RARE HAVE SO many been so eager to win an office with so few powers accorded to it. Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll announced her run for lieutenant governor yesterday, making […]
News Analysis
Posted inNews Analysis
30-40% of COVID patients at MGH incidentally infected
This is another in a series of conversations between Dr. Jarone Lee, a frontline critical care and emergency physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School, […]
Posted inBy The Numbers, Health Care, News Analysis
Poll shows sharp divide in attitudes depending on vaccination status
WITH COVID CASES surging in Massachusetts and tests hard to come by, deciding what feels safe to do can be a moving target. But for one group at least, the […]
Posted inArts and Culture
CommonWealth’s most-read commentary pieces of 2021 covered the waterfront
WE ARE EAGER to have CommonWealth serve as a forum for healthy debate and the exchange of strongly argued points of view from a range of voices across the state. […]
Posted inNews Analysis
We’re reporting Census data all wrong
This report was initially released by the Boston Foundation’s Boston Indicators project. CENSUS DATA on race and ethnicity are invaluable for understanding who we are as a region and how we’re changing […]
Posted inNews Analysis
Process overtakes promise on ARPA spending bill
IT STARTED OUT as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity — the chance to spend billions of dollars in unexpected federal and state funds to accomplish real change in Massachusetts – but as […]
Posted inEconomy
What if we didn’t shop till we drop?
YES, THERE’S THAT big meal, with all the talk of gratitude and fellowship, as people gather tomorrow with family and friends. But for many, it also serves as the pregame, […]
Posted inPolitics
Wu replicates exact Menino margin and map
IN THE CLOSING weeks of the Boston mayor’s race, Michelle Wu was name-checking her one-time boss, Tom Menino, a lot more than her former law professor, Elizabeth Warren. It was […]
Posted inPolitics
Who were the winners and losers (besides the candidates)?
WHO WON AND who lost yesterday? Of course, there are the candidates who put themselves and their ideas out there for voters. They all were winners for democracy, though the […]
Posted inNews Analysis
In Boston mayor’s race, newspaper endorsements a faint voice
“THE PAST ISN’T what it used to be; then again, it never was.” So goes an old saying, and perhaps the same is true for newspaper endorsements in elections. We […]
Posted inPolitics
Here’s the Diehl with wacky Mass. politics
IT’S OFTEN HARD for outsiders to make sense of Massachusetts, where Democrats reign supreme but Republicans have dominated the governor’s office for more than three decades. Today’s development does little […]
Posted inHealth Care
Few giving up their jobs over vaccine mandates
VACCINATION MANDATES are sweeping across the country, both in the public and private sectors. They have produced a great deal of anxiety in public conversation, and polls in recent months […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Vaccine fight only latest bad headline for State Police
IT’S NOT AS IF the Massachusetts State Police were on a particularly great run already. The department has been hit by one scandal after another, mostly centered on overtime fraud […]
Posted inNews Analysis
Opioid epidemic grinds on in Mass. at elevated rates
This research brief was prepared by the Boston Indicators Project. AS THE COVID-19 pandemic continues to fill headlines, the opioid epidemic grinds on with few signs of improvement. In this […]
Posted inNews Analysis
Voters shrug at Boston’s ‘historic’ mayor’s race
THE BOSTON MAYOR’S race drew national coverage, with stories appearing everywhere from the New York Times and Washington Post to the PBS NewsHour. The outsized attention was squarely focused on […]
Posted inPolitics
Mayoral debate more talking points than testy
SOME WERE EXPECTING fireworks, but what we saw was more often a display of sparklers. The five major candidates for mayor of Boston squared off Wednesday night in a televised […]
Posted inEducation
An education ‘he-cession’
THE PANDEMIC HAS walloped women economically, giving rise to the term “she-cession” to describe the financial fallout from COVID that has disproportionately hit them. Playing out much more quietly has […]
Posted inEnvironment
Why Ida brought record rainfall to the Northeast
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. RECORD DOWNPOURS FROM Hurricane Ida overwhelmed cities across the Northeast on September 1, hitting some with more than 3 inches […]
Posted inPolitics
The Sesame Street guide to the Boston mayor’s race
RUNNING FOR MAYOR of Boston is not child’s play, but a familiar jingle from a long-running children’s television show provides a useful template for considering how the candidates are positioning […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
RFK assassin’s parole recommendation ignites passions in divided family
MOST OF THOSE with first-hand memories of his assassination have probably reached initial eligibility for Social Security. But 53 years after Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down in a Los […]
Posted inNews Analysis
Moulton stirs the pot — again
AS A MARINE platoon leader in Iraq, Seth Moulton understood the discipline of the military chain of command as well as anyone. As a congressman with a healthy mix of […]
Posted inHealth Care
What does full FDA approval of Pfizer vaccine mean?
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article here. THIRTY PERCENT of unvaccinated American adults say they’re waiting for the COVID-19 vaccines […]
Posted inNews Analysis, Politics
Baker plays catch-up on vaccines, masks
CHARLIE BAKER has fashioned a Teflon political brand by bringing a drama-averse, middle-of-the-road bearing to issues that often incite passions and polarization. That approach seems closely tied to his persistent […]
Posted inNews Analysis
Share of White residents shrinking across Mass.
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE 2020 DECENNIAL US Census painted a portrait of a diversifying Massachusetts, and those changes stretched far beyond the state’s burgeoning urban centers to touch nearly […]
