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

Here’s a textbook case of the Globe/Herald perpetual-motion seesaw.

From Sunday’s Boston Globe:

Troubles in paradise Rep. Tierney somehow missed 

Review finds congressman had many chances to learn of illegal actions by his wife’s brothers – and by her

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua — To hear US Representative John F. Tierney tell it, there was nothing unusual three years ago when he and his wife traveled to this tiny Caribbean island 300 miles east of Puerto Rico for dinner with his brother-in-law Robert Eremian.

“Dinner at my wife’s brother’s house. I don’t think that people would think that’s extraordinary,” Tierney said at a recent news conference.

But Eremian was no ordinary brother-in-law. A convicted drug smuggler and tax evader, Eremian had been under investigation, under indictment, or on probation for activities related to illegal gambling almost continuously since 1995. And, as the couple ate dinner on the patio of Eremian’s gated home that fall night, Eremian and his sister were in deep trouble.

As in, prosecutors were about to drop a 442-count federal indictment on Eremian and three of his cohorts. But Tierney had no inkling something like that might happen. Even though he clearly should have, according to the Globe report:

[A] Boston Globe review of court records and other publicly available information shows that John Tierney had ample reason to be wary of his brothers-in-law during his 15 years of marriage to their sister and many opportunities over the last decade to learn that their Antigua-based gambling business was illegally targeting American gamblers.

In fact, John Tierney had reason to be suspicious from the day he married Patrice. At that point, Bob Eremian had fled to Antigua to escape federal prosecution for illegal sports book-making, and had recruited one of Patrice’s children, John Chew, to work with him. After a lengthy federal investigation, Bob Eremian pleaded guilty to tax evasion in the gambling case in 2002.

There’s plenty more where that came from. This is a major takeout, the kind of investigative reporting the Globe routinely undertakes.

Not so much over at the Boston Herald. But that doesn’t mean the feisty tabloid brings nothing to the party.

From today’s edition:

Tierney’s in-law fails at try to shave sentence

An ingenious bid by U.S. Rep. John Tierney’s convicted brother-in-law to lengthen his prison stint by a month in order to become eligible for a one-year reduction in his sentence has been rejected by a federal judge.

In June, U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris sentenced Daniel Eremian to 36 months for operating an illegal offshore gambling website that reaped millions from American bettors. Late last week, Saris issued an order denying the 62-year-old Eremian’s request that his sentence be revised to 37 months.

The Herald owns this story – here’s its earlier report on Eremian’s bid. As far as the hardworking staff can tell, the Globe hasn’t had anything on it.

So there you have one template for this two-daily town: The Globe brings resources to bear, the Herald scrambles for scoops. That’s not always the case, but often enough for a sampler.