Politics

mit·i·ga·tion /?mit?'gaSH?n/ (noun) - The action of reducing the severity, seriousness or painfulness of something

As you read this, a committee hand-picked by Mayor Menino is behind closed doors figuring out how much Caesars and Suffolk Downs will have to pay the city back for building a casino that sucks income from local businesses while increasing its crime, traffic, pollution and gambling addiction rates. It's called "mitigation," and it's essentially how casino companies get cities to even consider welcoming them.

Today's turn comes on Slate, which ultimately sides with Roadrunner, but in an essay that somehow finds "a hard-core New York envy" at the heart of the song. Oy.

President Obama will nominate Gina McCarthy as the next administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. McCarthy, OFD, has a BA from UMass Boston. Maybe John King can interview her.

Join Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders at our annual Summer Party held outside in the heart of Provincetown, MA on Saturday, July 27 from 4:00-7:00PM. Enjoy the view of the harbor, mingle with other GLAD supporters and learn more about our ground-breaking cases.

Tickets are $75 online | $85 on site | $30 student
Purchase at www.glad.org/events.

Don't miss our amazing auction and celebrity auctioneer Kate Clinton. You don't have to be present to win. Travel packages, restaurants, massages, and much more - something for everyone!

Children are welcome to attend (at no charge) and will enjoy a range of fun activities.

Delicious summer fare and refreshing cocktails provided.

More information, tickets and sponsorships are available at www.glad.org/events.

At-large City Councilor John Connolly will formally announce he's running for mayor this morning - at 11 a.m. outside Brighton High School.

The location signals that Connolly, chairman of the council's education committee, will make education the center of his race, in particular, school choice and raising the quality of city schools.

A West Roxbury resident, Connolly, 39, has been on the council since 2007. As an at-large councilor, he has shown he can attract votes across the city, although that didn't much help the last person to challenge Menino - at-large Councilor Michael Flaherty.

Incumbent Tom Menino has yet to formally say whether he's running for a sixth term. Charles Clemens and Will Dorcena have said they are running.

Campaign Web site.

An advisory committee tonight approved a proposal to replace the current school-assignment zones with a new system in which each family gets a choice of up to six schools guaranteed to include two that are at the top of standardized-test scores as well as schools within a mile of their homes.

Really? "Dream On" says "Massachusetts" more than this?

State House News Service reports state reps. Josh Cutler of Duxbury and James Cantwell of Marshsfield today filed legislation to make Aerosmith's "Dream On" the official Rock Song of the Commonwealth, rather than "Roadrunner" by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers.

The two say "Dream On" is about reaching for your dreams, although it makes no references at all to Massachusetts, unlike "Roadrunner," which is about the joys of driving around routes 128 and 9, with the radio on. "No band is more closely associated with Massachusetts," they claim.

Francisco White, a youth organizer from East Boston, says he's running for one of the four at-large seats on the city council in this fall's election.

He joins Seamus Whelan and Michelle Wu as newcomers in the race for at-large seats. Of the four incumbents, only John Connolly looks like he might not run - because he may run for mayor instead.

White, 26, is Young Civic Leaders Coordinator for MassVOTE and says he is openly gay. In a statement, he says:

I am someone who has always believed that government works, but only if everyone truly has a voice. I have no delusion of being middle class, I am not Ivy League educated, and my story is not like those who are typically elected to public office. I live, like so many people, at the margin. My reason for running is my desire to take Boston beyond its reputation as a progressive city, to work toward necessary progress that is inclusive of the marginalized. Moreover, my reason for running is to empower poor people, students, minorities, and LGBTQ individuals to take their seats at the table and have input in the decisions that affect us. Boston is much more than its middle class.

• White Web site, which allows comments, one of which is from Boston's biggest fan of open stenographic records.

The Globe reports the at-large councilor would make education a key part of his campaign. So far only one-time city-council candidate Will Dorcena has formally announced a run for the seat held for an entire generation by Tom Menino.

bostinno:

A month after former U.S. Senator Scott Brown sent out a series of odd tweets from his official social media account, the Fox News commentator finally addressed questions behind a jumbled message—and he blamed it on accidental “pocket tweeting.”

myfoxboston video:

David Bernstein alerts us that Seamus Whelan has set up a formal campaign committee to run for an at-large council seat in the fall elections.

According to his Facebook page, Whelan will run as the "socialist alternative" and "a voice for the 99% in Boston."

