Mass Responds to SOTU...Plea Bargain at the Station...Great Pick

Good Morning...we'll go with the obvious lead story.

WASHINGTON --Sen. John Kerry took sharp aim at his former rival after Tuesday night's State of the Union address, accusing President Bush of living in a "fantasyland" while America's problems at home and abroad worsen.

"In Republican Washington, the rhetoric continues to mislead and the promises continue to be broken," Kerry, D-Mass., said in a statement. "It's going to take more than poll-tested lines in a speech to strengthen our union."

Kerry is seen as a potential 2008 presidential candidate.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., criticized Bush's proposal to end U.S. dependence on foreign oil.

"The President also said tonight that we need to end our addiction to oil -- an idea I welcome if it means he'll also end his addiction to Big Oil," Kennedy said in a statement. "To live up to that bold statement, the President should insist that his cronies in the oil industry return to the U.S. Treasury a fair share of the immense windfalls they received from sky-high profits."

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Malden, said if Bush was serious about ending the nation's reliance on Mideast oil, he would embrace measures like boosting fuel economy rates for cars and SUVs to 40 miles per gallon over the next decade. Markey said much of Bush's energy plan had been proposed before by the White House.

Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Lowell, said he was surprised Bush did not focus on needed reforms in the wake of the corruption scandal embroiling Capitol Hill.

"With 70 percent of the American public believing Washington is corrupt, I was disappointed the President didn't tackle corruption issues head on," Meehan said in a statement.

Staying local, remember the Station Nightclub Fire? Well, a plea-bargain has just been reached where the band manager will admit his guilt for setting off the pyrotechnics that sparked the fire, and will spend no more than 10 years in prison. Not bad for killing 100 people, eh?

PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Eileen DiBonaventura sat in the back of a courtroom and showed little emotion as she learned the man who set the deadly nightclub fire that killed 100 people -- including her son -- would spend no more than 10 years in prison.

But she strode out of the courtroom Tuesday and went straight to prosecutors after Judge Francis Darigan announced that former Great White tour manager Daniel Biechele would plead guilty to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter for setting the Feb. 20, 2003 blaze.

After a closed-door meeting that lasted 45 minutes, she emerged to tell reporters she was disgusted. Biechele had originally faced 200 counts, each with a maximum 30-year sentence.

"It's a mere slap on the wrist. My son is dead and so are 99 others," she said.

Her son, Albert, was 18 when he was killed -- among dozens of concertgoers who had turned out one chilly night to hear a heavy metal band play to a packed crowd at The Station, a nightclub in West Warwick.

Darigan said the agreement "meets the ends of justice" and spares the victims' families from what he said would be a lengthy and costly trial. Attorney General Patrick Lynch said he was working to bring justice to the families.

But that has brought little solace to those who survived and the relatives left behind by those who died. (Continued...)

Lastly this morning, if you've been desperately hoping for a Democratic Governor of our fair Commonwealth....it looks like leading candidade Tom Reilly may have just shot himself in the foot with his pick for Liuetenant Governor. Nice Going, Tom!

State Representative Marie P. St. Fleur, Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly's choice to be his lieutenant governor running mate, has had three delinquent tax debts in the last four years, including an April 2005 federal tax lien of $12,711 against her and her husband, according to records examined yesterday by the Globe.

St. Fleur, in an interview last night, disclosed that she also owes $40,000 in delinquent federally backed student loans.

St. Fleur told the Globe last night that she had paid down the federal tax debt to about $8,000 by making $500 monthly payments since last spring. But later last night, Corey Welford, a Reilly campaign spokesman, corrected her, saying that she had in fact made only one $500 payment last May and that the balance is still more than $12,000.

Reilly, St. Fleur said, first approached her Saturday about being his running mate and offered her the spot on Sunday. She said she told Reilly that she had ''some financial issues" with taxes and student loans, but that he didn't ask her to provide any numbers and only sought assurance from her that she was dealing with the problems.

''This is embarrassing to me; I knew this was going to come out," St. Fleur said, adding later: ''I knew that when I stepped out like this that it might be the end of my career."

Nonetheless, she said, she has no intention of stepping aside nor any sense of whether her debt will be a political liability. ''That's up to how people interpret this," she said.

I've been weighing whether or not to volunteer for Mr. Reilly's campaign...I'm thinking I should check out Deval Patrick now.