The Massachusetts Senate is slated to unveil its ride-sharing bill this week, which should provide a hint of how contentious the negotiations between the two branches will be as the legislative session comes to an end at the end of next month. The House bill, which was approved in early March, didn’t please anyone. The […]
CommonWealth Staff
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
The Codcast: The everyday terrorism of urban gun violence
Just over a week ago, 17-year-old Raekwon Brown was fatally gunned down just steps from Jeremiah Burke High School in Dorchester, where he was a student. Three others, including a 67-year-old woman, were wounded. The shooting, which took place in broad daylight after a fire alarm emptied students onto the street near the school, was […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download
Making noise — and a splash — on guns
For a newspaper opinion page, it’s the closest thing there is to shouting something from the rooftops. Today’s Boston Globe — both online and in print — leads with a large-type three-word call: “MAKE IT STOP.” The “it” is the carnage of mass shootings in this country, as the paper calls for a national ban […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download
Ortiz sides with Walsh on records
US Attorney Carmen Ortiz, whose office is suspected of being the source of leaks for Boston Globe stories about her investigation of union strong-arming tactics, is now saying that investigation would be compromised if Boston Mayor Marty Walsh releases to the Globe documents Ortiz has demanded as part of the probe. Citing a memorandum he […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
The unobstructed view of hindsight
In the aftermath of the Orlando massacre, fingers are being pointed and questions asked about why federal law enforcement officials didn’t detain — or at the least keep track of — Omar Mateen after interviewing him not once, not twice, but, now officials acknowledge, three times. After those interviews, conducted after tips from others about […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
A toxic mix ignites again
Vigils and makeshift memorials will dot the country today as Americans try to reckon with the worst mass shooting in the nation’s history. But such expressions of unity and concern will mean little in the end — and will be take place again and again in coming months and years — without some coming to […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Elizabeth Warren, queen of the trolls
Was there ever any thought Sen. Elizabeth Warren wouldn’t endorse the Democratic party’s nominee? She apparently was just waiting to see who it was. One thing is certain, though, and that is Massachusetts’s senior senator is all-in on the fight against presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, no matter who leads the Democratic ticket. Warren’s heightened stature […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The House’s non-debate on energy
The Massachusetts House debated the state’s energy future in public on Wednesday (the session was even streamed live over the internet), but the real negotiations took place in private out of the public eye. The bill authorized the state’s utilities to hold procurements for large amounts of offshore wind and hydroelectricity from Canada, possibly in […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The Codcast: Weld flashes the old charm
William Weld made libertarianism sound like a political middle ground between Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton during an interview Tuesday night with CommonWealth magazine. The former Massachusetts governor, who is running for vice president on the Libertarian Party ticket with former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, said his focus will […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
History and demagoguery
A raspy-voiced Hillary Clinton shared the news with supporters at Long Beach, California, rally as the word broke yesterday that the Associated Press tally of her pledged delegates and superdelegates had reached the magic number of 2,383 needed for the Democratic presidential nomination. This morning’s Boston Globe gives the news the full history-making treatment, trotting […]