TWO MONTHS AGO, three prominent Boston lawyers made a big splash with news on the front-page of the Boston Globe that they plan to file a lawsuit challenging the state […]
A provocative court challenge to charter cap
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
The underinflated MBTA football
There should be as much handwringing about the MBTA as there is about Tom Brady and underinflated footballs. But there isn’t. MBTA riders are waiting on Gov. Charlie Baker and […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Grading Obamacare
IN MY EXPERIENCE, precious few Americans recognize the variety and depth of policies included in the Affordable Care Act. Over the past several months, we have seen numerous report cards […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Death by a billion clicks?
Many have been sounding the death knell for print and television news since the worldwide embrace of the Internet. Legacy media have been losing eyes and bleeding red ink as more […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download, Transportation
Senate guts Baker’s T plans
While the Legislature’s Transportation Committee was busy on Monday taking testimony on Gov. Charlie Baker’s MBTA reform bill, the Senate Ways and Means Committee was cutting to the chase and […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
It’s time for a clean energy two-fer
MASSACHUSETTS ELECTRICITY COSTS were well above the national average in 2014 for households and businesses, according to federal data. After paying $3 billion in excess electric costs in the winter […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
Baker presses lawmakers for T control board
Gov. Charlie Baker turned up the pressure on state lawmakers, appearing at a joint transportation committee hearing Monday flanked by former Chelsea and Springfield officials who expressed strong support for […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Is bipartisanship killing the era of school accountability?
Partisan gridlock is something everyone loves to hate. The dysfunction in Washington underscores everything that’s wrong with governing today. That should make moments of bipartisan agreement something to celebrate, glimmers […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
Senate President pushes drug bulk purchasing
CONCERNED ABOUT THE RISING COST of pharmaceuticals, Senate President Stanley Rosenberg is pushing a budget proposal that would direct the state to use bulk purchasing to negotiate lower prices with […]
Posted inOpinion
Setting our sights on 2024
THE YOUNGEST COMPETITOR in the Boston 2024 Olympics is 6 years old today. She is just starting to be singled out as exceptional, in a gym or in a pool, […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Here’s one problem Olympic planners can address
I RIDE MY BIKE a lot from the South End to Southie: under the Expressway (my real subject here), up to Dorchester Heights for the sweeping views (and a well-deserved […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
The Globe’s I-93 off-ramp
Boston 2024’s initial plan for transforming the area around UMass Boston into an Olympic Athlete’s Village included a new on-and-off ramp to I-93 that would have cut right through the […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
MBTA numbers do matter
TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY STEPHANIE POLLACK this week defended the accuracy of the absenteeism numbers contained in the MBTA advisory panel‘s report, but she did so in a way that was odd […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
CW video: Opting out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC6C_NSWO-o Fordham Institute’s Robert Pondiscio and Massachusetts education blogger Jennifer Berkshire talk with CommonWealth magazine’s Michael Jonas about the opt-out movement in which students are refusing to take standardized tests.
Posted inHealth Care, The Download
The hidden cost of having health insurance
U.S. News & World Report is out with its annual index on health insurance and its impact on the economy. To the surprise of few, many of the costs are declining […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Time for action on MBTA
A FOG OF CONFUSION threatens to obfuscate the hard, persistent facts that ought to dominate our thinking about how to restore and rejuvenate our public transportation system. That confusion comes […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Clinton, Warren, and Sanders: It’s complicated
Elizabeth Warren has so far resisted every appeal from her progressive fanbase to get into the 2016 race for president. Some refuse to believe that her “no” is genuine, which […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
Scott: State should take over the MBTA
“THE MBTA NEEDS to be put out of its misery.” That’s the diagnosis from Beverly Scott, the former general manager of the MBTA. The MBTA doesn’t need a fiscal and […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
Mass. once again playing catchup on energy
RIGHT NOW, IT SEEMS LIKE Massachusetts remains on the slow boat to natural gas pipeline expansion, which is impacting prices for customers and reliability for power generators. The region needs […]
Posted inEconomy
Boston wages outpace rest of nation
Private sector workers in the Greater Boston area saw their wages and salaries increase 3.9 percent over the last year, the highest increase among the nation’s 15 largest metropolitan area […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Pollack says dissolving T was considered
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SWEEPING ASIDE THE AGENCY that oversees metro Boston’s transit system and reassembling the bureaucracy was a path considered and rejected by a gubernatorial advisory panel, though […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Tom Brady’s politics
Ever since Tom Brady skipped the New England Patriots’ White House visit late last month, there has been endless speculation on talk radio and in print about why the team […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Rosenberg and DeLeo at odds — again
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE ANOTHER RIFT has opened between the House and Senate, this time over whether senators can consider changes in tax policy when they debate their annual state […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
Baker opposes lifting net metering cap
THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION, siding with electric utilities over solar developers and environmental groups, is recommending no expansion of a key state solar subsidy until a more cost-effective program to harness […]