June 16, 2025 • 38 mins
We kicked off the program with four news stories and different guests on the stories we think you need to know about!
Global Partners urges MassDOT Board of Directors to reconsider recent recommendation to award the redevelopment of 18 highway service plazas to a private-equity backed, foreign-owned corporation. Mark Cosenza – Senior VP at Global Partners discussed it with Dan.
Protecting Older Adults from Scams during Elder Abuse Awareness Month. According to the FBI, individuals 60 and older experienced nearly $4.9 billion in losses to scams in 2024. Darius Kingsley - Head of Consumer Banking Practices at Chase stopped by.
4 Tips on How to Properly Dispose of Waste/Recycle and How to Be a Responsible Consumer. Brian Belefant, author of The Sultan of Garbage joined Dan.
The Red Sox Rafael Devers Trade. Dan Watkins – WBZ NewsRadio Anchor checked in.
Now you can leave feedback as you listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the FREE iHeart Radio app! Just click on the microphone icon in the app, and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
Global Partners urges MassDOT Board of Directors to reconsider recent recommendation to award the redevelopment of 18 highway service plazas to a private-equity backed, foreign-owned corporation. Mark Cosenza – Senior VP at Global Partners discussed it with Dan.
Protecting Older Adults from Scams during Elder Abuse Awareness Month. According to the FBI, individuals 60 and older experienced nearly $4.9 billion in losses to scams in 2024. Darius Kingsley - Head of Consumer Banking Practices at Chase stopped by.
4 Tips on How to Properly Dispose of Waste/Recycle and How to Be a Responsible Consumer. Brian Belefant, author of The Sultan of Garbage joined Dan.
The Red Sox Rafael Devers Trade. Dan Watkins – WBZ NewsRadio Anchor checked in.
Now you can leave feedback as you listen to WBZ NewsRadio on the FREE iHeart Radio app! Just click on the microphone icon in the app, and be sure to set WBZ NewsRadio as your #1 preset!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's nice eyes. I'm going easy Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Thank you very much, Madison. Hope all of you had
a great weekend and are ready for another week of
night side, starting off tonight on Monday Night with Rob
Brooks back at the control room. Rob still recovering a
little bit from his under the weather period last week,
but he's getting better, that's for sure. Sound died great
when I talked to him tonight, and I hope all
of you are doing as well as we hit. We're
(00:28):
a little bit past the halfway point in June, believe
it or not. It's unbelievable actually that we are halfway
more than halfway through June, as in one of my
texters mentioned to me today, And we really haven't had
any great weather. I mean it's been rather rainy or hot.
So anyway, we'll talk about that. We have a bunch
(00:50):
of things to talk about. We will be talking about
the trade of I don't know if you want to
call it a trade or the salary dump of we
hardly knew ye. I'm gonna be talking with Dan Watkins
at eight forty five of the WBZ Newsroom. Dan is
a big sports guy in a big radio news guy
(01:10):
as well, and we will then spend the nine o'clock
hour talking about this swap, if you want to call
it that. But first we're going to talk with Mark Coscenza.
Mark is a senior vice president at Global Partners. Global
Partners is urging the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Voard of
Directors to reconsider a recent recommendation to award the redevelopment
(01:36):
of some eight eighteen highway service plausas to a privately
equity backed foreign owned corporation. That's a mouthfill for anyone. Mark,
You're a senior VP at Global Partners. I can understand
why you're disappointed.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Hey, Dan Oia, Yeah, I'm happy to have you on.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And I can understand you're a local, your big, strong,
local company and apparently the company that won this is
a company that comes to us via Ireland.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
No, that's correct. You know, when you think about Global,
we're a fourth generation, family owned company right here in Massachusetts.
We've been here for over ninety years, for nearly a century,
we've been providing fuel and energy to the commonwealth reliably
through every storm and season. Right We're we're more than that.
We run our all town Fresh Concepts as well as
(02:33):
our honey farms market convenience stores. And it's really about fresh, local,
and we're building around the guests and the experience. We're
not just based there. We built here, Our families are here.
This is our state. You're all our neighbors and our future.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
So then what can be go I'm wrong? What could
have gone on here? I assume that everybody had a
chance to apply what they call it RFP, a request
for proposal. Why were you guys not at the top
of the class.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Well, that's that's a that's an interesting question. We're we're
a little puzzled ourselves. The team here worked really hard
with a lot of local companies to prepare and submit
our bid, and as we as we think about it
and comparing our offer to what we read in the
Globe late last week, our offer was fifty percent higher
(03:25):
from revenue to the state. And when you think about
that over the over the thirty five year period of
the contract, that's over five hundred million dollars of lost
revenue to the State of Massachusetts. And as a practical matter,
that money could go to roads, bridges, and tunnels and
to increase the infrastructure and rebuild the infrastructure of Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
How many of these? There's eighteen of these locations? I think?
Is it fourteen a run the turnpike and four off
the turnpike on one eight? Is that the numbers? Is that
of the breakdown?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
There's a lot on the mass Pike, two on one
twenty eight, two on route twenty four and then went
up in Beverly and went down and don and Barnstable.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Okay, So this this was this was a bid all
in it was winner take all.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Correct, Yes, okay?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
And how much experience have you guys had, I know
that's a big Massachusetts company. How much experience have you
had running plazas like the ones that you were bidding on?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Sure, I'll take a step back for one second if
I may. Since two thousand and nine, we were part
of and continue to run the Connecticut Turnpike and Mayor
Parkway locations from a fueling and convenience store perspective, but
focusing in on the Commonwealth. We stepped in uh later
in the contract due to some of the other tenants
(04:54):
leaving and stepping in and working with the with the Commonwealth.
We operate the convenience on the mass Pike and we
are the master tenant to the state on the Route
twenty four Barnstable and Beverly locations, and we stepped into
those locations late in the contract, which I believe was
signed back into the year two thousand, the original contract.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Okay, so you have experience in Connecticut, which is another
New England state. No problems. I assume in Connecticut that
every every place is going to get some criticism it.
No substantive problems you dealt with down there, No substantive
problems you've dealt with here, Nothing in the skeleton in
(05:37):
the closet or anything. As I'm referring to. I'm referring
to John Cesto's piece in the Globe from last week.
So you you come to this thing with some experience
in state and out of state. You have clean hands.
You actually may have bailed them out if you stepped
in for other groups that were not fulfilling their commitments previously.
(06:03):
You're gonna your contract would generate an extra you tell me,
five hundred million dollars for the coffers of the common Wealth.
It's not like we're fleshed with money. Why would we.
It's there's something not mist there's something missing here and
I'm assuming you can put your finger on it. But
(06:25):
someone from the Commonwealth I think has to step up
and explain why they would go across the Atlantic to
a company uh and give them the entire deal here
at a higher price than a great local company or
am I missing something? If I'm missing something, please tell me.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yeah, And that was that was an excellent recap. We're
extremely puzzled and we'd like to get to the bottom
of it, especially as we reconciled our proposal to the
Global article late last week, being very taken back not
being the success full uh recommended bidder by the committee
(07:03):
and and understanding and knowing that our that our rent
structure over the term of the contract was worth another
five hundred million dollars to the Commonwealth.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Okay, I'm going to ask you the tough question now
that that you're probably not ready for. But but I'm
going to ask it, and I hope you give me
an answer. Uh. Are you at this point sitting down
with attorneys and saying, hey, we might get we may
have been jobbed here. What can we do about it?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Look, we're we're we've digested the feedback we got late
last week, and we're exploring all of our options. But
we're we're looking first and foremost for the for the
for the masks, doot to explain and reconcile for us
the differences from the article that was disclosed to our
to our offer and our bid during the process.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Okay, you're not naive, and I'm not naive. I'm assuming
you you're going to have attorneys involved.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Here, Like what like, I know, tell me what you
tell me?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
All options. I know what all options means. Okay, but
there's nothing like you know. I want you to be
straight with me, to be really honest with you. I'm
being straight with you. I think you would be fools
if you didn't have lawyers looking at this, because there
there's too many questions here.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Well, we're looking. We're just looking for answers, and I
think communication with the mascot should be able to reconcile
that for us.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Well, I would still have lawyers. That would be my advice,
simple as that. I know you don't.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Well, I like anything, we'd like, we'd like to we'd
like to solve it commercially and just get a reconciliation
and an understanding of the of the big gap, not
only global being local, working with local contractors and local
uh you know, food providers and and and partners, but
also the gap and the economics to the to the
(08:58):
to the commonwealth.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, I mean, it just seems to me that that
even if it was a close call, you might want
to give it to the home team. And it doesn't
sound to me as you have described it. I haven't
looked at these documents, but I'm assuming you're being honest
with me, which I know you are, it doesn't look
like a close call. I mean, if the other company
(09:21):
was just beat you on the bid, I'd say, hey,
you know, sharpen your pencil next time. But this one again,
John Cesto's piece in the Globe caught my eye last week.
