Gabrielle Gurley
Gabrielle covers several beats, including mass transit, municipal government, child welfare, and energy and the environment. Her recent articles have explored municipal hiring practices in Pittsfield, public defender pay, and medical marijuana, and she has won several national journalism awards for her work. Prior to coming to CommonWealth in 2005, Gabrielle wrote for the State House News Service, The Boston Globe, and other publications. She launched her media career in broadcast journalism with C-SPAN in Washington, DC. The Philadelphia native holds degrees from Boston College and Georgetown University.
Did Al Sharpton save the Cambridge Police Department?
Did the prospect of dealing with Al Sharpton prove to be the catalyst that propelled the Cambridge Police Department, the Middlesex District Attorney's Office, and Harvard University professor Henry Louis […]
Tip, Ronnie, and Tricky Dick walk into a bar…
What would Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill think about competing against the likes of Richard Nixon and Franklin Roosevelt? We'll never know, but only one of the unlikely trio […]
Mission Impossible: Commuting on the MBTA or running it?
It wasn’t a fluke, an infrastructure issue, sabotage, or terrorism, according to MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo. Nor did it have anything to do with the T’s debt issues or the […]
Proposed taxes unlikely to solve transportation crisis
The transportation reform debate has gone quiet since the hand-wringing over the wider fiscal crisis pushed state government’s most troubled sector out of the headlines. But expect "reform before revenue" […]
‘Reform before revenue’ claims another TeamTrans victim
In a predictable coda to the Mother of All Traffic Jams, Massachusetts Turnpike Executive Director Alan LeBovidge politely told Gov. Deval Patrick to take this job and shove it."Given today’s […]
To build or not to build: Brockton’s power plant plan
The New England Regional Council of Carpenters and other area unions are putting on their rally caps tonight in Brockton. But the show of force isn't for the Red Sox. […]
The shape of watts to come
Leonard Bicknell confesses that he’s a nut about consuming less energy, even if it costs him more to do so. Over the years, the South Shore heating oil dealer has […]
Highway to Hell: Teams Trans previews coming attractions
Genuine public interest in real, comprehensive solutions to the Bay State's transportation troubles is low. Commuters worry about their own pocketbooks and no one else's. The prospect of a higher […]
Is someone talking about transportation reform?
Rep. Joseph Wagner, the House transportation committee chairman, competed with chattering colleagues as work began on the transportation reform bill in the House chamber Tuesday afternoon. Wagner opened the session […]
Wiffing on “reform before revenue”
If MBTA benefits aren't really in play in the great state transportation bureaucracy overhaul, where does that leave reform before revenue? This week, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation published a study […]
Faring no better in New York
The MBTA isn’t the only cash-strapped transit agency looking for relief — and getting zilch — from state lawmakers. New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority board voted overwhelmingly last week […]
Billions of billboards?
The MBTA failed to win friends or influence people with its plan to auction off billboard advertising rights in 60 locations in eastern Massachusetts. Predictably, some affected communities are seething. […]
Yes to regional equity, no to privatization: The transportation reform debate continues
Secretary of Transportation James Aloisi, who's engaged in a high-profile tussle with Senate President Therese Murray over the contours of transportation reform, shifted gears by giving a shout out to […]
Money for nothing: Still dire straits at the MBTA
Reforms alone aren’t going to cut it for the MB (as in “broke”) TA. That’s the song MBTA general manger Dan Grabauskas has been singing for years. Asked this morning […]
Up, up, and away in my beautiful gas tax trial balloon…
When last we saw Team Trans, we were waiting on the mother of all transportation plans, the one that would save our roads, our bridges, and our mass transit from […]
Pennies saved at the MBTA
Having your employer pay for your $10 commercial driver's license sounds fair. So the MBTA used to send bus drivers a $10 check reimbursing them for their license fees. They could look […]
Kayyem hailed for “responder revolution” in state homeland security
Juliette Kayyem, the Massachusetts undersecretary for homeland security, gets kudos for her success in shaping up Boston's notoriously territorial first responders from HSToday Magazine, a McLean, Virginia-based monthly that provides […]
The MBTA isn’t the only transit agency in dire straits
The MBTA isn’t the only transit agency in the country with fare hikes or service cuts on the horizon. Transportation for America, "a broad coalition of housing, environmental, public health, […]
Utahs financial literacy requirement
INTRO TEXT States want to be trendsetters, but not all trends are worth bragging about. That was Utah’s predicament from 2002 through 2004, when the Beehive State ranked No. 1 […]
Task force targets underground economy
During the 2006 gubernatorial campaign, candidate Deval Patrick wanted to see firsthand how the underground economy worked. Volunteering to be his guide, Mark Erlich, executive secretary-treasurer of the New England […]
Jim Aloisi: Eyes wide shut
A friend of Jim Aloisi’s told him that he hoped the new secretary of transportation was going into his new position with his eyes wide open. “I’m better off if […]
Lather – Rinse – Repeat
Tuesday's fourth and final oversight hearing on transportation finance dysfunction in the Bay State didn’t really offer up anything new. Yet five of the members of the Transportation Finance Commission […]
Doing the right thing by right whales
“Mariners are urged to maintain a sharp lookout and use caution around right whales.” All you weather geeks out there will recognize that warning from the “voice” (OK, usually computer-generated) […]