Denis Lemos, an undocumented student from Framingham who was featured in a CommonWealth story on immigration last fall, is being allowed to stay in the United States. The US Department […]
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 inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Smart on crime is everyone’s mantra
As Gov. Deval Patrick and legislative leaders close ranks around controversial “three strikes” legislation, a group calling itself Smart on Crime Massachusetts today called on the officials to rethink their […]
Posted inEnvironment, Health Care, Opinion, State House News Service
Study: Wind turbines pose no health issue
An independent group of medical, environmental health, and engineering experts have concluded that there are few health effects that can be traced to living or working near wind turbines. The […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Lawrence mayor, paper call temporary truce
mayor william lantigua’s successful appeal for the state to run the Lawrence Public Schools brought about another big development: the mayor sat down to talk with an Eagle-Tribune reporter who […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
Debt crunch
It is the height of the Occupy movement last fall, and some 200 demonstrators are marching into Boston’s Financial District chanting slogans such as, “If we don’t get no jobs, […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Pieces of the Dream
The American Dream knows no borders. The often-quoted lines on the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free,” underscore the […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Dialing for dollars
training high school journalists wasn’t the first order of business for Joe Bergantino when he launched the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University. But as it became […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, Transportation
Regional transit taxes get lukewarm reception
Bay State regional leaders applauded new proposals outlined in a new MassINC report that would empower metro Boston and other areas of the state to tax their own residents to […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, Transportation
MassINC report calls for regional transportation taxes
A new MassINC report is calling for regional taxes to fund the state’s transportation infrastructure, which would mean any additional MBTA aid would have to come from residents of the […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Speedy bridge repairs
UPDATE: This story has been updated to include comments from Governor PatrickTwelve down and two to go. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation is currently on track to complete the replacement […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Environment, State House News Service
Nuclear disaster funding increases in Plymouth
the owner of Pilgrim Station is opening up its wallet to fund local emergency training, an indication that the nuclear accident at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is having […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, Transportation
Delays in service
late into a May evening in New Bedford, commuters told three stone-faced federal officials about their daily 90-minute plus treks up Route 24 to Interstate 93 toward Boston, a stressful […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
MBTA considering a ban on alcohol advertising
MBTA General Manager Richard Davey says he is “strongly looking at” a future systemwide ban on alcohol advertising. Davey made the comment last week at newly-renovated Ashmont Station in Dorchester, […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Boston NAACP moves to recapture relevance
The NAACP’s Boston branch all but dropped out of sight in recent years, but new president Michael Curry is looking to erase doubts about the all-volunteer organization’s relevancy by stepping […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Lawrence on the mat
lawrence, with an anemic tax base and the state’s highest poverty rate, is no stranger to the usual litany of urban woes facing struggling cities. But Lawrence’s problems suddenly became […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
T advisory board backs cost shifting
UPDATE: A correction has been made to this story. See below. To help balance its fiscal year 2012 budget, the MBTA Advisory Board is proposing to transfer some of the T’s transportation […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, Transportation
Doubts on T parking revenue proposal
Should the MBTA use some of its future parking revenues to help rescue the agency from its latest financial crisis? A group of independent transportation experts who advise the state […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service
Ending Middleton’s environmental nightmare
Receivers have been known to parachute into Bay State municipalities to clean up their finances, but never to clean up their landfills. That all changed when attorney Michael Leon was […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
The little college that could
WILKELSON GEDEON HAD his heart set on majoring in engineering at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. But the Arlington native, a self-declared procrastinator, missed the application deadline. After […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
The Herald’s head man
A 27-year veteran of the Boston Herald, editor-in-chief Joe Sciacca has spent most of his career covering Massachusetts politics. So on election night when US Rep. Barney Frank complained about […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics, State House News Service, The Download
Mayors want Beacon Hill to get tough on health care, unions
By Gabrielle Gurley Massachusetts does not have the financial wherewithal to fully address the looming fiscal problems facing cities and towns. But municipal officials’ pleas that state lawmakers look at […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
Candidates mum on how to fund transit
On Tuesday, a Boston Globe editorial called transportation finance “one of the more complex and thankless areas of state policy.” Perhaps that’s why Gov. Deval Patrick, Charlie Baker, Tim Cahill, […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Razor edge support for Question 3
Milford residents appear to narrowly support Question 3, according to CommonWealth magazine’s Bellwether project. The Bellwether project’s online town forum found that supporters of the ballot question, which would cut […]
Posted inHealth Care, State House News Service
Primary care docs in short supply
Primary care physicians continue to be short supply in the Bay State for the fifth year in a row, according to the 2010 workforce study released today by the Massachusetts […]