Saturday, July 26, 2025

Red Line cars on hold plus four more stories


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Welcome back to the Saturday Send, a weekly digest of stories from CommonWealth Beacon that you may have missed. 

This week, Bruce Mohl investigates the detention of 8 Red Line cars by US Customs and potential delays to the MBTA's long-running effort to replace its aging subway fleet.

Plus: Gateway Cities brace for sweeping changes to MassHealth under the Trump administration’s tax bill, the Healey administration eyes Canadian offshore wind, Beacon Hill hears testimony on cannabis advertising, and Jennifer Smith examines whether "Opportunity Zones" have delivered on their promise.

Check out those stories below, and, as always, thanks for reading.

— The CommonWealth Beacon team


   ****MUST READ ! *****

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MBTA officials said US Customs is trying to verify CRRC, the Chinese rail car manufacturer, is complying with the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act.

excerpts: 

For years, CRRC has been shipping Orange and Red Line subway vehicle shells from its main plant in China to its Massachusetts facility in Springfield, where final assembly takes place. Officials said there have been few holdups on deliveries from China in the past.

The MBTA has been relying on a long-running contract with CRRC to update its old subway fleet. CRRC has delivered 146 of the 152 new Orange Line cars the T ordered, but the transit authority desperately needs new Red Line cars. Forty-eight of the 252 new Red Line cars have been delivered, according to the T, which means the bulk of the Red Line fleet is running with subway cars that are 55, 37, and 31 years old, even though the useful life of a subway vehicle is typically 30 to 31 years.


In March 2024, after nearly a year of negotiations, the MBTA and CRRC Massachusetts struck a deal to get the delivery of vehicles back on track. The T waived $90.6 million in penalties for previous late deliveries and agreed to waive $40 million in additional penalties if CRRC adhered to a new timetable calling for all of the new Red Line cars to be delivered by the end of 2027, which was still four years later than the original contract’s deadline.


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The Trump administration’s tax bill will likely hit hardest in the state’s Gateway Cities, which are home to a disproportionate share of the state’s immigrants and low-income population, as work requirements and Medicaid eligibility checks ramp up. Here’s how Gateway City leaders are responding.

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With federal roadblocks to clean energy, Massachusetts is eyeing Canadian offshore wind to meet climate goals and make the grid more affordable. But the switch could mean fewer local jobs and potential transmission infrastructure hurdles ahead.

 

Those in the cannabis industry are saying that the strict advertising laws on cannabis hurt their businesses while those on the other side say that the laws need to be more stringent.

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“Opportunity Zones” – now a permanent policy – offered major breaks to investors who pursued projects in low-income communities. But in Massachusetts and across the country, whether the program delivered much on its promise is still up for debate.

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This week on The Codcast, it’s the state angle on artificial intelligence. CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith talks with Sabrina Mansur, director of the Massachusetts Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hub. Mansur explains how she uses AI in her daily life and why keeping Massachusetts competitive means a $100 million taxpayer-funded effort to get into the AI race.

 
 
 
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KEEP ASKING QUESTIONS! FOLLOW THE MONEY!

 

KEEP ASKING QUESTIONS! FOLLOW THE MONEY! Ghislaine Maxwell led a privileged life. Dad had a profitable publishing empire, known connections to intelligence communities, met an untimely death. (See CRAIG UNGER!)

Suddenly in prison, what would YOU say to get out of PRISON? NO CREDIBILITY!

JOYCE VANCE, in her substack CIVIL DISCOURSE explained BANK PROCEEDURES: When it comes to Epstein, the grand jury documents aren’t the ones that people seeking the truth about Epstein’s network of child trafficking should be interested in.

Prosecutors always say, “Follow the money.” That’s as true here as in any other case, especially since there was a lot of money around Jeffrey Epstein, and there’s been no real public accounting of it. One of the best ways you can follow the money, at least if you’re a federal prosecutor, is by looking at Treasury Department records. One type of record, SARs, or Suspicious Activity Reports, can be a treasure trove for prosecutors, providing some of the best investigative leads they can get.

