The Codcast

A gas tax holiday may be good politics but it’s not good public policy, according to Evan Horowitz, executive director of the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University. […]

The Federal Transit Administration gave the MBTA a safety to-do list last week, with each task assigned its own timetable. CommonWealth Magazine · MBTA cuts service to deal with safety […]

CommonWealth Magazine · Speaker Mariano says healthcare regulation needs updates

When Nneka Hall was pregnant with her third child, she had a symptom of preeclampsia, a serious pregnancy complication, but her doctor never caught it. Hall felt her daughter hiccuping […]

CommonWealth Magazine · Street mural artists explain their craft

Billions of dollars are going to be pumped into the state’s unemployment insurance trust fund, but there is no guarantee the money will solve the fund’s problems. CommonWealth Magazine · […]

Rep. Patricia Haddad of Somerset, long a powerful figure in the Massachusetts House, is now also the star of a new documentary written, directed, and produced by California-based filmmaker Kiki […]

CommonWealth Magazine · Massachusetts Exceptionalism: Reputation meets Reality

In a highly unusual move, the Massachusetts Senate on Thursday voted for a bill legalizing sports betting by voice vote – sparing individual senators the need to record their position […]

Two top officials with the Conservation Law Foundation say the region’s power grid operator and the state’s utilities are in some ways part of the problem instead of the solution […]

CommonWealth Magazine · Public health — from the local perspective

Gordon van Welie, the president and CEO of ISO-New England, says there are four pillars that support the regional power grid his organization oversees, and all four are showing signs […]

CommonWealth Magazine · Michelle Wu on the need for “bold, urgent” change — and responding directly to detractors

Massachusetts spends more than $1 billion a year to incarcerate roughly 13,000 people in its state prisons and county houses of correction, but a lot of the details of that […]

Chris Doughty has no experience in politics. But he believes leading the state is similar to leading a large business. “There’s not one part of the governor’s life that I’m […]

Land Court Judge David Foster ordered the scrap metal export business at Brayton Point in Somerset to shut down largely because of what he heard and saw on a visit […]

State Sen. Sonia Chang Diaz’s mother was a social worker, who helped women and children living on the margins overcome systemic barriers. Her father was a Costa Rican-born NASA astronaut […]

Carlene Pavlos, executive director of the Massachusetts Public Health Association, says the Baker administration’s policy of leaving many of the major COVID decisions to local boards of health helps explain […]

Gov. Charlie Baker has been pushing for legislation he says would give “law enforcement more tools to keep our roads safe from impaired drivers.”   CommonWealth Magazine · Defense lawyer […]

Massachusetts has taken lots of steps to rein in runaway spending on healthcare, but one area has largely avoided state regulation: prescription drugs. CommonWealth Magazine · Freidman, Senate push transparency […]

The New Bedford Historical Society, whose focus is the history of people of color in New Bedford, appears poised for a takeoff.  CommonWealth Magazine · New Bedford arts groups making […]

Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute and John McDonough of the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard University trace the origins of the fight over Mass General Brigham’s […]

Students are contracting COVID-19, occasionally in school – but medical experts say school is the safest place for kids. Parents are urged to vaccinate their children against COVID, though children […]

In the 1970s, the federal government launched the Community Development Block Grant program and funneled $13 million in largely no-strings-attached money to New Bedford. The mayor at the time, Jack […]