Massachusetts Lt. Governor, State Representative Announce Resignations

Two Massachusetts officials, both Democrats, announced their resignation from office earlier this month following accusations of wrongdoing and official misconduct in separate incidents.

Lt Gov Tim Murray announced his resignation from office on May 6th. Murray is reportedly taking a higher paying job with the Worcester Chamber of Commerce in early June, after his last day in office. The move will leave the Commonwealth without a Lieutenant Governor until 2014- although this would not be the first time in recent history that the Bay State would be without a Lt Gov for an extended period of time.

In January, the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance made public a letter that Murray and his campaign likely broke the law by accepting donations from former Chelsea Housing Authority Director Michael McLaughlin, who pleaded guilty to falsely reporting his salary between 2008 and 2011 as part of a plea agreement earlier this year.

In addition to the donations from McLaughlin, Murray also changed his story several times following a November 2011 car wreck where investigators determined that Murray's vehicle was travelling at speeds in excess of 100 MPH on state route 190 in Sterling, MA.

Murray denies that the McLaughlin case or his solo car wreck factored into his decision to resign. According to some reports, Murray's new position with the Worcester Chamber of Commerce will pay an annual salary of more than $200,000- versus around $125,000 as Lt Governor.

Secretary of State William Galvin would serve as the next in line to Gov Deval Patrick- including acting governor when Patrick is out of the state.

Meanwhile, state representative John Fresolo- a Worcester Democrat who has been the target of a House Ethics Committee investigation- announced his resignation last week. Although neither Fresolo or any member of the state Ethics Committee would disclose the details behind the investigation and Fresolo's sudden resignation due to House rules, representatives on Beacon Hill say that the resignation was appropriate. Multiple sources told Boston's WCBV TV that the investigation into Fresolo's conduct was launched after a female State House employee had filed a complaint in March.

Unlike Murray's resignation, there will be a special election for the state House seat vacated by Fresolo's resignation, with a primary set for August 13 and the final special election set to take place on September 10th, 2013.

Previously, Massachusetts has held the dubious distinction of having their last three speakers of the State House convicted of a felony.

Special Memorial Day Helping of Sports Chowdah- Halladay Perphect In Phlorida; Red Sox Cure Royal Pains; Dej L.A. Vu- Celtics/Lakers Rematch Set

MLB: Nearly three weeks after Oakland's Dallas Braden threw a perfect game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Philadelphia's Roy Halliday matched that feat in a masterful performance against the Florida Marlins at Miami's Sun Life Stadium on Saturday. Halliday's 27-up, 27-down performance came less than a week after getting roughed up by the Red Sox at Citizen's Bank Ballpark in interleague play and one week after Daisuke Matsuzaka took a no-hitter into the 8th inning against the hosting Phillies.

What makes Halliday's perfect game all the more impressive is that he had considerably less run support than Braden did- the only run of the game coming on a fielding error by Marlins outfielder Cameron Maybin in the top of the 3rd that allowed Philly SS Wilson Valdez to score. Josh Johnson was the Florida starter who went seven innings, giving up seven hits, the unearned run and striking out six in the 1-0 loss for Florida [I'm obviously not a Phillies fan, but I do wish Harry Kalas was around to call the game- NANESB!].

The last time two perfect games were thrown in one season? June 1880, and less than a week apart. Lee Richmond of the Worcester Ruby Legs threw a perfect game for a 1-0 win against the Cleveland Blues on June 12th, 1880. The game took place at the Worcester Agricultural Fairgrounds and is is widely believed to be the first-ever perfect game in major league baseball history.

On June 17th John Montgomery Ward of the Providence Grays pitched a perfect game against the Buffalo Bisons at the Messer Street Grounds in Providence Rhode Island, winning 5-0. [See- give me any opening and I'll never miss an opportunity to go on about how awesome all the teams from New England are....even the ones that ceased to exist 125 years ago- NANESB!]

Red Sox: Kinda figures that after being on the wrong end of a 12-5 beatdown, the Red Sox would bounce back in a pitcher's duel on Saturday. On Saturday night, Clay Buchholz outpitched 2009 Cy Young winner Zack Greinke in 7 innings of work. The only run in the 1-0 game came in the bottom of the second on a Mike Lowell groundout that plated Adrian Beltre. Lester gave up four hits and struck out four in his 7 innings of work while Bard came on for a scoreless 8th and Papelbon closed out the game with a 1-2-3 9th inning.

