The United Nations Security Council is made up of 15 members. It acts as an executive committee for presenting resolutions to the larger body. Any member of the Council may veto a resolution and it automatically fails.

The other day, the Council sponsored a resolution calling for a cease fire in Gaza.

The only benefit from that would be to grant Hamas time to reorganize and stunt Israel’s effort to eliminate this despicable terrorist organization.

Since the United States supports Israel in its effort to survive, it seemed clear that the Biden Administration’s response would be to exercise its veto and defeat the Resolution. Astonishingly, Biden abstained from voting. The result was 14-0 and the resolution passed. What in God’s name was Biden thinking to allow this to happen?

There’s an obvious answer. Biden is a political prisoner of the Progressives who hate Israel. He’s afraid of them. Very frankly, Biden didn’t have the courage to oppose them with a veto.

I hope that all voters remember this when the polls open on election day. Anyone who is disgusted by Biden because of this should.

Frank Olivieri

Wilmington

Impeachment

Ian Sams, White House spokesman for oversight and investigations, sent a taunting tweet to the House Oversight Committee Chair, James Comer, apparently trying to intimidate the co-equal branch into not performing one of their core oversight roles enumerated in the U.S. Constitution.

Sams’ tweet said “Comer knows 20+ witnesses have testified that POTUS did nothing wrong…. This is a sad stunt at the end of a dead impeachment. Call it a day, pal.”

Really? 20+ witnesses? Are they like the White House physician that skipped a mental acuity test for the first time in modern history and told us Joe Biden was mentally and physically fit? Or more like the 51 retired “Intelligence Leaders” who declared in October of 2020, during an election, that the Hunter Biden laptop story was a Russian disinformation operation?

Thanks, pal, but I think we the people will trust, but verify, as a far better president of ours once told us to do.

Nick McNulty

Windham, NH

Biden & Iran

President Joe Biden freed up $10 billion of frozen Iranian assets.  Iran supports terrorists by providing money to groups like Hezbollah and the Houthis.  Iran does not allow inspections of its nuclear energy facilities.  The mullahs chant, “Death to America” and are on friendly terms with Russia, China and North Korea.  Biden abruptly pulled out of Afghanistan against the advice of his generals and left behind $80 billion in weapons, ammunition and military hardware.

On the other hand, President Trump had strong sanctions on Iran and was crippling Iran’s economy.  Under Trump, the leading state-sponsored terrorist, Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani was killed with a pinpoint missile attack.  In 2014, Obama’s Defense Secretary Robert Gates, stated that, “Joe Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the last four decades.”  A failed foreign policy is nothing new for our commander-in-chief.

Donald Houghton

Quincy

A foul odor has plagued the state-of-the-art facility (“Our school smells like poop,” said Steven Benjamin, a middle school reading specialist and special education teacher, according to the Herald) all year long.

Teachers at the $73 million Roxbury facility have to work around the smell: A classroom door needs to be fully open at all times, an air purifier running with the ionizer on, and windows open. Class is held in the hallway, or relocated from a classroom that’s particularly offensive. Students spray perfume and Febreeze when they can stand to enter a particularly odiferous room.

The logical step is to call a plumber. Staffers say that custodial teams have tried onsite fixes, but when multiple rooms smell like a sewer pipe, you’re not looking at a simple clog. Benjamin noted that leaders have “communicated to facilities through the proper channels.”

And yet the olfactory ordeal continues and students and teachers suffer. Last week, Benjamin and two colleagues took the issue to a School Committee meeting, asking for help from district leaders.

Teachers shouldn’t have to be the ones to raise a stink about the stench. An entire school smelling to high heaven can’t be a secret, and if leadership knew, and facilities contacted, why didn’t the ball get rolling sooner?

School Committee Vice Chairman Michael O’Neill is calling for action to be taken as soon as possible, and the timeline in solving the issue to be expedited.

“I hope we’re going to get some very professional plumbers out to a (new) building – a matter of fact, let’s get the contractors who built the building out there – and find out what the heck is going on there,” he told Superintendent Mary Skipper.

While you’re at it, make sure there aren’t any overdue bills hanging around.

This isn’t the first plumbing problem that Boston Public Schools has encountered. Last May, BPS was found to be stiffing a plumbing contractor on a $164,000 bill, racked up since 2018, as the Herald reported.  According to the Boston Finance Commission, district employees sought to resolve the issue by directing another vendor to pick up the tab. That fiscal finagling left the school district with a substantially larger bill of $189,162.

It also raised questions about how BPS does business with vendors. How do you rack up a plumbing bill for five years without payment?  And what effect does this have on future work?

The Boston Finance Commission addressed that in its report: “This transaction unnecessarily cost the taxpayers money that could have gone toward services for Boston Public School students, undermines the faith citizens have in their public officials, and will potentially cause vendors to question whether they should enter a working relationship with the City of Boston.”

What kind of rep does BPS having with plumbing contractors in light of the mega-bucks bill that went unpaid for years? Is that why work on the Dearborn STEM Academy’s problem is proceeding at a glacial pace?

Teachers, students and their parents deserve better. The BPS needs to get on this problem, stat. And maybe pay upfront.

The MBTA has been running at deficits for years, now the recent article “Discount fares, Chinese-built cars on track” illustrates even more losses. Sixty thousand low-income riders will receive half-off tickets and passes. I understand low income and assistance but it just shows another loss. The contract with a Chinese company for new cars was updated, for huge losses and more time waiting. The T will now pay the company $148 million more…on a bid!? They will also forgive $90 million, and another $37 million in damages spelled out in the bid may be forgiven.

Why wasn’t there rebidding when the Chinese company defaulted? Are there any US companies who bid and were within $275million of the awarded company? Why aren’t these questions being raised for an agency hemorrhaging money away?

John Cerulli

Salem NH

Biden fundraising

Pull back the curtain and you will see why Biden had the biggest fundraising event in history. The total net worth of the top 1%, defined by the Fed as those with wealth over $11 million, increased by $2 trillion in the fourth quarter.  All of the gains for the elites came from their stock holdings.  Super rich Democrats love Biden, while working class Democrats struggle to put food on the table.

Biden couldn’t draw a crowd by headlining the event himself.  He had to share the stage with Bill Clinton and Barack Obama and they were hawking photo shoots with the former presidents.  Second row seats were going for $500,000. Did anyone reading this attend the fundraiser?  I doubt it, because Bidenomics doesn’t work for working-class people.

Donald Houghton

Quincy

Baltimore bridge

t’s refreshing to hear that our governor has pledged to help Maryland Governor Wes Moore with support in the Key bridge disaster.  It’s great news to see intergovernmental cooperation between states. Now if Gov. Moore was a Republican, would Healey be so quick to offer him any kind of help? A huge tragedy has been taking place on our southern border, here in Massachusetts, Healey has only admonished Texas Governor Greg Abbott and former President Donald Trump. When will Gov. Healey call and extend the same courtesy to Gov. Abbott? A tragedy has been occurring at our southern border for over 3 years and yet Gov. Healey hasn’t even attempted to extend any support or assistance to stop it.

Democrats help Democrats and Democrats suffer cognitive dissonance and continue to  blame Republicans, Trump and MAGA for the disaster on our southern border.

Mark Howland

Weymouth

Timeless adage

A long time ago, an elder from the Greatest Generation told me that “You can’t beat City Hall.” Now that I have become an elder, I can see that government is trying now to make that an absolute fact. If we allow that to become the absolute truth with our votes being negotiable to tax- and-spend politicians, then democracy will, or perhaps already has been lost.

Al DePaoli

Woburn

The agency informed the Herald this past week that the heavily redacted 15 installments of Whitey’s dirty dealings already dropped in their public records “Vault” will be the last we see. Forever!

That can’t be tolerated. The Herald has 90 days to file an “administrative appeal,” and we fully intend to do so.

As we reported, the files posted in dribs and drabs are mostly run-of-the-mill mobster fare, with talk of loan sharking, horse race fixing, and ruthless gang rule. What about the rest? The agency’s contract with this devil must be made public. If the past is truly prologue, members of law enforcement must learn from the agency’s mistakes in dealing with depraved career killers.

