Photographs by Kathleen Dooher IN 2010, WHEN the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to adopt the Common Core State Standards, it marked a big moment for the […]
State faces testing showdown
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
Overlords of the MBTA
Photographs by Michael Manning THE NAME JOSEPH AIELLO probably means nothing to most MBTA riders. But the first major snowstorm might change that. Aiello is the chairman of the five-member […]
Posted inPolitics
Opportunity gap
Photographs by Frank Curran THE NEW YORK TIMES recently called Robert Putnam the “poet laureate of civil society.” One of a handful of academics known for bringing social science out […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Reform through destruction
JERRY MILLER DIED in August in Virginia after a long illness. He was 83. Few people in Massachusetts now remember his name, but for several years in the early 1970s […]
Posted inTransportation
The T’s chief tweeter
When did you start at the T and where did you come from? I started in November 2011. I came from outside the authority. I had just gotten my masters […]
Posted inEducation
Share your stories on the opportunity/sports gap
ONE OF THE GREATEST JOYS of my life has been watching my son play sports. Over the years, he’s played soccer, lacrosse, baseball, and basketball on organized teams, and football, […]
Posted inEconomy
Don’t tax my yogurt
FOR MANY, the new Roche Bros. supermarket in the old Filene’s building at Boston’s Downtown Crossing is manna from heaven. There is a large full-service grocery store in the old […]
Posted inEducation
Students, schools play cat and mouse with online cheating
AS COLLEGES OFFER more and more courses online, school officials are scrambling to come up with innovative ways to prevent cheating by students taking tests and other assessments remotely. It’s […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Lexington lawmaker looks to the people for tax boost
REP. JAY KAUFMAN has been a reliable member of the House Democratic caucus’s progressive wing for more than 20 years. In the 1990s, he was part of a small band […]
Posted inHealth Care
State down to one elder ombudsman
THE MASSACHUSETTS ELDER AFFAIRS office, which had been using two ombudsmen to respond to complaints from the 14,000 people in the state’s 237 assisted living facilities, is now down to one. […]
Posted inEconomy
The politics of patents
THE WAY BOSTON UNIVERSITY President Bob Brown sees it, the Massachusetts economy is fueled by a pipeline of innovation running from the state’s great research universities to start-up companies. University […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion
Dealing fairly with pretrial detainees
IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, but there is a tested way to improve the fairness of our justice system while saving taxpayers money and lowering crime. The solution […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
No time to go wobbly on One Care
BACK IN 2008, when I was working in the US Senate on national health reform, a delegation of 20 business leaders from the New England Council visited Capitol Hill to […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Helping those with brain injuries
MASSACHUSETTS IS A WORLD LEADER in emergency, acute, and acute rehabilitation medical care. Our colleges and universities conduct advanced research on cognition and intelligence, and are home to some of the […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service
Pilgrim nuclear plant to close in 2019
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE PILGRIM NUCLEAR POWER STATION in Plymouth will shut down by June 1, 2019, its owners announced Tuesday morning, citing “poor market conditions.” Pilgrim owner Entergy Corporation […]
Posted inUncategorized
Letters, Fall 2015
INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING NOT WORKING IN CAMBRIDGE James Sutherland’s article on Instant Runoff Voting (“A Democracy Worth Paying For,” Summer ’15) points out that turnouts in Cambridge run higher than […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Has the Lawrence school receivership run out of steam?
TEN YEARS AGO, engulfed by Katrina, New Orleans was the site of almost unimaginable loss of life, with entire neighborhoods, including the city’s entire network of neighborhood schools, laid […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Salary not the only yardstick of college success
THE RECENTLY RELEASED FEDERAL College Scorecard caused a stir among both the news media and university leadership. The US Department of Education ranked their data by student federal loan recipients’ […]
Posted inGambling, The Download
Globe in the middle of casino fight
The Boston Globe found itself in the middle of a legal fight this week. The newspaper broke the news on Wednesday that Wynn Resorts had filed a libel lawsuit against “an […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
Baker pushes for more charter schools
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. CHARLIE BAKER REIGNITED a debate on Thursday that has vexed and divided Democrat and Republican lawmakers in recent years, proposing an expansion of charter schools […]
Posted inGambling
Wynn’s challenge beyond Massachusetts
WYNN RESORTS, facing a series of legal and regulatory challenges to its proposed $1.7 billion casino in Everett, is also facing financial challenges as a company. The Las Vegas firm’s […]
Posted inGambling, The Download
Fantasy sports come to grips with reality
The argument over whether playing fantasy sports for money is legal is long-past settled. Congress, under heavy lobbying from professional sports leagues, gave a specific carve-out for fantasy leagues to operate […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Gallup chief clarifies horse race polling decision
POLITICO REPORTED Wednesday morning that Gallup will not track the so-called “horse race” in this year’s presidential primary, and would not commit to doing so in the general election. The […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
MBTA’s alcohol ads trial balloon deflating fast
The MBTA needs every dollar that it can get, but probably not the ones from ads for “demon rum.” Several years ago, a youth-led, public health coalition lobbied MBTA general […]