Herald Schools Globe on Ed Chief Exit

March 12, 2013

From our Hark! The Herald! desk

This is one story our feisty local tabloid has owned.

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From Chris Cassidy’s Boston Herald report (the online version):

block1312_1New setback for Deval Patrick: Early ed boss quits

Embattled Sherri Killins resigns after Herald reports

The Patrick administration’s embattled early education chief abruptly stepped down from her $200,000-a-year post last night after a series of Herald reports that raised questions about her moonlighting in a post-doctoral program that trains school superintendents, as well as her residency in New Haven, Conn.

“The questions being raised started to distract from the work she was doing,” Matt Wilder, spokesman for the Executive Office of Education, said of departing Early Education and Care Commissioner Sherri Killins. “So it made sense to offer her resignation and move on.”

 

Here’s when the Boston Globe reported it (note the 4:20 AM):

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And here’s what our stately local broadsheet reported. Give credit to the Globe – they gave credit to the Herald. Twice:

A top state education official has stepped down from her position amid questions over her enrollment in a program that trains school superintendents.

Sherri Killins, commissioner of the state Department of Early Education and Care, resigned Monday, said Matthew Wilder, a spokesman for the state agency that oversees the department, in an e-mail early Tuesday.

Killins’s abrupt resignation was first reported by the Boston Herald. The newspaper previously reported that Secretary of Education Matthew Malone was investigating her enrollment in the superintendent training program in Ware, which has taken her away from her official duties in her nearly $200,000-per-year state job.

 

Another turnabout in newspaper business as usual: the Globe as lively index to the Herald.

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Herald’s Gelzinis: Cahill a Good Guy. Globe’s Vennochi: Good Law, Bad Case

March 9, 2013

Two different – but not necessarily contradictory – takes in the local dailies about former Massachusetts Treasurer Tim Cahill’s close call with the law over financial shenanigans in the Bay State’s 2010 gubernatorial race.

First up: Joan Vennochi’s column in Thursday’s Boston Globe:

With Cahill, a good law and a weak case

IT’S EASY when it’s cash stuffed between a state senator’s breasts or checks funneled through a law partner directly into the pockets of the speaker of the House.

It’s harder — as it should be — when a case for political corruption consists of a feel-good lottery ad campaign that cost taxpayers $1.5 million but never mentions the name of the state treasurer who ordered it up. Those are the underlying facts in the case that Attorney General Martha Coakley brought against former state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill.

While treasurer, Cahill spent public money to advance a personal political agenda — his failed campaign for governor. A new state law makes it a crime for politicians to do that — if prosecutors can show “fraudulent intent.” But in the case against Cahill, the evidence of fraudulent intent simply wasn’t strong enough.

 

That’s the legal angle. Peter Gelzinis had the human angle in his Friday Boston Herald column:

PQ5W8772.JPGTim Cahill: I’m still here

Tim Cahill tucked himself away at a back table a couple of mornings ago, inside his favorite breakfast haunt, McKay’s in Quincy. The word other customers kept tossing his way was, “Congratulations!”

Cahill thanked them all with the grateful smile of someone who’d just come out of a coma.

“I hesitate to think of these past two years as a near-death experience,” he said, referring to his disastrous gubernatorial bid, followed by Attorney General Martha Coakley’s corruption indictment, the threat of serious jail time, a trial that ended in a hung jury and, finally, a negotiated plea to something called “a perception of wrongdoing.”

 

The piece ends with this, which is bound to warm the hearts of Cahill supporters and make his detractors burning mad:

The experience, he said feels “as if I’ve been to my own wake. For two years, I couldn’t really talk to anyone and yet I’ve had all these friends come by to wish me well and tell me they were praying for me. Then, the weirdest, or perhaps, the nicest thing, is that I’m still here to be with them all.”

 

Instead of in the sneezer, where very few ever thought Cahill should wind up.

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Poll Vault at the Boston Herald

March 7, 2013

Our feisty local tabloid today released a new poll on the U.S. Senate race (which pretty much runs true to form), and gave it that special Herald something.

Start with Page One:

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Two elements of note: 1) the Cryptkeeper photo of Ed Markey; and 2) the rose-colored subhead.

Inside spread:

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From Joe Battenfeld’s lead piece:

U.S. Rep. Edward Markey is the clear frontrunner to win the special U.S. Senate election, but his support is so soft he’s failing to break the 50 percent mark even against a field of little-known GOP challengers, a new UMass Lowell/Boston Herald poll reveals.

 

Helpful graphic (see full poll here):

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Meanwhile, crosstown rival Boston Globe has a piggyback piece on the Herald poll with a decidedly more  measured tone.

