Some slightly off-the-beaten-path stories you may have missed over the past week.

— Yes, AI is destroying jobs. Here’s the local proof: “AI is upending Boston-area tech businesses, amid buyouts and job cuts” (Globe)

— Meanwhile, old-fashioned rates are upending CRE again: “The Surge in Rates Is Blowing Up Commercial Real-Estate Deals” (WSJ)

— A combination of factors are at play here, including young ones drinking less: “Craft beer closures outpace openings in Massachusetts for the first time” (BBJ)

— One less eyesore on the waterfront: “Boutique Hotel Pitched for Fire-Damaged Boston Wharf” (B&T)

— It’s become a surprise non-affordability issue: “This Trump-backed school choice push has put Mass. Gov. Healey in a campaign-season squeeze” (MassLive)

— This could ease expanded passenger rail in western Mass.: “State, CSX agree to rail upgrades in the Berkshires” (GBH)

— You don’t say: “Seattle’s Mayor Ran as a Socialist. Then She Ran Into Reality” (WSJ)

— It’s not a Herald headline. It’s WSJ headline: “Drake Maye Lives! Patriots Quarterback Defies Early Doubt” (WSJ)

— Now they have doubts? He should never have been confirmed in the first place: “Hegseth Talks Tough as Republican Doubts About His Leadership Grow?” (NYT)

— Necessity is the mother of inventions, especially in war: “How Ukraine’s Naval Drones Are Remaking War at Sea” (NYT)

If you want to shake up the political status quo in Massachusetts, Question 3 will definitely accomplish the goal if passed in November – replacing our current partisan primary-election system with an “all-party” primary system, similar to what now exists in California. It’s an imperfect solution to a very real problem: we have too many uncontested general elections in Massachusetts. The two-party system is simply not working here.

And now former Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, is joining former Gov. Deval Patrick, a Democrat, in supporting Question 3, arguing that its passage will promote more competitive elections in Massachusetts, as GBH reports. They’re right. It will definitely promote more competitive elections. And that’s precisely why the political establishment hates the idea. Of course they do. 

Update — 10.8.26 — From a reader:

On Question 3 – I respect your perspective of course.   It depends on the problem you are trying to solve..I think it will make for more competitive elections but only within the Democratic party, because we have a Democratic party monoculture in Massachusetts (like California and a few other states).   I see two high probability outcomes:

– The Democratic Socialists of America advances its takeover of said Democratic party. Final elections strongly resemble Democratic primaries.

OR

– The Undecided voters come to the fore and push back the DSA takeover of said Democratic party.    That is likely to result in more of the criticized incumbents staying in power (presumably motivation for this question) but… if you’re not an DSA fan, it could be worse!.

I think there’s a very good chance of the former and not the latter because the DSA is already dominated by highly educated people who are highly effective at silencing opposition via various persuasive and cognitive methods. …

My response to the reader: I respectfully disagree with your respectful disagreement. In California, studies have shown all-party primaries push  candidates to the center, not the extremes, as candidates try to capture those centrist voters. The current party primary system pushes people to the extreme — extreme right in the GOP’s case (which we’ve already seen), extreme left in the Dem party (as we now see unfolding).

Update II –– 10.8.26 – From the Herald’s Joe Battenfeld: “Charlie Baker backs ballot question making the MassGOP extinct.” … Again, I respectfully disagree. I think an open primary could help Republican candidates. And entrenched Democrats think so too. That’s why they hate this idea.

You got to hand it to Gov. Healey: she’s stolen the energy-cost issue from rival Mike Minogue, fair and square, and he’s once again left whining and fuming, as the Herald reports. The Republican Minogue deserves credit for initially forcing Healey’s hand on the gas-tax-holiday issue. But then he started his she-stole-my-idea whining – and now Healey’s stealing the winter heating-fuel issue, via an “energy emergency” executive order, that Minogue should have aggressively pursued after her blatant gas-tax-holiday theft (and after Hub Blog and others pointed out the logical next winter-fuel step for Minogue). … Bottom line: the West Point grad has been left flat-footed by the former Harvard basketball player, who’s run a political fast-break offense and full-court-press defense against Minogue. Among other topics, she’s been shamelessly everywhere on the energy issue. See yesterday’s “Pipeline politics” post. … Hmmm. Two energy-politics posts in as many days. There’s a pattern forming here.

Update — 10.7.26 — From Howie Carr at the Herald: “Maura Healey’s chilling kilowatt-hour crusade.”

Update II — 10.8.26 – From a WSJ editorial: “Climate Reality Hits Massachusetts.”

I loved Mark Shanahan’s Globe piece on The Departed, the most overrated Boston crime movie of them all. Here’s Mark on the flick’s awful Boston accents and a certain actor’s overacting:

Instead, the city’s avatar is a bad accent — a bunch of them, actually. Even local boys Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg, who should know better, lean a little too hahd into the Dorchester dialect. Alec Baldwin? He’s not playing a Boston cop, he’s parodying one. Thankfully, Jack Nicholson doesn’t attempt an accent, but he still manages to make mob boss Frank Costello a cartoon, more slapstick than satanic; Nicholson’s performance is absurdly over-the-top, even for him, and it undermines the movie.

