As I told a friend, I can’t recall the last time I actually rooted for a Boston sports team to lose. But I did yesterday. And then the Pats went on to win – and lose the No. 1 pick in the NFL draft. … What a whacky season. … Am I the only one who thinks that maybe, just maybe, Jerod Mayo was fired partly because he won yesterday? … Am I the only one who thinks the Bills deep-down wanted the Pats to win yesterday so their divisional rival wouldn’t get the No. 1 pick? … My conspiracy-theory paranoia knows no bounds this morning. … Jerod Mayo shouldn’t have been hired in the first place. But I do feel a little bad for him now that he’s out. He was indeed a nice guy who finished (almost) last, as Dan Shaughnessy notes. … The Herald’s front-page headline: “No Mayo.” Not bad. … Karen Guregian is right: All signs point to Kraft picking Vrabel as head coach. But I’d be happy with Brian Flores too.
Month: January 2025
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Random conspiracy-theory thoughts on Jerod Mayo’s firing …
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Cambridge’s ‘controlled choice’ school system: Is it about academic performance or integration for integration’s sake?
This is a fascinating Globe story about Cambridge’s attempt to integrate its schools based partly on family income, as opposed to integrating schools by race. It hasn’t worked out as planned in the uber-progressive city, as the Globe’s James Vaznis reports. … But there’s something missing in the story after you wade through all the stats about various socioeconomic imbalances at district schools. Read it. See if you can figure out what’s missing. … Here’s what is missing: academic performance. There are no detailed MCAS and other stats measuring whether Cambridge’s “controlled choice” school system has led to overall improvement in education results, for rich and poor student alike. Shouldn’t academic performance be the ultimate measurement of a school district’s success, not whether the school district has achieved perfect socioeconomic balance at each and every school? … I’m not criticizing the reporting per se. It just seems too many people in Cambridge are focused on socioeconomic bean counting and not enough on academic results. …
P.S. – As far as I can tell, Cambridge’s “controlled choice” is indeed working overall, in terms of both integration and academic performance, based on sources here and here. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s hitting many of its goals. … I’m rooting for the current system to work. But I get the awful feeling, reading the Globe piece, that there are a lot of “advocates” out there itching to eliminate parental school choice as a way to avert occasional income/racial imbalances at schools. If they get their radical way, they’ll get more segregation, not less, as mostly affluent parents (read: mostly whites) pull their kids from city schools. That’s something Boston learned the hard way 50 years ago.
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There’s journalistic courage. Then there’s journalistic stupidity
The Washington Post cartoonist who quit after a Jeff Bezos cartoon was killed falls into the latter category. You don’t go after the boss.
Update – 1.4.25 — Dan Kennedy has more on the resignation — and the uproar it has caused. … I did get an email from an old colleague about my post, saying I was wrong to call it journalistic stupidity to take on the boss, etc. My response: every newspaper has its internal third-rails that newsroom employees touch at their own peril, usually issues involving the owner. Ann Telnaes knew this — and then quit after getting a predictable response from the higher-ups. Not exactly smart. … Btw: I do like Telnaes’s draft cartoon, as shown at Dan’s site. I’m certainly no fan of Jeff Bezos, that’s for sure.
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Medicare Advantage shenanigans | Craft rum and beer | Grover Cleveland revival | Assumption in the news for wrong reasons
Some random thoughts on recent news …
‘How Health Insurers Racked Up Billions in Extra Payments From Medicare Advantage’
The WSJ story alleges that many insurers have taken extra Medicare Advantage payments after diagnosing patients for conditions that doctors never treated. … And now it makes me wonder why my insurer is constantly trying to act like my doctor. … Yahoo has a summary of some of the WSJ’s findings.
Baker’s former economic chief eyes run for governor
Mike Kennealy, the former housing and economic chief under Charlie Baker, is floating the idea of running as a Republican for governor, the Herald reports. … He’d probably be a popular candidate within the business community. But Gov. Maura Healey, a Democrat, would still croak him. She may not be as popular as Baker, her predecessor, but she’s still quite popular.
Of craft rum and beer
I hadn’t heard of the locally distilled Rumson’s Rum until I read this BBJ story about its expansion plans. I’ll have to check it out. … While on the topic of booze, the parent company of Harpoon Beer has announced it’s merging with the New Hampshire owner of Smuttynose Brewing Co. It’s just the latest local merger of craft-beer makers, the BBJ reports.
