All these years later and people are still fascinated with the long ago behind-the-scenes power struggles at Boston’s secretive Fidelity Investments – Abby Johnson’s showdown with her CEO father Ned, corporate coup attempts, sale rumors, running battles between Abby and then top Fidelity executive Bob Reynolds. It’s all here, courtesy of a WSJ adaptation from Justin Baer’s upcoming book on Fidelity. … The Fidelity infighting two decades ago certainly wasn’t as brutal as the fictional Roy family feuds on HBO’s ‘Succession.’ But it’s still an intriguing tale about the rise, fall and rise of Abby Johnson, that’s for sure. … Is it too early to start speculating about Abby’s own succession plans? She is 64, after all

— The Globe’s Larry Edelman connects the economic dots: “Another week, more proof Massachusetts is losing its edge” (Globe)

— But here’s an economic morale booster: “Spain set to launch a $200 million life sciences fund in Massachusetts” (Globe)

— At the very least they need to lower the required numbers: “Boston City Councilors Pitch Nixing Parking Requirements” (B&T)

— Well, this is one way to achieve a merger: “Boston law firm shuts down as final attorneys join Connecticut rival” (BBJ) 

— A product of a very thin party bench: “GOP candidate for lieutenant governor recently owed thousands in unpaid taxes, records show” (WBUR)

— Because it’s a real accent, not a Hollywood accent: “Why Is Everyone Wicked Obsessed With This Boston Globe Reporter?” (NYT)

— There’s a lot of taxpayer money invested in this local company: “The best available option:’ Battery firm valued at over $1B files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy” (BBJ)

— The phrase ‘too good to be true’ does come to mind: “The Great Ozempic Experiment” (NYT)

The WSJ has two good stories today on Pentagon weapons procurement — the first on how military brass have approached major manufacturers about boosting weapons productivity and the second on billionaire Steve Feinberg’s push to both increase and reform defense spending. As the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and Iran have shown, the U.S. procurement system isn’t exactly geared for quick and affordable replenishment of depleted weapon stocks, thus the push for reforms. …
Reading the Journal pieces, I was reminded of two YouTube videos I recently watched on German engineers’ reaction when they tested captured American Sherman tanks and Jeeps during WWII.* The Germans couldn’t believe how simple, pragmatic and reliable they were – and America’s ability to produce them en masse. Hopefully, the Pentagon is thinking along these same simple, pragmatic and reliable lines today as it attempts to transform its procurement system.

* I’m a fan of Mark Felton’s YouTube channel and other military-history sites, where I found the two above Sherman and Jeep videos after recently reading yet-another procurement-related story. They’re not the type of videos I watch every day, but definitely now and then.

Sen. Ed Markey may be ‘immensely popular’ among the Dem base in Massachusetts, the Globe reports, citing the latest Suffolk/Globe poll showing the incumbent senator comfortably ahead of primary challenger Seth Moulton. But always remember that Democrats make up only about 26 percent of enrolled voters in Massachusetts – and a faction representing roughly half that amount (13 percent of the overall electorate, using back-of-the-envelope calculations) will hand the octogenarian Markey another six-year term because the Republican party in this state is a joke and winning the Dem primary is what it’s all about in most elections in Massachusetts. … What a system, huh? … 

More on our glorious primary-election system here. 

Update – 4.16.26 – Here are the full results from the Suffolk/Globe poll. Gov. Healey’s job-approval numbers look pretty strong.

It would be an even messier affair for Democrats in the U.S. But Mark Carney in Canada has shown it’s possible to move a party to the center and become a majority party in the process. From the NYT:

Even if it has been messy, Mr. Carney has now completed the remaking of the Liberal Party as his own. He has moved it rightward to the political center and turned it into a ‘big-tent’ that includes a motley crew of progressives, environmentalists, social conservatives, former bankers, like himself, and others.

“People are quite happy with this purple version of a Liberal Party,” said Shachi Kurl, president at the Angus Reid Institute, a nonpartisan political research group. “It’s pragmatism, a business-minded ‘let’s get on with it.”

Our primary system in the U.S. makes this unlikely here. But it’s nice to dream.

