The Herald reports Deval Patrick is looking at leasing key roads to private companies, who would then be able to make money by squeezing commuters like a turnip.

Here's the thing: Although the authorities that now run our toll roads (the turnpike authority and Massport) are isolated to some extent from the public they allegedly serve (hence the "quasi" in "quasi-public"), the are, ultimately, still responsible to our elected officials (just ask Christy Mihos). Private companies? All bets are off:

Sabutai knows something about the gambling issue, living in Middleborough and all, and so wonders why Deval Patrick won't release that casino study:

Extra money for cops is good, no? But how much is enough? For the second day in a row, the Globe basically calls Deval Patrick a meanie (making a point of how "limited" the funds are), while the Herald seems to give him a big "attaboy". And isn't that an interesting role reversal? Also interesting was the Globe's lede, which starts:

Under pressure to respond to a surge of violence in the state's capital ...

Dan Kennedy doesn't know what to make of the news that Deval Patrick might be trying to pay for new police officers by diverting state funds that traditionally have gone to local governments to, in part, hire new police officers. He wants to know what you make of it all.

Sure, today's Devaluation story was an obvious hatchet job lovingly spoonfed to Frank Phillips by a pair of Romney holdovers on the state Labor Relations Board, but the Outraged Liberal wonders how many more such stories will come out before the public abandons the governor?

I was only half-watching the news last night, but I have to tell you - the smug, smiling Patrick groupie explaining why it's just groovy that DevalPatrick.com lets you look up the address of pretty much every single Massachusetts resident of voting age really, really bugged me.

Kid, go spend some time with some domestic-abuse victims (as Channel 5's Janet Wu obviously did, because she typed in the name of one and found where she now lived), then come back with that perky smile of yours.

I admit it: I was dubious about Eileen McNamara's first New Bedford column, in which she said state officials failed the immigrants, because her assertion those officials knew about the raid ahead of time was based on word from a federal flack, and how could we trust that?

Blue Mass. Group has the statement and discussion.

Charley on the MTA wasn't concerned about the Caddy or the drapes. But making calls on behalf of a subprime lender like Ameriquest? That Charley cannot abide:

... I'm amazed and appalled that Patrick didn't just say, "Sorry, I can't make that call. I'm governor now." His constituents have a right to expect that he's going to be governor, all the time, and not take some time out to help out old employers. ...