SENATOR RON WYDEN explained the limited TREASURY INFORMATION provided. Senator Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the powerful Senate Finance Committee, understands this. He’s been investigating Epstein’s finances for at least three years.

The New York Times reported last week that “Some members of his staff have viewed confidential files that shed light on the immense sums of money that, they say, Mr. Epstein moved through the banking system to fuel his vast sex-trafficking network.”

There are specifics: Banks flagged more than $1.5 billion in transactions involving Epstein. They included “thousands of wire transfers for the purchase and sale of artwork for rich friends, fees paid to Mr. Epstein by wealthy individuals, and payments to numerous women.” Very intriguing.

“We felt from the beginning this was a follow-the-money case,” Senator Wyden said in an interview. “This horrific sex-trafficking operation cost Epstein a lot of money, and he had to get that money from somewhere.” If you want to know more about Jeffrey Epstein, read the reports and follow the money. That sort of documentation will reveal far more than a couple of grand jury transcripts, the only thing Trump has offered to make public, knowing full well judges are unlikely to go along with it. If Trump really wanted to honor his commitment to release Epstein reports, this is what he would be sharing with his followers.

Instead, Senator Wyden has been working on it. Wyden can’t make all of the papers public, but the Trump administration can. Staffers working with Wyden were given very limited access to Treasury documents when they visited the agency and were only permitted to take handwritten notes.

But they walked away with some key information:

The largest SAR was filed by JPMorgan in late 2019 and involved a transaction of $1.1 billion. That report covered 4,700 transactions dating to 2003, including payments to women from Belarus, Russia, and Turkmenistan. (Where many of Epstein’s victims came from.)

Deutsche Bank filed the second largest for about $400 million.

Other sizable reports were filed by Bank of New York Mellon for $378 million and Bank of America, which filed reports on billionaire investor Leon Black’s $158 million in payments to Epstein, reportedly for tax and estate planning services. That’s a lot of tax and estate planning! Black was a co-founder of the private equity firm Apollo Global Management. He left his leadership position at the firm after his ties to Epstein were disclosed publicly.

Despite DOJ’s pronouncement earlier this month that there would be no further prosecutions, it’s clear from the public narrative that Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell weren’t the only people involved in the large-scale trafficking operation they operated.

PUTIN HAS EPSTEIN'S VIDEOS: Most importantly, is the story of Deputy Sheriff John Mark Dougan. He was a former Palm Beach County sheriff’s deputy and was “under investigation by the FBI for allegedly collaborating with Russian military intelligence to spread misinformation about Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign. (25 WPBF News, written by Malcolm Shields, October 25, 2024) Before his arrest, Dougan snatched from the Evidence Room all 478 videos from Epstein’s files. He then drove to Toronto and caught a plane to Moscow.” According to Craig Unger, “Dougan was only the 4th American to receive asylum in Russia.” He presented the Russians evidence - known in Russia as Kompromat - to be used against worldwide leaders - including Donald Trump.

NOW, whether there is "another" Epstein list is debatable. Someone needs to go to the Palm Beach Sheriff's office and ask. By law, they must keep records of evidence, including the tapes that went missing from their custody. Trump is now scared - and if there is another list - according to Bondi the list was on her desk - then the proof is there regarding Trump and underage sex trafficking and perhaps his connections to Russia.

JEFFREY EPSTEIN ran an INTERNATIONAL CHILD SEX TRAFFICKING RING! PERVERTS were REPEATEDLY raping CHILDREN! That's what they PAID FOR!

The FBI cleaned out EPSTEIN's ISLAND: Where is that information? KEEP ASKING QUESTIONS & ASK WHERE EPSTEIN'S MONEY CAME FROM! WHAT PERVERTS PAID TO RAPE CHILDREN? JP MORGAN CHASE KNEW & DID NOT REPORT EPSTEIN, JUST AS THEY PROTECTED BERNIE MADOFF! JAMIE DIMON KNEW!

Rewriting History


How The Downballot reports on and analyzes polls

                                                                                                            LOTS OF POSTS IGNORED BY BLOGGER...