Getty Images

Sunday was a different story, with the Sox generating alot more offense in support of Jon Lester. In the top of the 2nd, Lester would give up an RBI groundout to Brayan Peña for Kansas City's only run of the day. In 7 innings of work, Lester would give up 4 hits, the one earned run, four walks and strike out five batters. Manny DelCarmen and Joe Nelson would close out the pitching for Boston.

The Red Sox bats were very much alive for this one, with Papi driving in a run on a sac-fly in the 3rd followed by a 2 run homer in the 5th. Mike Cameron is back, and on Sunday, he had a 2 RBI double before crossing the plate on a Marco Scutaro single (Scutaro also had an RBI groundout in the 5th). 'Tek rounded out the longball action with a solo homer of his own in the 8th in the Red Sox 8-1 win.

Next, the Red Sox will take on the Oakland A's on Tuesday at Fenway. John Lackey (5-3) is slated to start against Gio Gonzalez (5-3).

NBA: It's official- the Celtics will be going up against the Lakers in a rematch of the 2008 NBA Finals. The LA Lakers brought down Los Suns by a score of 111-103 Saturday night in Phoenix to win the Western Conference Finals 4 games to 2. Game 1 is slated to take place Thursday night, giving the C's some time to recoup after a couple of physical games against Orlando.

NHL: For those of you wanting an all-original 6 Stanley Cup final, too damn bad. While the Blackhawks held up their end of the deal, Montreal was bounced from the Eastern Conference finals by the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday night after a 4-2 loss, giving Philly the 4-1 series win. So instead, it's an Original 6 versus Class of '67 Stanley Cup final. After sweeping the San Jose Sharks, the Hawks took the 1-0 series lead in the Final in a defensively challenged Game 1 Saturday night by a score of 6-5.

Game 2 is set for Monday night at 8 PM eastern.

INDY CAR: I'm not really all that interested in motorsports, but Mike Conway's crash at the Indy 500 earlier has to be seen to be believed.


Oh....what the hell....here's a completely gratuitous Danica Patrick swimsuit photo while I'm at it:
But getting back to the crash, Conway survived the spectacular crash and was airlifted to the hospital with a broken leg. Dario Franchitti was the winner of the 94th Indianapolis 500 and Danica Patrick finished in 6th place (after finishing 23rd on Pole Day). The Indy 500 win is Franchitti's second of his Indycar career.

SEIU Spends $685,000 on TV Ad Attacking Scott Brown; SEIU-Affiliated Worcester Local Endorses Brown

The same day TV ads bankrolled by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to the tune of $685,000 slamming Scott Brown were set to air throughout the Bay State, the Republican State Representative and challenger for the Senate seat formerly held by the late Ted Kennedy picked up endorsements from two of Worcester's police unions:

Local 911, New England Police Benevolent Association, and Local 504, International Brotherhood of Police Officers, handed their endorsement to the state senator. The endorsement comes one day after a debate in which Mr. Brown and his main opponent, Democrat Attorney General Martha Coakley, squared off.

Feel free to visit the International Brotherhood of Police Officers homepage linked here. You might see a logo in the upper left-hand corner that looks something like this:

So the same day one of their affiliated locals endorsed Scott Brown, TV stations in Massachusetts air anti-Brown ads paid for by the national SEIU honchos. This comes about a month after the SEIU paid $214,000 to air radio ads for Martha Coakley at the end of the primary, bringing the total Bay State Coakley campaign-related expenditures by the SEIU alone to just under $900,000. Sounds like union dues well spent, Andy.

Of course, the New England Police Benevolent Association is an AFL-CIO affiliated union. The two Worcester Police unions announcements come on the heels of the State Police Association of Massachusetts endorsement of Brown on Monday.

At face value, the endorsement of a Republican by any labor organization in the bluest of blue states comes off as more than a little unusual. However, there may be one glaringly obvious reason as to why some of the unions haven't backed Coakley (who said she would cast the deciding vote for 0bamacare).

Another likely reason the police unions have kept themselves at arm's length from Deval Patrick's AG is because they're still waiting for an apology from the governor. You know- the governor with the approval rating in the 20 percentile who basically called Cambridge PD Sgt James Crowley racist and hasn't backtracked since. Turns out cops have a memory that lasts longer than one beer, and I suspect they have damned little incentive to throw their support behind Gov. Patrick's Attorney General.

Of course, that's all just speculation on my part. But the fact remains that what was supposed to be an uncontested cakewalk for Martha Coakley in the bluest of blue states is now approaching a dead heat with Scott Brown, draining resources and funds from the national DNC and their labor allies- even with their own in-state Locals backing Coakley's GOP challenger.