January 7, 2025 • 40 mins
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey ordered inspections of all state-run emergency shelters and a full review of the intake process after an undocumented immigrant was arrested on drug and weapons charges at a Revere hotel. The governor pointed to “the urgent need for Congress and the White House to act on a border security bill to prevent criminals from entering our communities.” Dan was joined by Jon Fetherston, a former Shelter Director for MA under the Healy administration.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
He's a nice side with Dan Ray on WBZ Constance Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
The Boston Globe this morning had had interesting headlines in
the last couple of days. Governor Healy has ordered a
system wide inspections of shelters after the Globe headline says
undocumented immigrants. To me, an undocumented immigrant is someone here
who has somehow lost their papers or something. But an
(00:28):
undocumented integram immigrant is someone who has come here illegally.
And there was a individual who has been arrested at
a Revere shelter. His name is Leonardo Anduja Sanchez. He's
an undocumented immigrant, which means he is here illegally in
(00:49):
our country from the Dominican Republic. And this gentleman, I
used that word somewhat loosely, apparently was living this shelter
in Revere since October fifteenth without the knowledge of anyone,
and somehow, some way, I guess, he was arrested and
(01:15):
charged with a both drug and weapons violations. He had
with him ten pounds of fentanyl. Now, you know most
people that would probably kill you probably kill about five,
ten thousand and thirty thousand people ten pounds of fentertal.
That's a dangerous drug and an assault rifle as well
(01:36):
as cash. And at the same time, the governor is
now looking for more money for the shelter program, about
four hundred and thirty million, four hundred and twenty five
million dollars. She filed a an additional spending bill in
which she's going to use proposes to use pandemic era
(01:59):
surplus to basically keep the long, straight, long strained shelter
system up and running through the end of this fiscal year,
which is June thirtieth. So lots of problems here. In
a letter signed by all twenty five House Republicans, according
to the Boston Globe, the Republican Caucus states the state
(02:22):
must do a better job of providing close and continuous
oversight of the facilities. This must serve as the final
wake up call to the Democratic supermajority in the Healthy
District Driscoll administration to reform the state fund and emergency
assistance program. Amy Carnivalley, the chair of the State Republican Party,
said in a separate statement on Monday, on the other
(02:45):
side of the coin, because we always like to give
the other side of the coin area park. She's a
staff attorney at the Boston Law Reform Institute said, well,
the details of the arrest are shocking. She she personally
does not have concerns about the overall safety of families
in the system, given the steps to state and provide
has already taken. Now, I would believe that miss Park,
(03:06):
Andrea Park probably doesn't have any family members living at
that hotel with an individual who had ten pounds of
fentil as well as an automatic weapon. And she goes
on to say, unfortunately, people do commit crimes. That's not
about shelters and immigration. Park said her overriding concern is
the state's ability to make sure children and families are
(03:26):
transitioning into safe and permanent housing. Yeah, but a lot
and we do have a lot of people in this
state who do commit crimes. There's no doubt about that,
American born citizens. But we really don't need more people
coming here to commit crimes illegally with me, now, I
shouldn't say with me, but with us on the phone
right now to talk about this as a man who
(03:48):
has had some experience. John Featherstone John is a former
member of the Ashland Boardist Selectman. He's also the shelter
director at the obera holiday in from October of twenty
twenty three through last July, John, you were an appointee
of the the Healy Friscal Administration.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Is that right?
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Hi, Dan, thanks for having me. You're welcome, honor to
be back on with you. Thank you. I'm currently a
Housing Commissioner for the Town of Ashland with the government
appointment from the Governor Healing, and I also serve on
a m APC's executive committee as a governor appointment as well.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
So, but I guess you saw some stuff at the
Marlborough Holiday Inn that decide that you decided that you
were going to leave that position. Tell us, tell us
what you saw. And then also, are you surprised at
what has come out of a revere and previously that
(04:51):
alleged rape down in Rockland of the fifteen year old.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
Yeah, you know, Dan, I'm not surprised by any of it, unfortunately,
and I think it's just the tip of the iceberg
of the information that's being released now. I think the
general public is going to be shocked and horrified and
these are my words by the cover up that the
Healing administration is doing right now, I mean essentially, right now,
(05:18):
we're having taxpayers fund rapes of small children, drug trafficking,
arms trafficking, sex crimes, domestic violence, ebt card fraud that
you know is unbelievable. And the fact that the governor
wants to double down and take four hundred and twenty
five million dollars more out of you know, the Rainy
(05:38):
Day Fund to fund this. This is the definition of lunacy.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
You know.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
I mean, you know, before all of this, I thought,
you know, more you know, I didn't often agree with
more Healey's political stands, but I always just thought she
was a common sense, you know, you know person. Now
I just I don't understand what she is doing. The
stories that hopefully I can share with you tonight, and
hopefully it's it's really unfortunately that I share with you tonight.
I think people are just going to be shocked by.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Well.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
There was another report that was released today by the
Donahue Institute of citi's largest annual population spike since nineteen
sixty four. This is amongst the fifty states. Massachusetts was
the thirteenth in population change and fifteenth in population change
(06:31):
from July first, twenty twenty three to July first, twenty
twenty four, and Massachusetts between and these were the years
that you were working for the Heathy administration. Between July first,
twenty twenty three and July first, twenty twenty four, the
state's population increased by sixty nine thousand, six hundred and
(06:55):
three people. And during this period, the my biggest population
spike is amongst people who have come here illegally. This
is an incredible report that that just shows that domestic
migration is down in Massachusetts. There is a bit of
(07:20):
better news in terms of live births, but international migration
is through the roof. The largest driver immigration estimated at
ninety two and seventeen incoming immigrants. Now, some of them
could be legal, arguably, but I suspect the vast majority
of them are illegal. Between twenty twenty twenty three and
(07:42):
twenty twenty twenty four, I assume that's what you experienced
while you were working for the Heay administration.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
You know, Dan, what I saw was, you know, people
who couldn't prove to me who they really were. So
a lot of people, you know, and I'm just throwing
out a name. I'm not targeting anybody, say Ronald Joseph said,
you know, it was in the shelter well, when the
case manager filled out his paperwork, Minophone filled it out
(08:12):
as Joseph Ronald. So maybe that individual got two EBT cards,
maybe they got two Wick cards, maybe they got two
different Social Security numbers. So you see a lot of fraud.
And when I hear morey Heally say that all of
the migrants are vetted, it's a lie. It's a lie,
(08:33):
Dan And you know, I don't you know, I want
to call anybody a liar. It's a lie. Nobody is
vetted because I can tell countless stories of how I
was supposed to get you know, I'll just make it
so we can have a conversation. Dan Ray is supposed
to come to the shelter today with a party of four,
you know, a family of four. Dan Ray doesn't show up.
(08:55):
I call the state and say, hey, where's Dan Ray?
We don't know. Well what do you mean, you know,
we don't know. A family then shows up the next day.
Who's not Dan Ray. It's John Featherston. And I called
the state and say, well, it's not the right family,
Oh no, just check him in. Well where's Dan Ray?
We don't know. Don't worry about it. And they don't
have the right ID. They don't have the right you know,
(09:17):
you know, there's no betting process, so nobody knows who
these criminals are. And Dan, the story that I'm going
to tell you about a DCF agent coming to me
and saying, hey, we got a real big problem on
our hands, and I was, okay, what is it? Go
get the father, why interview the daughter? Long story short.
I bring the father down and the father admits to
(09:39):
the DCF agent that he has sex with his daughter regularly,
who is thirteen years old at the time. The daughter
admits to it, the father admits to it, DCF rightfully
removes her from custody of him. He starts freaking out
on me. The Marlborough Police come and they have me
(09:59):
trans firm to another shelter in Worcester.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Dan.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
They don't arrest them, they just have me transform to
another shelter. And as you mentioned, you know, I'm a
long time you know, elected official, I kind of know
how things work. And I literally say, why are we
transferring this man and not arrest them. Oh, don't worry
about it, We'll just transform to Worcester. And I said,
we're in Middlesex County right now. We're in Marlborough. If
(10:23):
I transform the Worcester, the DA is not going to
touch this. You don't know that. I'm like, I do
know that. You know, no DA is going to enforce
you know, a crime that wasn't committed in their jurisdiction.
