Political Happy Hour: Nov. 20, 2015
Last night in Boston, I saw a drink with a duckie in it. Cheers to that, from Stephanie Ebbert, sitting in for Joshua Miller.
DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES WEAKENED BY BUDGET CUTS, EARLY RETIREMENT INCENTIVE via Michael Levenson on BostonGlobe.com: “A new report by the Office of the Child Advocate, released Friday, credits the Department of Children and Families with taking steps to improve over the last 15 months. But it also said more needs to be done to rebuild the agency after years of budget cuts and the recent exodus of 100 managers as part of Governor Charlie Baker’s early retirement program.’’ http://bit.ly/1Yl6JSi
ANOTHER BRAND NEW COMPUTER SYSTEM BUILT BY STATE GOVERNMENT FAILS, THIS TIME LEAVING KIDS OUT OF DAYCARE by yours truly on BostonGlobe.com: “About 1,600 low-income children remain stuck on a waiting list for subsidized child care because a computer system built by the state government has been beset by problems for four months. The Department of Early Education and Care launched the new, $5.05-million system on July 1, despite concerns about its readiness raised by the child-care providers who rely on it to get paid. The computer problems follow several other state government technology upgrades that have gone awry in recent years, creating chaos in systems that consumers needed to access, including the new Massachusetts Health Connector and unemployment benefits…’’ http://bit.ly/1NhnZGu
DROP THE PHONE via Colin Young of State House News Service on WGBH’s “Boston Public Radio’’: Responding to a caller during her monthly radio appearance Friday, Attorney General Maura Healey said she supports efforts to ban handheld cellphone use while driving. http://bit.ly/2196rQJ
THEY LIKE HIM. THEY REALLY, REALLY LIKE HIM. Governor Charlie Baker has the highest approval ratings of any governor in the country, according to a nationwide survey called Morning Consult, by way of the Boston Herald. http://bit.ly/1I4u80R
A LITTLE PLACE ON THE LAKE, via the Concord Monitor: Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney’s request to build a 900-square-foot boathouse on his home on Lake Winnipesaukee was approved without discussion. http://bit.ly/1O80tdS
YOUR MBTA-DELAY LONG READ: Last week, before he was sparring over Syrian refugees, US Representative Seth Moulton hosted a very unusual Veterans Day event, where veterans went to a Marblehead town hall and shared their war stories publicly. The event was inspired by a Vanity Fair piece by “The Perfect Storm’’ author Sebastian Junger, who followed a platoon through Afghanistan for his book, “War,’’ and made war documentaries with — and about — photojournalist Tim Hetherington, who was killed in 2011. An excerpt: “The first time I experienced what I now understand to be post-traumatic stress disorder, I was in a subway station in New York City, where I live. It was almost a year before the attacks of 9/11, and I’d just come back from two months in Afghanistan with Ahmad Shah Massoud, the leader of the Northern Alliance. I was on assignment to write a profile of Massoud, who fought a desperate resistance against the Taliban until they assassinated him two days before 9/11. At one point during my trip we were on a frontline position that his forces had just taken over from the Taliban, and the inevitable counterattack started with an hour-long rocket barrage. All we could do was curl up in the trenches and hope. I felt deranged for days afterward, as if I’d lived through the end of the world. http://bit.ly/1JtygZT
AND BECAUSE IT WOULD BE A DAY WITHOUT SUNSHINE WITHOUT HIM:
Here’s your daily dose of Donald Trump, posted by the Globe’s own Twitter aficionado Matt Viser: “I’m the Ernest Hemingway of 140 characters.’’
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