For MBTA riders, life on the T during the Wednesday morning rush was perfectly normal. There were “moderate” disabled-train delays on the Orange Line, signal problems on the Green Line, […]
Disrupting business as usual @ the MBTA
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
House, Senate negotiators break budget stalemate
HOUSE AND SENATE NEGOTIATORS broke their deadlock on the fiscal 2016 budget Tuesday night by finding a novel way to fund an expansion of a tax credit that benefits low-income […]
Posted inGambling, The Download
The Wynn-Walsh soap opera
Wynn Resorts and Boston Mayor Martin Walsh have become the lead players in a tawdry soap opera that somehow manages to keep spinning off in new and strange directions. The […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Lost years
ABRIGAL FORRESTER REMEMBERS the day he climbed out of the prison van delivering him to state prison in Walpole. “I felt like I was walking into a pressure cooker of […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Rethinking tough-on-crime
BONNIE DITORO DOESN’T try to hide from her past. She was a heavy-duty cocaine user, a newly widowed mother of two whose life in the mid-1990s was spiraling out of […]
Posted inPolitics
Rivera’s old-school push for change
AT DANIEL RIVERA’S INAUGURATION as mayor of Lawrence in January 2014, he was hailed as the guy who would take the city in a new direction. Even though he squeaked […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, State House News Service
Plum Island at risk
Photographs by Mark Morelli except headline photograph by Gabrielle Gurley PLUM ISLAND IS one of the most spectacular places to live in Massachusetts. With high dunes and rolling beaches on the […]
Posted inHealth Care
Health care sticker shock
I HAD A minor stroke in April. Then I saw the bill and nearly had a heart attack. For a trip to the emergency room, admission to the hospital for […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Uber is a transportation outlaw
THIS LEGISLATIVE SESSION, the Massachusetts House and Senate will most certainly take up debate on the controversial issue of so-called “rideshare” companies. These are companies that use an app to […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Ridesharing choices must be protected
UBER IS A technology platform that allows people in Massachusetts, and in more than 310 cities worldwide, to find rides from available drivers. In many of these cities, Uber offers […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Man in the middle
Photographs by Frank Curran JOHN GROSSMAN calls himself an intermediary. It’s an unusual job description, but it’s one that captures what he does putting together complex deals that leverage money […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
DCR 2.0
IN LATE 2011, the commissioner of the state Department of Conservation and Recreation said the agency’s system for leasing public land was in disrepair, with many tenants enjoying sweetheart deals, […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
State House press gets free office space, parking
THE MEN AND WOMEN who are elected to state office are provided office and parking space at the State House when they arrive for work on Beacon Hill. The same […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
The failure of public assistance
Democrats and Republicans alike have fought for and voted to support programs and funding to provide assistance to our most vulnerable citizens. The intention of this support was always to […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Instant runoff voting could improve Boston elections
ACROSS THE COUNTRY, voter turnout in local elections has steadily dropped. Electorates for local elections are a shell of what they once were — and of what they could be, […]
Posted inEconomy
Field of Dreams
You’ve owned several minor league professional teams in the Northeast. What about owning a team of college players in the Futures League in Brockton interested you when the previous owners, […]
Posted inPolitics
A rookie on Pelosi’s team
WHEN SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES gathered in the House chamber in January to hear President Obama’s State of the Union address, Katherine Clark, the Melrose representative who is now serving her first […]
Posted inEnvironment
Region’s cap and trade program draws interest
The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan is drawing a lot of attention to the carbon cap-and-trade program run by nine Northeast and mid-Atlantic states, including Massachusetts. The Clean […]
Posted inGambling, Uncategorized
Luck’s run out
WHEN THE SIX New England state lotteries started the Lucky for Life game, with the grand prize of $1,000 a day for the rest of your life, good fortune didn’t exactly […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Kennedy fights federal data breach law
AFTER HACKERS STOLE data from Target, Home Depot, and other companies in recent years, President Obama called on Congress to enact legislation setting a national standard governing what companies must do […]
Posted inEconomy
Mass. 1 of 11 states without ticket tax
LAST YEAR, nearly 3 million people walked through the gates of Fenway Park to watch the Red Sox, as bad as they were. More than 720,000 fans spun the turnstiles […]
Posted inOpinion
Full disclosure
OUR SUMMER ISSUE includes stories and analysis on a wide variety of topics, everything from criminal justice reform and climate change to Uber and the incomprehensible medical bills we receive […]
Posted inGambling, Politics
Wynn threatens lawsuit against Walsh
WYNN RESORTS on Monday threatened a lawsuit against Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and the city unless he stops his “campaign of falsehoods” and apologizes to the Las Vegas casino developer. […]
Posted inOpinion, The Download
Play like a girl
The United States won the Women’s World Cup and many are predicting the game of soccer in this country will get a boost as well. But there was also one […]