Giving the keynote address at the 2012 Salem State University commencement, House Speaker Robert DeLeo talked about the importance of education and hard work in his life, growing up as he did in hard scrabble East Boston and Winthrop. “I lived in a three-family home with my aunts on the second and third floor and my grandmother in a house behind ours. I like to call it the Italian version of the Kennedy Compound,” he said.
–Peter Lucas
Massachusetts Treasurer Steve Grossman is quite possibly the world’s biggest ice cream lover. When he was campaigning for office in 2010, Grossman stopped at dozens of independent ice cream shops across the state, regularly posting photos to Facebook and Twitter. Now he keeps tubs of ice cream in his State House office to dish out to guests. How he maintains his slender figure is beyond us.
So when news broke last week that Great Brook Farm’s ice cream stand was shut down by the state due to permit violations, the obvious question was: What does Grossman think?
The treasurer issued a brief statement a few days later saying he spoke to the Carlisle ice cream stand’s operator, Mark Duffy, and Ed Lambert, the commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Recreation, the state agency that closed the stand. Grossman said the three were trying to find a “workable solution” to re-open the business.
“When ice cream and small businesses are on the line, I’m on it!” Grossman said.
After a week, Duffy and state officials reached an agreement and the stand re-opened on Saturday. Patrons who visited the stand on Sunday were greeted with this sign prominently displayed on the front door:
Grossman is attending the stand as part of the start of National Small Business Week, said a spokesman for the treasurer. He’ll be buying every patron a free ice cream cone between 3-4 p.m.
Did Grossman play a part in getting the stand up and running again?
“Whatever role Steve played, he’s thrilled to be here to enjoy fresh ice cream during Small Business Week and celebrate the preservation of 13 jobs,” said a Grossman spokesman.
Former Fitchburg Mayor Dan Mylott has endorsed Republican Jon Golnik’s run for Congress in the 3rd District, Golnik’s campaign announced Wednesday.
“I am supporting Jon Golnik for Congress because I believe he will succeed in bringing jobs to the area and will provide for a smaller government — which is what we desperately need,” Mylott said in the campaign’s statement. “I look forward to assisting Jon with spreading his message through this campaign season.”
Mylott was elected mayor of Fitchburg in 2002 and served until 2008. He previously served on the Fitchburg School Committee and City Council. In addition to his public service Mylott worked at Shack’s Clothing for 40 years.
“I am honored that Mayor Mylott has endorsed my campaign for Congress. Mayor Mylott knows both the challenges of elected office and the needs of small business,” Golnik said. “I will work hard with the mayor to spread our message of fiscal responsibility and real job creation.”
Golnik has previously been endorsed by former Gov. Paul Cellucci, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, Gardner Mayor Mark Hawke and former Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker.
While Sen. John Kerry has bemoaned the defeat of his pal U.S. Sen. Dick Lugar at the hands of another Republican in Indiana, Kerry has had nothing to say about the problems of another former U.S. Senator, this one a Democrat, who has a few problems of his own. This one is John Edwards, who is on trial for allegedly using campaign funds to support his on-the-side girlfriend and their baby while he ran for president four years ago, and then lying about it. Before that, in 2004, Edwards was Kerry’s vice presidential running mate when Kerry was the Democratic Party nominee for president. Perhaps Kerry is waiting for the verdict. Yeah. Right.
Lawmakers are lifting a ban on bake sales in public schools included in new health regulations aimed at combating childhood obesity.
The House passed an amendment attached to a mid-year spending bill yesterday that would allow local school districts to decide whether they want to allow bake sales or not.
The Senate plans to take up a similar measure today. One of the amendment’s co-sponsor, state Sen. Barry Finegold, D-Andover, called banning bake sales “extreme.”
“It defies common sense,” said Finegold. “I’m a very healthy person, but I’m all for making sure we have healthy kids and lunches, but I think this is too extreme.”
State Rep. Cory Atkins, D-Concord, said the ban would affect after school and sports programs, as well as fundraisers schools organize to raise money for various extracurricular programming.
“I spent a lot of time looking at issues that help create obesity,” said Atkins. “I don’t think this is one of them. I think to take this tool from the local PTAs it is going too far. We will be hearing from parent groups all over the commonwealth if we don’t rectify this situation.”
The bake sale ban was included in nutrition standards adopted by the Public Health Council last year.
Under the new rules, whole milk, soda and deep-fried potato chips would be out. Baked potato chips would be in, along with white or chocolate milk with 1 percent fat. Schools would have to offer fruit juices with no natural or artificial sweeteners, low-fat salad dressing, and sugar-free animal crackers, for example.
The nutrition standards take effect at the beginning of the 2012-13 school year and are believed to be some of the strictest in the country. The Departments of Public Health has said the new restrictions are designed to fight a growing obesity epidemic affecting a third of the state’s 1.5 million students.
Krissy Polimeno, chairman Tewksbury school Committee, said she contacted Finegold’s office and asked him to overturn the ban earlier this week.
“Bake sales have been a great fundraiser for decades,” said Polimeno. “They were a fundraiser when I was in school. We recognize the need to find solutions to childhood obesity, but the bill is too far reaching. It doesn’t target the appropriate population.”
