Sure, the lunkhead parents of the Ipswich boys lacrosse players who were suspended for smoking graduation cigars (see dastardly photo above) missed an opportunity to teach their kids some “life lessons” about integrity, as the Globe’s Matt Porter writes. But didn’t other adults miss an opportunity to teach “life lessons” too, such as adult school authorities making punishments proportionate to alleged crimes/rule breaking? That one-strike-and-you’re-out approaches to justice aren’t always the smart way to go? That it’s important for court judges, school administrators and other adult authorities to show a modicum of common-sense flexibility (otherwise known as ‘mercy’) when enforcing rules involving teens? … In the Ipswich case, isn’t there a difference between teens developing bad lifetime habits by regularly smoking butts and kids smoking one-time celebratory cigars on a beach after high-school graduation? Isn’t the former what the MIAA rule is all about, not the latter? … What puritanical dummies. … 

Btw: You know who comes out of this absurd controversy looking pretty good? The Ipswich lacrosse players who sat out the game in solidarity with their suspended teammates, forcing the team’s playoff forfeiture. They showed adults a late-in-life lesson about standing up to stupid rules and punishments. …

Photo above of Ipswich criminals  students via CBS News.

Sooner or later the Globe was going to have to focus on Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s political prospects heading into the fall general elections, if only so it could say it covered a non-election election that everyone knows the Dem incumbent will win. But did the Globe really have to run a puff piece on Campbell less than three days after her older brother Alvin was convicted on 21 counts of rape, sexual assault and other charges, in what even the Globe describes as a “harrowing weekslong trial” of a serial rapist posing as a ride-share driver to prey on drunk women? … Not even a passing reference to Alvin’s high-profile legal saga that ended late Thursday afternoon? Nope. … I’m not saying the Globe had to pull a Howie Carr regarding the Alvin-Andrea connection. But couldn’t the Globe at least bury a mention of the trial in today’s piece or perhaps even wait a week or two before running the political-activists-just love-her bonbon?… Gee, it’s almost as if they had the story waiting in the can for just such a moment …

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.