Today’s Department of Justice has a spotty record regarding transparency. On one hand, it exceeded expectations when it exposed Rachael Rollins’s politicization of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston.

Former U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling bravely launched a campaign against the ruthless MS-13 gang in New England, saving lives. But he didn’t prosecute former Gov. Charlie Baker’s son for allegedly groping a woman on a Boston-bound flight.

Now U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has a rare opportunity to overturn the FBI’s penchant for incestuous secrecy, overrule the G-men, and order the release of every memo on Bulger’s sordid life.

This is not a journalistic paper chase using the Freedom of Information Act for an academic exercise in the First Amendment. This won’t be made into a Hollywood flick with A-list actors pretending to be from Boston. This is all about the victims.

When the news broke this week that the FBI was dumping Bulger’s file in the trash, one of those loved ones left to grow old alone without her husband called the Herald to lament the end of this painful road.

“This makes me feel that anything new that might still come out won’t be shared with the victims,” said Mary Callahan, now in her 80s. “Maybe this means they don’t want to share that. It could be money we are owed. There’s 33 of us, when I last counted. I’m seeing this as the FBI telling all of us to ‘Go Away!'”

Mary’s accountant husband, John Callahan, was executed in South Florida on Bulger’s orders in 1982 — and the FBI played a central part.

John Callahan, the former president of World Jai Alai, was shot dead by John Martorano, one of Bulger’s hitmen. Martorano testified he was working for Bulger when he killed Callahan, who was also a friend of his. Bulger wanted Callahan dead because the Boston businessman could implicate them in a 1981 slaying of another World Jai Alai executive.

Disgraced ex-FBI agent John “Zip” Connolly was convicted of second-degree murder in 2008 for wearing his FBI-issued sidearm when he met with Bulger in Boston to warn him of what John Callahan knew. Zip is now home in Massachusetts on a “compassionate release” from his Florida prison cell as he battles cancer.

The corrupt rabbit hole goes deeper.

We filed a public records request for Bulger’s FBI file soon after he was murdered in a West Virginia prison in 2018. The first installment was posted on July 8, 2021. The last one dropped on Oct. 3, 2022.

If that’s all we see, shame on the FBI.

Your editorial of March 26 decrying the constant judicial delays in the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev capital punishment case, in which he was sentenced to death and is still kicking around, very much alive, in a federal supermax prison, is completely understandable. After all, the foul and cowardly deed was done in 2013, more than a decade ago.

However, when dealing with capital punishment, and with all of the horrendous crimes for which defendants are sentenced to death, cooler heads should prevail. There is a systemic problem with the death penalty. Our criminal justice system is flawed, along with all human institutions. Errors are made. While it is true that the Boston Marathon bombing has resulted in one of the most clearly accurate and well-deserved convictions in recent memory, the problem is systemic: If capital punishment is inflicted, it is virtually certain that an innocent person will eventually be executed. The National Innocence Project has uncovered many cases of unfairness or even unlawfulness is capital cases, and recently even discovered the case of an innocent man who was executed. I was not surprised, as it was inevitable.

Harvey A. Silverglate

Cambridge

Right to shelter

Our governor and legislators are placing blame on the federal government. There is plenty of blame to go around, but they need to look themselves in the mirror and realize a good portion of the Massachusetts immigration issues are caused or exacerbated by their own actions, or lack of action.

They won’t change or clarify the Right to Shelter Law (which was originally put in place for homeless Massachusetts citizens) and have not even thought about creating Massachusetts’ own laws to limit immigration to legal immigration. Meaning laws like we used to have when people waited their turn to come here legally, prepared to work and had a clear path to citizenship.

Instead, they offer migrants free housing, free medical, driver’s licenses, breaks on education and then they limit the information our RMV can give out to law enforcement!

Now our taxes will be going up to support a situation which by no measure is sustainable. Costing this state alone almost $1B a year! They are bankrupting our state. If they are worried people have been leaving, just wait…

Right now,  more migrants are coming into this country every four days than we have citizens in most towns. No other country would allow this.

Where is the common sense?

I do not blame the immigrants — why wouldn’t they come?? Anyone in their situation would. I do blame our state AND federal government for allowing our borders to be overrun, for the increase in crime in our cities, towns and schools and for the undermining of our police and justice systems.

Stop the blame game and use the laws we have or change them as needed to get control of our state back before it is too lat. Then collaborate with other states to force the federal government to close our borders and bring back the immigration laws that worked.

Joan Gonfrade

Ashland

But as Boston’s swath of unoccupied commercial buildings pose an ominous tax revenue shortfall of $1 billion, Mayor Michelle Wu is grabbing a shovel.

As the Herald reported, Wu rolled out an “emergency law” to allow Boston to begin increasing property taxes on businesses beyond the state limit next year.

The mayor’s home rule petition, if approved by the City Council and state lawmakers, would provide a statewide option allowing municipalities to shift more of the tax burden from residents to businesses, exceeding the state cap of 175% up to 200% in the next fiscal year that begins July 1.

Wu cited the city budget’s heavy reliance on property taxes, which contribute three-quarters of annual revenue, most of which comes from commercial property.

There is a large downside, however. When tax rates are raised on commercial properties, “that further depresses the value of those properties which are already in distress,” Evan Horowitz, executive director of The Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University, said Tuesday.

“So over the long term, with approximate values going down, we actually collect less in future property taxes as well,” Horowitz said.

The domino effect would continue. As the state’s website notes in an explanation of Property Assessments, Valuation, & Taxation in Commercial Real Estate, “A tax shift has been moving from residential to commercial/industrial properties. These taxes are passed through to the tenants and can make one town more expensive to operate a business vs. another town. Can place a commercial building at a disadvantage in certain towns.”

Why would a company lease office space in Boston with the specter of higher rents on the horizon because of tax increases? With an added speed bump to attracting lessees, building owners face continued loss of income, while still having to maintain and repair their property.

Consider too the retail stores and other operations that are part of mixed-use office and retail space. A location with a lot of foot traffic is great, but if the rent’s too damn high, it’s a wash.

Wu’s move does nothing to bring office buildings in Boston back to full strength, nor does it create an environment in which businesses flock to the city to set up shop.

The mayor is trying to protect residents from higher taxes, which is laudable. But the revenue stream should not be limited to commercial and residential properties.

There is also the potential cash cow of tax-exempt properties, so designated because they’re characterized as nonprofit charitable organizations. On the heels of reports that costs at Wellesley College, Boston University, Tufts and Yale will hit $90,000 per year this fall, it’s hard to get on board with letting them skip property taxes.

The Payment in Lieu of Taxes program, in which such entities volunteer payments to the city, is being revisited by the City Council, as it should. Boston can’t afford to give some property owners a free pass.

Nor can it afford the economic consequences of upping the tax burden on commercial properties still struggling to come back from the pandemic.

The city needs to unearth a better solution.

Shapiro was speaking of the time-honored practice of double-dipping, in which former public employees collect pensions while also receiving paychecks from current jobs, as State House News reported.

State law limits how much public retirees can work and earn from another public sector job, but those caps are “primarily enforced through a self-monitored honor system,” Shapiro’s office found.

Hefty paycheck double dipping is a bit of a tradition in Massachusetts, like the opening of the Swan Boats, or the delivery of Boston’s Christmas tree from Nova Scotia. The “self-monitored honor system” works well for those who indulge in the practice until they wind up on the pages of the Boston Herald.

In 2021, the Herald wrote of a state employee who pulled down $134,299 working two jobs — one for the MBTA and the other for MassDOT.

Payroll data from the Comptroller’s Office listed Carl Breneus of Boston as a “full-time” “repairer” at the MBTA  at $81,952 annual base pay. He also earned a paycheck at the Department of Transportation that year as a “full-time” janitor with a base pay listed at $52,347.

The Herald also reported that year on one John Hersey, who worked at both the MBTA and Denver’s transit agency during the height of the pandemic. He earned a combined salary of $220,000-plus, Rocky Mountain State officials confirmed.

