MBTA OFFICIALS on Monday outlined a plan to dramatically improve service on the Red Line, but to execute the plan they said the existing procurement for new rail cars would […]
T offers plan to boost Red Line service
Posted inThe Download
Tackling retirement insecurity
“Can you have a good life if you don’t have a good job?” That was the provocative headline on a Sunday Review piece in Sunday’s New York Times by author […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
State on verge of clean energy transformation
SOMETIMES INCREMENTAL CHANGES result in a patchwork of policies whose larger significance may be missed – and along with it major opportunities. That is the case with Massachusetts energy policy […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Aloisi responds to Gonneville
MBTA CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER JEFF GONNEVILLE rightly takes pride in the work he and his fellow MBTA employees perform every day, keeping our aging public transportation moving as best they […]
Posted inTransportation
T official disputes shutdown cost estimate
The September 15 opinion piece by James Aloisi, the former Massachusetts secretary of transportation, exploring the end-of-day shutdown process of the MBTA, contains several factual errors and misrepresents much of […]
Posted inEnvironment
Baker signs climate change order
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER, who six years ago expressed skepticism about the science of climate change, signed an executive order on Friday setting the state on a course to develop a […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service
Study: Storage could deliver 600 MW in 10 years
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH THE RIGHT amount of encouragement, energy storage technology – a field that can range from batteries to more novel contraptions – could account for 600 […]
Posted inPolitics
Pot opponents mislead on costs, local aid threat
LT. GOV. KARYN POLITO suggested earlier this week that passage of the ballot question legalizing recreational marijuana could lead to a reduction in local aid to pay for regulating the new […]
Posted inThe Download
More pushback against Ortiz
Pushback against US Attorney Carmen Ortiz’s prosecutorial style seems to be building. Boston Globe columnist Scot Lehigh highlights the extortion cases brought by Ortiz against two aides to Boston Mayor […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
Peyser gets raucous reception at UMass
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE EDUCATION SECRETARY JAMES PEYSER received a raucous reception at the University of Massachusetts Boston on Thursday, where his entreaties to spur growth outside campuses and cut […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Shutdown process costly for the T
IT BEGAN WITH A TWEET, sent in the early morning hours. James Jay, a TransitMatters advocate and transit enthusiast, tweeted: “One E-Line train is the reason the entire MBTA system […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download
A little bit less unequal
We have become accustomed to the drumbeat of bad news about income equality and the sluggish economic recovery since the Great Recession. Stories have documented the seemingly endless ways in […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Kerrigan lists backers for Dem post
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE The Democratic Party’s last nominee for lieutenant governor, Stephen Kerrigan, has moved aggressively in the past few days to project the image of a front-runner to […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Boston property tax hike makes sense
TAXES VS. INVESTMENTS. The tension between these two concepts has been at the center of public policy debates at all levels of government throughout American history. Putting aside the recurring […]
Posted inThe Download
Banning plastics is a mixed bag
The Boston City Council is considering a proposal to ban single-use plastic bags, those ubiquitous film-thin carriers used in grocery and convenience stores. If the council passes it, it could trigger […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Polito: Pot question could curb state aid to cities
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE STATE FUNDING FOR SCHOOLS and local aid could take a hit if voters approve a marijuana legalization ballot question in November, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito said […]
Posted inHealth Care
Hospital pricing deliberations begin
THE 22 MEMBERS OF THE SPECIAL COMMISSION set up to address unwarranted price variation among the state’s health care providers held their first meeting on Tuesday, with one of the […]
Posted inThe Download
Worcester nixes sanctioned homeless camp
Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. on Monday ruled out any type of sanctioned camp for homeless people in the city, saying the issue “does not lend itself to one-size-fits-all […]
Posted inTransportation
MBTA to double capital spending
MBTA OFFICIALS SAY they want to overhaul the process and change the culture at the agency to ramp up spending on capital projects after once again finishing the year without […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
T deficit cut to $86M
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MBTA FINISHED fiscal year 2016 with a structural deficit of $86 million, a roughly 28 percent decrease from the previous year in the difference between […]
Posted inTransportation
Union protests T privatizing
HUNDREDS OF ORANGE-CLAD MBTA union workers and supporters crammed the Fiscal and Management Control Board meeting Monday to loudly — and, in some cases, profanely – protest the administration’s efforts […]
Posted inThe Download
Clinton stumbles
Hillary Clinton didn’t look very presidential on Sunday, as a video posted on Twitter showed her teetering on a sidewalk and then nearly collapsing as she was helped into a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Judge says body camera pilot can move forward
A JUDGE HAS sided with Boston Police Commissioner William Evans and ruled that he has authority to assign officers to a body-worn camera pilot project over the objections of the […]
Posted inThe Codcast
Episode 18: The Globe v. Joyce
CommonWealth’s Jack Sullivan and Bruce Mohl discuss the Boston Globe’s extensive coverage of Sen. Brian Joyce, and particularly the story last month suggesting the Milton lawmaker expanded his house without […]