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 […]
Lawmakers must remove autonomous vehicle roadblocks
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 […]
Posted inEducation
Esports: More than a game
FOR MOST PEOPLE over the age of 30, playing video games is perceived as a waste of time, a solitary, non-social activity that serves to melt one’s brain. Yet as […]
Posted inHealth Care
Big Pharma hides costs with bait and switch
THE ADS FOR high-end prescription drugs seem ubiquitous. Invokana, Xarelto, Abilify, and Humira are just a few names familiar to anyone with a television. The drugs are some of the […]
Posted inEconomy, Gambling
Wynn shipping contaminated soil around nation
THE CLEANUP OF the Wynn Resorts casino site in Everett is a case of addition through subtraction. Before the Wynn tower could start going up, all of the contaminated soil […]
Posted inUncategorized
Nickeled and dimed
THE TOWN OF Dartmouth is certainly a stickler for the rules, unwilling to forego a nickel copying fee for a document disclosing a legal settlement involving hundreds of thousands of […]
Posted inMicrophilanthropy
Running away from homelessness
Microphilanthropy is an occasional feature that calls attention to small acts of generosity that people do for the benefit of others and highlights little-known needs that could benefit from generosity, […]
Posted inOpinion
What about those holes?
TO SHOW YOU how stupid I am, I thought Suffolk Construction had forgotten to finish the job when it was building Millennium Tower at Downtown Crossing. Every day last year […]
Posted inOpinion
Correspondence, Spring 2017
MILLIONAIRE’S TAX IS FAIR In his recent piece in CommonWealth regarding the proposed Fair Share Amendment, or “millionaire’s tax,” Edward M. Murphy clearly understands why the amendment is necessary (“Dump […]
Posted inTransportation
T estimates GLX operating deficit at $23m a year
THE MBTA PLANS TO SPEND $2.29 billion building the Green Line Extension into Somerville and Medford and another $23 million a year providing the new rail service. John Dalton, the […]