A federal magistrate judge concluded today that Dianna Ploss isn't really serious about her suits against police in Winthrop and Swampscott for allegedly failing to protect her from a scary man at Trump rallies in the towns and urged a judge in US District Court to throw both cases out. Read more.
Yesterday, a thermal inversion meant smoke from fires in Salem and nearby communities stayed close to the ground and came down into the Boston area. The thermal inversion is still there this morning as Nicholas Agri shows in photos from the Cottage Park Yacht Club in Winthrop. He reports the wind was blowing east today, but some folks are still reporting the odor of smoke.
CommonWealth Beacon answers the local political question of the year: Why is one of the Supreme Judicial Court's two clerks elected by voters in Boston, Chelsea, Revere and Winthrop?
It's a fascinating historical story involving voter anger over the way the SJC back in the day refused to stand in the way of a fugitive slave being re-captured in Boston to be sent back into slavery down south in 1850. Doesn't explain why the post is still elected, but then again, this is Massachusetts, where if we did something once, we are often compelled to do it forever and ever.
Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Kimberly Budd today swore in Maura Looney as the SJC's Clerk for the Commonwealth, replacing Francis Kenneally, who was appointed a judge in the district-court system earlier this year. Read more.
Matt Frank watched the sun come up over the ocean off Winthrop this morning in the haze from forest fires way out West.
Mayor Wu today endorsed Allison Cartwright for one of those elected positions that long ago ceased having any policy issues on which we could judge candidates: clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County: Read more.
The state Ethics Commission today fined Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden $5,000 for the way the DA's press office released a statement that basically accused his opponent of sexually assaulting a girl when the two were in high school. Read more.
Damage after May, 2023 incident. Photo by MWRA.
The MWRA today sued a maintenance company for the nearly $4.4 million it says it will cost to replace an electricity-generating wind turbine at Deer Island it charges was destroyed because the company let what should have been a relatively routine shutdown for some repairs turn into a catastrophic event in which the turbine's blades began to separate from the device. Read more.
Politico reports (scroll way down for "Yahd Signs and Bumpah Stickahs") that current City Councilor Erin Murphy on Saturday announced endorsements by nine labor unions for her bid to get elected clerk of the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County - in a press release that showed the logos of 49 labor unions and groups, at least one of which says, no, it's not endorsing her this time around. Read more.
Kelly Garrity reports that Councilor Erin Murphy (at large) is going to run this fall for the Supreme Judicial Court for Suffolk County's clerk job that Maura Doyle recently announced she is retiring from. Read more.
WBZ reports. Winthrop Police said in a statement that Lt. James Feeley, 56, has been put on administrative leave while the case is pending.
Innocent, etc.
Mary Ellen took a break from observing winged fauna to watch this guy wading through the ocean at Winthrop Beach this morning.
Winthrop Police are investigating an incident involving a Zoomed Town Council discussion on flag flying on town property yesterday in which somebody "shouted an antisemitic slur, displayed a swastika on their screen and appeared to give a nazi salute."
In a statement, police add they are investigating the ranting as a hate crime: Read more.
At Logan, Ben Walsh reports:
Last time I’ll be up early enough for the sunrise until daylight savings starts again.
Not all that far away, Chelsea Scanner took in the sunrise over the water at Winthrop: Read more.
Jew-hating Trump lover Dianna Ploss today sued the Winthrop Police Department for failing to protect her in 2020 from a man she says followed her from one Trump rally to another, carrying a "Doms for Dianna" sign, wearing "a sadomasochist outfit" exposing his underwear and telling her, in alleged earshot of several Winthrop officers, that he had her address so he would be stopping by her house later in the evening. Read more.
The MBTA announced today that ferry service to and from East Boston and Winthrop will run until Nov. 30.
Fox News breaks the news that Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden has put True-See Allah, his director of community engagement/strategic partnerships, on leave to investigate an anti-Semitic statement he made in a 2016 interview. Read more.
Mary Ellen says the local birding community is all atwitter about a fallout of red phalaropes off Cape Cod, far from their normal nesting areas in the Arctic - to which they migrate from southern oceans - so she reports she was pleasantly surprised when she spotted one in the water off Deer Island on a walk this morning.
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