To me, Nicholson’s casting ruined the movie. From the get go, it was Jack Nicholson playing Jack Nicholson.

I agree with Shanahan that The Town is a much better Boston crime film, drawing inspiration from Michael Mann’s Heat. But Ben Affleck’s The Town also drew inspiration from arguably the greatest Boston crime movie of them all: The Friends of Eddie Coyle, starring Robert Mitchum. Based on George Higgins’s classic novel, The Friends of Eddie Coyle can be a slow, tedious movie at times, but it really captures Boston of the 1970s, when the Winter Hill Gang and Whitey reigned supreme here. It ultimately earned higher ratings at Rotten Tomatoes than both The Departed and The Town.

Update — From a reader: “I actually like The Depahhted, though I agree The Town is a more authentic/better Boston crime movie.   Eddie Coyle is awesome… opening bank robbery exterior shot in Dedham Square!  One of my (old friends) has a role in the North Shore home invasion (scene).”

It wasn’t too long ago when Gov. Maura Healey bragged she had blocked natural-gas pipeline expansions in Massachusetts. Now that it’s an affordability-themed election year, she’s pushing the Trump administration to speed up natural-gas pipeline expansion plans. … Meanwhile, it wasn’t too long ago when environmentalists demanded utilities plug leaky gas pipelines rather than expand the existing pipeline system. Now that lawmakers are eyeing cuts in conservation programs to lower utility bills, they’re suddenly funding studies criticizing utilities for spending too much on leaky pipelines. … And utilities’ emphasis on pipeline fixes have themselves fluctuated over time, depending on their financial incentives and disincentives at any given moment.

Ultimately, a lot of this is typical political theater, as each faction jockeys for better PR position on climate-change and affordability issues. But it’s not entirely political theater. Pipeline politics have had real-world consequences – especially in the form of higher energy costs for consumers. We’re’ literally paying the price for all the political ham acting on Beacon Hill.

Update — From a HB reader, who wrote in just prior to my posting the entry above:

Energy Bad Boys is a useful Substack in the Robert Bryce vein covering implications of US energy policy typically at state level on cost and reliability. This weekend, they wrote about the Project Beacon natural gas pipeline expansion and Governor Healey’s welcome support for the project. This past winter appears to be changing minds, slowly and quietly… thank goodness

Some slightly off-the-beaten-path stories you may have missed over the past week:

— It’s not a total retreat, but it’s a retreat: “Cambridge Councilors Seek to Rein in Citywide Upzoning” (Banker & Tradesman)

— Big government contracts in Massachusetts. What could possibly go wrong? “Who will build the new Sagamore Bridge? Mass. seeks bidders for massive project” (WBUR)

— Yet another hit to one of our leading industries: “The U.S. Tariff Attack on U.S. Biotech” (WSJ)

— Speaking of biotech, China is accused once again of taking an R&D shortcut: “Beam Therapeutics sues Chinese biotech, VC-backed startup, alleging theft of intellectual property” (Globe)

— Banned in Boston. Banned in Somerville. Same thing: “Davis Square vendor market Small Mart bans AI art” (Cambridge Day)

— In ‘Troubled Times,’ it’s a look back at a politically tense decade: “Journalist Kevin Galvin wanted to understand political violence, so he reached for a story from his Boston childhood” (Globe)

–They could be paying as much as $300 million? Yikes: “Ivory tower tax hit” (BBJ)

–Turns out they’re a little like human babies, focusing on consonants to vaguely grasp word meanings: “Dogs use a surprising method to understand human language, new study suggests” (Washington Post)

— He said it, not us: “Karl Rove says Republican Party is being taken over by ‘Nazis’” (SA Current, via Drudge)

— Yeah, but can it win at Risk? “This game-playing AI is the new champ at Stratego” (MIT News)

Oh, now they’re sounding the alarm on Drake Maye after another disastrous performance. … Remember: Hub Blog was boldly against Drake before I was for him and then back to against Drake after I was for him. … OK, the Mac Jones comparisons are too easy. But there’s something else gnawing at me whenever I see Maye drop back for a pass: the late-career Drew Bledsoe. Not the cannon-arm Drew. I’m talking about the dread you felt whenever the lumbering Drew dropped back — and you just knew a sack was coming. Today, it’s the dread you feel when Maye drops back – and you just know a ridiculously misdirected lob pass is coming. … So maybe it’s a mix of Mac Jones II and late Drew?

