It's below-the-fold:
Heat and humidity offer a weekend-long, double-barreled assault
It's going to be the hottest weekend of 2019, and that figures with it being the middle of July and all.
Be a good time to go sail the boat:
A captain befriends a sea gull and keeps the crackers coming
For those stuck on land:
"In wake of horrific crash, Baker files legislation to strengthen commercial driver licensing" by Vernal Coleman and Laura Crimaldi Globe Staff, July 19, 2019
Amid the fallout from a deadly crash last month and an ensuing scandal about lax oversight, Governor Charlie Baker on Friday said he is proposing legislation he says will strengthen state laws regulating commercial drivers.
In a letter to the state Legislature, Baker acknowledged that the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles had “failed to act as it was required,” but said his administration’s ongoing internal investigation “revealed a broader need” to raise the standards for commercial driver’s licenses above the minimum federal guidelines.
Which they weren't following anyway.
In a separate development, state transportation officials released an update about its ongoing review of Registry operations and outlined plans to tighten its procedures for tracking traffic violations by out-of-state drivers and Massachusetts license holders who commit driving offenses in other jurisdictions.
Did you get your suspension notice yet?
Don Lane, regional director for the New England Tractor Trailer School, said the bill is a step in the right direction, but added that federal law already requires drivers to inform employers about serious traffic violations.
“For this to work, it really depends on what the penalties are,” he said. “Some smaller companies rely on drivers being forthcoming with them, and that doesn’t always happen.”
Baker’s administration has faced weeks of growing backlash amid revelations of widescale RMV failings, spurred in part by a 23-year-old Massachusetts man who allegedly drove into a group of motorcyclists in New Hampshire, killing seven.
He is Public Enemy #1.
RMV registrar Erin Deveney resigned in the aftermath, and authorities have since discovered thousands of unprocessed violation notifications about Massachusetts drivers sitting, apparently unread, in 53 mail bins inside a Quincy office building.
Officials have acknowledged that 1,607 Massachusetts drivers should have previously had their licenses suspended. An internal investigation is ongoing, and state lawmakers are expected to press agency officials at an oversight hearing on Monday.
Despite periodic public statements, state authorities have yet to provide answers to key questions about the scandal. Baker’s office released a statement Friday with some additional details, but continued to decline to comment further.
Baker has said he has “full confidence” that transportation secretary Stephanie Pollack will fix the agency’s issues.
She has avoided the fallout.
In an update issued Friday, the state Department of Transportation, which oversees the RMV, said that ATLAS, the agency’s computer system, has the capability to send notifications about problem drivers to other states, but it remains unclear whether that feature has been in place since the computer system came online in March 2018. A department spokesman declined to elaborate.
The Registry also announced that it has received more than 2,275 new out-of-state notifications since disclosing the discovery of the backlog, resulting in 221 suspensions of Massachusetts drivers.
They are moving in reverse!
In order to tackle the backlog and improve processes, the RMV plans to hire six workers and create a unit to solely handle out-of-state notifications.
Yeah, another layer of too-0late bureaucracy will fix the problem.
State Representative William Straus, chairman of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Transportation, said Friday’s update from the Registry raises more urgent questions about ATLAS and how it was designed.
The joint committee has invited representatives from FAST Enterprises, LLC, the Colorado company hired by the Registry to build ATLAS, to Monday’s oversight hearing.
In a letter released Friday, James G. Harrison of FAST Enterprises declined the invitation, writing that the company has a policy against offering public testimony about its work for government clients.
“FAST does not believe it has any information to offer related [to] the subject of the hearing or more broadly regarding RMV business practices that the RMV does not possess,” Harrison wrote.
Straus, cochairman of the committee, said lawmakers want to hear directly from the company, but don’t have subpoena power to force FAST Enterprises to participate. Pollack, he said, doesn’t object to a company representative answering questions.
The ATLAS computer system that FAST Enterprises developed for the Registry went online in March 2018, the same month that agency workers stopped opening mail from other states about driving infractions committed by Massachusetts drivers.
Straus said the committee wants to ask FAST Enterprises whether there’s a connection between those two developments and examine how the introduction of ATLAS affected the Registry’s procedures.