So we just transferred this guy away. There's two other
incidences in this shelter where a guy was raped, and
all they did was was have us transfer the family out.
(10:45):
No rest have been made. You know, there's three sides
to every story. But I personally drove one of the
girls to the police station to you know, report the rapes.
Nobody's been arrested. And my only assumption is that heally
just wants the stuff to go away. If you ignored it,
it'll go away. So I pick up the you know,
(11:06):
the paper last week and read this story about Revere.
I actually filled in for a couple shifts in Revere.
I'm not surprised by that. I'm sickened by it because
the one story that doesn't get talked about is the
service providers that are making millions of dollars from the healing,
you know, the no big contracts and.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Oh yeah, well we did. We did some stories about
there's a cab company down on Cape cod which won
and no big contract for six point one million dollars.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
Oh, but the companies you're making even more Money's that
the human services companies, which are the case managers and
you know, people like myself that are paid to run
the day to day operations. They're making millions of dollars
hiring unqualified staff, not doing background checks on them, hiring
(11:59):
them only because they speak the language. And you get
camps inside these buildings. Like I said, you get fraud,
you get money just being wasted, you get crimes being committed.
I was, you know, people would come case managers would
come up to me, Well, you know, in our country,
(12:20):
this is tolerated. You know, people have sex with their
daughters in our country. I'm like, you're not in your
country anymore. But you're not in your country anymore. And
we don't have sex with our children in America. We
don't eat our pets, you know. And Dan, there was
literally a guy and it's you can you know, people
(12:41):
can google it. The guy actually ran his car into
my office because I told him that I wasn't going
to continue to give him baby wipes and baby diapers
in formula because he was I got him signed up
for EBT card benefits and that it was essentially double dipping.
If I was giving him stuff, then he was getting
government benefits. So he ran his car through my office
(13:02):
to send a message to me.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Well, anything, any prosecution of him or no?
Speaker 5 (13:08):
Well he got arrested first not having a driver's license
and not operating this vehicle for operaly.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Fine, John, hold on for a second. I got to
take a commercial break. If the point that is important
for me to make here is that John actually was
involved in this process from October of twenty twenty three
through July of twenty twenty four. Now I know that
the Herald is running a story tomorrow morning that will
(13:38):
be of great interest. Has anyone from the Globe ever
talked to you about any of this? I mean, the
Globe is still the newspaper of record here in New England.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Actually, you know, I know you got to go to break.
But Corin Hajar wrote an excellent piece about it, and
I think Governor Healy referred to it as a hit piece.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Okay, good enough, We'll take a break. If you'd like
to join the conversation and ask John Featherstone. Any question
six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty or six
one seven, nine three one, ten thirty. We'll be back
on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on w b Z, the News Radio.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
My guest is John Featherstone. John worked as a manager
at one of the shelters here in Massachusetts, at the
shelter in director of the shelter in Marlboro. You've heard
his story. We have phone calls. I want to get
to John. I hope you'll stay there. Uh, we're told
by Amy Carnovalley. She has been very critical of the
(14:44):
Healey Driscoll administration as well. Let's bring Amy Carnavalley up.
We'll get her in here before the newscast. Amy Carnavalley,
I know the State Republican Party has issued a pretty
strong statement tonight. But how you go? How is any
of this going to change the the Healey min stations
seems just intent on doing what they want to do
and in the way in which they want to do it,
(15:06):
whether it's people you know, being abandoned at MBTA stations
or at Logan Airport or Roxbury Community Center being taken
over last January and kids in that community losing the
ability to have a community center to work in. It
seems as if the Healey administration does whatever they want,
(15:28):
no matter what what can be done.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
Hi, Dan, thanks, thanks so much for taking my call,
and hello John. You know, John was a canary in
the coal mine. But as you indicated, Dan, certainly there's
been other warning signs that the current program is not
working for Massachusetts taxpayer's residents, communities, or the shelter recipients themselves.
It's really been a failure at every level. The Massachusetts
(15:56):
Republican Party submitted a Freedom of Information Acts request to
the state government on August twenty seventh, asking for information
about what kind of crimes have been reported in these shelters.
We have just now received information back from that request,
and we are making that information available to the public
(16:16):
in Massachusetts to see. And as John indicated with some
his stories, the details of the crimes committed in these
shelters is really heart wrenching for the families and for
the communities and really putting the public at risk. And
it's important to remember that these are tax pair dollars
that are being spent and of course, you know, as
(16:37):
we talked about earlier, you talked about earlier tonight. Governor
Healey has now gone back and asked for additional money
from the taxpayers of the Commonwealth from the Rainy Day Fund.
And at some point this affects programs that our residents
rely on, residents who have been here for years and
decades and are hardworking and trying to make it in
(17:00):
the current inflationary economy, and it is reaching a point
of unsustainability. And I think this most recent report is
a wake up call to the American public and to
the publishing message.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
So you sought this report last October, excuse me, last August. August, yes,
and now five months later, when was the report released today?
Speaker 7 (17:22):
Yesterday?
Speaker 6 (17:24):
We received the information about a week ago. It was
rid over Christmas, and we've been looking with their thousands
of pages of reports, and so we've been taking our
time looking through the material. And so we're making this
material now available to the public into the media and
with the hopes that it will be covered. We have
(17:44):
received information. I believe the Boston Globe is going to
run a story tomorrow morning about this material, and I
believe the Herald will cover it.
Speaker 7 (17:51):
As well well.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Give us a little bit of an overview here. Obviously
we're not a newspaper, but tell us what our listeners
who will listening tonight might see if this report is
indeed covered by either of both or the Boston newspapers
tomorrow morning.
Speaker 6 (18:09):
So, for example, the governor expressed the prize and shock
about the incident that was reported in a revere with
the fedanol, the drugs, and the automatic weapon, and she
seemed to indicate that this was the first that she
had known about an incident of the seriousness. But in fact,
(18:30):
there was an incident in these reports back in February
of last year, another incident where we presume a migrant
the names are redacted, was found with a gun in
his room, nine hundred pills, nine bullets, thirty grams of cocaine.
And so that's just one incident, many many other incidents
(18:51):
involving sexual assault, child sexual assault, physical assaults of children,
and other ports of weapons.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
And it is.
Speaker 6 (19:05):
Extremely troubling that this kind of these kinds of incidents
seem to occur almost on a commonplace.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Rate.
Speaker 6 (19:16):
And yet but yet we heard from the Hilly Driskill
administration this week that this is the first there hearing
about you know, did these incidents seem to be feign
fee between But that's that is.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Well, that's the point. This story about this guy up
in Revere with the ten pounds of fentanyl, which is
a substantial amount of a deadly drug which can kill
people even when they're exposed to it. A few particles
that could kill probably most of the residents of Massachusetts.
(19:49):
It was played as if this is the first serious incident. Well,
we all know about the alleged rape in Rockland of
the fifteen year old. How how is the governor going
to say that she's been kept in the dark by
these groups and organizations that John once was a part of.
John obviously has been blowing the whistle for some time now.
(20:12):
How does she maintain plausible deniability?
Speaker 6 (20:16):
That's the question to her administration now that these reports
have become public. I mean, was she just not told
about these, you know, multiple dozens and dozens of reports
that had been taking place in the in the crimes
that have been taking place in these shelters, or was
she kept in the dark. Either way, it's not good.
(20:36):
It doesn't look good for her administration.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Well, if she has kept it secret and has not
shared it with the public. She should resign. If she
has been kept in the dark, she should fire every
person who kept that information from her or from the
people who should have known. It seems to me that
those are the two choices she has, John, would you
agree to disagree with that?
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Dan? I agree one thousand percent with what you said,
and I'm gonna I pulled the story before, but I'll
tell her quickly here. I personally walked up to Maura
Healy in the end zone of Navy at the Army
Navy game and told her and looked her square in
the eye and said, we've got huge problems in these shelters.