Update — 9.29.26 — A regular Hub Blog reader thinks Drake may need a personal coach, as in someone he can just talk to beyond the Xs and Os:

It is Red Alert Time. … Maye looks like he has hit a cliff wall and confidence and judgment are shot.  And this goes back to the playoffs last year as we all realize.  I don’t think of the NFL as a personal coach-friendly league but I could be wrong. I’m reminded of Baker Mayfield who did rebound but it was a long trip to the bottom.

I wish Maye luck. It is horribly embarrassing for him.

Update II – 10.5.26 – A week later, Drake had a good game against the Bills. I’m happy for him. But his subpar play late last season and early this year wasn’t a figment of our imagination. The jury’s still out on Drake. … Btw: Bills safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson may be a sore loser, but he’s not totally wrong in his post-game assessments. Despite their win yesterday, the Pats still come across as a very shaky, thin team.

A new UNH poll shows Republican Mike Minogue gaining some ground on Gov. Maura Healey, the Herald reports.  The only problem: He’s still 16 points behind the incumbent Democrat with just over a month to go before the November election. The new UNH survey shows Healey leading Minogue 54 percent to 38 percent, which is a slight improvement for Minogue over the 54-32 numbers in August.

I assume Minogue’s somewhat appealing gas-tax-suspension idea had something to do with his small poll gain, combined with his plunking down millions of his own money on the race. But what fascinates me is how Healey’s numbers seem stuck. No movement. And that’s probably because she’s been running to the left on many issues – from abortion to immigration — and that’s not where the new votes are located. She’s clearly committed to a shore-up-the-anti-Trump-base strategy, not an expand-the-base strategy. Which isn’t necessarily a bad idea. It’s a deep blue state, after all. Still, it makes for a dull run-out-the-clock strategy.

Re the ‘moves the needle’ headline above: it comes from my most recent Substack newsletter. And while I’m at it, feel free to sign up for the newsletter. It’s indeed free.

Update — 9.29.26 — From the Globe’s Joan Vennochi: “Why Maura Healey is running a little bit scared against Mike Minogue.”

Update II –– 10.3.26 – According to a new Commonwealth Beacon/MassINC survey, Minogue hasn’t moved the needle either. They’re both stuck at 54-32. …. I’m still more intrigued with Healey’s ho-hum numbers.

An old Hub Blog friend writes in about the Globe’s Last Ditch Bar-KN-95 Mask story that’s taken the Internet by storm:

I’ve been paying very little attention to this issue in Western Mass with the lesbian bar actually trying to remove its mask mandate one day a week, but it seems to have hit absurdist levels. … Now the Communist Party of Western Massachusetts (which is a real thing) is calling the Globe coverage the product of ‘corporate lobbies.’ And seemingly blaming the whole thing on the “’fascist Trump administration.’ If you ignore the fact that this ‘debate’ probably involves a handful of unhappy patrons and the Communist Party of Western Mass likely has two members, it’s actually pretty funny.

Btw, here’s a handy-dandy explainer piece about the ‘Last Ditch Bar Mask-Optional Drama,’ so you can catch up on all the viral absurdities… Btw II, I thought the Globe’s Annalisa Quinn handled the original Globe story just right, sticking to the facts, letting the ideological terminology flow as if that’s how all such conversations flow, etc. Ultimately, it’s the post-Covid mask mandate and astonishing woke dialogue that made the story, right? … And, oh, the Last Ditch Bar incident already has a Wikipedia entry. 

Some slightly off-the-beaten-path stories you may have missed this past week:

— Doesn’t this make him a non-socialist/progressive  Democrat? It’s not that complicated: “He praises Mamdani, says he’s not a socialist, and wants a ‘big tent’ for Democrats. Where does Dan Koh fit in?” (Globe)

— Of course we’re talking about for-profit youth sports, not ‘school-based’ sports: “New survey find parents feeling strain of keeping kids in sports as costs rise” (GBH)

— Guess which state is the least affordable. One guess: “This is the salary needed to afford childcare across the country” (BBJ)

— In other words, it took this long for them to realize one-third were riding free? “Fare gates at South Station boost MBTA commuter rail ticket activations by 33%” (MassLive)

— It’s not over: “Wells Fargo Forecloses on Boston’s 100 Summer St. Office Tower” (B&T)

— As they auction off office towers in Boston (see above item), I’m not so sure this is a good idea: “Historic Filene’s building pitched as 200,000-sq.-ft. headquarters office” (BBJ)

— They aren’t libertarians. They’re sick: “N.H. Libertarian Party endorses ‘assassination’ of elected Democrats” (WBUR)

— Whining or legitimate concern? A little of both, actually: “Top mathematicians are outraged by OpenAI’s methods” (Economist)

— Academia seems to be going through the motions with all these confessional reports that go nowhere: “In 200-Page Report, Cornell Confronts the Crisis in American Higher Education” (WSJ)

— The fifth season of the hit show brilliantly portrays the harrowing Israeli experience, not the entire harrowing experience: “Can ‘Fauda’ capture the truth of Israel, Gaza and October 7th?” (The Economist)