State’s homeless population soars due to migrants, high housing costs
Massachusetts experienced the third largest increase in homelessness in the U.S. in 2024, due largely to a surge in migrants coming to the state and high housing costs. … The Globe story does mention that those who were provided temporary housing via the state’s right-to-shelter law were included in the fed numbers, making the term “homeless” a little fungible.
‘Five Assumption University students charged in connection with ‘To Catch a Predator’ kidnapping plot’
Very, very misguided good intentions.
‘The Rise of the Union Right’
I keep saying I’ve read enough post-election analysis pieces about what’s wrong with Democrats. But I keep clicking on them, particularly when they’re about how Dems so foolishly lost touch with working-class voters. …
Update – 1.4.25 — The NYT gets into the how-they-lost-’em act.
‘It’s a Grover Cleveland renaissance!’
Of all presidents, Grover Cleveland is back in the news, thanks to Donald Trump. … Until recently, Cleveland was the only president to regain the office after voters turned him out. Now Trump has matched his comeback achievement, as The Atlantic notes. … Meanwhile, from the Globe’s David Shribman: “What the ghost of Grover Cleveland would tell Trump.”
Btw: The entire presidential era in between Ulysses S. Grant and Teddy Roosevelt – Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harrison and William McKinley – is mostly a political black-hole to me. I know so little about the period, except maybe the Spanish-American War. But even then I associate the war with Teddy (and Orson Wells/Citizens Kane, of course). … I do have Doris Kearns Goodwin’s The Bully Pulpit, but I haven’t gotten around to reading it.
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‘Patriots now currently hold No. 1 overall pick in 2025 NFL Draft with week to go’
One reason to root against the Pats this weekend. …. Then again, do you have confidence in the Pats leadership to do the right thing with a No. 1 pick? I don’t. … Speaking of a collapse in confidence, Jerod Mayo Firing Watch updates here and here.
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Lawmakers nab big pay raise amid complaints they’re victims of ‘persistent negative’ news coverage
The total pay for the Legislature’s top Democrats hit $224,000 a year as of Wednesday, thanks to Gov. Maura Healey’s approval of an 11 percent increase in the base salaries for lawmakers, the Globe reports. But legislative leaders are still not happy, whining about the ‘persistent negative’ media coverage of Beacon Hill doings, the Herald reports. … And yet the leaders appear to confirm, or at least acknowledge, that there may be room for improvements at the State House, with promises of reforms tied to transparency and “efficiency.” …
Btw – The ultimate reform: a constitutional amendment making the Legislature a part-time body. Massachusetts is one of only ten states with full-time legislatures – and I’d argue Beacon Hill’s full-time status is one of the main reasons for the chronic delays in getting budgets and bills passed. They’re under no strong deadline pressure to reach compromises. They can afford to call bluffs. They have time. They can … procrastinate.
Here’s how McLean Hospital (yes, McLean Hospital, a source Google provided, I swear) describes the ‘p’ word: “Experts define procrastination as a self-defeating behavior pattern marked by short-term benefits and long-term costs. Many of us know it as putting off things that we need to get done, no matter the level of difficulty behind the task.” … ‘Self-defeating behavior pattern’? Pretty much sums up our Legislature. Give them time to proscrastinate and they will. Such as procrastinating till the very end to pass 100 bills.
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The Atlantic vs. the Post, Jobs vs. Bezos
The latest bad news for Jeff Bezos’s Washington Post: The Atlantic is raiding the Washington Post’s news staff as the magazine gears up for extensive political coverage of the incoming Trump administration, the NYT reports The Atlantic has already hired two national reporters from the Post – and more WaPo staffers are reportedly set to jump ship. … In a way, this is a tale of two billionaire media owners: Bezos, founder of Amazon, and Laurence Powell Jobs, widow of Steve Jobs and majority owner of The Atlantic. The former started off on a positive note as owner of the Post, overseeing expansion of the legendary newspaper and winning plaudits for its return to quality national reporting. But it’s been all negative in recent years, amid falling circulation, controversial editorial hires, low newsroom morale, and Bezos sucking up to Donald Trump. Meanwhile, the former Boston-based Atlantic has blossomed in recent years under Jobs, seeing its paid digital circulation soar and earning respect as a major journalism player in Washington, D.C. … I’d say Jobs is winning this new crosstown rivalry, don’t you think?
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