The Massachusetts House passed a controversial crime bill on July 18. Defense lawyers are criticizing the controversial measure, saying the bill is unusual in that it removes "any judicial discretion in sentencing."

BOSTON — A fight is being waged on Beacon Hill over a newspaper’s request to keep tabs on the comings and goings of lawmakers — and the controversy has provoked additional press criticism of Gov. Deval Patrick.

After press time, the governor's office submitted the following statement: "The governor and his entire administration are extremely accessible to the public and the press on a regular basis. From daily public events and press briefings to consistent compliance with public meeting and records laws to putting the state budget and finances online, we are by far the most transparent administration in recent memory."

Patrick appears tonight at 7 p.m. on Greater Boston.

The Yawkey Pavilion at Mass. General Hospital. (Courtesy MGH)

 
BOSTON — If you work in the medical field and especially a hospital, there was probably quite a buzz at work on July 17. That's because the annual Best Hospitals ranking was released by the U.S. News and World Report. Massachusetts General Hospital ranked first and Brigham and Women's ninth. MGH president Dr. Peter Slavin called the ranking a "tribute to the more than 23,000" staff at the hospital. 
 
But how much should we pay attention to these rankings? Do they even matter? To gain insight and perspective, I talked with Dr. Harlan Krumholz, professor at Yale School of Medicine. He said that despite the popularity of these lists, there is currently no good place to get reliable information on hospitals: All ratings seem to have their bias and are not completely based on hard outcomes data. However, Medicare is working on a possible solution.
 

 
SOUTH BOSTON, Mass. — If you’re the type of person who associates lobster with big, celebratory events, then you’re in luck. With prices lower than they’ve been in decades, something as simple as — well, a Tuesday night can be reason to celebrate.
 
It’s 6 a.m. at Medeiros Dock in South Boston. The sun is just coming up as lobsterman Steven Holler gets his boat, the November Gale, ready for a day at sea. He steps into his bright orange bib pants, slips on his galoshes and then effortlessly glides his boat to the bait dock.
 
He loads $700 worth of fish on to the deck. And by 6:15, Holler and his crew of one set off to haul lobster traps in the waters off Boston’s Harbor Islands.
 
Lobsters, lobsters everywhere
 
In 35 years in the business, Holler says he’s never seen a lobster season quite like this one. It all started this spring.
 
“We came out to haul that gear expecting to get 30 or 40 pounds and what we saw was just totally off the charts. Something we’ve never seen before. There were just lobsters everywhere,” he says.
 
Plentiful catches came early, flooding the lobster market up the East Coast. And since it was May, there weren’t enough tourists to eat them up.
 
And if there’s one thing we all learned in economics class: Surpluses make prices plummet.
 
Lobstermen in the Boston area are getting $3 - $3.50 a pound right now. Retail prices are a bit higher at around $5, which means that the price is running pretty equal to a bologna sandwich.
 
“I looked at a slip from last year and it was anywhere between $4.50 - $4.75 per pound,” says Holler. "The price we’re getting is something like you’d get in the '80s — mid-'80s. And we’re paying 2012 fuel prices, bait prices and labor prices.”
 
The problem in a nut lobster shell
 
Lobster is even cheaper further north: The Wall Street Journal reports that some lobstermen in Maine are getting as low as $1.25 a pound. And it doesn’t seem to be going up anytime soon, because now there’s another factor dragging prices down: soft-shells. Those are lobsters that have just shed their shells and are growing into new, bigger ones.
 
The shedding process usually doesn’t start until mid-July, but lobstermen this year have been catching soft-shells since May.
 
“A soft-shell lobster is veal in the lobster world,” says Holler. “It is tender. It is sweet.”
 
Sweet, but fragile — too fragile to ship long distances, which puts even more lobsters in the Northeast supply chain.
 
A solution: Eat up
 
“The public has to know: there’s a lot of lobsters out there,” says Holler. “So the more lobster people buy, hopefully it will be better for the industry and hopefully that trickles down to the fisherman.”
 
There’s one more big factor playing in this perfect storm: Canadian processing plants, which usually buy up any extra lobsters, aren’t. They had strong catches this season too and already have their own backlog of lobsters.
 
Still, Holler says he will keep setting his traps, even if it means catching too much of a good thing.
 