“He was not authorized to engage in outside employment,” Pauletta Tonilas, assistant general manager at RTD Denver, said. “It’s discouraging. … We have a code of ethics and ask our employees to follow it.”

We have an honor system. And this is what we get.

These two cases are far from isolated, there have been many more such double dippers covered in the Herald for years. Many, many more.

“No single agency tracks post-retirement earnings of public retirees. Earnings cap calculations are complicated and individual to each retiree,” Shapiro wrote in a letter to Beacon Hill leaders alongside his office’s report. “Oversight is inconsistent, and in some cases, non-existent. Enforcement is reactive, mostly directed at the most egregious cases. Penalties for exceeding the earnings cap are minimal. This should not be the case for the Commonwealth’s retirement system, which is a billion-dollar enterprise.”

Should not, but is. And we applaud Shapiro’s calling out the laxness of earning limit oversight.

Shapiro’s report made recommendations to fix the problem, including having lawmakers create a financial penalty for retirees. It also called on the Legislature to bulk up enforcement of the existing limits, either by creating a new standalone agency or empowering the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission.

Good luck with that. This is the same Legislature that’s fighting tooth and nail to keep Auditor Diana DiZoglio from having a peek at the books. House Speaker Ron Mariano has been so successful at shutting DiZoglio out, he could work as a consultant to the Border Patrol.

A job here and employment elsewhere simultaneously – that’s how Bay State public employees make it (twice) in Massachusetts.

Gov. Maura Healey aimed to reassure Massachusetts residents Tuesday by declaring that bridges here are regularly inspected and “up to date.”

“I want to make sure that we are having a conversation to make sure that all of our protocols are where they need to be and that we are doing everything we can to assure the safety of our ports and our bridges,” the governor said on Boston Public Radio on WGBH.

Baltimore’s Key Bridge passed inspection in May 2022, but there was concern with one of its columns, CBS News reported.

Ben Schafer, professor of civil and systems engineering at Johns Hopkins University, told CBS News that most bridges in the U.S. fall in the “fair” range, as did the Key. But, he said, the massive ship – not the condition of the Key Bridge – is likely to blame for its collapse.

None of that is comforting.

Especially when our own Sagamore and Bourne bridges have been deemed structurally deficient and in need of replacement by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The cost of replacing the 91-year-old spans? North of $4.5 billion, as the Herald reported.

It’s not like state leaders haven’t been trying raise the cash.

The state’s congressional delegation managed to crowbar $722 million out of the feds over the past four months, $350 million of which was signed into law this month by President Biden. The state has committed at least $700 million toward rebuilding the bridges.

The delegation reminded Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg in  a recent letter that there is still an outstanding Bridge Investment Program grant application for $1.072 billion waiting on approval.

They could also remind the Biden administration that it is better to get ahead of a problem than it is to tell his people “to move heaven and earth” to respond to a disaster, as the president vowed Tuesday “to reopen the port and rebuild the bridge as soon as humanly possible.”

Ships have hit the Sagamore and Bourne bridges. A cruise ship clipped the Buzzards Bay Railroad Bridge in 2016. Damage was limited to scraped paint, but as cruise ships get bigger and bigger, the likelihood of accidental contact is bound to increase.

The last thing anyone needs is for a cruise ship to “Storrow” in the Cape Cod Canal.

The Massachusetts delegation stressed the support it has given Biden in the past as a way to grease the skids for the $1B grant’s release. “We worked hard to pass President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to provide historic opportunities to fund critical infrastructure projects across the United States” they wrote.

But this is an election year, and Biden has a 20 point lead over Trump already in the Bay State. The lawmakers will deliver for Biden again, and he knows it. We don’t have the cudgel of an “uncommitted” bloc of voters to sway the president.

If the glacial pace of federal funding to assist Massachusetts with our migrant influx is any indication, help from D.C. will be coming on a very slow boat.

The recent piece by Seth Borenstein highlights a critical issue — the impact of climate change on food prices and inflation. This remarkable study underscores the pressing urgency to address climate change. Researchers calculate that “weather and climate shocks” will cause the cost of food to rise 1.5 to 1.8 percentage points annually within a decade or so, even higher in already hot places like the Middle East, according to a study in the journal Communications, Earth and the Environment. That translates to an increase in overall inflation of 0.8 to 0.9 percentage points by 2035, caused by climate-caused extreme weather, the study said. By 2060 the impact on inflation will be over 2%.

This development results in individuals who can least afford it grappling with skyrocketing food prices. And the worst of these impacts will be experienced by the Global South. Greater focus needs to be placed on the economic strain created by climate change that accompanies the catastrophic damage to the physical environment. Climate change is not just a weather problem. It’s an economic, social, and humanitarian crisis. We need to address it as such.

Marvin Berkowitz

Needham

“Climateflation”

“Higher temperatures mean higher food and other prices. A new study links climate shocks to inflation” — Boston Herald

This article introduces us to a new term: “climateflation.”  Our prices, especially in the supermarket, are going up slowly but surely every year along with rising temperatures. To stop rising temperatures and related price increases we need to drive our tailpipe and smokestack emissions down — way down. If you can’t afford an electric car, know that you can reduce your emissions and transportation costs by following President Nixon’s long ago mandate, issued as a gas saving measure during the OPEC oil crisis in 1973: Go 50 mph or no more than the speed limit and use cruise control. Keep your tires properly inflated and drive gently  —it’s a money and emissions saver.

Grassroots mechanics from all over the world have been working on converting gas cars to EVs and even plug-in EVs. The cost and time for installation is minimal. Keep looking for climate solutions — it’s the way to go.

Jan Kubiac

Hyannis

RJK Jr. candidacy

Nothing screams “No longer the party of Kennedy” quite like Democrats trying to prevent John F. Kennedy’s nephew from even being on the ballot this fall.

Nick McNulty

Windham, NH

He hung up the phone Monday on the Herald rather than face questions about why Tsarnaev deserves to be spared the death penalty after murdering and maiming innocent marathon spectators on Boylston Street in 2013.

He hung up on the community that tried to help the Tsarnaev family make a new start in Massachusetts.

He hung up on decency!

Attorney Daniel Habib, a Harvard grad from the Federal Defenders of New York, Inc., would not say if this appeal is more about the death penalty than Tsarnaev’s terrorism. It’s clear he could care less about needing to explain his motivations.

The federal appeals court based in Boston ruled late last week the district court was “obliged” to probe “plausible claims of juror bias” in Tsarnaev’s “penalty-phase hearing.”

This latest appeal, the court document reveals, is all about the death penalty. The campaign to forever stop executions has now set up shop in Boston.

The federal judges state that “if and only if the district court’s investigation reveals that (jurors 138 or 286) should have been stricken for cause on account of bias, Tsarnaev will be entitled to a new penalty-phase proceeding.”

Tsarnaev will never get out of jail but could escape death once again.

This is a terrorist who ran over his own brother while racing away from a gunfight with police in Watertown after executing MIT campus police officer Sean Collier just days after carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings.

This all comes down to two jurors chattering on social media. It is cruel to those living without loved ones and those surviving without limbs to face another decade with no end due to a few tweets and Facebook messages.

The appeals court writes that “virtually all prospective jurors admitted exposure to some amount of publicity regarding the case” and many in the jury pool held different opinions about the death penalty.

Yet, we must now wait as the district court in the Seaport studies jurors 138 and 286 again. The fact Juror 138 denied receiving Facebook posts where friends said Tsarnaev had “no shot in hell” and “send him to jail where he belongs” is unbelievably thin gruel — especially since he didn’t write back.

Juror 286, a female from Dorchester, tweeted on the day of the April 15, 2013, bombings that “be polite to officers” and surgeons were “forgotten heroes” and days later adding she was uplifted by “Boston Strong” photos, is also seen as a potential bias. Really?

We agree with appeals Judge Jeffrey Howard who wrote in his dissenting opinion that there’s no “ancient and artificial formula” for determining bias. In forcing an investigation, he adds, the appeals court “robs” the lower court of its authority.

