PARCC isn’t standing still. Heading into the second year of field testing in the spring of 2015, about 60 percent of Massachusetts school districts have opted to jettison MCAS for […]
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 inHealth Care, Politics, State House News Service
Commission to comment on Partners-AG deal
The Massachusetts Health Policy Commission said on Wednesday it plans to file comments on Attorney General Martha Coakley’s agreement with Partners Healthcare permitting the company to acquire South Shore Hospital […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, The Download
Why Atlantic City casino woes matter here
Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen recently visited “Vegas-by-the-Sea” and found nothing good to say about Atlantic City’s casino experiment. In the time-honored tradition of journalists everywhere, Cullen tapped the consummate […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, The Download
Massachusetts maxes out on minimum wage, but is $11 enough?
Gov. Deval Patrick puts his John Hancock to the legislation, Massachusetts will have the highest state minimum wage in the country. By 2017, minimum wage workers can look forward to […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
MBTA’s olympic change orders
Boston 2024 is going full tilt at its dream of securing the 2024 Olympics. Washington DC, Los Angeles, and San Francisco are also in the running. Los Angeles has hosted […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download
Bay State liquor licensing foibles
Massachusetts lawmakers probably thought they had dispensed with national embarrassment when they criminalized upskirting in record time. They forgot about the state’s bizarre liquor licensing laws, which require cities and […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Gaming Commission vows no ties
Left with an even number of members for Greater Boston issues, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission decided on Thursday to pursue a multi-step, consensus-building plan to avoid a tie vote on […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, State House News Service
Report: DCF made errors but not to blame in child’s death
Health and Human Services Secretary John Polanowicz and Child Welfare League’s Linda Spears announce DCF review findings. A long-awaited report from the Child Welfare League of America issued Wednesday found […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
T keeps expanding but police don’t keep pace
As the geographical footprint of the MBTA keeps expanding, the resources of the T’s police force keep getting stretched thinner and thinner. The transit agency is preparing to expand west […]
Posted inGambling, State House News Service
Crosby says “no reason” to resign
Massachusetts Gaming Commission Chairman Stephen Crosby said Thursday that there is “absolutely no reason on earth” for him to resign. The commissioner, who has been under fire for his decision […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Gearing up for interstate tolling
If the Obama administration has its way, a prospect far from assured, states soon will be able to toll interstate highways. A US Department of Transportation proposal, embedded in the […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics, State House News Service
Medical marijuana patients concerned about delays
Medical marijuana advocates Dr. Mark Weiner of Sharon and Eric McCoy of Boston. On a day when attention was focused on legislation that would legalize and tax recreational marijuana, advocates […]
Posted inHealth Care, State House News Service
Doctors bone up on medical marijuana
for doctors, accustomed to prescribing drugs only after they have been thoroughly researched and run through clinical trials, marijuana is a problem. The drug has been illegal in the United […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
Can Bay State schools afford online standardized testing?
this spring, there’s a twist to the annual ritual of standardized testing. Many students will trade in pencil and paper and move into the 21st century, taking the state’s new […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
Here comes UMass Haverhill
Officials at the University of Massachusetts Lowell hope to open a permanent branch of their campus in downtown Haverhill with a $2.5 million appropriation contained in a supplemental budget lawmakers […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
School chief offers online testing advice
When the Burlington schools were randomly selected to administer a paper and pencil version of the state’s new online standardized test, Superintendent Eric Conti had a better idea. He suggested […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Free petitions and Bay State click bait
Boston magazine’s David Bernstein did journalism a favor this week. The web was aflame over a Massachusetts bill that purported to forbid a person seeking a divorce from having sex […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Bump audit of DCF finds many failings
State Auditor Suzanne Bump’s investigation of the Department of Children and Families raised more questions about caseworkers’ ability to keep track of the children in state care and pointed to […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
DCF and the upskirting standard
Jawbones rattled to the floor across the Commonwealth last week when state lawmakers likely set a legislative speed record with a new law that criminalized upskirting. Can Beacon Hill act […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Peter Principle at work in Bay State bureaucracy
Gov. Deval Patrick has a serious problem on his hands. Some state agencies are in full grip of the Peter Principle. Educator Laurence Peter is forever linked to his observation […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download
DCF and the court of public opinion
As the demands for Department of Children and Families Commissioner Olga Roche to step down grow louder, so do the voices of support. But the fate of DCF does not […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Dan Rivera means business in Lawrence
With a business card that reads “City of Lawrence, Mayor & CEO,” Daniel Rivera is determined to bring in new companies and help existing ones add jobs in a municipality […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download
Can the Bay State think big about the Olympics?
With the Sochi Olympics as a backdrop, the Legislature’s Olympics special commission ponders whether the state’s capital city is up to the challenge of hosting the world’s premier sporting event […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Bay State is a bottom-dweller on budget planning
What do Massachusetts and Alabama have in common? They both are lousy at using the best tools available to craft state budgets. That news may come as a shock to […]