BOSTON — It’s crunch time for the Legislature, with just 2 more weeks until the end of formal sessions this year and six major pieces of legislation unfinished on Beacon Hill. The unfinished bills include a sweeping health care law that would change the way doctors and hospitals get paid, a transportation bond bill for local road and bridge repair and a repeat offender and sentencing reform bill that would impose stiff new sentences and parole limitations on violent offenders and at the same time reduce mandatory minimums to state’s drug sentencing laws.

On Monday, the Joint Committee on Economic Development holds a public hearing on the governor’s agreement with the Mashpee Wampanaog tribe to build a casino in East Taunton. Even though the governor signed a compact with the Mashpees during the week of July 9, a casino could be a long way off. They first need the federal government to take the land into trust a process that could take many years.

The Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable holds a hearing on July 19 to discuss the high phone rates for prisoner calls. Every time inmates place a phone call, it costs the person answering far more than a regular collect call. Prisoners' Legal Services has filed a petition to address the fees, rates and dropped calls.

And on July 20, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development releases the job and unemployment numbers for the month of June.
 

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Are we actually producing too many workers in math and science fields?

Today, we bring you the flip side of a story we recently covered. One professor argues that there are no shortage of qualified math and science graduates in America — despite what companies say.

Many high-tech workers report that they can’t find jobs — but people who run companies are wringing their hands. What’s going on here? We dive into the debate.

• Shane Lopez, senior scientist in residence at Gallup
• Hal Salzman, professor and senior faculty fellow at John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, Rutgers University
  Read Salzman's Nature article (pdf)
• Abby Charest, Ph.D. candidate and research assistant at Worcester Polytechnic Institute 

Source: www.freedigitalphotos.net

What does the newest research tell us about online dating?

We look at the huge business of online dating. Why is the industry so powerful? How does it work? And what’s the best way to actually find someone? We look at why people are lured online — and what sites really work. Kara Miller talked with Bob Seay about Harvard Business School professor Mikolaj Piskorski's research on the topic.

Bob: We're looking at the world of online dating and new research in the field. How big is the online dating business?
 
Kara: It’s huge — about $2 billion in revenue every year. And there’s obviously a tremendous range of sites. Some cater to different religious groups or various ethnicities, some try to position themselves as more casual dating sites and some are for more serious, long-term relationships.
 
Bob: And why have people embraced online dating, even though there’s lots of ways to meet people in real life?
 
Kara: That’s a fascinating question, and I put it to Mikolaj Piskorski, a professor at Harvard Business School who has looked at why online dating is so appealing. He says that in the first place, online relationships — even relationships on Facebook, which are often not romantic — let you slip outside the bounds of real-world or “offline” interaction. With all of the information people put on their profiles, you can find out things that it would be inappropriately nosy to ask about directly.
 
Bob: Websites like Facebook often do let you get around social conventions.
 
Kara: Yes, and Piskorski says that’s part of the key to a website’s success. It has to offer added value and give you something you just can’t get in the real world. That ability to look at people’s pictures and read about them is a kind of secret pleasure that both Facebook and dating sites allow.
 
But dating sites also have incorporated “real-world” ways of meeting people into their structure. So Piskorski says that there are essentially three types of dating sites: sites that orbit around shared activities, sites that act as a mutual friend and help set you up with a few people who might be good for you and sites that feature lots of pictures of people and are a little like online bars.
 
Bob: Is there a site that works best?
 
Kara: It depends a bit on who you are. Let’s take the bar-like sites like OKCupid and match.com. Many people who are most likely to get asked out at an actual bar are most likely to get asked out online. But, interestingly, the people who are least likely to find a match in the offline world tend to look at the most pictures and information about potential dates. Piskorski says that part of the reason for this is that they’re being careful. These are also the people who are mostly likely to not receive an email back from someone they’d like to go out with. So those sites can end up really injuring self-esteem and making people doubt their attractiveness and ability to get a date.
 
Bob: It sounds, then, like online bars have some real downsides.
 
Kara: They do. However, research shows that some of the same people who do poorly on those sites often do much better on sites like eHarmony, which acts like a friend setting two mutual friends up on a date. The idea there is that because they know a lot about you, they’re well equipped to say that person A has a chance of liking person B.
 
Bob: So, does the research indicate that it’s better to meet someone online or offline?
 
Kara: What online companies excel most at is bringing you advantages that don’t exist in the offline world. So, for example, there’s no bar that you could walk into in Boston and see thousands of people, along with profiles. And while sites like eHarmony act as mutual friends, they know far more single people than anyone’s real friends could. So that’s their advantage.
 
