You can pretend like you’re not 40, and then you extricate yourself from a blocked in parking situation and feel like you won the Super Bowl and realize time is inevitable

Was at the same restaurant as John Cena tonight and I have to give some credit to that guy’s tailor. Impeccable.

Grinchmanji

Last normal #mapoli digest of the year. Send me questions for a post-Christmas mailbag issue. And I get to end on a depressing note: the budgets for FY26 and FY27! With quotes from the hearing from Evan Horowitz, Alan Clayton-Matthews, and Sen. Rodrigues open.substack.com/pub/massachu...

I really like the moments when you can tell that the politician themselves came up with an idea. Sometimes it's great, sometimes terrible, but it gives you a window into the person in office, rather than their team. No way a reference this obscure happens without Zohran himself pushing for it.

I think we have a first mention of @thehorserace.bsky.social in one of the statements we're collecting for #mapoli. On an unrelated note, I discovered that email attachments get a different font than the normal one used and I have no idea why.

Saw a lot of #somerpoli at Winter Hill this morning to celebrate the demolition of Star Market. Which was great, but we should also acknowledge that a supermarket sitting vacant on Broadway for 17 years is a massive failure.

For the #mapoli crowd. We're starting an automated statements feed to make it easier to follow the informational flow of public policy here and set up keyword alerts on them. RT/like/comment and I'll send you a link to it. If you want your releases included, [email protected]

Boy it is frustrating that Massachusetts residency requirements are so strict that I’m not even allowed to run to succeed Sen Jehlen in 2026 because I lived in New York from 2021-2023. Anyway, good luck to whoever runs and I hope the winner supports housing production statewide

Question for anyone who knows. Could you FOIA ChatGPT chats from a government employee? Or is it like a Google search in that it would only be released under a subpoena?

I’m one of the biggest AI bulls on Bluesky (which also makes me one of the biggest AI bears on LinkedIn) but this is concerning

Saw a journalist tout an AI feature on LinkedIn and say that it works because "it's magic." NO! It's an API call to OpenAI or Anthropic's latest LLM model. That has benefits but also big limitations, and if you don't lead with that, your readers may very well be led astray

Looking to make this into a bit more of an entertaining place for #mapoli. Quote tweet or reply with a fun fact about politics, politicians, or government here. I'll start. The last time a mayor of Boston lost re-election when running, it was 1949 and the incumbent had spent 5 months in jail

Is AI the next threat vector for democracy? I think yes. massachusettsdigest.substack.com/p/what-if-ai...

Can’t recommend cricket enough to Americans suffering baseball withdrawal. England v Australia starting now has 5 matches, 5 days each, and England may have already blown it.

Getting a duck to start the ashes has to be one of the worst feelings in sport. You travel around the world for this, wait more than two years for it, and you’re out in 3 minutes.

Great reporting from @jenndotsmith.bsky.social and Chris Lisinski. But I can't help but think that this is happening because our policy process in the state is in some ways broken. Ballot questions are inherently blunt instruments commonwealthbeacon.org/politics/the...

Let’s give credit to the Democrats who voted to censure Chuy Garcia for robbing his constituents of a real election. It might not be the biggest news happening today but that kind of BS insidery games should be drummed out of politics.

Great coverage by @gintautasd.bsky.social on public funds for the World Cup, and issue that could have slipped through the crack. The consensus from the parents at soccer practice was that the prices are too high for any of us to go. So why is my government spending money on it?

Look like FIFA has got ahead of this threat for the World Cup by pricing the tickets as absurdly expensive to begin with

My piece on the next big threat to American democracy was published yesterday by @cwbeacon.bsky.social Fingers crossed I’m being a Chicken Little but I don’t think I am commonwealthbeacon.org/opinion/what...

Multiple parents at my son’s soccer practice talked about trying to get tickets for the World Cup and then choosing not to because of the high ticket prices. Not sure what FIFA’s plan is, but if people can’t afford to go to the games, what’s the point of having them in places with fans?

My piece on the next big threat to American democracy was published yesterday by @cwbeacon.bsky.social Fingers crossed I’m being a Chicken Little but I don’t think I am commonwealthbeacon.org/opinion/what...

