--So NOW Sal DiMasi wants to strike a deal on gambling? Guess we've learned one thing during the recent DiMasi stories. What happens in the State House stays in the State House. [Boston Herald] --McCourt Construction Company has pled guilty to overbilling for the work of Big Dig employees. What they billed, though--$314,494--seems like small potatoes compared to the alleged spending shenanigans of other Big Dig contractors. [Bloomberg/Boston Globe] --Traffic is down a little......

As the reign of Sal DiMasi as house speaker appears to be in peril, Governor Deval Patrick isn't laughing at his nemesis. He's going out there and reviving the issue of bringing casinos to Massachusetts, which DiMasi squashed so recently. This morning, he brought up the issue again in front of the Brookline Chamber of Commerce. The AP is reporting that "he thinks an unyielding need for property tax relief, the possibility of slot machines......

Last week, all of the talk was about Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi's demolition of Governor Deval Patrick's casino plan. He was credited with spearheading the movement against what had been the highest profile piece of the governor's plan to boost the Bay State economy. In the wake of his defeat, Patrick sent an e-mail Saturday to supporters from his election campaign that didn't mention DiMasi by name but suggested that the process......

--More from the pillow fight! --The fallout continues over Governor Deval Patrick's failed casino proposal and House Speaker Sal DiMasi's success in stopping it. Dan Kennedy has called DiMasi a "Bare-Knuckles Do-Gooder." But the Herald notes that those who voted against the proposal may have received certain rewards. [Media Nation / Boston Herald] --Boston College law professors now want to uninvite Attorney General Michael Mukasey from giving the commencement address since he won't say......

After all those light-hearted jokes at the St. Patrick's Day breakfast, during which governor Deval Patrick and house speaker Sal DiMasi playfully sparred over the casino issue, Patrick's casino-license proposal got shot down in the Joint Committee on Economic Development and Emerging Technologies, making Sal DiMasi the winner in this round. A turncoat was in the mix. A state rep from Wrentham, Richard J. Ross, told Patrick he would vote in favor of the casinos,......

After six months of political posturing and economic predictions, it appears that King Sal, Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi, will continue to reign over a Commonwealth free from casino wealth. The Globe and the Herald report that Governor Deval Patrick's plan to bring three casinos to the Bay State would almost certainly be defeated in a House vote, if it even survives the Economic Development Committee today. King Sal turned the casino debate......

For this one green day every year, Southie becomes the center of Boston's cultural and political life, and the Dropkick Murphys get more work than Eliot Spitzer's call girl. (Cue rimshot/hysterical laughter.) The annual St. Patrick's Day breakfast turns everyone into a comedian, as our favorite politicians gather to roast each other and celebrate all things Irish. The Dropkick Murphys did a couple of numbers, but the big story--with casino hearings planned for this......

On Tuesday we wrote about how Governor Deval Patrick's intellectually lazy casino job creation numbers gave ammunition to the skeptical of gambling Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi. Yesterday, however, Patrick got some good news from the Chamber of Commerce, who released numbers much more helpful to his cause. The previous criticism was related to Patrick's projection that the three proposed casinos would create 30,000 new construction jobs, while a more balanced analysis in......

Martha Frankel Reads from Hats and Eyeglasses: A Family Love Affair with Gambling Wednesday, February 27, 7 p.m. Harvard Coop, 3rd floor If you’ve mainly watched flashy Vegas poker on TV, you might think that the “hats and eyeglasses” in the title of Martha Frankel’s new memoir refer to the accessories of choice for poker players bent on getting good luck from their headgear or using tinted glasses to conceal any emotion in their eyes.......

The Commomwealth's Speaker of the House, Sal DiMasi, is well-known for his opposition to Governor Deval Patrick's casino plan. There's no turning back now. The Globe reports today that DiMasi played golf at exclusive South Florida clubs with Joe O'Donnell, owner of Eastie's Suffolk Downs horse track, who wants a gaming license. They also report that DiMasi met the famously rich casino magnate Donald Trump "...at a cocktail party at the Mar-a-Lago Club, an......

It's unfortunate that yesterday's Herald gave huge play to a superficial analysis of Detroit's casinos and their similarity to Governor Deval Patrick's gambling vision. Bostonist was tough on the piece, which made up for its lack of evidence with a few anecdotes and general confusion. Meanwhile, today's dispatch from the Motor City by Dave Wedge is substantial and nuanced---and buried alive under a host of Patriots stories that the Herald willed into existence. Wedge......

Governor Deval Patrick pitched his casino proposal yesterday at the State House. In his full speech, the text of which is available here, Patrick painted a "softening revenue picture." Enter the casinos, which he believes can bring in new jobs and a steady revenue stream. Patrick's speech was largely reassuring and addressed the major counterarguments--that casinos would be demeaning and tacky and that the maintenance costs would wipe out the new revenue. He said they......