Mass. strikes to ban individuals who harass athletes from betting on sports activities

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There’s a promising Labor Day weekend forecast on the opposite facet of right this moment’s rain. Danielle Noyes has the day-by-day outlook right here in your barbecue planning functions. But first, let’s get to the information:

Bettor beware: Massachusetts is transferring to crack down on sports activities bettors who harass athletes. This week, the state’s Gaming Commission announced it’s going to work to ban individuals discovered harassing skilled or faculty athletes from betting on sports activities in Massachusetts. The initiative is geared toward what’s grow to be a urgent situation as a consequence of social media and the explosive progress of sports activities betting. “We have tools at our disposal to actually make sure that if you are doing this behavior, we can actually pull you off of the apps,” Jordan Maynard, the chair of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, instructed WBUR’s John Bender.

• How it really works: The Gaming Commission created an online portal and email address by means of which anybody can report harassment of athletes. State officers will then examine the declare. And if the harassment meets a sure degree of seriousness, officers will put the individual on the state’s exclusion checklist, which bans them from sports activities betting apps and casinos. (The course of additionally features a 30-day window for individuals to enchantment.)
• By the numbers: Last fall, the NCAA launched a report that discovered 7% of Division I males’s athletes reported being on the receiving finish of betting-related harassment. But that quantity was increased amongst sure teams. For instance, 36% of D1 males’s basketball gamers reported betting-related social media abuse. (NCAA President Charlie Baker — who appointed Maynard to the Gaming Commission when he was governor — has cited the harassment as purpose to ban prop bets on college sports.)
• The Gaming Commission additionally launched an anti-harassment public consciousness marketing campaign featuring a number of pro Boston athletes. “ No one’s going to listen to me, right? … I’m the chair of the Gaming Commission,” Maynard stated. “But we thought that people may listen to Griffin [Yow] or Garrett [Crochet] or Jeremy [Swayman] or Brad [Stevens].”

Primary results: It appears like at the least one Boston-area state senator might be ousted in any case — although maybe not one many anticipated. The Associated Press has declared legal professional Persis Yu the winner over incumbent state Sen. Mike Rush, a reasonable Democrat from West Roxbury, within the major for Norfolk and Suffolk Senate seat. With 98% of ballots counted, Yu was up by greater than 600 votes as of Thursday morning.

• The final result is a considerably ironic twist, as Boston Mayor Michelle Wu boosted progressive challengers to 2 native state senators who thwarted her proposal to briefly shift extra of town’s property tax burden from householders to companies. Meanwhile, Rush was the Senate sponsor of Wu’s proposal and had the mayor’s endorsement.

Not responsible: Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins was shortly acquitted by a jury yesterday on federal extortion expenses. Tompkins was accused of pressuring the co-founder of a Boston hashish enterprise to promote him $50,000 value of inventory within the firm earlier than it went public — after which demanding a refund when the worth plummeted. However, Tompkins maintained his innocence. His attorneys argued the federal government’s case was “sheer fiction” from an “untrustworthy” supply who testified to get immunity. The jury returned its verdict lower than 4 hours after closing arguments wrapped up. WBUR’s Eve Zuckoff has extra particulars from contained in the Moakley Courthouse right here.

• What’s subsequent: Tompkins — who stepped away from his function as sheriff simply over a yr in the past after the fees had been first introduced — hopes to return to work quickly, based on his lawyer. “I’m personally glad that Suffolk County can get their elected sheriff back to work in the very near future,” legal professional Martin Weinberg instructed Eve, although he could not say when precisely.

Meanwhile: Jurors within the Lindsay Clancy homicide trial are set to renew deliberations for a sixth day right this moment. Plymouth Superior Court Judge William Sullivan once more ordered the group to maintain attempting to achieve a unanimous resolution yesterday. (It was the second time this week they instructed the choose they remained deadlocked.) Sullivan issued what’s known as “Tuey Rodriguez” instructions, essentially telling the jurors they’re in the best position to decide the case. WBUR’s Deb Becker reports those instructions — also known as the “dynamite choice” — are usually the last chance for the jury to decide before the judge declares a mistrial.

P.S.— Today and Friday are expected to be the busiest days on the road ahead of Labor Day weekend, so leave early if you’re traveling for the holiday. Unlike other holiday periods, AAA says Labor Day travel is often concentrated into a shorter window, meaning tougher peak traffic times. Click right here to seek out out when AAA estimates the visitors might be at its worst every day.