Tom Menino

UPDATE: Putting 2 and 2 together and getting 5? There was a fire drill today at Center Plaza. But the Boston Fire Department tells the Herald there were no firefighters involved. And as you'll see in the comments, people who work in the building say they were told ahead of time about the drill by building management. So my apologies to firefighters for jumping the gun after seeing this tweet.

Boston firefighters decided today would be a good day to test the fire preparations at 2 Center Plaza, which happens to be the location of Tom Menino's campaign headquarters.

Menino campaign spokesman Nick Martin says 50 to 60 campaign staffers - in addition to workers in nearby offices - had to evacuate when firefighters pulled the alarms around 2 p.m.

Martin said workers were kept outside for about half an hour. He added that many took cell phones with them so they could try to do some work.

Firefighters Local 718 was an early supporter of Michael Flaherty. They've feuded with Menino for years over a lack of contract and, more recently, mandatory drug and alcohol testing.

Flaherty’s critique of Menino is less sweeping, but more credible, than those of his fellow challengers.

But, also, he's Menino back to the future! Globies say vote for Flaherty because he's like Menino was in 1993.

And what better place to put a "resort casino" than Suffolk Downs?

Unlike Sal DiMasi, who managed to quash casinos, successor Bob DeLeo favors them.

Tom Menino has long supported a casino in Boston - two years ago, he backed a casino at the racetrack - and repeated that support earlier this week at a candidate's forum in the Back Bay, saying it would help create jobs.

John Keith takes a look at the latest campaign finance reports for mayoral and at-large city council candidates (and posts the numbers). Among other things, Tom Menino spent $500,000 in just 15 days on his re-election campaign.

Tomorrow, 25,000 phones across Boston will ring and people will pick up to hear Sam Yoon pleading with them to not hang up, because this is really Sam, live and in person, and please stay on the line for the city's largest ever teleconference: "They can ask questions or adjust their setting through the phone's keypad," Yoon's campaign assures us.

Meanwhile, and completely unrelated to the above, Tom Menino is crowing about his endorsement by the Massachusetts League of Environmental Voters, which cited "his strong leadership on environmental issues that affect both Boston and the Commonwealth."

Check out the end of this Herald article which tells how Mayor Menino and his friends joked about the e-mail scandal at a Councilor Tobin event last night. Note: the mayor was skipping an East Boston event to attend this toast.

http://tiny.cc/b9l8m

The mayor turned down the East Boston event and instead attended a ritzy gala on Newbury Street, where he was given an achievement award. Later that night he went to a 40th birthday party fund-raiser for Councilor John Tobin at a West Roxbury Elks Club.

The Globe keeps on top of the story. The judge's comments came in a ruling related to the controversial Roxbury mosque, built on land originally owned by the BRA.

Outraged Liberal: Wow, is this what it's like to watch a car crash in slow motion?

... For a group seemingly skilled in fixing problems, the daily drips of information about the Menino administration's failure to understand, let alone follow the state's public records law is mind-boggling. ...

WBUR interviews a computer-security guy on what's involved in retrieving "deleted" e-mail.

The Herald reports Attorney General Martha Coakley has dismissed a request from three Boston mayoral candidate to investigate how and why e-mail disappeared from Tom Menino's City Hall:

Particularly understanding this is the middle of a campaign, we get lots of complaints from folks who are adversaries who have a particular agenda.

But not enough to formally endorse him, the Jamaica Plain Gazette reports.

Back in May, when missing e-mail problem was discovered, he tells NECN this morning. Also says he talked to the US Attorney's office yesterday, which is kind of interesting since his three opponents lodged complaints with state and county officials, not the US Attorney's office. The feds did show interest in City Hall communications during its investigation of Diannne Wilkerson. Adrian Walker has more.

Large turnout at the forum, sponsored by the Wards 4 and 5 Democratic committees at the BAC on Newbury Street. Here's the blow by blow:

Public safety - do Beacon Hill, Back Bay residents feel safe?

