THERE IS BROAD agreement that Massachusetts desperately needs to build more housing, but should state government be subsidizing the construction of market-rate units? That question is at the heart of […]
Should state dollars be used to jumpstart market-rate housing construction?
Posted inTransportation
Healey brings in a transit professional to run the T
NEARLY FOUR MONTHS into her term, Gov. Maura Healey made what she described as the most important appointment of her time in office, naming Phillip Eng as the new general […]
Posted inThe Codcast
Should Mass. legalize teachers’ strikes?
CommonWealth Magazine · Should Massachusetts legalize teachers’ strikes?
Posted inUncategorized
Should Massachusetts legalize teachers’ strikes?
WHEN EDUCATORS IN four Massachusetts school districts went on strike over the past year, walking out of the building meant walking into hot water with the state. Public employee strikes […]
Posted inEducation
Should Massachusetts legalize teachers’ strikes?
WHEN EDUCATORS IN four Massachusetts school districts went on strike over the past year, walking out of the building meant walking into hot water with the state. Public employee strikes are […]
Posted inTransportation
Healey about to name new MBTA GM
GOV. MAURA HEALEY on Monday is expected to tap the retired president of the Long Island Rail Road as the MBTA’s next general manager. Phillip Eng left the commuter rail […]
Posted inOpinion
Pause the search for a new GM at the MBTA
THE SEARCH for a new MBTA general manager and all the hype around it is at best a distraction and, at worst, obscures the difficult work needed to turn around […]
Posted inEducation
Undocumented students are the key to our future
FOR A STATE that that relies as much on immigration as Massachusetts does, we are falling farther behind the rest of the country when it comes to economically competitive policies […]
Posted inOpinion
We want a 5% cap on rent increases
IN A HISTORIC win for Boston’s housing justice movement and working-class families, the Boston City Council recently voted 11-2, in favor of rent stabilization! Now the power is in the […]
Posted inOpinion
Five actions we can take to address bullying
My son was bullied in elementary school last year. For months. His school and our school district let him down. And we are still dealing with the fallout. Over the […]
Posted inPolitics, State Government
Mariano to DiZoglio: pound sand
IN A SHARPLY WORDED letter, Speaker Ron Mariano told state Auditor Diana DiZoglio her plan to audit the House of Representatives is “entirely without legal support or precedent” and that […]
Posted inThe Download
MBTA pension benefits tweaked to attract, retain workers
THE MBTA IS offering signing bonuses and other perks to fill the many job openings at the agency. Now the transit authority is tweaking its retirement benefits to better retain […]
Posted inTransportation
MBTA pension benefits tweaked to attract, retain workers
THE MBTA IS offering signing bonuses and other perks to fill the many job openings at the agency. Now the transit authority is tweaking its retirement benefits to better retain […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
T says low-income fare ramp-up would be year
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE MBTA OFFICIALS estimated Thursday they would need at least a year and about $5 million to get a widespread low-income fare option off the ground, plus […]
Posted inTransportation
Survey indicates dramatic demographic shift among T riders
THE NUMBER of riders taking the MBTA declined significantly during COVID, but their demographic makeup also changed, shifting far more toward minorities and people with lower incomes. A new passenger […]
Posted inTransportation
Slow zones across 27% of MBTA subway system
INTERIM MBTA General Manager Jeffrey Gonneville on Thursday offered no timeline on when slow zones covering 27 percent of the subway system will be lifted, and said repair work will take […]
Posted inHealth Care
For Affordable Care Act at 13, reversals of fortune
TODAY MARKS THE Affordable Care Act’s 13th birthday since its signing by President Obama on March 23, 2020, a landmark moment that our current president famously noted at the time with […]
Posted inThe Download
Healey warns pharmacies to keep abortion meds stocked
WITH ACCESS TO a widely-used abortion medication on the line, Massachusetts is trying to walk and chew gum at the same time – warning local pharmacies that they must continue supplying […]
Posted inHealth Care
Healey warns pharmacies to keep abortion meds stocked
WITH ACCESS TO a widely-used abortion medication on the line, Massachusetts is trying to walk and chew gum at the same time – warning local pharmacies that they must continue supplying […]
Posted inEducation
METCO students, parents lobby for more funding
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE HUNDREDS OF STUDENTS and parents roamed the halls of the State House this week to ask state lawmakers to support increased funding for the largest school […]
Posted inOpinion
Don’t let utilities hijack offshore wind
RECENT DISPUTES between offshore wind operators and Massachusetts regulators highlight how our clean energy future is far from guaranteed. The two projects in dispute, Commonwealth Wind and SouthCoast Wind (formerly […]
Posted inThe Download
Union urges teachers and students to ‘opt out’ of MCAS
THE DEBATE OVER standardized testing has sometimes come to feel like a battle of biblical proportions, so perhaps Deb McCarthy’s word choice is no accident. “In the beginning, I was […]
Posted inEducation
Union urges teachers and students to ‘opt out’ of MCAS
THE DEBATE OVER standardized testing has sometimes come to feel like a battle of biblical proportions, so perhaps Deb McCarthy’s word choice is no accident. “In the beginning, I was […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
We need to learn from criminal justice mistakes
OUR IDEA of safety is person-based. Whenever something goes tragically wrong in criminal justice our reflex is to go “down and in” to find the malfunctioning human whose misconduct defeated […]