Masked Dot to overhaul pike service plazas. That's a good thing,
but selects Irish firm to redevelop all eighteen of the stops.
(09:44):
They swept the board here. I don't know what can
what can listeners do if they want to, you know,
rattle a cage or shake a tree. Any any advice?
I mean, you know, most people.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Absolutely dam There's a final vote on Wednesday, June eighteenth,
at noon. The public is allowed to attend, and we
encourage you to attend. You know, the decision affects all
of us, you know, residence travelers and the business owners.
So we encourage folks to go down and voice their opinion.
You know again, you know we're we're just looking for answers.
(10:22):
Global is a local company that that we're just trying
to understand a large gap in the in the revenue.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Okay, So who in who is it that makes this decision?
Is it the Secretary of Transportation and the governor? Who
who makes this decision on Wednesday? If this is the ultimate.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Decision, it's the mask top board.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
How many members.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
I I don't know for certain. I believe around a dozen.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Is that public knowledge? Who these folks are? Is there
a website we could direct people to if they want
to send an email and say, hey, we want answers?
Just giving you an option?
Speaker 3 (11:01):
I would think so, but let me get back to
you on that. I don't have it off the top
of my head.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Okay, well this is the one. If people are interested,
that's what they should be doing. All right, Thank you, Mark,
I appreciate your time tonight. I wish your best of
luck as a local company. Thank you. Very much.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Thanks Dan, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Welcome, good night. Well we get back when we talk
about older adults being scammed, which is a problem. It's
an honest to God problem, and we want you to
listen up. If you're an older it out, or if
you have an older it out in your family, it's
as simple as that. My name's Dan Ray. This is Nightside.
Can I remind you, as I do every night here,
please consider going to the app store on your phone,
(11:41):
your device, on your tablet or wherever and pull down
the new and improved iHeart app. Because once you do that,
you'll only be a fingertip away. Make us your first preset.
And then in addition to that, there's a microphone button
on there which you can X, you can utilize and
send a thirty second a message. I hope they're positive,
(12:04):
but if they're not, if they're critical or their ideas
for us, send them and they will. They will be
screened by Rob Brooks, and some of them, if not
all of them, will get on the air. No bad language.
You know how that works. My name is Dan Ray.
No bad language. Back on night Side after this, It's.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News radio.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
With us is Darius Kingsley. He's the head of consumer
banking practices and a Chase Bank, and we're going to
talk about older adults getting scammed. How big a problem
is this, Darius, I actually think it's a huge problem.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Thanks Dan, thanks for having me delight. He'll be here tonight. Yeah,
it is a giant problem. Scams are rising across the board,
and elder Americans are particularly targeted.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
The reason for that is, in my opinion, and I
assume in yours, that elder Americans have you know, saved
some money, they're in their retirement years, and they also
are nice people. They've they've known people who have hit
hard times. Uh, and they're willing to help. They're they're
(13:18):
generous of nature, generous of spirit. That makes them ripe
for the picking by these scam artists. How far off
am I with that analysis?
Speaker 4 (13:28):
No, you're you're you're spot on. I mean, older Americans
have worked hard their whole lives. They've got savings, hopefully
some investments if they're lucky, you know, and scammers know that.
And so if scammers look to target people, they're going
to go after the people with some assets, which are
our older citizens. The other thing is kind of to
(13:49):
your point. Older people answer the phone, right. We come
from a generation. I'm a gen exer, but even I
come from a generation where we have phones in the kitchen.
You answer the phone called when someone calls you. Younger
generations don't do that as much. I think a lot
of older people do you know, we open our mail,
We you know, look at emails. I think that there's
(14:11):
a lot of things about these generations that make us
particularly susceptible to get into conversations with scammers.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Well, one of the things I like to do when
I get these phone calls, and I do because I
have a telephone. I had a call tonight. I'm in
the middle of dinner. The phone rings, you don't know
who it is. I pick it up, and so and
so and we'd just like to take a few minutes
and ask you a few questions about a poll. Now,
I don't know where that's going to lead. Maybe they're
trying to get information on me, whatever, So I immediately tell them, wonderful,
(14:46):
thank you so much for calling, because I am a
professional poll taker. Where can I send my bill for
this experience? And that studs it puts it right back
on the heels and they'll say, well, no, we don't
pay for the I said, well I would want I
would have give you a poll. That's what I do
for a living. I'll answer whatever question you have. But
where can I send my bill? And they eventually hang
(15:07):
up on me.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
Yeah, what I told the other night.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
What I told the other night. I forget what they
were looking to do. But they they called me and uh,
I said, why are you calling me? I'm in jail.
What do you mean you're in jail? I said, I'm
in jail. I'm incarcerated. How do you have a phone.
They let me have a cell phone. I said, why
don't you take me off your call list? You just talk,
you know, just talk to them and and mess with
(15:33):
them and they'll eventually take you out. And of course
you also can block those those those paint of the
neck phone. Yes, but they they have a million ways
to get to you. What's the what's the latest scam
that that that you've heard that you've heard about, Darius?
Is the old? Is that the grandchild scam where some
youngster calls and Grandma grandpa, I'm under arrest. I know
(15:55):
I shouldn't have been doing this. But I was smoking
marijuana or I was drinking behind this school. I don't
want my parents can know. Can you send me some money?
Is that? Is that the That's the way I'm most
concerned about Dan that.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Yeah, I wouldn't say that's the top scam these days,
but it's certainly very common, you know. And and with
the top and so so these days we're really seeing
a rise in what we call bank impersonation scams. So
you know, the scammers know that so many Americans bank
at a lot of our larger banks, and they'll send
you a text, you'll get an email, maybe a phone call,
(16:32):
and they can spoof the number. They can spoof the
number of Chase and or you'll get that text and
it'll say, hey, there's fraud on your account, Chase fraud.
You know, did you make a charge? If not, call
this number, and they'll give you a number or maybe
a link in the text or in the email which
you should not call back. That's what they do to
(16:54):
trick you. And so you pick it up, you call
back that number you got in whatever your email, your text,
and it's the scammer. And you get into a conversation
with scammer and they're good, they're professionals, they're English is excellent.
You don't realize you're talking to someone, probably in a
scam call center in Southeast Asia, and you know they'll
(17:15):
tell you, oh, I work for Chase or a Bank
of America, whoever it is, and so you think you're
talking to the bank and you're trying to resolve a
fraud problem. In reality, unfortunately, you're often handing over personal
information that the scammers need to hack into your account.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
You're probably talking to somebody in Chetshniya or Kazakhistan. Well,
some places that you've never heard of. It's unbelievable. Well, yeah,
thank you for blowing the whistle on this. I just
think these sorts of interviews, if we've saved one person
from getting scammed, it's been worth it tonight, that's for sure.
(17:51):
A Darius and I really enjoyed the conversation you you
broke it down really clearly. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Great, Well, thanks for having me dance. They say, is.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
There somewhere that you can direct my listeners to to
find out more information?
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Yeah, I'd be happy to so you can learn a lot.
You don't have to be a Chase customer. We actually
have all of the information on our website. It's Chase
dot Com Forward Flash Security, or if you just type
in Chase Security, you'll take you'll go to what we
call the Security Center. We keep it updated, We keep
it updated with the latest scams. We also tell you
(18:29):
what to do if you think you might have fallen
for one, or maybe you've gotten into conversation with a scammer.
We'll give you tips on next steps and you know
exactly what it is you should do, and we'll give
you some helpful reminders, things like making sure you go
in and turn on your fraud alerts at your bank.
You may not have them all on, you may not
realize that there's additional fraud alerts, or maybe you can
(18:49):
add a family member to those alerts that you had
an attitude before. So there's a lot of to that website. Again,
it's Chase dot Com Forward Slash Security.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Sounds great. I really appreciate it, Darius, looking at that tomorrow.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
It's great.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Thanks Dan, talk again. Thank you very much. Here comes
the news at the bottom of the arrow. We're about
a minute late. We get back. We're going to talk
with the author they call him the Sultan of Garbage.