The Globe reports Secretary of State Bill Galvin, in charge of public-records enforcement, ordered the city of Boston to immediately secure its e-mail servers and hire a computer forensics expert to try to recover e-mail the mayor said today disappeared in a "glitch," but which opponents charge is evidence of a coverup of something.

Yoon, Flaherty and McCrea this morning.

The three mayoral candidates today charged Tom Menino and his aides with deliberately covering something up, although exactly what, they couldn't say, since the e-mail doesn't appear to exist.

At a press conference with Flaherty and Yoon outside City Hall, however, McCrea said he would not be surprised if mail related to Dianne Wilkerson's attempt to get a liquor license for a contributor were among the large volumes of mail deleted by Menino aide Michael Kineavey. In an affidavit in the Wilkerson case, the FBI noted extensive contact between the former state senator and City Hall.

If so, look for the knot of mayoral candidates and camera crews: Michael Flaherty, Sam Yoon and Kevin McCrea are holding a press conference to call for criminal investigations into the way top city officials allegedly deleted massive amounts of e-mail, which is against the law (right out front).

As the Outraged Liberal reminds us, there's a certain irony in Flaherty teaming up with McCrea on the issue (which the Globe follows up on today - one guy was going into his deleted folder and deleting stuff there). McCrea won a lawsuit against the City Council - Michael Flaherty, president - for violations of the Open Meeting Law (Flaherty acknowledged the issue in announcing his run for mayor).

Meanwhile, if any probes do get launched, Michael Pahre has volunteered 19 pieces of e-mail that he or people he knows either sent or received from Menino aides Michael Kinneavy and Tom Tinlin.

The Globe takes a long look at Tom Menino's political machine, quotes Hizzona's top political aide on how they do opposition research:

"There was a guy in the room that was ours," Kineavy said. "What's wrong with that? It's recon. That's not even negative. It's knowing what your enemy’s doing."

The Globe reports at least two top city officials routinely deleted e-mail, in possible violation of state law. But don't worry - Tom Menino wasn't one of them, since he doesn't use e-mail.

Citywide dropout rate hasn't really decreased under Menino, despite what he said in Thursday's debate, Bruce Mohl reports.

With the Three Amigos kvetching about The Desk, a Menino PR person felt compelled to defend its use, the Globe reports:

It's not an empty desk. The desk symbolizes the mayor's presence in the neighborhoods.

Of course, the ad never actually shows the mayor sitting at the desk. It shows a chair, with nobody in it, behind a desk, with nothing on it (except a name plate). But apparently, that's not an empty desk.

Tomorrow is 9/11. Why don't you want neighborhood cops to be armed with semi-automatic weapons?

On Monday, Sept., 14, the Wards 4 and 5 (Beacon Hill and Back Bay) Democratic committees hold a mayoral-candidates forum, starting at 7:30 p.m. at the Boston Architectural College, 320 Newbury St. After the forum, Ward 5 will caucus on a possible endorsement in the race.

David Bernstein at the Phoenix describes the Menino camp's growing fixation on winning at least 51% of the vote on Sept. 22.

On Thursday, Sept. 17, the Brighton Allston Improvement Association sponsors a debate between the four people running for the district city council seat in Allston/Brighton:

He took it on a tour of the neighborhoods in his last campaign and it wound up getting crushed by a garbage truck in Dorchester by mistake:

The Globe acknowledges Boston public schools are better than they were when Menino first took office, but details why they're nowhere near as good as they should be.

Menino supporter this afternoon at Gallivan Boulevard and Adams Street in Dorchester.

The Globe reports that city programs intended to get small pieces of land back on the tax rolls by selling them to neighbors have meant profits for at least two landowners in Jamaica Plain - just like mayoral hopeful Kevin McCrea said. The city calls these "oversights."

The Building and Construction Trades Council of the Metropolitan District, known as the Boston Building Trades, today announced their endorsement of Tom Menino for re-election:

We are confident that your dedication and efforts for the residents of Boston will continue. We will continue to stand with you and your commitment to making Boston one of the best cities to live and work in.