Category: Uncategorized

“Little time for debate”

The best description in the traditional media of the Middleborough town meeting that approved the casino-gambling deal appears in an editorial today in The Enterprise of Brockton. The whole thing is a must-read (linked moved; now fixed), but check this out:

This is a decision that will affect the state for generations. It will alter many lives, change the economy of the Bay State, create new issues and have many consequences. It is not a decision to be made lightly or hastily, so no one should hold Patrick to his previous promise to make a decision this week.

This rational approach is in sharp contrast to what has happened in Middleboro in recent months where residents reluctantly voted to support a casino, to be built by the Mashpee Wampanoag Indian tribe (or more accurately, their billionaire backers). There was little time for debate and reflection on how it would affect the town and the region, especially since there was always the subtle threat that if Middleboro didn’t make up its mind — and fast — the Indians would take their slot machines elsewhere.

To which I would add this: The “subtle threat” was not so much that the Indians would take their slot machines elsewhere, but that they would build them in Middleborough whether residents liked it or not. That’s why people were told to vote “yes” on the deal even if they opposed the casino itself. That’s why they turned right around after the first vote and voted “no” on an advisory question asking whether they wanted to see a casino built in town.

The editorial urges Gov. Deval Patrick to take his time on making a decision (apparently he needs no such urging), and concludes: “This may be the most important decision you ever make as governor. Don’t let anyone from any quarter put pressure on you. Do what is best for the long-term welfare of the people of Massachusetts.”

Look at what we’re dealing with now. A tribal chairman, Glenn Marshall, who left in disgrace. The entire tribal leadership facing a recall election. Three of Middleborough’s five selectmen facing a recall election. (The other two, including the chief casino enabler, Adam Bond, escaped only because they were elected too recently.) Two of the investors with dubious legal records. A mysterious meeting with the ethically challenged state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson.

Just walk away, governor. You don’t need this.

My standard disclosure.

Cellphone smackdown!

New York Times columnist Joe Nocera doesn’t like his Treo (sub. req.) — and he blames Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg. To wit:

Maybe I should never have believed The Wall Street Journal’s technology guru, Walt Mossberg, who wrote in early 2006 that “Palm’s Treo smartphones have been the best high-end cellphones on the market, with the finest combination of voice, e-mail and Web-browsing capabilities in a hand-held device.”…

Maybe, if my due diligence had gone beyond reading Mr. Mossberg, I might have realized that the Treo was far more trouble than it was worth.

Whoa! Nothing yet on Mossberg’s Web site, All Things D, but I imagine he’ll fire a return volley before the weekend is out.

But hold on. Here is the January 2006 Mossberg review to which Nocera refers. It’s a review not of the 700p, which has made Nocera’s life such a living hell, but of the 700w, which runs a completely different operating system — Windows Mobile rather than the Palm OS, which Nocera fingers as his culprit (other than Mossberg). True, Mossberg said nice things about the Palm OS, but the 700p hadn’t even been released yet.
Then, in June 2006, Mossberg was back with a review of the then-brand-new 700p, a good seven months before Nocera made his purchase. Here’s an excerpt:

In our tests, over a couple of weeks, the Treo 700p performed well. Web browsing was a pleasure at the new high speeds. Our only complaint was a short but annoying lag in displaying the text of emails and in performing certain other operations. Also, our test unit crashed twice and had to be restarted. (It didn’t lose any data in the crash.)

It crashed twice in a couple of weeks, eh? Did Nocera notice that? Sounds like a pretty good harbinger of the problems he describes today.

Nocera has complained about his toys previously without taking, uh, due diligence. If he can’t slip one past a tech doofus like me, he ought to find another subject.

What’s bugging Tim Cahill

State Treasurer Tim Cahill is very upset that U.S. Customs agents harassed his family when they flew home from Italy recently because one of his daughters was found carrying peaches (Globe story here; Herald story here). “As a citizen who cares about security, I think that the time needs to be spent better and maybe on less serious issues than peaches,” Cahill is quoted as saying.

Both papers report having made unsuccessful attempts to get government officials to comment (the Globe’s Andrea Estes appears to have tried quite a bit harder than the Herald’s Dave Wedge), and then leave it at that. But about three seconds of Googling would have revealed what their intuition should have told them in the first place — that fruit can carry non-native insects and other nasties that could wreak havoc if they get loose in the United States.

Here’s part of a press release on a food-sniffing dog that works for the Houston Airport system:

During their training, these canines are taught to alert their human counterparts when they sniff five primary odors: apple, citrus, mango, pork and beef. Plants and flowers are also at the top of the dogs’ target items list.

These target items are foreign to the United States and may contain certain diseases and insects that are not currently present in the country. The function of CBP [Customs and Border Protection] is to prevent these potentially dangerous items from entering the country and, by the same token, to prevent foreign items from the U.S. entering other countries.

Meats can carry livestock diseases, such as swine fever and mad cow disease that can kill American livestock. Fruits and vegetables, on the other hand, can carry insects or diseases, such as the Mediterranean fruit fly or citrus canker, which can wipe out hundreds of acres of the U.S.’s agriculture.

