When the Senate voted to hire an outside counsel to investigate sexual assault and harassment allegations against then-Senate President Stan Rosenberg’s husband, part of the motivation was to give victims and […]
Lacking confidence in sex harassment probe
Posted inEnvironment
Energy study draws divergent reactions
THE TWO SIDES fighting over whether the region needs additional natural gas pipeline capacity both took comfort on Thursday from a fuel security study by the operator of the region’s […]
Posted inEconomy
Rosenberg suggests House to blame for Airbnb inaction
SEN. STAN ROSENBERG chastised his fellow lawmakers on Thursday for dithering for years while the short-term rental industry embedded itself in the market and grew unencumbered by regulations and the lodging […]
Posted inThe Download
Homeless in Lawrence
The storyline is a jarring one: Against the backdrop of a bitter cold snap and the persistent problem of homelessness, the city Lawrence was considering rejecting a federal grant of […]
Posted inOpinion
Mass. needs to think bigger on offshore wind
MASSACHUSETTS HAS A ONCE-IN-A-GENERATION opportunity to build a world-class offshore wind industry. The Commonwealth has embarked on a series of procurements to develop at least 1,600 megawatts of offshore wind, enough […]
Posted inEnvironment
ISO study warns of precarious energy future
A NEW STUDY by the operator of the region’s power grid warns that without additional natural gas pipeline capacity New England will face a precarious energy future, where emergency actions […]
Posted inThe Download
GEe, what will Amazon do?
Just as GE is set to move into Boston, word comes that the multinational conglomerate that city and state officials wooed here with a multi-million dollar package of tax breaks […]
Posted inEducation
3 finalists named for state education commissioner
THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT announced three finalists in the search for a new commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education today, tapping a well-known Massachusetts educator and two out of state […]
Posted inEnvironment
Generators burned 2m barrels of oil over 15 days
FROM DECEMBER 25 UNTIL JANUARY 9, New England power generators burned close to 2 million barrels of oil, which is more than they burned during the rest of 2017 and […]
Posted inPolitics
Gomez leaves GOP, eyes independent bid against Warren
GABRIEL GOMEZ, who ran unsuccessfully for the US Senate as a Republican in 2013, has switched his party affiliation to independent and is not ruling out a run against Sen. […]
Posted inThe Codcast
Episode 80: The Senate’s surprise (acting) president
Harriette Chandler never had designs on the Massachusetts Senate’s top post, and she readily admits to mixed feelings about landing there. Her unexpected ascension was the result of the scandal […]
Posted inThe Download
The Codcast: The Senate’s surprise (acting) president
Harriette Chandler never had designs on the Massachusetts Senate’s top post, and she readily admits to mixed feelings about landing there. Her unexpected ascension was the result of the scandal […]
Posted inTransportation
Silver Line is flawed – but fixable
WITH THE 7.7 MILLION SQUARE FEET of development at Seaport Square approved by the Boston Planning and Development Agency, and a multitude of other development projects filling in further and […]
Posted inOpinion
We need to build more housing
REAL ESTATE AGENTS always say it’s a good time to buy. And with the improving economy and low mortgage rates, young couples seeking to buy their first home, growing families […]
Posted inEnvironment
14-mile dike could protect Greater Boston from sea level rise
A RECENT story in the Boston Globe, with the headline “Floods seen as warning of Boston’s future,” described how sea level rise and storm surge effects predicted for later in the […]
Posted inEnvironment
Luck is not a strategy for climate change
BOSTON AND MASSACHUSETTS have climate goals that are among the most ambitious in the United States, yet climate change is a global challenge, with some impacts already evident and likely […]
Posted inTransportation
Glitch boosted numbers on MBTA dashboard
A DISABLED RED LINE TRAIN wreaked havoc with the rush hour commute Thursday night, but you’d never know it from reading the next day’s MBTA performance dashboard. The online dashboard […]
Posted inThe Download
Firms leaving behind the suburbs
Businesses are migrating from the suburbs to Boston and Cambridge at an accelerating pace, leaving behind white elephant office parks and putting more pressure on transit services in the urban […]
Posted inOpinion
Silver linings and seeds in tax cut law – Part II
This is the second part of John McDonough’s “Silver Linings Playbook.” Read the first installment here. THE AMERICAN AUTHOR Napoleon Hill wrote: “Every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or […]
Posted inPolitics
Rosenberg and spouse separated
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SEN. STANLEY ROSENBERG, back on Beacon Hill where he said he hopes to resume his work as a rank-and file senator after giving up the presidency […]
Posted inEnvironment
More natural gas not answer to climate change
AS MOTHERS AND CAREGIVERS, we are appalled that the executive director of the New England Petroleum Council, Stephen Dodge, characterizes concerned citizens as “environmental extremists” in his Commonwealth magazine opinion […]
Posted inEnvironment
Procurement not following regular playbook
CENTRAL MAINE POWER sent out a press release and started running ads on Thursday questioning why Massachusetts electricity customers should pay an extra $2 billion over 20 years for clean […]
Posted inTransportation
Doing hard time on the T
Vennochi, the new prisoner who just landed in the cellblock, has the same horrid reaction of all the newbies to the utter wretchedness of inmate life: The overcrowding, the cold […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Modest benefit found in Boston study of police body cameras
PRELIMINARY FINDINGS from Boston’s study of police-worn body cameras point to a small benefit in reducing citizen complaints filed against officers, but no impact on police use of force against […]