It doesn’t pass the smell test, our words. It is a case of politics interfering with justice, and that stinks.

When can Martin Richard, Krystle Campbell, Lingzi Lu, Sean Collier and BPD Officer Dennis Simmonds rest in peace?

How long must families wait? It’s been nearly two months since the House passed a bipartisan expansion of the Child Tax Credit and sent it to the Senate. Estimates are that this bill will benefit 16 million children in families with low incomes, including 5.8 million kids under the age of six.

You would think that in an election year, Congress would be eager to pass a tax cut for families (and small businesses). But a few senators are blocking it for political gain. Families should not have to wait months for Congress to pass something that is both popular and necessary.

It is time for senators to show us their hands. If the bill passes, families win. If it fails, senators can explain to voters why they chose to keep children in poverty.

When the Senate returns to Washington after Easter, I urge our senators to demand an immediate vote and then vote YES on the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act.

William Deignan

Medford

Illegal immigration

The Biden administration, and many leading Democrats, have some kind of a plan that massive illegal immigration will immensely help the Democratic Party to gain complete control of our nation.

Yet, as millions upon millions cross our borders, the consequences of their plan is placing our people, and our nation, in grave danger. Contained within them are serious criminals and terrorists who want to destroy our country. We are also accepting the deaths of over 100,000 per year of our people from fentanyl.

What we now have at our borders is insanity. It MUST stop! Our federal government has abdicated their responsibilities. Responsible states must take charge as Texas is heroically trying to do.

Al DiLascia

Chicopee

Patriots documentary

The recent release of Apple TV’s  ten-part documentary on the New England Patriots’ success was more an issue with team owner Robert Kraft finding fault with Coach Bill Belichick and blaming him for the team not returning to the Super Bowl in recent years.

Coach Belichick took the Patriots to seven Super Bowls winning six,  a feat that may never be achieved by another National Football League team but Kraft takes the low road with his anti-Belichick post-dynasty blame game. He deflects the blame for the recent season’s downturn onto anyone but himself as the owner.

Coach Belichick has been positive taking the high road with no negativity toward Kraft’s comments on the documentary.

Fran Bogdanowicz

Longmeadow

Nuclear energy

Our government is willing to pour money into unreliable solar and wind energy. Can you spell Solyndra? Nuclear energy is clean, safe and reliable. The hysteria that swirls around nuclear power is misguided.  The technology required to build small, efficient, nuclear plants exists now. Nuclear energy needs to be a larger source of power for America’s growth. Government subsidies that are propping up solar and wind power are making some people rich but does not provide enough energy to make the US energy independent. Nuclear energy is a viable alternative to fossil fuel and should be a growing industry.

Donald Houghton

Quincy

Re: “Lawmakers call on Fed to lower interest rate,” March 20

We’re blessed to have congressional members in this state with such conviction about the role monetary policy plays in housing affordability, among other concerns.  MA lawmakers Pressley, McGovern, and Warren seem convinced that a restrictive Fed funds rate is to blame for “housing market imbalances and the unaffordability of home ownership.”

It’s not that simple.  Lower interest rates are stimulative.  They create demand for capital.  Lower mortgage rates will boost housing demand, bringing more potential buyers into the housing market.  Naturally, that additional demand, without a corresponding increase in supply, will cause prices to rise, not fall.

Furthermore, the Fed’s fight is for price stability, not affordability.  Given that inflation is still far from the Fed’s 2% target, the last thing Fed Chair Powell wants to do is stimulate the economy and end up having to reverse course later.  And a 5.25% to 5.50% Fed funds target rate is far from “excessively high.”  For that you need to go back to March of 1980 when the rate was 20%.

Instead of browbeating the Fed, Pressley, McGovern, and Warren would serve their constituents best by working with their colleagues to reduce spending and leave monetary policy to the experts.

Sean F. Flaherty

Boston

RFK, Jr.

In your edition of March 21st, you  have an editorial cartoon joking about the voters’ scant choice this year, obviously a reference to Donald Trump and Joe Biden. However, it is crucial to remember that there’s an important third candidate – Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.  He has been picking up steam lately, and should not be written off lightly.

Harvey A. Silverglate

Cambridge

Illegal immigration

The column by Betsy McCaughey provides insight into the lies the Biden administration continues to offer relative to its horrific and purposeful program of illegal immigration.  DHS Secretary Mayorkas, with his numerous public utterances, consistently has misled the American people as to the true nature of what has been occurring at our borders since the current administration took office and the resultant consequences of their open border policy.

For example, according to previous news reports, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations statistics for fiscal year 2022 alone reflects more than 44,000 arrests of noncitizens with criminal histories including assault charges, sexual assault charges, weapons charges, homicide-related charges and kidnapping charges.  These statistics do not account for subsequent time periods and for so-called “getaways.”  Nor do they account for the huge cost to taxpayers who will be mandated to pay for the foreseeable future the housing and health care costs for millions of illegal immigrants.  All of which is secondary to the unbearable loss of loved ones like Laken Riley.

Brian J. Sullivan

North Reading

On Thursday, Joshua McCullough was arrested for robbing a woman in North Providence, R.I.

They are the same person.

All it took was a name change —  a relatively quick procedure for McCullough, who, as the Herald reported, petitioned to change his name on May 8, 2018. It was done on June 21, 2018, according to Suffolk County Probate Court records.

How can it be so easy for a convicted felon —  a cop killer no less —  to legally change his name? What’s worse, that wasn’t his first offense. He was previously convicted of manslaughter in the shooting death of Dorchester store clerk Angela Skeete in 1986.

Yet it took just 43 days for Terrell Muhammad to step into a new life as Joshua McCullough.

This is nothing short of terrifying, as are the short sentences McCullough received for both crimes.

According to the state web site, an adult 18-years-old or older can have a name change granted unless it is “inconsistent with public interests.” For example, your name change might not be granted if you are trying to pretend to be someone else, or if you are trying to hide your criminal record.

Convicted of manslaughter and killing a police officer —  how did McCullough’s petition not send off a chorus of alarms?

Discovering a person’s criminal past camouflaged by a name change isn’t exclusive to Massachusetts or R.I.

A bill that would make it harder for those convicted of violent crimes to change their names is being considered by a New Hampshire Senate committee.

As WMUR reported, the bill came about after two women went to check on the status of the man convicted of killing their mother and couldn’t find him because he had changed his name.

James Covington pleaded guilty to second-degree murder charges for killing his girlfriend in 1999 in Somersworth. The body of Deborah Duncan was found in a Massachusetts cemetery.

Covington filed a petition in 2022 to legally change his first name, saying he wanted a fresh start. That petition was granted by the court.

Last week, a Senate committee heard testimony on a bill that would make it more difficult for those convicted of violent felonies or crimes against children to change their names.

It would require a compelling reason for the name change and require that prosecutors and victims be notified about the petition. Supporters of the bill said name changes could allow criminals to escape their past, and the current system leaves victims out of the loop.

In Covington’s case, the state took him back to court and had his name change reversed. Supporters of the measure said the safeguards in the bill should prevent that from happening.

We hope N.H. gives this bill the green light. Massachusetts should follow suit.

Those convicted of violent crimes especially shouldn’t have the chance to effectively give themselves a legal alias. For career criminals like McCullough, it’s a fresh start to re-offend.

It’s a slap in the face to victims and their loved ones, and undermines the very concept of public safety

He’s willing to leave an ally and sole Middle East democracy hanging to win over “uncommitted” voters and assorted anti-Israel blocs. Biden will spend trillions to support a Green New Deal agenda, economy be damned.

And now, he’s gone all in on his push to get Americans to drive electric vehicles even if they don’t want to.

The Biden administration on Wednesday issued one of its most ambitious climate rules, a move that could make electric cars the majority of U.S. auto sales eight years from now, according to Politico.

The final version of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Cars rule is the strictest federal climate regulation ever issued for passenger cars and trucks — even though it offers manufacturers a slightly slower phase-in of pollution limits than the EPA had first proposed last spring.

