For GOP, is it sanity’s last stand?
By 
They called it the second Super Tuesday, and it proved to be very good, if not super, for Hillary Clinton, who won four of five contests, with Missouri still too close to call. It was a similar pretty strong night for Donald Trump, but in the desperate effort to stop his surge, a lot of hopes are being placed in Gov. John Kasich’s home state win in Ohio, which is the only thing stopping pundits from declaring the GOP race a done deal.
The Globe’s Annie Linskey writes that Clinton “cemented her lead” and that Bernie Sanders’s “surge may have crested.” One telltale sign of Clinton’s growing confidence is that she is training her fire more directly at Trump, who she called out by name.
Though the Democratic nomination outcome looks increasingly certain, both Timothy Egan in The New York Times and Jeet Heer in The New Republic write that Sanders should stay in the race.
Egan says Sanders is forcing Democrats to confront the excesses of capitalism and what they’ve done to average Americans. In the end, he will help give Clinton something she now lacks, he says, “a clear message.” Heer writes that Sanders can continue to pull Clinton to the left on trade and other issues. In the zany configuration of the unfolding general election race, he says that might help her compete with Trump for white working-class voters, rather than focus too heavily on a centrist message aimed at college-educated suburbanites who simply can’t abide Trump.
For Globe columnist Scot Lehigh it was a cause for relief, if not quite celebration. With Marco Rubio’s exit last night, Lehigh says Kasich is now the sole option for Republicans who want to avoid “catastrophe with a narcissistic demagogue or a histrionic political trickster.” (The references were to Trump and Ted Cruz, respectively, for those who have not been following the GOP circus.)
He is basically pleading with GOP voters to insist on a sanity clause as a requirement of their nominee. Plenty of Republican voters, however, seem be of the same mind as Chico Marx, when he famously declared there was no such thing.
–MICHAEL JONAS
BEACON HILL
One hundred state representatives break ranks with House leadership on solar legislation stalled in a conference committee. (CommonWealth)
A legislative conference committee reaches agreement on legislation that would halt the practice of suspending the driver’s licenses of drug offenders who have served their time, except in the case of traffickers. The driver’s license suspensions were seen as a contributor to recidivism. (State House News)
The Northborough town administrator says the public records reform bills in the Legislature would amount to an unfunded mandate on cities and towns should they be passed into law. (MetroWest Daily News)
Bill Miller of Friends of the Homeless and Lyndia Downie of the Pine Street Inn say the state needs to provide more support to homeless shelters. (CommonWealth)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
A federal judge delivers a rebuke to the Walsh administration’s attempt to shorten the route of South Boston’s St. Patrick’s Day parade and rules that the effort infringed on the organizers’ First Amendment rights. (Boston Globe)
The latest challenge for organizers of Boston’s trouble-plagued IndyCar race: where to store a slew of concrete barriers. (Boston Globe)
The Boston Redevelopment Authority is looking to redevelop its tarnished image. (Boston Globe)
An American Legion post in Salem asks state regulators for leniency after being caught with gambling machines. (Salem News)
East Longmeadow’s town administrator calls for an investigation into the town’s police chief. (Masslive)
Boston housing advocates call for more tenant protections. (WBUR)
A politically connected supervisor in the Fall River Housing Authority with a history of disciplinary actions has been suspended after another allegation of sexual harassment. (Herald News)
Attendance records show several members of the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates, which pays a $1,000 annual stipend but allows municipal delegates to opt into the health insurance pool where premiums are paid 75 percent by taxpayers, have trouble making the twice-monthly meetings. (Cape Cod Times)
CASINOS
Steve Wynn plays tour guide, calls Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone “an irritant,” and talks presidential politics. He also renames his proposed Everett resort “Wynn Boston Harbor” and says the cost has risen to $2 billion. (CommonWealth)
Shirley Leung asks whether Wynn can become a champion of the arts in Boston. (Boston Globe)
The Mashpee Wampanoag tribe makes a hard sell to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission for a single casino in southeastern Massachusetts. (Cape Cod Times)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
President Obama nominates Merrick Garland, a centrist federal appeals court judge, to the Supreme Court. (New York Times)
City councilors in Ferguson, Missouri, have reversed themselves and voted to implement a costly federal plan to overhaul the city’s police and courts in the aftermath of roiling racial tensions that exploded following the 2014 police shooting death of Michael Brown. (New York Times)
ELECTIONS
Frank Bruni examines the last three Republicans left standing. He says John Kasich is the best of the three but has little chance of pulling ahead in the delegate count. As for Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, Bruni calls them “different flavors of rancid fare.” (New York Times)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Green burials get attention in Gloucester. (Gloucester Times)
Consumer spending dropped for the second consecutive month in February, according to data released by the Census Bureau. (U.S. News & World Report)
EDUCATION
Boston school Superintendent Tommy Chang is facing heat on multiple fronts as his honeymoon is officially over. (Boston Globe)
Federal officials have opened an investigation into the handling of sexual assaults at Stonehill College after an attorney for an alleged rape victim filed a Title IX complaint against the Easton school. (The Enterprise)
Massachusetts families are flocking to the Russian School of Mathematics, a private service aimed at boosting math skills, in the never-ending quest among well-off families to give kids an academic leg up. (Boston Globe)
A teacher at Sturgis Charter School in Hyannis has resigned after officials launched an investigation into allegations of “inappropriate” conduct with a student. (Cape Cod Times)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
Lahey Health of Burlington is opening a primary care facility in Lowell, not far from Lowell General Hospital. (The Sun)
The Centers for Disease Control releases national standards for prescription painkillers. (Time)
TRANSPORTATION
The MBTA looks to ride-sharing apps as a source of ad revenue and a replacement for unprofitable service lines. (CommonWealth)
The Washington, DC, Metro system is shutting down for an entire day as officials check out the safety of electric cables. (Washington Post)
A Quincy family wants answers as to why they were told their father had been killed in a pedestrian accident only to find out the next morning he was alive and well and sleeping in his car. (Patriot Ledger)
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
A University of Delaware study indicates offshore wind off the coast of Massachusetts can produce electricity at prices much lower than previously forecast, but only if a long-term commitment is made to the industry. (CommonWealth)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
A Herald editorial suggests living in a gang-infested neighborhood might make one less concerned with the privacy issues Apple is raising in its battle to keep from aiding prosecutors who want access to suspects’ cellphone information.
Witnesses told Fall River police a stabbing outside a middle school was gang-related when members went to the school intending to attack the son of a man who refused to join their gang. (Herald News)
MEDIA
The makers of Spotlight acknowledge that they made up dialogue involving a Boston College High School official that inaccurately portrayed him as part of the cover-up of clergy sex abuse. (Boston Herald)
Crux, abandoned by John Henry, joins forces with the Knights of Columbus. (Crux)
Former Globie Greg Moore steps down as editor of the Denver Post. (Denver Post)
Paul Levy will not be blogging about running a hospital. Or even Not Running a Hospital.