Tips on how to properly dispose of waste, recycle, and
how to be a responsible consumer. I believe in this stuff, actually,
and I practice it, and I hope you do as well.
(19:25):
We'll talk with Brian Bellefont right after the news at
the bottom of the hour on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Night Side with Dan Ray I'BZ Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
All right, back to the phones we go, and back
to another again, particularly as we get towards summertime. I
think an important subject with us is Brian Bellfhant. Brian
is the author. Is this the name of a book,
the Sultan of Garbage? How are you? I've heard of
the Sultan of Swat, but never the Sultan of Garbage.
Speaker 5 (19:59):
Thanks for having me on. Yes, that's the name of
the book, the Sultan of Garbage.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Okay, So first of all, how'd you get into How
did you become the Sultan of Garbage?
Speaker 5 (20:08):
Well, I don't think I became the Sultan of garbage.
I'm the guy who wrote the book about a guy
who's the Sultan of garbage. Story a story about a
guy who's dealing with the waste and consume, consumption, in
his life and he deals with it, and it echoes
kind of the waste and consumption that we have going
(20:28):
on in the world. I guess I agree that.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, I agree with that. I sometimes will go to
the dump and I'll say, where's all this stuff ending up?
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Oh my god, it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, no, I know. And look, the bottom line is
that we love the convenience. I'm somebody. I'm not going
to tell you old I am, but I'm on the
wrong side of fifty. I still take my cans. We
have a bottle and a can bill here in Massachusetts
only nickel. But if you buy a uh twenty four,
(21:02):
you know, case of beer, that's another buck twenty And
if you buy a twelve pack of some sort of
soft drink, that's sixty cents, right, And I want my
money back. And I also I washed the can or
the bottle out. You put it in a plastic bag
and I hand carry it to the either to the store,
liquor store or whatever. But I'm a huge believer in
(21:23):
this because you've heard, I've seen these stories about the
floating islands of garbage in the oceans.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Which, yeah, you know, it's incredible, and it's not just
the one ocean, because everybody talks about the great specific
garbage patch, which is the big one. Every ocean has them,
some oceans have more than one. It's with a current
swirl that draws all that crap together.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
And I don't know what the what the answer is.
Obviously recycling is the answer. But you know, every day,
you know, every week, I'll go through a gallon of milk.
I love milk, and I will I will rinse out
that milk, that that empty, empty the carton, and I'll
(22:09):
make sure it goes into the green pit trash bin,
which is recycle. So I assume that gets crushed somewhere, right,
But but how long does it hang around? How can
how can that not be used for more recycling as
opposed to just getting crushed? What's You probably know so
much more about this than I do, but I'd love
(22:31):
to answer that, Like that question. The car takes up
a good amount of space, Like it's like one foot
by eight inches, it's like, you know, almost a foot
squares up square feet. Yeah, well, how can can we
recycle more effectively?
Speaker 5 (22:46):
Well, there's a lot of there's a lot of parts
to that. I mean, yeah, on one hand, you could
get yourself a cow, then you wouldn't need the classic container,
or you could buy your milk the cow.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
The cow flatulence, the cow flattery would are you attacting
the atmosphere. So I'm going to stick with the I'm
going to stick with the gallon and milk at the store. Go.
You know, that's weird.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
It all gets so complicated because every time you come
up with a solution, sometimes the solution creates another problem.
And it's just we're in a very complex world where,
you know, as our culture loves to consume and we
don't think much about waste. You said it right at
the top. It's like you go to the dump and
you don't know where all that stuff is going. A
(23:27):
lot of most I don't know where all that stuff
is going. Where is all that stuff going? It's going.
A lot of it that doesn't end up with the
dump goes, you know, gets taken up by rivers into
the ocean. And the statistic I read is that sixty
percent of the plastic and we talk about these floating
islands of garbage, sixty percent of it sinks.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
To the bottom.
Speaker 5 (23:44):
So that's never going to get a dressed.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
You would hope that at some point it might deteriorate.
But I don't know that then is what's going to
be in the in the system. I don't know. We've
been fighting this for fifty years in America. I can
remember smoking the bear, don't litter and all of that.
You still see people literally, you still see cigarette butts
on the side of the road. You still see knuckleheads
(24:08):
who throw, you know, coffee cups out the window as
you're driving down the road. I mean, what's wrong with it?
Speaker 5 (24:16):
It's true, But I do think it's getting better. Well,
you know, I grew up in a place where.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
But it's long cast the time, Brian, where simply should
be getting better. It should be perfect at this point.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
I agree, But I don't think it's going to be
I know.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Yeah, Oh, so tell us about the book. So the
book is about an individual who's the who's the hero
in the book.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
The hero of the book is this guy. He's a
commercial photographer, which means he goes around should do products,
and his life has gone off the rails. He's got
a girlfriend who doesn't appreciate him, and people who.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Take advantage of them, and.
Speaker 5 (24:54):
He realizes sort of deep inside that he's helping perpetuate
this this situation where he's encouraging people to consume things
and sort of something. At the beginning of the story,
it's just this uneasy that he has. So he comes
into some money, decides he's going to go out and
check out this island of garbage floating in the ocean.
And the island of garbage turns out to be a
(25:15):
metaphor for his life, but it's also sort of a
reflection on our society of the consumption and waste and
waste and consumption. And I'm not going to tell you
how it ends, because I want you to read the book.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Oh, I totally get that, So that's what that's why
you're here. Come on, Garbage fifty fifty or more recycling
facts and stats for twenty fifteen. Okay, I assume that's
all in the book. I know that book.
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Actually they're not. It's an all affection book, So I
mean these things are alluded to. But no, I don't
make a very I'm not preaching. I don't believe people
really respond to preaching unless they already believed the mess
just being given, And so I'm not going to try
and turn to change your mind by you know, hammering
you with facts and statistics. I'm going to tell you
a story, and the story is going to just make
(26:10):
you feel sympathetic for the character, and you're going to
think about it. When you're done. You might go, you
know what, I should think about this a little bit deeper.
I should think about what happens to my milk carton.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Yeah, well, I think about it all the time. And again,
if it gets crushed, that's one thing. But yeah, I
would think there would be some way you can't they
We used to burn garbage. We don't do that anymore
because of the atmosphereic concerns, but we used to burn leaves.
When I grew up, they would burn leaves. I live
in the city and you know, a part of Boston,
(26:43):
and you would rake the leaves into the gutter. And yeah,
first of all, you jump on the leaves as kids
on the lawn, and then you have to rap and
put them and then you would light them up. And
I thought myself, oh my god, if anyone did that today,
they would have to you have Marshall down there the
whole bit. Okay, so the books available I assume on Amazon.
(27:08):
That's the easy way. Do you have a website. You
Sometimes people have a personal website and they'll get the
author to autograph the book for them and maybe even
a little cheaper than they get her on Amazon.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Go ahead, Oh, here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Good.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
But the website is Sultan of Garbage dot com.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
All one word.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
Okay, but I'll tell you this. If you don't want
to like kill a tree, I the digital version.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
I like that. Okay, Okay. Do you make more money
in the digital version of lesson?
Speaker 5 (27:34):
I make the zero money on the digital version.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Okay, all right, Well good for you. Then you you're
a man who practices what he preaches. You know what.
Speaker 5 (27:43):
I wish I was a little better, but yeah, I
try it.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Okay, Brian, nice to talk to me. That is pronounced bellefont,
Yes it is. Oh, how about that? I am Sometimes
I think his name's right. I surprise myself. Sometimes the
book is the Sultan of Garbage. Brian. I appreciated. Keep fighting. Okay,
we'll have you back. Thank you much.
Speaker 5 (28:02):
Yeah, thanks for having me on, Dan.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
You're very welcome. Good night. When we get back, we're
going to talk about kind of a difficult issue to
talk about for me anyway, and that is the Red
Sox trade yesterday of Raphael Devers. Boy, I'm telling you
I don't understand this one. I'm not sure that Dan
Watkins understands it any better. But Dan is as much
(28:25):
of a baseball fan as I am, and he, of
course you know him as the WZ news radio anchor.
