Kairos Shen is returning to his old job as head of the city’s development agency – and Scott Van Voorhis is right there to welcome him. With a blowtorch. … Setting aside Shen’s obnoxious pension grab when he last left City Hall, I wasn’t a big fan of his previous “modern materials” mandate for new buildings in Boston. I’m not one of those traditionalists who want red bricks, bricks, bricks all the time. But I also don’t want glass, glass, glass all the time either. 

This season may be the last and only chance for the current Celts to win banner 19 and establish a mini-dynasty as their legacy. The reason: the pending sale of the team and the crushing “luxury tax” that the Celts are now paying – an NBA tax a new owner is highly unlikely to tolerate, according to the Globe’s Christopher Gasper. … And, of course, Gasper’s right. A break-up of the current team is highly likely after this coming season.

As a friend wrote of Daddy Grousbeck: “It’s hard to fault Irv for looking to sell at a market top.”

Just what the supply-chain and economy need: a dockworkers strike up and down the East Coast, potentially starting next week. The port workers are represented by the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA). 

The media is all over the latest controversy at State Police. Attorney General Andrea Campbell has appointed an outside attorney to lead an independent probe into Enrique Delgado-Garcia’s death following a boxing exercise at the State Police academy. … Then there’s this Globe editorial and a separate Joan Vennochi column on the training-exercise controversy. … It’s good to see people making the connection between historically harsh State Police training and the long-known “culture problem” in general at State Police.

Btw: I can’t get out of my mind this quote (scroll down) from a retired State Police trooper who recently defended the harsh training by academy instructors: “They were in your face yelling at you — but so are the people on the side of the road.” … People on the side of the road? Is he talking about motorists? 

Here’s yet more on the macho-training exercises at Tufts. … Nine healthy college lacrosse players hospitalized after a training session led by a former Navy SEAL trainee. Dumber than dumb. … As I mentioned the other day (see “More over-the-top training exercises” below), there’s an element of sadism at work in these ridiculously harsh training exercises, both at Tufts and State Police.

It seems election season truly brings out the tribalism in people, as far as their preferred news sources go, according to new study co-authored by an MIT professor. … I happen to think political confirmation bias runs strong 24/7/365, year after year, decade after decade. Just watch MSNBC or Fox News . Their entire business models are based on confirmation-bias viewing.

I hate to say it, but he’s right. …

They did it in 2016 and 2020, i.e. polls underestimating Donald Trump’s level of support across the country, partly because many of his backers are reluctant to admit they like Trump. Is the same thing happening this year? This latest NBC poll paints a generally rosy picture for Kamala Harris. But the latest NYT/Siena poll is more sobering (for Harris backers). It shows Trump remaining ahead in the key battleground states of Arizona, Georgia and N.C. … My gut says the NYT/Sienna poll is probably more accurate. My rule of thumb: Always add an extra percentage point or two to Trump’s poll numbers, just to be safe, based on past disappointing experience.

This time it involves Tufts lacrosse players, not State Police cadets. … There’s an element of sadism behind all of this, pushing people to the limit and then seeing them break one by one.

Update – State Police have suspended the training academy’s boxing program following the death of a cadet. …

I have to say I’m surprised by the overwhelmingly negative reaction, at least within the political circles I travel, to Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s NYT op-ed defending Haitian immigrants in his state. Where I saw very welcome moderation from a Republican governor, others saw only a politician who still backs Donald Trump and JD Vance, as evidenced by the biting anti-DeWine remarks in the NYT comments section and in the emails I’ve received since publishing the post below. I thought most of the push-back to DeWine’s op-ed would come from the Fox News right. Wrong! It seems many Dems are in no mood for nice-nice moderation.

Here’s a representative anti-DeWine comment at the NYT (and the last one posted before the section was shut down): “Still supports Trump and Vance. Unconscionable and emblematic of the insanity of the MAGA cult. There is nothing that will turn them from their dear leader. Zero respect for you governor and you debase your own good argument here by supporting its antithesis!”  

After receiving similar emails critical of DeWine, I responded to a group of Dem friends: “At a critical point and on a critical issue, DeWine’s standing up to Trump and Vance, openly and forcefully. Are we not supposed to welcome this?”

Fortunately, another member of the email chain sort of came to my rescue, a fellow Dem with extensive experience in Haiti: “I have met DeWine multiple times, and he is a solid individual. He is saying exactly what should be said and is protecting Haitian immigrants more convincingly than many Democrats have. He is forcefully rebuking Trump and Vance, and this Op-Ed in the NYT will enrage them. So, on this one issue, he is spot-on. Not every Republican is going to be Liz Cheney.”

Fyi: I didn’t do an extensive search for right-wing reactions to the DeWine op-ed, but it seems there’s very little reaction in general. Ignoring it is a form of cancelling it, I suppose.