The BBJ got its wish: Treasurer Deb Goldberg has finally been held accountable, or at least partially accountable, for the mess at the Cannabis Control Commission, thanks to Suffolk Superior Court Judge Robert Gordon’s ruling this week that Goldberg wrongly fired CCC chair Shannon O’Brien in 2023. The 50-page ruling is so brutally worded and full of common-sense observations, you’d think Goldberg would cut her losses and let the controversy slowly fade away. Nope. Goldberg has served notice she plans to appeal Gordon’s decision, prolonging the CCC’s years-long bureaucratic agony for Lord knows how much longer, as GBH’s Adam Reilly reports. … The Globe’s Joan Vennochi has an excellent column that gets to a core truth about the controversy: Goldberg’s attempt to use woke-ism to justify her firing/canceling of O’Brien. It backfired on Goldberg, big time. … Meanwhile, a Globe editorial gets it right on two points: Goldberg needs to give it up, while O’Brien needs to declare victory and walk away.

Update – 9.5.25 — And from the Globe’s Kevin Cullen: “Having read a judge’s sobering take on the state of the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission, I have just one question: What are they smoking up there?” …. Fyi: Kevin found a copy of Gordon’s strongly worded ruling here.