Piskorski says that when people ask him what sites give them the best chance of finding a long-term partner, he recommends sticking with the sites that limit the number of contacts you get and help you navigate the process — like eHarmony or Chemistry.com. The idea is that bar-type sites can do people a disservice because people come in thinking that they want to go out with someone who looks a certain way. But real attraction is often unexpected, so being willing to break out of the mold that you initially think is essential can end up being very effective in online dating.

BOSTON — The week of July 8 started with a confident Gov. Deval Patrick signing a new Massachusetts state budget. But as the days went by, he was handed one defeat after another by a Legislature that said, "Wait a minute."

How events unfolded

First the House, and then on July 12 the Senate voted overwhelmingly to override the governor and keep Taunton State Hospital open with 45 beds for mental health patients. 

The Senate also followed the House and rejected two amended bills the Governor had sent them. One put new restrictions on welfare recipients; the other would require proof of residency to register a vehicle. 

When the House rebuked the governor on three major issues, lawmakers made it clear with comments and overwhelming vote that they didn’t agree with Patrick. One day later, the governor responded.

“I am concerned that some of the comments from some of the members in the course of the debate were very demeaning,” Patrick said. “It’s one thing to talk about how we assure that these programs are used to their intended purpose. But it’s not necessary for us I think to go the extra step to make it seem that there is fault to being poor.”

The debate over welfare

One of the great divides between Patrick and the legislature has to do with welfare. The legislature wants more restrictions than the governor does on what recipients can buy with their EBT cards. That set the stage for the fight between the governor and the legislature, led by House Speaker Robert DeLeo.

Patrick made it clear he didn't always appreciate it. “This speaker is — I hope knows how much I respect him and how much enjoy working with him. And I mean that both professionally and personally," Patrick said. "But there is no doubt in my mind that some of the comments by some of the members seemed to me, and to many, crossed a line. And that’s not necessary. We can fix programs that can be working better without trivializing the lives of the people who benefit from those programs."

The significance of the votes

Overwhelming rejections on three key issues—what does a rebuke on this scale mean for the governor? Maurice Cunningham, chairman of the political science departmentat UMass Boston, said that while it isn’t typical, it’s part of the process.

“This isn’t all that unusual. I can probably guarantee you that governors have been rebuked more than three times,” Cunningham said. “Sometimes as partisan measures, but even going back to Democratic governors before or going back to Dukakis. They faced their reversals at the hands of the Legislature.”

However, Cunningham was surprised by the heated rhetoric that accompanied the vetoes.

“Because in the end, the Legislature and the governor were pretty close on some things. The EBT cards, for example, was one of the areas where I think the governor agreed with a lot of what the legislature was going along with and vetoed some other aspects of it.” Cunningham said.

Cunningham also said that the governor and the Legislature are closer than the rhetoric suggests. But after all, conflict is what politics is all about.
 
The road ahead

What next? First, Taunton State Hospital will get $5 million to remain open. As for welfare and car registration, get ready for more battles. Lawmakers are expected to send their initial version of the bills back to Patrick. If he vetoes them, DeLeo believes the Legislature has the votes to override both, just as it overrode the Taunton State Hospital veto.
 

 
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Who are the companies that will make or break the Boston tech scene? Well, if you look at private companies that have raised more than $50 million in venture capital, a few stand out. There’s HubSpot in online marketing, Jumptap in mobile advertising, Veracode in software security and Wayfair in e-retail. They’re all pretty far along, and all are trying to transform their sectors or create new markets. Together, they’ll help define the future of the tech industry in Massachusetts — whether or not they succeed.
 
Meanwhile, in life sciences news, Waltham-based ImmunoGen has started human trials of a new treatment for ovarian cancer. The company has plenty of big pharmaceutical partners like Genentech, but it owns the new drug all by itself.
 
Our deal of the week is a $12 million venture round for Paydiant, a mobile software startup in Wellesley, Mass., that helps banks and retailers handle transactions by cell phone.
 
And lastly, one more make-or-break company from the local tech scene. Kayak, the online travel firm based in Connecticut and Concord, Mass., is getting ready to raise more than $80 million in an IPO that could hit as early as next week. Let’s hope there are no more sharks in the water by then.
 

The weekly roundup of business, technology and life science news from our partners at Xconomy.com airs every Friday on 89.7 Boston Public Radio.

