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Tuesday, August 27, 2019

AriftbetweenthestateGOP
andtheBakeradministration
appearedtodeepenoverfund-
raisingoperations.B1.

AjudgeinOklahomaruledthat
Johnson&Johnsonhelpedfuel
thestate’sopioidcrisisandor-
deredthecompanytopay
$572million.C1.

Tuesday:Stillcool,sunny.

High73-78,low60-65.

Wednesday:Atadwarmer.

High79-83,low64-69.

Comicsandweather,C8-9.

Cool for the city

VOL. 296, NO. 58

*

Suggested retail price

$3.

In the news

By Maria Cramer
GLOBE STAFF
A Middlesex Superior Court
judge has reduced the second-
degree murder conviction of a
baby sitter found guilty of fatal-
ly injuring a 6-month-old baby
to involuntary manslaughter,
an unusual decision that under-
scores how the science around
shaken baby cases continues to
divide the criminal justice sys-
tem.
Judge Kenneth Fishman
said that the second-degree
murder conviction a jury deliv-
ered in May against Pallavi
Macharla, a 44-year-old mother
of two, was not “consonant
with justice.”

The four-week trial featured

a slew of medical experts who

presented strikingly different

theories about what killed Ri-

dhima Dhekane, whom Macha-

rla was baby-sitting in March

2014 in the day-care center she

ran in her Burlington home.

The conflicting findings

made it impossible to justify a

second-degree murder convic-

tion, Fishman wrote in the Aug.

19 decision.

“This court cannot permit a

verdict of second-degree mur-

der to stand in the presence of

such highly contested and in-

consistent evidence,” Fishman

wrote in the 17-page ruling.

At trial, prosecutors said

Macharla, who was a medical

doctor in her native India, be-

came frustrated when the baby

began fussing and shook her so

violently her brain bled. Macha-

rla, who testified in her own de-

fense, said the baby had vomit-

ed shortly after she fed her

homemade applesauce and

then stopped breathing.

Fishman’s decision is the lat-

est in a series of setbacks for

state prosecutors who have had

convictions in shaken baby cas-

esoverturnedbyhighercourts

or had to drop murder charges

after medical examiners re-

versed their rulings on the

MACHARLA, Page B

By Joshua Miller
GLOBE STAFF
SPRINGFIELD — A year
ago, eight Clydesdales clopped
down Main Street behind a
1923 Rolls-Royce carrying city
and casino leaders, a grand pro-
cession to celebrate the opening
of MGM Springfield.
The $960 million resort casi-
no, the state’s first, carried the
hopes of a struggling city,
hailed as a catalyst for a down-
town left forlorn by decades of
economic decline and a 2011
tornado.
Reality has not yet lived up
to the hype or the hope.
MGM’s gambling revenues
have come in far below projec-

tions. The number of employ-

ees has fallen sharply. “For

lease” signs still hang in store-

front windows downtown.

And parent company MGM

Resorts International’s commit-

ment to the city came into ques-

tion this spring when the com-

pany acknowledged it was in

talks to buy Wynn Resorts’ $2.

billion casino in Everett, a deal

that would have forced MGM to

relinquish its Western Massa-

chusetts license and presum-

ably sell the property.

Analysts say MGM, despite

bringing several high-profile en-

tertainers to town, has struggled

to pull gamblers away from Fox-

woods and Mohegan Sun in

Connecticut and now faces a

new threat from the Everett ca-

sino, which opened in June.

To be sure, an increasingly

saturated casino market has

MGM, Page A

Judge reduces

murder conviction

of baby sitter

Decisionislatestincontroversy

surroundingshakenbabycases

Marketheadwinds

shuffleexpectations

atSpringfieldcasino

Ayearin,hope

stillup,revenue

andjobsdown

By Michael Levenson

GLOBE STAFF

Severely ill immigrants, in-

cluding children with cancer,

cystic fibrosis, and other grave

conditions, are facing deporta-

tion under a change in Trump

administration policy that im-

migration advocates are calling

cruel and inhumane.

The policy change will affect

at least a dozen children receiv-

ing treatment at Boston hospi-

tals and potentially thousands

of additional immigrants across

the country, according to law-

yers and advocates. All had

been granted “medical deferred

action,” a special status that al-

lows immigrants to remain in

the country legally, receive

Medicaid, and work while they

receive treatment for dire

health conditions.