Or maybe we could review how Dutch elm disease, spread by bark beetles, came to wipe out the graceful elm trees that used to line the streets of Boston and other American cities. According to this Wikipedia entry (corroborated by the Encyclopedia Britannica):

The disease was first reported in the United States in 1928, with the beetles believed to have arrived in a shipment of logs from the Netherlands destined for the Ohio furniture industry. The disease spread slowly from New England westward and southward, almost completely destroying the famous Elms in the “Elm City” of New Haven, reaching the Detroit area in 1950, the Chicago area by 1960, and Minneapolis by 1970.

Maybe the agents who stopped the Cahills acted unprofessionally and didn’t bother to explain themselves. Maybe they were unnecessarily rude, the default mode for too many government officials with a little bit of power. But certainly they had a legitimate reason to confiscate the peaches. Too bad the papers didn’t make more of an attempt to find out why.

Even better: Steve finds the notice at left on the Customs Web site. It begins: “We regret that it is necessary to take agricultural items from your baggage. They cannot be brought into the United States because they may carry animal and plant pests and diseases. Restricted items include meats, fruits, vegetables, plants, soil, and products made from animal or plant materials.”

“Magic” is coming; magic is gone

In my latest for The Guardian, I explain why I’m not looking forward to “Magic,” the forthcoming album by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

Update: You can’t take on Bruce without having to fend off his hordes of fans. I have more to say here, complete with ratings for every one of his albums.

The latest on Paul Sullivan

Earlier today local media folks received the following statement from Peter Casey, news director at WBZ Radio (AM 1030):

Statement on behalf of the family of Paul Sullivan:

We all want you to know how much Paul has appreciated the cards and calls during the last few months since giving his evening talk show on WBZ Radio. They have been very comforting during these summer months. We also want to express how grateful we are to the terrific medical team at Massachusetts General Hospital for their amazing care and treatment of Paul during the past 33 months.

At this point we have decided to end medical treatments for Paul’s cancer and focus on his comfort and quality of life. He will be in the hospital for the foreseeable future receiving hospice care. We feel he will be most comfortable here at Saint’s Memorial Medical Center in Lowell, the city where he spent so much of his life. Paul is surrounded by his family and friends and would like everyone to know how important all the thoughts and prayers have been to him.

Very sad news. Sully stepped down in June, but at the time he and the station held out some hope that his health would improve to the point where he could do some radio commentary. Unfortunately, that’s not going to happen.

Best wishes to Paul and his family at this difficult time.

Wilkerson leaps in (II)

Boston Globe columnist Joan Vennochi reports that Patrick aide Michael Morris didn’t expect to run into Amelia and Steven Bingham when he dropped by state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson’s office last week. She adds that it’s time for Gov. Deval Patrick to walk away from the mess that is casino gambling:

The push for expanded gambling in Massachusetts comes from racetrack operators, out-of-state promoters, and other gambling interests. If they haven’t made their case yet, that should tell Patrick something important. It’s a shaky case for everyone but them.

Interesting that the most experienced analysts in town, like Vennochi, Jon Keller and Steve Bailey, understand this. Let’s hope Patrick reaches the same conclusion.

Update: Peter Kenney has much more at Cape Cod Today. And, as I should have noted earlier, there’s a discrepancy between his and Vennochi’s accounts. According to Vennochi’s reporting, Morris was surprised to see the Binghams in Wilkerson’s office. According to what the Binghams told Kenney, Morris was surprised to see that the Binghams had brought advisers with them.

Kenney’s take is that Glenn Marshall’s downfall could lead to the re-opening of a lawsuit by the tribe against the town of Mashpee over Wampanoag land rights — and that Wilkerson, a member of the Senate Insurance Committee, has an obvious interest in a situation that could wreak havoc with property insurance.

My standard disclosure.

Teasing the Globe

Joe Keohane, Jeff Keating and Adam Reilly are all quite taken with the Boston Globe‘s new “In the news” front-page teasers, which run the length of the left-hand column. Joe even goes so far as to call the feature “a web-influenced sidebar.”

Well, pardon me, but there’s nothing even remotely new about what the Globe is doing. Certainly it’s no different from the “Newsline” column that appears on the front of USA Today (left). The Boston Herald ran similar teasers following its sparkling 1999 redesign, but gave them up after its New York Post-ification a few years later. (Unfortunately, Ron Reason, the consultant who oversaw the redesign, has removed the sample Herald fronts from his Web site.)

That’s not to say the Globe teasers aren’t a good idea. They are. They’re also intriguing from a strategic point of view. The vast majority of Globes are sold via home delivery, but there’s no need to flog the inside content for customers who are retrieving the paper from their front porches.

The teasers say that Globe executives have decided there’s circulation to be gained by persuading more people to buy a copy on their way to work. But aren’t these the same people who are reading the Globe online, for free, once they get to work?

That’s the 50-cents-per-copy question.