Potential challenger to Sen. Scott Brown, Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren, addresses Labor Day event

Potential challenger to Sen. Scott Brown, Harvard professor Elizabeth Warren, addresses Labor Day event

Harvard Law School professor and potential U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren was set to address a Labor Day gathering in Boston. Warren, a Democrat, was scheduled to deliver the keynote address Monday at a breakfast held by the Greater Boston Labor Council.

It’s her first major speech since her announcement last month of an exploratory committee to consider a challenge to Republican Sen. Scott P. Brown next year. If Warren runs, she will join a Democratic field that already includes City Year co-founder Alan Khazei, Newton Mayor Setti Warren, state Rep. Thomas Conroy (D-Wayland), and Robert Massie, a one-time candidate for lieutenant governor.

Warren was chosen by President Barack Obama last year to set up the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But congressional Republicans opposed her becoming the bureau’s director.

Democratic Congressman Michael Capuano announced last week that he would not be running for Brown’s seat.

Former Massachusetts Speaker Salvatore DiMasi to be sentenced in corruption case

Former Massachusetts House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi will find out this week how much time he’ll spend in prison following his conviction earlier this year on corruption charges.

Federal judge Mark Wolf is scheduled to sentence DiMasi and co-defendant Richard McDonough, a former Statehouse lobbyist, on Thursday in U.S. District Court in Boston. 
Prosecutors are seeking 12½ years for DiMasi, who was accused of steering two state contracts worth $17.5 million to a software firm in exchange for payments. A jury found him guilty of conspiracy, theft of honest services and extortion.

Defense attorneys have asked for a lighter sentence of three years. Whatever sentence Wolf imposes, DiMasi’s lawyers will ask that he be allowed to remain free while he pursues appeals.

Massachusetts House Majority Leader Ronald Mariano files bill seeking fewer disparities in health insurance rates

A legislative leader is proposing that Massachusetts health insurers be required to lower rates paid to some of the state’s most expensive health care providers, while boosting rates for the lowest-paid providers.

The bill introduced last week by House Majority Leader Ronald Mariano takes aim at price disparities between larger hospitals – who use their market clout to charge higher rates – and smaller, community hospitals who are in many cases paid less for delivering the same services.

Mariano, a Quincy Democrat, says the bill would immediately address what he calls the biggest issue driving up health care costs in the state.

Attorney General Martha Coakley, in her annual report on factors driving health care costs, said the wide variations in payments could not be explained by differences in the quality of care.

Associated Press