He's also good sports guy. So we're going to talk
with Dan Watkins about the Raffie Devs trade. And at
nine o'clock I'm going to open it up for open
lines on the Raffie Devers trade. I've looked at it
about twenty different ways. I can't figure it out. I
(28:46):
really can't. But maybe Dan will give us some insight
that I haven't thought of. And we'll talk with Dan
Watkins right after this break on Night Side. My name's
Dan Ray, not Dan Watkins. I'm Dan Ray. He will
be Dan Watkins. And you're listening to Night Side with
Dan Ray on WBZ ten thirty on the AM dial
here in Boston. And you also can listen to us
(29:08):
on the iHeart app. Very easy. All you have to
do is pull down the new and improved iHeart app
onto your device, be it a tablet, oh a laptop, desktop,
your phone whatever, and just make WBZ your number one
preset and we're in business. You'll be with us every
(29:29):
night from Monday through Friday, from eight until midnight. And
we do a great show here on Nightside. And I
hope you tell your friends about it. Little bragging doesn't hurt.
But if it's the truth, it's not bragging. Coming back
on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Well, a big story in Boston today. Also the big
story in sports is the trade of Raffie Devers. Now
the Red Sox have just I guess they're still holding
a news conference on our own. Dan Watkins has been
monitoring that conference, that news conf Before we get to
Dan his analysis of what was and wasn't said and
what sort of questions were asked. Dan has pulled for
(30:08):
us a forty five second sound bite from Red Sox
team president Sam Kennedy.
Speaker 6 (30:13):
Hit it Rob, you know, in the end, I think
it's pretty clear that we we couldn't find alignment with Ralphie.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Is the truth.
Speaker 6 (30:23):
We we we we all worked at it over the
last several months, going back to the off season.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Starting with Alex Cora and Craig and the staff, and
then up to the to me and all the way
up to John Henry.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
We worked at it. UH.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
We had a different vision for him going forward than than.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
He had, and we couldn't get there.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
We couldn't find alignment, and we reached that inflection point
and made the decision.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
To UH to make a big move.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Dan Watkins is with us. What was their vision? Dan,
because it seemed to me that the vision was switching,
and once Bregman came, Raffie was told he was no
longer that third basement, he was the DH and then
when the first baseman gets hurt and they ask him
to play for a space, he's not thrilled about that.
(31:20):
What was the vision?
Speaker 6 (31:21):
Yeah, you know, Dan, I think this all just kind
of comes back to some miscommunication in the offseason with
the approach and trying to sign Alex Bregman and eventually
signing him and just not really you know, letting Devers
know what their plans were. So he arrives to spring
training and if you remember, Bregman signs like three or
four days after they get to camp, and then Devers
(31:43):
is pretty much told that he's going to be moved
to DH, and he's very adamant, and he was very frustrated,
saying that he's the third baseman of the team. He
left camp for a few days to go cool off,
comes back and agrees to be the DH. And then,
as you just mentioned, Tristan Cossis gets hurt in May
and they kind of want him to try to play
first base now and pick that up in the middle
of the season, and he is furious about that. He
(32:06):
basically tells Craig Breslo that he needs to go do
his job and bring in more players and to stop
relying on him to change positions all the time. So
I think there was some hurt feelings here on both sides,
But I think this comes down to Devers wanted to
be a DH now at this point in the Red
Sox didn't want to pay thirty one million dollars a
year for a designated hitter and a guy that wasn't
going to play the field.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Okay, so let's assume you decide you want to get
rid of him. Is this the best that they could
get for him at this point? I mean, it sounds
like they got a couple of minor league players and
a couple of pitchers who one has already been sent
to Worcester and the other guy. Neither one of them
looked like that candidates for the Cy Young Award, Let's
put it that way.
Speaker 6 (32:43):
Definitely not from what I've heard and understand. Kyle Harrison,
who was sent to Worcester last night, he was supposed
to pitch on Sunday Night Baseball for the Giants, but
ends up getting scratched. That he's a you know, a
mid rotation guy at best, your number three, number four starter.
And then Jordan Hicks is a guy kind of like
Garrett Whitlock who's tried to be a starter, gets hurt,
(33:04):
probably better off in the bullpen. And then you got
their first round pick from a year ago. But the
Red Sox, the big thing Craig Breslow kept preaching tonight
during this press conference that went on for forty five
minutes was that they really like the roster flexibility that
they have now where they can get some of these
younger guys into the lineup, and they this is a
quote from Breslo saying, quote, I do think there's a
(33:26):
real chance at the end of the season, we're looking
back and we've won more games than we otherwise would
have with Devers on the team. So it's a really
interesting situation that's played out of Fenway here. I'm not
personally a fan of the move, taking out a potential,
you know, a perennial All Star and a guy that
is building a Hall of Fame resume in his own endeavors.
(33:48):
I don't think they're a better team today, but we'll
see what happens.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Yeah. Well, again, you think back to the Gosky pair
of trade back in two thousand and four, which worked
out for the Red Sox. Then you think about the
Mookie betste which has only worked out for Mookie Betts.
I mean, most of the players that they got from
Mookie Betts have now moved on themselves, and Bets is
playing really well and has played very well for years,
as we expected he would. In Los Angeles with the Dodgers,
(34:15):
what were the tone of the questions? A lot of
the sports guys in town tend to be very respectful
when they're say, talking to Bill Belichick or something like that,
a little different than a lot of the political reporters,
who kind of have a mor of ad age to
their questions. Were the reporters, what were the tone of
the questions.
Speaker 6 (34:34):
They were going directly at Kennedy and Bresla pretty well tonight,
I thought. I mean, the fact that this thing went
on for forty five minutes, I think was a good
sign from the beat. You know, they got Breslaw to
say that they're not waving the white flag on the
twenty twenty five season, which I have a hard time
believing personally, just with the way the Red Sox have
handled themselves here in the past half a decade now,
(34:56):
or how they've been a you know, a five hundred
baseball team since really since they traded Mookie Betts, and
how they keep talking about this long term vision and
keep telling fans that, you know, it's it's gonna happen
in the long term, and then they go and pull
the you know, pull the rug out from underneath Red
Sox nation here this weekend by doing it well.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Having the three young guys come up also, Dobbins has
been a pretty good surprise. I think that Fits is
going to get himself squared away at Worcester, So I
think they're going to have some young people. You look at,
you know, cut of Crawford hasn't thrown a ball yet Tanner,
howk Is is amongst the missing at this point, So
they lost two good guys who would have been potential
(35:33):
guys in the rotation. Their rotation with Dobbins now in
seems to have set it down. Bao pitched well yesterday.
Geelito some good, some bad. Same with Fuel. Yeah, with
Buell or two, but Geolita was more. Buell has been
more consistent. I think that Gelito Crochet has been great.
(35:53):
So you know, they have they have a starting rotation here,
which they didn't have a year ago. But now they're
just taking a big out out of the lineup and
at some point, uh, someone's good. I guess maybe uh
Toro plays third base for the rest of the season
until until Bregmant comes back.
Speaker 6 (36:12):
So it looks like Meyer's there tonight and I can't
It's it's crazy. So they put out the lineup card
for tonight and they got rookies hitting three, four, five
in the lineup, which is crazy to think about for
a team that says that they do want to make
the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Yeah, well, you know, okay that you know, Meyer had
a couple of couple of dingers the other the other
night in the game, and uh, you know Anthony's going
to hit. I don't. I mean, he's he's not, he's
I think he's he's he's.
Speaker 6 (36:37):
For him giving away from Fenway, I think is a
good thing for him, let him kind of get some
hits on the road where there's less pressure.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Yeah. Absolutely, Well, Dan, I appreciate it so much. You're
talking to us. You're doing double duty tonight, news duty,
sports duty. It's going to be interesting. I mean, they
they made this trade. Uh after a five game winning
streak and and sweeping the Yankees. What Devers was at
the airport heading to Seattle? Did they pull him off
the plane?
Speaker 6 (37:04):
They did, and they put him in a taxi, which
was just crazy. I don't know if you saw the footage.
I believe Channel five got it and and him coming
back in the in the taxi they pulled him off
the plane, he hops in his car, his range Rover,
and just heads right out, doesn't talk to anybody. It
was quite the sight. I mean, that's something you're gonna
that's one of those things where you remember where you
(37:25):
were when that happened. If you're a big sports fan.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Yeah, and San Francisco is not playing tonight. They they're
home tomorrow night, so he'll be well received. And uh,
I would say this, I think that that that San
Francisco got a better player with Devers going there than
(37:48):
we did getting Sandoval Pablo Sandoval coming here. I say
bet if they were both third basement two. So we'll see.
Speaker 6 (37:56):
Hopefully Raffi's belt holds up. I'm like unlike the pandas yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Dad Watkins as always, thank you, my friend, you pinch
it for us tonight. That's great. Thanks Pop. Talk soon. Okay,
well we get back. We're going to open up the conversation.
