Campaign fundraising by Elizabeth Warren and Scott Brown continues apace, which is to say it is happening at ridiculous levels. Brown, who used to have a campaign war chest that terrified opponents, raised just under $7.5 million in the past fundraising quarter. That would be an impressive number anywhere else, except that Brown is trying […]
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For Patrick, the heat is on
Gov. Deval Patrick’s breakfast cereal yesterday probably didn’t go down too smoothly if he ate it while reading the Sunday Globe. The front of the paper’s Metro section featured a story on Patrick hopscotching the country on behalf of President Obama’s campaign while a crisis at the state drug lab threatens to spring thousands of […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
Boston braces for crime surge from state lab scandal
What was interesting about Thursday’s press conference at Boston City Hall on how the city plans to cope with the fallout of the Annie Dookhan scandal was who showed up — and who didn’t. Mayor Thomas Menino was there, along with Police Commissioner Ed Davis; Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley; US Attorney Carmen Ortiz; […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Putting a face on the opposition
You’d never know by the civil face-to-face encounters across the state yesterday that underlying many of these contests is a nastiness – in some cases, outright disdain – for election opponents that seems to be quieted by the physical presence of the object of their ire. Then there’s the Tierney-Tisei race, but you already knew […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Brown and Warren head way out west
All things Western Massachusetts get a rare opportunity to shine when Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren take their campaign cage match to Springfield tonight. The candidates’ early vows to keep the US Senate race positive now seem positively quaint. In an age where political campaigns study polls like tablets from on high and react accordingly, […]
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Hard times at the New York Times
New York Times union employees staged the world’s most polite union walkout yesterday, filing out of the newspaper’s headquarters for a brief period to protest the slow pace of contract negotiations. The Times Newspaper Guild has been engaged in protracted contract talks for 18 months, and the talks look like they’re going nowhere. So the […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Student loan debt affecting more parents
As the nation’s economy inches toward recovery, economic growth is being challenged by an ever worsening student loan problem. And as a new ProPublica/Chronicle of Higher Education investigation finds, the debt burden is longer limited to young people. US News and World Report found that while the amount of other types of household debt […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Mitt hearts Mass.?
It was abundantly clear who the winner of last night’s presidential debate was: Massachusetts. After years of pursuing his White House dream while trying to keep an arms-length distance from the bluest of blue states – and his signature health care act – Mitt Romney hailed the Bay State as a sort of real-life exemplar […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Debating the moderators
In one of the most fiercely partisan eras in American politics, David Gregory managed to do the impossible. Republicans and Democrats will never agree on who won Monday night’s debate between Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren, but they found common ground on one sure thing: The Meet the Press host did an appalling job as […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Edge to Brown, but bipartisan image suffers
Both candidates for US Senate scored points in Monday night’s debate, with many analysts giving the edge to Scott Brown. But Brown may have undercut his image as an independent, bipartisan voice in Washington by acknowledging his pledge to oppose any tax increases and embracing Antonin Scalia as his “model Supreme Court justice.” As he […]