Biden said the rule fulfills his promise to cut the nation’s carbon pollution in half by the end of the decade while promoting American workers. “Together, we’ve made historic progress. Hundreds of new expanded factories across the country. Hundreds of billions in private investment and thousands of good-paying union jobs,” Biden said in a statement.

“And we’ll meet my goal for 2030 and race forward in the years ahead.”

That’s music to the ears of climate activists. But for the rest of the country?

The American Petroleum Institute and American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers came out against the rule, saying it would eliminate most new gasoline-fueled cars in less than a decade “at a time when Americans are struggling with high costs and inflation.”

“This regulation will make new gas-powered vehicles unavailable or prohibitively expensive for most Americans. For them, this wildly unpopular policy is going to feel and function like a ban,” the groups said in a joint statement.

That’s one way to deal with a public reluctant to purchase electric vehicles.

Last month, Mercedes-Benz became the latest carmaker to push back its plans for electric vehicles to make up most of its sales.

As Fox Business reported, the German luxury brand now says it won’t meet its 2025 deadline to have EVs, including hybrids, make up 50% of all sales. Lackluster demand for electric-powered cars has delayed that goal until at least 2030, the company said.

CEO Ola Kaellenius had warned late last year that even in Europe, sales would likely not be all-electric by 2030, with battery-powered cars currently making up just 11% of total sales, and 19% including hybrids.

Benz is not alone, weak demand for EVs has prompted several automakers to slow down their EV push and refocus on higher-margin hybrid and gas-powered models.

Will Biden’s new move win over the hearts and minds of Americans saying “no thanks” to electric vehicles? Not if EVs remain more expensive than gas-powered cars. According to Fox News, even factoring in generous federal and state subsidies, the average cost of an EV is about $52,500, while the average subcompact car costs $24,000.

But cost, affordability and factors such as the strength of electric grids to handle demand are mere details to those inside the Beltway. They may be seeing green, but many voters will see red over this move.

A simple, common-sense solution.

Not to the left, which is why the move ended up before the Supreme Court.

As The Hill reported, the Biden administration had urged the justices to block the law, passed by Texas’s Republican-controlled legislature last year, asserting it is an “unprecedented intrusion into federal immigration enforcement.”

Federal immigration enforcement?

As House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN) said in a December statement: “I fear the extent of the threat posed by the record-number of gotaways on Secretary Mayorkas’ watch won’t be clear until it is too late. The number of individuals apprehended illegally crossing the Southwest border and found to be on the terrorist watchlist has increased 2,500 percent from Fiscal Years 2017-2020 to Fiscal Year 2023. And those are only who we’ve caught.

“How many others have slipped by as Border Patrol agents have increasingly been pulled off the line to process illegal aliens crossing the border? How many violent criminals and gang members are now at large in our communities? Border security is national security, and right now, the border is not secure. When upwards of two million people have entered our country, whom we know nothing about, we are at deadly risk.”

It sounds like the feds could use a hand in arresting those caught entering the country illegally. The Supreme Court thinks so. It greenlighted the Texas law Tuesday, though three liberal justices publicly dissented. The order is not a final decision, and the case could return to the high court.

As a border state, Texas has been the canary in the coal mine of the migrant crisis. For years officials there sounded the alarm on illegal immigrants and how state and city shelters were past the breaking point as more and more people crossed the border.

They were derided by the left as xenophobic NIMBYs without compassion. It wasn’t until Texas exported the issue to northern states that the extent of the problem became obvious, even to blue states.

Now, Americans can’t go a day without hearing of cities struggling to find room to house a continued influx of migrants, with some having to bunk down at airports for the night. Crime linked to migrants, often with gang ties, make the headlines every week. Police are attacked, stores and people robbed and assaulted.

In Massachusetts, it’s a question of “who’s next” when it comes to communities and sites “selected” to shelter migrants.

The Texas statute enabling its law enforcement officers to enforce the law could be a valuable assist for our beleaguered Border Patrol officers, and help curb the steady stream northward.

Those on the left find the Texas answer to illegal immigration appalling, and there will likely be more legal push back.

But what’s needed in D.C. — and around the country — is more of that “don’t mess with Texas” attitude.

Mayor Michelle Wu noted that our migrant crisis is expected to impact Boston’s budget next fiscal year as new arrivals continue to strain the adult shelter system and services are needed for children entering schools.

Wu, who may propose her budget to the City Council next month, did not get into specifics about how the crisis would impact spending in fiscal year 2025, which begins July 1. But one can guess: more money will be needed to deal with the migrant situation, and that money has to come from somewhere.

It doesn’t help that the city is facing a $1B budget shortfall thanks to all the empty office buildings around Boston.

The knee-jerk reaction would be to raise taxes on Boston residents. However, the city is sitting on a veritable goldmine of undertapped funding: the city’s tax-exempt colleges and universities.

The City Council raised the issue back in 2020, with then-Councilor Michael Flaherty calling for a hearing into the PILOT (Payment in Lieu of Taxes) program.

“Our tax-exempt institutions must pay their fair share,” said Flaherty.

It’s a great system — for colleges, universities, hospitals and other non-profits. Under the PILOT program, these nonprofits make voluntary payments, which amount to roughly 25% of what they would have paid in real estate taxes and are meant to “help to offset the burden placed on Boston taxpayers to fund city services for all property owners,” according to the city website, the Herald reported.

Property taxes represent 74% of the city’s revenue, but more than 50% of real estate in Boston is tax-exempt, according to City Councilor Liz Breadon, who last year lead a contingent of councilors pushing for an update to the program — which has operated under the same guidelines since 2012.

City Council President Ruthzee Louijeune, then a councilor, said “In a wealthy and prosperous city like Boston, we have to ensure that expanding economic success is felt by all of our residents, and the prosperity that we have as a city is one that everyone can share. Our wealthy and renowned nonprofits can afford to pay their fair share.”

Amen to that.

We’re past the point of free – or almost free – passes. Even if the migrant crisis wasn’t straining the city’s resources, there are too many financial variables to allow for sacred cows to decide how much they deign to pay in taxes.

We know what tuition costs at some of these institutions, and we’ve learned what some of our universities pay their teachers and administrators. No one is scraping by.  No one, except, for Boston residents who need vital services and see city money stretch to provide for a continued inflow of migrants.

Assessing Department Commissioner Nicholas Ariniello noted last year that 47 nonprofits participating in the PILOT program weren’t meeting the full payment requested by the city.

In fiscal year 2022, collective payments from these private institutions were 75%, or roughly $92.4 million of the requested $123.5 million, Ariniello said.

Enough.

It’s unconscionable that non-profits in Boston continue to underpay the city, especially during these financially trying times. Pay up.

How’s this? Many of the streets around the neighborhood could be closed on weekends to allow outdoor dining. The city could help promote this and watch tourists flock to Little Italy.

Or, make Hanover Street one-way to allow for tables on weekends.

All it takes is a little urban savvy, and the sour taste leaves everybody’s mouth.

There are so many streets you can begin with, so all you need are the neighbors at the table with the agenda item “Seeking Compromise” as the focus.

But there’s a federal lawsuit hovering over all this, so everyone is picking sides and clamming up.

Mayor Wu needs to fix this. We’re not sure why she’s taking such a hard stance in the North End. Just walking around the other day, the warm weather had everyone out. Just think how beautiful it will be this spring and summer.

Paris, Madrid, and Rome (we could keep going) have turned al fresco dining into an art form. It’s time to think big in Boston, too. Have the restaurant owners pay for the police details and watch as the North End becomes the destination it has always been for generations.

Drop the $7,500 fee for outdoor dining permission while you’re at it. It’s punitive.

A new survey tells of Americans down on the economy. It’s primarily the insane cost of housing, but it’s more than that. Politicians make decisions for, well, political reasons. Many are laser-focused on their reputations at the expense of what’s good for others.

When was the last time you sacrificed a household necessity to make a political point? How about never? You need to pay bills, fix broken pipes, and prioritize a loved one’s health.

