Interesting piece online now in this week’s issue of Banker & Tradesman. Normandy Real Estate Partners, the guys who stole the John Hancock Tower out from under those snakebitten New Yorkers, are now finding out what it’s like to be managing a portfolio of over-leveraged boom-time acquisitions. Spoiler: It’s not fun, or lucrative.

Also, Vornado’s tight-lipped CEO, Mike Fascitelli, charms our pants right off while begging the Herald for some decent press. And he got it! Seriously, all he had to do was ask.

Funny. On the same day one Boston political insider asks me, “What has Scott Brown ever passed? What happens when this guy has to stop reading his clips and actually start working?” Brown gives us this, via the Herald:

“I don’t believe they’re going to say, ‘If you’re not with us we’re going to hold these committee assignments,’ I think I’m going to be treated pretty fairly,” Brown said about his renegade status, adding he takes issue with any political arm-twisting. “If that happens I’ll be very public about it, and I think it will upset the populace … I was being talked about a lot. The tone of the conversation was ‘We need to be more transparent, we need to solve problems,’ and if I’m creating that type of dialogue, I’m very grateful.”

Alternate punchline: Funny how the paper has yet to run a photo of Scott Brown looking hunky while reading a book.

At least Tim for Treasurer had the decency to exploit all his kids on TV, equally.

Just one question: How did Mahmoud Ahmadinejad get left off the list???

The Nov. 3, 2009 edition of the Boston Herald contained an article entitled “Perv Puts Boxford On Edge – Level 3 sex offender was flagger.” The article was accompanied by a photograph purporting to represent the individual subject of the story, David Giacalone. Due to an editor’s error, the individual shown in the photograph was not David Giacalone. The Boston Herald has no information that the individual shown is a sex offender or anything other than a law-abiding citizen. We deeply regret our mistake and apologize for the error.

Back in 1995, Barrow worked for the Aquinnah of Gay Head, who were chasing a casino on the South Coast. In 1999, it was a developer eyeing a casino in Salisbury. Now, he’s freelancing in New Hampshire. And all the while, he’s pushing data that, surprise of surprises, purports to make the case for legalizing casinos.

The governor’s office tells Jay that Barrow wasn’t the only guy they leaned on while not convincing the legislature, at all, to greenlight a trio of resort casinos in the state. There were “numerous sources, studies and analysis” used.

OK then. Let’s go to the tape.

Two years ago now, my Dig colleague Julia Reischel and I took a closer look at those numerous sources, studies and analyses. What we found was that many, if not most, of those sources told the governor’s staff that legalized gambling was not the magic budget-slaying bullet he was making it out to be. There was one loud, dissenting voice. It was Clyde Barrow’s.

And Barrow didn’t just tell the governor that casinos would make it rain gold-plated unicorns and stuff. He went to the trouble of drafting a blueprint for legalizing casinos – one that Deval Patrick promptly cribbed from and took public.