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 […]
Goldberg warns of NH lottery moves
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Outdated state laws hard to repeal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highlighted several archaic, unenforced, and/or unconstitutional state laws that have outlived their time and should be repealed.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 […]
Posted inUncategorized
NE states propose 30% cut in power plant emissions
NINE NORTHEASTERN AND MID-ATLANTIC STATES, including Massachusetts, unveiled a proposal on Wednesday that would require power plants running on fossil fuels to cut their carbon dioxide emissions 30 percent between […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Baker taps pot foe for cannabis control board
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SEN. JENNIFER FLANAGAN, a Leominster Democrat, has become the first of five members of the powerful new Cannabis Control Commission, tapped by Gov. Charlie Baker to […]
Posted inTransportation
T gives contractors night tour of bus garages
THE MBTA RECENTLY GAVE several private contractors a midnight tour of three of the authority’s bus maintenance garages, which the head of the local machinists union cited as symbolic proof […]
Posted inTransportation
Capuano backs T workers, lays off Baker
US REP. MICHAEL CAPUANO lent his support on Wednesday to MBTA bus maintenance workers who are fighting efforts to privatize some of their jobs, but the congressman didn’t join union […]
Posted inThe Download
Smart money in Massachusetts
Back in 1990, during his run for governor, John Silber made the somewhat controversial observation that not everyone is college material and those folks would be better off focusing on […]
Posted inPolitics
Some sanctuary city police chiefs back Baker ICE detainer bill
SOME MASSACHUSETTS POLICE CHIEFS appear to be staking out a different position than the communities they represent on how to handle detainer requests from the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement […]
Posted inEducation
Invest in young children now
Four years ago, after 20 years of a corporate career that I absolutely loved, I hung up my business suit and pursued a very different calling. It began when my husband […]
Posted inThe Download
How many white supremacists at rally?
An estimated 40,000 people turned out on Saturday to say no to hate, racism, and neo-Nazis, but it remains unclear how many of the 50 people at the free speech […]
Posted inPolitics
Was Boston Common rally really about white supremacy?
THE 40,000 PROTESTERS who showed up at Boston Common on Saturday had nothing to protest because the free speech rally was focused on free speech and not white supremacy or […]
Posted inTransportation
Lack of public sector experience is troubling
THE APPOINTMENT OF LUIS RAMIREZ as the new general manager of the MBTA again raises the question of whether a successful private sector businessman or woman can make a successful […]