(21:23):
She tells me, call me Monday morning and we'll talk
about it. And it's thirteen months later and she's never
called me back. So I told her there were problems,
So she has no plausible deniability on this.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
All right, we got to take a break. Amy Connor Valley,
thank you for giving us a heads up. I'm certainly
going to be looking for my globe and herald tomorrow
morning with some great anticipation, and thank you for giving
us some of that information. We'll see it, hopefully laid
out of the pages of Boston's two major newspapers. Thanks Amy,
We will talk again soon. Thank you very very much.
Speaker 6 (21:57):
Thank John, Thanks very much.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Thanks Thanks Amy, John, stay there. I got to take
a news break, and I want to give people an
opportunity to talk with you and ask your questions. Okay,
it's as simple as that. Let's we'll go right to
phone call say I have full lines. We'll coming back
on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
My guest is John Featherston. He is a former Massachusetts
Shelter Director worked under the Healthy administration from October twenty
three to July twenty twenty four. So you're telling me, John,
that you approached the governor in December of two thousand
(22:41):
and twenty three and to talk to her about this problem.
Or was it December? Yeah, it was December twenty twenty three,
and she said call me Monday and I'll call you
right back. And now it's thirteen months later. You've got
to hear back from her.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
That is very well, it's not accurate because she actually
came up to me because I was with another person
in the end zone and we ended up having a conversation, okay,
and I did. I did say to her that, yeah, hey, Governor,
I'm having some real problems. And this was before even
some of the crimes are coming out. I was just
having problems vetting people. I was having problems processing things.
(23:17):
And she literally said to me, call me Monday morning.
And you know me, the naive boy scout. I called
Monday morning, I called Tuesday morning, I called Wednesday morning.
And then eventually I even ran into the Lieutenant governor
and said, hey, I've been trying to get a hold
of the governor because I want to set up a
task force. I want to kind of work with the
you know, the cities and the towns and you know,
(23:38):
come up with a game plan. And you know, oh
that's a great idea, John. I'll let her know. And
here we are thirteen months later. Phone stole.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
I just wanted to make sure it was de sever
twenty three, not Navy game. Okay, So I mean it is.
It's thirteen months ago. Let's go to phone calls. Got
to start it off with Paul in East Boston. Paul,
your comment to a question for John Featherstone, Go right ahead.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Good evening, guys, My friends, that owns Spinelles and He's
Boston were been in the paper with the contract for
the food. I happened to have worked for them and
deliver back when they first got the original contract in
October of twenty three.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I believe.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
From that point till this past come up they were
sent We were delivering breakfast, lunch, and supper. So I
don't know twenty two hotels around the state, and I
have to tell you it was just beyond belief what
was getting thrown out. And you know, Spinelles is a
company that's put a lot of time and effort into
(24:42):
building their business. They were capable of handling the job
at hand that the state asked them to do, and
they took a lot of heat far it. But my
point is this, there was a story in the Heralds
of boat Spinelles and some of these other contracts with
this whole mess at the state and the federal government
has created having to do at last June May about Spinelles.
(25:09):
Just last week, the Boston Globe suddenly has a two
page article on the contract that Spinell's got, and it's
not so much about Spinelles, it's about the fact that
that the Globe wanted to point out in Sandero's Spinelles way,
when the problems are not caused by Spinelles.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Okay, John, Paul, here's the deal. I know what you're
talking about, and you feel that that Spinell's has been
has taking a bad rap. But I can't get into
the to the nitty gritty on this show because most
of my audience really doesn't know about that. You obviously
are trying to say good things about Spinelle, a restaurant
that you're familiar with. That's fine, let's see how it goes.
(25:55):
But I just can't let you go on and on
and on about what a great job I did.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
My point is that it's not about Spinelli's.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
It made that point already. You made a clear John
made it clear, Paul, and I'm happy to give you
that opportunity. But I can't go much further with that
point because frankly, I don't know the specifics. I'm not
challenging you, but I'm just saying I'm not going to
give you ten minutes to do an ad for Spinale's.
I hope you understand. I got to get to other
(26:25):
callers as well.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Thanks, directing your attention.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
In the word ship.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Okay, thanks very much, he's not buying what I'm saying.
Let me go to Larry down to the Cape. Larry
next on Nisacer right ahead.
Speaker 8 (26:40):
Very important topic, Dan, and I'm glad you're bringing it
a light go ahead. As you well know, my daughter
who listened in Afghanistan came back last winter to work
on a project on her Saffron project. Stayed in a hotel.
I won't mention the town or the hotel, but we
went there for approtionmately daily to help her approximately for
(27:02):
about three weeks. It was so disgusting. They were sleeping
in the halls. The place was filthy.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
You could you can mention that. Once you mention the town,
you don't have to mention the hotel.
Speaker 8 (27:13):
Give us the town, No, I prefer not.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
So okay enough, okay, no problem, No, it's.
Speaker 8 (27:17):
It's fine, it's fine. And while she was there, uh,
the police were there twice two people died. We don't
know what the reason was. I don't want to assume
it was drug overdoses, but these inspections are long overdue.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Yeah, maybe it was just a spontaneous death. You never know. Yeah, right,
And and uh, and if you believe in that, I
have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Speaker 8 (27:42):
The Sagamore Bridge is the sales.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Thanks Dan, all right, thanks, thanks, I appreciate it. Uh,
johnn you want to comment on what Larry had to say.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
You know, unfortunately I can confirm what Larry says. The
hotels mostly get dirty, even to your prior caller about
the food. You know, maybe if you and I went
to Haiti, we wouldn't like to gusine either. Yeah, but
you know, so a lot of people complain about you know,
they don't like the food. So what happens is the
food sits in their hotels rooms for days because the
(28:12):
rooms are only cleaned twice a week. So you get rodents,
you get fruit flies, you get cockroaches, you get rats.
If becomes a you know, a domino effect. And and Dan,
I just want to say this, if you think that
inspections are really going to take place, maybe you.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Should buy that break fair enough.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
It's not gonna happen.
Speaker 8 (28:34):
Yeah, it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Larry, goar. Do you want to find him? Final comment?
Speaker 7 (28:39):
Larry Nope.
Speaker 8 (28:40):
I just hope these inspections do take place. And John,
You're gonna have to keep the pressure up on the
governor because I think it's gonna fall on deafias. So
so anyways, great topic.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Thank you, Thanks Larry, appreciate your calling. Let's keep rolling.
You're going to get one more India before the break.
Let me go to Joe and came but show you
next time. I sat with John Featherston, a former Massachusetts
shelter director, at the Holiday Inn Marborough. Go right ahead, good.
Speaker 7 (29:07):
I mean Dan, Good evening, John, Happy New Year. Thank
you for thank you for bringing up this topic up.
I think it's very important. It needs to stay in
the news. I personally have said from day one, I've
never been a fan of this governor. I think that
it goes beyond her. You know, this election has consequences
(29:29):
in her getting re elected with you know, or or
or some new individual getting elected in her tossed out.
I think this goes beyond that. In my opinion, Uh,
there should be some you know, I think consequences to
the effect that she should be investigated and charged legally
and and and prosecuted.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
The Attorney general is a Democrat here at you think
that the attorney general and Dre Campbell is going to
investigate more. Haley.
Speaker 7 (29:54):
Well, but but this is my point. And you know,
I had a question as I was listening, which was
answered as to why is this even being allowed to
go on? And you know, spendelis aside the cab company
side and all the money that you know, I'm not
bringing any of those. Those are private businesses and they
need help as well, and they profited and benefited from it.
I get that, you know, but you kind of answered
(30:14):
John the answered my question as I was listening that
when he said that even beyond that, the millions and
millions that are that are being made at the government level,
the state level, with all these shelters, the directors, the
you know, the mental health you know, these are all
I imagine people that are under the state you know, tutelist,
under the state guidance that that again you know, are
(30:37):
getting our profiting off of this. So it makes sense.