Update – 4.16.26 – At the Globe, John Halpin and Ruy Teixeira say they’ve tried to push the Democratic Party to the center — and failed. … The two cofounded the now defunct Liberal Patriot.

Update II — 4.16.26 — Contrarian Boston’s Scott Van Voorhis reports that Seth Moulton is trying to stitch together his own motley crew of supporters leading up to the state Democratic Party convention. Establishment Dems, i.e. Markey backers, are apparently freaking out.

No sooner had I read the Atlantic’s new article ‘The Looming College-enrollment Death Spiral’ than a message popped up on my screen via the BBJ: ‘Financial crisis forces Hampshire College to shutter.’ … And more closures are on the way, possibly (though hopefully not) Anna Maria College (WBUR). The demographics for small regional colleges are just brutal these days, particularly for those in the Northeast and Midwest, as the Atlantic reports.

Fyi: The Atlantic references this 2024 paper from the Federal Reserve, titled ‘Predicting College Closures and Financial Distress.’ Things have only gotten worse since its release.

Fyi II: I included the following WSJ article (“The Small Private Colleges Dying in a Winner-Take-All University Marketplace”) in last Friday’s Headlines of Interest. Vermont’s St. Michael’s is yet another endangered regional college.

Fyi III: Here’s a web site that tracks college closures.

First, Malden. Next, South Hadley? The WSJ has a big story on how a 50 percent property tax hike proposal in South Hadley is “tearing this Massachusetts town apart.” And they’re saying the South Hadley vote may well be a ‘canary in the coal mine’ as other local governments, here and across the nation, grapple with huge deficits caused by inflation and the end of pandemic-era spending, as the Journal reports. … 

I’m definitely sensing widespread anger and frustration out there about rising property taxes. It’s a major affordability issue for many, right up there with rising gas and food prices etc. … 

I know there’s a lot of reasons for local governments’ budget shortfalls. But one largely underappreciated factor, as I’ve noticed in my own neck of the 495 woods , is how young white-collar professionals who can no longer afford homes in eastern Mass. are increasingly moving into previously somewhat affordable towns in central and western Mass. – and expecting towns to up their school-system games and budgets, ASAP. There’s an unspoken culture clash at work. It’s not just parents vs non-parents and young vs old. It’s also more affluent vs non-affluent and often college grads vs non-college grads.

Update — 4.15.26 – The canary has sung. From Western Mass News: “Voters reject tax increases in South Hadley override vote.” …

So Rachael Rollins thinks everyone is picking on her because she’s a woman and because of those two pesky fed reports that people keep bringing up whenever they talk about her new Suffolk DA candidacy, as the Globe and Herald report. But she really shouldn’t feel picked on. She was never criminally charged with anything, after all, unlike Tania Fernandes Anderson, David Nangle, Dianne Wilkerson, Sal DiMasi, Tom Finneran, Charles Flaherty, etc. Now they were picked on. Legitimately so, based on their convictions, guilty pleas and/or failed appeals, but they were nevertheless picked on, damn it. Rollins got off light by comparison.

Speaking of Tania, Dave, Dianne, Sal, Tom and Chuck etc., did you know Wikipedia has an entire entry on Massachusetts politicians who were picked on over the years? It’s true. Here it is: “Massachusetts politicians convicted of corruption.” Strangely, Finneran and Flaherty aren’t listed. Must be a technicality. But no James Michael Curley, arguably the most picked on Massachusetts politician in history? There’s a double standard here somewhere!

Anyway, back to mildly picked on Rachael. I have this awful feeling she’s going to be one of those pols who just won’t go away. She has that will to power, that sense of righteousness mixed with shamelessness, the ability to turn negative liabilities into victimhood positives. She also needs the job. I give her a 50-50 chance of winning in September. 

Update — 4.13.26 – From the Globe’s Joan Vennochi: “It isn’t sexist to say it: Rachael Rollins messed up.”

— Rep. Seth Moulton’s primary problem in taking on Sen. Ed Markey is … our primary-election system that gives way too much power to political ideologues in both parties to choose who runs for office in general elections. The latest example of this happening in deep-blue Massachusetts, via the Globe: “Pro-Markey super PAC launches ad accusing Moulton of not being progressive enough.” Now imagine the headline reading instead: “Pro-Moulton super PAC launches ad accusing Markey of not being moderate enough.” Never going to happen. Moderates just don’t think that way. But more fanatical ideologues with airtight world views do.

