INTRO TEXT organized labor may represent just over 14 percent of the Massachusetts workforce, but unions showed last year that they still have plenty of juice on Beacon Hill. Despite […]
State House News Service
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Legislators’ per diems may get a DC boost
INTRO TEXT Per diem payments for mileage, meals, and lodging for Bay State legislators have long been fodder for critics who see no justification for politicians dining out on the […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, State House News Service
A question of equity
Nine black students, protected by the 101st AirborneDivision of the US Army, began classes at the all-whiteLittle Rock Central High School in 1957.Photo by UPI/LANDOV.as new england prepared to cheer […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Transportation pros make tough calls, get cold shoulder
INTRO TEXT columbus day fell during a particularly volatile moment in the 2006 gubernatorial campaign. Three weeks past his runaway primary win, there were still doubts about Deval Patrick’s electability-specifically, […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, State House News Service
Medford embraces wind power
INTRO TEXT As controversy continues to swirl around the Cape Wind proposal in Nantucket Sound, the city of Medford is leaping to the head of the class by shoring up […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
On district matters, a Patrick ally turns adversary
INTRO TEXT a year ago, Marty Walz was among the legion of liberal Democrats enthralled by Deval Patrick’s gubernatorial candidacy. The state representative from Boston’s Back Bay was an enthusiastic […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
Falling membership doesn’t affect PTA’s political clout
INTRO TEXT gov. deval patrick’s selection of Ruth Kaplan, a Brookline School Committee member and longtime MCAS critic, as his first pick for a seat on the Massachusetts Board of […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service
Study says CPA steers money to wealthy towns
INTRO TEXT when the community Preservation Act emerged from a tortuous legislative process to become law in 2000, state officials heralded it as the most significant land-use bill passed in […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Closed meetings carry a cost
INTRO TEXT Municipal officials could be in for a rude—and costly—awakening if they don’t follow the letter of the law. The Open Meeting Law, that is. Under bills now pending […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Still working on the railroad: funding fuzzy for South Coast rail
INTRO TEXT “it’s easy to say, ‘Give me this, give me that,’” said Rep. Joseph Wagner, the Chicopee Democrat who co-chairs the Joint Committee on Transportation, during testimony on a […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service
Saline solution
Illustration by Greg Morgana small group of Hull residents have roused themselves early on a Saturday morning for a presentation at the local senior center on the feasibility of getting […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service
A study in tax-study avoidance?
INTRO TEXT Of the seven business tax proposals put forward by Gov. Deval Patrick, “combined reporting” would deliver the biggest boost to state coffers, an estimated $136 million in fiscal […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Following the Money
Gregory Sullivan’s first termas IG ends in August, and he’smaking it known that he isavailable for another.phil johnston thought all hell was going to break loose at the State House. […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
The cable guys
it may not be etched in stone, but it’s a rule nonetheless: No one can write about public-access television without making reference to “Wayne’s World,” the Saturday Night Live skit—later […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
Accreditation agency raises questions about school finance
INTRO TEXT at first, the news looked good for Georgetown Middle High School, the sole secondary school in a northern Essex County town of 7,377 residents, with students in grades […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service
Taking Off
andreas gottzmann racks up quite a few frequent-flyer miles, traveling to Germany on business, but getting to the gate is a hassle. With no flights to Europe from Hartford’s Bradley […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service
On the Cape new homes for workers go begging
INTRO TEXT sandwich attorney jonathan Fitch doesn’t like the term “workforce housing.” He thinks it’s “gimmicky.” All he and his wife Nancy, who have been active on land-use issues in […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Two startups try to make consultants affordable for nonprofits
most nonprofit organizations run lean, if not mean, operations, with only the largest able to afford luxuries like contracting out a new database design to private management consultants. But even […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Towns get steamed over water rules
INTRO TEXT the soggiest spring on record may have given Quabbin Reservoir a two-year supply of water, but the rushing rains did little to replenish the groundwater that towns outside […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service
Racetracks bet it all on slots
INTRO TEXT bob o’malley’s voice sounds as old and tired as the racetrack he is trying to save. Or perhaps it’s the thoroughbred industry itself that has the 68-year-old chief […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, State House News Service
Flirting with Disaster
Route 1, in Saugus, took a dipduring this May’s floods.Photo by Nancy Lane/Boston Heraldwhen disaster strikes, the planning that happened ahead of time means everything. With that in mind, shortly […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
The pilot school concept comes to Fitchburg
INTRO TEXT would you lend ancient Chinese masterpieces to a middle school? Maybe not, but the Sackler Foundation didn’t blink before sending 33 priceless artifacts, among them Chinese Buddhas and […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
CW comes of age
Spring 2006Winston Churchill said, “History will be kind to me because I intend to write it.” In much the same vein, I intend, on the occasion of CommonWealth’s 10th anniversary […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
Education officials grow impatient with perenially failing public schools
INTRO TEXT ‘F’ is for failing, and some Massachusetts public schools have the dubious distinction of doing just that. But school turnarounds have not taken place as fast as education […]