Why is this being you know, why is this continuing
to happen? Why is it not being stopped because as usual,
you know, these politicians and their their assignees are making
all kinds of money. And you know what I applaud
with the fretistant for for stepping forward and he was
appointed by the governor. And I applaud you very very much,
(30:58):
Surer stepping forward and bringing to light, because what's happening,
is absolutely discussing, is the fleecing of the Massachusetts tax player.
And that's just at a at a financial level. What's
what's happening worse, you know, at a criminal level, to
these you know, poor girls that are getting raped, all
these crimes. I mean, imagine she waged the war, this
governor waged the war on law body citizens in this
(31:19):
state on the Second Amendment, you know, basically outlawing AR
fifteen style rifles and this this these criminals in particular,
this one review was arrested with an Air fifteen five
five six weapon with thirty round plus magazines, one of
which was over fifty five rounds. Not to mention the drugs.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Gun control doesn't. Gun control doesn't apply to legal immigrants
in Massachusetts. Jhow you got to understand, of course, Laura
Biding's citizens. Joe, I gotta let you run. Thank you
so much. You made some great points. Appreciate it. Thanks, Joe.
We'll take quick break back with John Featherston. He is
a former Massachusetts Shelter Director at the Holiday Inn in Marlborough.
(32:00):
Well attempted a year thirteen months ago to talk with
the governor. He at that point was working for the
Carnwealtham Massachusetts. She said to him, Yep, I'll get back
to you. Call me Monday, get back to you. He's
still waiting. Maybe she meant a different Monday, John, I
don't know. You just never know. Sometimes you take things
(32:21):
and you don't kind of nail you got a specific
data on that governor you're talking about this Monday coming up. Anyway,
At my frustration level, obviously, I feel the same way
I know mar Healey. I instinctively feel she's a very
decent person. But I feel that in this thing, this
situation has overwhelmed her and her administration, and I think
(32:45):
that there will be a political price to pay. We'll
be back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
My guess is John Featherston. We're talking about abuse in
Massachusetts shelters for what the Globe and the Herald referred
to as illegal immigrants. These are people who are here illegally.
They are not immigrants in the classic sense. They are
people who have arrived and expect to be taken care of. John,
(33:21):
very quick question, and I don't know if you know
the answer to this, but when this immigrant crisis really
blossomed a couple of years ago, the Healy administration made
an appeal to people in Massachusetts to call the governor's
office and be willing to take in an immigrant family
(33:43):
into their own homes. I remember that appeal, but I
don't remember any accounting of how many people in Massachusetts
actually agreed to take an immigrant family someone here illegally
into their own homes. Did you see any statistics on that.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
I didn't see any statistics, but I did see an
actual story that ran on wbt TV. I believe a
family and wealthy took somebody in and from from a
very reliable source. I heard it didn't work I heard
it didn't work out real well.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
I see, Okay, I didn't see any sort of you know,
we've had one hundred and fifty families placed locally, you know,
placed locally, and you know people who have spare rooms
or or or in law apartments and all of that.
Let's keep rolling here. You're going to go to Gene
and Everett Jane next on Nights Side with John Featherstone.
Speaker 7 (34:36):
Go right ahead, yes, he Jan.
Speaker 9 (34:39):
Hello, gentlemen, let me glad you have this on. I
have a relative that lives near that shelter.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
I which shelter, the one in Revere, Gene you're talking about. Okay,
go ahead.
Speaker 9 (34:56):
I transverse Route one every other day probably, Okay, I
go up there to my shopping and visit relatives. I
am a little freaked out that this guy had multiple
guns and drugs and everything all over the place.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Fifteen you just had one ar fifteen and ten pounds
of fentanyl.
Speaker 9 (35:18):
Oh, because I saw a picture on the news that
showed three weapons. It was yes, So the thing is.
And there was also a man who was a father.
He said he had a one year old in the
neighborhood near that Revere shelter. He said he's concerned with
all the night activity that goes on there. Now these shelters,
(35:41):
I think they need to hire their own security the
hotel and should pay for it.
Speaker 5 (35:49):
Yeah, if you.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Want, go right ahead, John, Go ahead, John.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
And that's what I was saying before the last breakdown,
is that, yeah, I don't think the public understands what
is going on. The state hires service providers, human service organizations.
And I'm not going to name any because I don't
want to say anything about them. But you know, somebody
out there wants to do a Google search on Massachusetts
(36:15):
human service agencies, they'll all come up.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
The Catholic Charities, I think, is one of the primary
providers it and I will tell you.
Speaker 5 (36:22):
Probably one of the best ones. Probably one of the
best ones. And there are there are some very good ones,
and unfortunately there are some very bad ones. But the state,
the state contracts them to run these. I call them
the Healy Hotels, the migrant shelters. The same company that
I work for ran the Revere Shelter and the Marlboro Shelter,
(36:44):
and I worked in the Revere shelter covering a couple
of ships. So I can tell you how the security works.
The company hires the security. It's a it's a third
party security system. And when I tell you it's security,
it's just one guy sitting at a desk, you know,
just keeping track of things. It's not very good security.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (37:04):
You know, oftentimes they're not bilingual, so you know, it's
hard to communicate with the clients and so forth. But
these service providers are making millions of dollars and they're
hiring unqualified, untrained, unfollowed up by the state employees. That
adds to this chaos. And that's the real big story here.
Speaker 9 (37:30):
I really, I really think that the hotel should be
managed and making a lot of money, they should be
mandated to hire a professional.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
You made that point, and I appreciate hearing it the
second time one I got another call. I got to
get in here before the break, So thank you very much.
You made that point very well. Thank you, Bob and
Rain and Bob you're going to wrap us up this hour,
go right ahead.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
Hey, Dan, A couple of things, uh. First of all,
I wish that everyone would stop calling these people mcgrants
or migrants or whatever. They are invaders. They're invading our country.
They were allowed to invade by these traders, including the dogs.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
Okay, no need to there's no need to get into
a political rant here. If you've got a question for John,
that would be great. Okay, it's a little late in
the show to try to deal with whatever euphemism we
want to use.
Speaker 4 (38:23):
Well it's not a euphanism, but anyway, there's I just
hope that when Director Homan gets in. Uh, he has
the intestinal fortitude that just as while we were sleeping
in our beds with our kids and our wives thinking
everything was safe, they were allowing these people to invade
our state, city, country while we were sleeping. And I
(38:47):
hope they do the same thing. When they get them
out of here, they should pull up at two in
the morning, load them on the buses.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Okay, Bob, we'll take that conversation for another night. That's
really a little off topic tonight. We're trying to focus
on notions. But anyway, thanks very much for your call. Nonetheless,
and John Featherston, thank you very much for being available
tonight on short notice, and we're going to look forward
to seeing what both the Globe and the Herald cap
(39:16):
tomorrow morning. I suspect we've covened a great deal of
the issues tonight.
Speaker 5 (39:20):
Hey Dan, can I just leave you with one closing thought. Sure,
anybody who gets elected into public office, I think wants
to do good in their community, and either if you're
a Republican or Democrat, I think we can all agree
on this statement that our first priority is always to
take care of the children. You know, if you're a
Republican or Democrat. Our first priority is always the kids
(39:42):
and making sure they have a good education in their
safe Okay, Governor failed a tremendous amount of children in
the shelters, in the school systems. And it's not a
partisan brant that I'm having here, but public really needs
to take a step back and go we can really
care about our kids anymore. And you know it's a
(40:04):
serious it's a serious mind.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
Fair enough, John, I appreciate it. Let's keep in touch.
Speaker 5 (40:10):
Okay, come back on anytime. Thank you, Dan, Thanks for
having me.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
You're more than welcome. Thank you for being available when
we come back. When I talk about the American mafia
with a former member of the Gambino crime family, the
American mafia versus America's political elite. This is a great
guest coming up on the other side. Stay with us
on Night's side. Right after the news
He's a nice side with Dan Ray on WBZ Constance Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well.
Speaker 3 (00:07):
The Boston Globe this morning had had interesting headlines in
the last couple of days. Governor Healy has ordered a
system wide inspections of shelters after the Globe headline says
undocumented immigrants. To me, an undocumented immigrant is someone here
who has somehow lost their papers or something. But an
(00:28):
undocumented integram immigrant is someone who has come here illegally.