Yesterday the Joint Committee on Econ Dev had a remarkable hearing on gambling, including this even more remarkable testimony from Sen John Keenan massachusettsdigest.substack.com/p/has-gambli...

Slightly random question for the #mapoli crowd. In a feed of press releases, would you rather a format of Name - Title, Name: Title, or [Name] Title? Example of the first option below

Could be correlation and not causation, but the people I’ve seen who talk the most about IQ are not the ones whose intelligence seems like it has a high quotient

But she is correct. The voters of that district deserve a choice.

If you work in comms in #mapoli public policy, would love to get your thoughts on a new statements feed I'm building. Would you rather: - Load press releases yourself and tag them with bills and legislators mentioned - Add an email to your distro list and hope auto-detection works?

The deal stems from the fact that the Senate D caucus is not unified on what the shutdown was meant to do. Was it: - gambit to pressure Republicans to cave on health care - leverage to force Trump to follow appropriations - allay base voters with signs of fight

This week in #mapoli: baby bonds, judicial safety, and IDs for homeless youth. open.substack.com/pub/massachu...

I'm planning a #mapoli feed in legislata.com to help capture a little bit of the value the old Twitter had in keeping us up to date with events in gov't and politics. What are the things you'd like to see in that? Daily update of news articles? Events? Shared press releases? Let me know!

It’s good politicians are doing streams to seem relatable, but when will a Senate candidate do a season of Football Manager and we can finally vote for someone who can win the Prem without a 4-2-3-1 gegenpress. @michaelcaley.bsky.social can this become an NKD litmus test?

With city and town officials elected last night across #mapoli, a reminder that Legislata has AI-generated transcripts of about 30+ municipalities, available for free for journalists and gov't employees. If your city isn't there, let me know and I'll try to add it. app.legislata.com/posts/267324...

Something may have gone wrong in the off-ball positioning in my football match engine

How long until the "what this race means for the nation" for the Somerville City Council at-large seats?

What in the world does that first sentence mean? Not to pick on the social media editor but that is not how you phrase "it's election day and one candidate looks very likely to win"

Learning some programming by making a football match engine and may have to tweak it a little bit.

A note on #mapoli Bluesky. I wanted to tag everyone who participated in this hearing for easier visibility. For Bluesky, I found only two people with accounts. On LinkedIn, it was 15. It's much harder to have a good political conversation when so many important perspectives aren't here

Halloween saw a very long #mapoli committee hearing on the Census. Speakers included: - @geoffreyfoster.bsky.social - @beccarausch.bsky.social and many others not on Bluesky Full transcript here: app.legislata.com/public_offic...

For all the talk that a salary cap isn’t needed because the Dodgers didn’t run away in the regular season, they just won back to back World Series, the first time that’s happened in 25 years. Some more competitive parity, please?

Are Arby’s steak nuggets just steak tips? Are they stealing New England’s thing?

Is there any candidate for Somerville elections that has come out in favor of starting our own Palio? We have lots of squares. We have lots of animals (dogs) who can race around in circles. We have neighborhood pride. What’s the holdup?

Big thanks to @simonkuper.bsky.social for this column that I’ll be using every time my wife asks me why I’m watching Tottenham not score from open play at 7:30 am on a Saturday

New #mapoli digest this week looks at how you can learn about what city officials care about by seeing how they testify at Beacon Hill. We look at a climate hearing with quotes from @etelhaxhiaj.bsky.social, @mayorkatjana.bsky.social, and others massachusettsdigest.substack.com/p/to-learn-a...

Has this host never met a South Asian person before?

Worst bit of umpiring I’ve seen this year. Wow.

Would love to get people's opinions about a prototype we built to make @bostoncitycouncil.bsky.social transcripts (sponsored by @bostonpolicyinst.bsky.social) more accessible using a chatbot form factor. Check it out and let me know how we should tweak it. bos-city-council-chatbot.streamlit.app

I love Spurs’ set piece goals. I hate what it means for the future of the Premier League that we can spend 50 minutes with barely a peep from our striker and still be up 2-0

This week in #mapoli, some speculation on a new way to analyze politicians, given we're starting to see some competitive races. open.substack.com/pub/massachu...

Has anyone asked @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social the big question: T20, ODI, or test?