A coalition of labor leaders and ride-share drivers is asking the Supreme Judicial Court to block ballot measures that would classify the drivers as independent contractors rather than employees under Massachusetts law – and the suit may feel like déjà vu.
Jennifer Smith
Jennifer Smith writes for CommonWealth Beacon and co-hosts its weekly podcast, The Codcast. Her areas of focus include housing, social issues, courts and the law, and politics and elections. A California native who also lived in Utah, Jennifer has covered Massachusetts since 2011 for a variety of publications. She worked breaking news in the Boston Globe’s metro section and provided courtroom coverage of the Boston Marathon bomber trial for the international wire service Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) while completing her undergraduate journalism degree at Northeastern University in Boston. For four years, Jennifer was a staff writer and later news editor for the Dorchester Reporter, covering her home neighborhood and the city of Boston with a particular focus on politics and development. Her work and commentary have appeared in WBUR, GBH News, Harvard Public Health Magazine, and Politico’s Massachusetts Playbook. She has co-hosted MassINC’s Massachusetts politics and policy podcast The Horse Race since 2018, interviewing newsmakers, journalists, and elected officials across the state.
Posted inEducation
Education report recommends thinking outside classroom walls
A new action plan released by the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy pushes adopting more flexible teaching models and enthusiastically incorporating new technologies to expand school systems and resources virtually.
Posted inEducation
METCO participation boosts student performance, with caveats
“Enrolling in high performing suburban schools generates large and lasting gains for METCO participants,” according to the report prepared by Elizabeth Setren, a Tufts University economist.
Posted inHousing
Unearthing racial covenants on the North Shore
Not many people take the time to dig through a century of property records on a house or parcel of land, but an ugly history might be buried there. A […]
Posted inPolitics
Short takes: Baker makes his exit from Mass. politics official
According to campaign finance records, his gubernatorial campaign account was dissolved on January 4 and so was the super PAC that he helped launch in 2019 to support largely centrist candidates across Massachusetts.
Posted inCourts
No life without parole for those under 21, SJC rules
In a national first, a close SJC ruling declared it unconstitutional to sentence anyone under the age of 21 to life without the possibility of parole.
Posted inHousing
Boston puts housing tax incentives on ice
An analysis of potential housing subsidies submitted to the city on Wednesday said a policy eliminating or reducing taxes on new development was anything but a silver bullet, especially with interest rates and supply and labor shortages grinding housing production to a crawl.
Posted inEconomy
Mass. springs up the progressive state tax rankings
With the passage of the Fair Share Amendment, or “millionaire’s tax,” Massachusetts is now the seventh most “progressive” state tax system in the country, according to a sweeping new report.
Posted inArts and Culture
The ‘frantic paddling’ of Boston’s food scene
Boston’s ever-changing food scene is now on the front edge of another era, one driven by the pandemic and marked not just by evolution in outdoor dining or cocktails to go, but labor unrest.
Posted inCourts
SJC takes another swing at Uber ‘clickwrap’ contracts
Are the current “terms and conditions” details that ride-share passengers must agree to sufficient, or are they signing away certain legal rights without enough notice?
Posted inHousing
‘What is can be’ – A second life for the Somerville triple-decker
In Somerville, a years-long push to re-embrace the triple-decker dovetailed with a serious need for new housing units, and its city council voted in November to fully legalize new three-unit construction.
Posted inMedia
CommonWealth Beacon’s most popular Codcasts of 2023
“I really take that as a kind of a philosophy, almost, at this particular point, that I want to be as optimistic as I possibly can, knowing the bleakness of my situation as a reality, but also to walk on air, meaning, I think, take chances that you might have put off at other times in your life.”
Posted inGovernment
The ‘labor whisperer’ inside Boston City Hall
“Don’t demonize your opponent. Don’t question your opponent’s motives. I mean, I’m actually slipping here by even saying opponent,” said Lou Mandarini, who was called Mayor Michelle Wu’s “labor whisperer.”
Posted inEnvironment
New regulations would brace development for more severe storms
STORMS ACROSS Massachusetts have been growing in strength, with deluges this year sending bacteria-laden stormwater into the ocean and wreaking havoc in flash floods. The state’s environmental agencies are gearing […]
Posted inEconomy
For the ‘canna-curious,’ a new way to buy and ‘drink weed’
Theory Wellness, opening the state’s first drink-only cannabis dispensary in Medford, is betting on the growing cannabis beverage market and looking to make the process of buying and drinking marijuana look a lot more like the process of buying and drinking beer or the ever-more-popular spiked seltzer.
Posted inMedia
Will artificial intelligence make or break newsrooms?
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE is already in the newsroom. Smart transcription software helps reporters go through their notes faster and review meetings they didn’t have a chance to attend in person, large […]
Posted inHousing
A first look at Wu’s housing production goal
Mayor Michelle Wu and her planning chief hedged on setting out long-term housing production goals during a press briefing earlier this week. Days later, the administration offered stakeholders a first look at shorter-term housing targets.
Posted inHousing
Unclear target for Boston’s housing goals
Mayor Michelle Wu and planning chief Arthur Jemison were leery about offering long-term housing production goals even as they referred to policies that would drive “a very large number” of units year over year.
Posted inHealth Care
Mass. faces health care cost ‘inflection point’
Massachusetts has long been a leader in providing access to health care coverage, but rising costs across the health care sector are squeezing individuals and businesses alike
Posted inState Government
Short takes: Will ‘quorum sessions’ become a go-to option on Beacon Hill?
In a history-making move, the House and Senate passed a $3.1 billion spending bill over the objections of many Republican lawmakers. The branches pulled it off by bringing in enough legislators to establish a quorum – 81 in the House and 21 in the Senate.
Posted inEnvironment
Mass. barrels toward critical period of ‘rapid decarbonization’
Massachusetts has a staggering to-do list in order to meet its 2050 commitment to hit net zero greenhouse emission.
Posted inCriminal Justice
SJC weighs officer privacy against public records rights
The Supreme Judicial Court is wading into a drawn-out public records fight stemming from the Bristol County District Attorney’s refusal to release documents, recorded interviews, and the names of officers involved in the 2021 fatal shooting of 30-year-old Anthony Harden.
Posted inPolitics
Jane Swift’s life of public scrutiny and personal challenge
Swift’s years in elected office were marked by normal political scrutiny plus a fog of turn-of-the century skepticism that a young woman or a new mother could do the job. Now, with almost all of the state’s top constitutional offices held by women, the state and its media have been engaged in some self-reflection, considering the way different genders and their roles are scrutinized.
Posted inPolitics
Short takes: Josh Kraft for mayor?
Boston’s political rumor mill has churned for months about whether Josh Kraft, son of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft and head of the organization’s philanthropic arm, is eyeing a campaign for mayor of Boston.