And there was a individual who has been arrested at
a Revere shelter. His name is Leonardo Anduja Sanchez. He's
an undocumented immigrant, which means he is here illegally in
(00:49):
our country from the Dominican Republic. And this gentleman, I
used that word somewhat loosely, apparently was living this shelter
in Revere since October fifteenth without the knowledge of anyone,
and somehow, some way, I guess, he was arrested and
(01:15):
charged with a both drug and weapons violations. He had
with him ten pounds of fentanyl. Now, you know most
people that would probably kill you probably kill about five,
ten thousand and thirty thousand people ten pounds of fentertal.
That's a dangerous drug and an assault rifle as well
(01:36):
as cash. And at the same time, the governor is
now looking for more money for the shelter program, about
four hundred and thirty million, four hundred and twenty five
million dollars. She filed a an additional spending bill in
which she's going to use proposes to use pandemic era
(01:59):
surplus to basically keep the long, straight, long strained shelter
system up and running through the end of this fiscal year,
which is June thirtieth. So lots of problems here. In
a letter signed by all twenty five House Republicans, according
to the Boston Globe, the Republican Caucus states the state
(02:22):
must do a better job of providing close and continuous
oversight of the facilities. This must serve as the final
wake up call to the Democratic supermajority in the Healthy
District Driscoll administration to reform the state fund and emergency
assistance program. Amy Carnivalley, the chair of the State Republican Party,
said in a separate statement on Monday, on the other
(02:45):
side of the coin, because we always like to give
the other side of the coin area park. She's a
staff attorney at the Boston Law Reform Institute said, well,
the details of the arrest are shocking. She she personally
does not have concerns about the overall safety of families
in the system, given the steps to state and provide
has already taken. Now, I would believe that miss Park,
(03:06):
Andrea Park probably doesn't have any family members living at
that hotel with an individual who had ten pounds of
fentil as well as an automatic weapon. And she goes
on to say, unfortunately, people do commit crimes. That's not
about shelters and immigration. Park said her overriding concern is
the state's ability to make sure children and families are
(03:26):
transitioning into safe and permanent housing. Yeah, but a lot
and we do have a lot of people in this
state who do commit crimes. There's no doubt about that,
American born citizens. But we really don't need more people
coming here to commit crimes illegally with me, now, I
shouldn't say with me, but with us on the phone
right now to talk about this as a man who
(03:48):
has had some experience. John Featherstone John is a former
member of the Ashland Boardist Selectman. He's also the shelter
director at the obera holiday in from October of twenty
twenty three through last July, John, you were an appointee
of the the Healy Friscal Administration.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Is that right?
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Yeah?
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Hi, Dan, thanks for having me. You're welcome, honor to
be back on with you. Thank you. I'm currently a
Housing Commissioner for the Town of Ashland with the government
appointment from the Governor Healing, and I also serve on
a m APC's executive committee as a governor appointment as well.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
So, but I guess you saw some stuff at the
Marlborough Holiday Inn that decide that you decided that you
were going to leave that position. Tell us, tell us
what you saw. And then also, are you surprised at
what has come out of a revere and previously that
(04:51):
alleged rape down in Rockland of the fifteen year old.
Speaker 5 (04:55):
Yeah, you know, Dan, I'm not surprised by any of it, unfortunately,
and I think it's just the tip of the iceberg
of the information that's being released now. I think the
general public is going to be shocked and horrified and
these are my words by the cover up that the
Healing administration is doing right now, I mean essentially, right now,
(05:18):
we're having taxpayers fund rapes of small children, drug trafficking,
arms trafficking, sex crimes, domestic violence, ebt card fraud that
you know is unbelievable. And the fact that the governor
wants to double down and take four hundred and twenty
five million dollars more out of you know, the Rainy
(05:38):
Day Fund to fund this. This is the definition of lunacy.
Speaker 4 (05:43):
You know.
Speaker 5 (05:43):
I mean, you know, before all of this, I thought,
you know, more you know, I didn't often agree with
more Healey's political stands, but I always just thought she
was a common sense, you know, you know person. Now
I just I don't understand what she is doing. The
stories that hopefully I can share with you tonight, and
hopefully it's it's really unfortunately that I share with you tonight.
I think people are just going to be shocked by.
Speaker 4 (06:06):
Well.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
There was another report that was released today by the
Donahue Institute of citi's largest annual population spike since nineteen
sixty four. This is amongst the fifty states. Massachusetts was
the thirteenth in population change and fifteenth in population change
(06:31):
from July first, twenty twenty three to July first, twenty
twenty four, and Massachusetts between and these were the years
that you were working for the Heathy administration. Between July first,
twenty twenty three and July first, twenty twenty four, the
state's population increased by sixty nine thousand, six hundred and
(06:55):
three people. And during this period, the my biggest population
spike is amongst people who have come here illegally. This
is an incredible report that that just shows that domestic
migration is down in Massachusetts. There is a bit of
(07:20):
better news in terms of live births, but international migration
is through the roof. The largest driver immigration estimated at
ninety two and seventeen incoming immigrants. Now, some of them
could be legal, arguably, but I suspect the vast majority
of them are illegal. Between twenty twenty twenty three and
(07:42):
twenty twenty twenty four, I assume that's what you experienced
while you were working for the Heay administration.
Speaker 5 (07:50):
You know, Dan, what I saw was, you know, people
who couldn't prove to me who they really were. So
a lot of people, you know, and I'm just throwing
out a name. I'm not targeting anybody, say Ronald Joseph said,
you know, it was in the shelter well, when the
case manager filled out his paperwork, Minophone filled it out
(08:12):
as Joseph Ronald. So maybe that individual got two EBT cards,
maybe they got two Wick cards, maybe they got two
different Social Security numbers. So you see a lot of fraud.
And when I hear morey Heally say that all of
the migrants are vetted, it's a lie. It's a lie,
(08:33):
Dan And you know, I don't you know, I want
to call anybody a liar. It's a lie. Nobody is
vetted because I can tell countless stories of how I
was supposed to get you know, I'll just make it
so we can have a conversation. Dan Ray is supposed
to come to the shelter today with a party of four,
you know, a family of four. Dan Ray doesn't show up.
(08:55):
I call the state and say, hey, where's Dan Ray?
We don't know. Well what do you mean, you know,
we don't know. A family then shows up the next day.
Who's not Dan Ray. It's John Featherston. And I called
the state and say, well, it's not the right family,
Oh no, just check him in. Well where's Dan Ray?
We don't know. Don't worry about it. And they don't
have the right ID. They don't have the right you know,
(09:17):
you know, there's no betting process, so nobody knows who
these criminals are. And Dan, the story that I'm going
to tell you about a DCF agent coming to me
and saying, hey, we got a real big problem on
our hands, and I was, okay, what is it? Go
get the father, why interview the daughter? Long story short.
I bring the father down and the father admits to
(09:39):
the DCF agent that he has sex with his daughter regularly,
who is thirteen years old at the time. The daughter
admits to it, the father admits to it, DCF rightfully
removes her from custody of him. He starts freaking out
on me. The Marlborough Police come and they have me
(09:59):
trans firm to another shelter in Worcester.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
Dan.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
They don't arrest them, they just have me transform to
another shelter. And as you mentioned, you know, I'm a
long time you know, elected official, I kind of know
how things work. And I literally say, why are we
transferring this man and not arrest them. Oh, don't worry
about it, We'll just transform to Worcester. And I said,
we're in Middlesex County right now. We're in Marlborough. If
(10:23):
I transform the Worcester, the DA is not going to
touch this. You don't know that. I'm like, I do
know that. You know, no DA is going to enforce
you know, a crime that wasn't committed in their jurisdiction.
So we just transferred this guy away. There's two other
incidences in this shelter where a guy was raped, and
all they did was was have us transfer the family out.
(10:45):
No rest have been made. You know, there's three sides
to every story. But I personally drove one of the
girls to the police station to you know, report the rapes.
