Politics: MIT Labor Guru Steps into Boston Firefighter contract; Plus - New Music: Danko Jones, Blood of Heroes and more!

The fighting over the new Boston Firefighters contract continues at City Hall with the city saying the deal will bust the city's budget at more than $74 million and an arbitrator claiming it's a $39 million package. The City Council, which will vote on the deal at some point, has brought in an MIT professor to decide. Here's a bit of my story from today's Boston Herald:

MIT labor relations prof to review BFD contract
By Dave Wedge

An MIT labor relations whiz is being brought in to sift through a state arbitrator’s complex and costly award to the Boston firefighters as the City Council mulls whether to fund the controversial deal.

Council President Michael Ross tapped Professor Thomas A. Kochan, a labor relations professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, to conduct an independent review of the contract. The raises in the deal have been estimated to be worth anywhere from $39 million to $74 million. Kochan will be unpaid.

“This is a critical issue,” Ross wrote to Menino yesterday, informing the mayor of Kochan’s review. “The question before the council should be whether or not to fund the award, not whether the appropriations figure is correct.”


Musically, check out my Q & A with Toronto rocker Danko Jones on Lime Wire Music Blog. And my review of the new album, Below the Belt.

And my review of the new album by Brooklyn experimentalist legend Bill Laswell's new project, The Blood of Heroes:

Album review: The Blood of Heroes – ‘The Blood of Heroes’ (Ohm Resistance)
Somewhere between the chaos of the most extreme metal on the planet and the trippiest ambient electronica and chill-hop lies a musical netherworld ripe for exploration. Genre-testing Brooklyn experimentalist extraordinaire Bill Laswell has made a life of testing these waters, whether bringing together funk keyboard titan Bernie Worrell and guitarist Buckethead, remixing Ozzy Osbourne and Herbie Hancock, or collaborating with artists as varied as DJ Krush and Serj Tankian.
Read the rest here . . .