Editorial: Open travel books
Deval Patrick may be gone, but recent Herald reporting on the sneaky tricks used to fund his excessive overseas travel assures he won’t soon be forgotten. The use of off-budget “trusts” and...
View ArticleRosenberg: Travel rules must be clear
Senate President Stanley C. Rosenberg said the state needs clear “ground rules” on how public officials travel for international business in the wake of revelations that former Gov. Deval Patrick...
View ArticleDeval Patrick aides may be questioned in probe
Close aides to former Gov. Deval Patrick could be forced to testify in a growing legislative investigation into Herald disclosures that his administration stockpiled millions of dollars in secret funds...
View ArticleDeval aides may be questioned in probe
Close aides to former Gov. Deval Patrick could be forced to testify in a growing legislative investigation into Herald disclosures that his administration stockpiled millions of dollars in secret funds...
View ArticleBattenfeld: 5-star hotels, armored cars, Deval Patrick's travel tabs higher...
Former Gov. Deval Patrick spared no expense in his $1.4 million around-the-world travels: five-star hotels, pricey meals, armored cars and translators — while repeatedly misleading the public about the...
View ArticleBattenfeld: Deval Patrick’s tabs higher than tallies he told
Former Gov. Deval Patrick spared no expense in his $1.4 million around-the-world travels: five-star hotels, pricey meals, armored cars and translators — while repeatedly misleading the public about the...
View ArticleEditorial: More travel takeaways
The Herald continues to tally up Deval Patrick’s expensive global travels when he was governor, and even those friendly to Patrick who have rushed to explain away the expenses can’t argue the...
View ArticleBattenfeld: Tackling MBTA political dynamite for gov
Gov. Charlie Baker is moving quickly to take control of the crippled MBTA long after the snow melts, putting his own team in charge of communications and making plans to hand-pick the next head of the...
View ArticleBattenfeld: ‘Together we can’? Now it’s ‘Look at what I accomplished’
There is no “I” in team, but there definitely is one in Patrick. The governor who rose to power seven years ago with soaring rhetoric about “together we can” is leaving office with a...
View ArticleBattenfeld: Lack of fire, focus in gov’s response
He’s been told to stop looking angry on the campaign trail, but GOP gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker ignores that advice when talking about the string of tragedies in the state’s foster care...
View ArticleJames Rooney: Exit won’t impact BCEC project
James Rooney, the soon-to-be-departing head of the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, said yesterday his exit will not derail the planned $1 billion expansion of the South Boston exhibition...
View ArticleCharlie Baker cites BCEC leadership change in halting $1B plan
Outgoing convention center boss James E. Rooney said he regrets taking a lucrative chamber of commerce post after Gov. Charlie Baker cited his impending exit in halting the controversial $1 billion...
View ArticleBattenfeld: Pols recommend big pay hikes for ... pols
Massachusetts’ political leaders have ascended to new heights of hubris and cluelessness, an astounding accomplishment even for them. The outgoing Democratic governor with a mini- mansion in the...
View ArticleBaker OKs delay in BCEC bonds
Gov. Charlie Baker is slamming the brakes on the $1 billion bond offering for the controversial expansion of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center by ordering a two-month delay while his...
View ArticleDeval Patrick plans to slash $66M from aid to cities, towns
Gov. Deval Patrick is pushing $66 million in local aid cuts, a proposal that has municipal leaders howling. Others note the Legislature’s unwillingness to act on the cuts could effectively kick a...
View ArticleBattenfeld: Deval Patrick opens door for GOP
Massachusetts Republicans should take back all those nasty things they’ve said about Gov. Deval Patrick. The governor’s pathetic performance is the GOP’s best hope for getting back the Corner Office....
View ArticleGov.-elect Baker envisions ‘low-key’ inauguration
Gov.-elect Charlie Baker said today he has no plans to go on any trade missions during his upcoming term, and is eyeing a “low-key” inauguration as he steps into the Corner Office, two departures from...
View ArticleBattenfeld: Patrick-era MEMA chief holds posts in 3 state agencies
A Patrick administration appointee leading the disaster response to this winter’s series of brutal blizzards doubles as chief of homeland security and also holds a key Massport position, despite state...
View ArticleBattenfeld: Snowed under? MEMA chief holds posts in 3 agencies
A Patrick administration appointee leading the disaster response to this winter’s series of brutal blizzards doubles as chief of homeland security and also holds a key Massport position, despite state...
View ArticleBattenfeld: National office for Charlie Baker? Nope, and you can believe it
Sick of governors with a flair for fancy speeches and a nose for the national stage? Massachusetts, here comes your man. “Not to worry,” Gov.-elect Charlie Baker said in a Boston Herald interview. “I...
View ArticlePatrick flack army costing state big $$
As he walks out of the State House today, Gov. Deval Patrick leaves taxpayers not just a big budget deficit and a broken health care website but an army of more than 50 public relations flacks costing...
View ArticleBattenfeld: Flying high on taxpayers’ dime
Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and his wife put taxpayers on the hook for nearly $17,000 in airfare on a single trade mission to Israel, part of an often lavish worldwide tour funded by a...
View ArticleDeval Patrick's flack army costing state big bucks
As he walks out of the State House today, Gov. Deval Patrick leaves taxpayers not just a big budget deficit and a broken health care website but an army of more than 50 public relations flacks costing...
View ArticleCarr: Boston 2024 is Deval Patrick’s not-so-secret revenge
If you liked the Deval Patrick administration, you’ll love Boston 2024. Because, as becomes clearer every day, what was the most incompetent and corrupt administration in the history of Massachusetts...