Pollack, acting Registrar Jamey Tesler, and a representative from Grant Thornton LLP, the firm hired by the state to review the Registry’s actions, plan to testify at the hearing.
Keith Constantino, director of the Registry’s driver control unit, and Thomas Bowes , who leads the Merit Rating Board, declined requests to appear at the hearing, Straus said.
The department headed by Bowes has been blamed for ignoring the paper alerts about out-of-state violations.....
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That scapegoat made the front page the day before:
"As RMV scandal unfurled, leader of embattled unit vacationed in Europe" by Matt Stout Globe Staff, July 18, 2019
In late June, state officials began an extraordinary task: digging through dozens of bins stuffed with paper alerts about law-breaking drivers, each of which had been ignored for months by a little-known Registry of Motor Vehicles unit known as the Merit Rating Board.
A team sorted thousands of documents in days — “working nearly literally around the clock” and through the weekend, Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said at the time.
Not among the team members: Thomas Bowes, the leader of that obscure subdivision, who was 3,200 miles away in Europe watching a baseball game.
Weeks into a still-growing scandal, the Registry remains mired in questions about how it failed to track errant motorists for months, if not years — putting unprecedented scrutiny on the office headed by Bowes, a former insurance executive, longtime Braintree town councilor, and now a mayoral hopeful.
State officials have since suspended the licenses of more than 1,600 drivers who, they admit, should have lost them earlier but didn’t, because the notices from other states where the motorists had broken driving laws were left to languish in the Registry’s Quincy headquarters. The agency had also failed for years to notify other states when their drivers run into trouble in Massachusetts, officials disclosed last week.
Reached by phone, Bowes declined to answer questions and didn’t respond to an e-mail or follow-up text message. He also would not say how involved he is with the ongoing probe.
“I have no comment until all the investigations are completed,” he said, but as the crisis first unfolded, Bowes was in England, starting his vacation June 26 — the same day officials discovered the 53 bins filled with unprocessed notices dating back to March 2018.
Bowes documented the trip on his Braintree mayoral campaign’s Facebook page, describing it as a wedding anniversary celebration. That Saturday, he posted that he visited the famed Windsor Castle, witnessing the changing of the British Army guard. Hours later, he was in London for the first-ever Major League Baseball game on European soil, between the Red Sox and Yankees.
It was the same game Governor Charlie Baker attended during an official trip overseas, though Baker’s aides say he didn’t see Bowes in London, nor does he recall ever meeting him.
Related:
"The Red Sox had precious little to celebrate on the field in London over the weekend, but behind the scenes, team brass raised a toast to the arrival of baseball across the pond — and raised awareness about an important cause. Home Base — a Red Sox Foundation and Massachusetts General Hospital program — and the UK’s Walking With the Wounded hosted the Mission: Gratitude Gala at Kensington Palace, raising $1.3 million for veterans dealing with mental health issues, and their families. Aptly, the fund-raiser took place on June 27, which is National PTSD Awareness Day. The lavish bash drew a host of notables from Boston as well as some boldface Brits, including perennially youthful rocker Sting, who serenaded partygoers. On the guest list: Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, his wife, Lauren, and daughter Caroline; Massachusetts General Hospital president Dr. Peter Slavin and his wife, Lori; VantEdge co-founder Paul Edgerley and his wife, Sandy; Bank of America vice chairman Anne Finucane; designer and diehard Sox fan Joseph Abboud; Member of Parliament Edward Miliband; Home Base executive director and retired Brigadier General Jack Hammond and his wife, Colleen; NESN host Tom Caron; and Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred. Many members of the Red Sox leadership made the fancy fund-raiser, including principal owner John Henry and his wife, Boston Globe managing director Linda Pizzuti Henry; team chairman Tom Werner; manager Alex Cora; president and CEO Sam Kennedy; president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski; Red Sox Foundation executive director Rebekah Salwasser; and foundation honorary chairman Tim Wakefield."
What, no trip to Idaho this year?
In one social media post, Bowes lamented missing the Braintree Day parade. In another, during the early morning hours of July 2, he posted a photo of himself and relatives in a restaurant, celebrating their time “across the pond.”
