Some random thoughts on recent news:

Gov. Fix It 2: Healey’s speech shows she learned lessons from November’s election debacle

Gov. Maura Healey delivered a true nuts-and-bolts speech last evening at the State House, promising to “fix transportation, make homes more affordable, invest in education, and grow our economy.” … She sounded a little like her Gov. Fix It predecessor. She also sounded like someone who understands Dems paid a price in November for losing touch with the economic (mostly inflation) concerns of average Americans. …. Teamster boss Sean O’Brien, who famously refused to endorse Kamala Harris for president last year, praised Healey’s emphasis on cost-of-living issues. … GBH’s Adam Reilly thinks Healey was “speaking as someone who’s very much in the mix as the Democratic Party searches for its next standard bearer in the post-Biden era.” Perhaps. But she struck me more as someone gearing up for re-election. …. Republicans seem to be gearing up themselves.

‘The H-1B visa program is broken’ (and it has to do with outsourcing local jobs) 

Speaking of fixing things, the Globe’s Hiawatha Bray has some ideas on how to fix an obviously flawed H-1B visa program that’s currently the center of a heated debate between Trump supporters Steve Bannon and Elon Musk. … The Atlantic also has a piece that looks at how Bernie Sanders and Musk, true political opposites, might actually agree on reforms of the H-1B program, specifically eliminating use of the visas to outsource U.S. tech jobs. … And such visas have indeed been used locally to replace native tech workers. I have an old tech friend who lost his financial-services job in Marlborough after his Boston-based employer hired an outsourcing firm that simply replaced local workers with lower-paid H-1B visa holders from India. 

‘America Just Kinda, Sorta Banned Cigarettes’

Have we learned nothing from the war on drugs? Apparently not. … This new FDA rule is a form of prohibition – and it will merely lead to a huge increase in the criminal black market for cigarettes. And regulators know it. But they still did it. … Even before the FDA action Reason magazine had a piece last month on the growing tobacco black market here and elsewhere. 

Not quite NIMBYism: Critics slam Downtown Crossing tower-height proposals

The opposition to Downtown Crossing zoning changes, which would allow higher residential towers to be built in the district, has elements of classic NIMBYism but isn’t quite true NIMBYism. There are legitimate historic preservation concerns involved. … Is city planner Kairos Shen going to do to Downtown Crossing what he did to Seaport, i.e. allow walls and walls of gleaming glass towers to be built? … I know the architectural community has been down for years on old-fashioned “red brick” buildings in Boston. But when are they going to finally tire of these banal glass-covered behemoths? … And that, dear readers, is my pet-peeve rant of the day.

To the rescue: ‘Big Pink Inflatable Men’

OK, it’s silly. But it’s a fun silly. … The BBJ and B&T report on the latest public art exhibition designed to enliven a not-so-enlivened downtown Boston. Think: Macy’s Thanksgiving parade. … Hey, it’s better than banal glass-covered tower buildings. 

DiZoglio says her office is auditing shelter program

Hmmm. I have no doubt Gov. Healey is concerned about the ridiculous costs and policy associated with the state’s right-to-shelter program. But I’m going to have to re-calibrate how much of her recent reform proposals were the result of growing political pressure to act – or else. Responding to GOP requests for an audit of the program, State Auditor Diana DiZoglio says she’s already on it. … Assuming that’s true, Healey must have known auditors (and Republicans) were circling the program before she released her reform package.

‘Hawk rescued after being hit by car, stuck in car’s grill, in Chelmsford’

How it survived, I don’t know. But survive it did, thanks to a Honda dealership worker and veterinarians at Tufts. …