The Codcast

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 […]

It’s been a grim companion to the death toll of COVID-19: While the virus has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, homicide rates have also been soaring nationally. Homicides rose […]

Do what Maryland did. CommonWealth Magazine · Should we try a bit of Maryland in Mass.?That was one of the prescriptions health policy guru Dr. Emanuel Ezekiel of the University […]

Rep. Jake Auchincloss, the newest member of the state’s congressional delegation, is finishing his first year in the House. To say it’s been a tumultuous initiation to Congress would be […]

The new MBTA board is turning out to be very different from its predecessor, and chair Betsy Taylor says that’s by design.  CommonWealth Magazine · Meet the chair of the […]

HOUSE SPEAKER Ron Mariano recently announced that he planned to seek a second two-year term as speaker in January 2023. But Mariano, 75, made clear in an interview on The […]

The announcement by Gov. Charlie Baker that he won’t seek a third term shakes up the Massachusetts political landscape in a way that few decisions by a single officeholder could […]

Mass General Brigham, the state’s largest hospital system and its largest employer, has been down this road before. CommonWealth Magazine · The bullseye on Mass General Brigham’s backIn 2015, when […]

Berkshire District Attorney Andrea Harrington is participating in a unique national pilot program to track what goes into negotiating plea deals by prosecutors in her office. If she discovers race […]

Stuart Altman, the chair of the Health Policy Commission, is proud of what the agency has been able to do in Massachusetts to rein in health care costs, but now […]

In her victory speech after cruising to a landslide win in the Boston mayor’s race, Michelle Wu spoke of the urgency of “bold” change to “meet the moment” the city […]

John Dalton, the manager brought in from Chicago to oversee the construction of the $2.3 billion Green Line extension into Somerville and Medford, is looking to stick around after the […]

Acting Mayor Kim Janey declared last week that Boston will move to dismantle the tent city of homeless people that has grown in the area of Massachusetts Avenue and Melnea […]

A major policy debate is taking shape on Beacon Hill between those who see offshore wind as the key to meeting the state’s climate change goals, and those who see […]

Boston will elect a new mayor three weeks from today. Three debates, the first of which comes on Wednesday night, will finally give voters a chance to see the two […]

Acting Boston Mayor Kim Janey and the City Council are united in wanting a redo of the city’s Municipal Harbor Plan, but getting all of the stakeholders on the same […]

In trying to explain their recent fusion energy breakthrough, Dennis Whyte of MIT and Bob Mumgaard of Commonwealth Fusion Systems reached back to the dawn of aviation. CommonWealth Magazine · […]