With last year’s election of Donald Trump, complete with his campaign talk about about bad hombres and Mexican rapists, it’s hard to feel too optimistic about the prospects for comprehensive […]
Episode 64: The immigration reform challenge
Posted inThe Download
The Codcast: The immigration reform challenge
With last year’s election of Donald Trump, complete with his campaign talk about about bad hombres and Mexican rapists, it’s hard to feel too optimistic about the prospects for comprehensive […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Warren rips Baker ‘flip-flop’
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. CHARLIE BAKER’S new bill targeting drug dealers make him a flip-flopper, according to gubernatorial candidate Setti Warren, who appears to be taking a stance against […]
Posted inEnvironment
Northern Pass dealt a regulatory blow
A NEW HAMPSHIRE REGULATORY AGENCY said on Thursday it won’t be able to meet its Sept. 30 deadline for making a go-no go decision on Eversource’s Northern Pass transmission project. […]
Posted inThe Back Story
Walsh, once an opponent, welcomes pot
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh was among the most vocal opponents of the ballot question to legalize marijuana and, once it passed, complained that Massachusetts cities would become the default centers […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Ballot opponent to head legal pot commission
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A RETIRED BUSINESS executive and former Bain and Company partner who voted against the referendum to legalize marijuana has been tapped by Treasurer Deborah Goldberg to […]
Posted inThe Download
Perchance to dream
College campuses are anxiously waiting for President Trump’s decision on whether to dismantle or even substantially change the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. DACA was an executive order from then-President […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Baker pushes new drug dealing charges
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A YEAR AFTER WORKING with the Legislature to try to stem the flow of opioids and improve addiction treatment options, Gov. Charlie Baker is targeting the […]
Posted inOpinion
Bus stops and the future of digital placemaking
THE TYPICAL URBAN BUS STOP is a miserable thing: a piece of metal attached to a pole; a strip of colored paint on a curb; a beaten-up shelter. Such bad […]
Posted inThe Download
Storm stirs the political pot
Government, according to a well-worn adage credited to Barney Frank, is the name for the things we decide to do together. Right now, aiding those affected by the devastation of […]
Posted inUncategorized
Goldberg warns of NH lottery moves
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THERE ARE PROVERBIAL TROOPS amassing at the New Hampshire border and the Massachusetts Lottery is “sitting here like dead ducks,” Treasurer Deborah Goldberg said Tuesday of […]
Posted inEnvironment
National Grid, Hydro-Quebec snipe over hydro power
NATIONAL GRID AND HYDRO-QUEBEC, two companies competing for Massachusetts clean energy contracts, are sniping at each other over the environmental benefits of hydroelectricity in dueling CommonWealth opinion pieces. The op-eds […]
Posted inOpinion
Outdated state laws hard to repeal
A RECENT POST by Professor Paul DeBole of Lasell College highlighted several archaic, unenforced, and/or unconstitutional state laws that have outlived their time and should be repealed. He concluded we should […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
No clean energy shell game
IN HIS COMMONWEALTH MAGAZINE op-ed entitled “Quebec hydropower is ‘shell game,’” John Flynn misses the point about Hydro-Québec’s growth and export strategy. We are not taking clean energy from one region […]
Posted inThe Download
What’s Amazon up to?
Amazon slashed the prices of a handful of items at its just-acquired Whole Foods chain, a move that garnered loads of publicity but shed little light on the online retailing […]
Posted inThe Download
City, Boston teachers kick the can
City officials and the Boston Teachers Union eagerly shared the news on Thursday that the two sides reached a tentative contract agreement after 18 months of negotiation. But it turns […]
Posted inOpinion
Pike-ageddon looms
MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION and Boston officials have done an admirable job minimizing impacts of rebuilding the Commonwealth Avenue bridge above I-90 (the Massachusetts Turnpike) in Allston at the BU Bridge. […]
Posted inEducation
Moving beyond MCAS
HOW ARE THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS in Massachusetts doing? Are they nurturing engaged thinkers who value learning? Are they expanding the way young people see the world? Are they fostering creativity? […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
Quebec hydropower is ‘shell game’
RON GERWATOWSKI’S OP-ED (“Price shouldn’t be sole focus of clean energy buys”) makes an essential point about clean-energy procurement. In the end, Massachusetts’ historic legislation to harness significantly more renewable […]
Posted inOpinion
It’s time for some spring cleaning
I DON’T KNOW WHEN IT HAPPENED, but I have become a real neatness freak in my old age and I have a clean garage to prove it. Gone are old […]
Posted inThe Codcast
Episode 63: Tipping Point for Confederate statues
After this month’s white nationalist rally in Virginia, statues of Confederate leaders are falling across the South. Protests by white supremacists against the planned removal of a Robert E. Lee […]
Posted inThe Download
The Codcast: Tipping point for Confederate statues
After this month’s white nationalist rally in Virginia, statues of Confederate leaders are falling across the South. Protests by white supremacists against the planned removal of a Robert E. Lee […]
Posted inThe Back Story
Rep joins unenrolled in-crowd
Rep. Susannah Whipps joined the political in-crowd this week, switching her party registration from Republican to unenrolled. Statewide, unenrolled voters – those not affiliated with any political party – are taking over. They […]
Posted inThe Download
Grateful for the generals
A hallmark of American democracy has always been that a civilian, the president, is the ultimate commander in chief of the armed forces. It is perhaps the strongest signal we […]