What do you think if you're a Red Sox fan
out there, and even if you're a casual Red Sox fan,
do you like this idea? I mean, it's been hanging
out there for about three months now, from spring training on.
(38:21):
Something had to give. We know what gave. Please feel
free to jump on board and let us know what
you think. You have the numbers back on Night's side,
We're gonna talk a little baseball for the next one hour.
It's nice eyes. I'm going easy Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
Thank you very much, Madison. Hope all of you had
a great weekend and are ready for another week of
night side, starting off tonight on Monday Night with Rob
Brooks back at the control room. Rob still recovering a
little bit from his under the weather period last week,
but he's getting better, that's for sure. Sound died great
when I talked to him tonight, and I hope all
of you are doing as well as we hit. We're
(00:28):
a little bit past the halfway point in June, believe
it or not. It's unbelievable actually that we are halfway
more than halfway through June, as in one of my
texters mentioned to me today, And we really haven't had
any great weather. I mean it's been rather rainy or hot.
So anyway, we'll talk about that. We have a bunch
(00:50):
of things to talk about. We will be talking about
the trade of I don't know if you want to
call it a trade or the salary dump of we
hardly knew ye. I'm gonna be talking with Dan Watkins
at eight forty five of the WBZ Newsroom. Dan is
a big sports guy in a big radio news guy
(01:10):
as well, and we will then spend the nine o'clock
hour talking about this swap, if you want to call
it that. But first we're going to talk with Mark Coscenza.
Mark is a senior vice president at Global Partners. Global
Partners is urging the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Voard of
Directors to reconsider a recent recommendation to award the redevelopment
(01:36):
of some eight eighteen highway service plausas to a privately
equity backed foreign owned corporation. That's a mouthfill for anyone. Mark,
You're a senior VP at Global Partners. I can understand
why you're disappointed.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Hey, Dan Oia, Yeah, I'm happy to have you on.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
And I can understand you're a local, your big, strong,
local company and apparently the company that won this is
a company that comes to us via Ireland.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
No, that's correct. You know, when you think about Global,
we're a fourth generation, family owned company right here in Massachusetts.
We've been here for over ninety years, for nearly a century,
we've been providing fuel and energy to the commonwealth reliably
through every storm and season. Right We're we're more than that.
We run our all town Fresh Concepts as well as
(02:33):
our honey farms market convenience stores. And it's really about fresh, local,
and we're building around the guests and the experience. We're
not just based there. We built here, Our families are here.
This is our state. You're all our neighbors and our future.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
So then what can be go I'm wrong? What could
have gone on here? I assume that everybody had a
chance to apply what they call it RFP, a request
for proposal. Why were you guys not at the top
of the class.
Speaker 3 (03:04):
Well, that's that's a that's an interesting question. We're we're
a little puzzled ourselves. The team here worked really hard
with a lot of local companies to prepare and submit
our bid, and as we as we think about it
and comparing our offer to what we read in the
Globe late last week, our offer was fifty percent higher
(03:25):
from revenue to the state. And when you think about
that over the over the thirty five year period of
the contract, that's over five hundred million dollars of lost
revenue to the State of Massachusetts. And as a practical matter,
that money could go to roads, bridges, and tunnels and
to increase the infrastructure and rebuild the infrastructure of Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
How many of these? There's eighteen of these locations? I think?
Is it fourteen a run the turnpike and four off
the turnpike on one eight? Is that the numbers? Is that
of the breakdown?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
There's a lot on the mass Pike, two on one
twenty eight, two on route twenty four and then went
up in Beverly and went down and don and Barnstable.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Okay, So this this was this was a bid all
in it was winner take all.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Correct, Yes, okay?
Speaker 2 (04:18):
And how much experience have you guys had, I know
that's a big Massachusetts company. How much experience have you
had running plazas like the ones that you were bidding on?
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Sure, I'll take a step back for one second if
I may. Since two thousand and nine, we were part
of and continue to run the Connecticut Turnpike and Mayor
Parkway locations from a fueling and convenience store perspective, but
focusing in on the Commonwealth. We stepped in uh later
in the contract due to some of the other tenants
(04:54):
leaving and stepping in and working with the with the Commonwealth.
We operate the convenience on the mass Pike and we
are the master tenant to the state on the Route
twenty four Barnstable and Beverly locations, and we stepped into
those locations late in the contract, which I believe was
signed back into the year two thousand, the original contract.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Okay, so you have experience in Connecticut, which is another
New England state. No problems. I assume in Connecticut that
every every place is going to get some criticism it.
No substantive problems you dealt with down there, No substantive
problems you've dealt with here, Nothing in the skeleton in
(05:37):
the closet or anything. As I'm referring to. I'm referring
to John Cesto's piece in the Globe from last week.
So you you come to this thing with some experience
in state and out of state. You have clean hands.
You actually may have bailed them out if you stepped
in for other groups that were not fulfilling their commitments previously.
(06:03):
You're gonna your contract would generate an extra you tell me,
five hundred million dollars for the coffers of the common Wealth.
It's not like we're fleshed with money. Why would we.
It's there's something not mist there's something missing here and
I'm assuming you can put your finger on it. But
(06:25):
someone from the Commonwealth I think has to step up
and explain why they would go across the Atlantic to
a company uh and give them the entire deal here
at a higher price than a great local company or
am I missing something? If I'm missing something, please tell me.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yeah, And that was that was an excellent recap. We're
extremely puzzled and we'd like to get to the bottom
of it, especially as we reconciled our proposal to the
Global article late last week, being very taken back not
being the success full uh recommended bidder by the committee
(07:03):
and and understanding and knowing that our that our rent
structure over the term of the contract was worth another
five hundred million dollars to the Commonwealth.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
Okay, I'm going to ask you the tough question now
that that you're probably not ready for. But but I'm
going to ask it, and I hope you give me
an answer. Uh. Are you at this point sitting down
with attorneys and saying, hey, we might get we may
have been jobbed here. What can we do about it?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
Look, we're we're we've digested the feedback we got late
last week, and we're exploring all of our options. But
we're we're looking first and foremost for the for the
for the masks, doot to explain and reconcile for us
the differences from the article that was disclosed to our
to our offer and our bid during the process.
Speaker 2 (07:49):
Okay, you're not naive, and I'm not naive. I'm assuming
you you're going to have attorneys involved.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Here, Like what like, I know, tell me what you
tell me?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
All options. I know what all options means. Okay, but
there's nothing like you know. I want you to be
straight with me, to be really honest with you. I'm
being straight with you. I think you would be fools
if you didn't have lawyers looking at this, because there
there's too many questions here.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Well, we're looking. We're just looking for answers, and I
think communication with the mascot should be able to reconcile
that for us.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Well, I would still have lawyers. That would be my advice,
simple as that. I know you don't.
Speaker 3 (08:37):
Well, I like anything, we'd like, we'd like to we'd
like to solve it commercially and just get a reconciliation
and an understanding of the of the big gap, not
only global being local, working with local contractors and local
uh you know, food providers and and and partners, but
also the gap and the economics to the to the
(08:58):
to the commonwealth.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
Yeah, I mean, it just seems to me that that
even if it was a close call, you might want
to give it to the home team. And it doesn't
sound to me as you have described it. I haven't
looked at these documents, but I'm assuming you're being honest
with me, which I know you are, it doesn't look
like a close call. I mean, if the other company
(09:21):
was just beat you on the bid, I'd say, hey,
you know, sharpen your pencil next time. But this one again,
John Cesto's piece in the Globe caught my eye last week.
Masked Dot to overhaul pike service plazas. That's a good thing,
but selects Irish firm to redevelop all eighteen of the stops.
(09:44):
They swept the board here. I don't know what can
what can listeners do if they want to, you know,
rattle a cage or shake a tree. Any any advice?
I mean, you know, most people.
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Absolutely dam There's a final vote on Wednesday, June eighteenth,
at noon. The public is allowed to attend, and we
encourage you to attend. You know, the decision affects all
of us, you know, residence travelers and the business owners.
So we encourage folks to go down and voice their opinion.
You know again, you know we're we're just looking for answers.
(10:22):
Global is a local company that that we're just trying
to understand a large gap in the in the revenue.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Okay, So who in who is it that makes this decision?
Is it the Secretary of Transportation and the governor? Who
who makes this decision on Wednesday? If this is the ultimate.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
Decision, it's the mask top board.
