It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town

The parallel universes of the local dailies proceed apace today.

Boston Herald, Page One:

Story inside:

State stuck with duds

Busted digital signs leave drivers in dark

Gov. Deval Patrick, with great fanfare, is slated to unveil new, state-of-the art highway message boards for Cape Cod today, even as dozens of similar pricey electronic road signs remain broken statewide, leaving tax- and toll-paying motorists in the dark about everything from traffic accidents and tie-ups to Amber Alerts, a Herald review found.

Among the 184 so-called “variable” message boards statewide, 43 are permanently out of service and cannot be fixed due to a lack of replacement parts, according to a Department of Transportation document obtained by the Herald through a public records request.

There’s even video that goes with:

Classic Herald: Good digging, splashy packaging.

Crosstown at the Boston Globe, Metro Page One:

That report is a follow-up to Adrian Walker’s bombshell yesterday about a “troubling demand” by a coalition of local community activists that Keolis North America, which just got the contract to run Boston’s commuter rail system, do more to promote diversity in its ranks. And by “troubling demand,” of course, Walker means an invoice for $105,000. No word on what the vigorish is, though.

Rev. Bruce Wall, who is moonwalking away from the controversy as fast as he can, is really just collateral damage here. The central figure in this rumpus is longtime local con artist Eugene Rivers III, who met with a Keolis spokeswoman and told her he was “below the radar” and “secret ops.” (Rivers denies saying either.)

Today’s piece has Wall and others in the so-called DRM Advisory Group playing Twister trying to explain away an invoice for services not performed or even contracted. Take some Dramamine before reading.

The folks at the editorial page are also reeling.

Rivers, Wall err badly in seeking funds from rail firm

THE REV. Eugene Rivers 3d, a prominent minister in Boston, blundered badly last month when he presented Keolis North America with a $105,000 invoice for services related to promoting diversity in the hiring and ridership of the state’s commuter rail system. This startling document, which was signed by Dorchester minister Bruce Wall, came across as a self-serving pressure tactic, and it only harmed the cause of promoting diversity in public contracting.

And etc.

Classic Boston Globe: good digging, enlightened tut-tutting.

Can’t do better than a Two-Daily Town.