I first met Colman Herman, the author of this issue’s cover story on the Massachusetts Public Records Law, years ago when I was a Boston Globe reporter. He had asked Attorney General Thomas Reilly to enforce the state’s item pricing law. When Reilly did nothing, Herman sought to enforce the law on his own with […]
Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl oversees the production of content and edits reports, along with carrying out his own reporting with a particular focus on transportation, energy, and climate issues.
He previously worked at the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper.
Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Quincy insurer snubs its rep
Officials at Arbella Insurance Group of Quincy were no-shows at a recent award ceremony for their local state representative, Ronald Mariano, the House chairman of the Legislature’s Committee on Financial Services. Arbella officials say it was a "budgetary decision" not to put in an appearance at the Oct. 10 event, but industry officials say the […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Preserving power
Secretary of State William Galvin is running a $50 million-a-year state tax credit program like a personal fiefdom. He decides which developers receive historic rehabilitation tax credits from the state and how much they get, using a selection process that creates uncertainty for developers and maximizes his political clout. What’s most startling is that Galvin, […]
Posted inEconomy
Moving the goal posts
Sudbury officials say this small stretch of sidewalk along Dakin Street qualified under the Community Preservation Act for partial state funding because the pathway is a recreational facility for walkers, joggers, bikers, skateboarders, and rollerbladers. THE COMMUNITY PRESERVATION Act arose from the noble desire to give municipalities more tools to fight urban sprawl and to […]
Posted inEconomy
Hidden tax credit
Tax credits are exploding in popularity in Massachusetts. Over the last several years, state lawmakers have approved tax credits to lure movies and movie stars to the state, to redevelop historic buildings, and most recently to give a boost to life science companies. The tax credits are having an impact. At least 88 movie productions […]
Posted inEducation
Back to schools
This special issue of CommonWealth catalogues all of the unfinished business of the state’s 15-year-old education reform effort: the achievement gap between rich and poor, the high number of failing urban schools, the shaky ladder to college, and the huge demands being placed on teachers. It even adds a few items to the state’s to-do […]
Posted inPolitics
Red Sox call their own play to control ticket scalping
INTRO TEXT The state’s antiscalping law is in tatters. No one enforces it, resellers ignore it, and now the Boston Red Sox are giving up on it. The Red Sox recently sent a letter to season ticket holders acknowledging that the team could not control the resale of its tickets and announcing a sponsorship deal […]
Posted inPolitics
Murray uses IG as ombudsman for Phoenix story
INTRO TEXT When the Boston Phoenix reported last year that state Sen. Therese Murray steered $11 million in state money to a crony who failed to deliver on his assignment to boost the number of foreign visitors to the Commonwealth, Murray did something unusual. She referred the matter to Inspector General Gregory Sullivan, asking him […]
Posted inPolitics
State worker, 82, finally calls it quits
INTRO TEXT Donald Falvey, who is 82, retired from his $97,000-a-year job as deputy director of the Division of Standards at the end of January. Falvey worked in state and county government for 57 years, serving as an aide to former Governor Foster J. Furcolo before moving in 1959 to the Division of Standards, which […]
Posted inEconomy
Subsidizing the stars
UPDATE: Since the spring issue of CommonWealth went to press, the Massachusetts Revenue Department released a report indicating the financial impact of the state’s film tax credit could be substantial. The report said 88 movie projects were either completed or under development in 2006, 2007, and the first two months of 2008. The projects are […]