Hours earlier, Baker and Pollack had stood in the State House to publicly disclose the lapses, calling them “completely unacceptable.”
Registry officials say Bowes remains in his $114,455-a-year post. Until recently he reported directly to Registrar Erin Deveney, who resigned amid revelations the Registry should have terminated the commercial license of a West Springfield trucker before he allegedly crashed into a group of motorcycle riders in New Hampshire, killing seven.
Complete with pension calculations, etc.
State officials did not answer questions about Bowes’s absence and what impact it had on the early stages of the review. They have yet to explain why his unit stopped processing the notifications in the spring of 2018, nor have they provided other details, including from which states the notices came or whether any suspended drivers broke other driving laws during the time they were supposed to be barred from the road.
What is he supposed to do, cancel his vacation?
Sarah Finlaw, a Baker spokeswoman, said in a statement that the governor acted with urgency, ordering an “immediate review” of how the state shares data, empowering Pollack to address the lapses, and receiving regular briefings, but the matter has already invited scrutiny on Beacon Hill — where lawmakers have scheduled an oversight hearing and requested that Bowes, among others, appear — and within the Department of Transportation itself.
Don't they have subpoena power over a public official?
“I truly find it incomprehensible as to how someone, anyone, considered it acceptable to place suspension documents into bins, then place them into storage without being processed,” Timothy King, a member of the MassDOT board, said in remarks at a Wednesday board meeting broadcast by WCVB.
How long have you been in Ma$$achu$etts?
First hired by MassDOT in June 2016, Bowes had worked at the since-shuttered Encompass Insurance office in Quincy, where RMV officials said he started in the mid-1980s and held several positions, including “claims service leader.”
They put an insurance man in charge.
State officials did not respond to a request for Bowes’s resume, though he has said in a campaign statement that he has 30 years of experience working in the insurance industry. A registered Democrat, he has served on the Braintree town council since 2008, including a year as president.
He is now running to replace outgoing mayor Joseph Sullivan, who said Wednesday that Bowes has shown a “good working knowledge” of municipal finance and has represented his district well.....
Then all is forgiven and let's get on with the campaign.
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The Globe must be popping wheelies at Baker's troubles.
Related:
MBTA releases dramatic video footage of June Red Line derailment
Suspect chased from Brookline is arrested in Boston’s Muddy River
Brookline police tweeted, “A well-being check turned foot chase on the MBTA Green line led to the arrest of a suspect wanted on multiple warrants out of numerous jurisdictions. Well done scuba Steve.” The suspect’s name and charges weren’t immediately available. A Brookline police spokesman couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. A State Police spokesman said the suspect eventually came out of the river and was taken into custody by Brookline authorities.
Also see:
Officer files motion against State Police
He's got a point, for I have never seen a black state cop.
Thankfully, the overtime fraud and corruption scandal has been dispatched down the Globe memory hole.
Baker ‘more optimistic’ about budget compromise
Everything is holding in place.
"R.I. has turbulent first year of legal sports betting" by Dan McGowan Globe Staff, July 18, 2019
PROVIDENCE — The state of Rhode Island is pulling in far less money than originally projected in its first year of legalized sports betting — and gamblers have won bets at a higher rate than in many other states, according to industry data.
They always over$ell it.
That distinction was driven home in February — when the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl — and Rhode Island entered some unwelcome, but exclusive territory in the world of sports betting.
It was the only state that allows sports wagering to post a revenue-losing month within the last year, according to research firm Eilers & Krejcik Gaming. It paid out $21.6 million on $20.7 million in total wagers during the month of February.
Chalk it up to betting on the home team.
The Super Bowl outcome was one of several factors that contributed to Twin River Casino in Lincoln and Tiverton Casino combining to book just $4.7 million in profit from sports bets between November 2018 and May 2019, but industry analysts say the state is well-positioned to bounce back during the 2019-20 fiscal year.
As long as the Patriots don’t repeat, that is.
“Just think about how different the story is if Rhode Island sportsbooks are on the other side of that,” said Chris Grove, a managing director of sports betting and emerging verticals for Eilers & Krejcik Gaming.
