A South Shore Hospital physicians group agreed to pay $1.8 million in state and federal fines to settle charges that it inflated patient bills and paid kickbacks to doctors in exchange for referrals to […]
AG fines South Shore Hospital group $1.8m
Posted inPolitics
DeLeo legal bills total $200,000
More than a third of House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s $537,000 in campaign expenditures last year went to the law firm of Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo for legal […]
Posted inPolitics
Baker pegs deficit at $765m
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER said the state is facing a $765 million deficit this fiscal year, a shortfall more than twice as large as his predecessor estimated and attempted to address […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
New gas pipelines can be avoided
LAST WINTER’S NATURAL gas price spikes, and resultant electric rate hikes, continue to be used to justify the push for massive expansion of gas infrastructure. Yet a successful program to […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Looking for the man or woman on a horse
A RECENT BOOK by Aaron David Miller argues that the United States should be satisfied with the great presidents we have already had – George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin […]
Posted inThe Download
Olympics fact vs. fiction
Thank goodness Boston 2024 is going to start releasing details of its bid for the 2024 Olympics this week because reporters are starting to fill in the blanks on their […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
Haddad files energy bill
A TOP MEMBER of House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s leadership team filed legislation on Friday that calls for expanding the region’s natural gas pipeline capacity, importing more hydroelectricity from Canada, and […]
Posted inEducation
Striving for urban school excellence
COLLABORATION AND THE need to move from incremental progress to exponential gains were the twin themes sounded as educators gathered on Friday morning for the release of an annual report […]
Posted inThe Download
The Boston.com chameleon
“I think Boston.com is going to have a little more edge to it,” Boston Globe CEO Mike Sheehan told CommonWealth magazine last summer in laying out his vision for the bifurcated […]
Posted inGambling
Wynn holds back hotel rendering
Casino magnate Steve Wynn was poised to unveil a rendering of his new Everett casino design Thursday night at a real estate event, but for some reason he changed his […]
Posted inHealth Care, The Back Story
Steward rules
STEWARD HEALTH CARE is changing the rules of hospital oversight in Massachusetts and there is little state regulators are doing about it. In November, Steward announced it was closing the […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
New Senate rules proposed
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SENATE PRESIDENT STANLEY Rosenberg, looking to put his early mark on the Senate, has proposed a number of rules changes that he said are designed to […]
Posted inThe Download
Taking it to the streets
Commuters driving into Boston came to an abrupt and unwelcome stop Thursday morning as protesters cemented into barrels blocked traffic on I-93 south in Medford and north at East Milton. […]
Posted inHealth Care, State House News Service
State health plan deficit could hit $190m
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE STATE EMPLOYEES IN Massachusetts could see increases in their health insurance co-payments and deductibles under one option being considered by a state commission grappling with a […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
PIRG decries campaign spending
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE US SENATE CANDIDATES must raise an average of $3,300 per day over six years to equal the median haul of winners during the 2014 election cycle, […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Romney, Boston 2024, and the White House
Can Boston host an event that’s the equivalent of “20 Super Bowls at once?” Mitt Romney thought so two years ago. Gov. Charlie Baker and Boston 2024 chairman Dan O’Connell told the […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Olympics a regional effort
AS ORGANIZERS AND community leaders work to put together an Olympics bid for metro Boston we need to cast our thoughts to 2124, not 2024. I support bringing the Olympics […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Baker’s surprise transportation pick
STEPHANIE POLLACK MAY know more about the MBTA than anyone alive. She’s been a dogged advocate for transit expansion. She opposed the repeal of gas tax indexing, believing the state needs […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Pollack is solid and stunning choice
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER’S choice of Stephanie Pollack as his new Transportation Secretary is a solid and stunning choice. Solid because everyone who knows Stephanie knows that she is smart, forward-looking, […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Warren’s clout grows
The clout of Sen. Elizabeth Warren continues to grow in Washington, as Wall Street banker Antonio Weiss asked the president to withdraw his nomination for a top job at the Treasury […]
Posted inEnvironment
Seriously, is this the best we can do?
FOR YEARS, HOMEOWNERS in Lynn faced no restrictions on their trash output. Technically, their weekly allotment was six barrels of trash, yet if additional barrels were put out at the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Big Brother is watching
As the search continues for the gunman who killed the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, in Midtown Manhattan early Wednesday morning, surveillance video is playing an enormous role in the effort to identify and track the suspect. We’re reposting a CommonWealth story from 2015 that looked at the growing role of surveillance video in law enforcement.Â
Posted inHealth Care
Aging in place
LAURA SHUFELT VIVIDLY remembers the February 2013 call from the assisted living facility in Centerville where her mother was living. A nurse at the facility told Shufelt her mother, who […]
Posted inPolitics
Bromancing the vote
CHARLIE BAKER SQUEAKED into the governor’s office by such a narrow margin that pretty much any demographic group can claim to be responsible for the last few votes that pushed […]