As the task to slice and dice the MBTA’s historic collapse gets underway, a battle royale has erupted anew between two camps of transportation influencers who can be loosely described as the expansionists and the fix-it-firsters. On the expansion side, advocacy groups like the MassPIRG and Conservation Law Foundation, which backed a controversial Big Dig mitigation agreement […]
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
Baker creates MBTA commission
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER moved to put his administration’s stamp on the MBTA by appointing a special commission to investigate how past finance, maintenance, and management practices led to the wintertime collapse of the country’s fifth-largest transit agency. Baker said he expects a report from the advisory group in about 30 days. The decision to investigate […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download, Transportation
Beacon Hill’s MBTA fix: Let them ride the T
Nonplussed by the plight of the poor, a French aristocrat once said “let them eat cake.” With hundreds of thousands of people struggling during the MBTA’s winter crisis, Massachusetts legislative leaders have come up with similar rejoinder: Let them ride the T. Senate President Stan Rosenberg, the Amherst Democrat, is receptive to greater investment in the […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
Baker and the MBTA stage management crisis
Paging Harry Truman. The 33rd president delivered one of the most recognizable lines about leadership in American history, so famous that it has become a cliché. “The buck stops here.” If Truman isn’t your go-to-guy, how about leadership tips from Warren Buffett? Or God, Jr? Or Dale Carnegie? Dealing with snow is a major leadership test for any public chief executive, and […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Pregnant workers seek fair job treatment
SHOULD A PREGNANT worker expect her employer to offer “reasonable” relief from her workload or from certain tasks? Elizabeth Guyer, a former nurse practitioner who worked in Harvard University’s student health care system, thought so. In 2008, a pregnant Guyer expressed concerns to her supervisor about a plan to increase from 14 to 16 the […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
MBTA: A textbook case of civic dysfunction
What is the value of holding a major civic event after a winter storm in a city where the wheels have gone off the mass transit system? When the history of the New England Patriots Super Bowl XLIX victory parade is written, all of that will have been long forgotten. What will remain in Boston’s […]
Posted inEconomy
The Sun comes up on Worcester
A former employee at the Telegram & Gazette is preparing to launch a digital daily news startup sometime between April and July. The Worcester Sun will appear online only during the week, but on Sundays the Sun will come out both online and in print. The Sun would probably be the first daily online outlet […]
Posted inEnvironment
Offshore leases attract little interest
AN AUCTION FOR potential wind farm parcels off the coast of Massachusetts drew little interest on Thursday, as two firms submitted low bids for two areas and no bids were placed on the other two up for lease. The US Department of Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management awarded one lease to RES Americas Development, […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download
Rodrigues, AIM already sick of sick leave law
The Bay State’s sick leave law, passed by a crushing margin in November, inspired politicians around the country. In his State of the Union address, President Obama called on Congress to work to grant all workers seven days of paid sick leave. The Boston Globe’s Joanna Weiss has noted that the issue may give Hillary […]