Yesterday it was front-page news in the Boston Herald.
The scoop from Herald reporter Sean Philip Cotter.
Library talk hushed
Authorities mum on ‘personnel matter’
The Boston Police Department is “reviewing” a “personnel matter” at the Boston Public Library — while City Hall and the BPL remain tight-lipped about why three administrators have been placed on unpaid leave.
BPL spokeswoman Lisa Pollack confirmed that the library had referred “a matter” to the police, but refused to elaborate.
“As this issue remains pending, we can not comment any further,” Pollack told the Herald.
Columnist Joe Battenfeld also checked in, urging Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to “intervene to get to the bottom of the mini-scandal before it gets out of control or buried by BPL management.”
More than ever it is crucial that government institutions show complete transparency in their day-to-day operations.
That is why it is concerning that the Boston Public Library has placed three managers on unpaid administrative leave and no one is saying why. There is an internal investigation underway. Additionally, the BPL has referred “a matter” to the police but library spokeswoman Lisa Pollack refused to elaborate.
Also not weighing in: The Boston Globe.
We get it that no news organization wants to play caboose to another. But c’mon, Globeniks – time to circulate some BPL news of your own.
As the hardreading staff noted three weeks ago, both Boston Police Commissioner William Evans and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh rejected in no uncertain terms a WBZ-TV report that Evans was decamping for a job at Boston College.
Evans also gave a full-throated denial to the Boston Herald. Regardless, it’s no surprise to see this story just posted on the Boston Globe’s website.
Police Commissioner William Evans to retire; William Gross named successor
Boston Police Commissioner William B. Evans, an avid runner who ran in the 2013 Boston Marathon and then played a key role in pursuing the bombers who attacked the race, will retire, clearing the way for his second-in-command to become the city’s first African-American commissioner.
Evans is stepping down to take over the public safety department at Boston College. He starts there on Aug. 6. His superintendent-in-chief, William G. Gross, will succeed Evans, becoming the first person of color ever to lead the department, which has 2,200 sworn officers.
What is a surprise is that the Globe piece by John R. Ellement and Milton J. Valencia makes no reference to Evans’s earlier duplicity. Crosstown at the Herald, Jules Crittenden’s piece gives it an oblique nod but no link.
Evans’ retirement and move to BC, rumored for weeks, was announced today at 10:30 a.m. at a press conference in the Eagle Room at City Hall, where Gross’ appointment as Mayor Martin J. Walsh’s permanent choice for the post was announced.
We get it that no one wants to be the skunk at the garden party. But c’mon, guys – isn’t that sort of your job?
Who knew? It turns out the Olde Towne Team has an Official Red Wine, as readers of today’s Boston Globe discovered in this full-page ad.
The pitch:
Chateau Auguste certainly seems to be a hit with oenophiles: A quick check of the Googletron reveals that the 2017 Rosé featured in the ad rates from 3.4 to 4.5 stars; the 2015 Bordeaux in the background gets 4 stars. We’ll see how it plays at Fenway, though.
Two other things:
1) The ad got us to wondering who else might be an official sponsor of the Sox. We know – from all those delivery trucks – that W.B. Mason is the Official Office Products Supplier of the Boston Red Sox (and also sponsors the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Yankees, New York Mets, Cleveland Indians, Pittsburgh Pirates, Washington Nationals, and the Tampa Bay Rays, along with the NHL’s Boston Bruins).
But we had no idea that Cincinnati-based Cintas is the Official Restroom Sponsor of Fenway Park. That’s good to know. (There’s a bunch of others here.)
2) The Chateau Auguste ad did not run in the Boston Herald. That makes it the thirsty local tabloid times two.
The Superior Court judge who approved a request to shield the name of the man suing former Senate president Stanley C. Rosenberg and his husband, Bryon Hefner, abruptly stepped down from the civil case Friday, shortly after the two filed paperwork opposing it.