Markey leads Lynch by wide margin in poll

Representative Edward J. Markey holds a wide lead over his Democratic rival for the Senate, fellow Representative Stephen F. Lynch, and would easily beat all three Republican candidates in a head-to-head matchup, according to a new poll.

Markey leads Lynch by 29.5 percentage points among potential Democratic primary voters, 50 percent to 20.5 percent, with 23 percent undecided about their preference in the April 30 primary, according to the UMass Lowell/Boston Herald poll released Wednesday night.

Markey, of Malden, would also beat the Republicans candidates by double-digit margins, although the poll found that the vast majority of voters do not know who those candidates are, suggesting they have room to grow if they can broaden their profiles.

 

Room to grow. That’s putting it mildly.

Not at all the style at the Herald.

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Taylor Gives Cape House the Swift

March 6, 2013

Taylor Swift has made a rapid exit from Cape Cod homeownership, which the local dailies are on like Taylor on . . . whoever.

From the Boston Globe’s Namesniks:

COVER WITH COVERLINESTaylor Swift on serial boyfriends, home buying in Vanity Fair

Singer Taylor Swift tries hard to dispel a few myths — or at least what she’d like you to believe are myths — in the new issue of Vanity Fair.

First, despite many high-profile romances with, among others, John Mayer, Joe Jonas, Taylor Lautner, and Jake Gyllenhaal, Swift insists she is neither boy crazy nor a serial dater.

 

Yak yak yak . . .

Cut to the real estate portion of the Vanity Fair interview:

“People say . . . that I apparently buy houses near every boy I like — that’s a thing that I apparently do. If I like you I will apparently buy up the real-estate market just to freak you out so you leave me,” she told the magazine. “If there’s a pregnancy rumor, people will find out it’s not true when you wind up not being pregnant, like nine months from now, and if there’s a house rumor, they’ll find out it’s not true when you are actively not ever spotted at that house.”

So did she or didn’t she buy the house? Our sources say she did, and Ethel Kennedy herself called Swift a “neighbor” when we spoke to her last fall. Vanity Fair, likewise, quoting “someone close to the situation,” claims Swift bought the house, but has since sold it.

“It was like a house-flip,” the source told the magazine. “A good short-term investment.”

 

How good? The Boston Herald’s Inside Track, as usual, provides the details:

mirror_no_textA Swift turnaround on Cape property!

From the Rich-Get-Richer File: Taylor Swift, who bought a house adjacent to the Kennedy 
Compound during her summer fling with high school junior Conor Kennedy, just sold it at a sweet $875,000 profit — 
after owning the Hyannisport manse all of three months!

According to the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds, Swift sold the seven-bedroom waterfront estate on Marchant Avenue for something in the neighborhood of $5.6 million. Nice neighborhood! In November, the pop superstar plunked down $4.8 million for the digs, which originally had been listed for $13 million. Such a savvy businesswoman!

 

Not so good at dating, though.

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Globe: Ortiz Okay; Herald: Papicock!

March 5, 2013

The jury is very much out on David Ortiz in the local dailies.

From Nick Cafardo’s piece in today’s Boston Globe:

2013-03-04T210923Z_01_FTM07_RTRMDNP_3_BASEBALLSteady progress has David Ortiz feeling upbeat

FORT MYERS, Fla. — David Ortiz feels more optimistic that he’ll be in the Opening Day lineup after running the bases Monday and feeling as if he can manage the expected soreness in his Achilles’.

“It feels good,” Ortiz said. “When I get going I’m fine. The problem is once I cool off, I start to get sore, but the doctor said it will go away. It’s just part of the treatment, part of [when you] start doing things. The injury, you got to start getting used to. That’s why we practice over and over and over and over. So you can get to that point . . . it’s a good day. I was moving pretty good. I don’t think I can run faster than that. Let’s just see how things go later on tonight.”

 

Not so fast there, Big Guy.

From Gerry Callahan’s column in today’s Boston Herald:

STON1530.JPGAging David Ortiz may be Sox’ Achilles’ heel

Much depends on Papi’s health

If he were playing Old Man Basketball at the Y, we’d take him across the street for a couple of beers and let him down easy. It’s not the end of the world, we’d tell him. You can still play golf. You can still walk the dog. You’re still reasonably young and healthy, and you’ve got your whole life ahead of you.

You just can’t do this anymore.

 

For a tiebreaker we turn to this random thought from the Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy:

The David Ortiz Achilles’ situation is especially alarming given that he sustained the injury rounding second base in front of a home run hit by Adrian Gonzalez. That’s like Tony Soprano straining his Achilles’ walking down the driveway to pick up the morning newspaper.

