With the backing of the most powerful man in the Beacon Hill triumvirate, Gov. Charlie Baker may be inching closer to the formation of a temporary fiscal and management control board to deal with the MBTA. House Speaker Robert DeLeo has decided to throw in his lot with the governor and support a control board. “We […]
The Download
W. Springfield’s troublesome grenade launchers
As part of post-Ferguson policing reforms, President Obama cracked down on the transfer of military-grade equipment to police departments across the US with an executive order that prohibits sending items like aircraft with weapons systems and bayonets, or as a MetroWest Daily News editorial put it, “bayonets!,” to state and local law enforcement agencies. The […]
Crunching the T’s numbers
In early April, the Boston Globe splashed a report across its front page about excessive absenteeism at the MBTA. Citing pages in a soon-to-be-released report from an advisory panel appointed by Gov. Charlie Baker, the Globe reported that T workers are off the job an average of 57 days a year and their overall absence rate […]
Olympic bid suddenly more sprint than marathon
True, the final decision about what city will host the 2024 Summer Olympics is still two years away. And even the sanctioning of Boston as the US Olympic Committee’s official entry is still four months off. But don’t be fooled by those timelines. A whole lot of giddyup has suddenly been put into the pace […]
Globe suits come with deep pockets
There was a time not so long ago that newspapers, from big to small, had the resources available to ensure that state and local agencies complied with open meeting and public records statutes designed to keep everybody transparent and accountable. Having an attorney on retainer and speed dial guaranteed swift action and more often than […]
The underinflated MBTA football
There should be as much handwringing about the MBTA as there is about Tom Brady and underinflated footballs. But there isn’t. MBTA riders are waiting on Gov. Charlie Baker and state lawmakers to do the right thing and fix the T once and for all. The problem is that despite the winter of 2015, doing […]
Death by a billion clicks?
Many have been sounding the death knell for print and television news since the worldwide embrace of the Internet. Legacy media have been losing eyes and bleeding red ink as more and more readers get their news online, whether it’s from their tablets and computers or, increasingly, their smartphones. So why, one might ask, would such […]
Senate guts Baker’s T plans
While the Legislature’s Transportation Committee was busy on Monday taking testimony on Gov. Charlie Baker’s MBTA reform bill, the Senate Ways and Means Committee was cutting to the chase and putting the finishing touches on a budget proposal that guts most of what Baker is seeking. The Senate budget proposal dispenses with the T fiscal […]
Is bipartisanship killing the era of school accountability?
Partisan gridlock is something everyone loves to hate. The dysfunction in Washington underscores everything that’s wrong with governing today. That should make moments of bipartisan agreement something to celebrate, glimmers of hope amidst the endless rancor that show leaders can find common cause for the greater good. But what if it turns out that everyone […]
The Globe’s I-93 off-ramp
Boston 2024’s initial plan for transforming the area around UMass Boston into an Olympic Athlete’s Village included a new on-and-off ramp to I-93 that would have cut right through the southern portion of the Boston Globe‘s property on Morrissey Boulevard. A map on page 27 of the key venue plan shows a new entrance and […]