Judge Debra A. Squires-Lee did not say why she recused herself from the case against Hefner and Rosenberg, which alleges that Hefner sexually assaulted a then-State House aide and that Rosenberg “knew or was aware” that Hefner posed a risk to others.
The aide, identified as John Doe in court filings, said Hefner sexually assaulted him at least three times in 2015 and 2016.
Make Joe Sciacca go nuts (bad division) tenth graf:
The Boston Herald first reported Rosenberg and Hefner’s filings.
Then again, Jennifer Schuessler’s New York Times piece yesterday about BSO flutist Elizabeth Rowe’s equal-pay lawsuit quite likely eased the pain.
Star Flutist Sues Boston Symphony Over Pay Equity
The top flutist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra has filed a gender pay discrimination suit against the ensemble, claiming that her compensation is only about 75 percent that of her closest comparable colleague, the orchestra’s principal oboist, who is a man.
The suit, which was filed on Monday by Elizabeth Rowe, the orchestra’s principal flutist and one of its most prominent musicians, appears to be the first under a new law in Massachusetts that requires equal pay for “comparable work.” The law was passed in 2016, but it did not go into effect until Sunday, after employers had two years to rectify disparities.
Make Joe Sciacca go nuts (good division) fifth graf:
[A]ccording to Ms. Rowe’s lawsuit, which seeks $200,000 in unpaid wages, pay disparities can be significant. Ms. Rowe, 44, is paid about $70,000 less each year than John Ferrillo, 62, the principal oboist, based on data in the lawsuit and tax records. That is despite the fact that they play next to each other and are both “leaders of the orchestra in similarly demanding artistic roles,” according to the lawsuit, which was first reported by The Boston Herald.
That, my friends, is music to the hungry local tabloid’s ears.
As the hardreading staff has previously noted, the Boston Globe is increasingly willing to rent out its editorial content willy-nilly to marketing sponsors.
Crosstown at the Boston Globe, the $tately local broadsheet has allowed a marketer to get to second base with Love Letters columnist Meredith Goldstein. As we previously noted, ever since April the column has been leased out to – sorry, presented by – the Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health. Today, the relationship got even chummier.
Quick refresher course: Arts and crafts chain Hoppy Lobby, which is owned by the Oklahoma City-based Green family, was one of two companies that wound up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court four years ago when it refused on religious grounds to cover contraceptive services for its employees.
As ABC News reported at the time on Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, “the Supreme Court said . . . that two for profit corporations with sincerely held religious beliefs do not have to provide a full range of contraceptives at no cost to their employees pursuant to the Affordable Care Act,” since the act’s mandate violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.
(Unsurprising sidebar: It was, of course, Justice Anthony Kennedy who provided the swing vote in the 5-4 decision.)
Now, presumably swollen with newborns, Hobby Lobby has resumed its Bible thumping with this full-page ad in today’s Boston Herald.
The ad is a mishmash of God-and-Country quotes from Presidents, Founding Fathers, Supreme Court Justices, etc. Representative sample:
The apparent objective, beyond bridging the Church-State divide, is to tout the company’s Ministry Projects, which donate to “several charities and organizations that the Green family has selected based on each charity’s specific needs and mission.”
To wit:
Interestingly, the ad did not run in today’s Boston Globe.
An exasperated police Commissioner William B. Evans denied that he’s leaving his post as rumors about him departing to Boston College dogged the city’s top cop on the eve of one of the most violent times of the year.
Community leaders said the confusion about Boston Police Department leadership doesn’t help as neighborhoods gear up for a weekend before Fourth of July likely to see shootings in the city’s neighborhoods.
WBZ reported Thursday that Evans, who Mayor Martin J. Walsh named commissioner when he took office in 2014, was leaving to take over the Boston College police force. Walsh and Evans have furiously denied the reports and a BC spokesman said the university had no comment.
