edward kennedy has been getting an earful of late. And since the subject of the senator’s listening sessions is the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, which he played a […]
Shawn Zeller
Posted inPolitics
Homing in on the problem
phil mangano, former manager of hippie musical acts of the 1960s and volunteer at a downtown Boston soup kitchen, would seem one of the least likely Bay Staters to find […]
Posted inPolitics
If the Democrats regain control of the House the Massachusetts delegation will be big winners
Could 12 long years in exile finally be coming to an end for congressional Democrats? Some of the most respected prognosticators in Washington are saying this could be the year […]
Posted inHealth Care
DC think tanks have unpredictable reactions to the Massachusetts health care plan
when edward kennedy ascended the State House steps in April to praise the Legislature’s passage of a bill that aims to ensure that every Massachusetts resident has health care coverage, […]
Posted inPolitics
Meet Jim McGovern: congressional class of 96 and godfather of Worcester politics
bald and bespectacled, he doesn’t exactly look like power in pinstripes as he moves though the Capitol. Still, after 10 years in Congress, Jim McGovern is increasingly taking on the […]
Posted inEconomy
Federal tax reform could be a mixed bag for Massachusetts
Winter 2006 When President Bush’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform issued its report in November after 10 months of study and debate, US Sen. John Kerry wasn’t impressed. A […]
Posted inUncategorized
The Bay State delegation gets creative in fighting energy costs
Growth & Development Extra 2006 The scene, which took place just before Thanksgiving, was hardly the picture of energy independence that US policymakers have long held as a goal. Standing […]
Posted inUncategorized
Ted Kennedy takes up immigration reform
It isn’t a typical day in Washington when that liberal lion Sen. Edward Kennedy joins forces with a conservative Republican from Idaho, especially to take up a cause of prime […]
Posted inPolitics
Bipartisan back scratching could kill an LNG plant in New Bedford
When the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved plans to construct a liquefied natural gas facility in Fall River in June, no one was more outraged than the city’s mayor, Edward […]
Posted inPolitics
The feds demand more progress on state welfare reform
In 1995, Massachusetts was ahead of the welfare-reform curve, adopting guidelines aimed at moving welfare recipients from public dole to employment payroll a year before federal legislation was passed to […]
Posted inEnvironment
Power players in the capital are making waves over wind farms and fishing limits
Whether over wind farms or fishing restrictions, the waters off the Massachusetts coast are roiling with controversy. But the real waves are made in Washington, DC, where these and other […]
Posted inPolitics
Republican congressional candidates try to get noticed by Bay State voters-and by their own party
Ken Chase is running for Congress, he says, to give voters a choice.”Fundamentally, there is a corruption of the process at the congressional level,” says the Medford native, who graduated […]
Posted inEconomy
Public officials and business leaders put on a fullcourt press to save Bay State military bases
The nation is engaged in a tenuous campaign to rebuild and democratize Iraq. In Afghanistan, US soldiers continue to hunt for Al Qaeda terrorists. But back in Washington, the military […]
Posted inUncategorized
The Bay State is falling behind in targeted research dollars
It is no secret that Massachusetts, with its powerhouse universities and academic medical centers, gets more than its share of federal funding for scientific and medical research. The Bay State […]
Posted inEconomy
Robert Greenstein and the Center on Budget get hawkish on the federal deficit
Earlier this year, when President Bush proposed his budget for fiscal 2005, it surprised no one that the administration’s spending plan was denounced by the Center on Budget and Policy […]
Posted inEconomy
Massachusetts comes around to supporting an Internet sales tax
A pair of boots from L.L. Bean. The latest bestseller from Amazon.com. A diamond engagement ring from Blue Nile. Every day, more and more consumers are buying items like these […]
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
After salvaging the Big Dig Andrew Natsios has a tougher task rebuilding Iraq
President George W. Bush’s hopes for re-election are now riding on turning Iraq, a country riven by ethnic and religious factions with no memory of anything but dictatorship, into a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Romneys public safety chief calls for a targeted approach to fighting terrorism
It’s been a grueling half-year for Gov. Mitt Romney, who has taken his lumps from Beacon Hill Democrats over the state budget and his government reorganization plan, which was summarily […]
Posted inPolitics
Mitt sends his missionaries to Capitol Hill
The Congressional Pig Book, published annually by the Washington, DC-based Citizens Against Government Waste, is supposed to shame the states that are the biggest recipients of pork-barrel spending–and the members […]
Posted inUncategorized
Harshbarger finds a corporate cause
He’s the last person one would have expected to benefit from the corporate scandals that have rocked the nation this year. But it’s true: Scott Harshbarger, the former Massachusetts attorney […]