Nobody's been arrested. And my only assumption is that heally
just wants the stuff to go away. If you ignored it,
it'll go away. So I pick up the you know,
(11:06):
the paper last week and read this story about Revere.
I actually filled in for a couple shifts in Revere.
I'm not surprised by that. I'm sickened by it because
the one story that doesn't get talked about is the
service providers that are making millions of dollars from the healing,
you know, the no big contracts and.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
Oh yeah, well we did. We did some stories about
there's a cab company down on Cape cod which won
and no big contract for six point one million dollars.
Speaker 5 (11:37):
Oh, but the companies you're making even more Money's that
the human services companies, which are the case managers and
you know, people like myself that are paid to run
the day to day operations. They're making millions of dollars
hiring unqualified staff, not doing background checks on them, hiring
(11:59):
them only because they speak the language. And you get
camps inside these buildings. Like I said, you get fraud,
you get money just being wasted, you get crimes being committed.
I was, you know, people would come case managers would
come up to me, Well, you know, in our country,
(12:20):
this is tolerated. You know, people have sex with their
daughters in our country. I'm like, you're not in your
country anymore. But you're not in your country anymore. And
we don't have sex with our children in America. We
don't eat our pets, you know. And Dan, there was
literally a guy and it's you can you know, people
(12:41):
can google it. The guy actually ran his car into
my office because I told him that I wasn't going
to continue to give him baby wipes and baby diapers
in formula because he was I got him signed up
for EBT card benefits and that it was essentially double dipping.
If I was giving him stuff, then he was getting
government benefits. So he ran his car through my office
(13:02):
to send a message to me.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Well, anything, any prosecution of him or no?
Speaker 5 (13:08):
Well he got arrested first not having a driver's license
and not operating this vehicle for operaly.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
Fine, John, hold on for a second. I got to
take a commercial break. If the point that is important
for me to make here is that John actually was
involved in this process from October of twenty twenty three
through July of twenty twenty four. Now I know that
the Herald is running a story tomorrow morning that will
(13:38):
be of great interest. Has anyone from the Globe ever
talked to you about any of this? I mean, the
Globe is still the newspaper of record here in New England.
Speaker 5 (13:46):
Actually, you know, I know you got to go to break.
But Corin Hajar wrote an excellent piece about it, and
I think Governor Healy referred to it as a hit piece.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Okay, good enough, We'll take a break. If you'd like
to join the conversation and ask John Featherstone. Any question
six one, seven, two, five, four, ten thirty or six
one seven, nine three one, ten thirty. We'll be back
on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on w b Z, the News Radio.
Speaker 3 (14:19):
My guest is John Featherstone. John worked as a manager
at one of the shelters here in Massachusetts, at the
shelter in director of the shelter in Marlboro. You've heard
his story. We have phone calls. I want to get
to John. I hope you'll stay there. Uh, we're told
by Amy Carnovalley. She has been very critical of the
(14:44):
Healey Driscoll administration as well. Let's bring Amy Carnavalley up.
We'll get her in here before the newscast. Amy Carnavalley,
I know the State Republican Party has issued a pretty
strong statement tonight. But how you go? How is any
of this going to change the the Healey min stations
seems just intent on doing what they want to do
and in the way in which they want to do it,
(15:06):
whether it's people you know, being abandoned at MBTA stations
or at Logan Airport or Roxbury Community Center being taken
over last January and kids in that community losing the
ability to have a community center to work in. It
seems as if the Healey administration does whatever they want,
(15:28):
no matter what what can be done.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
Hi, Dan, thanks, thanks so much for taking my call,
and hello John. You know, John was a canary in
the coal mine. But as you indicated, Dan, certainly there's
been other warning signs that the current program is not
working for Massachusetts taxpayer's residents, communities, or the shelter recipients themselves.
It's really been a failure at every level. The Massachusetts
(15:56):
Republican Party submitted a Freedom of Information Acts request to
the state government on August twenty seventh, asking for information
about what kind of crimes have been reported in these shelters.
We have just now received information back from that request,
and we are making that information available to the public
(16:16):
in Massachusetts to see. And as John indicated with some
his stories, the details of the crimes committed in these
shelters is really heart wrenching for the families and for
the communities and really putting the public at risk. And
it's important to remember that these are tax pair dollars
that are being spent and of course, you know, as
(16:37):
we talked about earlier, you talked about earlier tonight. Governor
Healey has now gone back and asked for additional money
from the taxpayers of the Commonwealth from the Rainy Day Fund.
And at some point this affects programs that our residents
rely on, residents who have been here for years and
decades and are hardworking and trying to make it in
(17:00):
the current inflationary economy, and it is reaching a point
of unsustainability. And I think this most recent report is
a wake up call to the American public and to
the publishing message.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
So you sought this report last October, excuse me, last August. August, yes,
and now five months later, when was the report released today?
Speaker 7 (17:22):
Yesterday?
Speaker 6 (17:24):
We received the information about a week ago. It was
rid over Christmas, and we've been looking with their thousands
of pages of reports, and so we've been taking our
time looking through the material. And so we're making this
material now available to the public into the media and
with the hopes that it will be covered. We have
(17:44):
received information. I believe the Boston Globe is going to
run a story tomorrow morning about this material, and I
believe the Herald will cover it.
Speaker 7 (17:51):
As well well.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Give us a little bit of an overview here. Obviously
we're not a newspaper, but tell us what our listeners
who will listening tonight might see if this report is
indeed covered by either of both or the Boston newspapers
tomorrow morning.
Speaker 6 (18:09):
So, for example, the governor expressed the prize and shock
about the incident that was reported in a revere with
the fedanol, the drugs, and the automatic weapon, and she
seemed to indicate that this was the first that she
had known about an incident of the seriousness. But in fact,
(18:30):
there was an incident in these reports back in February
of last year, another incident where we presume a migrant
the names are redacted, was found with a gun in
his room, nine hundred pills, nine bullets, thirty grams of cocaine.
And so that's just one incident, many many other incidents
(18:51):
involving sexual assault, child sexual assault, physical assaults of children,
and other ports of weapons.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
And it is.
Speaker 6 (19:05):
Extremely troubling that this kind of these kinds of incidents
seem to occur almost on a commonplace.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Rate.
Speaker 6 (19:16):
And yet but yet we heard from the Hilly Driskill
administration this week that this is the first there hearing
about you know, did these incidents seem to be feign
fee between But that's that is.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Well, that's the point. This story about this guy up
in Revere with the ten pounds of fentanyl, which is
a substantial amount of a deadly drug which can kill
people even when they're exposed to it. A few particles
that could kill probably most of the residents of Massachusetts.
(19:49):
It was played as if this is the first serious incident. Well,
we all know about the alleged rape in Rockland of
the fifteen year old. How how is the governor going
to say that she's been kept in the dark by
these groups and organizations that John once was a part of.
John obviously has been blowing the whistle for some time now.
(20:12):
How does she maintain plausible deniability?
Speaker 6 (20:16):
That's the question to her administration now that these reports
have become public. I mean, was she just not told
about these, you know, multiple dozens and dozens of reports
that had been taking place in the in the crimes
that have been taking place in these shelters, or was
she kept in the dark. Either way, it's not good.
(20:36):
It doesn't look good for her administration.
Speaker 3 (20:39):
Well, if she has kept it secret and has not
shared it with the public. She should resign. If she
has been kept in the dark, she should fire every
person who kept that information from her or from the
people who should have known. It seems to me that
those are the two choices she has, John, would you
agree to disagree with that?
Speaker 5 (21:01):
Dan? I agree one thousand percent with what you said,
and I'm gonna I pulled the story before, but I'll
tell her quickly here. I personally walked up to Maura
Healy in the end zone of Navy at the Army
Navy game and told her and looked her square in
the eye and said, we've got huge problems in these shelters.
(21:23):
She tells me, call me Monday morning and we'll talk
about it. And it's thirteen months later and she's never
called me back. So I told her there were problems,
So she has no plausible deniability on this.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
All right, we got to take a break. Amy Connor Valley,
thank you for giving us a heads up. I'm certainly
going to be looking for my globe and herald tomorrow
morning with some great anticipation, and thank you for giving
us some of that information. We'll see it, hopefully laid
out of the pages of Boston's two major newspapers. Thanks Amy,
We will talk again soon. Thank you very very much.