And that’s why Markey will probably win the Democratic primary contest this fall. He’s passed all the progressive purity tests with flying colors. Moulton hasn’t.

— Speaking of Democrats, Sam Rosenfeld and Daniel Schlozman, authors of “The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics,” have some advice for Dems: Try connecting more with actual voters – and connecting less with party ‘activists’ pushing specific ideological agendas. The authors don’t exactly put it that way. But that’s the gist of their NYT column. 

— And speaking of ‘activists,’ are we now supposed to call them ‘advocates’? Just asking. Because I don’t know at this point. Political language keeps changing. But fear not: the NYT’s Nadja Spiegelman explores why “careful language is falling out of favor.”. Hmmm. “Careful language.” What could that possibly mean? Left-wing political jargon? Yes, but you can’t be that blunt, I guess, so to be careful the NYT calls it “careful language.” 

I did learn this from the piece about what’s hip and not hip when it comes to political language: pronouns in emails are no longer obligatory. What a relief! And “politically correct” is just so 1990s, which I sort of knew but needed to explicitly hear before it truly sank in.

— It’s safe to say Gov. Healey is feeling President Trump’s war-on-fraud heat a bit, based on her recent moves to crack down on EBT fraud in Massachusetts, as the Globe and Herald report. And, yes, there is welfare fraud in Massachusetts (even the Globe says so). The governor is obviously trying to pre-emptively position herself as a welfare reformer before JD Vance and Leah B. Foley come at her full force.

But will they come at her full force? After reading this Atlantic article (“Vance’s ‘Fraud Czar’ Title May Come Back to Haunt Him”), I’m beginning to wonder. Is Vance’s ‘Fraud Czar’ designation the rough equivalent of Kamala Harris’s ‘Border Czar’ title, i.e. it’s all bullshit?

— Back to political primaries: Here’s a local example of conservative activism at work in the Mass. GOP primary for governor: Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton’s endorsement of Republican gubernatorial candidate Brian Shortsleeve, calling him a “warrior for conservative values,” as the Herald reports. … An endorsement from an Arkansas pol? In Massachusetts? Only in a purity-test primary.

— Finally, after seeing the following WBUR headline (“Mass. AG’s office investigating Lawrence mayor over alleged wiretapping”), I briefly thought: is Willie Lantigua still mayor of Lawrence? No, he’s not. Willie’s long gone. But Lawrence is still Lawrence without him.

— I don’t mind sticking it to tourists now and then. But isn’t this going a little too far? “MBTA says it will cost $80 for a commuter rail ticket to the World Cup” (WBUR)

–A badge of honor: “Tufts, Fletcher School deemed ‘undesirable organizations’ by Russian government” (GBH)

–A federal agency has lost its way: “This Is Why America Is Short Four Million Homes” (NYT)

–It’s sad to see what’s happening at St. Michael’s and other old New England schools: “The Small Private Colleges Dying in a Winner-Take-All University Marketplace” (WSJ)

–Read this piece. And then future AI controversies, big and small, will start to make more sense: “Anthropic’s Restraint Is a Terrifying Warning Sign”  (NYT)

–Good for her, though the headline immediately above does make me wonder: “Unlike her counterpart in Maine, Healey won’t support a ban on data-center proposals” (Globe)

–The local industry is in yo-yo mode: “Biotech layoffs pick back up as 14 companies cut 745 jobs in Q1” (BBJ)

–But, strangely, one of Boston’s oldest industries is doing rather well: “Hey, Dude, with the help from Jelly Roll, gets a leg up in Boston’s crowded shoe brand scene” (BBJ)

–I’ll believe it when I see it: “Some Republicans Set Their Own Deadline on Iran War. It’s Getting Close” (WSJ)

–Both reforms are welcome: “Bill would bring major changes to Mass. cannabis board, and double how much pot you can buy” (MassLive)

–I’ll be the judge of this, not the Globe: “The pizzas at this tiny new Boston restaurant are flawless” (Globe)

–Our sister city on the West Coast checked into policy rehab and is doing much better, thank you: “San Francisco sobers up” (NYT)