IT’S NO LONGER a secret that Massachusetts vocational-technical and agricultural high schools are a great option for students of all backgrounds who want to learn a trade and pursue a career. […]
Economy
Posted inEconomy
Michelle Wu is ready to remake the system for remaking Boston
LOOKED AT ONE WAY, Michelle Wu concedes, it’s pretty eye-glazing stuff. “I bet if you ask most residents around the city, what are you worried about most, I don’t know […]
Posted inEconomy
Could Boston face an ‘urban doom loop’?
AT FIRST, the emptying out of downtown Boston office buildings looked like a seismic, but temporary, reaction to a once-in-a-hundred-year pandemic. Once we got a handle on the mysterious new […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Ashmont Grill offered a healthy serving of community-building
IT HAS BEEN, to borrow the hackneyed line from a made-up Boston bar, a real-life place where everybody knows your name. For 18 years, the Ashmont Grill has been the […]
Posted inOpinion
Competitiveness is the key: Here’s what’s needed
THE TERM “COMPETITIVENESS” seems to be top of mind as the new legislative session gets underway. Leaders in business, government, labor, and others are talking about it, expressing a range […]
Posted inEducation
Summer jobs for youth pay off
WHEN THE TOPIC of the achievement gap comes up, the conversation invariably veers to all the out-of-school factors facing low-income students and students of color that are correlated with poorer […]
Posted inEconomy
Lodging tax revenue skyrockets, except in bigger cities
LENOX, A TOURISM mecca in western Massachusetts, has seen a record-setting rebound in visitors in the wake of COVID. According to a recent story in the Berkshire Eagle, Lenox’s lodging […]
Posted inEconomy
Climate change taking toll on Mass. farms
RYAN VOILAND, owner of Red Fire Farm in Montague and Granby, says growing organic vegetables is hard enough, but doing it amidst climate change makes it nearly impossible. In 2021, […]
Posted inEconomy
With a clean slate, Healey has running room to act on urgent issues
NEW GOVERNORS RARELY ascend to the office as smoothly as Maura Healey. With several cabinet picks still to be announced as she takes office on Thursday, she is essentially working […]
Posted inEconomy, State Government, Technology
Healey names cabinet secretaries for economic development, technology
ONE DAY BEFORE she is slated to be sworn in as governor, Maura Healey continued to fill out her cabinet roster, naming a business veteran to helm economic development and […]
Posted inEconomy
Mass. employment nears pre-pandemic levels
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE MASSACHUSETTS EMPLOYERS added 17,300 jobs in November, labor officials announced Friday, putting the state within striking distance of returning to a pre-pandemic level of employment. Last […]
Posted inEconomy
Low birth rates, slow immigration harms state workforce
ALMOST EVERY INDUSTRY, from hospitals to restaurants, is struggling to hire in Massachusetts. And while some of this may be due to COVID-related factors that will eventually diminish, a new […]
Posted inEconomy
Rivera gets long contract extension at MassDevelopment
WITH LESS THAN a month before a new governor takes over, the MassDevelopment board of directors approved a long-term contract extension for Daniel Rivera, the authority’s president and chief executive officer. […]
Posted inEconomy
Retaining international students should be a top priority for Massachusetts
THE RECENT MIDTERM elections are just the latest in a long string of events that have put immigration in the national spotlight. Unfortunately, the politics distract the public from understanding […]
Posted inEconomy
Boncore resigns abruptly at MassBIO
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Former state senator Joe Boncore is stepping down as CEO of the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council by the end of the year and his second-in-command, Kendalle Burlin […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State Government
Lawmakers strip tax breaks out of $3.7b spending agreement
THE MASSACHUSETTS HOUSE and Senate reached an agreement on an economic development bill on Wednesday, which makes $3.79 billion in investments but strips out tax breaks that lawmakers had previously […]
Posted inEconomy
At least that confusing rideshare question isn’t on the ballot
IN NOVEMBER, voters will have to sift through complicated issues in the form of ballot questions like a tax surcharge on high earners and more arcane matters such as one […]
Posted inEconomy
Closing the racial wealth gap
IT’S BEEN MORE than seven years since the Boston Federal Reserve Bank published a report, titled “The Color of Wealth in Boston,” that has served as something of a regional […]
Posted inEconomy
Massachusetts gets $145 million to expand broadband
MASSACHUSETTS HAS BEEN awarded $145 million in federal money to expand broadband internet access, the White House announced Thursday. Jacob Leibenluft, US Treasury Chief Recovery Officer, said in a conference […]
Posted inOpinion
It pays to hire people with disabilities
NOW HIRING! The help wanted signs are everywhere these days, whether it’s the local sandwich shop around the corner or the high-tech Fortune 500 company. Today, there are nearly twice […]
Posted inEconomy, Energy
Here are some ways to lower your electric bill
MASSACHUSETTS RESIDENTS HAVE some options to avoid – or at least sidestep for awhile — the sky-high electricity rates coming this winter. National Grid provided a glimpse of what’s coming […]
Posted inEconomy
Mass. small businesses going through transition period
THE MASSACHUSETTS SMALL business economy is struggling to recover from COVID-19, even as it enters a major and time-sensitive transitional period. Many long-time small business owners are eying the exits, […]
Posted inEconomy
Convention business rebounding strongly in 2022
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AFTER TWO YEARS when its gathering halls were nearly empty of traditional big events, save for COVID vaccination clinics, Massachusetts Convention Center Authority officials on Thursday […]
Posted inEconomy
It’s actually time for employers to think about summer jobs
CULTURAL NORMS ARE being uprooted due to the pandemic and movements born: the Great Resignation, Great Reset, Great Rethink, and so on. What’s consistent among them is the suggestion that […]
