STATE LEADERS UNVEILED long-awaited legislation Tuesday aimed at reducing recidivism rates in the criminal justice system. But whether the bill tackles the most pressing issue facing the system or simply […]
State leaders unveil bill aimed at cutting recidivism
Posted inCriminal Justice
DA Conley pushes back against Gants
SUFFOLK COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY DAN CONLEY on Tuesday pushed back against efforts by Chief Justice Ralph Gants and members of the Senate to do away with mandatory minimum sentences and […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The long-running soap opera of Roxbury Community College
There was a time that missteps by administrators at Roxbury Community College were met with sighs and snickers over the continual stream of malfeasance at the two-year state school. But […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion
Brownsberger: Criminal justice reform top priority
MY ONGOING TOP PRIORITY as Senate Chair of the Judiciary Committee is criminal justice reform. The criminal justice system is filled with committed professionals – police, prosecutors, judges, and probation, […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Boston emerging as mobility innovation center
IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING that mobility – the movement of people and goods – is an incredibly hot space. Start-ups are cropping up across the entire value chain as significant […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion, Politics
Ira Stepanian will always be ‘Big Ira’
WHEN IRA STEPANIAN, then president of BankBoston, asked me to join him as executive vice president for external affairs, I told him that I didn’t know much about banking. “That’s […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, State House News Service
Sentencing commission backs repeal of mandatory minimums
IN ANOTHER SIGN of support for broad criminal justice reform, the Massachusetts Sentencing Commission voted to recommend abolition of mandatory minimum sentences for all crimes except murder. The move comes […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion, Politics
Bridging the urban-rural divide in Mass.
EVAN HOROWITZ AND JAMES PINDELL of the Boston Globe remarked in a November 14 article that “the Trump effect” occurred in Massachusetts as well: while Greater Boston voted more Democratic […]
Posted inDrug Addiction, State House News Service
Opioid deaths continued to climb in 2016
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE DYING from opioid overdoses in Massachusetts each year continues to climb, according to a new state report projecting an estimated increase of […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Worcester T&G by way of Tokyo
More than 120 Massachusetts daily and weekly newspapers learned on Thursday that they will report to ultimate bosses halfway around the world after the private equity firm that owns GateHouse […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Senators outline broad criminal justice reform agenda
SAYING THE TIME is right for the state to take a look at sweeping criminal justice reforms, a group of Democratic state senators is urging the Legislature to take up […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
ML Strategies breaks lobbying record
ML Strategies saw its lobbying fees soar to more than $4 million in 2016, setting what appears to be a single-year record among Massachusetts firms. ML Strategies, which is […]
Posted inUncategorized
Baker launches search for new T leader
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER said on Thursday that his administration is addressing long-term governance at the MBTA, launching a search for a new CEO/general manager and asking the agency’s existing oversight […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Shooting with impunity
Boston has become one of the safer big cities in the United States. In 2015, the city’s murder rate reached a 10-year low, with just 39 people killed. That number […]
Posted inPolitics
Senators to see average pay rise 39%
THE AVERAGE PAY OF A STATE SENATOR will likely rise about 39 percent this year to $110,942 under a new compensation scheme that rewards lawmakers with stipends for the leadership […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Pro-pot Jehlen to head marijuana panel
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A PRO-LEGALIZATION SENATOR will lead the Senate’s effort to make changes to the marijuana ballot law after Senate President Stanley tapped Somerville Sen. Patricia Jehlen to […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Baker remembers JFK
What follows is the prepared text of Gov. Charlie Baker’s speech on Wednesday in the House chamber to honor the centennial of former president John F. Kennedy’s birthday. I STILL […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Voices from Ohio on Medicaid expansion
OHIO IS ONE of 31 states that expanded Medicaid as permitted by the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare for nearly all low-income citizens. The state’s Republican governor, former presidential candidate John Kasich, […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
1984? Try 10 years earlier
Critics of President Donald Trump’s 26-day tenure liken it to an Orwellian world, where “alternative facts” and “fake news” mean the opposite of what we’ve always believed. But with the […]
Posted inHealth Care, State House News Service
Panel considers hospital price floor
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE OFFICIALS EXAMINING VARIATIONS in prices charged by medical providers on Tuesday floated the idea of setting a minimum rate for hospitals at the bottom end of […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Let’s go renewable
More than a quarter of the Massachusetts Legislature has signed on in support of bills that would require the state to obtain all of its electricity from renewable sources by […]
Posted inPolitics
Massie considering Democratic run for governor
BOB MASSIE, A veteran social justice activist who ran for lieutenant governor more than two decades ago, says he’s seriously weighing a run for governor in 2018. “I’m giving it […]
Posted inTransportation
Patriots set another record
SANDWICHED BY BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK winter storms, commuter rail officials had one more challenge to deal with last week: The highest one-day ridership in the history of the service with fans coming […]
Posted inTransportation
T considering privatization of core services
THE MBTA, which has already used privatization to cut costs in its warehouse and money room operations and to extract wage and work rule concessions from its largest union, is […]