SENATE PRESIDENT STANLEY ROSENBERG said on Thursday he was not a fan of a House proposal that could allow Massachusetts casinos to serve alcohol to patrons for an additional two […]
Rosenberg pans casino last call provision
Posted inTransportation
T board makes budget choices – in public
AT A TIME WHEN MORE AND MORE of state government deliberations are taking place behind closed doors, the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board on Thursday debated and acted on […]
Posted inTransportation
Moulton pushes North-South Rail Link
IT’S BEEN CALLED pie-in-the-sky by some. Others have visions – more accurately, nightmares – of another Big Dig that turns downtown Boston upside down for years and soaks public coffers […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Baker’s ‘streamlined’ diversity disclosures
Gov. Charlie Baker is doing slightly better than his predecessor in recruiting blacks, Hispanics, and Asians to work in the executive branch, but the way his administration goes about presenting […]
Posted inThe Download
The Codcast: From luxury towers to lunch-bucket politics
The spring issue of CommonWealth magazine is out, and you can not only read it all online here, you can listen to us chew over some of the stories in […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
School funding fix needed
PUBLIC SCHOOLS TODAY find themselves under a microscope and pulled by competing forces like never before. Education is a system in flux as it strives to institute necessary change in […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, Transportation
Where the food deserts are
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE CHELSEA, SPRINGFIELD, AND TAUNTON top a new list of cities with the highest percentage of low-income residents lacking access to grocery stores, a problem with nutrition […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Downtown Crossing’s renaissance
For those wondering what the turnaround of Downtown Crossing means for the city of Boston, two stories this week in the Boston Globe and CommonWealth magazine provide some perspective. The […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Lawmakers must remove autonomous vehicle roadblocks
WHAT IF YOU COULD REMOVE error as a cause of motor vehicle crashes? The reality is we are getting closer to that point every day. Cars are getting smarter, and […]
Posted inEducation
Incoming UMass Boston chief says budget process ‘broken’
BARRY MILLS, who is slated to take the reins as interim chancellor at the University of Massachusetts Boston, painted a dire picture of finances and operations at the campus, saying […]
Posted inGambling
A later last call for casinos?
THE MASSACHUSETTS GAMING COMMISSION could allow casinos to sell liquor to gamblers an extra two hours – until 4 a.m. – under an outside section of the House Ways and […]
Posted inGambling, State House News Service
Court decision opens door to Vineyard casino
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A FEDERAL APPEALS COURT on Monday overturned a lower court ruling that had denied the Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head the right to build a […]
Posted inThe Codcast
Episode 44: From luxury towers to lunch-bucket politics
The spring issue of CommonWealth magazine is out, and you can not only read it all online here, you can listen to us chew over some of the stories in […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Baker plays budget man in the middle
It’s become a well-known part of the current dynamic on Beacon Hill: Though Democrats enjoy super-majorities in both legislative branches, the House leans right and often forms a tag-team with […]
Posted inEconomy
The view from $10m up
Research assistance by Michael Malpiede BOSTON’S DOWNTOWN CROSSING has always been a crossroads, a place where subways, streets, and people from all walks of life intersect. Foot traffic tended to […]
Posted inEconomy
Voc-tech tension
Photographs by Mark Ostow KELSEY CLARK, A SENIOR at Greater New Bedford Regional Vocational Technical High School, is showing a visitor work from her graphic design portfolio. There is a […]
Posted inEconomy
Holyoke’s mayor isn’t afraid of pot
Photographs by Mark Morelli OUTSIDE HOLYOKE CITY HALL is a stone fountain that once gurgled with water, offering a more wholesome substitute for alcohol to “a thirsty humanity,” as the […]
Posted inHealth Care
Death of a cancer lab
FEW PLACES HAVE the resources and brain power to match Boston when it comes to biomedical research, including the search for effective ways to treat and prevent cancer. Internationally renowned […]
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
The evolution of Stephanie Pollack
Photographs by Frank Curran STEPHANIE POLLACK AND Charlie Baker are the odd couple of Massachusetts politics. Pollack is short and Baker is tall. She’s a lifelong Democrat and he’s a […]
Posted inPolitics
Steve Lynch’s balancing act
NO ONE WOULD question the wisdom of a gambler who put money on US Rep. Stephen Lynch securing another easy win next year. Still, the odds are changing a bit, […]
Posted inPolitics
The road less traveled
GREATER BOSTON IS the breeding ground for the state’s top politicians. Going back to 1900, three out of every four constitutional officers came from within 25 miles of Boston. Go […]
Posted inEnvironment
Judy Grinnell’s river rehab
Photograph by Frank Curran What’s the Hoosic River Revival all about? The Hoosic River trickles through downtown North Adams within old, concrete, inaccessible flood control chutes that protect the city […]
Posted inHealth Care
Red states dodge a Medicaid bullet
REPUBLICANS IN WASHINGTON couldn’t cobble together enough votes in March from their own party to repeal and replace Obamacare. President Trump learned that health care is more complicated than he […]
Posted inHealth Care
Bending the Medicaid cost curve
IN A WILDLY uncertain national health care environment, something new, audacious, and risky is happening in MassHealth, the Medicaid program that provides health coverage to 1.9 million people who are […]