Browse By

Manic Monday Markup 4/11/16…

…And the World:

We begin today in Britain, where Prime Minister David Cameron endured withering criticism in the House of Commons over his closeness to the Panama Papers leak. While the premier is not accused of any wrongdoing, his own late father was found to managed one fund revealed the massive leak from a Panamanian law firm that set up funds that have apparently allowed the well-heeled avoid taxes. Cameron announced plans to set up an anti-tax avoidance task force.

Many of the tax shelter were formed in the British Virgin Island, prompting Labour Party chief and Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn to remark the United Kingdom is at the center of global tax-dodging. Politicians across the spectrum, including Cameron and Corbyn, spent the last week releasing their own tax information to show their clean hands.

Peru went to the polls to elect a new president. Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of a former Peruvian dictator, led with 38% of the vote according to early returns and will go on to a runoff with the former Prime Minister, Pedro Kuczynski.

Isaac Herzog, leader of the Opposition and co-chair of the Zionist Union in Israel, could face a criminal investigation. Israeli investigators have asked the attorney general there to begin an investigation (that is permission to question him) into fundraising Herzog did in 2013. This relates to the run up to Herzog’s successful 2013 campaign to takeover leadership of the Labor party, the constituent part of the Zionist Union that he formally leads. The news comes days after fresh rumors that the Zionist Union would join Prime Minister Netanyahu’s coalition, something Herzog’s co-chair, Tzipi Livni, ruled out.

The terrorists that struck Brussels last month had planned to hit France before one of their compatriots had been apprehended. Now we know where they had planned to strike. Elsewhere in the Belgium attack, a man seen in security video with the suicide bombers shortly before the blast at Brussels’s airport has been caught and has confessed.

Canada’s First Nations (analogous to Native Americans in the US) have declared a state of emergency amid a rash of suicides.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, who came to power after the 2014 revolution, resigns.

New York State of Mind:

Following the Wisconsin Democratic and Republicans primaries won by underdogs Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz, the attention has shifted to New York. Polls show Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump still lead, but that hasn’t stopped their opponents from contesting the Empire State. Sanders was in Upstate New York attacking Clinton’s environmental record. Clinton by contrast suggest the increased stridency of the Sanders campaign is not a sign of strength.

Sanders is also looking for a public rebound after a bad week (despite winning Wisconsin and Wyoming) of press over his editorial board interview with The New York Daily News. Clinton was also the subject of lampooning, but even if she had trouble swiping her MetroCard to enter the subway, she knew tokens were a thing of the past.

On the Republican side, Cruz looks ahead to California (and the coming money war there) to bolster his case over Trump’s as the nominating contests heads to the convention in Cleveland. Meanwhile, Trump assailed the delegate-selection process in Colorado. But it was just in the Rocky Mountain State that a Republican contest attracted scorn. John Kasich also panned Cruz’s delegate tactics in Michigan.

The Feds:

A naval officer faces charges of espionage.

The ad war in Wisconsin’s US Senate race has gone hot with big ad buys from former Democratic Senator Russ Feingold and allies of the incumbent, Republican Ron Johnson, who defeated Feingold in 2010.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Texas’ Attorney General, Ken Paxton, in alleged stock scam.

Politico looks at the history books and concludes a Clinton indictment over her emails is unlikely.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio’s fundraising for his 2013 campaign has come under federal scrutiny. The investigation casts a wide net over city government as well as businessmen with ties to the mayor.

The first layoff notices go out in Connecticut as it grapples with an unbalanced budget.

The State of Things:

It was not that long ago when it seemed like a Tuesday in Massachusetts usually meant an election somewhere. Tomorrow that is true of a senate district traversing Boston, Cambridge, Revere and Winthrop. The Globe profiles the race.

Gov. Charlie Baker’s invitation to an event sponsored by the Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce was rescinded amid his attendance at a GOP event that featured prominent anti-gay activists. Also a factor in play was Baker’s hesitancy to embrace a bill that would forbid discrimination against transgender individuals in places accessible to the public.

Once again our Editor-in-chief Matt Szafranski joins the conversation at NEPR’s Short List along with host Susan Kaplan and The Reminder’s Managing Editor, Mike Dobbs.

Speaking of Dobbs, he considers in this week’s column who would run for East Longmeadow’s Town Council if voters approve a charter change tomorrow that would switch the community from a Select Board-Town Meeting government to a manager-council format.

This weekend Chicopee mourned former City Council President George Moreau, who died earlier this month. Moreau had served in city government for more than 30 years before losing reelection last year.

It’s Working:

After 10 months of negotiating since their contract expired last August, landline workers at Verizon from Massachusetts to Virginia have set Wednesday as a strike deadline for more movement on the company’s part. While Verizon has accused the unions of walking away from the negotiating table, the unions say the company has remained adamant about allowing outsourcing of call center jobs and long-distance transfers of employees, which some say is veiled way of cutting its workforce further.

This is on top of pensions and healthcare cuts the company has demanded (although agreement has been reached on some of these). Verizon has also faced scrutiny for disregarding its obligations to the wireline business and not fulfilling promises about expanding its fiber-optic Internet service. Verizon says it is prepared to serve customers during a strike, but the work stoppages have historically not gone well for the company either. The last strike, in 2011, last two weeks.

The Fourth Estatements:

The Boston Globe’s editorial page published a fake front page with this Sunday’s paper imagining what its headlines would look like if Trump were elected president. Non-fake front pages, however, have long been par for the course between New York’s tabloids and the Donald.

City Slickers:

Springfield receives the latest installment of money from the Federal Emergency Management Administration.

INBOX: At-large Councilor Justin Hurst and General Government Committee Chair Justin Hurst will hold a committee meeting on residency this Thursday including the possibility of litigation to enforce the Council’s new restrictions on waivers to the requirement that city employees live in the city.

Twitter Chatter:

How important is New York’s primary? Critical, in fact, but for different reasons. Bernie Sanders needs a good showing (or even a surprise win) to keep his quest for the presidency from transitions from quixotic to unmoored from reality. Donald Trump needs a big win to steady his shift after a bad spell of press and losses. However, one complicating factor for both, but especially for Sanders, is the nature of the electorate. Independents can’t vote in New York’s primary. Today we award the tweet prize to poll guru Nate Silver, who underscores this point, particularly where Sanders is concerned. Trump’s space in the Republican race includes a sizable part of the GOP, whereas Sanders’s victories in non-Vermont primaries have been almost entirely predicated on the ability of unenrolled voters to participate. They can’t in the Empire State, which, in Silver’s estimate, makes Clinton’s robust leads in New York polling credible.