They know it will cost consumers $40 million. But the BBJ reports regulators are effectively letting the proposed MGB-CVS partnership proceed under the assumption it will somehow help relieve the primary-care physician shortage in Massachusetts. … And I have a bridge to sell you in Boston. … The Globe reports David Joyner, chief executive of the $400-billion publicly traded CVS, says it’s all about addressing the primary care crisis in the state. … And I have two bridges to sell you in Boston. … Before the Health Policy Commission’s non-action action, Paul Hattis and John McDonough were giving cautious support to the planned MGB-CVS deal. … But not me. See prior rants here and here.

Some slightly off-the-beaten-path stories you may have missed this past week:

— The referendum is not nearly as radical as some think: “Research: Starter Homes Ballot Question Would Unlock Hundreds of Houses Per Year” (Banker & Tradesman)

— He couldn’t find another Democrat to vouch for him, not one? “In new ad, she’s a Democrat backing GOP gubernatorial hopeful Mike Minogue. Left unsaid: She’s also his neighbor” (Globe)

— WTF? “South Boston lemonade stand robbed at gunpoint, police say” (Herald)

— The Boston City Council’s latest circus act: “Youth-jobs protesters shut down City Council budget deliberations; seven arrested” (Universal Hub)

— An interesting look at the economic views of modern democratic socialists, but it glosses over the entire social-justice/identify politics aspect of today’s democratic socialism: “Gen-Z socialism, from Zohran to Zack and beyond” (Economist)

— Speaking of democratic socialists, they’ve suffered a political setback in an unlikely place: “San Francisco Rejects a Tax Hike on Companies With Highly Paid Executives” (WSJ)

— The Times’ core white upper-middleclass readership loves this stuff: “A Paris Pied-à-Terre, Designed for a Daughter” (NYT)

— Speaking of white upper-middleclass sensibilities: “Cape Cod planning board denies Trader Joe’s, citing expected ‘chaos’” (BBJ)

— Russia’s historic view of warfare is entirely different from our view of warfare: “Putin’s deliberate brutality in Ukraine has a backstory” (Washington Post)

— The sad death of a scholarly giant: “Gordon S. Wood, Pioneering Historian of Early America, Dies at 92” (NYT)

At the WSJ, Roland Fryer, an economics professor at Harvard, blows away all the laments about today’s youths and how fewer of them have summer jobs. There’s actually a good news/bad news explanation for the decades-long decline in summer teen employment. Among other things, he uses Cape Cod ice cream parlors to make his point. … 

It’s going to be hard to beat this race in terms of local entertainment, i.e. Mayor Wu’s proxy fight against state Sen. Nick Collins, who dared to oppose the mayor’s tax-shift proposal on Beacon Hill, as the Globe and Herald report. …A little of New Boston vs Old Boston, City Hall vs Beacon Hill, etc. Not exactly Ali-Frazier. But we’ll take it. So Wu’s right: “This is going to be a fun election cycle.” … Besides Senate president Karen Spilka’s probable behind-the-scenes support of Collins, it’s going to be interesting to see who backs who in this proxy war.

Update – Scott Van Voorhis has his own favorites: “When it comes to district attorney races, it’s hard to beat the Norfolk and Suffolk DA contests for drama” (scroll down to ‘Sleeper Race’).

Update II — From the Globe’s Joan Vennochi: “The limits of Mayor Wu’s hardball politics>”

Some slightly off-the-beaten-path stories you may have missed this past week:

— I initially missed this woke-as-woke-can-get piece from last week: “I coined the term ‘intersectionality’ and helped develop critical race theory. Here’s why” (Globe)

— But the Trump administration once again goes over the top with its anti-woke rhetoric and action: “Park Service orders removal of ‘woke’ quotes at Boston’s Bunker Hill monument” (Washington Post)

 — But will he come to Charlestown to kiss the ring? “JD Vance Courts Sean O’Brien and the Teamsters” (WSJ)

— This is a big deal within Boston’s commercial real estate community: “Power Struggle Roils Newmark Capital Markets Team” (Banker & Tradesman)

— Sounds like the Virginia governor is screwing up on style, not necessarily substance, but that could be wishful thinking on my centrist part: “Spanberger’s veto spree turns many in her own party against her” (Washington Post)

— And I thought RINOs were extinct: “The most Seth Moulton-like candidate running to replace him just may be a Republican” (Globe)

— A true classic toy (and so simple): “Balsa wood airplanes have taken flight — and delivered joy — from Wakefield for 100 years” (WBUR)

— Hmmm. I’ll catch it on streaming: “The new film Pressure offers a freshly suspenseful take on D-Day.” (The Atlantic)

— A terrific column with a (mostly) terrific comments section: “My family can’t say a four-letter word starting with ‘L.’ I’m OK with that.” (Globe)

— Orcas hunt Great White Sharks, so don’t be surprised if area GWS scatter for a while: “Killer whale ‘Old Thom’ spotted by Cape Cod fishermen: ‘Don’t see that every day’” (Herald)

— An interesting look at what ails the world’s third largest economy: “Germany Has Lost What It Did Best” (NYT)

I just finished reading Scott Anderson’s excellent “King of Kings: The Iranian Revolution: A Story of Hubris, Delusion and Catastrophic Miscalculation,” published last year prior to the U.S. military attacks against Iran in June 2025 and then earlier this year. Considering what’s unfolding today in the Middle East, I highly recommend the Pulitzer-finalist book. It’s a terrific history of the rise and fall of Iranian Shah Reza Pahlavi (“King of Kings”) – and the tense and conflict-ridden relationship between our two countries ever since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. The following graf about President Carter’s initial response to the Iranian militants’ seizure of U.S. embassy hostages in Tehran in 1979 jumped out at me:

Signaling that the lives of the American prisoners were his paramount concern, (Carter) embarked on a calm and measured effort to negotiate a peaceful settlement. What the president might have insufficiently considered was that, with that signaling, he had just handed the Iranians the ultimate trump card and, much like his efforts to placate the Tehran regime over the previous nine months through patience and moderation, set out on a path from which there could be no easy exit. Certainly, Ayatollah Khomeini figured this out, and it probably explained why he so abruptly changed course after his meeting with (his foreign secretary). ‘The Americans can’t do a damned thing,’ he told supporters a short time later. ‘The speculation about American military intervention is nonsense.’