That's the rest of the country.
Had the Los Angeles Rams won the Super Bowl outright or lost by fewer than three points, Grove said Rhode Island might have most posted one of best hold rates — the term used for the percentage of money the sportsbooks keep after all bets are settled — in the country.
Instead, Rhode Island’s 4.18 percent hold rate was lowest among the eight states that allowed sports betting over the last year. By comparison, Delaware, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia all posted hold rates above 9 percent over the last year, but Grove said it’s more common to see states make between 4 and 6 percent after all tickets are cashed.
“The hold was definitely affected by the Pats’ playoff run,” said Paul Grimaldi, a spokesman for the Rhode Island Department of Revenue.
Seven other states — including New Hampshire — have legalized sports wagering this year.
Rhode Island lawmakers voted to allow sports betting in 2018, shortly after the US Supreme Court struck down a 1992 federal law that banned it in most states. The state hired Britain-based William Hill and IGT to run the sportsbooks out of its two casinos, but Twin River and Tiverton Casino didn’t begin taking bets until after Thanksgiving, which cut into the NFL and college football seasons — prime gambling months.
The state initially projected it would generate $23.5 million from sports gambling during the 2018-19 fiscal year, but the late start forced officials to reduce its expectations to $11.5 million. The final totals for the fiscal year have not yet been released, but officials do not expect to come near the state’s goal.
That's less than half!
Victor A. Matheson, a professor at Holy Cross who researches sports gaming, said the difficulties Rhode Island had during its first year of sports wagering aren’t likely to be repeated in the coming years. Although it’s true that even casinos can get the spread on a football game wrong, they typically beat the layman over time.
“Going after the people betting with their hearts rather than with their minds is going to be profitable in the long run,” Matheson said.
Indeed, Rhode Island is banking on bettors losing more often in the new fiscal year.
The state has projected it will book $30 million from its sportsbooks by June 30, 2019. The boost is largely expected to come from the state’s decision to allow people to place bets from their mobile devices as long as they are located in Rhode Island.
I gue$$ they ju$t don't learn.
In New Jersey, which legalized sports betting last summer, mobile gaming now makes up nearly 80 percent of all wagers, according to Eilers & Krejcik Gaming. New Jersey had $319 million in sports bets in May, surpassing Nevada’s monthly total for the first time.
Matheson said sports betting represents only a small slice of the profits most casinos generate, but mobile gaming is a big opportunity for states. He predicted it’s only a matter of time before Massachusetts starts taking sports wagers. Connecticut lawmakers did not approve a sports betting bill this year.
“If New England looks much more like the United Kingdom, imagine a world where you bet on the Patriots as easily as you can buy a lottery ticket,” Matheson said. “Then you’re likely to see a world where you see a lot of gambling.”
Yes, no worry about addiction or income inequality at all.
Although Grimaldi said the state expects to begin implementing mobile betting by the beginning of NFL season, there is one potential roadblock looming.
Dr. Daniel Harrop, a former Republican candidate for Providence mayor, has filed a lawsuit against the state claiming that the legalization of sports betting should have been placed on the ballot.
State leaders, including Governor Gina Raimondo, have argued that Rhode Island voters did approve sports betting as part of the legalization of table games in 2012 for Twin River and in 2016 for Tiverton Casino.
“Our government is so incompetent that it can’t even make money off a legal bookie operation,” said Brandon Bell, an attorney for Harrop. “And, as Dr. Harrop alleges in his lawsuit, our government doesn’t even know how to follow the Rhode Island constitution.”
Don't bother the government with the state constitution!
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So did you learn anything from the partnership that's been put on ice?
Related:
Mass. Gaming Commission to discuss lawsuit filed against Encore Boston Harbor casino
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission said they didn't shortchanging you.
I would bet on Kronos if I were you.
Looks like Shkreli lost his bet on the Red Sox.
"Roslindale school gets a big gift from an unlikely source: the United Arab Emirates" by James Vaznis Globe Staff, July 18, 2019
A rundown play area outside the Haley Pilot School in Roslindale will be transformed into a sleek soccer field in the coming months, thanks to a donation from an unusual source: a small oil-producing country in the Middle East with a checkered record on human rights.
