine when there's really only one article you want to read. Especially when you can read that article online.

So what I tend to do is only pick some up occasionally, like the New Yorker. But sometimes, something's just too enticing.

Case in point: After work today, I dropped by Borders (and by luck avoided the mess that Park Street became with a disabled train during rush hour) and picked up "MHQ, The Quarterly Journal of Military History."

No idea what MHQ stands for. Military History Quarterly perhaps? Which would make the subtitle redudant, you'd think.

Anyway. I couldn't resist: The cover story's about Achilles. "More Than a Myth, a Flesh-and-Blood Warrior Without Equal."

Also teased on the cover: "How I Unmasked the Greatest Spy of World War II." The spy article also has pictures of devices that look like they're out of "From Russia With Love."

Now it all comes down to finding the time to read them.

I want one of each

The Globe's Ideas section has a super-neat article on steampunk projects, including a modified flat-screen monitor and keyboard, made to look like it came straight out of the Victorian age. (Made by the same guy who converted a school bus into an RV.)

I want that keyboard. Absolutely gorgeous.

Separately, Sam Allis has a column on the Brattle Book Shop, which I'd visit more often if I wasn't so terrified of leaving with several armloads of used books and an empty wallet (or an even higher credit card bill).

Tribe to hold emergency meeting

Some folks are looking to make Glenn Marshall's step down from the chairmanship permanent. (The Day covers other falsehoods.)

Another meeting scheduled for tomorrow: town officials near Middleborough are meeting with Housing and Economic Development Secretary Daniel O'Connell someplace in Boston.

Meanwhile, casino execs are looking beyond the region to open other casinos.

MetroWest Daily News has an editorial on gambling and the addictions that come with it.

Fifth

WBZ ran the debate this morning between the five candidates in the Democratic primary for the Massachusetts Fifth.

Another debate is slated for tomorrow, hosted by the guy who used to hold the seat, Marty Meehan.

But who's actually paying attention? Not too many folks, according to the Lowell Sun, which did a super-informal survey: "The whole idea of the summer is to get away from bad news like what's going on in Iraq and the lack of health care. We prize our summers in America," said Jeffrey Gerson, a professor of political science at UMass Lowell. "For your average citizen, it's just not resonating or getting on their radar screen."

Bad news for Rep. Eldridge: "Just 36.7 percent identified Jamie Eldridge as the candidate pushing hardest for single-payer health care."

Maybe this item in the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune will help. (Though probably not.)

The Lowell Sun's Sunday political column also has a few Fifth race items, along with more folks possibly jumping into the race to succeed Robert Havern in the state Senate.

Needed for health reform plan: more $$$$

A California Paper, the San Diego Union-Tribune, through the Copley News Service takes a look at Massachusetts' health care reform law.

State officials and health care experts say the Massachusetts law has a good chance of achieving that goal by using both carrots and sticks. It is less clear whether its remedy would work in a state like California where money is scarce and the uninsured make up a larger share of the population.

In addition, Massachusetts might be strapped in a few years when it has to confront perhaps the most intractable health care problem of all: the relentlessly upward spiral of medical costs that every year forces more and more Americans to fend for themselves.

“Clearly, what's going to have to happen in the long run is more money will have to be injected in the program,” said Jonathan Gruber, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who helped to write the state's plan. “We don't have to in the next year or two, but if you look five or 10 years down the road, if this program is going to continue to exist, it's going to take more money to keep it going.”

Related story from the same paper here.

Another good story: An article on the Health Care Quality and Cost Council in the latest Commonwealth magazine. (For some reason, the website only has the spring issue up, not the summer. You've got to register anyway, so you're better off picking it up at Borders or someplace, if you haven't already.)

RI: looks to up the ante if MA goes forward with casinos

From the Providence Journal:

Anything other than a “No gambling” from Patrick will cut into revenues at Twin River and Newport Grand, observers say, though they differ on just how much, or how soon, the effects will be felt at the two video-slot parlors.

