WERE THE BRAWLS that became the main attraction at Encore Boston Harbor early Monday morning an unfortunate aberration, or is this just the cost of doing casino business? We’ll know […]
Michael Jonas
Michael Jonas works with Laura in overseeing CommonWealth Beacon coverage and editing the work of reporters. His own reporting has a particular focus on politics, education, and criminal justice reform.
Posted inUncategorized
Breaking down “Operation Clean Sweep”
How do you balance public safety and neighborhood quality of life concerns with support for the most marginalized people in a community? Those issues exploded into public view with the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
The complicated legacy of ‘broken windows’ policing
DRAWING ON LESSONS he learned as a seminarian, social worker, and then probation officer, George Kelling became a major thinker on law enforcement, envisioning a new approach to policing that […]
Posted inEducation
The taxing matter of education funding
When it comes to school funding, do we want to have our cake and eat it too? That’s the conclusion of an annual national poll of views on public education. […]
Posted inPolitics
Lawmakers eat away at transparency
WE’RE PRETTY SURE it’s not what our friends at State House News Service had in mind when they dubbed their weekly podcast “State House Takeout.” And if lawmakers haven’t budged on […]
Posted inPolitics
Alex Morse wants to change how Washington works
ALEX MORSE, the 30-year-old mayor of Holyoke, may look like he’s on a fool’s errand by challenging Rep. Richard Neal in next year’s Democratic primary. After all, just seven months ago […]
Posted inEducation
After showdown, all systems go at New Bedford charter school
THE CONTENTIOUS SHOWDOWN over a controversial New Bedford charter school plan may have faded from view, but the nuts-and-bolts work of getting a new school up and running has continued […]
Posted inTransportation
State calls off sale of East Boston easement rights
STATE TRANSPORTATION OFFICIALS said on Monday they are canceling the planned sale of rights to a stretch of land in East Boston and instead committing to a study of the area […]
Posted inTransportation
Calls grow to put brakes on Eastie land deal
CALLS FOR STATE transportation officials to slow down the process of selling the rights to a narrow strip of land parallel to a congested East Boston roadway have found a […]
Posted inPolitics
Ayanna Pressley, measured bomb-thrower
SHE EMERGED ON Monday as the leading voice of “the Squad,” not because hers is the loudest but because, in fact, it seems the most measured. Ayanna Pressley, diplomat of […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Old friends now in Beacon Hill face-off
A SHOWDOWN BETWEEN Beacon Hill veterans is unfolding as Secretary of State William Galvin seeks to bar former House speaker Sal DiMasi from registering as a State House lobbyist because […]
Posted inPolitics
Baker flunks driver’s license test
THE REGISTRY OF MOTOR VEHICLES, with its interminable waiting time and paperwork, has long been the state bureaucracy bane of drivers’ existence. Now it’s proving to be the same for […]
Posted inTransportation
Will Baker get on the T revenue train?
FOR CHARLIE BAKER, when you’ve lost Bob DeLeo and Marty Walsh, along with leading business voices, those infernal MBTA countdown clocks that can’t give Red Line riders a clue to when […]
Posted inEducation
Riley casts vision for education change
WHEN JEFF RILEY took the reins as state education commissioner early last year he suggested it was time to turn the page on 25 years of education reform efforts, pointing […]
Posted inEnvironment
Seaport: Boondoggle or model for future?
IS THE GLASS half full or half empty? The biggest Boston building boom in decades has been playing out in the city’s Seaport, a once forlorn 1,000-acre stretch of warehouses […]
Posted inEducation
Nearly $1 billion funding difference in education bills
SINCE JANUARY, when two proposals to update the state’s 26-year-old formula for funding Massachusetts schools were filed, one by Gov. Charlie Baker and another by a group of lawmakers led […]
Posted inEducation
A Swift return
IT’S BEEN A long time since Jane Swift left the public stage, retreating home to Western Massachusetts after a rocky 21-month tenure as governor. Just how much time has passed? […]
Posted inEconomy
Ed reform turncoat or just a more balanced position?
IN THE GREAT EDUCATION DEBATE that has animated American public life for the last several decades, the players roughly divide into two camps. The so-called “reformers” say education can, in […]
Posted inGuns
Does attention to shooting miss the mark?
YESTERDAY’S DAYTIME FATAL SHOOTING of a taxi driver near the Prudential Center in Boston was the top story among local media outlets throughout the day and it’s the lead front-page […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
From Kraft and Brady (but not that Brady), an apology — and vigorous legal defense
KRAFT AND BRADY. The two names will be forever linked in local lore for their roles in a football dynasty to rival all others. But the names are also now […]
Posted inEducation
Putting standardized testing to the test
WITH SPRING COMES the annual ritual of MCAS testing in Massachusetts schools. It’s how we gauge the performance of individual students as well as schools and districts. The assessment of […]
Posted inEducation
Riley throws in towel on New Bedford charter plan
FOUR MONTHS AFTER he unveiled a novel proposal for a New Bedford charter school billed as a way to ease the acrimony that has plagued the state’s education sector, Massachusetts […]
Posted inEducation
New Bedford charter legislation delayed again
SEN. PAT JEHLEN of Somerville, an outspoken charter school critic, threw a procedural roadblock in front of a New Bedford home rule petition to advance a novel charter school plan […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
O’Keefe jumps jurisdictions with charges against Rollins
THE STATE’S DISTRICT ATTORNEYS are generally in the business of bringing charges against alleged criminal offenders, not against each other. But Cape and Islands DA Michael O’Keefe’s op-ed in yesterday’s […]