Human rights and labor activists are voicing outrage that the Patrick administration could soon award a staggering $1.3 billion subway contract to a rail enterprise owned by the repressive Communist Chinese government, saying the deal would be a “terrible disgrace.”
“If the left-leaning Massachusetts blue staters love to boycott things that break the wrong way on issues of rights, why does China get a pass on all of that?” said Tom Cushman, a human rights activist and professor at Wellesley College.
“If this were an entity that was known to be hostile toward transgendered people or gay people or who violated the rights of minorities, people would be up in arms over a contract like this. But (they) do all those things. They are hostile toward all those people, but China doesn’t register on the screen of the morally outraged.”
Massachusetts General Hospital is in early discussions with two partners to build a full-service hospital with 500 to 1,000 beds in China, a country that is struggling to meet growing demand from its 1.4 billion citizens for top-quality medical care.
Mass. General signed a “framework agreement’’ last week with a Chinese hospital that specializes in traditional medicine and a Chinese investment firm, allowing the three parties to exchange financial information and work on developing a definitive agreement to open a facility in an island city close to Hong Kong.
Mass. General executives called the talks preliminary and said they have not made a final decision about whether to participate in the project, but that they hope to do so by next summer.
So both these deals are still up in the air. Plenty of opportunity for the Chinese checkers to do their damnedest.
A killer con — behind bars for cold-bloodedly murdering his parents for their insurance money more than 25 years ago — is back in court suing his brother over an inheritance from their grandmother, saying he has the dough coming to him.
“That money was supposed to be for me if I got out on parole,” William Duclos, 45, told the Herald in a jailhouse interview yesterday. “My brother was supposed to hold that money for me.”
Not surprisingly, the situation is a little more complicated than that. Check the feisty local tabloid for details.
Also not surprisingly – you won’t find them in the Boston Globe.
Wynn Resorts – which won the casino bake-off with Mohegan Sun last month – looks to be quickly embedding itself in the local economy. The proposed Everett gambling hell – sorry, hall (tip o’ the pixel to Raymond Chandler) – ran this ad in today’s Boston Herald to promote the upcoming Wynn Resorts Vendor & Career Information Sessions.
Money quote:
Average salaries over $50,000? (Is Steve Wynn’s factored in?) $120 million per annum on goods and services? I’d take all of that with a shaker of salt, yeah.
Meanwhile, no such golden opportunities are available crosstown at the Boston Globe. But maybe the Globe set could find gainful employment at the new UniQlo opening tomorrow at the Northshore Mall. Glenn Howerton, Actor/Producer certainly did.
Once again the Boston Herald has a case of the high-sterics in dealing with the Ebola we-don’t-know-what. Page One of today’s fraidy local tabloid:
Inside the Herald devotes three full pages to its Chicken Little act. Here’s a Whit(e)man’s Sampler of the alarums on the Herald homepage at post time.
Especially risible is the column by Adriana Cohen, who seems to be suggesting that America construct a Dome of Solitude to make the world go away.
Crosstown at the Boston Globe, there is – as usual – a more measured approach. Page One of today’s edition:
There’s lots of interesting advertising material in today’s local dailies, starting with the Boston Globe’s Capital section. Usually the papers’s weekly political playground capitalizes on its cherce readership with a bundle of full-page ads, but in today’s edition what’s more interesting are the pieces about advertising.
First up: Noah Guiney’s scorecard on some of the latest New England campaign ads. Representative sample:
Charlie Baker, Martha Coakley, Seth Moulton, and Jeanne Shaheen also get the red-pen treatment.
Getting the graphic treatment are Political ads that aired most often (in two parts for legibility – sorry, no link).
Fun for the whole family.
Crosstown at the Boston Herald, it’s today’s ads themselves that are most noteworthy, starting with this one for heavy Lyfters.
That’s appeared before in the Herald, but not (to our knowledge) in the Globe.
Here’s another one that we haven’t seen in the stately local broadsheet.
Actually, we haven’t seen this ad in the Herald either before today. Anyway, here’s the Steppingstone website, and here’s their media page. Roll your own.
By far the most noteworthy ad in today’s Herald is this:
Page One of today’s Boston Herald is downright ebollient.