Not an exact historic match to what’s unfolding today, but it’s close enough. Substitute “American prisoners were his paramount concern” with “opening the Strait of Hormuz is his paramount concern,” and you get an idea what the Iranians are once again thinking today. …  What a stupid war, caused yet again by “hubris, delusion and catastrophic miscalculation.”

Rent control is a bad idea. Hell, even the NYT thinks so. But a ridiculously strict rent-control referendum is poised to pass this fall in Massachusetts – and large landlords are right to negotiate a compromise proposal that would avert a referendum disaster in November, as the Globe and Banker & Tradesman have reported. But the plan needs a few tweaks, such as exempting new construction for up to 20 years (or longer), not 15 years as mentioned in the compromise deal, and eliminating the “owner-occupied” clause for duplexes, triple-deckers and small four-unit apartment buildings. … It’s not a great compromise. Far from it. Some industry officials are right to loathe the mere idea of legalized rent control, as Scott Van Voorhis reports. But take the deal (after a few tweaks). It’s far better than the alternative. 

Btw — Definitely check out the Times editorial. Besides opposing the rent-control referendum in Massachusetts (scroll down), it surprisingly backs the separate Legalize Starter Homes ballot initiative that would “prevent many towns from setting needlessly large minimums for lot sizes and effectively blocking the construction of middle-class homes.” … Passage of Legalize Starter Homes would take some of the sting out of new rent controls, that’s for sure.

Update — 6.5.26 — From the Globe: “On rent control, the real estate industry faces a big decision: Deal or no deal?.”

Is there any way to write into law the latest proposed reforms for State Police ? It’s not that I don’t trust State Police chief Geoffrey Noble’s desire to implement recommendations outlined in an independent report on the training-academy death of cadet Enrique Delgado Garcia. … It’s just that past promises to reform the State Police have come and gone without any substantive changes, keeping in place a corrupt culture that for too long has rewarded brawn over brains. … The Globe has a good editorial on the latest reform vows at State Police.

Is anyone going to ask Elizabeth Warren about this? The latest from the Graham Platner campaign, via the WSJ:

Days after Graham Platner announced his Maine Senate bid, his wife informed the campaign about a potential political problem she had previously discovered on the oyster farmer’s phone: sexually explicit texts with several women, according to people familiar with the matter.

Politico is confirming the “latest scandal.” … Re Warren et gang: They saw what they wanted to see in him.  … Maybe Jake Auchincloss’s critics will lay off him a bit following this ‘latest scandal’? Not likely. *

Update — 5.31.26 — From the NYT: “Cory Booker Has ‘Concerns’ About Platner Revelations in Maine Senate Race.”

Update II –– 5.31-26 — Via Dan Kennedy, from the Bangor Daily News: “Top Graham Platner adviser threatened former aide over sexting stories.”

Update III – 6.1.26 — But from the Free Press: “Why the Attacks on Graham Platner Don’t Work.”

Update IV — 6.2.26 – Gotta love the headline: “Graham Platner is a scumbag Mainers should vote for.”

Update V — 6.3.26 — From the Herald: “Gov. Healey backs controversial Maine U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner.”

*Note: Yet the latest development, as of 6.5.26, via the NYT: “Several Women Who Dated Graham Platner Recall ‘Unsettling’ Behavior.”

Some slightly off-the-beaten-path stories from the past week:

— It’s slacker discrimination! “Entitled and Nepotistic. This Is Not What Democrats Need” (NYT)

— You can thank recent housing construction for this welcome trend: “Greater Boston Apartment Leasing Slumps as Vacancies Hit 6.9 Percent” (Banker &Tradesman)

— And this is most welcome too, if it becomes a trend: “Greystar begins construction on Massachusetts’ largest modular housing development”  (BBJ) 

— Where the people go, so flows capital: “Mass. Migration Aiding Bank Movement to New Hampshire” (Banker & Tradesman)

— The board membership pendulum has now fully swung in the opposite direction: “Massachusetts Gov’s Council is slammed for ‘outrageous’ vote to reject ex-prosecutor from Parole Board” (Boston Herald)

— To boldly go where no ashes have gone before; “’Why not?’: Casket company to send ashes, DNA to space” (BBJ)

— A controversy coming to a Cape beach near you: “The $255 Beach Shade Dividing America’s Coastal Towns” (WSJ)

— The latest North End eatery to expand beyond the ‘hood: “Mike’s Pastry to Open at Logan Airport in East Boston” (Boston Restaurant Talk)

— Larry’s not impressed – and neither am I: “‘You Can’t Beat Boston’ is a start. But slogans won’t fix what ails the city” (Globe)

— There’s a lot of gem cities with cheap housing in the heartland: “The Midwesterm Exodus is Finally Ending” (WSJ)

— You just don’t tell certain people how they should dress: “How Business Casual Blew Up the Libertarian National Convention” (WSJ)