Democratsaredividedover

PresidentTrump’sincreasingly

confrontationalapproachto

tradewithChina,a surprising

lack of unity for a party that

has stood starkly against most

of Trump’s positions.A2.

ATalibancarbombripped

throughabusyKabulneigh-

borhood,killing 14 people and

wounding 145.A3.

TheembattledFallRivermayor

cameunderfirefor granting a

key city approval to his girl-

friend’s brother to eventually

open two marijuana stores.B1.

Agroupofrelativesrepresent-

ingmorethan50peoplewho

diedinanEthiopianAirlines

planecrasharecallingonthe

FAAtoconductafullregulato-

ryreviewof Boeing’s 737 Max

before it is allowed to fly again.

B6.

TherookieoperatorofaGreen

Linetrainisbeingblamedfor

the derailment of a car that

disrupted the D line.B1.

VOL. 296, NO. 39

*

Suggested retail price

$3.

Thursday:Some clouds and sun.

High: 82-87. Low: 68-73.

Comics and Weather,C8-9.

Obituaries,A16.

Inthemix

abcde

Thursday, August 8, 2019

ANOTHER SURGERY —Dustin

Pedroia underwent a fifth knee

surgery this week. The procedure

sought to ease lingering discomfort

from a 2017 surgery.C1.

By Victoria McGrane
GLOBE STAFF
Massachusetts is producing a bumper-crop of
primary challengers this election season — an
early indication that the state’s long tradition of
respecting incumbency could be crumbling.
Many of these candidates have cited congress-
woman Ayanna Pressley’s victory over longtime
incumbent Michael E. Capuano as part of the rea-
son for their efforts — including Alex Morse, the
30-year-old, four-term mayor of Holyoke seeking
to oust Richard Neal, one of the most senior —
and powerful — members of the delegation, who
represents Western Massachusetts.
“Personally, for me it was inspiring to watch,”
Morse said of Pressley’s success in an interview
last week.
His takeaway from her race and other trium-
phant upstarts: “It wasn’t the candidate who
raised and spent the most money at the end of
the day, it was the candidate that was able to
build a grass-roots movement and organize a
campaign throughout the district that really
made the difference.”
Morse is drawing national attention but faces
long odds in toppling Neal, who has held the seat
since 1989, is a close ally of House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi, and leads the House Ways and Means
CHALLENGERS, Page A

E

VERETT — Against the bronze

glow of the towering Encore ca-

sino on a recent afternoon,

Steve Crosby spotted a blue her-

on on the muddy banks of the

Mystic River.

“Here he comes — gorgeous. Look at

the wing span!” he said to me as we sat on-

board one of the casino’s $1 million boats,

pulling away from the dock to head back to

Boston.

If you can believe it, the Encore Boston

Harbor has been open for more than a

month, and Crosby — who as the state’s

first gaming commission chairman was in-

strumental in it coming about — had not

yet checked out the casino until I invited

him to lunch.

Over the course of about two hours, he

walked the casino floor, posed for a picture

with Jeff Koons’s $28 million Popeye sculp-

ture, and gawked at the flower-covered

carousel (“holy cow!”). For the most part, it

was hard for the former gaming regulator

to contain his enthusiasm. He acted as if

LEUNG, Page A

By Milton J. Valencia
GLOBE STAFF
The federal convictions of two top City Hall
aides for extorting a concert promoter into hiring
union workers could trail Mayor Martin J. Walsh
as he embarks on future negotiations with labor
unions and other advocacy groups, as well as in
his own political career, according to legal and
political analysts who followed the case.
Allegations that aides Kenneth Brissette and
Timothy Sullivan pressured the concert promoter
into hiring union labor, under the fear of losing
out on lucrative permits vital to the event, date
back to 2014, the onset of Walsh’s administra-
tion. He had sidestepped questions about the
case in handily winning reelection two years ago.
But the swift verdict cast a chill across City
Hall Wednesday, an inescapable scarlet letter for
a mayor who takes pride in his union background
and has hoped his current perch could carry him
WALSH, Page A

MARIO TAMA/GETTY IMAGES

Miguel de Anda, born and raised in El Paso, held up a sign at a protest against President Trump’s visit to the city.