The Associated Press reports if it wasn’t for shelter costs, inflation — President Biden’s most pronounced economic problem — would be running at a healthy and stable 1.8%. Instead, it’s hovering around 3.2%.

It’s similar to what’s happening here in the North End. The many wonderful restaurants give people jobs and the foot traffic to the neighborhood helps other surrounding businesses. The pastry shops and specialty food outlets all benefit.

Attacking this outdoor dining conundrum as a team instead of staying on opposing sides would go a long way to building goodwill. Mayor Wu says she’s standing up for the neighbors concerned about late nights and other stresses associated with outdoor events. So make that a top agenda item.

Someone needs to care about what makes Boston the Hub of the universe. Stand up and demand that the North End be treated as a jewel, not a problem, that will keep foodies flocking to the neighborhood to enjoy dining outside, dining inside, walking around, and staying overnight in one of the many fine hotels downtown.

Call a community meeting. Have Mayor Wu stand in front of the crowd and start soliciting solutions instead of trying to score political points.

This city deserves nothing less! All the other neighborhoods will be watching and learning, too.

In the end, everyone could sit down for a great meal with a little wine and toast this fantastic town.

Statesmanship is sinking and Massachusetts is still boarding passengers. Illegal immigrants are swarming into our state because Massachusetts provides housing to asylum seekers.  Gov. Maura Healey is draining our state budget to provide services and supplies for illegal immigrants.  Democrats scramble to solve an unsolvable problem because of Joe Biden’s open border policy.

Senator Ryan Fattman, a Sutton Republican, called for a residency requirement for people in shelters.  Sutton’s proposal is a sensible place to start. The recent alleged rape of a 15-year-old migrant teen by migrant Cory Alvarez, 26, living in the Rockland Comfort Inn should never have happened.  While politicians talk, taxpayers continue to pay the freight and regrettably a teenager has paid a lot higher price.

Donald Houghton

Quincy

Spending

Our country is $34 trillion in debt which is basically impossible to straighten out. What are we doing about it? Handing out more money left and right — everybody seems to want to be in on the gravy train. Reparations for slavery that happened 150 years ago, unemployment that gives people more to not work, illegal immigrants costing us billions, giving billions and billions of assistance to foreign countries. Take a college loan – don’t worry about it. Let the people who paid their bills take care of it. Try working hard, studying hard, and you can be a success!

John Koster

Woburn

Rachael Rollins

Another day, another example of our two-tiered system of justice and equity in our society (“Big Surprise,” Boston Herald, 3/13).  I had to laugh reading both the news story on former US Attorney Rachael Rollins losing her right to practice law in Massachusetts and then her soft landing, according to Howie Carr. Rollins got herself a part-time no-heavy lifting job at Roxbury Community College for a mere $96,000 a year. The hackerama in Massachusetts just keeps going round and round like an old amusement park carousel.

Should we really have to wonder why so many registered voters stay home on election days? Government is our business. Either we run it or it runs us, It will only be as good as we want it to be or as bad as we allow it to be.

I have lots of friends who have moved out of state, I wonder why but then I really don’t. Good luck to Rollins in her new job. I am sure Roxbury Community College knew what they were doing when hiring her.

Sal Giarratani

East Boston

That’s something that should be top of mind for the Boston City Council in light of City Councilor Ed Flynn’s call for a hearing on the delays in testing the kits at the Boston Police Crime Laboratory.

The problem isn’t confined to Boston – there’s a backlog of kit testing around the country. But the council has the power to do something about the problem here.

As the Herald reported, Flynn cited an annual report from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security that found half, or 93 of 186 kits, were not tested within that 30-day window in fiscal year 2023 — from June 2022 to June 2023.

Each untested kit is a person waiting for their alleged assailant to be identified through DNA, perhaps the strongest evidence in prosecuting rapists. Each week or month that goes by without an answer means knowing the alleged criminal is still on the streets and could strike again.

“It’s critical we address this situation and provide justice for anyone who’s a victim of sexual assault,” Flynn said.

The reason for the backlog is no mystery: The Boston Police Crime Laboratory has a staffing shortage. And boosting staff requires money, and the will to spend it where it’s needed.

Last year, the MBTA came to grips with its own staggering workforce shortage. Gov. Maura Healey stepped up to the plate with $20 million for the MBTA Workforce Safety Reserve, designed to boost employee recruitment and retention. The move helped increase the T’s staff by more than 10% in 2023.

That’s how you do it.

Flynn suggests that a future Council hearing could examine ways to provide more resources to the crime lab.

One solution: stop looking at the Boston Police Department budget and thinking “where do I cut?”

Funding the police has been a sticking point with progressive members of the council

Last year, the council sent an operating budget to the mayor that cut roughly $31 million from the police department. Thankfully, Mayor Michelle Wu slammed the brakes on the move, vetoing the cut.

In a letter to the City Council, Wu called their attempt to slash the BPD budget “illusory.”

That’s one word for it.

The council was divided on taking a machete to the BPD budget, but we hope it can unite around an issue as important as clearing up the backlog of sexual assault test kits.

It will require more funding for the department to hire more workers, perhaps new equipment, whatever it takes to bring the lab up to speed.  That could run into the millions, at a time when tax revenue is down and likely to stay on the decline thanks to empty office buildings.

There are many areas that need funding in the city, and it would be too easy to kick the can down the road for future councils. This is an opportunity for the city council to show that they serve all Bostonians, especially the most vulnerable, and have the will to back up promises with much-needed funding.

Victims of sexual assault have been waiting for justice long enough.

Despite a public records request made three years ago, Kerry still refuses to tell the Herald the full details of his staff until this October. We learned in January that running his office cost some $4.3 million in pay per year, but Kerry didn’t reveal the names of any staffers.

So we wish a heartfelt good luck to the House Republicans who are demanding the ex-climate czar disclose details about his “shadow diplomacy” with Iran during the Trump administration — warning that his actions may have violated the federal Logan Act.

As the New York Post reported, five GOP lawmakers, led by Rep. Mike Waltz of Florida, sent a letter to the State Department Wednesday saying Kerry, 80, must hand over all records of his “private correspondence” with former Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif.

“It is of the utmost importance to ascertain the nature of these communications,” they wrote, according to a copy of the letter exclusively obtained by The Post. “Any discussion of sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump against Iran would present a likely violation of the Logan Act.”

The Logan Act, which dates back to 1799, prohibits citizens from unauthorized correspondence with foreign governments in a bid to influence that government’s relations or resolve disputes with the US.

You can’t go rogue as a self-appointed diplomat.

In a 2018 radio interview, Kerry admitted to having met “three or four times” with Zarif since leaving his post as President Obama’s secretary of state the year before.

“What I have done is tried to elicit from him what Iran might be willing to do in order to change the dynamic in the Middle East for the better,” Kerry said.

That would be something for Trump’s State Department to tackle.

But the “do not enter” sign doesn’t apply to Kerry, or so he assumes.

“Depending on what it involves, shadow diplomacy has also saved us from a war,” Kerry said. “If you look at 1963 (actually 1962) with the Cuban Missile Crisis, it was behind the scenes, back-channel conversation.”

Those GOP lawmakers noted in their letter that then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s negotiation efforts with the Soviet Union was another ballgame entirely.

You, Mr. Kerry, are no Robert Kennedy.

It’s not just the behind-the-scenes move by Kerry, it’s who was on the other side of the table.

According to reports, Iran’s regime helped plan and signed off on the Oct. 7 terror attacks on Israel by Hamas.

“In its most recent Country Report on Terrorism for Iran, the US State Department noted that Iran continued providing weapons systems and other support to Hamas and other US-designated Palestinian terrorist groups,” the lawmakers noted.

The lawmakers are rightly concerned that should Trump return to the White House, Kerry would be back to his old tricks.

They requested that Kerry commit to standing down from his self-described “shadow diplomacy” if Trump wins in November.

“Will you commit to ceasing any backchannel communications with Iran and any other foreign government in the event of a change in administrations in November and never again advise the Iranian government on how to evade US pressure?” they asked.

