When it comes to Boston’s notoriously tangled matrix of streets, which are a challenge for local drivers and a nightmare for visitors brave enough to try navigating them, a seventh-floor command center in City Hall is where a team of engineers does its best to make order out of chaos. The center utilizes a complex […]
Alyssa Martino
Posted inPolitics
Boston’s online radio frontier
Boston’s two daily newspapers look at news very differently, so it’s no surprise that they are experimenting with online radio very differently. Boston Herald Radio, which launched this week, is a talk radio station that features mostly conservative hosts discussing news and politics. RadioBDC, the online streaming station of the Boston Globe and Boston.com, will […]
Posted inEducation
UMass satellite center explored for Springfield
The University of Massachusetts is taking tentative steps toward opening a satellite campus in Springfield that would be overseen by UMass Amherst and provide on-site and online courses offered by several of the UMass schools. The state university system issued a request for proposals on Monday to lease 25,000 square feet of space in downtown […]
Posted inPolitics
Rosenberg corrals votes to become Senate president
Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, an Amherst Democrat, announced on Wednesday that he had the votes necessary to replace Therese Murray as president of the Senate when she leaves office, setting the stage for an amicable transition of power in a branch of state government where liberals appear to be gaining strength. Rosenberg would be the first […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
Revenue smoke signals
THE BATTLE OVER transportation funding on Beacon Hill came down to how much to raise and how to raise it. Gov. Deval Patrick pushed for more than $1 billion in new transportation funds, financed primarily with a hike in the broad-based state income tax as well as a series of smaller measures. The Legislature opted […]
Posted inPolitics
Markey edging Brown
NEWLY ELECTED SEN. ED MARKEY leads Republican Scott Brown by 5 points in a new poll, a significant shift from December when Markey was trailing Brown in a head-to-head matchup by 18 points. The poll by the MassINC Polling Group indicates Markey is currently leading Brown by a 43-38 margin, yet Brown still holds the […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
The worker’s champion
Boston-based lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan has represented cab drivers, baristas, exotic dancers, and waiters in class action lawsuits, but as the new owner of a Harvard Square-based pizzeria she’s hoping to set an example for the corporations against whom she spent the last dozen years fighting. A Houston native and Harvard Law School graduate, Liss-Riordan’s interest […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Health Care
Frenzy over firearms
Gun lobbyists and gun control activists butted heads at a legislative committee public hearing in Worcester but were able to find some common ground over the importance of mental health records to background checks. Proponents from both sides emphasized to the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security that Massachusetts is one of […]
Posted inEconomy
The push for an $11 minimum wage
Hundreds of union workers and advocacy groups packed the State House’s Gardner Auditorium on Tuesday to push for a steep hike in the state’s minimum wage, arguing that a boost would give a lift to the local economy and create more jobs. The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development held a hearing to […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
Ex-MassHealth COO gets $25,000 fine
THE FORMER CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER of MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program, agreed on Wednesday to pay a $25,000 civil penalty to the State Ethics Commission to settle charges that he negotiated a job with a major consulting firm at the same time the firm was being solicited to work on a project funded by […]