The gift from the United Arab Emirates, valued at $275,000 and formally accepted by the School Committee Wednesday night, has drawn outrage from peace activists who criticize school officials for taking a donation from a country that doesn’t share their values.
Amnesty International has faulted the UAE for such human rights violations as suppressing free speech, discriminating against women, and banning homosexuality — practices that go against the school system’s own classroom teachings. The country also has been heavily involved in a brutal civil war in Yemen, which the United Nations has declared the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
And yet it seldom makes my pre$$, and here it is on a Saturday of all days!
“It’s absolutely inappropriate,” said Cole Harrison, executive director of Massachusetts Peace Action, an advocacy group. “We should in no way be helping the United Arab Emirates burnish their reputation. They are trying to buy credibility, acceptance, and prestige.”
Deciding to cut ties is a complicated choice.
The school system, he added, in ignoring its own values is sending a dangerous message to students: “Money is king.”
At least the kids are learning a life le$$on.
In a city where parents at lower-grade schools often solicit donations for new playgrounds and athletic fields, the new soccer field at the Haley isn’t the result of any sophisticated fund-raising campaign hatched by parents.
Instead, the gift came about through a connection between the UAE Embassy and Boston Children’s Hospital, which for 20 years has treated severely ill children from the wealthy country. Both the school department and Children’s Hospital refrained from addressing the UAE’s human rights records in statements issued Thursday in response to Globe questions. Instead, both organizations emphasized their mutual goals of providing students more opportunities for physical activity. Children’s Hospital added, “We treat sick children from all over the world, irrespective of the country they come from.”
Does that include Palestinians?
Time to take the field.
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I'll bet Hampshire could also use some money, and you know who likes soccer?
Related: Police identify man shot and killed in Roslindale
Also see:
Suspect in Boston Public library assault insists he didn’t start fight
Timy Jo Griffin, accused of killing 2-year-old Nazeir Phillips in Brockton, returned to California while the child remained in critical condition, authorities say
Dorchester man, 22, identified as Sunday night homicide victim
Boston students learn, play on Thompson Island
No parole for ex-gang member who committed Holyoke slaying at 16 with sawed-off shotgun
12 people taken to hospital after hazmat situation at rooming house in South End
The odor was caused by cleaning company employees who mixed two cleaning products, which firefighters believed to be bleach and Murphy Oil Soap, the department said.
Had the stench of death to it:
"Lawrence man pleads not guilty to rape, drug charges in connection with death of 13-year-old" by Deanna Pan, Travis Andersen and Gal Tziperman Lotan Globe Staff, July 19, 2019
SALEM — A 47-year-old Lawrence man on Friday pleaded not guilty in court to charges that he provided drugs to 13-year-old Chloe Ricard in May and sexually assaulted her before dropping her off unconscious at a local hospital, where she later died.
With Ricard’s grieving parents looking on, Carlos Rivera, 47, entered his plea in Essex Superior Court. Ricard’s visibly distressed mother, Deborah Goldsmith-Dolan, was comforted by her husband, Brian Dolan, who was Ricard’s stepfather.
Goldsmith-Dolan and Dolan have said they dropped Ricard off at a friend’s house the afternoon of May 19. She preferred to be around friends when she got sad or angry, Goldsmith-Dolan said.
When Ricard did not come home that night or the next morning, Goldsmith-Dolan said she got in touch with her daughter’s friend, who said the girl was safe in Haverhill, but later in the day, a Department of Children and Families employee told Goldsmith-Dolan there were some “red flags” that Ricard wanted to leave the state, Goldsmith-Dolan said.
It's deja vu time.
Goldsmith-Dolan was filing a missing person’s report when Ricard’s friend sent her a text message, she said, saying that the girl was in the hospital.....
The depravity in this awful case leaves me at a loss for words.
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The family is hoping for justice as prosecutors detail what allegedly happened to the 13-year-old girl who died at a Lawrence hospital after the suspect discarded white powder in sewer after dropping off the dying girl.
Also see: Tow truck driver fired after tying a dog on the back of his flatbed
That's just not right.