The right answer for Kerry to divulge is “yes.”

On one side, One Fair Wage and its supporters, which calls for gradually increasing the $6.75 minimum hourly wage for tipped workers to meet the state’s overall $15 minimum wage. Tips would still be allowed under the measure.

On the other, the Massachusetts Restaurant Association and the Committee to Protect Tips.

The initiative would be a boon to restaurant workers who don’t make much in tips, those at lower-priced eateries for example. Tips bring their pay up to $15 an hour, but not much more.

However, a look at Glassdoor and Indeed offer a different take on wait staff wages in Boston.

Glassdoor puts the estimated total pay for a waiter at $74,696 per year in the area, with an average annual salary of $49,642 per year. The estimated additional pay is $25,054 per year, which would include tips. .

Indeed pegged the average base salary at $25.14 per hour, with daily tips at around $150 per day.

That’s not every restaurant, of course, but a splurge at one of the city’s high-end establishments, with wine, sets the diner back several hundred dollars, with a generous tip likely.

The initiative doesn’t prohibit tips on top of the $15 minimum wage, which begs the question: will people tip if the gratuity is included in the bill? They don’t have to, and since prices will likely rise if restaurant owners have to pay higher salaries, the impetus to add a tip when it’s not required is small. Any chance to save a few bucks will be taken.

And you can bet on higher prices should worker wages increase. As CNBC reported last year, unlike other small businesses, it can be hard for restaurants to absorb or pass on price increases. A restaurant’s typical pretax profit is about 5% of sales. “It’s a very thin margin to begin with,” said Hudson Riehle, the National Restaurant Association’s senior vice president of research.

Some restaurants around the country have already added credit-card swipe fees and raised prices in light of inflation.

A survey by CorCom Inc. found that after Washington, D.C. began phasing out the tip credit, hundreds of restaurant owners imposed a mandatory service charge on customer checks to account for rising costs.

If Massachusetts restaurateurs followed suit, that would make it even less likely for a diner to add a tip on top of the higher bill, with a service charge to boot.

As the Herald reported, Doug Bacon, the head of Red Paint Hospitality Group, argued in a State House hearing yesterday that the minimum wage in Massachusetts will eventually hit $20 an hour in five years.

“I can tell you with 100% certainty that no operator can absorb a 200% increase in the cost of having a server or a bartender. So we’re going to raise our prices or change our staffing and our business model,” he said.

If restaurants reduce staff or cut back on hours to adjust for higher wages, that will erase gains for staff made under a tip-included ballot measure.

As for restaurant patrons, rising prices will lead to a readjustment in how often they dine out.

Lance Reynolds’ report that the town of Brookline’s ban on tobacco sales to anyone born in the current century has been upheld by the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts is just one further step to creating the quintessential “nanny state.” One does not have to approve of smoking (and I don’t – cigarettes killed my father at age 48) in order to see the lack of wisdom in such a regulation. Anyone who thinks it will keep young people from smoking is self-delusional. They will have older people buy them cigs. They will buy cigs from the thriving black market that would result. And so forth.

This is just another example of government officials engaging in actions that make them feel virtuous. But, in the long run, such virtue-preening will backfire, as it has with, for example, our nation’s ill-fated experiment with liquor prohibition, and attempts to criminalize marijuana (still a federal crime, but Massachusetts gave up the futile attempt) . As the Spanish philosopher George Santayana put it: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Harvey Silverglate

Cambridge

Mac Jones trade

As is the case of some idiot fans and media members, they can’t let a player be traded until they get in personal cheap shots. Mac Jones joins a long list of outgoing former Boston pro sports players who fans and media alike feel it’s OK to take venomous personal shots at. Only in Boston do we feel the need to do that, circumstances be damned, such as an aging head coach who set him up to fail by promoting two clueless people as offensive coaches. And the lack of talent set Jones and the Patriots up to fail. Good luck Mac Jones, New England does not deserve to have a good person like you representing the team.

Paul J. Baranofsky

Waltham

John Kerry

Make no mistake, John Kerry is not “resigning,” he is vacating the scene of the crime before the authorities show up. Like Anthony Fauci “retiring” just before the Republican congress and its subpoena powers were sworn in, Kerry is heading for Davos before President Trump can come into office and open the books on what this climate change charlatan has been doing with our money and illegitimate projection of U.S. diplomatic power.

Nick McNulty

Windham, NH

It’s a harsh lesson learned by those who push back on Mayor Michelle Wu’s policies.

For someone who touted equity as a cornerstone of her mayoral campaign, Wu has no problem with excluding children attending public charter schools and METCO students from her “BPS Sundays” pilot program. It allows some BPS students free access to cultural institutions on the first and second Sunday of each month up to August.

Tough luck for charter school kids and METCO students who want equal treatment.

“We’re not going to reopen those negotiations just in the middle of the agreed-upon pilot,” Wu said.

A pilot program is where you work out the details of a plan — how long it should last, for example. Inclusion should be a given. Wu previously told the Herald there is not funding to expand the program to more students during the pilot period. How about funding for all and a shorter time frame? Or enrolling students based on zip code and not which school they attend?

Wu said the exclusion is not politically motivated.

Of course not.

The kids and families left out of “BPS Sundays” can commiserate with North End restaurateurs. They, too are on the mayor’s D-list.

During the pandemic, outdoor dining was a lifesaver for restaurants as dining rooms had to limit patrons. For the past two years, however, the city served up bad news for North End eateries.

In 2022, officials forced restaurateurs to pay a $7,500 fee for outdoor dining operations. Last year, Boston banned on-street dining, limiting the al fresco option to “compliant sidewalk patios.” The North End was the only neighborhood that faced the restrictions, as the Herald reported. 

While other restaurants around the city can offer outdoor dining to locals and tourists who want to have dinner while enjoying the breeze on a warm day, the North End, except for a few spots, cannot. An increase in customers, tips for staff, and a chance for a thriving season are off the table.

Restaurants took a fiscal hit in 2022 and 2023, and a group of 21 neighborhood restaurateurs have added the losses they anticipate for  2024, the fees they paid in 2022 and the lost revenue from 2023 to lawsuit filed earlier this year in federal court.

One would think the city would want all of its restaurants to do well, especially as revenue is down thanks to all those empty office buildings. Curtailing outdoor dining in the neighborhood isn’t good for anyone’s bottom line.

Those opposed cite the neighborhood’s narrow sidewalks and streets, and increase in trash and rodents due to outdoor dining. They also call out traffic and congestion.

Fair enough. But that should prompt a dialogue on how to address those issues, not trigger a “no” from the city.

Boston gets crowded from June to early September. There will be sightseeing trolleys, Duck Tours, and throngs of pedestrians. There will be traffic and congestion, and restaurants who serve patrons outdoors will have to deal with trash and rodents.

Negotiations, whether it’s with restaurateurs over outdoor dining or schools left out of the BPS Sundays program, should be part and parcel of city leadership.

It is so disheartening. We live in the greatest country the world has ever known. We should be so grateful.  If you have the means, you can go anywhere and live anywhere you want.

So many people have an axe to grind.  They like to tear our country down. I call them small, self-important people.  Now the axe grinders can jump on me. I want my proud and patriotic country back.

Ralph Holmgren

Sagamore Beach

Trump on ballot

We live in a nation that is still defined by the critical legal principle that you are innocent until proven guilty.  Former President Trump was never found guilty of anything related to the Jan. 6 melee despite efforts to impeach him for it. Regardless, Democrats want to remove his name from the ballot, and thus, remove Americans’ freedom of choice to vote.  This is disgraceful.  Democrat “leaders” are literally willing to turn our nation into nothing more than a Third World banana republic where justice is selective as an instrument of political will and tyranny just to prevent Donald Trump from running for president again.

These politically motivated actions have only further alienated Americans from our political class/system, and divided America further.  They only make Trump more popular as a political outsider as we approach the elections this November.

I’m glad that the Supreme Court has settled this issue once and for all.

Michael Pravica, Ph.D.