 

 
BOSTON — The Mashpee Wampanoag Native American tribe officially signed a deal with Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick for the exclusive right to operate a casino in the Southeastern region of the state on July 12. It's the most concrete development so far in the race to establish casinos in Massachusetts.
 
In a press conference outside his office, Patrick applauded the agreement, saying, “We are very pleased with the deal. It’s a good thing for the tribe, and a good thing for the Commonwealth.”
 
Under the compact, Massachusetts would get 21.5 percent of the revenue from the casino, which the tribe wants to build in East Taunton. That’s a more lucrative compact than other states have managed to negotiate with Native American tribes. But it’s still below what a commercial casino would have to pay.
 
The deal does not necessarily mean the dice will be rolling in Taunton any time soon. The tribe still must get federal permission to use the property for a casino, through a process called "land in trust" that could take years. Meantime, other developers may line up to seek a casino in that region of the state, one of three regions the Legislature has designated for casino development.
 
But Patrick said the benefits of having a tribal casino outweigh the risks.
 
"There has been some worry out there that because the land in trust process can take a long time, that the other regions' advancement towards having a casino would overtake the tribal facility over time. I’m not sure that’s the case, but the risk on the other side is if we don’t allow some reasonable period of time, we could end up with two casinos in the region, which I think everyone thinks is saturation," he said.
 
The compact will now go to the Massachusetts Legislature for approval, and then to the federal government.
 

Annie Oakley’s heart target, private collection, Los Angeles, California, 2010, © Annie Leibovitz. From Pilgrimage (Random House, 2011)

*****

BOSTON — The crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd, the love it/hate it chorus of "Sweet Caroline": the experience of a Sox home game is as much aural as visual. And some of us will always now associate the Dropkick Murphys with an Irish-dancing, World Series–winning closing pitcher. We go behind the Green Monster to meet the people who make the musical magic happen: DJ TJ Connelly and organist Josh Kantor.

*****

DORCHESTER — Katherine Gonzalves, the young woman who was allegedly assaulted and held against her will by Democratic state representative Carlos Henriquez, broke her silence at a press conference on July 11.

“My credibility has been questioned and my private life has become the topic of speculation,” Gonzalves said. “Why? Because the man I was dating hit me and he is a public figure?”
 
After reading a brief statement that was light on details, the UMass Boston student sat silently and let her attorney Rick Brody do the talking.
 
“It’s not just people who look like batterers who are batterers. Good people hit their spouses, bad people hit their spouses,” said Brody.
 
Brody said his client met Henriquez when she was doing a research paper on the so-called Three Strikes bill. That led to a relationship that ended this week.
  
Brody said the press conference was intended to counter false claims about Gonzalves in the media. But when he was asked for specific examples, he refused to give them. 
 
“Katherine is a reasonable, thoughtful, well-spoken young woman who was put in a position with this man that resulted in the criminal process,” said Brody.
 
Gonzalves’s press conference came 2 days after Henriquez emphatically denied the charges against him.
 
In a statement posted to Facebook Henriquez said: “I have been accused of some serious charges. These charges are completely untrue.” Henriquez also said stopping violence against women has been one of his top priorities, adding — “Putting my hands on a woman is contradictory to my upbringing and my own morals.”

What have you accomplished in the past 48 hours? WARNING: The following sentence may make you feel a tad lazy. Recently, Michael McVey and a five-person team made an entire film — wrote, shot, edited and scored — from scratch in just 2 days. It was part of the Boston 48-Hour Film Project. And his short, "Manna," cleaned up at the awards ceremony. As we prepare for the project to descend on Providence, R.I. the weekend of July 13, McVey sent along five of his favorites from Boston's fest along with his comments. (Note he limited himself to films that have been posted online.)

McVey and the man behind the Providence 48-Hour Film Project talk with Edgar Herwick on Boston Public Radio at noon.

SILENT FILM: "Bitter Sweet" by Movie Magic Media

BUDDY FILM: "Tristan & Arabella" by the Brownie Theater

MOCKUMENTARY: "Slyder Fishpuss' Wondrous Marvels of the Ancient World" by Pica Films

DRAMA: "Quitting" by Wax Idiotical

DARK COMEDY (Age Restricted): "Miss You, Mom" by Pass the Porridge Productions

"Manna" by Skiffleboom Productions

"Making of 'Manna'" by Skiffleboom Productions