Wed show ping and column ping. Just saw in Herald that
Ogonowski fell 30 signatures short in his effort to get on
GOP ballot; not sure about the other guy (Beatty?)...meanwhile
Kerry, whose seat Ogonowski was vying for, may wind up
resigning if a—God forbid—Obama presidency means he’ll
be appointed to the Cabinet or something, and he could run in
that special election OR run in the special election should
Ted K pass on. But no matter what he’d need to get the
necessary signatures.
Good news in Beverly (and yup, I voted NO!)
:
Salem News: “BEVERLY — Voters overwhelmingly rejected a $2.5 million tax increase in the city’s first Proposition 2 1/2 override election yesterday, staging what the leader of the winning side said amounted to a ‘taxpayer revolt.’
“Voters turned down the override by a margin of more than 2,800 votes, 6,686 to 3,846. The “no” voters swept all 12 precincts in the city.”
OK here’s Howie’s column
Corruption finally catches up to Bulger crony
By Howie Carr | Wednesday, June 4, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com
Thoroughly corrupt.
Those are the two words that should appear on Tom Finnerty’s tombstone, the same words a federal judge used when he was describing the action of Billy Bulger’s former law partner, which has finally gotten him disbarred, after all these years.
Better late than never, but it is getting mighty late in the Whitey Bulger dragnet game. The fugitive serial killer will be 79 in three months, and although the shoes keep dropping in this case, they don’t drop nearly as often, and the thud they make grows ever fainter.
Recently I ran into a person who seems to have, for lack of a better term, psychic abilities. Sometimes she can find stuff that’s lost. So I asked her about something that’s lost - Whitey Bulger. Will he ever be found? She considered my question for a while.
“Three or four years from now, maybe,” she said, vaguely. “I see him very sick, dying, going into a hospital. Not here, Europe or some other foreign place. That’s how they get him.”
Take it for what’s worth, which I admit probably isn’t much. But one way or another, it’s ending not with a bang, but a whimper. So let’s look on the bright side: At least they got one of bigger fish in the Bulger mob.
The headline described Finnerty as a “Bulger associate,” but he was so much more. They went to law school together, they were both elected officials, and when Finnerty quit as district attorney of Plymouth County, the skids were greased for his assistant, who went on to hire Billy Bulger Jr.
Finnerty is 72, so this disbarment is a lot like retirement, which is exactly how he describes it on the voicemail in his old law office in Dorchester. Finnerty is, he says, “retired from the practice of law.”
What brought the thoroughly corrupt old hack down was his subornation of perjury by one of his clients, a South Boston man named Dooley, who has a job opening doors in the Senate, where Billy Bulger used to preside. Dooley was present in 1996 when Whitey Bulger called home to Southie. Also in attendance were Jackie Bulger, the younger brother of Whitey and Bulger, as well as Billy’s son-in-law, another Senate hack who is still making $89,142 at the State House.
The problem was, by the time Dooley was subpoenaed, Jackie had already lied under oath, saying that he hadn’t been there the night Whitey called. So, Finnerty told the hack to lie and say Jackie was not there. Hey, it was the least Dooley could do considering what they’d done for him.
Of course, it all went terribly awry. The door-opener hired a new lawyer, who got him to recant his perjury. Meanwhile, Jackie got bagged on a different lie and became 23986-038 in the Club Fed system. Even worse, Jackie lost his hack state pension. (At age 70, he is appealing the decision, claiming that denying him a kiss in the mail amounts to “cruel and unusual punishment,” and for anyone named Bulger, it probably is.)
The feds wanted to know whether Finnerty discussed his perjury instructions to the door-opener with Billy, but Finnerty declined to answer, even under a grant of immunity, because of his “attorney-client privilege” with Bulger. Like the 75 State St. scandal, it’s all amazingly convoluted, complete with coded names in the federal court decisions, but the bottom line is, Billy skated, and Finnerty didn’t, even after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Finnerty’s appeal.
What is most interesting at this late date is the late date at which the wretched Finnerty has been “disciplined.” The Board of Bar Overseers said it wasn’t “alerted” to Finnerty’s misconduct until a couple of months ago.
Strange, because on Oct. 6, 2006, the whole story about Finnerty was splashed across the front page of this newspaper. We included a photograph of his client running across the Common trying to escape. OK, so they don’t read the Herald. A follow-up appeared the next day in the Globe. The BBO must have missed that one, too.
Then, a year ago April, the feds announced they weren’t going to file charges against Billy Bulger. That story appeared in both newspapers, but apparently, the BBO overlooked them as well.