View ArticleCarr: Boston 2024 is Deval’s not-so-secret revenge
If you liked the Deval Patrick administration, you’ll love Boston 2024. Because, as becomes clearer every day, what was the most incompetent and corrupt administration in the history of Massachusetts...
View ArticleBattenfeld: Deval Patrick was flying high on taxpayers’ dime
Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and his wife put taxpayers on the hook for nearly $17,000 in airfare on a single trade mission to Israel, part of an often lavish worldwide tour funded by a...
View ArticleEditorial: Patrick’s slush fund
Anyone remember the “fiscal shell game”? The one that Deval Patrick, during his first campaign for governor, haughtily accused Mitt Romney of perpetrating on the taxpayers? Well, it turns out that...
View ArticleDeLeo to scrutinize Patrick’s hidden junket funds
Speaker of the House Robert A. DeLeo said he was kept in the dark about former Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration’s move to secretly divert nearly $37 million in public money to off-budget accounts,...
View ArticleDeLeo calls for probe of Patrick’s hidden junket funds
Speaker of the House Robert A. DeLeo said he was kept in the dark about former Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration’s move to secretly divert nearly $27 million in public money to off-budget accounts,...
View ArticleCharlie Baker, Robert DeLeo, ex-IG say they want answers
Gov. Charlie Baker, top lawmakers and a former inspector general are calling for a probe into disclosures by the Herald that former Gov. Deval Patrick stashed public money in secret trusts that paid...
View ArticlePatrick secretly diverted junket cash
Former Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration secretly diverted nearly $27 million in public money to off-budget accounts that paid for a $1.35 million trade junket tab, bloated advertising contracts, and...
View ArticleHidden junket funds: How Deval Patrick secretly diverted millions to...
Former Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration secretly diverted nearly $27 million in public money to off-budget accounts that paid for a $1.35 million trade junket tab, bloated advertising contracts, and...
View ArticleDeval Patrick secretly diverted junket cash
Former Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration secretly diverted nearly $27 million in public money to off-budget accounts that paid for a $1.35 million trade junket tab, bloated advertising contracts, and...
View ArticlePoliticians call for probe into Deval Patrick junket funds
Gov. Charlie Baker, top lawmakers and a former inspector general are calling for a probe into disclosures by the Herald that former Gov. Deval Patrick stashed public money in secret trusts that paid...
View ArticleGrand Prix sputters
In what could be a coup de grace to Grand Prix racing in Boston, Massport and the Baker administration are refusing to spend public funds on road fixes and other costs event organizers say they need...
View ArticleBoston Grand Prix sputters as Massport vows it won't pay for course fixes
In what could be a coup de grace to Grand Prix racing in Boston, Massport and the Baker administration are refusing to spend public funds on road fixes and other costs event organizers say they need...
View ArticleBoston Olympics insiders now negotiating Hub Indy Car race contracts
The threat of millions in taxpayer subsidies looms over yet another planned sporting spectacle in Boston — this one an ambitious IndyCar road race set to roar through the streets of the city’s Seaport...
View ArticleSpending Prix? Public financing could fuel Boston IndyCar race
The threat of millions in taxpayer subsidies looms over yet another planned sporting spectacle in Boston — this one an ambitious IndyCar road race set to roar through the streets of the city’s Seaport...
View ArticleRace could cost taxpayers big $$
The threat of millions in taxpayer subsidies looms over yet another planned sporting spectacle in Boston — this one an ambitious IndyCar road race set to roar through the streets of the city’s Seaport...
View ArticleWalsh insider was high-ranking Patrick aide
The City Hall official in the middle of a federal extortion case against Teamsters union workers was a high-ranking aide in former Gov. Deval Patrick’s tourism office who helped funnel millions of tax...
View ArticleAd firm chief says state zeroed budget
The head of a Boston ad agency axed from a lucrative state promotion contract by the administration of Gov. Charlie Baker blamed the decision on budget cuts — not questions over his firm getting...
View ArticleBaker bounces Patrick-era ad agency
The Baker administration has bounced the state’s longtime ad agency after a Herald investigation revealed it got $20 million from a hidden, taxpayer-funded account created by former Gov. Deval Patrick...
View ArticleState cuts ad agency
The Baker administration has bounced the state’s longtime ad agency after a Herald investigation revealed it got $20 million from a hidden, taxpayer-funded account created by former Gov. Deval Patrick...
View ArticleBattenfeld: Charlie Baker Takes Charge of MBTA
Gov. Charlie Baker is moving quickly to take control of the crippled MBTA long after the snow melts, putting his own team in charge of communications and making plans to hand-pick the next head of the...
View ArticleDeval Patrick on board binge
Gov. Deval Patrick has ramped up appointments to state boards and commissions in his final months in office, especially before yesterday’s deadline, to put appointees in place before they can be...
View ArticleCharlie taking charge: Sources say Baker will pick MBTA's new general manager
Gov. Charlie Baker is moving quickly to take control of the crippled MBTA long after the snow melts, putting his own team in charge of communications and making plans to hand-pick the next head of the...
View ArticleSources: Charlie Baker will pick MBTA's next GM
Gov. Charlie Baker is moving quickly to take control of the crippled MBTA long after the snow melts, putting his own team in charge of communications and making plans to hand-pick the next head of the...
View ArticleOutgoing Gov. Deval Patrick appoints 360 people since July
Gov. Deval Patrick has ramped up appointments to state boards and commissions in his final months in office, especially before yesterday’s deadline, to put appointees in place before they can be...
View ArticleMassport boss: No hotel bid info for now
The head of Massport told the Herald yesterday he has no intention of publicly releasing the six bids to build an $800 million “headquarters hotel” on authority-owned land as part of the $1 billion...
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