Crosstown at the Boston Globe, reporter Danny McDonald had a story about Evans, but not the story.
City police wary ahead of Fourth celebrations
Boston police will have extra patrols in the city’s neighborhoods to deal with large parties in coming days, as the temperature heats up and the Fourth of July approaches, city officials said Friday.
Speaking at a press conference in front of the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury, Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said the holiday is “always a challenging time” for the department. Last year, 15 people were shot over July Fourth weekend in 10 separate incidents, said Evans.
“Traditionally, it’s been a violent weekend,” he said.
The department worries about large, loud parties throughout the city, as well as people setting off fireworks illegally, he said.
No word in the Globe, however, about whether the department worries about losing its leader.
Earlier today the hardreading staff noted that the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association did not appear in this ad protesting the Trump administration’s knee-buckling tariffs on newsprint from Canada.
Shortly after we left a voicemail for MNPA executive director Robert Ambrogi, he called back to say the group actually was part of the Stop Tariffs on Printers & Publishers coalition and hadn’t realized that the MNPA wasn’t included in the ad or listed on the STOPP website. Moreover, he said his group strongly supports efforts to get the tariffs lifted.
In addition, he just sent us an email saying that at some point tonight, the MNPA’s name and logo will be on the STOPP website.
Except for the Boston Herald, that is, where this full-page ad ran on Page 11 of today’s edition.
The ad comes from a coalition called Stop Tariffs on Printers & Publishers, which describes itself as “printers, publishers, paper suppliers and distributors that represent mostly small businesses in local communities that employ more than 600,000 workers in the United States.”
We have joined together to fight proposed government tariffs on newsprint that have been initiated by petitions filed by a single newsprint mill, NORPAC, an outlier in the industry that is owned by a New York hedge fund, with no additional pulp or paper operations in the United States or globally. The proposed tariffs will force our member companies to cut jobs not only at newspapers, commercial printing, and book publishing operations, but throughout the supply chain, such as paper manufacturers, ink suppliers, fuel producers, and equipment manufacturers.
Here’s a better look at the list in the ad (the latest news on NORPAC – the North Pacific Paper Company – is here).
Upon close inspection, there’s one name that does not appear on that list: the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association. (For the record, the ad did not run in today’s Boston Globe.)
So we put a call in to MNPA executive director Robert Ambrogi to ask what was up with the group’s conspicuous absence.
Four days ago Boston Globe reporter Mark Arsenault wrote about a new Suffolk University poll.
Plurality of likely voters say Wynn Resorts should retain license
Nearly 80 percent of likely Massachusetts voters are aware of the sexual misconduct accusations against former Wynn Resorts chief executive Steve Wynn, but a plurality want the company to remain the owner of its casino resort in Everett, according to a Suffolk University poll released Thursday.
The poll of 500 likely midterm voters, conducted by Suffolk’s Political Research Center, also showed a large gender gap in public opinion on the casino giant, which is building a $2.5 billion resort casino on the Mystic River.
Overall, 46 percent of respondents said Wynn Resorts “should continue to be the builder and operator of the Everett casino,” known as Encore Boston Harbor. About 38 percent said the company should not remain owner and operator, and about 16 percent were undecided or declined to answer.
Not exactly a full-throated endorsement. Beyond that, 48% of women wanted Wynn Resorts gone, unsurprising given Steve Wynn’s record of sexual harassment.
(To be sure graf goes here.)
To be sure, Wynn has left his eponymous company, but the sexual misconduct problems at Wynn Resorts Ltd. go far beyond him. Exhibit A: This piece in today’s Wall Street Journal.
But back to the Suffolk University survey. Hard on the heels of the Globe piece comes this ad, which appears in both the Globe and the Boston Herald today. (Its appearance in the thirsty local tabloid indicates how seriously Wynn takes this issue.)
No question those workers want to keep their jobs, but the smart money says they neither set up BuildingEncore.org nor paid for the two ads.
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