We have a well-paid, full-time, Democrat-controlled Legislature in Massachusetts and yet we’re the only state in the nation without a budget in place. We’re also slow-dancing toward retail marijuana sales […]
Beacon Hill goes at a snail’s pace
Posted inPolitics
Creative accounting on Beacon Hill
BRIAN KEYES, the police chief in Chelsea, sounds like a mountain climber with the summit finally in sight. He and his fellow chiefs have been scaling Beacon Hill for almost […]
Posted inEducation
Parent provocateur
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MICHAEL MANNING IT’S A THURSDAY EVENING in late May and about 20 immigrant parents and grandparents are gathered in a meeting room of the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association […]
Posted inUncategorized
CommonWealth going all digital
TODAY’S RELEASE of the print issue of CommonWealth will be our last. After surveying readers, consulting with board members of MassINC, and holding many discussions with my colleagues here at the […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Keeping Somerville cool
PHOTOS BY FRANK CURRAN SOMERVILLE MAYOR JOSEPH CURTATONE likes to be bold. “I always tell Greg, bring me something no one else has done and that’s really off the wall,” […]
Posted inEconomy
Gateway Cities discover the power of food
PHOTOGRAPHS BY KEN RICHARDSON FOOD HAS ALWAYS LOOMED LARGE in the life of Dimple Rana. While growing up in Revere, she helped her parents, immigrants from India, work in Indian […]
Posted inPolitics
Is it possible Elizabeth Warren is becoming more bipartisan?
An earlier version of this story said that none of Elizabeth Warren’s bills had become law during the current Congress. In fact, one of her bills, to make it easier […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Course corrections
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MEGHAN MOORE THE HAMPDEN COUNTY SHERIFF’S Pre-release Center in Ludlow looks pretty much like what you’d expect of a minimum security jail—clean but stark. Then, Zadie and Misty, […]
Posted inOpinion
The real driver of health care spending
THE HEALTH CARE DEBATES that occurred in Washington over the past year were largely irrelevant to what’s happening in the health care marketplace. Republicans couldn’t repeal the Affordable Care Act […]
Posted inPolitics
DeLeo: Let’s take policy issues out of spending plan
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH THE STATE’S ANNUAL BUDGET now nine days late, House Speaker Robert DeLeo floated the idea Monday of separating the policy proposals in the spending bill […]
Posted inThe Codcast
Episode 105: Business tackles transportation emissions
Alli Gold Roberts says the business community is a bigger supporter of addressing climate change than you might think. A senior manager for state policy at Ceres, which works with […]
Posted inThe Download
The Codcast: Business tackles transportation emissions
Alli Gold Roberts says the business community is a bigger supporter of addressing climate change than you might think. A senior manager for state policy at Ceres, which works with […]
Posted inTransportation
Pollack: West Station ridership forecast may be off
TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY STEPHANIE POLLACK believes the computer model the state uses to predict future transit ridership is unreliable, at least for projects like the proposed West Station in the Allston […]
Posted inOpinion
It’s time for another McDuffy case
WHEN THE PUBLIC SEEKS to improve the educational outcomes for students, we tend to misdirect our frustration towards teachers unions, low-performing district schools, and/or the existence of charter schools. The […]
Posted inOpinion
House’s Trump working group hasn’t done much
LAST MARCH, a self-described “deeply worried” Speaker Robert DeLeo created a nine-member working group to guide responses to the “unprecedented actions” of the Trump administration. The group, led by House […]
Posted inGambling
Kim Sinatra leaving Wynn Resorts
WYNN RESORTS IS PARTING WAYS with a top executive who apparently had been aware of a $7.5 million private legal settlement Steve Wynn had negotiated with a former employee to […]
Posted inThe Download
Kim Sinatra leaving Wynn Resorts
Wynn Resorts is parting ways with a top executive who apparently had been aware of a $7.5 million private legal settlement Steve Wynn had negotiated with a former employee to […]
Posted inThe Back Story
Another shot in the pipeline wars
THOSE WHO BELIEVE the region needs another natural gas pipeline are saying they have found a new convert – the same energy analyst who co-authored a 2015 report for Attorney General Maura Healey that was […]
Posted inUncategorized
Alan Dershowitz will not be quiet
Could someone on Martha’s Vineyard please buy Alan Dershowitz lunch? Or a drink? Or some Beluga caviar? The 80-year-old Harvard Law professor emeritus, who now makes his home on the […]
Posted inThe Download
Alan Dershowitz will not be quiet
Could someone on Martha’s Vineyard please buy Alan Dershowitz lunch? Or a drink? Or some Beluga caviar? The 80-year-old Harvard Law professor emeritus, who now makes his home on the […]
Posted inOpinion
Time to undo failed family cap policy
MASSACHUSETTS IS ON the verge of repealing its welfare family cap statute. The family cap – also called the Cap on Kids – is the state law that denies a […]
Posted inUncategorized
NJ taxpayers to fund local journalism
NEW JERSEY POLITICAL LEADERS ended a four-month budget impasse on Sunday night just hours before the government was scheduled to shut down. Most news stories focused on the big political compromise: Instead […]
Posted inOpinion
Ruling on milllionaire tax right one constitutionally
AS A PLAINTIFF in the lawsuit Anderson v. Attorney General, I applaud the court’s decision, although I don’t consider myself or the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, the organization that I represent, […]
Posted inThe Download
New Jersey taxpayers to fund local journalism
New Jersey political leaders ended a four-month budget impasse on Sunday night just hours before the government was scheduled to shut down. Most news stories focused on the big political compromise: […]