Internal emails indicate the Massachusetts Gaming Commission earlier this year failed to anticipate public and media reaction to the hiring of Carl Stanley McGee, a Patrick administration official who had been arrested for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in Florida in 2007.
The emails, obtained by CommonWealth through a request under the Public Records Law, indicate commission officials thought the arrest would get little press attention because McGee was never prosecuted. Agency officials also said they relied on assurances from the Patrick administration, which they mistakenly believed had conducted its own investigation of the charges.
McGee stepped down in May, eight days after he was hired as the agency’s interim executive director. The stories about his arrest wouldn’t go away, largely because of lingering questions about why McGee wasn’t prosecuted and because of public relations missteps by the gaming commission.
Even with McGee lone gone, interest in the story remains intense. CommonWealth posted its story on the internal gaming commission documents Thursday afternoon. Red Mass Group quickly followed with its own story. The Republican blog said it obtained the documents on Wednesday, but didn’t explain how they were obtained. The Globe ran a front-page story this morning, reporting that it received the documents from Red Mass Group.
–BRUCE MOHL
BEACON HILL
Gov. Deval Patrick told an editorial board at the Fall River Herald News that the South Coast region will not have to wait indefinitely for a casino while the Mashpee Wampanoag await federal approval to put land in trust. But he could not point to a date when the wait will end.
The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy failed to win the maintenance contract for the Armenian Heritage Park, renewing concerns about its cost structure, CommonWealth reports.
Gardy Jean-Francois is told he cannot run for state representative in Lynn after the State Ballot Commission rules he forged signatures on his nomination papers, the Item reports.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
An arbitrator rules that the city of Beverly must pay $300,000 to the electrician the town illegally fired nine years ago, the Eagle-Tribune reports.
Kevin Mearn is ousted as Milton’s town administrator because of an inability to communicate with the town’s police chief, the Patriot Ledger reports.
“Potholegate” ends as several potholes on a West Stockbridge road near Gov. Deval Patrick’s Richmond vacation home get filled in advance of a fundraising visit by First Lady Michelle Obama.
North Attleboro officials move to preempt a state takeover of smaller municipal housing authorities.
NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON
The Atlantic speculates that Chief Justice John Roberts is laying a legal framework for privatizing Medicare and Social Security.
ELECTION 2012
The National Review takes a look at the process and result of the last time Mitt Romney had to pick a running mate to try to find out if there are any signs to read in his selection of Kerry Healey back in 2002. U.S. News & World Report points out that if Romney selects one of the three finalists reported to be on the short list, it would be the first GOP ticket in nearly 50 years with no foreign policy or national security experience.
Ann Romney defends her husband’s decision not to release more tax information, CNN reports.
Mitt Romney visited Roxbury yesterday, the Globe reports. The paper also has new details on Romney’s departure from Bain Capital. Meanwhile, President Obama hits Romney on Medicare in Florida, but faces new challenges in the state.
Sean Bielat ends the mystery surrounding his employer: He’s identified One Click Politics as the startup website where he serves as CEO. Bielat says he kept his employer secret because the site is meant to be nonpartisan.
Scot Lehigh compares the political ups and downs of Mitt Romney and John Kerry.
In a Washington Post op-ed piece, Elizabeth Warren argues that the Libor scandal exposes more corruption in the US financial system.
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
A former State Street Bank employee tells Greater Boston that despite the company’s public statements about employing local workers, it quietly ships some jobs overseas.
Cogeco Cable Inc., a Canadian cable operator, won the bidding for the Quincy-based Atlantic Broadband, the nation’s 14th largest cable TV operator.
Ikea changes its mind about opening a store in Somerville.
Treasurer Steve Grossman pulls the state’s cash account from Fidelity Investments and moves it to Pittsburgh-based Federated Investors, the Globe reports.
Boston Mayor Tom Menino says he won’t allow the fast food chain Chick-fil-A to open in his city, citing comments the company’s president has made about same-sex marriage.
The Treasury and the New York Fed speed their selloff of assets tied to the 2008 bailout.
EDUCATION
The Carney Academy public elementary school in New Bedford, where five classrooms were destroyed by fire early yesterday, did not have a sprinkler system. The fire chief said the vast majority of the city’s schools do not have sprinklers.
Endicott College in Beverly changes its mind and decides not to merge with financially ailing Urban College in Boston, the Salem News reports.
The Brockton School Committee released evaluation scores on the school superintendent showing that five out of seven board members gave the superintendent, once described as a “rock star,” low scores that could affect his rehiring.
A New York Times op-ed column questions the one-way nature of online education. CommonWealth’s spring issue detailed the state’s foray into online learning.
HEALTH CARE
Vermont prepares to launch the country’s first single payer system.
A former worker at Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire is charged in Hepatitis C outbreak, NECN reports. Here’s the Globe’s story.
TRANSPORTATION
A 20-year-old light fixture on the Tobin Bridge fell onto the road yesterday, prompting an inspection of the other lights on the bridge.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Lynn Police Chief Kevin Coppinger raises an old problem: immigrants driving without licenses, registration, or insurance, the Item reports.
A gunman opens fire at a showing of The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, CO, killing 14, the Associated Press reports.
MEDIA
The Library of Congress says it isn’t backing away from its pledge to archive every public tweet, the Nieman Journalism Lab reports.