Beginning last week, law-

yers for some of these immi-

grants received boilerplate let-

ters from Citizenship and Im-

migration Services informing

them the agency’s field offices

will no longer consider applica-

tions for renewal under the pro-

gram. Exceptions will be made

only for military families.

The letters told families that

IMMIGRATION, Page A

By Jazmine Ulloa

GLOBE STAFF

WASHINGTON — On an over-

cast February day here, Representa-

tive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of

New York joined more than a dozen

congressional Democrats to unveil

her generation’s response to the po-

tentially catastrophic effects of a

warming planet — an ambitious

resolution calling for a “Green New

Deal” to tackle climate change and

restructure the economy.

But before she addressed the

crowd of supporters gathered near

the front steps of the US Capitol on

the issue that had propelled her in-

to Congress, the 29-year-old hugged

Senator Edward Markey of Massa-

chusetts, a lawmaker old enough to

be her grandfather, and turned the

microphones over to him.

“We have acted on this scale be-

fore, and we must do it again,” he

said, calling their resolution neces-

sary to address the highest global

temperatures and levels of wealth

disparity the country has ever seen.

“Our energy future will not be

found in the dark of a mine but in

the light of the sun.”

In turning to Markey as her Sen-

ate co-sponsor, Ocasio-Cortez se-

lected a lawmaker with a decades-

long record that includes legislation

on climate change and pollution, as

MARKEY, Page A

By Devra First

GLOBE STAFF

You would have read this days ago, if only I

could have gotten my hands on one.

Popeyes’ new fried chicken sandwich is the

status item of the season: fervently sought

after, commensurately hard to come by. The

fast-food chain introduced the sandwich Aug.

12, four days after Burger King launched its

Impossible Whopper. Never mind a beefless

burger; what truly seems impossible is that

Popeyes didn’t already have a chicken sand-

wich on its menu.

If this has been the summer of Greenland,

Jeffrey Epstein, mass shootings, ICE raids,

burning rain forests, trade wars, and a stock

market doing the floss — a “this is fine”

POPEYE'S, Page A

Withnewpolicy,severely

illarefacingdeportation

Some,includingchildren,camefor

treatment;otherssimplygotsick

Alaudablerecord,ofuncertainvalue

Markey’sstrength

oncewouldhave

seemedinvincible

Battered America deserves this

distraction of a battered craze

NIC ANTAYA FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Sirlen Costa of Brazil, with son Samuel Costa, 5, who is being treated in Boston, and her niece, Danyelle Sales.

NIC ANTAYA FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

Mariela Sanchez of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, wiped away

tears during Monday’s news conference. Trump

administration critics are calling the policy inhumane.

ALEX WONG/GETTY IMAGES/FILE 2019

Senator Edward Markey hugged Representative Alexandria

Ocasio-Cortez after they revealed the Green New Deal in February.

By Joshua Miller

GLOBE STAFF

Representative Joe Kennedy III, scion of the

state’s political dynasty, acknowledged Monday

he is considering a run for US Senate in 2020,

raising the prospect he could challenge Senator

Edward J. Markey in a blockbuster primary

that would pit two liberal Democrats separated

more by age than ideology.

Kennedy also filed key paperwork to prepare

for a Senate run, creating a campaign fund-rais-

ing committee for a potential statewide bid and

submitting a statement of candidacy for the

Senate, records show.

In a Facebook post, the 38-year-old said he

has not yet reached a decision and is mulling

family considerations, what he has to offer Mas-

sachusetts voters, and what’s right in this politi-

cal moment. He pushed back against the idea of

waiting for an open seat.

“I hear the folks who say I should wait my

turn, but with due respect — I’m not sure this is

a moment for waiting,” wrote Kennedy, of New-

ton, who was first elected to Congress in 2012.

KENNEDY, Page A

Kennedyconfirms

he’sconsidering

arunforSenate

PAT GREENHOUSE/

GLOBE STAFF

JOSH REYNOLDS FOR THE GLOBE/FILE

Pallavi Macharla had
testified in her own defense
during the four-week trial.

‘Itellpeople,IfeellikeI’msigningmyson’sdeathwarrant.’

SHONELL NORVILLE,from Guyana, whose son was diagnosed with epilepsy while visiting Boston

CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK