ATTORNEY GENERAL MAURA HEALEY is asking the state Department of Public Utilities to investigate whether competitive electricity suppliers are charging low-income customers unreasonably high rates and whether those higher charges […]
Healey seeks DPU crackdown on electricity sellers
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Impeachment fundamentally about preserving voting rights
A UNITED STATES attorney general once said: “From a civil liberties standpoint, the greatest danger to our free system is that the incumbent government use the apparatus of the state… […]
Posted inThe Download
Is the value of two-parent households overrated?
In 1965, the US Labor Department released a report on the state of the black family in America. The document, widely known as the Moynihan Report, for its main author, […]
Posted inEducation
Is the value of two-parent households overrated?
IN 1965, the US Labor Department released a report on the state of the black family in America. The document, widely known as the Moynihan Report, for its main author, […]
Posted inOpinion
Don’t take away religious exemption for vaccines
I AM AN IVY LEAGUE-TRAINED physician who currently treats families of children and adults with developmental disabilities. I come in frequent contact with parents who use the religious exemption for […]
Posted inTransportation
Baker’s walk on the wild side
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER’S all-in embrace of the transportation climate initiative is another step away from his shrinking Republican base and a tacit admission that the state needs more transit funding. […]
Posted inTransportation
TCI could up gas prices 5 to 17 cents a gallon in 2022
OFFICIALS DEVELOPING A new regional approach to reducing tailpipe emissions on the East Coast are considering policies that would add between 5 cents and 17 cents to the cost of […]
Posted inEnvironment
Climate change demands raising infrastructure standards
PERCHED ON THE North Atlantic, with a shoreline prone to flooding and a history of damaging Nor’easters, and surrounded by the fastest warming ocean waters in the world, Massachusetts of […]
Posted inThe Download
DOC backtracking on MCI-Framingham
The Department of Correction appears to be backtracking on the troubled women’s prison at MCI-Framingham. In October, when Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins said MCI-Framingham was closing and then later […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
DOC backtracking on MCI-Framingham
THE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION appears to be backtracking on the troubled women’s prison at MCI-Framingham. In October, when Suffolk County Sheriff Steven Tompkins said MCI-Framingham was closing and then later amended […]
Posted inTransportation
T notes: Machinists hit deplorable conditions
THE HEAD of the MBTA’s machinists local said on Monday that the union is living up to the promises it made as part of a labor contract signed in 2018 […]
Posted inTransportation
Surging sales tax helping T balance budget
THE MBTA IS FACING intense pressure to increase operations spending on safety and other initiatives, but some of the higher expenditures are being offset by an unexpected surge in sales […]
Posted inTransportation
Pollack, control board at odds on income-based fares
REJECTING CONCERNS raised by state Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack, members of the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board on Monday insisted on moving faster to embrace lower fares for low-income […]
Posted inUncategorized
ICE asks judge to let agency back into courthouses
FEDERAL IMMIGRATION OFFICIALS are seeking to dismiss a lawsuit that would bar agents from making arrests in local Massachusetts courthouses. In April, Suffolk and Middlesex district attorneys Rachael Rollins and Marian Ryan […]
Posted inThe Codcast
Saving Hampshire College
Can Hampshire College rise, if not from the dead, from the higher ed death watch list? Harvard Business School professor Clay Christensen has predicted that as many as half of […]
Posted inEconomy
Casinos continue sluggish performance
NOVEMBER FIGURES SHOW continued weakness in the Massachusetts casino industry, where fears of market saturation in the Northeast appear warranted and revenue projections for the state’s dive into the casino […]
Posted inThe Download
Saving Hampshire College
Can Hampshire College rise, if not from the dead, from the higher ed death watch list? Harvard Business School professor Clay Christensen has predicted that as many as half of […]
Posted inEducation
Can Hampshire College be saved?
CAN HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE rise, if not from the dead, from the higher ed death watch list? Harvard Business School professor Clay Christensen has predicted that as many as half of all […]
Posted inOpinion
Give accessory apartments a shot
FOR DECADES, housing experts and planners have been advocating for cities and towns to allow for the owners of single family houses to add accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to their […]
Posted inOpinion
Speaker’s PAC provides incumbent protection
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY’S DOMINANCE in the Massachusetts Legislature is a matter beyond dispute. Since 1978, when a constitutional amendment reduced the number of seats in the House of Representatives from […]
Posted inOpinion
Mr. Fix-it struggling with culture change
IT’S THE CULTURE of state government versus the Baker administration and the winner, by a knockout in the fifth round, is state government culture. Think of the MBTA and the […]
Posted inOpinion
Reward home care firms that pay living wage
WHILE MASSACHUSETTS LEADS the nation in a number of vital healthcare markers, the state is facing a crisis in one crucial area – its home care industry. The population is […]
Posted inUncategorized
ROE Act is good policy, politics
ON NOVEMBER 5, 2019, Virginia voters made history by voting to flip both chambers of the state legislature and creating, for the first time, a pro-choice majority. This sea change […]
Posted inEconomy
Income tax rate returning to 1985 level
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER says the state’s individual income tax rate will drop to 5 percent at the beginning of next year, ending a two-decades-long march back to the level it was at in 1985. The income tax […]