THE STATE’S TWO MAJOR ELECTRIC UTILITIES are asking state regulators to approve contracts they have negotiated on behalf of their customers to purchase access to proposed natural gas pipelines. National […]
Eversource, Grid submit gas pipeline contracts to DPU
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Trump and The Surprise Doctrine
The Boston Globe’s Ideas section on Sunday offered a look at Donald Trump’s America. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a whole lot to it because Trump is so adept at talking in […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Questions about GE deal
GENERAL ELECTRIC’S DECISION to move its corporate headquarters to Boston says a lot of great things about our state. According to GE’s chairman and CEO, Jeff Immelt, the company picked […]
Posted inOpinion
Sanders vs. Clinton on health care
IT’S FUNNY HOW things turn out on the campaign trail. Since all Republican presidential candidates pledge to repeal the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare, they have little to argue about. The fireworks […]
Posted inTransportation
Report: MBTA knew two years ago about Green Line ext. overruns
MBTA OFFICIALS KNEW or should have known more than two years ago that the price of the Green Line extension was running far beyond initial estimates, long before officials say […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
State receiver urged for Southbridge schools
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE SOUTHBRIDGE PUBLIC SCHOOLS, which have had seven superintendents and seven high school principals since 2011, should be designated chronically underperforming and placed into receivership, Education Commissioner […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
ML Strategies scores win with GE
GENERAL ELECTRIC’S DECISION to relocate its headquarters and 800 jobs to Boston was a big victory for Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and Gov. Charlie Baker, but it was also another […]
Posted inThe Download
Local media matters
When the masthead changes at major newspapers, it’s a seismic shift that causes ripple effects in all corners of the profession and often gets the attention of readers. But there’s […]
Posted inThe Back Story
Everybody aboard the energy omnibus
House officials are busy crafting an omnibus energy bill, setting the stage for one of the more interesting legislative debates on Beacon Hill in a long time. House Speaker Robert […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Come to Boston for the sights, stay for the tax credits
Boston and the entire state is puffing out its collective chest just a little bit more this morning with the announcement that General Electric is moving its worldwide headquarters to the Seaport […]
Posted inEconomy
GE picks Boston for HQ location
GENERAL ELECTRIC said on Wednesday that it decided to bring its headquarters and 800 workers to Boston after a careful evaluation of the city’s “business ecosystem, talent, long-term costs, quality […]
Posted inOpinion
In Newtonville, smart growth is taking hold
Photos from 1984 by Bill Dain; photos from 2015 by Amy Dain. TAKE OUT YOUR MAGNIFYING GLASS for a moment. You might need it to see some of changes in […]
Posted inOpinion
We need to focus more on boys
WITH POVERTY RATES at their highest in Massachusetts since 1960, it should have come as no surprise to see youth violence increase in our urban communities last summer. Recent news […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Cruz in for a legal bruising
If money is the mother’s milk of politics, hypocrisy is what journalism runs on. That makes the speculation that Ted Cruz might not be eligible to serve as president under […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
State kicks-off criminal justice review
THE STATE BEGAN on Tuesday a comprehensive review of criminal justice policies that aims to take a data-driven approach to issues often heavily influenced by passions and perceptions. In that […]
Posted inTransportation
Galvin orders T to release Green Line ext. report
THE SECRETARY OF STATE HAS ORDERED the MBTA to release a sealed consultant’s report on the botched Green Line extension, saying the embattled agency could not withhold the document because […]
Posted inThe Download
ACLU sends Worcester, Lowell big legal bills
The lawyers who successfully challenged anti-panhandling ordinances in Worcester and Lowell are now demanding more than $1.7 million from the two cities in court costs and fees. The American Civil […]
Posted inPolitics
The yin and yang of Baker
Photographs by Mark Ostow CHARLIE BAKER IS getting worked up about “queueing theory.” He’s sitting at a conference table in his smaller “working office” in the governor’s suite at the Massachusetts […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Closed doors
Photographs by Michael Manning IN NEWTON, WHERE single-family home values are creeping into the million-dollar range, few things trigger more raw emotion than proposals for affordable housing. That emotion […]
Posted inEnvironment
Politics behind the plug
THERE IS A PATTERN that runs through the energy debate on Beacon Hill. The Baker administration wants to bring new natural gas pipelines into the region; utilities are tasked with […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
RTAs taking the wheel
Photographs by Meghan Moore WHILE GREATER BOSTON AGONIZES over the multibillion-dollar MBTA project to extend the Green Line a mere five miles, another transit tug-of-war is going on across the […]
Posted inHealth Care
Stuart Altman: Health care watchdog
Photographs by Frank Curran STUART ALTMAN IS 78, an age when most people are taking the foot off life’s gas pedal. But Altman isn’t pulling over to the side of […]
Posted inBallot Questions, Health Care, Opinion
Setting hospital prices by ballot question
A LOOMING 2016 ballot initiative threatens to upend the foundations of hospital finance in Massachusetts, even if the measure never reaches the voters. The clash involves a fractured hospital community, insurers, […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Testing the market-knows-best hypothesis
MASSACHUSETTS, HOME OF the world’s most expensive health care system, is in the midst of a boom in the development of in-patient psychiatric hospital beds. Responding to perceived market demand, developers […]