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GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. May the fourth be with you.
TO MANDATE OR NOT TO MANDATE A debate is brewing over whether coronavirus vaccines should be mandatory for public workers such as police and firefighters.
BOSTON On day six of testimony in the federal criminal case against former Fall River mayor Jasiel Correia II, there were tales of a pay-to-play atmosphere in the city’s burgeoning legalized marijuana business. I heard it was expensive to get into Fall River, said David Brayton, a former principal in the first marijuana company that Correia allegedly extorted.
Brayton testified that he paid $100,000 of an agreed-upon $250,000 bribe to obtain a letter of non-opposition from Correia in July 2016 to open his marijuana business, Xiphias Wellness. He is listed in the 24-count superseding indictment as “Marijuana vendor #1.”
Brayton, a Little Compton native, testified he was the money man for Xiphias Wellness and that “it became a struggle” trying to get a meeting with the Correia administration to obtain a letter of non-opposition. The letter is just one step of the process through which a business is licensed to sell marijuana in Massachusetts.
FALL RIVER In the first week of the Jasiel Correia trial, jurors heard from 20 witnesses, so far focused solely on the charges related to his former app company SnoOwl.
Starting Monday, the government will begin presenting its case against Correia on the government corruption charges that’s the part related to his alleged shakedown of marijuana vendors looking to do business in Fall River.
But in the testimony so far much of it very technical and related to accounting methods and financial records there have been a number of head-scratching moments for those of us watching from home (and there are many of us each day this week, anywhere from 250 to 300 people were logged in to view the trial remotely).
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GOOD MORNING, MASSACHUSETTS. TGIF!
NEW: GALVIN’S LEANING TOWARD ANOTHER TERM Will he or won’t he? Secretary of State Bill Galvin hasn’t decided whether he’ll seek another term. He’s leaning toward a run, he said yesterday, but he could change his mind.