Posted on 02/27/2010 9:14:46 PM PST by raccoonradio
Thread for the week starting with his Sun. Herald column
Six degrees of hackerama
By Howie Carr | Sunday, February 28, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
A quiet tragedy is unfolding in the hackerama.
Steve Anzalone Jr. seemed destined for the Probation Department, which already employs his father, his sister and two cousins, not to mention his uncle and a cousin who are on the Trial Court payroll as court officers.
After the usual nationwide search, Anzalone got his dream job in probation. But then, catastrophe: Trial Court Chief Justice Robert Mulligan noticed the six Anzalone relatives.
So young Anzalone was nixed for the probation gig he’d been promised. What does he do?
He bravely sues to claim his hack legacy.
According to Mulligan, in the words of his brief to the Supreme Judicial Court, “Enough is enough.”
Not nearly enough, argues Anzalone’s lawyer. The Anzalones currently make up a mere fraction of the Probation Department! In the context of the entire payroll, the lawyer contends in court papers, hack jobs for “six (.0008571%) or indeed, seven (.001%) individuals who are related by blood or marriage hardly constitutes evidence of nepotism.”
That landmark case will be heard in the spring by the hacks of the SJC.
Meanwhile, though, the hackling needed a job (which is very different than work) and obviously the Dreaded Private Sector was an absolute no-go.
This is where Joe DeNucci steps up. As you might recall, the good auditor was featured in these pages earlier this week, staunchly defending himself for employing his own 77-year-old cousin Buster as a “fraud examiner.”
Follow the bouncing ball.
Steve’s dad is Steve Sr., and he is “first assistant chief probation officer.” Three, count ’em, three diminutives, good for $82,078.90 a year.
In 2007, the old man suddenly begins to take an interest in Joe DeNucci’s political career - chipping in $200 in June.
In April 2008, Steve Jr. is denied his probation job.
On May 2, 2008, he is hired by Joe DeNucci. In what capacity? Why, as a fraud examiner, for a $40,056.10-a-year sinecure.
On June 20, 2008, Steve Sr. and Kathleen of the same address, presumably Jr.’s mom, each max out to the DeNucci campaign - $500 apiece.
Coincidence? Why, June is when Joe used to hold his annual Auditors Club fundraiser. By 2009, Boy Anzalone was settled in, and Dad was the only one who maxed out to the auditor, $500 last June 5.
Through a spokesman, DeNucci said he knows Anzalone only through BC football - which is almost as good an entree into probation as being named Delahunt. (Hi Kirsten, how’s that $65,039-a-year job treating you?)
Steve Jr. was asked, through DeNucci’s office, if he wanted to say anything. Hardly, he said in effect, by not calling back.
Jack Sullivan, a former Herald reporter who now works for CommonWealth magazine, has been covering the probation department’s transformation into a welfare program for shiftless hacks. I’ll have Sullivan on my radio show tomorrow night at 6:08 to discuss the probation hackerama, of which this is the merest tip of the iceberg. As always, all tips gratefully accepted.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1235981
On his Sat show, Avi Nelson said he’d be in for Howie on Wed Thu and Fri. I do note on the RKO sched page that they will run Red Eye Radio on Wed, Thu, and Fri nights. Apparently they will do this after editions of Howie’s show when a guest host is on; otherwise, a Howie rerun will air on the overnights
http://talkers.com/online/?p=3774
Howie makes #51 on Talkers Magazine
Heavy Hundred - The 100 most important radio talk show hosts in America
Wed column ping
Avi is in for Howie the rest of the week, I believe. Instead of the overnight Howie replay I think they will
run Red Eye Radio.
—Future Guests...
March 4
Our favorite Governor and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney will join us in studio to talk about his brand spanking new book No Apology: The Case for American Greatness
The hack train is never-ending
By Howie Carr | Wednesday, March 3, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
Photo
Photo by Ted Fitzgerald (file)
Here is Rachel Kaprielian, the ex-solon Registrar of Motor Vehicles, on the need to raise the now-rescinded fees:
“We’re in a fiscal crisis and fees are realigning to reflect that crisis.”
Realigning - is that the new euphemism for raising taxes? Whatever happened to “revenue enhancement?” Or “investment in the future?”
Why are we in a fiscal crisis? Because of the hackerama. Did you see the stories in the Sunday Herald about the court clerks personally pocketing $2.5 million last year in get-out-of-jail fees?
Did anyone notice the runner-up in the clerks’ gravy train? That would be Kevin Creedon, the Brockton District clerk magistrate. After a nationwide search, he makes $110,221 a year, plus $42,947 a year in fees. In the past four years, Creedon made $203,078 in fees.
Not bad, huh? How about his brother, Michael Creedon? A former state rep and state senator, he is now a judge - $129,694 a year.
There’s a third Creedon brother, Bob. Would you care to guess if he works in the Dreaded Private, or public sector? That’s right, the former state senator (he succeeded a guy named Mike Creedon) was elected clerk of courts in 2008 and now makes, like brother Kevin, $110,221 a year.
Bob Creedon, by the way, is married to Geraldine Creedon. Would you care to guess who the state rep from Brockton is? You are correct - and Rep. Geraldine Creedon makes $61,440.20.
You know the old saying. It’s one thing to feed at the trough. But the Creedons are licking the plate.
This explains Deval Patrick’s frenzy to “realign” taxes, as the lovely Rachel put it. One of the solons who stepped up to fight the $5 Registry realignment was Sen. Steve Baddour of Methuen. And his wife works . . . where?
That’s right, Ann Baddour makes $34,517 as an associate probation officer, which he neglected to mention as required on his State Ethics Commission form until he was asked about it by Commonwealth Magazine. An “oversight,” don’t you know.