Speaker 2 (10:45):
How many members.
Speaker 3 (10:48):
I I don't know for certain. I believe around a dozen.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
Is that public knowledge? Who these folks are? Is there
a website we could direct people to if they want
to send an email and say, hey, we want answers?
Just giving you an option?
Speaker 3 (11:01):
I would think so, but let me get back to
you on that. I don't have it off the top
of my head.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Okay, well this is the one. If people are interested,
that's what they should be doing. All right, Thank you, Mark,
I appreciate your time tonight. I wish your best of
luck as a local company. Thank you. Very much.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Thanks Dan, appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Welcome, good night. Well we get back when we talk
about older adults being scammed, which is a problem. It's
an honest to God problem, and we want you to
listen up. If you're an older it out, or if
you have an older it out in your family, it's
as simple as that. My name's Dan Ray. This is Nightside.
Can I remind you, as I do every night here,
please consider going to the app store on your phone,
(11:41):
your device, on your tablet or wherever and pull down
the new and improved iHeart app. Because once you do that,
you'll only be a fingertip away. Make us your first preset.
And then in addition to that, there's a microphone button
on there which you can X, you can utilize and
send a thirty second a message. I hope they're positive,
(12:04):
but if they're not, if they're critical or their ideas
for us, send them and they will. They will be
screened by Rob Brooks, and some of them, if not
all of them, will get on the air. No bad language.
You know how that works. My name is Dan Ray.
No bad language. Back on night Side after this, It's.
Speaker 1 (12:21):
Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's News radio.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
With us is Darius Kingsley. He's the head of consumer
banking practices and a Chase Bank, and we're going to
talk about older adults getting scammed. How big a problem
is this, Darius, I actually think it's a huge problem.
Speaker 4 (12:41):
Thanks Dan, thanks for having me delight. He'll be here tonight. Yeah,
it is a giant problem. Scams are rising across the board,
and elder Americans are particularly targeted.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
The reason for that is, in my opinion, and I
assume in yours, that elder Americans have you know, saved
some money, they're in their retirement years, and they also
are nice people. They've they've known people who have hit
hard times. Uh, and they're willing to help. They're they're
(13:18):
generous of nature, generous of spirit. That makes them ripe
for the picking by these scam artists. How far off
am I with that analysis?
Speaker 4 (13:28):
No, you're you're you're spot on. I mean, older Americans
have worked hard their whole lives. They've got savings, hopefully
some investments if they're lucky, you know, and scammers know that.
And so if scammers look to target people, they're going
to go after the people with some assets, which are
our older citizens. The other thing is kind of to
(13:49):
your point. Older people answer the phone, right. We come
from a generation. I'm a gen exer, but even I
come from a generation where we have phones in the kitchen.
You answer the phone called when someone calls you. Younger
generations don't do that as much. I think a lot
of older people do you know, we open our mail,
We you know, look at emails. I think that there's
(14:11):
a lot of things about these generations that make us
particularly susceptible to get into conversations with scammers.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
Well, one of the things I like to do when
I get these phone calls, and I do because I
have a telephone. I had a call tonight. I'm in
the middle of dinner. The phone rings, you don't know
who it is. I pick it up, and so and
so and we'd just like to take a few minutes
and ask you a few questions about a poll. Now,
I don't know where that's going to lead. Maybe they're
trying to get information on me, whatever, So I immediately tell them, wonderful,
(14:46):
thank you so much for calling, because I am a
professional poll taker. Where can I send my bill for
this experience? And that studs it puts it right back
on the heels and they'll say, well, no, we don't
pay for the I said, well I would want I
would have give you a poll. That's what I do
for a living. I'll answer whatever question you have. But
where can I send my bill? And they eventually hang
(15:07):
up on me.
Speaker 4 (15:10):
Yeah, what I told the other night.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
What I told the other night. I forget what they
were looking to do. But they they called me and uh,
I said, why are you calling me? I'm in jail.
What do you mean you're in jail? I said, I'm
in jail. I'm incarcerated. How do you have a phone.
They let me have a cell phone. I said, why
don't you take me off your call list? You just talk,
you know, just talk to them and and mess with
(15:33):
them and they'll eventually take you out. And of course
you also can block those those those paint of the
neck phone. Yes, but they they have a million ways
to get to you. What's the what's the latest scam
that that that you've heard that you've heard about, Darius?
Is the old? Is that the grandchild scam where some
youngster calls and Grandma grandpa, I'm under arrest. I know
(15:55):
I shouldn't have been doing this. But I was smoking
marijuana or I was drinking behind this school. I don't
want my parents can know. Can you send me some money?
Is that? Is that the That's the way I'm most
concerned about Dan that.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Yeah, I wouldn't say that's the top scam these days,
but it's certainly very common, you know. And and with
the top and so so these days we're really seeing
a rise in what we call bank impersonation scams. So
you know, the scammers know that so many Americans bank
at a lot of our larger banks, and they'll send
you a text, you'll get an email, maybe a phone call,
(16:32):
and they can spoof the number. They can spoof the
number of Chase and or you'll get that text and
it'll say, hey, there's fraud on your account, Chase fraud.
You know, did you make a charge? If not, call
this number, and they'll give you a number or maybe
a link in the text or in the email which
you should not call back. That's what they do to
(16:54):
trick you. And so you pick it up, you call
back that number you got in whatever your email, your text,
and it's the scammer. And you get into a conversation
with scammer and they're good, they're professionals, they're English is excellent.
You don't realize you're talking to someone, probably in a
scam call center in Southeast Asia, and you know they'll
(17:15):
tell you, oh, I work for Chase or a Bank
of America, whoever it is, and so you think you're
talking to the bank and you're trying to resolve a
fraud problem. In reality, unfortunately, you're often handing over personal
information that the scammers need to hack into your account.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
You're probably talking to somebody in Chetshniya or Kazakhistan. Well,
some places that you've never heard of. It's unbelievable. Well, yeah,
thank you for blowing the whistle on this. I just
think these sorts of interviews, if we've saved one person
from getting scammed, it's been worth it tonight, that's for sure.
(17:51):
A Darius and I really enjoyed the conversation you you
broke it down really clearly. Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (17:58):
Great, Well, thanks for having me dance. They say, is.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
There somewhere that you can direct my listeners to to
find out more information?
Speaker 4 (18:08):
Yeah, I'd be happy to so you can learn a lot.
You don't have to be a Chase customer. We actually
have all of the information on our website. It's Chase
dot Com Forward Flash Security, or if you just type
in Chase Security, you'll take you'll go to what we
call the Security Center. We keep it updated, We keep
it updated with the latest scams. We also tell you
(18:29):
what to do if you think you might have fallen
for one, or maybe you've gotten into conversation with a scammer.
We'll give you tips on next steps and you know
exactly what it is you should do, and we'll give
you some helpful reminders, things like making sure you go
in and turn on your fraud alerts at your bank.
You may not have them all on, you may not
realize that there's additional fraud alerts, or maybe you can
(18:49):
add a family member to those alerts that you had
an attitude before. So there's a lot of to that website. Again,
it's Chase dot Com Forward Slash Security.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
Sounds great. I really appreciate it, Darius, looking at that tomorrow.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 4 (19:03):
It's great.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Thanks Dan, talk again. Thank you very much. Here comes
the news at the bottom of the arrow. We're about
a minute late. We get back. We're going to talk
with the author they call him the Sultan of Garbage.
Tips on how to properly dispose of waste, recycle, and
how to be a responsible consumer. I believe in this stuff, actually,
and I practice it, and I hope you do as well.
(19:25):
We'll talk with Brian Bellefont right after the news at
the bottom of the hour on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Night Side with Dan Ray I'BZ Boston's news Radio.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
All right, back to the phones we go, and back
to another again, particularly as we get towards summertime. I
think an important subject with us is Brian Bellfhant. Brian
is the author. Is this the name of a book,
the Sultan of Garbage? How are you? I've heard of
the Sultan of Swat, but never the Sultan of Garbage.
Speaker 5 (19:59):
Thanks for having me on. Yes, that's the name of
the book, the Sultan of Garbage.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
Okay, So first of all, how'd you get into How
did you become the Sultan of Garbage?
Speaker 5 (20:08):
Well, I don't think I became the Sultan of garbage.
I'm the guy who wrote the book about a guy
who's the Sultan of garbage. Story a story about a
guy who's dealing with the waste and consume, consumption, in
his life and he deals with it, and it echoes
kind of the waste and consumption that we have going
(20:28):
on in the world. I guess I agree that.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, I agree with that. I sometimes will go to
the dump and I'll say, where's all this stuff ending up?
