Clinton stumbles
By 
Hillary Clinton didn’t look very presidential on Sunday, as a video posted on Twitter showed her teetering on a sidewalk and then nearly collapsing as she was helped into a van after a 9/11 event in New York City.
Secret Service officers propped Clinton up and shielded her from public view as she entered the van. She was taken to her daughter’s apartment and emerged 90 minutes later. “I’m feeling great,” she told reporters who shouted questions at her. Asked what happened, she responded: “It’s a great day in New York.”
Several hours later, Clinton’s doctor issued a statement saying the Democratic presidential nominee had rehydrated and was feeling much better. The statement said Clinton had been suffering from a cough due to allergies and had been diagnosed on Friday with pneumonia. Clinton canceled a trip to California scheduled for Monday.
Donald Trump has raised concerns about Clinton’s health, particularly a recent coughing fit she had while campaigning in Ohio. But on Monday the Republican nominee refused to speculate about the latest incident. “I see what I see,” he said. “The coughing fit was a week ago, so I assume that was pneumonia also. I mean, I would think it would have been. So something’s going on but I just hope she gets well and gets back on the trail and we’ll be seeing her at the debate.”
As Time reported, “For a candidate promising to unite the nation under the banner of ‘Stronger Together,’ the claim was off message.” She walked back her statement about Trump’s supporters, but only partially. “I regret saying half, that was wrong,” she said.
The New Yorker points out that Clinton’s characterization of Trump’s backers didn’t stop with the “basket of deplorables” comment. She went on to say that the other half of Trump’s supporters “are people who feel that the government has let them down, the economy has let them down, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about what happens to their lives and their futures, and they’re just desperate for change. They don’t buy everything he says, but he seems to hold out some hope that their lives will be different. They won’t wake up and see their jobs disappear, lose a kid to heroin, feel like they’re in a dead end. Those are people we have to understand and empathize with as well.”
On that front, the Boston Globe’s front-page story on Sunday, “Being white, and a minority, in Georgia,” goes a long way toward explaining why Trump is so popular in many parts of the country.
BRUCE MOHL
BEACON HILL
State Sen. Tom McGee, who has come in for criticism for not developing a strong enough message to counter Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, said he won’t seek reelection in November as chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party, setting off an unusually wide-open race for the seat. (Boston Globe)
On the 15th anniversary of 9/11, Baker presented the Madeline Amy Sweeney Award for Civilian Bravery to the widow of George Heath, a Taunton school teacher who was killed while he was trying to protect others at a mall during a stabbing rampage by a mentally ill assailant. (Herald News)
A Herald editorial frowns on revived talk of a Boston alcohol tax to fund addiction services, calling it a worthy cause but a punitive “solution.”
A Lowell Sun editorial questions the wisdom of increasing the salaries of city council and school committee members to attract more and better candidates. The paper says the better approach would be to increase minority representation by including a mix of at-large and district seats to diminish the electoral clout of high-turnout white sections of Lowell such as Belvidere and Pawtucketville. CommonWealth explained why whites control city government in Lowell in the spring issue.
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
A Globe editorial defends Attorney General Maura Healey and rips US Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas for his investigation of Healey’s investigation of Exxon Mobil.
ELECTIONS
Libertarian vice president nominee Bill Weld dissects his major party opposition, even advising Donald Trump he might be better suited for another line of work besides politics. “The laundry business would be fine,” he tells Keller@Large.
Lots of Republicans may be distancing themselves from Trump, but not US Rep. Frank Guinta of New Hampshire. (Boston Globe)
Masslive breaks down the numbers on the charter school ballot question.
Opponents of charter schools are criticizing word that Paul Sagan, who serves as chairman of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which reviews and votes on charter school applications, donated $100,000 to the November ballot campaign to allow expansion of the independently run, publicly-funded, schools. (Boston Herald)
Will the trio of big name pols opposed to legalizing marijuana — Gov. Charlie Baker, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, and Speaker Robert DeLeo — dip into their considerable campaign accounts to help fund the “no” on legalization ballot campaign? (Boston Herald)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
In the first installment of a weekly series of op-eds in the Boston Globe on the economic choices facing the country, Columbia University’s Jeffrey Sachs outlines a triple bottom-line approach, focused on economic growth and good jobs; fairness to women, the poor, and minorities; and environmental sustainability, which he says can lead to brighter days ahead.
Bridgewell, a nonprofit that provides services to people with disabilities, is moving its headquarters from Lynnfield to Peabody. (Salem News)
Despite the opinion of Boston Federal Reserve President Eric Rosengren that waiting too long to raise interest rates could be risky, the latest Beige Book, which aggregates economic conditions around the country, seems to indicate there won’t be an immediate move to hike rates. (U.S. News & World Report)
Boston developers are turning their sights from rental units to condos. (Boston Globe)
EDUCATION
The MetroWest Daily News spotlights the high turnover among schools superintendents in Massachusetts, a problem CommonWealth took a close look at in our most recent issue.
Chessy Prout, who was the victim of a sexual assault at age 15 at the elite St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire, says she’s reclaiming her identity by speaking publicly about the matter. (Boston Globe)
HEALTH/HEALTH CARE
Globe health care reporter Priyanka Dayal McCluskey asks, is Boston Children’s Hospital’s planned $1 billion expansion necessary? (Boston Globe)
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
The Ipswich River Watershed Association draws attention to the impact of the drought by hosting a breakfast event along the Ipswich River, which is nearly dried up. (Salem News)
CASINOS
It may come as a surprise to voters who thought the issue was dealt with on the 2014 ballot, but a casino gambling question is on this November’s ballot, and all eyes are on Revere, which is where the ballot campaign backer wants to site a new slots parlor, which appears to face long odds of ever opening. (Boston Globe)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
A judge on Friday denied a union petition for an injunction to block the Boston Police Department’s body camera pilot study, clearing the way for the effort to begin today. (CommonWealth)
Sean Ellis, who was convicted 23 years ago and served two decades in prison for the killing of Boston police detective, should not be retried, argues Adrian Walker, after Friday’s Supreme Judicial Court ruling that police suppressed evidence at Ellis’s original trial and two subsequent retrials. (Boston Globe)
A teenager in Worcester used a baseball bat to ward off eight attackers who invaded his home during the day on Saturday. One of the attackers carried a tire iron. (Telegram & Gazette)
State Police have charged a Pembroke man with numerous counts of indecent assault after he turned himself in following a church visit and allegedly admitted he sexually assaulted at least six elderly patients with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. (Patriot Ledger)
PASSINGS
The founder of the electronics store chain Crazy Eddie’s, who later fled the country before investors and investigators discovered a fraud and cash-skimming scheme, has died. (New York Times)