The Cambridge City Council this week defeated a resolution praising House Speaker Robert DeLeo for his years of service, on a 3-3-3 vote. Cambridge Day reports that what is usually a fairly boring vote - city councils the world over pass hundreds of resolutions a year praising people - instead bogged down when some councilors derided DeLeo as being particularly unpraiseworthy.
Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo of Winthrop, is leaving his job for a new one at Northeastern University, Alison King at NBC Boston reports.
WGBH reports that state Reps. Diana DiZoglio (Methuen) and Angelo Scaccia (Hyde Park) both tore into Speaker Robert DeLeo on the house floor over non-disclosure agreements State House workers had to sign to get settlements for their sexual-harassment complaints. DiZoglio herself had to sign one while she was a legislative aide. Democratic reps traditionally do not criticize DeLeo on the floor.
CommonWealth Magazine reports House Speaker Robert DeLeo (D-Winthrop) has signed onto the Dukakis/Weld effort to build a tunnel between South and North stations.
Backers say the tunnel would not cost much more than the state's current plans to expand South Station and would provide far more benefits, including reducing the need for tracks at South Station, especially if the Postal Service decides to never move from its facility along Fort Point Channel.
The New York Daily News gives Mistah Speakah some space.
Via Dana Reichman Gitell.
Globe: House votes to restrict unions: Measure would curb bargaining on health care.
However, the Outraged Liberal says not so fast with the Walker comparisons; the real issue, he says, is that Mass. AFL-CIO honcho Robert Haynes has become a blowhard liability to the labor movement he purports to lead:
The Outraged Liberal considers Robert DeLeo's comments on a day when most people aren't going to be paying too much attention to his thoughts on the Probation Department scandal.
Technically, the governor has ten days to sign the casino/slots bill passed by the legislature last night. But the odds against that are pretty high.
A shame there won't be any debate. Jack Sullivan at CommonWealth runs DeLeo's numbers, discovers that to meet the tax-revenue numbers he's claiming, the two proposed casinos would have to bring in a total of between $5.6 billion and $7 billion a year in revenue. Nice change, but he notes that Las Vegas's 266 casinos currently make a combined total of $11.6 billion in gross receipts each year. Does that add up?
Released yesterday, ready for a vote next week. Includes a provision for slots at Suffolk Downs.
The Outraged Liberal wonders:
... Is the racino proposal really so shaky it cannot stand a public discussion? Or because the bill's new provisions really only affect your own district and a couple of others, do you think no one else need bother themselves with the details? ...
Proposes two casinos and slots at racetracks; unclear if he wants to put a casino AND slots at Suffolk Downs, which would thrill Tom Menino to pieces.
David Guarino, who knows something about legislative battles over gambling (as former PR guy for former Speaker DiMasi), considers what DeLeo will have to do to flip those reps who voted against casinos last time around.
Because our alleged leaders are displaying a notable lack of brains, from Deval Patrick finding a good hack job for Marian Walsh to, well, Marian Walsh accepting a good hack job, as the state sinks deeper into debt, the Outraged Liberal fulminates.
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