Oh well, Finnerty is “retired,” and Billy Bulger goes on and on and on. I’m just wondering when Whitey is going to be sick enough to check himself into that hospital in Europe. Oh, I almost forgot one thing. Jackie Bulger may have lost his state pension, but not Billy.
Gross monthly take for the Corrupt Midget: $16,457.16. Gross annual take: $197,305.92.
Repeat after me: Thoroughly corrupt.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1098473
VICTORY IN BEVERLY! I got worried when I saw all the
YES signs (”a good investment”)
http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_156003244.html
Beverly override crushed: Tax limits upheld, but McKeown School will close at month’s end
By Paul Leighton and Cate Lecuyer
Salem News
BEVERLY — Voters overwhelmingly rejected a $2.5 million tax increase in the city’s first Proposition 2 1/2 override election yesterday, staging what the leader of the winning side said amounted to a “taxpayer revolt.”
Voters turned down the override by a margin of more than 2,800 votes, 6,686 to 3,846. The “no” voters swept all 12 precincts in the city.
When the final results were tallied on a board at City Hall, a group of about a dozen “vote no” supporters exploded in applause.
“This is great,” said Dawn Hames, a member of the anti-override group Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility. “As the children would say, ‘Awesome.’”
Elliott Margolis, the leader of Citizens for Fiscal Responsibility, said the large margin of victory “sent a message” to school and city officials about rising taxes and spending.
“It sends the message that they’ve had enough,” Margolis said. “It’s like a taxpayer revolt.”
The result means the city will close McKeown School at the end of this month and spread the city’s elementary school students among the five remaining schools for next year. There will also be teacher layoffs.
A citizens group called Yes! for Beverly had tried to persuade voters to pass the override in order to keep the school system as it is for at least another year and buy time to come up with other solutions to the school’s budget problems.
More than 200 override supporters gathered last night at the Cove Community Center, which turned from festive to frustrated as the results came in. Although disappointed, they said they remained positive and proud of the work that went into the campaign.
“I know it doesn’t feel like it right now, but we did make a difference,” said Tracey Armstrong, one of the group’s leaders. “We won before the votes were counted. This kind of a ballot never happened here before, and we gave people a voice, a chance to vote.”
After an emotional two months of phone calls, T-shirts, signs and literature, parents and children broke down in tears throughout the room. They hugged and comforted one another and tried to stay positive.
McKeown School parent Joanna Scott said she’s upset the school will close, but said override supporters fought a good fight and she was thankful for the friendships she formed with parents at other schools during the campaign.
“When we become part of another school, I know they will welcome us,” she said. “But it’s a shame that McKeown kids have no idea where they’re going. They’re adrift, and they know they’re not a top priority.”
Superintendent James Hayes, who was at the Cove Community Center, said he will forge ahead with a plan to close McKeown and redistrict kids across the city, while making other cuts to the budget.
“I’m very disappointed in the outcome, but very proud of the community coming together to rally for the schools,” he said.
For many, the results weren’t so much a surprise as they were disheartening.
“We honestly had no idea, but we were a lot more optimistic.” said Hannah School parent Andi Freedman.
Education is the foundation of a community, Centerville parent Amy McCay said.
“I feel sad people think about their own pocket before the greater good,” she said. “They can’t see the big picture.”
But the ‘vote no’ side said residents had no appetite for a tax increase that would have permanently cost the owner of an average-price home in the city $187 per year.
“I think (the override defeat) is very fair for the people who truly can’t afford this,” said Hames, who has two children at Centerville Elementary School. “I can’t call for a 21/2 override to my mortgage company. We have to meet our obligations, and I want our government to meet theirs.”
About 43 percent of the city’s registered voters went to the polls, the highest turnout for an election in the city since the 2004 presidential primary. The ‘no’ vote won by a margin of 63 percent to 37 percent.
“In my wildest dreams, I wanted to win every precinct and by a 2-1 margin,” Margolis said. “Did I think that was reality? Probably not. To be honest, I didn’t know how it was going to go. It’s people power.”
Margolis praised the efforts of the “vote yes” group and said the campaign has energized many people in the city to become more involved in civic issues.
“They put up a helluva fight,” he said. “They did a great job.”
Beverly would have been one of the few Massachusetts cities to pass a Proposition 21/2 override. Hundreds of towns have passed overrides, including most recently in Ipswich, Hamilton and Wenham, but they are more difficult to achieve among larger populations.
“It’s hard to get out there and make the case to every single voter,” said John Robertson of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. “You have to go out there and reach individual voters to make the case and build credibility with voters. In small towns, that’s easier to do.”