Speaker 5 (20:39):
Oh my god, it's amazing.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Yeah, no, I know. And look, the bottom line is
that we love the convenience. I'm somebody. I'm not going
to tell you old I am, but I'm on the
wrong side of fifty. I still take my cans. We
have a bottle and a can bill here in Massachusetts
only nickel. But if you buy a uh twenty four,
(21:02):
you know, case of beer, that's another buck twenty And
if you buy a twelve pack of some sort of
soft drink, that's sixty cents, right, And I want my
money back. And I also I washed the can or
the bottle out. You put it in a plastic bag
and I hand carry it to the either to the store,
liquor store or whatever. But I'm a huge believer in
(21:23):
this because you've heard, I've seen these stories about the
floating islands of garbage in the oceans.
Speaker 5 (21:33):
Which, yeah, you know, it's incredible, and it's not just
the one ocean, because everybody talks about the great specific
garbage patch, which is the big one. Every ocean has them,
some oceans have more than one. It's with a current
swirl that draws all that crap together.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
And I don't know what the what the answer is.
Obviously recycling is the answer. But you know, every day,
you know, every week, I'll go through a gallon of milk.
I love milk, and I will I will rinse out
that milk, that that empty, empty the carton, and I'll
(22:09):
make sure it goes into the green pit trash bin,
which is recycle. So I assume that gets crushed somewhere, right,
But but how long does it hang around? How can
how can that not be used for more recycling as
opposed to just getting crushed? What's You probably know so
much more about this than I do, but I'd love
(22:31):
to answer that, Like that question. The car takes up
a good amount of space, Like it's like one foot
by eight inches, it's like, you know, almost a foot
squares up square feet. Yeah, well, how can can we
recycle more effectively?
Speaker 5 (22:46):
Well, there's a lot of there's a lot of parts
to that. I mean, yeah, on one hand, you could
get yourself a cow, then you wouldn't need the classic container,
or you could buy your milk the cow.
Speaker 2 (22:56):
The cow flatulence, the cow flattery would are you attacting
the atmosphere. So I'm going to stick with the I'm
going to stick with the gallon and milk at the store. Go.
You know, that's weird.
Speaker 5 (23:07):
It all gets so complicated because every time you come
up with a solution, sometimes the solution creates another problem.
And it's just we're in a very complex world where,
you know, as our culture loves to consume and we
don't think much about waste. You said it right at
the top. It's like you go to the dump and
you don't know where all that stuff is going. A
(23:27):
lot of most I don't know where all that stuff
is going. Where is all that stuff going? It's going.
A lot of it that doesn't end up with the
dump goes, you know, gets taken up by rivers into
the ocean. And the statistic I read is that sixty
percent of the plastic and we talk about these floating
islands of garbage, sixty percent of it sinks.
Speaker 4 (23:43):
To the bottom.
Speaker 5 (23:44):
So that's never going to get a dressed.
Speaker 2 (23:48):
You would hope that at some point it might deteriorate.
But I don't know that then is what's going to
be in the in the system. I don't know. We've
been fighting this for fifty years in America. I can
remember smoking the bear, don't litter and all of that.
You still see people literally, you still see cigarette butts
on the side of the road. You still see knuckleheads
(24:08):
who throw, you know, coffee cups out the window as
you're driving down the road. I mean, what's wrong with it?
Speaker 5 (24:16):
It's true, But I do think it's getting better. Well,
you know, I grew up in a place where.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
But it's long cast the time, Brian, where simply should
be getting better. It should be perfect at this point.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
I agree, But I don't think it's going to be
I know.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Yeah, Oh, so tell us about the book. So the
book is about an individual who's the who's the hero
in the book.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
The hero of the book is this guy. He's a
commercial photographer, which means he goes around should do products,
and his life has gone off the rails. He's got
a girlfriend who doesn't appreciate him, and people who.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
Take advantage of them, and.
Speaker 5 (24:54):
He realizes sort of deep inside that he's helping perpetuate
this this situation where he's encouraging people to consume things
and sort of something. At the beginning of the story,
it's just this uneasy that he has. So he comes
into some money, decides he's going to go out and
check out this island of garbage floating in the ocean.
And the island of garbage turns out to be a
(25:15):
metaphor for his life, but it's also sort of a
reflection on our society of the consumption and waste and
waste and consumption. And I'm not going to tell you
how it ends, because I want you to read the book.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Oh, I totally get that, So that's what that's why
you're here. Come on, Garbage fifty fifty or more recycling
facts and stats for twenty fifteen. Okay, I assume that's
all in the book. I know that book.
Speaker 5 (25:47):
Actually they're not. It's an all affection book, So I
mean these things are alluded to. But no, I don't
make a very I'm not preaching. I don't believe people
really respond to preaching unless they already believed the mess
just being given, And so I'm not going to try
and turn to change your mind by you know, hammering
you with facts and statistics. I'm going to tell you
a story, and the story is going to just make
(26:10):
you feel sympathetic for the character, and you're going to
think about it. When you're done. You might go, you
know what, I should think about this a little bit deeper.
I should think about what happens to my milk carton.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Yeah, well, I think about it all the time. And again,
if it gets crushed, that's one thing. But yeah, I
would think there would be some way you can't they
We used to burn garbage. We don't do that anymore
because of the atmosphereic concerns, but we used to burn leaves.
When I grew up, they would burn leaves. I live
in the city and you know, a part of Boston,
(26:43):
and you would rake the leaves into the gutter. And yeah,
first of all, you jump on the leaves as kids
on the lawn, and then you have to rap and
put them and then you would light them up. And
I thought myself, oh my god, if anyone did that today,
they would have to you have Marshall down there the
whole bit. Okay, so the books available I assume on Amazon.
(27:08):
That's the easy way. Do you have a website. You
Sometimes people have a personal website and they'll get the
author to autograph the book for them and maybe even
a little cheaper than they get her on Amazon.
Speaker 5 (27:19):
Go ahead, Oh, here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
Good.
Speaker 5 (27:21):
But the website is Sultan of Garbage dot com.
Speaker 4 (27:23):
All one word.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
Okay, but I'll tell you this. If you don't want
to like kill a tree, I the digital version.
Speaker 2 (27:29):
I like that. Okay, Okay. Do you make more money
in the digital version of lesson?
Speaker 5 (27:34):
I make the zero money on the digital version.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Okay, all right, Well good for you. Then you you're
a man who practices what he preaches. You know what.
Speaker 5 (27:43):
I wish I was a little better, but yeah, I
try it.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Okay, Brian, nice to talk to me. That is pronounced bellefont,
Yes it is. Oh, how about that? I am Sometimes
I think his name's right. I surprise myself. Sometimes the
book is the Sultan of Garbage. Brian. I appreciated. Keep fighting. Okay,
we'll have you back. Thank you much.
Speaker 5 (28:02):
Yeah, thanks for having me on, Dan.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
You're very welcome. Good night. When we get back, we're
going to talk about kind of a difficult issue to
talk about for me anyway, and that is the Red
Sox trade yesterday of Raphael Devers. Boy, I'm telling you
I don't understand this one. I'm not sure that Dan
Watkins understands it any better. But Dan is as much
(28:25):
of a baseball fan as I am, and he, of
course you know him as the WZ news radio anchor.
He's also good sports guy. So we're going to talk
with Dan Watkins about the Raffie Devs trade. And at
nine o'clock I'm going to open it up for open
lines on the Raffie Devers trade. I've looked at it
about twenty different ways. I can't figure it out. I
(28:46):
really can't. But maybe Dan will give us some insight
that I haven't thought of. And we'll talk with Dan
Watkins right after this break on Night Side. My name's
Dan Ray, not Dan Watkins. I'm Dan Ray. He will
be Dan Watkins. And you're listening to Night Side with
Dan Ray on WBZ ten thirty on the AM dial
here in Boston. And you also can listen to us
(29:08):
on the iHeart app. Very easy. All you have to
do is pull down the new and improved iHeart app
onto your device, be it a tablet, oh a laptop, desktop,
your phone whatever, and just make WBZ your number one
preset and we're in business. You'll be with us every
(29:29):
night from Monday through Friday, from eight until midnight. And
we do a great show here on Nightside. And I
hope you tell your friends about it. Little bragging doesn't hurt.
