Globe seeks replacement for star investigative reporter | State teachers union sparks backlash with anti-Israel “teach-in” | Everett soccer stadium foes give big to Boston’s mayor |
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Wu windfall: Boston Mayor Michelle Wu showered with campaign cash from prominent foes of Kraft family’s controversial soccer stadium plan
Michelle Wu says she hasn’t spoken with opponents of a proposed waterfront soccer stadium in neighboring Everett.
Then again, foes of Robert Kraft’s proposed stadium for the New England Revolution don’t necessarily have to speak with the mayor to get their message across.
After all, money has a language of its own.
Members of the Jacobs family, owner of the Garden, the Bruins, and the Delaware North concessions empire, pumped $10,000 into the Boston mayor’s campaign account last December, records reviewed by Contrarian Boston show.
Among those giving $1,000 apiece - the maximum allowed - were family patriarch Jeremy Jacobs and his son, Charlie.
The Jacobses are among those lobbying against the proposed Everett stadium, which billionaire Pats owner Robert Kraft would like to build for his soccer franchise, the New England Revolution.
The influx of cash came about a month after Wu went public with concerns that the proposed stadium, which would take shape right on the Boston city line, could pose traffic and other issues in Charlestown’s Sullivan Square.
For the Jacobs family, a waterfront stadium next door to the massive Encore casino in Everett could pose a major competitor for shows and concerts, cutting into their cash cow otherwise known as the Garden.
Also surely worried about competition for shows and concerts from an Everett stadium is John Henry.
The owner of the Red Sox and The Boston Globe pulls in a tidy sum from concerts at Fenway Park and from his sparkling new MGM Music Hall next to the ballpark.
Henry and his wife, Linda, CEO and co-owner of Boston Globe Media, aren’t big on political contributions.
That said, when Wu gave her State of the City Address at the MGM Music Hall in January, Henry’s Fenway Sports Group waived the $40,000 rental fee, as Contrarian Boston has reported.
Boston’s mayor “has not met with TD Garden or Fenway Park ownership or executives about the soccer stadium, although she is always open to conversations with interested stakeholders,” said Ricardo Patron, Wu’s press secretary, in a statement to Contrarian Boston.
Given this is Boston, could there also be a political grudge at work here in the background?
Wu will be facing reelection next year. And none other than Josh Kraft, son of Robert and a nonprofit executive, has emerged as one of her most likely challengers.
Never underestimate how petty local politics can be.
A repeat performance no one wanted: Just months after accusing Israel of a “genocidal assault” in Gaza, the state teachers union steps in it again
By David Mancuso
The Massachusetts Teachers Association is coming under fire from major Jewish organizations in the wake of their one-sided webinar on “anti-Palestinian racism.”
The American Jewish Committee is blasting the Massachusetts Teachers Association for a “betrayal of the public trust” in the wake of the webinar, “The Struggle Against Anti-Palestinian Racism,” which the teachers union held early Thursday evening.
In a public statement, the MTA defended the webinar as a way to help educators feel confident discussing the “complicated” issues in Israel.
However, the presenters of the program, which the MTA billed as a “teach-in on Palestine,” are “three well-known pro-Palestinian activists, who are also anti-Zionists,” the AJC contends.
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