Even with Vice President Kamala Harris taking over the Democratic race for the White House from President Joe Biden, comparisons with the 2020 Trump-Biden matchup remain strong.
Progressives are volunteering as election sages this time around, too.
Back in 2020 it was the Bernie Bros that Joe Biden had to win over, the phalanx of supporters loyal to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. They carried political heft, if only for their ability to help unite the party behind Biden.
Remember the Unity Task Force? That put climate change and environmental justice, key issues with Sanders, on Biden’s front campaign burner.
This year, some 50 progressive leaders signed onto a letter released Tuesday telling Harris that they “whole-heartedly” endorsed her campaign while noting that “it is difficult to overstate the importance of your decision in selecting a Vice-Presidential running mate.”
They have suggestions.
As the Hill reported, they’re urging Harris to consider Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) or Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) as her running mate and rule out Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D).
They like Walz and Beshear because the two are “persuasive advocates for core Democratic values and will energize voters across America without marginalizing any of the communities that we must engage in order to win the electoral college.”
Shapiro’s great sin? Well, while he is a “valued member of the Democratic coalition,” he has become known for his “shortcomings as a national candidate,” including “controversial policy decisions” like his backing of school vouchers.
Do you know who also backs school vouchers and school choice? Voters. A poll from RealClear Opinion Research taken last June found 71% of registered voters supported school choice, vs. 13% opposed. Across party lines, 66% of Democrats, 80% of Republicans, and 69% of Independents said they support the policy.
Who doesn’t like school vouchers/school choice? Teachers’ unions. The American Federation of Teachers announced a resolution opposing the voucher system.
They would be one of the “communities we must engage.”
“Choosing Tim Walz or Andy Beshear as Vice-President Kamala Harris’ running mate will invigorate the nation by rallying all of our diverse communities, especially young voters, public education advocates, and the working class,” California Democratic Party Progressive Caucus Chair Fatima Iqbal-Zubair said in a statement.
Harris is in the middle of choosing her running mate ahead of the Democratic National Convention next month. Shapiro, Beshear and Walz are among those being vetted, as well as others like Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).
An ABC News/Ipsos poll released this month showed Kelly as the most favorable among other potential vice presidential picks. Bad news for those progressive lawmakers: Shapiro came in second.
But that’s how potential voters feel, and one thing that’s certain in the public sausage-making demonstration of politics, is that Beltway power players are the ones whose voices are loudest – and listened to.
BOSTON (WHDH) – The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has secured approval to build a new hospital in Boston.
The state’s public health council approved the institute’s application Thursday night.
The facility will be constructed in the Longwood Medical Area and include 300 beds.
Dana-Farber intends to partner with Beth Israel for the new venture.
(Copyright (c) 2024 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Boston, MA – September 23: Boston Celtics owner Wyc Grousbeck, right, and president of basketball … More
Boston Globe via Getty Images
A group led by Bill Chisholm has agreed to purchase the Boston Celtics for a record $6.1 billion, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Thursday. That price point was right in line with Forbes’ latest valuation ($6.0 billion) of the Celtics from December.
As Forbes’ Justin Teitelbaum and Brett Knight noted in October, the NBA’s new national TV contracts—worth roughly $76 billion over the next 11 years—along with record attendance and sponsorship are causing the value of the league’s franchises to skyrocket. They estimated that no NBA team would sell for less than $3 billion now.
Now that a sale agreement has been reached for one of the league’s preeminent franchises, the NBA can turn its attention to expansion. Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal reported Thursday that the league “is expected to begin exploring expansion in earnest” in the wake of this sale. ESPN’s Tim Bontemps added that it “could have an impact on the potential timeline” for expansion.
“For months, sources have said that process wouldn’t move forward until there was clarity on Boston’s situation, and where this sale price wound up,” Bontemps wrote. “Now that there is clarity—and at this kind of number—the league could revisit that timeline.”
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told reporters in September that there “was not a lot of discussion” about expansion at the league’s board of governors meeting, “but only largely not for lack of interest.” Instead, the league office told governors that they weren’t “quite ready” to entertain those discussions.
The board of governors typically meets in the spring as well, so the timing of this sale figures to spark a new round of expansion talks in the coming weeks.
This past September, Bontemps and ESPN colleagues Kevin Pelton and Brian Windhorst reported that both “league sources and people who are working on forming bidding groups” are aiming to have expansion teams up and running in the 2027-28 season. “Although starting in 2026-27 isn’t impossible, it has become more unrealistic,” they added.
At the time, they estimated that “a pair of new expansion teams could net the league north of $10 billion combined—meaning every team would receive a check for over $300 million as the new teams come into the league.” Given the NBA’s current rate of growth and the potential markets it could tap for expansion, that might wind up being on the low end.
