Boston Mayor Marty Walsh and his police commissioner may be cool to the idea of outfitting police with cameras, but video from the scene of a police traffic stop gone […]
Rethinking cop cameras?
Posted inPolitics
Still bridging divides
IN 2007, WHEN I was editorial page editor at the Patriot Ledger in Quincy, I wrote an editorial for the paper’s support of the immigration reform bill before Congress. It […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Let Warren be Warren
As a rare convocation of America’s political nobility gathers to mark the opening of the Edward M. Kennedy Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston, there is palpable relief that the […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Holyoke’s school challenge
THIS PAST TUESDAY, after a careful review of the Holyoke Public Schools, Commissioner Mitchell Chester recommended that the state Board of Education take a vote on whether to place our […]
Posted inThe Download
A story about nothing
The television show Seinfeld famously referred to itself as a “show about nothing.” There’s a new genre of news reporting emerging in the same vein, something that essentially tells readers […]
Posted inThe Back Story, Transportation
Commuter rail ridership numbers don’t add up
COMMUTER RAIL RIDERSHIP is up. No, it’s down. Actually, it’s held steady. These three statements cannot all be true. And yet, all three are supported by official data collected and published […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Probation drama not over yet
For months during the federal trial of former Probation commissioner John O’Brien and two top deputies, defense attorneys continually drew attention to the fact that only O’Brien, Elizabeth Tavares, and William […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment
National Grid electricity prices to drop
National Grid’s 1 million basic service electricity customers will see their monthly bills drop in May, but rates aren’t returning to the level they were last summer and they will be significantly higher […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Beacon Hill’s doobage dithering
The contours of the marijuana legalization debate have filled out on Beacon Hill and opponents have scored some powerful allies. Will the presence of those heavy hitters make a difference […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
Chester calls for state takeover of Holyoke schools
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE STATE SHOULD take over the Holyoke Public Schools, Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester recommended Tuesday, saying “persistent and pervasive” problems in the school district make receivership […]
Posted inOlympics, State House News Service
Boston 2024 backs state referendum
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE CHIEF BACKER of a Boston bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics is now supporting the idea of a 2016 referendum on the bid. Suffolk Construction […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
PARCC will work
AT THE City on a Hill Charter School in Roxbury, where I teach high school math, 91 percent of students are designated as high needs. Before my students returned for […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
Selkoe’s Karmaloop seeks bankruptcy protection
Greg Selkoe, the Boston Internet entrepreneur who has tried to make the city more appealing to young professionals, is facing a financial crisis. Selkoe’s online streetwear company, Karmaloop Inc., filed […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Explaining Obamacare to foreigners
On the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act, I ponder how non-Americans view our momentous and controversial health reform law. Like many US health policy analysts, […]
Posted inOlympics, The Download
Marty’s Games
Think of it as the Pottery Barn rule turned on its head. While he was tending to mayor-type things such as snow piles and the search for a new school […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
The dawn of a new era in savings
Not since the 1970s, when IRAs and 401(k)s were created to encourage retirement planning, has the issue of savings raised so much interest. Several bills have been filed on Beacon […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
The T must succeed
THIS WINTER’S MBTA debacle has focused attention – as it should – on how the T does business. But it is important not to lose sight of why the T […]
Posted inThe Download
It’s good to live in a two-paper town
With advertising revenue drying up for newspapers – actually, revenue of all types – the scramble is on to find cash flow from any legitimate source possible. Over the last […]
Posted inThe Back Story
Kid-free Boston
IN A 2011 Boston Globe op-ed, columnist Scot Lehigh asked: “Where are the snow shovelers of yesteryear?” He suggested that the once-eager entrepreneurs must be more consumed by Facebook, texting, and video games than […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Galvin dishes out blame pie — but none for him, thanks
There is an old saw about accountability that says when you point a finger of blame at someone else, there are three more pointing back at you. Secretary of State […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Gants argues against mandatory minimums for drug offenses
The following is a transcript of Chief Justice Ralph Gants’ keynote address at the second annual Massachusetts Criminal Justice Reform Coalition summit on Monday, March 16th, 2015 at UMass […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Healey’s e-cigarette move lights up Legislature’s inertia
What happens when an unstoppable attorney general meets an immovable Legislature? She works around it. Attorney General Maura Healey’s plan to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors has once again highlighted […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Deval Patrick, living la vida loca
The whispering surrounding a future Deval Patrick campaign for president got full voice when Slate’s Reihan Salam recently put the former governor on a short list of alternatives to Hillary Clinton, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Crime brings together unlikely bedfellows
WHAT DO THE liberal Center for American Progress, tea party-infused FreedomWorks, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ultra-conservative Koch brothers have in common? Not much, but they have banded […]