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 […]
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Posted inEducation, The Download
Boston assignment plan: Let the hand-wringing begin!
Consider it as shocking a development as night following day. With the ink barely dry on a set of proposals to revamp the Byzantine student assignment system in the Boston public schools, a critique of the plans says they will turn back the clock and promote greater inequity in the availability of quality schools in […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Lynn, Lynn the city of substance
Everybody went to a fight in Lynn yesterday and a debate broke out. Partisans, voters and media packed the gym at the Lynn campus of North Shore Community College yesterday for the first face-to-face encounter between US Rep. John Tierney and his Republican opponent Richard Tisei, with Libertarian candidate Daniel Fishman seated between them, a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
Patrick appeals inmate sex-change ruling
Gov. Deval Patrick, who signed a transgender protection bill into law last November, is going to fight a judge’s ruling that the state must pay for a sex-reassignment surgery for an inmate who was convicted of murdering his wife. Patrick made no comment about the appeal on Wednesday, letting his Department of Correction handle the […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Brown and Warren ads nauseum
When the going gets tough, the tough go negative. Scott Brown played nice until Elizabeth Warren pulled ahead in four out five recent polls. Both candidates received heaps of praise for making a pact to keep PACs and other outside groups from running ads in Massachusetts, a gesture that helped bring some civility to what […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Bigger, older challenges ahead for new T chief
The state yesterday chose the head of Atlanta’s transit system to take the helm at the MBTA, a position that has been vacant for over a year since former general manager Richard Davey was promoted to secretary of transportation. Beverly Scott comes with a formidable background in transportation, but she will face her biggest challenge […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Personality politics
The latest installment of the Raybo-hearts-Scotto show couldn’t have taken place at a more appropriate spot than Sullivan’s at Castle Island. Ray Flynn, the former Boston mayor, is hot-dogging the US Senate race for all it’s worth, and Saturday’s appearance with Scott Brown at the famed Southie hot dog stand was worth a big splash […]
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Edge to Warren
The media consensus seems to be that Elizabeth Warren handled herself well in her first debate against US Sen. Scott Brown, although neither candidate scored a decisive victory. Warren was calm and collected, fending off charges about her Native American ancestry, highlighting Brown’s voting record, and warning that a vote to reelect the senator could […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Throwing MCAS results into the mix
From reading headlines and stories across the state, one would think the “M” in MCAS stands for “mixed.” The state released the results of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams this week and it seems editors and reporters didn’t delve too deeply into the dictionary to report the results. “Mixed MCAS report card for area […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Lantigua Agonistes
With the Bay State riveted on Mitt Romney’s floundering fortunes and Scott Brown’s declining poll numbers, the biggest municipal scandal in recent years is playing out quietly in the Merrimack Valley. It should be a banner year in Lawrence. The city is commemorating the centennial of the Bread and Roses Strike, one of the pivotal […]