A registered nurse, Whelan calls for more teachers, an end to foreclosures and an elected School Committee and Boston Redevelopment Authority:

Boston is controlled by unelected organizations, from the school committee to the Boston Redevelopment Authority to the MBTA Board and the vultures on State Street. We need an economy that works for everyone and not just the rich and powerful. We must organize to build structures that allow working people make the important decisions that affect our lives.

Ed. note: The ramifications of casino gambling are huge, both statewide and in communities such as East Boston and Revere. Starting today, Josh Resnek will explore and explain the coming gambling wave, with his unique insights as former vice president and editor of the Independent Newspaper Group, which cover, among other places, East Boston, Revere and Everett.

All the casino talk and machinations by those seeking licenses in the state's three regions A, B, and C to this point in time pale by comparison with the Massachusetts Gaming Commission's paralytic behavior.

In a cold, harsh and relentless business climate where time is of the essence, where time is about money made and money lost, money given away to others moving faster than you are and gaining advantages perceived and realized, having the slows is dangerous business. Frankly, it is bad business.

Abraham Lincoln coined the phrase about having the slows during the Civil War when his General of the Union Army George McLellan was acting a bit like Massachusetts Gaming Commissioner Steven Crosby.

State Rep. Aaron Michlewitz will support efforts to make "Roadrunner" the official Rock Song of the Commonwealth. Mark Krone posts a copy of a note Michlewitz sent him:

I am a full supporter of making Roadrunner the official Rock song of the Commonwealth.

To give you a little history, my aunt Ellie was a member of The Modern Lovers from 1977-1983 and Jonathan actually sang at my first birthday, so I am certainly happy to see him getting this type of recognition after all these years.

The Harvard Crimson reports hesitancy on the part of city public-health officials to go along with a proposal by some city councilors to limit the size of sugared drinks sold in restaurants in the city:

"Does limiting soda size make sense, if people can still buy large size beverages in retail establishments, such as supermarkets and corner stores?" asked Claude-Alix Jacob, Cambridge's chief public health officer. He added that consumers could also order more servings of soda at restaurants.

The mayor, who apologized to locals a couple days ago about the pace of snow removal, went on national TV this morning and gave the city an A+ for snow removal.

The Jamaica Plain Gazette interviews the chairman of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council, which claims it has standing to sue over a proposed South Huntington Avenue development because it is a municipal board, but which says it doesn't have to worry about the city dissolving it because it is not "a branch" of municipal government. Got that?

@joenbc no

The Globe reports state Rep. Marty Walsh is poised to introduce a bill - at the urging of constituent Joyce Linehan - to give the song by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers the same status as the black-capped chickadee, cranberry juice and Roxbury Puddingstone as official symbols of the Commonwealth.

You may recall Linehan has long campaigned for an official Dorchester song.

City Councilor Tito Jackson (Roxbury) spent eight hours on snow patrol on a DPW dump truck today. And he apparently took requests:

At 3:39, a constituent tweeted:

standing outside my house no plow in sight- nice thick 6 inch ice ridge in the middle of the street.

About 10 minutes later, she tweeted a truck had just come by.

Jackson replied:

That was me. Top of street hit, you section needed. Smaller truck. Any luck since I left?

http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/south_boston/2013/02/south_boston_blogger_says_she.html?camp=misc:on:fb-page:HLsouthboston&dlvrit=135293

The Dorchester Reporter has hired an outside editor to keep tabs of its coverage of the 1st Suffolk Senate race of Linda Dorcena Forry, whose husband, Bill, is publisher of the paper and the Boston Haitian Reporter and Mattapan Reporter.

Michael Jonas, executive editor of CommonWealth magazine, and a long-time Dorchester resident, will review the paper's coverage of her race this spring to replace recently resigned state Sen. Jack Hart.

[Jonas] will be reviewing the Reporter newspapers' coverage of the campaign for the First Suffolk State Senate seat, receiving and exploring reader feedback, and publishing his findings in a regular column and online at DotNews.com.

Concord Town Meeting voted last year not to regulate cats, but proponents of cat herding go before Town Meeting again this year.

The Dorchester Reporter gets a copy of his letter to the advisory committee looking at changes in how to assign students in lower grades to public schools.

Just in case you were wondering.

So that leaves state reps. Nick Collins and Linda Dorcena Forry.