“We were always in a race with Massachusetts,” said Rep. Timothy A. Williamson, whose district covers West Warwick. “We always knew that if Massachusetts got ahead of us, we’d be in trouble.

...But [Steven] Costantino, the House Finance chairman, said he wants to make sure Twin River and Newport Grand are “as competitive as possible” heading into the possible storm. That could mean such steps as allowing 24-hour gambling, a revenue-raising idea the General Assembly rejected this summer, and the introduction of virtual blackjack.

The decision will also have ripples in New Hampshire.

It's two months into the new fiscal year

Do you know where your budget is?

That's the question folks in Lawrence might be asking. 'Cause their city council is having a little bit of trouble passing the proposed $238.8 million budget for this fiscal year:

Lawrence's budget impasse worsened Thursday night as the council adjourned a nonproductive session marred by audience disruptions and councilors shouting at each other. Some spectators shouted obscenities and insults at the council."The council has to really put their anger and differences aside and get back to the table, roll up their sleeves, and continue to look and vote on other options," [Mayor Michael] Sullivan said yesterday.

Some folks are looking for a state intervention. Others are just hoping they can have a temporary budget in time for the start of school.

The mayor and Blanchette have been in contact with the state Department of Revenue about the budget impasse. State officials are reluctant to get involved at this point because of the political overtones and decisions that appear to be politically motivated, according to the council president.

"There is still time, although the clock is ticking, for officials to get this done and DOR's expectation is this will get done," DOR spokesman Robert Bliss said.

EDIT:Whoops. Forgot to include the link. The story's from the Eagle-Tribune.

A Friday bombshell reverberates

Lots of people, I'm sure, on whatever local website they clicked Friday morning went "Whoa."

A week after The Day ran its positive piece on Glenn Marshall, the head of the tribe pushing for casinos in Massachusetts, The Cape Cod Times broke the story (plucked from their own archives) that Marshall had been convicted of rape over twenty years ago. And he's lied about his military record. He'll be (by the sound of it, only temporarily) stepping down as head, letting the vice chairman take over.

The Times has a follow-up today:

"The main thing is the credibility of Glenn Marshall," said Stephen Bingham, one of four tribe members who were shunned earlier this year after suing the tribe in Barnstable Superior Court as part of an effort to examine its finances. "Why did this information just come out?"

The deception is part of a deeper problem in the tribe and raises questions about Marshall's other activities as the tribe's point man in dealings with investors and the towns of Mashpee and Middleboro, Bingham said, adding that the shunned members had already passed concerns about the tribe's finances along to federal and state authorities.

A separate piece has a New Bedford lawmaker saying the news will have little impact (The story also notes Gov. Patrick will make his decision after Labor Day, not by it, as previously indicated).

"The decision that we make in the Legislature and in the executive branch is going to be for gaming in the entire state as it relates to all possible opportunities, whether it be Indian tribes or private entities," said Rep. Canessa, who supports a casino and represents part of Middleboro. "The issue of gaming doesn't focus on one particular tribe."

Mr. Marshall has been a charismatic presence at the Statehouse for the past several years, always dressed casually, his white hair tied back in a pony tail. For most legislators, he is the face of the Mashpee Wampanoag.

The Day also has a follow-up piece.

Fried Pepsi

Bizarre. Yet I'm curious.

A former Patriot Ledger reporter enlightens her ex-colleagues on this Midwest treat:

‘‘It's like fried dough,’’ she tells us, ‘‘but whenever the recipe calls for water, they use Pepsi syrup, so it’s thicker and heavier than normal fried dough and tastes like Pepsi. Then they drizzle more Pepsi syrup on top, then coat it with your choice of powdered sugar or cinnamon. It is served in little balls, eight for $3.’’

(You can tell it's a completely dead August, also, when this is the top item of the Ledger's "Heard in the Halls" column. The next item is on something Tim Russert said. Last Thursday.)