Speaker 6 (21:57):
Thank John, Thanks very much.
Speaker 3 (21:58):
Thanks Thanks Amy, John, stay there. I got to take
a news break, and I want to give people an
opportunity to talk with you and ask your questions. Okay,
it's as simple as that. Let's we'll go right to
phone call say I have full lines. We'll coming back
on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
My guest is John Featherston. He is a former Massachusetts
Shelter Director worked under the Healthy administration from October twenty
three to July twenty twenty four. So you're telling me, John,
that you approached the governor in December of two thousand
(22:41):
and twenty three and to talk to her about this problem.
Or was it December? Yeah, it was December twenty twenty three,
and she said call me Monday and I'll call you
right back. And now it's thirteen months later. You've got
to hear back from her.
Speaker 5 (22:56):
That is very well, it's not accurate because she actually
came up to me because I was with another person
in the end zone and we ended up having a conversation, okay,
and I did. I did say to her that, yeah, hey, Governor,
I'm having some real problems. And this was before even
some of the crimes are coming out. I was just
having problems vetting people. I was having problems processing things.
(23:17):
And she literally said to me, call me Monday morning.
And you know me, the naive boy scout. I called
Monday morning, I called Tuesday morning, I called Wednesday morning.
And then eventually I even ran into the Lieutenant governor
and said, hey, I've been trying to get a hold
of the governor because I want to set up a
task force. I want to kind of work with the
you know, the cities and the towns and you know,
(23:38):
come up with a game plan. And you know, oh
that's a great idea, John. I'll let her know. And
here we are thirteen months later. Phone stole.
Speaker 3 (23:44):
I just wanted to make sure it was de sever
twenty three, not Navy game. Okay, So I mean it is.
It's thirteen months ago. Let's go to phone calls. Got
to start it off with Paul in East Boston. Paul,
your comment to a question for John Featherstone, Go right ahead.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Good evening, guys, My friends, that owns Spinelles and He's
Boston were been in the paper with the contract for
the food. I happened to have worked for them and
deliver back when they first got the original contract in
October of twenty three.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I believe.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
From that point till this past come up they were
sent We were delivering breakfast, lunch, and supper. So I
don't know twenty two hotels around the state, and I
have to tell you it was just beyond belief what
was getting thrown out. And you know, Spinelles is a
company that's put a lot of time and effort into
(24:42):
building their business. They were capable of handling the job
at hand that the state asked them to do, and
they took a lot of heat far it. But my
point is this, there was a story in the Heralds
of boat Spinelles and some of these other contracts with
this whole mess at the state and the federal government
has created having to do at last June May about Spinelles.
(25:09):
Just last week, the Boston Globe suddenly has a two
page article on the contract that Spinell's got, and it's
not so much about Spinelles, it's about the fact that
that the Globe wanted to point out in Sandero's Spinelles way,
when the problems are not caused by Spinelles.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
Okay, John, Paul, here's the deal. I know what you're
talking about, and you feel that that Spinell's has been
has taking a bad rap. But I can't get into
the to the nitty gritty on this show because most
of my audience really doesn't know about that. You obviously
are trying to say good things about Spinelle, a restaurant
that you're familiar with. That's fine, let's see how it goes.
(25:55):
But I just can't let you go on and on
and on about what a great job I did.
Speaker 2 (26:01):
My point is that it's not about Spinelli's.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
It made that point already. You made a clear John
made it clear, Paul, and I'm happy to give you
that opportunity. But I can't go much further with that
point because frankly, I don't know the specifics. I'm not
challenging you, but I'm just saying I'm not going to
give you ten minutes to do an ad for Spinale's.
I hope you understand. I got to get to other
(26:25):
callers as well.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Thanks, directing your attention.
Speaker 4 (26:31):
In the word ship.
Speaker 3 (26:32):
Okay, thanks very much, he's not buying what I'm saying.
Let me go to Larry down to the Cape. Larry
next on Nisacer right ahead.
Speaker 8 (26:40):
Very important topic, Dan, and I'm glad you're bringing it
a light go ahead. As you well know, my daughter
who listened in Afghanistan came back last winter to work
on a project on her Saffron project. Stayed in a hotel.
I won't mention the town or the hotel, but we
went there for approtionmately daily to help her approximately for
(27:02):
about three weeks. It was so disgusting. They were sleeping
in the halls. The place was filthy.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
You could you can mention that. Once you mention the town,
you don't have to mention the hotel.
Speaker 8 (27:13):
Give us the town, No, I prefer not.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
So okay enough, okay, no problem, No, it's.
Speaker 8 (27:17):
It's fine, it's fine. And while she was there, uh,
the police were there twice two people died. We don't
know what the reason was. I don't want to assume
it was drug overdoses, but these inspections are long overdue.
Speaker 3 (27:32):
Yeah, maybe it was just a spontaneous death. You never know. Yeah, right,
And and uh, and if you believe in that, I
have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
Speaker 8 (27:42):
The Sagamore Bridge is the sales.
Speaker 3 (27:44):
Thanks Dan, all right, thanks, thanks, I appreciate it. Uh,
johnn you want to comment on what Larry had to say.
Speaker 5 (27:51):
You know, unfortunately I can confirm what Larry says. The
hotels mostly get dirty, even to your prior caller about
the food. You know, maybe if you and I went
to Haiti, we wouldn't like to gusine either. Yeah, but
you know, so a lot of people complain about you know,
they don't like the food. So what happens is the
food sits in their hotels rooms for days because the
(28:12):
rooms are only cleaned twice a week. So you get rodents,
you get fruit flies, you get cockroaches, you get rats.
If becomes a you know, a domino effect. And and Dan,
I just want to say this, if you think that
inspections are really going to take place, maybe you.
Speaker 3 (28:30):
Should buy that break fair enough.
Speaker 5 (28:33):
It's not gonna happen.
Speaker 8 (28:34):
Yeah, it's not gonna happen.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Larry, goar. Do you want to find him? Final comment?
Speaker 7 (28:39):
Larry Nope.
Speaker 8 (28:40):
I just hope these inspections do take place. And John,
You're gonna have to keep the pressure up on the
governor because I think it's gonna fall on deafias. So
so anyways, great topic.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
Thank you, Thanks Larry, appreciate your calling. Let's keep rolling.
You're going to get one more India before the break.
Let me go to Joe and came but show you
next time. I sat with John Featherston, a former Massachusetts
shelter director, at the Holiday Inn Marborough. Go right ahead, good.
Speaker 7 (29:07):
I mean Dan, Good evening, John, Happy New Year. Thank
you for thank you for bringing up this topic up.
I think it's very important. It needs to stay in
the news. I personally have said from day one, I've
never been a fan of this governor. I think that
it goes beyond her. You know, this election has consequences
(29:29):
in her getting re elected with you know, or or
or some new individual getting elected in her tossed out.
I think this goes beyond that. In my opinion, Uh,
there should be some you know, I think consequences to
the effect that she should be investigated and charged legally
and and and prosecuted.
Speaker 3 (29:48):
The Attorney general is a Democrat here at you think
that the attorney general and Dre Campbell is going to
investigate more. Haley.
Speaker 7 (29:54):
Well, but but this is my point. And you know,
I had a question as I was listening, which was
answered as to why is this even being allowed to
go on? And you know, spendelis aside the cab company
side and all the money that you know, I'm not
bringing any of those. Those are private businesses and they
need help as well, and they profited and benefited from it.
I get that, you know, but you kind of answered
(30:14):
John the answered my question as I was listening that
when he said that even beyond that, the millions and
millions that are that are being made at the government level,
the state level, with all these shelters, the directors, the
you know, the mental health you know, these are all
I imagine people that are under the state you know, tutelist,
under the state guidance that that again you know, are
(30:37):
getting our profiting off of this. So it makes sense.
