What happens when 200 people with no medical expertise gather to debate the finer points of scientific evidence on treatment for a serious disease? We’ll soon find out in the […]
Lyme disease showdown on tap
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Obama, Clinton and the new public-option debate
THE ERA OF Democratic silence on strengthening and improving the Affordable Care Act is officially over. President Obama’s tour de force review of the ACA’s successes in the new Journal […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
Prohibit the ‘pipeline tax’
What is the proposed “pipeline tax” on our electric bills, and why is there a bipartisan effort to ban it? The so-called “pipeline tax” is a scheme under which consumers […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download
The Notorious RBG
People in their 70s and 80s may not always say it but there is a liberating sense to reaching that age. It comes with impunity to say what’s on your […]
Posted inPolitics
Senate set to tax Airbnb
THE SENATE WILL take up a proposal to extend the hotel tax to home-sharing apps such as Airbnb and Homeaway, the latest effort to rein in and reap revenue from […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
Baker pushes T fare flexibility
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. CHARLIE BAKER WANTS to give the MBTA a freer hand in raising fares, sending back to the Legislature a budgetary provision that would have imposed […]
Posted inThe Codcast
Episode 11: US Attorney Carmen Ortiz
CommonWealth interviewed Ortiz on June 28 for a story that appears today in the just-released Summer print issue of the magazine. The story, entitled “Leaks, leaks, and more leaks,” raises […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download
The Codcast: US Attorney Carmen Ortiz
US Attorney Carmen Ortiz says her office is not the source of press leaks about ongoing federal investigations. “I know people think that, and I know that they’re wrong,” she […]
Posted inEconomy, Education
The next Kendall Square?
AFTER YEARS OF DELAYS and then years of planning, something big is starting to happen on the Boston side of the Harvard University campus. Out behind the stately Harvard Business […]
Posted inEducation
Musical chairs
Photographs by Michael Manning STATE EDUCATION OFFICIALS placed the Southbridge schools into receivership earlier this year, citing continual underperformance in all testing areas, high suspensions and disciplinary problems, and unacceptable […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Leaks, leaks, and more leaks
Illustrations by Anthony Freda THE HEADLINES KEEP COMING. “Mayor Walsh is drawn into federal labor probe”…“Prosecutors investigate fees collected by Joyce on Randolph projects”…“Joyce’s role in solar project probed”…”Everett mayor […]
Posted inPolitics
A nation divided
ALAN WOLFE HAS had a long interest in American democracy and in Americans’ attitudes toward it and toward issues related to religion and morality. But the longtime sociology professor at […]
Posted inPolitics
To serve and elect
Photograph by Frank Curran The organization you founded, New Politics, is committed to finding and helping elect candidates for office who have backgrounds in the military or civilian service […]
Posted inGambling, Opinion, Politics
Building a government agency from scratch
Photographs by Mark Morelli I’VE ALWAYS HAD MIXED FEELINGS about gambling. I had no moral concerns about it; indeed, for years my wife and I had enjoyed a day or […]
Posted inGun ownership, Guns
Mass. chiefs approve most gun permits
ONLY A TINY fraction of Massachusetts residents who apply for firearms licenses or identification cards are turned down, suggesting the state’s reputation for restricting gun use may be overstated. Just […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Gateway Cities preoccupied with panhandling
IN NEW BEDFORD, the City Council considered requiring panhandlers to get licenses to ask for money in the city. Manchester, New Hampshire, banned the exchange of items of value between […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
The art of the non-deal deal
ON MAY 31, Gov. Charlie Baker signed a new law to avert a proposed 2016 state ballot initiative that would have redistributed as much as $450 million annually from Partners […]
Posted inUncategorized
Fusion: The next big thing
GREATER BOSTON IS on a roll, propelled by innovation. The US Chamber of Commerce recently named the region number one in the nation for “fostering entrepreneurial growth and innovation.” Our […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Slow, steady on military sex assaults
SHORTLY AFTER TAKING HER SEAT in the House in 2007, US Rep. Niki Tsongas of Lowell attended a luncheon for soldiers wounded in combat. Tsongas approached some women at the […]
Posted inEconomy
Sandwich shop struggling on Boston Common
THE EARL OF SANDWICH is struggling financially at its Boston Common restaurant location, with losses mounting and revenues declining. The city of Boston hasn’t taken a hit—rental payments to the […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Opinion
The income-growth challenge in Gateway Cities
IT’S POSSIBLE FOR an economy to grow in ways that expand opportunity and promote broadly shared prosperity. We know that’s possible because it’s exactly what happened in the United States […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Microphilanthropy
Addressing hunger at Bunker Hill CC
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 inPolitics
To caucus or not to caucus
CAUCUSES ARE NOT clandestine cabals requiring a secret handshake and special door knock to get into the room, except perhaps for the Democratic and Republican legislative caucuses. In Massachusetts, in […]
Posted inEconomy
Boston garage sale stirs worries
THE CITY OF Boston used to sell off rundown municipal garages for development all the time by itself, but it’s taking a different tack with the old Winthrop Square Garage, […]