Globe should publish the DeLeo transcript

House Speaker Robert DeLeo accused the Boston Globe on Wednesday of deliberately distorting and misrepresenting comments he made in a 2010 deposition about Probation Department hiring, so I expected the Globe to settle the matter by publishing the entire transcript of his testimony today. Instead, Globe editor Brian McGrory issued a statement saying, we “are satisfied that we portrayed his testimony in the context in which it was given.”

DeLeo in 2010 answered questions under oath posed by Paul Ware, an independent counsel hired by the Supreme Judicial Court to investigate hiring practices at the Probation Department. Complete transcripts of Ware’s interviews, including the one with DeLeo, have never been released, but were handed over to law enforcement agencies.

According to the Wednesday Globe story, DeLeo’s answers in 2010 contradicted what emerged later in the trial of former Probation commissioner John O’Brien and two of his top aides. O’Brien and his aides were convicted last year of running a rigged hiring system at the agency and are appealing. The Globe reported earlier this month and in April that the US Attorney’s office is pressing O’Brien, despite his conviction, to testify about high-ranking lawmakers.

The Globe story on Wednesday said DeLeo, even though he had been the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, was clueless about the Probation Department budget in his interview with Ware. DeLeo, according to the Globe, was also unaware of a patronage system at Probation and didn’t know that applicants for Probation jobs needed legislative sponsors.

DeLeo issued a statement late Wednesday saying the Globe story distorted his testimony and selectively quoted him out of context. The Speaker said he was familiar with the Probation budget, but not specific funding levels over a seven-year period. He said he knew that lawmakers recommended people for jobs at Probation but had no knowledge of rigged hiring and promotional policies at the agency.

DeLeo called for an investigation of how the transcript of his testimony made it into the hands of the Globe. Ware has refused to release the transcripts. Most observers think US Attorney Carmen Ortiz’s office is behind the leaks to the Globe, but it’s unclear what her motives are.

However the transcript landed at the Globe, the paper could let the public decide whether it’s reporting DeLeo’s testimony in context by simply posting the entire thing.

—BRUCE MOHL

 

BEACON HILL

A state review finds the Department of Children and Families prematurely closed two neglect and abuse cases involving Bella Bond, the toddler who was found dead on a beach on Deer Island in June. (WBUR)

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh announces his support for Gov. Charlie Baker‘s opioid addiction legislation. (Boston Globe)

Amy Dain offers a possible partial solution to the state’s housing crunch: accessory apartments. (CommonWealth)

Rep. James Arciero is pushing legislation that would plug gaps in the federal GI bill and allow veterans to attend Massachusetts public colleges and universities for free. (Lowell Sun)

An Item editorial backs end-of-life legislation.

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

Residents of a rural street in Haverhill complain that cars are speeding down their road to avoid traffic lights on a newly redesigned Route 125. (Eagle-Tribune)

Boston city councilors vote themselves a 14 percent pay raise six days before they face reelection in a lackluster contest with few challengers. (Boston Globe)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

China is ending its one-child-only policy and will allow parents to have two children. (Time)

ELECTIONS

The highly charged Republican presidential debate brought out sharp elbows and raised the profiles of Sens. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. (New York Times) The Globe‘s Matt Viser calls the rumble in Boulder a “feisty free-for-all.”

View from the right: The Weekly Standard declared Rubio the winner of the debate and pronounced Jeb Bush‘s candidacy dead, an assessment shared by most conservative pundits, including the Herald‘s Howie Carr, who scored it a win for Rubio, with Cruz second — and Bush dead. The National Review saw the debate as the GOP field versus the liberal media and declared the Republicans winners. Talking Points Memo looks at the many ways the debate went wrong for CNBC,

Pollster Steve Koczela asks if the Donald Trump wave is merely a polling mirage.(CommonWealth)

An Eagle-Tribune editorial says the backers of a ballot question seeking to impose a higher tax on people earning more than $1 million a year are liars for saying the money will only go for transportation and education.

Fall River City Councilor Jasiel Correia vowed to can the controversial and unpopular sanitation enterprise fee on his first day in the mayor’s office if he wins election next week. (Herald News)

The Patriot Ledger endorses state Sen. Robert Hedlund in the Weymouth mayor’s race, although adding a caution for him to pare back the sarcasm and his rough edges.

The Globe profiles Michael Flaherty and Michelle Wu, who are each seeking re-election next week as at-large Boston city councilors.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Harvard Law School is teaming up with a California commercial site to put the school library’s 40 million pages of federal, state, territorial, and tribal decisions dating back to Colonial times online and accessible for free. (New York Times)

The merger of Walgreens and Rite Aid could threaten the hold Rhode Island-based CVS has as the nation’s No. 1 pharmacy chain. (Boston Globe) Some analysts say the merger could end up being a plus for CVS if antitrust regulators force a new pharmacy behemoth to divest some of its store holdings. (Boston Herald)

The Federal Reserve once again declined to raise interest rates off the historic near-zero rate because of underwhelming economic indicators, giving the central bank one last shot at hiking rates before the end of 2015. (U.S. News & World Report)

Fantasy sports sites could be facing a confusing sea of differing state-based regulations across the country. (Boston Globe)

A Chinese private equity firm, Celona Capital, buys the last Seaport parcel for $655 million. (Boston Business Journal)

The Bay State Banner suggests that the troubled Charles Street AME Church sell its building to settle its debts.

EDUCATION

UMass president Martin Meehan says the five campuses will have to cut more than $11 million after the Legislature failed to fund retroactive pay that was already paid out to university staffers after Meehan thought lawmakers would provide the money. (State House News)

A new report says students across the country are taking tests that are redundant, misaligned with college and career standards, and don’t measure mastery of skills. (Governing)

A Herald editorial slams President Obama’s call to limit the amount of standardized testing students are subjected to — but it seems to overreach in suggesting he wants to rollback things like the Massachusetts accountability and testing system.

Pittsfield’s school superintendent says that the district needs an alternative school after a middle-school student was found with a gun. (Berkshire Eagle)

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

Two very different views of solar incentives: Charlie Harak of the National Consumer Law Center says subsidies need to be scaled back because they are disproportionately hurting low-income people, while religious and community leaders press state officials to keep the incentives in place because they help low-income people. (CommonWealth)

Worcester-area lawmakers want Eversource, the former owner of a polluted parcel now controlled by the Worcester Regional Transit Authority, to clean it up. (MassLive)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Telegram & Gazette columnist Dianne Williamson analyzes the South Carolina incident where a white police officer threw an unruly African-American student across the room and concludes race isn’t always the motivating factor.

A federal judge has rejected 26 challenges to the constitutionality of the death penalty by lawyers for convicted serial killer Gary Lee Sampson. (Associated Press)

Peter Gelzinis suggests that it would be, well, a crime to sentence Owen Labrie to jail for his conviction on charges related to having a sex a minor while a senior at St. Paul’s prep school. (Boston Herald)

The Boston Police Camera Action Team wants City Council to vote on equipping Boston police with body cameras. (Bay State Banner)

MEDIA

Spotlight, the film about the Boston Globe’s investigation of pedophile priests, has its local premiere in Brookline. (WBUR)

The Toledo Blade decides to cease print publication on most major holidays. (Romenesko)

The Nieman Journalism Lab interviews Ed Silverman, the author of the one-man blog Pharmalot that is coming to Stat, the new stand-alone website affiliated with the Boston Globe.