Acton

Rematch

I for one have zero interest in a presidential rematch of two crooked over-the-hill octogenarians.

It’s too bad that our two parties refused to throw more support behind younger more vibrant people like Nikki Haley. Come election day I am taking a page from the Richard Pryor character in “Brewster’s Millions” and voting for none of the above. I urge all of the country to do this so neither of these bums get enough electoral votes and Congress will have to decide.

Paul J. Baranofsky

Waltham

Shrinkflation

Biden’s rant on shrinkflation highlights his lack of economic sense.  If a bag of 10 potato chips cost $1, not many consumers notice that the bag now has only 8 chips in it.  The cost remains $1, but the consumer is cheated out of 2 chips.  Without shrinkflation, the cost of the 10 chip bag would inflate to $1.25.  We would all notice the higher cost and feel the sting of Bidenomics.  Shrinkflation is Biden’s best friend and our worst enemy.  In November,  let the chips fall where they may.

Donald Houghton

Quincy

State of the Union

I listened to a small portion of the president’s State of The Union Address and was embarrassed that this guy is leading our country. It was nothing more than a rambling of an angry old man put out a bunch of half-truths. He is looking for another 4 years to finish what he started …destroying this country.

Paul Quaglia

Billerica

While I have nothing against a motion by Boston City Councilor Brian Worrell looking to create a monument or statue in honor of Crispus Attucks (“Councilor moves to honor Crispus Attucks,” Boston Herald, March 6),  I don’t know why all five patriots killed by British soldiers on March 5, 1770 shouldn’t be equally honored. They all died as Americans. Why is there this need to divide up our heroes based on race or ethnicity?

I know Worrell’s heart is in the right place but all five men killed 243 years ago are honored together as they died together. In a sense, this Attucks’ honor is part of a history erasing project. March 6 should not be renamed Crispus Attucks Day any more than renaming this anniversary after Sam Maverick or Patrick Carr, etc.

I remember back on March 5, 1970 I stood in a crowd of folks near what is now the Irish Famine Monument at School and Washington Street on the 200th anniversary of this pivotal event that led up to the American Revolution. I stood there for all the Americans who died that day at the hands of the British soldiers. Let’s honor them all equally. They all were all American heroes and should be remembered and honored by all of us. They still represent all of us.

Sal Giarratani

East Boston

State of the Union

A loud, angry and bitter president shouted the State of the Union address. Democratic myrmidons, acting like trained jumping Jacks and Jills, completed the annual spectacle by robotically acclaiming Mr. Biden’s exaggerations, boasts and outright lies. This was not a SOTU address; it was instead a compilation of prevarications more fit for the campaign hustings than the House chamber. I learned nothing about my country. The speech did, however, reinforce my inclination to mute further Biden tirades.

Paul Bloustein

Cincinnati, Ohio

Vengeance

I usually always agree with everything Peter Lucas writes about but I disagree with him about his column “Trashing Trump could come back to haunt Healey,” on March 7.

Unlike Maura Healey, Donald Trump is not a vengeful man and would never do anything that would hurt the people of Massachusetts. Sorry, I meant to say the taxpayers of Massachusetts.

I know that vengeance is how many politicians operate in this new world, just ask Michelle Wu, but when Donald Trump gets in office that will stop.

Michael Westen

Malden

The House passed legislation Thursday that would require the detention of undocumented migrants charged with theft or burglary, according to Politico.

The Laken Riley Act, named after a Georgia nursing student allegedly murdered by an undocumented immigrant, passed 251-170 with 37 Democrats in support.

The measure would also empower state attorneys general to sue the federal government if they can show their states are being harmed through failure to enforce national immigration policies.

None of this is rocket science. But it’s thanks to “sanctuary” policies that view Immigration and Customs Enforcement as villains and undocumented immigrants charged with crimes as victims that such legislative action is necessary. The Laken Rileys and other victims of crime allegedly committed by illegal immigrants are downplayed and dismissed.

To acknowledge that some illegal immigrants commit crimes and should be detained for doing so goes against the progressive narrative.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said the measure had improved since its inception, but that it faced a certain death in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

“(It’s) still not great,” Roy said, arguing the bill remains too weak. “But, you know, we can try to move something — it’ll die in the Senate.”

Roy wasn’t just being jaded – there are Democrats slamming the legislation.

“This is just a totally cynical and disgusting attempt to exploit this tragedy to score cheap political points in an election year,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), ranking member of the Rules Committee.

So an undocumented migrant accused of a crime shouldn’t be detained? In what scenario does that keep communities safe?

“House Republicans have turned this tragedy into a partisan attack on immigrant communities. This is a time to bring the community together, not tear them apart. These partisan policies fuel anti-immigrant hate, increase fear in immigrant communities, and make it more difficult for law enforcement to form the relationships necessary to prevent crime in our communities,” Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.) said in a statement to Politico.

The legislation doesn’t paint all immigrants as criminals, but it does take action against those that are charged with crimes. Keeping their families safe is also a concern among immigrant communities. As many have fled crime in their home countries, it’s not an improvement to come to a country that lets those charged with crimes face few consequences.

Rep. Roy is right, the legislation will probably die in the Senate. The Senators who vote it down will do so amid polling that shows Americans see immigration as the most important issue facing the U.S.

Voters, particularly those in states taking in a steady influx of migrants, are taking notice. Democrats who assume their lax immigration and law enforcement views are shared among the electorate do so at their own risk.

For starters, it seems as if Democratic allies in mainstream media learned nothing from the last presidential election, in which Donald Trump’s supporters were lambasted as “deplorable” dolts ignorant of the real problems that faced the country.

MSNBC anchors Jen Psaki, Joy Reid and Rachel Maddow mocked GOP primary voters in Virginia live on air for considering immigration as their top concern.

The presenters at the liberal-leaning news network took jabs at voters while discussing the results of early exit polls on Super Tuesday, according to the New York Post.

“I live in Virginia. Immigration was the No. 1 issue,” Psaki said, drawing laughter from Reid.

“Well, Virginia does have a border with West Virginia, a — very contested area,” Maddow sarcastically chimed in, setting off more chortles from her co-hosts.

Later Reid broadly painted Republicans as racists who vote against their own economic interests out of bigotry.

“They don’t vote based on economics, or based on the benefits they’re getting economically from the president,” she argued. “They are voting on race; they are voting on this idea of an invasion of brown people over the border, the idea that they can’t get the job they want.”

One can assume that Reid doesn’t live in a neighborhood “selected” to house migrants. The “economic benefits” coming from President Biden are abundant for the young voters whose support he craves — he’s done much to erase college debt for swathes of that demographic.

For those who paid off the loans they took, or didn’t go to college, not so much. Ditto for people whose paychecks have yet to keep pace with inflation.

And in what world do higher grocery prices count as an economic benefit?

Psaki, Reid and Maddow can snicker all they want in efforts to diminish the concerns of Republican voters, Trump supporters are used to it. But their smug posturing hits a wall when the numbers are crunched. A New York Times/Siena College poll over the weekend showed Trump leading Biden 48% to 43% among registered voters nationwide.

The survey showed a majority of voters think the economy is in poor shape, and 47% strongly disapprove of Biden’s job performance, the highest such disapproval rating of any point in his presidency measured by Times/Siena polling.

When you’re earning big bucks at MSNBC, the economy is an abstract, not a daily battle to stretch a buck for food and bills.

Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) is trying to shore up support for the president. On the economy, Welch said the economic indicators are “solid” but people are “feeling some anxiety” about making ends meet when they pay the grocery bills, The Hill reported.

“Feeling some anxiety.” How out of touch can one be?

But being out of touch with ordinary Americans and their day-to-day concerns is a hallmark of Democratic elites. It was true in 2020 and it’s true now.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton may urge voters to overlook Biden’s age, but that’s not the only number a large section of the country cares about.

They care about the price of a loaf of bread, a simple chicken for dinner and lunches for their children. They care about the number of migrants crossing the border and crushing state resources and budgets.

Unless they lose the superior smirk, Democrats will have a very rude awakening in November.