Globe donates ad space to mayor
By 
The Boston Globe donated a full-page ad to Mayor Marty Walsh on Wednesday to promote One Boston Day, his way of marking the anniversary of the Marathon bombings and to encourage residents to engage in random acts of kindness.
Globe CEO Mike Sheehan said in an email that he loved the mayor’s idea for One Boston Day so he offered him a page in the newspaper to promote it. The ad featured a picture of the Boston skyline along with text encouraging the city’s residents to participate. The ad was accompanied by the insignia of the city of Boston, with Walsh’s name and title below it.
“On this day, we remember and reflect. We lend a hand. We reach out, give back, and go above and beyond,” the ad said. “Every year, on April 15th, we will show the world that Boston’s flame burns bright as ever.”
Bonnie McGilpin, a spokeswoman for Walsh, said the Globe offered the advertising space and “we happily took them up on the offer.”
Sheehan has taken a strong personal interest in helping the city recover in the wake of the Marathon bombings. He was a driving force behind the One Fund, which raised money for the victims of the bombings. At the time, Sheehan was running the Hill Holliday advertising firm.
It’s not a huge deal that the Globe gave away advertising space to the mayor, but we like to keep track of how often Boston’s paper of record does favors for the mayor. Last year, the Globe gave Walsh a full-page ad so he could thank the staff of the Boston Public Schools at the close of the school year.
–BRUCE MOHL
MARATHON BOMBINGS
Bill and Denise Richard, whose 8-year-old son Martin was the youngest victim killed in the Boston Marathon bombings, issue a statement, which appears on the front-page of today’s Globe, urging an end to the death penalty and calling on the US Justice Department, in the Dzhokar Tsarnaev trial, to take it “off the table in exchange for the defendant spending the rest of his life in prison without any possibility of release and waiving all of his rights to appeal.” US Attorney Carmen Ortiz said she cannot legally comment on the Richards’ statement, but said she cares “deeply about their views and the views of the other victims and survivors.” (Boston Globe)
A new WBUR/MassINC Polling Group survey finds that 61 percent of Boston residents favor life in prison for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and only 26 percent favor the death penalty. A national Pew poll finds support for the death penalty is at 51 percent, its lowest level in 40 years.
Senate President Stanley Rosenberg says the way his branch’s bills sometimes get handled by the House is an embarrassment. He and his colleagues also suggest they will slow down the push for a major MBTA overhaul and block the House Ways and Means Committee’s proposed five-year suspension of the Pacheco Law. (CommonWealth) Baker is also getting some pushback against his idea for a new control board to take charge of the troubled MBTA. (Boston Globe)
A Boston Herald editorial urges Rosenberg and House Speaker Robert DeLeo to work out the “most insider-y of inside disputes” that is taking place over committee rules — but it fails to say which side in the standoff the paper thinks is right.
Tracking the Edward M. Kennedy Institute’s finances isn’t easy. (CommonWealth)
The Greater Boston three-person panel of pundits assesses Gov. Charlie Baker‘s first 100 days in office. The Globe‘s Frank Phillips says Baker gets generally high marks. He says Baker “has gained his footing at a point when past governors were often foundering,” which seems a lot like a reference specifically to Baker’s immediate predecessor.
Gov. Charlie Baker talks Western Massachusetts issues with The Republican/MassLive.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
The private water company that services Hingham, Hull, and Cohasset, and which is facing a hostile takeover from the towns, has put a use restriction in place despite this winter’s record snowfall. (Patriot Ledger)
Billerica officials resign their positions because they live closer to a proposed high school building site than the State Ethics Commission allows. (Lowell Sun)
OLYMPICS
Boston mayor Martin Walsh has hired a former Goldman Sachs analyst at a salary of $115,000 a year to be the city’s fiscal watchdog on all things Olympics-related. (Boston Herald) Adrian Walker writes that’s a good thing, because Walsh owns the Games, for better or worse. (Boston Globe) The Download said much the same thing last month.
ELECTIONS
Chris Christie may have “missed his moment” to run for president. (Washington Post)
The Globe ranks the top 10 Republicans in the New Hampshire presidential primary sweepstakes.
The Christian Science Monitor looks at Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s impact on Hillary Clinton’s run for president.
Wonder why the Democratic presidential field is so…old? Here’s one take. (Washington Examiner)
RELIGION
Pope Francis has ended a controversial bid by his predecessor to take control of a group of American nuns who Pope Benedict XVI had determined strayed from doctrinal teachings on sex, gays, and priesthood. (New York Times)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Business groups are pushing to delay the voter-approved earned sick time law because they claim regulations will not be in place by the time the law is set to take effect on July 1. (State House News Service)
The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration has fined a New Jersey painting contractor working on the Braga Bridge renovation in Fall River for exposing workers to lead contamination. (Herald News)
In a Consumer Reports survey, Market Basket ranked fifth nationally among supermarket chains. Market Basket trailed, in order, Wegmans, Publix, Trader Joe’s, and Fareway. (Eagle-Tribune)
The Berkshire Eagle suggests if Bain Capital’s Deval Patrick looks to invest in the the region all might be forgiven for Bain’s role in the demise of the Pittsfield-based company KB Toys.
The developer of a Peabody Square building in Peabody abandons plans for a hotel at the site. (Salem News)
EDUCATION
The East Bridgewater school budget crisis is threatening deep cuts or eliminating arts, music, and sports programs. (The Enterprise)
Palmer schools take heat for their handling of a bomb threat at the Converse Middle School.
HEALTH CARE
New federal data indicate use of e-cigarettes among middle and high school students is rising rapidly, with 13 percent now puffing on them. (New York Times)
A new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that women continue to be denied coverage for contraception by their health care plans because of loopholes in the Affordable Care Act. (U.S. News & World Report)
Women are also running into coverage obstacles when they elect to have a double mastectomy as a preventive measure against disease recurrence when diagnosed with cancer in one breast. (Boston Globe)
TRANSPORTATION
A Telegram & Gazette editorial calls on the members of the MassDOT board to resign and let Gov. Charlie Baker put his own people in charge.
Lowell Sun columnist Peter Lucas lays many of the T’s problems at the feet of former manager Beverly Scott and her former boss, Deval Patrick. Lucas says if Scott spent as much time riding T buses and subways as she did traveling to out-of-state conferences, the transit agency would be in much better shape.
The Globe has a dual profile of Sen. Thomas McGee and Rep. William Straus, the co-chairs of the Legislature’s transportation committee that will be reviewing Baker’s MBTA reform plan.
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
Marcy Reed of National Grid says New England needs two new natural gas pipelines, a point of view sharply disputed by environmentalists. (CommonWealth)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
The top prosecutor in the Plymouth District Attorney‘s office, who is under fire on a number of fronts, has resigned. (The Enterprise)
A Boston Globe editorial calls for a new police oversight panel to have a strong degree of independence and subpoena power to call witnesses.
Dartmouth Selectman John George was found guilty by a federal jury of conspiracy and embezzlement stemming from his involvement as head of the regional transit authority. (Standard-Times)
Frances Moseley, the former head of the Boys & Girls Club of Boston, is sentenced to six months probation and ordered to repay more than $470,000 in restitution following her conviction on charges of fraudulently pocketing more than $220,000 in Social Security payments directed to her deceased father. (Boston Globe)
MEDIA
The Globe has hired former Herald managing editor Andrew Gully to be in charge of the online “native advertising,” paid content that looks like real news. (Media Nation)
