There’s no better phrase than conspicuous consumption to describe the orgy of excess that is Black Friday. The first day of the traditional holiday shopping season had been creeping earlier […]
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Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Occupying the campus auditorium
It had a whiff of the 60s about it, and that was no accident. Yesterday’s “Reclaiming Our Economy” teach-in at Northeastern University was the brainchild of Northeastern economics professor Barry […]
Posted inThe Back Story, Uncategorized
Patrick targets the achievement gap
In a passionate speech before a packed house at UMass Boston on Wednesday, Gov. Deval Patrick announced that we must close the achievement gap in our schools if opportunity is […]
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Journalism cuts are serious business
The never-ending reductions in newsrooms just keep piling up. The latest victims, though, are not reporters on the front lines of journalism or in the support areas in circulation or […]
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Murray’s mystery ride
The Boston Herald’s Howie Carr asks the question everyone has been wondering this week: What was Lt. Gov. Tim Murray really doing in the predawn hours on Wednesday when he […]
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Tax on us
It’s not exactly a full-fledged phenomenon yet but there is a noticeable trend amid the economic angst and anti-tax rhetoric: Voters in Massachusetts communities are choosing to reach deeper into […]
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Judge returns O’Brien “statements”
A correction has been added to the story regarding Judge Carol Ball’s involvement in another case. The judge in the cases against former Probation Commissioner John O’Brien and a one-time […]
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15 years and counting
In 1996, the first issue of CommonWealth magazine featured a cover story on the changing economics of middle-class life in Massachusetts. The story focused on Heritage Road in Billerica, where […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Pieces of the Dream
The American Dream knows no borders. The often-quoted lines on the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free,” underscore the […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Dimming the Globe’s Spotlight
The term “scoop” in a journalistic sense has become a cliché, used far more by outsiders than those in the business, if it’s ever heard in newsrooms at all. But […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
The Constitution’s road map
Congress wasn’t intentionally setting out to write a Strategic Plan for the United States, but that’s what the Founding Fathers did in the preamble to the Constitution, only they didn’t […]
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Sources say sports reporting needs to raise its game
While we don’t usually have a sports page here at the Download, the ongoing drama that is the Boston Red Sox points to a troubling trend in journalism: What, exactly, […]
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Who’s guarding the guards?
Sunday’s Boston Globe led with the story that lottery officials tacitly accepted, and sometimes actively encouraged, high roller players in their manipulation the game Cash WinFall. The story also found […]
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Ireland praises DeLeo, Murray
Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Roderick Ireland yesterday praised the courage of House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray for approving emergency funds for the state court system, […]
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Defining conflicts for lawmakers
State Sen. Steven Tolman put off his resignation from the Senate until the end of today so he could beat back any attempts to water down the casino bill and […]
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The bare facts
The country is an economic basket case and Washington is in political gridlock, but media coverage of the race for US Senate in Massachusetts is focused on a couple of […]
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iSad: Steve Jobs
Put up for adoption at birth by a young unwed mother, college dropout, garage inventor, Buddhist capitalist, culture changer, genius, tyrant. He never quite fit the profile of American entrepreneur, […]
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Katherine Craven, superstar
When one state official does a superlative job, does anybody notice? Which brings us to the case of Katherine Craven. Craven, the first executive director of the Massachusetts School Building […]
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The immigrant wedge
If it’s election season, it’s time to ratchet up the rhetoric about immigration, and the fatter the target, the better. That’s why in-state college tuition for the children of illegal […]
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Firefighters’ folly
It seemed like something from the Onion. But stories about the antics of the Boston firefighters union often have the feeling of parody about them. The union is heading to […]
Posted inArts and Culture, The Download, Uncategorized
OH MY GOD!
Yes, that was my reaction when I read the small editorial in this morning’s Boston Globe about a small Catholic university in Pennsylvania rescinding its invitation to syndicated columnist Ellen […]
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Mass Dems needle Scott Brown on gay rights
The Massachusetts Democratic Party celebrated the demise of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ by putting Scott Brown on the defensive before what should have been a marquee moment for the Massachusetts […]
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Pay to play on Beacon Hill
The first indictments in the long-simmering scandal over rigged hiring at the state’s Probation Department are in. It’s no surprise that former Probation Commissioner John O’Brien has been brought up […]
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Coakley indicts O’Brien, Cahill aide
Indictments unsealed today by Attorney General Martha Coakley allege the commissioner of the state’s Probation Department and the one-time chief of staff to former state Treasurer Tim Cahill engaged in […]