The Page 6 story, predictably, is no less hyperventilating.
Airports step up checks for Ebola
But victims may lie, experts warn
Homeland Security agents will be screening passengers for higher temperatures at five major U.S. airports, but not at Logan, in a stepped up response to the Ebola epidemic that one expert warns won’t stop infected travelers like the man who died in Dallas yesterday from sneaking into the country.
The first Ebola patient to die in the U.S., Thomas Eric Duncan, a 42-year-old Liberian man, had come to Dallas in late September but did not display obvious signs of having the virus.
“Some people will have a disincentive to be perfectly honest about their prior exposure to the virus because they want to get into the U.S. for many reasons, but one might be that they are seeking treatment here and trying to stay alive,” said Andrew Price-Smith, adviser to the National Intelligence Council for Biodefense.
Talk about your mixed-up messages. (Note: That’s Thomas Eric Duncan, the first patient diagnosed in the U.S with Ebola, on the right. He died yesterday.)
Crosstown at the Boston Globe, Page One is – no surprise – more measured: The paper teases the story below the fold.
The editorial cartoon rumpus at the Boston Herald has arrived at its inevitable destination: A sitdown between Herald editors and the local chapter of the NAACP.
The Boston Herald will work with the Boston chapter of the NAACP to address the issues raised by the publication of an editorial page cartoon last week.
The cartoon, focusing on security breaches at the White House, depicted President Obama brushing his teeth as an intruder suggested he try watermelon-flavored toothpaste. Cartoonist Jerry Holbert said he intended no racial overtones and apologized as did the newspaper.
The NAACP yesterday called the Herald apologies “inadequate” and said the publication of the cartoon on the paper’s opinion page “reopened the wounds of race” in Boston. It requested a series of remedies including a community meeting to discuss the editorial page cartoon.
That would be Boston NAACP president Michael Curry in the subhead, who got this response from a Herald statement:
”The Herald has made it clear that this editorial page cartoon was unacceptable in its insensitivity and racial overtones . . . We look forward to continuing our partnership with the NAACP and meeting with them to address the concerns that arose as a result.”
But crosstown at the Boston Globe, the Herald seemed to have a very different message for the NAACP.
Curry said that Herald executives told him they were ready to hear from the black community but had not yet committed to pursuing any action beyond a meeting.
“They said to me that they’re willing to do whatever and they’re expecting to hear from the community at this forum,” he said. “I think what’s important here is they’ve said no to nothing at this point.”
Then again, they’ve also said yes to nothing, yes?
Sometimes, the knockoff is superior to the original. At least that seems to be the case in memorializing local fashion blogger Karina Moreira, who died last week at the tragically young age of 16.
Fashion blogger Karina Moreira, 16, dies after battle with cancer
Karina Moreira, 16, whose blog “chic by karina” caught the attention of supermodel Gisele Bundchen, Taylor Swift, and thousands of followers on social media, died Thursday evening, according to her mother Daniela Xavier.
“I am so proud of [Karina],” she said. “With everything that she went through, she still had hope and faith in God. She never gave up or complained.”
On Wednesday Boston Herald editorial cartoonist Jerry Holbert sparked a watermelon-flavored rumpus with this ill-advised (and ill-supervised) drawing in the clueless local tabloid.
Much mishegoss ensued.
(The redoubtable Dan Kennedy has a smart recap of the fiasco here.)
Whoopi Goldberg Defends Boston Herald Cartoonist on ‘The View’
In response to a controversial cartoon that appeared in yesterday’s Boston Herald, ”The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg defended the cartoonist on today’s show.
Following information that the Sept. 19 White House fence-jumper made it to the East Room of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue rather than just past the North Portico doors as earlier reported, Jerry Holbert‘s cartoon contribution in yesterday’s print edition portrayed President Barack Obama brushing his teeth with a man behind him asking, “Have you tried the watermelon toothpaste?” and the caption “White House Invader Got Farther Than Previously Thought.”
[Thursday] morning, Goldberg addressed the controversy on “The View,” saying “I don’t believe he did it on purpose. I don’t think he was thinking about it.”
Here’s the clip:
Just for the record: Rosie Perez was having none of it.
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