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 […]
Romney, Boston 2024, and the White House
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.
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 […]
Posted inEconomy
Brotherly luck
A correction has been added to this story. ONE OF THE KEYS to the success of the Massachusetts Lottery is its agents. There are more than 7,600 of them scattered […]
Posted inPolitics
Advantage Democrats
THIRTY YEARS AGO this month marked the last time a Republican assumed the presidency with the approval of Massachusetts voters. Ronald Reagan won 49 states in the previous November’s election, […]
Posted inEnvironment
The solar disconnect
THE US ENERGY Information Administration says solar power is expensive relative to other types of electricity generation, yet cities, towns, and schools across Massachusetts are finding that solar can save […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
MassLive’s statewide strategy
A SPRINGFIELD-BASED NEWS outlet is taking a run at being the go-to source for state news in Massachusetts. MassLive, a website affiliated with the Springfield Republican, is trying to expand […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Baker’s health care moment
THOUGH THE 2014 gubernatorial campaign lacked any real discussion of health care policy, this will soon be forgotten because Massachusetts has never had a new chief executive as steeped in […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
A juggling act and news media hypocrisy
THIS ISSUE WAS one of the toughest we’ve ever had to pull together. Two feature stories failed to jell, one of them shortly before we went to press, which required […]
Posted inPolitics
Should incumbents get top ballot billing?
THE POWER OF INCUMBENCY is a time-tested benefit in contested elections. Studies have shown over and over that officials seeking to hold onto their seats at all levels are successful […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Tea Party ship off to slow start
THE BOSTON TEA Party Ships and Museum, which re-opened in 2012 with the help of a first-of-its-kind $18 million loan from the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority, is off to a […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service
Bridging the digital divide
Princeton is one of 45 municipalities across the state that do not have access to high-speed Internet service. The town’s broadband committee tried to get Charter, Comcast, or Verizon to […]
Posted inPolitics
Not your typical congressman
POLITICIANS DON’T TYPICALLY jump at the chance to mix it up in public with the chair of their state party. That should be doubly true for a young, no-name, first-time […]
Posted inPolitics
Naming rites: Pols as pals
CHARLIE BAKER AND MARTY WALSH don’t have a lot in common. One is a Harvard-educated Republican with blue-blooded ancestry here dating back to colonial days. The other is a Democratic […]
Posted inPolitics
Fix the broken Public Records Law
WE IN THE cradle of liberty think of ourselves as national leaders when it comes to government openness and democracy. After all, Massachusetts colonists used public “broadsheets” to inform people […]
Posted inEnvironment
Net loss
You served three terms as mayor of New Bedford, which made you one of the chief advocates for one of the biggest fishing ports in the country. Now, with the […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
A chance to lead on early education
“SUDDENLY, THE WORLD is waking up [to the fact] that it matters what you do with young children,” Abigail Adams Eliot told the Boston Globe in 1965. A Boston native […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
Baker taps 3 for energy posts
THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION on Monday filled three key energy and regulatory posts with officials whose backgrounds suggest they are likely to take pro-business positions on most issues. Matthew Beaton, the […]