But if it's the truth, it's not bragging. Coming back
on Nightside.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
You're on night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (29:47):
Well, a big story in Boston today. Also the big
story in sports is the trade of Raffie Devers. Now
the Red Sox have just I guess they're still holding
a news conference on our own. Dan Watkins has been
monitoring that conference, that news conf Before we get to
Dan his analysis of what was and wasn't said and
what sort of questions were asked. Dan has pulled for
(30:08):
us a forty five second sound bite from Red Sox
team president Sam Kennedy.
Speaker 6 (30:13):
Hit it Rob, you know, in the end, I think
it's pretty clear that we we couldn't find alignment with Ralphie.
Speaker 1 (30:22):
Is the truth.
Speaker 6 (30:23):
We we we we all worked at it over the
last several months, going back to the off season.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Starting with Alex Cora and Craig and the staff, and
then up to the to me and all the way
up to John Henry.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
We worked at it. UH.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
We had a different vision for him going forward than than.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
He had, and we couldn't get there.
Speaker 5 (30:49):
We couldn't find alignment, and we reached that inflection point
and made the decision.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
To UH to make a big move.
Speaker 2 (31:00):
Dan Watkins is with us. What was their vision? Dan,
because it seemed to me that the vision was switching,
and once Bregman came, Raffie was told he was no
longer that third basement, he was the DH and then
when the first baseman gets hurt and they ask him
to play for a space, he's not thrilled about that.
(31:20):
What was the vision?
Speaker 6 (31:21):
Yeah, you know, Dan, I think this all just kind
of comes back to some miscommunication in the offseason with
the approach and trying to sign Alex Bregman and eventually
signing him and just not really you know, letting Devers
know what their plans were. So he arrives to spring
training and if you remember, Bregman signs like three or
four days after they get to camp, and then Devers
(31:43):
is pretty much told that he's going to be moved
to DH, and he's very adamant, and he was very frustrated,
saying that he's the third baseman of the team. He
left camp for a few days to go cool off,
comes back and agrees to be the DH. And then,
as you just mentioned, Tristan Cossis gets hurt in May
and they kind of want him to try to play
first base now and pick that up in the middle
of the season, and he is furious about that. He
(32:06):
basically tells Craig Breslo that he needs to go do
his job and bring in more players and to stop
relying on him to change positions all the time. So
I think there was some hurt feelings here on both sides,
But I think this comes down to Devers wanted to
be a DH now at this point in the Red
Sox didn't want to pay thirty one million dollars a
year for a designated hitter and a guy that wasn't
going to play the field.
Speaker 2 (32:26):
Okay, so let's assume you decide you want to get
rid of him. Is this the best that they could
get for him at this point? I mean, it sounds
like they got a couple of minor league players and
a couple of pitchers who one has already been sent
to Worcester and the other guy. Neither one of them
looked like that candidates for the Cy Young Award, Let's
put it that way.
Speaker 6 (32:43):
Definitely not from what I've heard and understand. Kyle Harrison,
who was sent to Worcester last night, he was supposed
to pitch on Sunday Night Baseball for the Giants, but
ends up getting scratched. That he's a you know, a
mid rotation guy at best, your number three, number four starter.
And then Jordan Hicks is a guy kind of like
Garrett Whitlock who's tried to be a starter, gets hurt,
(33:04):
probably better off in the bullpen. And then you got
their first round pick from a year ago. But the
Red Sox, the big thing Craig Breslow kept preaching tonight
during this press conference that went on for forty five
minutes was that they really like the roster flexibility that
they have now where they can get some of these
younger guys into the lineup, and they this is a
quote from Breslo saying, quote, I do think there's a
(33:26):
real chance at the end of the season, we're looking
back and we've won more games than we otherwise would
have with Devers on the team. So it's a really
interesting situation that's played out of Fenway here. I'm not
personally a fan of the move, taking out a potential,
you know, a perennial All Star and a guy that
is building a Hall of Fame resume in his own endeavors.
(33:48):
I don't think they're a better team today, but we'll
see what happens.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Yeah. Well, again, you think back to the Gosky pair
of trade back in two thousand and four, which worked
out for the Red Sox. Then you think about the
Mookie betste which has only worked out for Mookie Betts.
I mean, most of the players that they got from
Mookie Betts have now moved on themselves, and Bets is
playing really well and has played very well for years,
as we expected he would. In Los Angeles with the Dodgers,
(34:15):
what were the tone of the questions? A lot of
the sports guys in town tend to be very respectful
when they're say, talking to Bill Belichick or something like that,
a little different than a lot of the political reporters,
who kind of have a mor of ad age to
their questions. Were the reporters, what were the tone of
the questions.
Speaker 6 (34:34):
They were going directly at Kennedy and Bresla pretty well tonight,
I thought. I mean, the fact that this thing went
on for forty five minutes, I think was a good
sign from the beat. You know, they got Breslaw to
say that they're not waving the white flag on the
twenty twenty five season, which I have a hard time
believing personally, just with the way the Red Sox have
handled themselves here in the past half a decade now,
(34:56):
or how they've been a you know, a five hundred
baseball team since really since they traded Mookie Betts, and
how they keep talking about this long term vision and
keep telling fans that, you know, it's it's gonna happen
in the long term, and then they go and pull
the you know, pull the rug out from underneath Red
Sox nation here this weekend by doing it well.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Having the three young guys come up also, Dobbins has
been a pretty good surprise. I think that Fits is
going to get himself squared away at Worcester, So I
think they're going to have some young people. You look at,
you know, cut of Crawford hasn't thrown a ball yet Tanner,
howk Is is amongst the missing at this point, So
they lost two good guys who would have been potential
(35:33):
guys in the rotation. Their rotation with Dobbins now in
seems to have set it down. Bao pitched well yesterday.
Geelito some good, some bad. Same with Fuel. Yeah, with
Buell or two, but Geolita was more. Buell has been
more consistent. I think that Gelito Crochet has been great.
(35:53):
So you know, they have they have a starting rotation here,
which they didn't have a year ago. But now they're
just taking a big out out of the lineup and
at some point, uh, someone's good. I guess maybe uh
Toro plays third base for the rest of the season
until until Bregmant comes back.
Speaker 6 (36:12):
So it looks like Meyer's there tonight and I can't
It's it's crazy. So they put out the lineup card
for tonight and they got rookies hitting three, four, five
in the lineup, which is crazy to think about for
a team that says that they do want to make
the playoffs.
Speaker 2 (36:23):
Yeah, well, you know, okay that you know, Meyer had
a couple of couple of dingers the other the other
night in the game, and uh, you know Anthony's going
to hit. I don't. I mean, he's he's not, he's
I think he's he's he's.
Speaker 6 (36:37):
For him giving away from Fenway, I think is a
good thing for him, let him kind of get some
hits on the road where there's less pressure.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
Yeah. Absolutely, Well, Dan, I appreciate it so much. You're
talking to us. You're doing double duty tonight, news duty,
sports duty. It's going to be interesting. I mean, they
they made this trade. Uh after a five game winning
streak and and sweeping the Yankees. What Devers was at
the airport heading to Seattle? Did they pull him off
the plane?
Speaker 6 (37:04):
They did, and they put him in a taxi, which
was just crazy. I don't know if you saw the footage.
I believe Channel five got it and and him coming
back in the in the taxi they pulled him off
the plane, he hops in his car, his range Rover,
and just heads right out, doesn't talk to anybody. It
was quite the sight. I mean, that's something you're gonna
that's one of those things where you remember where you
(37:25):
were when that happened. If you're a big sports fan.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Yeah, and San Francisco is not playing tonight. They they're
home tomorrow night, so he'll be well received. And uh,
I would say this, I think that that that San
Francisco got a better player with Devers going there than
(37:48):
we did getting Sandoval Pablo Sandoval coming here. I say
bet if they were both third basement two. So we'll see.
Speaker 6 (37:56):
Hopefully Raffi's belt holds up. I'm like unlike the pandas yes, yes, yes.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
Dad Watkins as always, thank you, my friend, you pinch
it for us tonight. That's great. Thanks Pop. Talk soon. Okay,
well we get back. We're going to open up the conversation.
What do you think if you're a Red Sox fan
out there, and even if you're a casual Red Sox fan,
do you like this idea? I mean, it's been hanging
out there for about three months now, from spring training on.
(38:21):
Something had to give. We know what gave. Please feel
free to jump on board and let us know what
you think. You have the numbers back on Night's side,
We're gonna talk a little baseball for the next one hour.
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