CommonWealth Beacon editor Bruce Mohl retired last week after 16 years. Longtime opinion contribtor Jim Aloisi offered this tribute and reflection on the mark he made. I’VE BEEN A somewhat […]
Bruce Mohl made CommonWealth must-reading — and brought me back into civic life
Posted inPolitics
Attorney General Andrea Campbell gears up for Trump round two
ONE WEEK AFTER the 2024 presidential election results, Attorney General Andrea Campbell has a staggering legal to-do list. “I think there are many out there doing the blame game or […]
Posted inPolitics
Everett soccer stadium language survives in $4B jobs bill
Top Democrats filed a compromise economic development bill months after their deadline-day talks collapsed, packing the measure with state support for the life sciences and climate technology industries and more.
Posted inHousing
Emergency shelter system should move away from one-size-fits-all model, officials say
The state’s emergency shelter system, hit with an influx of migrant families, should seek financial stability by shifting away from a one-size-fits-all model and reducing reliance on hotels and motels, according to members of a state commission studying the system.
Posted inOpinion
Students and families pay the price when teachers go on strike
The parties can and should continue to negotiate in good faith, demonstrating a mutual willingness to compromise, while schools remain in session, providing a first-rate education to the students and families we serve.
Posted inPolitics
Lessons for the Democrats from Latino cities
Days after the presidential election, Holyoke Mayor Joshua Garcia reflects on the pronounced shift toward Donald Trump by Latino voters.
Posted inPolitics
Lecciones para los Demócratas de las ciudades Latinas
Read in English. CON LAS ELECCIONES presidenciales todavía frescas y el alcance de una segunda administración Trump empezando a tomar forma, políticos, encuestadores y expertos buscan respuestas. En las autopsias […]
Posted inOpinion
Not all Mass. hospitals are in terrible financial shape
STEVE WALSH, the president and CEO of the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, struck a nerve with his recent commentary suggesting the state’s hospital industry is teetering on the brink […]
Posted inThe Codcast
Latino voters lead rightward shift in Mass.
This week on the Codcast, Commonwealth Beacon’s Jennifer Smith is joined by Mayor of Holyoke Joshua Garcia to reflect on the rightward trend of Latino voters in the 2024 presidential election. They discuss potential mechanisms behind the shift, and lessons learned for both political parties.
Posted inOpinion
The politics of subtraction
Democrats face two major structural headwinds on the path to regaining a majority coalition. First is governance in blue states, which have not exactly created a progressive utopia in recent decades. The second problem is interest groups that dominate the party coalition by practicing a politics of subtraction, whereby policy purity tests seek to narrow the big tent required for progressives to wield power nationally.
Posted inEnergy
Offshore wind contracts put off again until after Trump takes office
The evaluation team negotiating contracts with those projects informed DPU in a letter Thursday that it will not meet Friday’s target for finishing contract talks, or the Dec. 18 target date for contract filings. The evaluation team includes the Department of Energy Resources, National Grid, Eversource and Unitil.
Posted inMarijuana
O’Brien asks SJC to reinstate her as Cannabis Commission chair
O’Brien filed a petition to the state’s Supreme Judicial Court on Friday asking the full court to hear her case and reinstate her as the commission chair.
Posted inCourts
SJC: $70,000 engagement ring must be returned to giver if wedding called off
“We now join the modern trend adopted by the majority of jurisdictions that have considered the issue and retire the concept of fault in this context; where, as here, the planned wedding does not ensue and the engagement is ended, the engagement ring must be returned to the donor regardless of fault,” Justice Dalila Wendlandt wrote for a unanimous court.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Mixed messages in Mass. | An Election Day tradition | Crypto cash
Voters may be dissatisfied with the Great and General Court, but most House and Senate members won reelection with little effort – in many cases because they had no opponent.
Posted inState Government
Long-stalled economic development bill nears finish line
More than three months after they ended scheduled formal sessions for the term without a deal in place, negotiators announced Thursday an “agreement in principle that resolves the differences between the House and Senate versions of the economic development bill.”
Posted inEnergy
Wellesley battery expected to save town residents $8m over 20 years
The batteries will charge up during overnight hours when the price of electricity is generally low and then discharge their power into the town’s electric grid during peak demand periods, typically from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., when electricity prices are high.
Posted inEnergy
What’s the pending climate bill going to cost us?
Presumably these many billions of dollars will all be paid for by the electricity users of Massachusetts, also known as ratepayers. Increasing electric bills is a highly regressive measure as it hits the poor the hardest, and the claim by the bill’s sponsors that the increase in electricity costs will be offset somewhat by a reduction in natural gas purchases rings hollow.
Posted inPolitics
Cracks form in Mass. Democratic strongholds, led by heavily Latino cities and towns
Vice President Kamala Harris, who carried the state and its 11 electoral votes by 61.3 percent to President-elect Donald Trump’s 36.5 percent, not only won Massachusetts by a smaller margin than her Democratic predecessors. She won almost every single town by less, a sign that the Democratic coalition is weakening even in its strongholds.
Posted inPolitics
Economic concerns drove shift to Trump, Healey says
Voters “were making a statement in part about how they were feeling in terms of their own personal welfare,” Healey said.
Posted inOpinion
Mass. hospitals are teetering on the edge
The most difficult realities are oftentimes the most important to accept. Now is one such time, as the state’s healthcare system buckles under the weight of unsustainable cost pressures and is showing once unimaginable signs of peril.