BARNEY FRANK IS passing time with a newspaper crossword puzzle before our interview. When I arrive at the West Newton video studio where he does live shots for CNBC, Frank crushes the newsprint and sinks it into a nearby trash can. The former congressman dispenses with pre-interview niceties. He’s ready to talk. And he holds […]
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.
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
MBTA to use fines to improve commuter rail customer service
MBTA OFFICIALS KNOW that commuter rail riders hate late trains. They also get an earful about conductors who fail to collect fares and the passengers who evade paying them. So the transit system plans to use one problem to solve the other. MBTA interim general manager Frank DePaola announced Tuesday that Keolis, the MBTA commuter […]
Posted inEconomy
High debt weakens state fiscal standing, report finds
THE MASSACHUSETTS ECONOMY continues to purr, but ongoing fiscal stresses have left the Bay State among the bottom dwellers in a new set of state fiscal health rankings. Massachusetts placed 48th out of the 50 states for its structural budget deficits, long-term debt, and unfunded pension liabilities in fiscal 2013, according to a new study […]
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Baker names MBTA control board
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER dipped into the Bay State’s deep bench of transportation and finance experts as he named members of a new MBTA fiscal and management control board. State lawmakers agreed to Baker’s call for a control board to take the reins at the T after the agency’s disastrous response to the blizzards of 2015. […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
Plum Island at risk
Photographs by Mark Morelli except headline photograph by Gabrielle Gurley PLUM ISLAND IS one of the most spectacular places to live in Massachusetts. With high dunes and rolling beaches on the lip of the Atlantic Ocean, people move to this barrier island north of Cape Ann for a deep blue slice of paradise. But paradise can […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
MassHealth OKs postpartum depression screening
Beginning next spring, MassHealth, the state’s Medicaid program, will reimburse health care providers for the costs of screening women for postpartum depression. Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito made the announcement at a State House event on Monday to increase awareness of postpartum depression. The event targeted state lawmakers, health care providers, and community advocates working with […]
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Straus: Eliminating MBTA as separate agency should be long-term goal
THE BEACON HILL tug of war over the MBTA continues to pit those who support Gov. Charlie Baker’s call for a special fiscal control board against those who think an expanded Massachusetts Department of Transportation board is the right medicine for the ailing transit system. Rep. William Straus, the co-chair of the Joint Committee on […]
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Baker presses lawmakers for T control board
Gov. Charlie Baker turned up the pressure on state lawmakers, appearing at a joint transportation committee hearing Monday flanked by former Chelsea and Springfield officials who expressed strong support for his MBTA fiscal and management control board plan. Baker often cites the Springfield and Chelsea control boards as frameworks for the approach he wants to […]
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Scott: State should take over the MBTA
“THE MBTA NEEDS to be put out of its misery.” That’s the diagnosis from Beverly Scott, the former general manager of the MBTA. The MBTA doesn’t need a fiscal and management control board or an expanded MassDOT board, she says. What the MBTA needs is a state takeover. Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack said Tuesday that […]