Prior to the sale of the Celtics, the average value of the league’s 30 franchises had already jumped by 15% within the past year to $4.4 billion, per Forbes. The Golden State Warriors ($8.8 billion), New York Knicks ($7.5 billion) and Los Angeles Lakers ($7.1 billion) all had higher valuations than the Celtics, while the Los Angeles Clippers ($5.5 billion) and Chicago Bulls ($5.0 billion) weren’t far behind.
Once the NBA decides on how many expansion teams to add—it’s widely expected that it’ll add two in this round—cities and ownership groups will begin to place bids. After the league office finalizes the new teams, the next step will be to hold an expansion draft.
The expansion teams will be working with a smaller budget than the rest of the league’s teams for their first few seasons, which will put them at a disadvantage early on. They’ll have a salary cap worth 66.67% of the NBA’s salary cap in their first season and 80% in the second season. In the third year and beyond, they’ll have the same salary cap as every other team.
Seattle and Las Vegas are considered the “heavy favorites” to land expansion teams, according to John Hollinger of The Athletic. Silver told ESPN’s Pat McAfee last February that “Vegas is definitely on our list.”
In July, Randall Williams and Kim Bhasin of Bloomberg reported that the “total price tag, including building a new arena, has the potential to hit $7 billion” if the league does award a team to Las Vegas. They added that the group that owns the Seattle Kraken is the “heavy favorite” to land an NBA team if the league expands to Seattle, but “the Vegas team appears very much up for grabs.”
Tim Booth of the Seattle Times noted that David Bonderman, the father of Kraken majority owner Samantha Holloway, was a minority owner of the Celtics prior to this sale. “The sale would divest the Bonderman family from any additional NBA ownership stakes as would be required in order to have ownership in another franchise,” he added.
After news of the Celtics sale broke Thursday, Holloway released a statement hinting at her ownership group’s interest in bringing the NBA back to Seattle.
“We understand that today’s news will pique the interest of NBA fans in Seattle,” Holloway said. “As we have said before, our ownership group is ideally positioned for an NBA team with Climate Pledge Arena and the incredible fans in Seattle, but we will always be respectful of the Commissioner’s process and timeline.”
Bontemps, Pelton and Windhorst reported in September that “the widespread belief among league and team sources” is that “Seattle and Las Vegas are the logical landing points for a pair of new expansion teams,” but other cities could always hop into the mix. They mentioned Mexico City, Montreal, Vancouver, Kansas City and Louisville as other possibilities.
Once the sale of the Celtics gets finalized, that figures to bring the NBA one step closer to adding a pair of expansion teams, whether in Seattle, Las Vegas or elsewhere.
Unless otherwise noted, all stats via NBA.com, PBPStats, Cleaning the Glass or Basketball Reference. All salary information via Spotrac and salary-cap information via RealGM. All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook.
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Arrests continue in immigrant-heavy Massachusetts communities like Everett and Chelsea, with residents documenting enforcement actions on social media.
The apparent uptick in arrests comes nearly a month after President Donald Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, declared he would be “bringing hell” to Boston and other sanctuary cities.
Some in the immigrant community believe recent arrests have expanded to include undocumented immigrants without criminal records, suspecting it may be due to pressures from the president to meet daily quotas of about 1,500 arrests.
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Law enforcement agents were captured on video again Thursday morning, this time after stopping a van and arresting several people on Union street at the Chelsea-Everett line.
A woman from El Salvador agreed to speak to NBC10 Boston, asking to conceal her identity and that of her brother, whom she said was among the people arrested.
She said her brother, who does not have a legal status, has no criminal record.
As immigration officials continue to make arrests in Boston, hundreds of advocates and immigrants gathered at the Massachusetts State House.
Lucy Pineda is the executive director of the immigrant advocacy group Latinos Unidos En Massachusetts — or LUMA — in Everett.
She explains how she plans to make it harder for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to find their targets by blasting messages down the street using speakers and megaphones, informing people of their rights.
“They’re trying to intimidate our community, and we can see it,” Pineda said. “They don’t just arrest people with criminal history, they arrest people who don’t have no legal documents, they don’t have no [criminal] records in the country.”
Pineda said a lot of what’s been seen and reported in neighboring communities this week is also happening in her city.
“What I think you’re seeing right now is the beginning of what Tom Homan said he was going to do,” said former Bristol County Sheriff Tom Hodgson.
The Trump campaign advisor said he hopes recent enforcement operations can encourage people to seek a legal way into the country.
“It’s about upholding the rule of law,” he said. “We can’t pick and choose for ourselves what people we think should have to abide by the law and which ones shouldn’t.”
The White House slammed the sanctuary policies of Boston and surrounding communities in a press release Thursday, highlighting recent arrests by ICE of immigrants who have been charged with — but not convicted of — a range of crimes, including child rape and organized crime.
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