The years of legislative infighting that led up to the legalization of casinos in Massachusetts were supposed to be the hard part. When Gov. Deval Patrick signed casinos into law in late 2011, the rest was supposed to be downhill. It hasn’t been. Casinos have been legal in Massachusetts for two and a half years now, and their fate is more uncertain than ever.

Boston ‘s new mayor, Marty Walsh, voted for the casino bill when he was serving in the State House, but he’s been working full-bore against casinos since landing in City Hall. He said on Friday that, in his first day on the job, a staffer ran into his office and told him he had to make up his mind, at that moment, how the city was going to deal with proposed casinos in Revere and Everett. Walsh responded by going into a full-court press. He has tried to re-litigate the state gaming commission’s most basic assumptions, like whether Charlestown and East Boston residents get a vote on casinos proposed for Everett and Revere. And he has questioned the commission’s authority when they’ve tried to swat him away.

 

In the most recent exchange, CommonWealth reports, Walsh is asserting a double standard on the casino that Mohegan Sun wants to build in Revere. He’s saying that the commission didn’t question Revere’s status as a host community for the Caesars casino that was proposed for East Boston last fall, even though the facility was fully within Boston. Now that Suffolk Downs has inverted that arrangement, Walsh is arguing, Boston should be able to make the same claim Revere made last time around.

It’s also notable that Walsh’s posturing around Steve Wynn‘s proposed Everett casino echoes arguments former Boston mayor Tom Menino made last year: Since Wynn’s property includes five acres that fall within Boston, Charlestown should get a vote on the facility. Menino later backed off that claim, and Wynn’s development team was careful to place all the physical structures of their casino, from roads to slot machines, inside Everett’s boundaries. But the gaming commission never ruled on Menino’s complaint last year, and now, they’re facing it again.

None of this back-and-forth is lethal for the two prospective Boston-area casino developers. They likely just invite delays. However, as Joan Vennochi noted this weekend, the delays come amid a much broader shift in sentiment around casinos in Massachusetts. Vennochi paints the impending Supreme Judicial Court battle around the legality of a ballot question repealing casinos as the true test of whether casinos will ever open in Massachusetts. She argues that, if formerly ardent casino boosters like Menino are now predicting certain electoral defeat if the repeal question reaches the ballot, “the industry must be nervous.” So nervous that they’re throwing everything they have at keeping the repeal question off the ballot. And they’re still not sure, two and a half years after Patrick supposedly ended the casino fight, whether it will be enough.

–PAUL MCMORROW  

MARATHON

Boston reclaimed the finish line of its storied marathon, as thousands of runners and spectators returned to the scene of last year’s attacks and the 2014 race went off without a hitch. Security was heavy, but the mood was festive. MassLive catches former Patriot Tedy Bruschi and US Rep. Steve Lynch crossing the finish line; Lynch describes himself as “a hurtin’ backaroo.” Peter Gelzinis talks to members of the team running for Martin Richard, one of whom ran the last four miles with a stress fracture in her foot.

Esquire catches up with Dan McCarthy, the DigBoston editor who had a one-night stand in Charlestown last year and woke up to a region-wide lockdown, trapped in his date’s apartment. McCarthy’s current girlfriend has some questions for him; his mother was horrified.

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera and the City Council head for a showdown vote on the selection of a city planner, the Eagle-Tribune reports.

CommonWealth ‘s Paul McMorrow says Lexington is embracing “parklets,” which have become a new arrow in the urban revitalization quiver.

Two Fall River city councilors seek to rein in the legal department, the Herald News reports.

Amesbury can’t attract big box retailers because of New Hampshire‘s tax rates, so the town has designs to create a fashion district.

The Metro West Daily News and the Wayland Town Crier file a public records request to obtain minutes of school committee executive sessions concerning Wayland’s METCO director.

The cousin of Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse makes off with the chief executive’s car and ends up sparking changes in the city’s municipal vehicle policy.

NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON

CommonWealth ‘s Michael Jonas reviews Elizabeth Warren‘s new memoir, A Fighting Chance, for the Boston Globe. Charlie Pierce profiles Warren for Esquire. Another review in US News & World Report accuses Warren’s book of glossing over her Native American heritage claims and the media of letting her get away with it.

Slate tries to glean lessons in governing from the dozen most successful federal programs in history.

ELECTIONS

A state judge orders an expedited trial in Mark Fisher‘s bid to secure a place on the state Republican gubernatorial ballot, while declining Fisher’s request to immediately vacate the results of last month’s state GOP convention.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

The real culprit behind rising income inequality: single-parent families.

EDUCATION

Clyde Barrow , the head of the Center for Policy Analysis at UMass Dartmouth, submits a resignation letter entitled “The Book of Exodus” in which he accuses Chancellor Divina Grossman of “habitually abusive treatment.” UMass Dartmouth officials say they have been exploring the finances of Barrow’s center and the work of his consulting firm, South Coast Today reports.

Some Suffolk University students are objecting to the school’s selection of Abraham Foxman, head of the national Anti-Defamation League, as commencement speaker, criticizing his opposition to congressional recognition of the Armenian genocide and to plans for an Islamic center and mosque near the World Trade Center site in New York.

TRANSPORTATION

A bidder for the MBTA rail car contract may have a “serious” interest in setting up a facility in the Berkshires.

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

Supporters of renewable portfolio standards beat back attempts to roll back the requirements, even in very conservative states, Governing reports.

Algonquin Gas releases documents indicating the path of a pipeline extension from Beverly to the proposed Footprint natural gas-fired power plant in Salem, the Salem News reports.

A bowhead whale was spotted off Provincetown earlier this month, the farthest south the endangered species has ever been seen.

Robert Bryce dismisses Paul Krugman’s “solar delusion.”

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

A Hull man is arrested for drunken driving after a woman he sideswiped in Dedham followed him home, the Patriot Ledger reports.