Massachusetts Democratic Party Chair John Walsh released the following statement Tuesday after Republican U.S. Sen. Scott Brown voted against a bill to freeze low interest rates for student loans:
“On the votes that matter, Scott Brown stands with the national Republican Party and Wall Street, not middle-class Massachusetts families. If Congress does not act and Stafford loan rates double in July, more than 161,000 folks in the Commonwealth will be forced to pay an average of $1,026 more a year. Senate Democrats put forth a measure to keep student loan rates low, but Scott Brown joined Senate Republicans to block it today.
“Scott Brown needed help to pay for Tufts and law school at Boston College, just like the thousands of college students in Massachusetts who are struggling to pay tuition and make ends meet today. Now that he’s a millionaire Washington politician, it looks like Scott Brown isn’t interested in helping the next generation get a college education.”
Senate Republicans derailed the Democratic bill to keep interest rates on federal college loans from doubling July 1. Republicans said they favor preventing the interest rate increase but blocked the Senate from debating the $6 billion measure because they oppose how Democrats would pay for it: Boosting Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes on high-earning stockholders of some privately owned corporations, according to the Associated Press.
Scott Brown Tuesday released the following statement:
“Serious questions have been raised about the legitimacy of Elizabeth Warren’s claims to Native American ancestry and whether it was appropriate for her to assume minority status as a college professor. Her changing stories, contradictions and refusal to answer legitimate questions have cast doubt on her credibility and called into question the diversity practices at Harvard.
“The best way to satisfy these questions is for Elizabeth Warren to authorize the release of her law school applications and all personnel files from the various universities where she has taught. I have released hundreds of pages of confidential employment records relating to my 32-year career in the National Guard, and I would encourage Professor Warren to do the same with respect to her personnel records and previous applications. As candidates for high public office, we have a duty to be transparent and open and not hide behind a wall of silence in the midst of public controversy.”
A ban on outside spending identical to the one Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren agreed to earlier this year could be coming to the 6th Congressional District race.
U.S. Rep. Jon Tierney yesterday challenged his Republican opponent, Richard Tisei, to sign a “People’s Pledge” to discourage outside interest groups from influencing their rough-and-tumble campaign.
The pledge mirrors a pact signed by Brown and Warren in January requiring the candidates to contribute money to a charity if outside groups advertise on their behalf.
Tierney’s proposal comes one month after Tisei proposed limiting the amount of donations that political-action committees, or PACs, can make in their race. Tierney refused and accused Tisei of trying to distract voters from important issues.
Now, Tierney wants the two campaigns to sign a pledge to prevent outside groups from airing independent television, radio or Internet ads supporting or attacking either candidate. If they do, the candidate who benefited from the ad has to pay 50 percent of the ad’s cost to a charity chosen by their opponent.
“Since we are running in the same state as these Senate candidates, will confront many of the same issues, and will be subject to the same interest by outside third party groups, I see no reason why we would not enter into the exact same agreement, unless one of our campaigns decided that we actually want these outside groups running attack ads in this state,” said Tierney, of Salem.
Just hours after Tierney released his proposal, Tisei shot back with a fiery response, accusing his Democratic rival of funding his campaign through PAC money from Washington. Tisei said if Tierney is serious about curbing the influence of outside money in their race, he should agree to one of his four proposals.
“After I’ve out raised him two quarters in a row — the vast majority of my fundraising coming from individual donors, not PACs — he’s suddenly finding religion,” said Tisei. “John Tierney is a PAC addict. He has been for years. Is he finally admitting that he has a problem?”
Arguing that it is better to receive as much financial support from within the district as possible, in March Tisei had asked Tierney to agree to one of four scenarios: End all PAC contributions; end all PAC contributions from outside of Massachusetts; limit PAC contributions to 20 percent of all contributions; or limit all donations to those coming from Massachusetts.
Tisei, a former state senator from Wakefield, raised $354,467 in the first quarter of 2012 compared to Tierney’s $325,125 during the same period. Tierney has $795,184 cash on hand, however, compared to $454,526 for Tisei. Tierney has raised 43 percent of his money this election cycle from PACs, compared to just 5 percent for Tisei. The People’s Pledge does not cover PACs, focusing instead on groups that place ads independent of the campaigns.
While PAC contributions to candidates are limited to $5,000 and must be publicly disclosed, super PACs must do any political spending independently of the campaigns. Unlike traditional PACs, super PACs can raise unlimited money from corporations, unions and individuals.
Tierney’s district, which now includes Billerica and Tewksbury, as well as parts of Andover, is seen by state GOP leaders as ripe for the picking in this year’s elections.
Since Brown and Warren signed the “People’s Pledge,” outside groups that had been spending millions of dollars on attack ads have by-and-large stayed away from the high-stakes U.S. Senate race.
Victoria Reggie Kennedy, wife of the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, will deliver the keynote address at the Massachusetts Bar Association’s annual dinner May 31. Victoria Kennedy is a graduate of Tulane University School of Law in New Orleans and practiced law for nearly 20 years before marrying the late senator. She recently made news when her invitation to speak at Catholic Anna Maria College in Paxton,. west of Worcester, was revoked by Bishop Robert J. McManus who objected to her support of abortion and gay marriage, both of which are opposed by the church.
Transportation officials announced last week that they want to spend $54 million to replace corroding light fixtures in the underground highway system tunnels of the Big Dig. The Big Dig gained national attention when one of the existing light fixtures fell onto a car and killed a woman. The work will be done at night so not to make traffic any worse than it already is. Gov. Deval Patrick administration officials said they hope to realize $2.5 million in annual savings by installing energy-efficient lighting. Yeah, right.