By Michael Crowley,

Maggie Haberman,

and Mitch Smith

NEW YORK TIMES

EL PASO — President

Trump visited Dayton, Ohio,

and El Paso on Wednesday on a

day intended as a show of com-

passion to cities scarred by a

weekend of violence, but one

that quickly devolved into an

occasion for anger-fueled

broadsides against Democrats

and the news media.

Trump’s schedule was

meant to follow the traditional

model of apolitical presidential

visits with victims, law enforce-

ment officials, and hospital

workers after calamities like

the mass shootings that result-

ed in 31 deaths in Dayton and

El Paso and that created a new

sense of national crisis over as-

sault weapons and the rise of

white supremacist ideology.

That plan went awry even

before Trump, who has ac-

knowledged his discomfort

with showing empathy in pub-

lic, departed Washington. On

Tuesday night, he attacked on

Twitter the former Democratic

congressman from El Paso, Be-

to O’Rourke, and as he pre-

pared to leave the White House

on Wednesday morning, he

went after former vice presi-

dent Joe Biden.

The result was the latest ex-

ample of Trump’s penchant for

inflaming divisions at mo-

ments when other presidents

TRUMP, Page A

‘Ithinkmy

rhetoricbrings

people

together.’

PRESIDENT TRUMP

Shirley Leung

By Maria Cramer

GLOBE STAFF

Two top aides to Boston Mayor Mar-

tin J. Walsh were convicted Wednesday

of conspiring to extort organizers of the

Boston Calling music festival, a stun-

ning development in a high-profile

public corruption case that cast scruti-

ny on City Hall’s ties to organized labor

and tested the limits of advocacy by

government officials.

The jury’s swift verdict, reached af-

ter only six hours of deliberation,

marked a major defeat for Walsh, a for-

mer labor leader swept into office by

overwhelming union backing.

Kenneth Brissette, the city’s director

of tourism, and Timothy Sullivan, chief

of intergovernmental affairs, resigned

shortly after they were convicted by a

jury of eight women and four men of

strong-arming the festival into hiring

union workers in 2014. Federal prose-

cutors said they leaned on concert or-

ganizers to promote Walsh’s political

agenda and exploited the organizers’

fear that city officials might shut down

the popular event if they failed to com-

ply.

Brissette, 54, was found guilty of ex-

tortion and conspiracy to commit ex-

tortion, charges that carry a maximum

penalty of 20 years in prison. Sullivan,

39, was convicted of conspiracy to com-

mit extortion but acquitted of extor-

tion.

MassachusettsUSAttorneyAndrew

Lelling said the conviction in the “hard-

fought” case — which prosecutors re-

vived even after an early setback — re-

affirmed his office’s commitment to

pursue cases against public officials.

“Today is a reminder that pursuing a

political agenda is one thing but forcing

citizens to do your business through

CONVICTIONS, Page A

City Hall aides guilty in Boston Calling case

Pairconvictedofconspiringtoextortconcert

organizersinpushtohireunionworkers

PHOTOS BY DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF

Timothy Sullivan (left) and Kenneth Brissette

resigned from their City Hall jobs Wednesday.

‘Ihavealwaysbelievedthattheir

heartswereintherightplace.’

MAYOR MARTIN J. WALSH

In a statement after the guilty verdicts

Walshislikelytofeel

falloutofverdict

Ex-chiefof

gamingpanel

iswowedby

newcasino

Divisions laid bare in Trump’s visits

Ingrievingcities,presidentdoesn’t

holdbackonpoliticalattacks

Challengers

eagertotake

onMass.

incumbents

AfterPressley’swin,

Democraticlawmakers

facingprimarybattles

By Jazmine Ulloa

GLOBE STAFF

EL PASO — Hours before Presi-

dent Trump arrived in this desert city

on the Mexico border, high school

students clad in black released white

balloons for every one of the 22 vic-

tims killed in one of the 10 deadliest

mass shootings in modern American

history.

Hundreds of people later gathered

at a central park to protest the presi-

dent’s visit, saying he had inflamed

the kind of racial and ethnic hostili-

ties that led the shooter to target Lati-

nos at a Walmart in the commercial

EL PASO, Page A

InElPaso,the

painisraw,the

angerpalpable