Why is this being you know, why is this continuing
to happen? Why is it not being stopped because as usual,
you know, these politicians and their their assignees are making
all kinds of money. And you know what I applaud
with the fretistant for for stepping forward and he was
appointed by the governor. And I applaud you very very much,
(30:58):
Surer stepping forward and bringing to light, because what's happening,
is absolutely discussing, is the fleecing of the Massachusetts tax player.
And that's just at a at a financial level. What's
what's happening worse, you know, at a criminal level, to
these you know, poor girls that are getting raped, all
these crimes. I mean, imagine she waged the war, this
governor waged the war on law body citizens in this
(31:19):
state on the Second Amendment, you know, basically outlawing AR
fifteen style rifles and this this these criminals in particular,
this one review was arrested with an Air fifteen five
five six weapon with thirty round plus magazines, one of
which was over fifty five rounds. Not to mention the drugs.
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Gun control doesn't. Gun control doesn't apply to legal immigrants
in Massachusetts. Jhow you got to understand, of course, Laura
Biding's citizens. Joe, I gotta let you run. Thank you
so much. You made some great points. Appreciate it. Thanks, Joe.
We'll take quick break back with John Featherston. He is
a former Massachusetts Shelter Director at the Holiday Inn in Marlborough.
(32:00):
Well attempted a year thirteen months ago to talk with
the governor. He at that point was working for the
Carnwealtham Massachusetts. She said to him, Yep, I'll get back
to you. Call me Monday, get back to you. He's
still waiting. Maybe she meant a different Monday, John, I
don't know. You just never know. Sometimes you take things
(32:21):
and you don't kind of nail you got a specific
data on that governor you're talking about this Monday coming up. Anyway,
At my frustration level, obviously, I feel the same way
I know mar Healey. I instinctively feel she's a very
decent person. But I feel that in this thing, this
situation has overwhelmed her and her administration, and I think
(32:45):
that there will be a political price to pay. We'll
be back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1 (32:51):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Nightside Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
My guess is John Featherston. We're talking about abuse in
Massachusetts shelters for what the Globe and the Herald referred
to as illegal immigrants. These are people who are here illegally.
They are not immigrants in the classic sense. They are
people who have arrived and expect to be taken care of. John,
(33:21):
very quick question, and I don't know if you know
the answer to this, but when this immigrant crisis really
blossomed a couple of years ago, the Healy administration made
an appeal to people in Massachusetts to call the governor's
office and be willing to take in an immigrant family
(33:43):
into their own homes. I remember that appeal, but I
don't remember any accounting of how many people in Massachusetts
actually agreed to take an immigrant family someone here illegally
into their own homes. Did you see any statistics on that.
Speaker 5 (34:03):
I didn't see any statistics, but I did see an
actual story that ran on wbt TV. I believe a
family and wealthy took somebody in and from from a
very reliable source. I heard it didn't work I heard
it didn't work out real well.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
I see, Okay, I didn't see any sort of you know,
we've had one hundred and fifty families placed locally, you know,
placed locally, and you know people who have spare rooms
or or or in law apartments and all of that.
Let's keep rolling here. You're going to go to Gene
and Everett Jane next on Nights Side with John Featherstone.
Speaker 7 (34:36):
Go right ahead, yes, he Jan.
Speaker 9 (34:39):
Hello, gentlemen, let me glad you have this on. I
have a relative that lives near that shelter.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
I which shelter, the one in Revere, Gene you're talking about. Okay,
go ahead.
Speaker 9 (34:56):
I transverse Route one every other day probably, Okay, I
go up there to my shopping and visit relatives. I
am a little freaked out that this guy had multiple
guns and drugs and everything all over the place.
Speaker 3 (35:13):
Fifteen you just had one ar fifteen and ten pounds
of fentanyl.
Speaker 9 (35:18):
Oh, because I saw a picture on the news that
showed three weapons. It was yes, So the thing is.
And there was also a man who was a father.
He said he had a one year old in the
neighborhood near that Revere shelter. He said he's concerned with
all the night activity that goes on there. Now these shelters,
(35:41):
I think they need to hire their own security the
hotel and should pay for it.
Speaker 5 (35:49):
Yeah, if you.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
Want, go right ahead, John, Go ahead, John.
Speaker 5 (35:55):
And that's what I was saying before the last breakdown,
is that, yeah, I don't think the public understands what
is going on. The state hires service providers, human service organizations.
And I'm not going to name any because I don't
want to say anything about them. But you know, somebody
out there wants to do a Google search on Massachusetts
(36:15):
human service agencies, they'll all come up.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
The Catholic Charities, I think, is one of the primary
providers it and I will tell you.
Speaker 5 (36:22):
Probably one of the best ones. Probably one of the
best ones. And there are there are some very good ones,
and unfortunately there are some very bad ones. But the state,
the state contracts them to run these. I call them
the Healy Hotels, the migrant shelters. The same company that
I work for ran the Revere Shelter and the Marlboro Shelter,
(36:44):
and I worked in the Revere shelter covering a couple
of ships. So I can tell you how the security works.
The company hires the security. It's a it's a third
party security system. And when I tell you it's security,
it's just one guy sitting at a desk, you know,
just keeping track of things. It's not very good security.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Uh.
Speaker 5 (37:04):
You know, oftentimes they're not bilingual, so you know, it's
hard to communicate with the clients and so forth. But
these service providers are making millions of dollars and they're
hiring unqualified, untrained, unfollowed up by the state employees. That
adds to this chaos. And that's the real big story here.
Speaker 9 (37:30):
I really, I really think that the hotel should be
managed and making a lot of money, they should be
mandated to hire a professional.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
You made that point, and I appreciate hearing it the
second time one I got another call. I got to
get in here before the break, So thank you very much.
You made that point very well. Thank you, Bob and
Rain and Bob you're going to wrap us up this hour,
go right ahead.
Speaker 4 (37:52):
Hey, Dan, A couple of things, uh. First of all,
I wish that everyone would stop calling these people mcgrants
or migrants or whatever. They are invaders. They're invading our country.
They were allowed to invade by these traders, including the dogs.
Speaker 3 (38:09):
Okay, no need to there's no need to get into
a political rant here. If you've got a question for John,
that would be great. Okay, it's a little late in
the show to try to deal with whatever euphemism we
want to use.
Speaker 4 (38:23):
Well it's not a euphanism, but anyway, there's I just
hope that when Director Homan gets in. Uh, he has
the intestinal fortitude that just as while we were sleeping
in our beds with our kids and our wives thinking
everything was safe, they were allowing these people to invade
our state, city, country while we were sleeping. And I
(38:47):
hope they do the same thing. When they get them
out of here, they should pull up at two in
the morning, load them on the buses.
Speaker 3 (38:52):
Okay, Bob, we'll take that conversation for another night. That's
really a little off topic tonight. We're trying to focus
on notions. But anyway, thanks very much for your call. Nonetheless,
and John Featherston, thank you very much for being available
tonight on short notice, and we're going to look forward
to seeing what both the Globe and the Herald cap
(39:16):
tomorrow morning. I suspect we've covened a great deal of
the issues tonight.
Speaker 5 (39:20):
Hey Dan, can I just leave you with one closing thought. Sure,
anybody who gets elected into public office, I think wants
to do good in their community, and either if you're
a Republican or Democrat, I think we can all agree
on this statement that our first priority is always to
take care of the children. You know, if you're a
Republican or Democrat. Our first priority is always the kids
(39:42):
and making sure they have a good education in their
safe Okay, Governor failed a tremendous amount of children in
the shelters, in the school systems. And it's not a
partisan brant that I'm having here, but public really needs
to take a step back and go we can really
care about our kids anymore. And you know it's a
(40:04):
serious it's a serious mind.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
Fair enough, John, I appreciate it. Let's keep in touch.
Speaker 5 (40:10):
Okay, come back on anytime. Thank you, Dan, Thanks for
having me.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
You're more than welcome. Thank you for being available when
we come back. When I talk about the American mafia
with a former member of the Gambino crime family, the
American mafia versus America's political elite. This is a great
guest coming up on the other side. Stay with us
on Night's side. Right after the news
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