GOV. CHARLIE BAKER says the courts are trying to restrict his authority to declare a public health emergency, but that claim seems like an overreaction. Baker’s emergency order banning the […]
Baker overreacting on vaping decision
Posted inTransportation
Pollster explores commuter rail survey
Richard Parr, the research director of the MassINC Polling Group, said he was surprised at the strong support in a statewide, online poll for regional rail and a number of other ambitious transportation initiatives, […]
Posted inOpinion
Still at it after 25 years
LIKE MANY PEOPLE, I remember where I was and what I was doing on December 14, 2012, when news broke that a shooter had taken the lives of 26 people, […]
Posted inOpinion
Legislative hearings have become mostly theater
LAST WEEK WE JOINED 200 other Massachusetts residents for a hearing of the Legislature’s Joint Committee on the Judiciary. The hearing, set to cover sentencing, corrections, and criminal records, had […]
Posted inUncategorized
Top judges tell ICE: stop deporting our defendants
TOP JUDGES IN MASSACHUSETTS are asking federal immigration officials to stop deporting defendants in state cases without telling local courts or the prosecuting district attorney. Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants […]
Posted inUncategorized
Harvard students take odd swipe at Crimson
SOME STUDENTS at Harvard don’t just want to abolish ICE. They also want to banish bedrock journalistic principles. The effort is misguided on a number of fronts, and potentially counterproductive […]
Posted inThe Download
Harvard students take odd swipe at Crimson
Some students at Harvard don’t just want to abolish ICE. They also want to banish bedrock journalistic principles. The effort is misguided on a number of fronts, and potentially counterproductive […]
Posted inEducation
House approves $1.5b education bill
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MASSACHUSETTS HOUSE on Wednesday night unanimously approved a seven-year plan to pour $1.5 billion into the state’s public education system, moving legislation that has been […]
Posted inHealth Care
Frustration surfaces at Health Policy Commission
THERE WAS A LONG, awkward silence Wednesday when a power-packed panel of CEOs from the state’s largest health care organizations was asked by a member of the Health Policy Commission […]
Posted inEducation
Time to up our STEM game
ACCORDING TO ALYSSA, a Burlington High School senior studying computer science in a classroom full of boys and only four other girls, “If we were able to show middle school […]
Posted inTransportation
Massport: New Uber/Lyft drop-offs will speed Logan travel
THE MASSACHUSETTS PORT AUTHORITY staged a dry run on Wednesday to demonstrate how a centralized location for Uber and Lyft pickups and drop-offs will work at Logan International Airport. With […]
Posted inTransportation
What’s the plan?
IT’S HAPPENED TWICE this year. It will certainly happen again. A major incident shuts down a critical section of the inner urban subway system. In June it was the Red […]
Posted inPolitics
Loopy coverage says more about media than Legislature
THE STORYLINE OF loopy Massachusetts liberals going PC-crazy was apparently too good for right-leaning national outlets to resist. But they’re hardly alone, as mainstream Massachusetts media also decided to turn […]
Posted inThe Download
Loopy coverage says more about media than Legislature
The storyline of loopy Massachusetts liberals going PC-crazy was apparently too good for right-leaning national outlets to resist. But they’re hardly alone, as mainstream Massachusetts media also decided to turn […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Families want to end prison phone call charges
AYANA AUBOURG MET her father Winchel Aubourg as an infant while he was behind bars for a drug-related crime. For the next 17 years, she spoke with him over the […]
Posted inPolitics
Tougher seatbelt law remains longshot
STATE HOUSE NEWS FOR AT LEAST THE SEVENTH consecutive legislative session, lawmakers and driving safety advocates on Tuesday morning asked legislators to give police the ability to pull over and […]
Posted inHealth Care
Mass. residents overburdened by health costs
EVEN AS OVERALL statewide spending on health care has remained just within the strictures of the state’s benchmark of 3.1 percent annual growth, for many families the costs have surged […]
Posted inEducation
State oversight critical in education bill
AS HOUSE MEMBERS on Beacon Hill prepare to debate and vote Wednesday on the Student Opportunity Act, Massachusetts stands at a crucial moment in charting the course of education funding […]
Posted inTransportation
Cities eye higher fees on Uber, Lyft rides
HIGHER FEES on Uber and Lyft rides appear to be gaining some momentum around the country as a way of raising money and dealing with congestion, and they are likely […]
Posted inThe Download
Cities eye higher fees on Uber, Lyft rides
Higher fees on Uber and Lyft rides appear to be gaining some momentum around the country as a way of raising money and dealing with congestion, and they are likely […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Judge allows Baker vaping ban to continue
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE IN A RULING critical of how Gov. Charlie Baker went about banning the sale of all vaping products for four months, a Superior Court judge on […]
Posted inTransportation
T notes: Revenue discussion still percolating
THE LEGISLATURE AND THE PUBLIC have yet to hear from the T’s Fiscal and Management Control Board on whether new transportation revenues are needed, but two members who weighed in […]
Posted inEducation
House unveils education bill — minus controversial Senate amendment
TWO WEEKS AFTER the Senate approved a sweeping education funding bill, but stripped out language giving the state authority to oversee how the money is spent, the House appears poised […]
Posted inHealth Care
Lawmakers: Baker’s health care bill a good start
LAST SESSION, Beacon Hill’s big three – the governor, the House speaker, and the Senate president — each had fundamentally different ideas about how to reform the state’s health care […]