IT SEEMED LIKE there were at least the beginnings of a path forward. The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released its initial coronavirus guidelines for how schools could reopen […]
Trump threatens funding cuts if schools don’t reopen
Posted inThe Download
Trump threatens funding cuts if schools don’t reopen
It seemed like there were at least the beginnings of a path forward. The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released its initial coronavirus guidelines for how schools could […]
Posted inUncategorized
House wants more transparency in foster care system
A BILL THAT the Massachusetts House is set to vote on Thursday would bring more transparency to the state’s troubled foster care system – but would not bring in the […]
Posted inHealth Care
Baker targets 8 communities with COVID-19 testing
This story was updated Wednesday evening at 9:30 with information supplied by the Baker administration. GOV. CHARLIE BAKER is launching a “stop the spread” testing initiative on Friday in eight […]
Posted inPolitics
Baker has mastered art of biting his tongue
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER demonstrated his skill at biting his tongue on Wednesday. At a State House press conference, Baker found a way to disagree in a fairly agreeable way with […]
Posted inGuns
While Black Lives Matter rises, gang gunfire keeps claiming more lives
IT’S BECOME THE untenable backdrop to a national movement demanding a reckoning with systematic racism and centuries of sanctioned brutality against black Americans: While thousands have taken to the streets to […]
Posted inThe Download
While Black Lives Matter rises, gang gunfire keeps claiming more lives
It’s become the untenable backdrop to a national movement demanding a reckoning with systematic racism and centuries of sanctioned brutality against black Americans: While thousands have taken to the streets […]
Posted inEducation
Harvard, MIT sue to block new international student policy
HARVARD UNIVERSITY and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit attempting to block the Trump administration’s new policy ordering international students to leave the country if […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
Mass. education officials slam ICE reversal
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A NEW FEDERAL IMMIGRATION policy ordering international students to leave the country if their colleges or universities offer online-only classes this fall has prompted an outcry […]
Posted inOpinion
Heroes don’t deserve layoffs, furloughs, pay cuts
THEY’VE BEEN RIGHTFULLY hailed as heroes on homemade signs and honored with Blue Angel flyovers, but the same health care workers who are saving untold lives during the COVID crisis […]
Posted inEnvironment
Mass. becomes dirty word in Maine referendum fight
CORPORATE SURROGATES for Massachusetts have spent close to $17 million so far battling a referendum question in Maine that seeks to block the importation of hydroelectricity from Quebec using a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Markey, Kennedy visit jail, address criminal justice concerns
BY THE TIME someone gets to jail, in many cases, there are myriad societal problems that led them there – and those need to be addressed. That was the premise […]
Posted inThe Codcast
Contact tracing effort scaled way back
DR. JOIA MUKHERJEE, the chief medical officer at Partners in Health, said the organization has drastically scaled back its contact tracing workforce amid a sharp decline in COVID-19 infections. On CommonWealth’s […]
Posted inHealth Care
Contact tracing effort scaled way back
DR JOIA MUKHERJEE, the chief medical officer at Partners in Health, said the organization has drastically scaled back its contact tracing workforce amid a sharp decline in COVID-19 infections. CommonWealth Magazine […]
Posted inThe Download
Contact tracing effort scaled way back
Dr. Joia Mukherjee, the chief medical officer at Partners in Health, said the organization has drastically scaled back its contact tracing workforce amid a sharp decline in COVID-19 infections. CommonWealth […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Senate prepping its own police reform bill
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MASSACHUSETTS SENATE plans to vote Thursday on a wide-ranging police reform bill that would create a process for certifying and de-certifying officers and impose new […]
Posted inUncategorized
Here’s what you need to know about 2020 mail-in voting
DUE TO THE coronavirus pandemic, all Massachusetts residents who wish to do so will be allowed to vote by mail this year. Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday signed a […]
Posted inGambling
Las Vegas-style casinos face uncertain future
THE MASSACHUSETTS CASINO industry faces a long and steep climb back as it prepares to reopen over the coming week, with its opulent centerpiece, the $2.6 billion Encore Boston Harbor, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Voters now agree with Warren
IN AUGUST 2018, Sen. Elizabeth Warren gave a speech in which she delivered what she called “the hard truth about our criminal justice system.” According to Warren, the criminal justice […]
Posted inOpinion
To address juvenile injustice, data needed
IN THE WAKE of the nationwide uprisings asserting that Black Lives Matter, there have been many eloquent pronouncements denouncing racism and pledging to do more to address its impact. The […]
Posted inOpinion
Systemic racism has very real health impact
AS A COUNTRY, we are waking up daily to the unacceptable and completely avoidable loss of black life. We know some of their names, like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. […]
Posted inOpinion
Meet the new public records law – same as the old one
OVER THREE YEARS have gone by since the Commonwealth’s much-heralded overhaul of the Public Records Law went into effect in 2017. Regrettably, the old vexing problems nonetheless still persist. That’s […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Italian-American pride means goodbye, Columbus
I’VE BEEN THINKING a lot about Christopher Columbus lately. That wasn’t always the case. Growing up an Italian-American kid, in an Italian-American town in New Jersey, we had summer feasts […]
Posted inHealth Care
Nursing homes start own Phase 1
LONG-TERM CARE FACILITIES, the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in Massachusetts, are starting to enter their own Phase 1. The Baker administration is slightly easing visitation restrictions at the state’s […]