The probation commissioner, Mrs. Sen. Baddour’s boss, is one John O’Brien, who makes $130,305 a year. One of the O’Brien daughters, Genevieve, works in a division of probation - Community Corrections - making $45,693 a year.
O’Brien lives in Quincy, which also happens to be the hometown of the state treasurer, Tim Cahill. And in yet another amazing coincidence, O’Brien’s wife and another of his daughters both work for Cahill, who is the independent candidate for governor.
Wife Laurie O’Brien is at the Lottery for $50,950 a year, and daughter Kelly Rose O’Brien is a claims analyst in the Treasury for $38,500 a year.
Nationwide Searches ’R’ Us. That should be the new motto of the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Did I mention that O’Brien’s deputy commissioner of Probation is Christopher Bulger? Whitey’s nephew makes $114,021 a year.
Realignment? This state doesn’t need realignment, it needs an enema.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1236848
Thank you for the heads up Raccoon. Avi = 98.5 for me.
“Realignment? This state doesn’t need realignment, it needs an enema.”
LOL!!
I knew Avi would be on Wed/Thu/Fri since he mentioned it on his Sat afternoon show.
Special Thu column ping
What’s in a name? Plenty on our patronage-packed payroll
By Howie Carr | Thursday, March 4, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Columnists
“Patronage works.”
That is an exact quote from the State House on Tuesday, uttered by someone for whom patronage has worked very well indeed - Steven V. Price, executive director of the Office of Community Corrections, part of the probation hackerama.
He’s got 126,000 reasons to be very happy about patronage, and every single one of them has George Washington’s picture on it.
This career coatholder was speaking outside a legislative hearing into whether the probation hackerama should be handed over to a different crew of greedy payroll Charlies - who cares, right? One way or another, those of us who work for a living are getting robbed by the hacks who don’t.
Here’s what this pencil-pusher Price told CommonWealth magazine about his “nationwide searches” that always end with the hiring of some shiftless dim-bulb:
“In any business, people like to hire people they know. If it’s patronage, I guess sometimes patronage works.”
First of all, it’s not a business, it’s welfare. Second, maybe patronage works - but you people don’t.
I got a call yesterday from Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson. This is the guy who was charging his inmates $5 a day room and board. He saved the taxpayers $750,000 by collecting it from jailbirds. Do you remember what happened next? The Democrat pols went absolutely nuts. How dare this dastardly Republican charge these turning-their-lives-around victims of the Bush-Reagan years a finn a day just because they mugged an old lady or drove drunk a few hundred times?
These moonbats couldn’t get to the microphones fast enough to denounce this outrage. Making inmates pay their own way!
But when the Registry wanted to hit law-abiding citizens with a $5 fee just for showing up at the RMV, not one of these hacks gave a flying you-know-what at a rolling doughnut - at least not until it was on the Herald front page.
Now Sheriff Hodgson figures this is a perfect opportunity to shame the solons into allowing him to reimpose his $5 daily fee. Good luck, Tom - despite all their chest-thumping rhetoric this week, the solons still understand they’re a lot more likely to end up in a House of Correction (think Galluccio, Buonomo) than they are in a jammed-up Registry line.
So yesterday, after writing about the Creedons down in Brockton, I hear about some more nationwide searches. Like about Patrick Creedon, a sessions clerk in Brockton. Son of Kevin - $39,371 a year. Good jobs at good wages.
And then I spot one Alyssa Creedon on the Plymouth County District Attorney’s payroll, for $56,004 a year. I call the office of DA Tim Cruz, whose brother used to be a state rep, of all things. Yes, I am told, Alyssa is married to one of the Creedons’ children, but she’s off the payroll now.
Of course Heather Bradley isn’t gone. She makes $47,506, and she just happens to be the wife of Rep. Garrett Bradley.
I agree with that $126,000-a-year probation hack. Patronage does work. It’s all these thousands of hacks I’m wondering about.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1237102
Anyone else hear that howie is moving to tkk May 1? Someone on savewrko says Howie moving May 1 to do the 2-6 shift - I can’t find anything anywhere that backs up this info.
Does anyone know why Howie has been off the last three days? I didn’t catch his show on Tuesday so I don’t know if he mentioned why he was off.
I think the person on SaveWRKO was joking...Howie would have to pull off a massive judicial coup to get out of his Entercom contract 2.5 years early. As for why Howie’s not on, there was some mention of “Florida” by either Avi or Sandy
(he was just there though?) Who knows, he may be setting up The Southern Command down there where he could broadcast from Fla. like Rush does?
Howie Carr will be at WTKK by May 1 from 2-6
Jay Severin moved 6-10
The Screech-Walker aka Michelle McPhee 10-12Mid
Signed, sealed and delivered at Greater Media Hqtrs in Braintree yesterday between Howie Carr and Peter Smyth head honcho of Greater Media, Inc.
Can you say W R K O in Spanish……?
I get the feeling it’s a joke but if it’s true it would be
some kind of miracle. Note that it says Greater Media HQ,
but he prob was in Fla. Will let you know if I hear otherwise...
LOL, setting up the southern command, now that sounds like something Howie would do!
Q: Why will Howie be walking into the WRKO building slowly on Monday?
A: Hey, no Rush...
from WRKO’s facebook; hey, and yet Deval wouldn’t appear on Howie’s show...
>>WRKO has a big day planned on Monday! The Charley Manning Show will have United States Senator Scott Brown and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick on the show, plus some other great surprises as well. It all starts at noon so tune in to AM 680 WRKO and www.wrko.com
caller Brian said that what with no curtains in the showers of the House gym, hey, there’s your “transparency”! Brian referred to “the host that used to be on before you”. OK
so there’s one listener that had 1200 on not 680 for the
noon show...
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