Ed Markey easily outdistanced Steve Lynch to take the Democratic Senate nomination Tuesday night. He won in all the right places: Markey took the city of Boston, part of which […]
Paul McMorrow
Paul McMorrow comes to CommonWealth from Banker & Tradesman, where he covered commercial real estate and development. He previously worked as a contributing editor to Boston magazine, where he covered local politics in print and online. He got his start at the Weekly Dig, where he worked as a staff writer, and later news and features editor. Paul writes a frequent column about real estate for the Boston Globe’s Op-Ed page, and is a regular contributor to BeerAdvocate magazine. His work has been recognized by the City and Regional Magazine Association, the New England Press Association, and the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. He is a Boston University graduate and a lifelong New Englander.
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
A no-win situation
THE MASSACHUSETTS GAMING COMMISSION has been threatening for months to open the state’s southeastern region to commercial casino developers. The commission was scheduled to debate the matter today, but the […]
Posted inEconomy
Fear and loathing on the tax trail
THE MEN IN expensive suits came by the hundreds, but as they ambled into the ballroom at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel on a cold March morning, they already knew […]
Posted inEconomy
Patrick threatens veto, calls DeLeo-Murray plan ‘pay more get less’
THE CONFRONTATION between Gov. Deval Patrick and Beacon Hill’s legislative leadership is boiling over. House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray came together this week to deliver a […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service
Tax tag team
HOUSE AND SENATE LEADERS issued an unusual united rebuke of Gov. Deval Patrick’s sweeping transportation finance proposal on Tuesday, countering a wide-ranging billion-dollar transportation pitch Patrick made in January with […]
Posted inPolitics
Menino’s mark
Today, anyone with a shred of political ambition is staring at something that hasn’t been seen in Boston since 1983: an open mayor’s seat. Boston Mayor Tom Menino tipped his […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Back Story
Taking back Brockton
If Brockton passes on the prospect of becoming the first American municipality to seize troubled mortgages by eminent domain, it won’t be because the city is worried it’s on the […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Menino’s ailments slow his fundraising
A feisty State of the City address notwithstanding, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has yet to declare whether he’ll seek reelection, and a record sixth term, in November. Many political observers […]
Posted inPolitics
Mr. Cowan goes to Washington
Three years ago, Gov. Deval Patrick filled a US Senate vacancy by deferring to the empty seat’s longtime occupant: He tapped Paul Kirk, a longtime Kennedy family friend, to cast […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
GOP rules challenge House lawmaking process
NEW LEGISLATIVE SESSIONS on Beacon Hill normally begin the same way: House members vote through a rules package that gives legislative leadership broad powers to control the flow of bills […]
Posted inPolitics
Senate president showdown coming
THE MASSACHUSETTS STATE SENATE has had firm term limits for its leaders on the books for nearly 20 years. William Bulger put the limits in place (prospectively) as a way […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Economy, Politics
Cause development
JOHN ROSENTHAL’S BLACKBERRY lit up. Media requests poured in from NECN, WCVB, and WBUR. MSNBC wanted to talk. Even the Arabic-language network Al Jazeera found its way to his door. […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Patrick pitches spending, punts funding decision
The last time Gov. Deval Patrick tried fixing the state’s transportation system, he pitched a 19-cent hike in the gas tax, the Legislature balked, and that was as far as […]
Posted inPolitics
A forgetful Cahill defends lottery ads
TIM CAHILL HAD A GOOD DAY in court on Thursday. The former state Treasurer looked at ease taking the stand to deny charges that he used state Lottery funds […]
Posted inPolitics
Gateway Cities key to Senate election
BOSTON MAYOR TOM MEnINO’S voter turnout machine got much of the credit for propelling Elizabeth Warren past Sen. Scott Brown last week, but the focus on Boston obscures a much […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Warren turnout machine sweeps away Brown
SCOTT BROWN HANDED OFF ownership of the People’s Seat, stepped off the Park Plaza stage, and tried to explain to a crush of reporters how he’d just lost hold of […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Brown’s bipartisan money
SEN. SCOTT BROWN has staked his reelection efforts to the notion of bipartisanship. When Brown talks about being a bipartisan senator, he’s talking about voting with Democrats on Capitol Hill. […]
Posted inPolitics
Warren takes lead in TV spending
Elizabeth Warren’s campaign put an exclamation point on one of the most expensive Senate races in history when it announced this week that it had raised more than $12 million […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
A bank for infrastructure
Illustration by Peter and Maria Hoey.the pivot was abrupt, but it hardly sounded unfamiliar. For two straight hours, Joe Curtatone, the mayor of Somerville, had led an auditorium packed […]
Posted inEnvironment, The Back Story
Coal-fired power in state down to embers
Environmental activists rallied outside coal-fired power plants in Somerset and Holyoke this week, calling on Gov. Deval Patrick to shut the plants down. The activists don’t necessarily need political pressure […]
Posted inThe Back Story, Uncategorized
BID proposal would corral landlords
The Legislature is trying to tighten the state’s business improvement district law, sending Gov. Deval Patrick an economic development bill that includes a little-noticed provision preventing commercial landlords from opting […]
Posted inEconomy, The Back Story
The Greenway standoff continues
The state Department of Transportation didn’t take the knees out from under the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy this week. MassDOT may not have heard what it wanted to hear […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Conservancy loses bid for Armenian park care
The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy has lost its bid to maintain the Armenian Heritage Park, a half-acre park that sits in the middle of the Greenway park system. The […]
Posted inEconomy
Legal ambiguities face Mashpee Wampanoags
When Massachusetts lawmakers legalized casino gambling last year, they put the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe in a legally tenuous position: Lawmakers gave the tribe first crack at opening a casino in […]