 

Ouch.

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OMG! Herald Columnist Can’t Write!

March 4, 2013

The hardreading staff is nothing if not realistic about the writing abilities at the Boston Herald. Some are terrific writers – Margery Eagan & Peter Gelzinis, take a bow; and some are dreadful – Howie Carr, come on down!

Now comes the feisty local tabloid’s new column OMG!, which definitely qualifies for the latter designation.

Representative sample:

OMG_logosDear OMG,

I have a friend who maybe weighs 110 pounds soaking wet — she looks great. But lately she has been making strange comments: mentioning she is on Weight Watchers, contributing to a recipe exchange with the disclaimer “I’ve been eating healthy lately” (the recipe she linked to had the calorie count posted prominently) and generally making comments about her food intake. I’m average weight, but it makes me really uncomfortable that someone so small is making these statements. Should I say something?

— Eating Dessert

Dear Dessert,

Yes. If it’s making you, an average person, uncomfortable, it’s probably affecting overweight people and others struggling with eating or body image issues as well. Try something jokey at first — if she says “I’m trying to eat healthy” when refusing a tray of doughnuts, you can retort, “Well I’m trying to eat more deep fried lard” and see whether that shuts her down. (After all, aren’t most of us trying to eat healthy at least some of the time?) If it still doesn’t slow her comments, pull her aside and say you’d rather not talk about calorie consumption or weight — not just for your mental sake, but for the sake of bored people everywhere.

 

Really? See whether that shuts her down? Still doesn’t slow her comments? 

Dear OMG: It’s clear idiomatic English you want. Not idiotic.

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Hark! The Herald! (Blue Cross Blue Wield Edition)

March 2, 2013

Say it Whitman: The Boston Herald celebrates itself and sings itself yet again today. And it goes all the way back to yesterday for celebratory material.

Actually, the feisty local tabloid brandishes two – count ’em, two – former front pages in its latest Blue Cross Blue Shield drive-by:

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More grist for the mill:

Blue Cross Blue Shield 
of Massachusetts’ newly resurrected and highly controversial payout program for its board of directors includes a $1,500 bonus for any member who shows up at a meeting — and a $500 check just for calling in by phone.

All told, the plan — which the insurer called “modest” — could cost more than $800,000 this year alone. Blue Cross Blue Shield had suspended director pay in March 2011, amid public outcry over an $11 million severance package to a CEO who resigned abruptly after the nonprofit posted a cat astrophic $149 million loss.

“It’s a little shocking that it took two years to come up with a plan to go back to the future,” said state Sen. Mark C. Montigny (D-New Bedford), who has fought against such pay plans for years. “We have decided as a state to allow the delivery of health care, including 
insurance, through a not-for-profit charity. Most people, reasonable people, would say volunteers on the board of a charity should not be compensated.”

 

Then again, most people aren’t Paul Guzzi, Gloria Larson, Ralph Martin, and the other business-types-as-usual who populate the board.

Regardless, most people do have something to say about it. Start with the Herald’s obligatory YOU react feature:

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Except, of course, BC/BS is a non-profit. Not to get technical about it.

In the comments section, reader reactions are less, well, measured.

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P.S. The Boston Globe also takes a second look at BC/BS, but from a slightly different angle.

Earnings rose for Blue Cross, not others

The state’s largest health insurer boosted its earnings in 2012, while three other Massachusetts health plans reported net income declines from the previous year as they absorbed a new state assessment to fund initiatives under a cost containment law, according to financial reports filed Friday with state regulators.

Health insurers also released executive compensation figures, with total pay increases ranging from 6.8 percent to 51.4 percent for chief executive officers.

 

Take that, Herald commenters!

 

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Blue Cross, Blue Yield on Director Pay

March 1, 2013

Under pressure from its high-powered – and for the past two years, uncompensated – board of directors, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts has started to pony up to the bigwigs again. Both local dailies give the move Page One play, but the similarities pretty much end there.

Boston Globe front page:

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Lede:

Two years after bowing to its critics and suspending five-figure annual pay for directors, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is reinstating the compensation — though at reduced levels and to fewer board members.

The state’s largest health insurance carrier will pay part-time board members who chair committees a maximum of $54,500. That is down from the $78,60 [sic] before the public outcry over how much directors were paid at nonprofit insurers regulated as public charities. Blue Cross will pay other directors no more than $47,000, down from $58,600 in 2011.

Despite the reductions, Blue Cross board members will remain among the best compensated directors at any nonprofit health plan in the state.

Blue Cross board members attend up to five full board meetings a year, a strategic planning session, and about eight committee meetings, executives said.

