BOSTON CABBIES GETTING hammered by the booming ride-hailing apps are beginning to show signs of being unable to stay afloat as banks have started to foreclose on delinquent loans they hold […]
Cabbies defaulting on loans
Posted inEnvironment, The Back Story
Q&A: Sorting out solar
It seems like solar power was going great guns under former governor Deval Patrick, but now everyone is fighting about it. What’s going on? Solar did do phenomenally well under […]
Posted inGambling, The Download
Plenty of attention for fantasy sports
Fantasy sports companies have spent tens of millions of dollars in a short period to attract players to their sites. Lately, they’ve been getting the kind of attention money can’t buy […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
More natural gas, not LNG, is the answer
AS NEW ENGLAND PREPARES for another winter, there is a growing consensus among energy policy makers in New England that more natural gas is needed to mitigate the high cost […]
Posted inEnvironment
Pilgrim shifts Beacon Hill energy debate
THE LOOMING SHUTDOWN of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth is quickly transforming the debate about energy on Beacon Hill, moving it out of the policy-wonk arena and into the […]
Posted inEducation
Why I sent my children to a charter school
I’VE LIVED IN BOSTON my entire life, but from first through twelfth grade I was bused as a METCO student to Newton. At the time it was difficult because my […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Mass Reaction to the Democratic Debate
Hillary Clinton needed a mic drop moment and last night she delivered it. Some of the loudest cheers over her first debate appearance of the 2016 presidential campaign season came from this […]
Posted inEnvironment
What Pilgrim decision says about energy market
NO MATTER WHERE YOU STAND on nuclear power, the thought process behind Entergy Corp.’s decision to shut down its reactor in Plymouth reveals a lot about the energy market in […]
Posted inGambling
Two of Big Three want to tax fantasy sports
SENATE PRESIDENT STAN ROSENBERG has joined his counterpart in the House by calling for regulations and taxes on the booming business of online fantasy sports gaming, dismissing the argument that it’s […]
Posted inEducation
MCAS vs. PARCC: Dead-heat in predicting college readiness
THE MOST CONCRETE evidence state officials will have available in deciding whether to switch to the new PARCC test or to stay with MCAS turns out to be little help […]
Posted inThe Download
Pilgrim’s owner slams state officials on way out
The owner of Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station said Tuesday morning it plans to shutter the 43-year-old plant by June 2019, a big financial blow to the town of Plymouth and […]
Posted inPolitics
All bases covered at ML Strategies
(Updated October 20, 2015. A correction was added to the chart of leading lobbying firms.) Photographs by Frank Curran IT WAS CRUNCH TIME in the battle for a Greater Boston casino […]
Posted inEducation
Rich-poor divide in high school sports
EACH YEAR, the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association compiles athletic participation data from public, charter, and parochial high schools across the state. In nine out of the past 10 years, the […]
Posted inEconomy
Contracting system isn’t saving money
Photographs by Mark Morelli IT SOUNDED LIKE a good idea at the time. Stung by the enormous cost overruns of the Big Dig and other open-spigot public projects, officials […]
Posted inEducation
State faces testing showdown
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 […]
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 […]