 

That’s a lotta dough for not much show.

Which led the Boston Herald to front-page this:

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The story:

bluecross2_0Despite AG’s push, agency’s at it again!

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts has quietly resumed paying its part-time, politically wired board of directors tens of thousands of dollars a year, sneaking the cash back into their pockets two years after Attorney General Martha Coakley publicly pushed health care nonprofits to end the outrageous payouts.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield spokesman Jay McQuaide confirmed last night that the board’s 17 members are back on the payroll — the result of a vote they took at a December meeting. McQuaide did not specify their pay but said it has been cut by an average of 25 percent. Directors were previously paid from $60,000 to $90,000 a year.

 

Pretty different top number from the Globe’s, but why get technical about it.

The Herald also drops different – and better – names than the Globe, which lists the new directors and ex-directors. The Herald has all the usual suspects:

The Blue Cross board’s 17-member roster is packed with powerbrokers from just about every arena in the state. Among them, Blue Cross CEO Andrew Dreyfus, chairman William Van Faasen, Massachusetts AFL-CIO vice president George R. Alcott III, Massachusetts Teachers Association President Paul Toner, former Massachusetts Democratic Party chairman Philip Johnston, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce chief Paul Guzzi, Bentley University president Gloria Larson, Simmons College president Helen G. Drinan, former Suffolk District Attorney and current Northeastern University general counsel Ralph C. Martin and Benaree Wiley, former head of The Partnership.

 

Finally, no surprise, the feisty local tabloid remembers to pat itself on the back:

A series of Herald stories in 2011 exposed the exorbitant pay and lavish perks to the nonprofit’s board of local powerbrokers. The series came after the board voted to give departing CEO Cleve Killingsworth an $11 million golden parachute after the health insurer posted a $149 million loss.

 

That would explain this on Page One:

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Say it with me: I celebrate myself and sing myself and yak yak yak.

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Thursday Globe Totally Eats Wednesday Herald’s Dust

March 1, 2013

The hardreading staff likes to characterize the feisty local tabloid as a lively index to the Boston Globe.

But in this case, the Boston Herald was a lively index to the next day’s Boston Globe.

Exhibit A

Wednesday’s Herald Page One:

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Thursday’s Boston Globe:

greenhouse_donnie3_metroEmerson frat backs a brother in transition

On Monday morning, few outside his circle of family, friends, teachers, and classmates likely had heard of Donnie Collins. By Wednesday, he was internationally famous.

Collins, a sophomore at Emerson, seems in many ways a typical college student. He loves J.R.R. Tolkien and “The Colbert Report.” He obsessively updates his Tumblr blog.

But it is his differences that have caused his story to go viral: Born female, Collins is transitioning into a man, and members of his campus fraternity are giving new meaning to the word brotherhood through an extraordinary act of support.

“I’m really grateful for that,” he said in an interview Wednesday near the downtown campus. “It’s taken me a while to realize that I can’t possibly repay them in any way except to accept their help.”

 

Exhibit B

Wednesday Herald Joe Battenfeld column:

DSC_1359.JPGEd Markey is no stranger 
to flip-flopping on issues

Democratic Senate candidate Ed Markey, whose supporters have slammed rival Stephen Lynch for changing his position on abortion, has performed a few impressive flip-flops of his own — on issues ranging from abortion to school prayer.

The Malden congressman, who has the strong backing of abortion rights advocates, supported a constitutional amendment banning abortion and repeatedly voted in the U.S. House for a ban on all federal funding of abortions, including in cases of rape and incest, in the late 1970s, records show.

Markey, a Catholic, changed his position in late 1983, just before he made an unsuccessful run for the U.S. Senate. He said at the time he didn’t want to impose his personal beliefs on others.

 

Thursday’s Boston Globe:

tlumacki_ed markey_metro861Markey says abortion shift was personal

Since US Representative Stephen F. Lynch of South Boston backed off his staunch opposition to abortion early this month, his rival for US Senate has been trying to distinguish himself as the only Democrat in the race who is “100 percent pro-choice.”

US Representative Edward J. Markey of Malden has made the case so well, in fact, that the abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America plans to formally endorse him on Thursday.

But three decades ago, Markey was also an abortion opponent who had a conversion before embarking on a campaign for higher office. His evolution began as a congressman, months before he ran for the same Senate seat he’s seeking now.

Like Lynch’s shift, Markey’s change engendered some suspicion. The National Organization for Women issued flyers highlighting Markey’s past votes against abortion rights, and antiabortion advocates were annoyed that Markey had abandoned them.

In an interview on Wednesday, Markey said his shift on abortion was never a political calculation.

 

Uh-huh.

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