Two years ago, when Jeff Riley was put in charge of Lawrence’s failing school system under a new state law, he made a surprising declaration for someone who had just […]
Lawrence school receiver cuts central office staff by 30%
Posted inEconomy
BRA lawyers don’t do eminent domain
The Boston Redevelopment Authority has eight attorneys on staff, but apparently none of them are qualified to do eminent domain work. Records indicate the agency farms out the eminent domain […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
How the data were gathered
It wasn’t easy assembling the data for this report. No one agency or office compiles a comprehensive list of instances when police use deadly force, so CommonWealth gathered the information […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Public defender blues
Malden District Court is 50 shades of grim. The defendants in the packed courtroom—men and women, some young, most not—appear somber, resigned, or just plain petrified. The female judge whispers […]
Posted inEducation
The change agent
John McDonough is the interim superintendent of the Boston Public Schools. He’s the anonymous guy who is supposed to keep the school bureaucracy at 26 Court Street running smoothly until […]
Posted inHealth Care
Healing health care
THROUGH THE FALL, and on into winter, health care was everywhere in the news, with one story after another about problems with various aspects of the rollout of the Affordable […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Clearing the cops
FROM THE TINY TOWN of Colrain at the Vermont border to the siren-pierced streets of Boston, state and local police have shot and killed 73 people across Massachusetts over the […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Henriquez convicted of assault and battery
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICERep. Carlos Henriquez was led away in handcuffs Wednesday after being found guilty by a jury in a domestic violence case stemming from an early morning rendezvous […]
Posted inEducation
Educational teamwork
Fly over Fitchburg, Salem, or any of the state’s roughly two dozen Gateway Cities and you’ll get a glimpse of the industrial past in the outlines of old mill buildings. […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Resetting the bar
With headlines routinely proclaiming that Massachusetts “tops the nation” on national or international comparisons of student performance, it might come as a shock that over 40 percent of all students […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
It’s time to dredge
Boston has some big decisions to make in the next few years that will impact one of the city’s greatest strengths, which is the diversity of its workforce and the […]
Posted inUncategorized
Winter 2014 Editor’s note
Public policy at times can be very theoretical and dry, but this issue isn’t like that at all. It draws you in with great writing and photography that helps you […]
Posted inOpinion
Winter 2014 correspondence and updates
Why no Olympian effort on racial diversity? Just after I read your Fall 2013 cover story, “No seat at the table,” an article appeared in the Boston Globe about an […]
Posted inPolitics
Dark money rising
Citizens United upended electoral politics across the country. The 2010 Supreme Court decision, and the court rulings and regulatory decisions that have followed, held that corporations and unions could spend […]
Posted inHealth Care
Sex at the cellular level
What do you mean when you say every cell has a sex? Men and women are different down to the cellular and molecular levels. You either have two X chromosomes, […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, Transportation
Pumped over gas tax
When the Massachusetts Legislature voted last year to raise the gas tax by 3 cents to 26.5 cents per gallon and allow the tax to rise automatically in future years […]
Posted inPolitics
The blue-red color divide in Massachusetts
On a national political map, Massachusetts is reliably blue, a Democratic stronghold. The congressional delegation is all Democrat, the State House is overwhelmingly Democrat, and every constitutional officer is a […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
Leading the fight against e-cigarettes
When Susan Liss became the top lobbyist for Massachusetts in Washington in 2006, she had a million things to juggle, from the rollout of the state’s new health care law […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Warren and de Blasio: Dueling liberalisms
Those hungry for a liberal revival have seen the election over the last 14 months of Elizabeth Warren to the US Senate and Bill de Blasio as mayor of New […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Walsh to audit Menino’s BRA
Alleged personal tensions between Marty Walsh and Tom Menino made for great tabloid fodder during last fall’s mayoral election. The Herald painted the Walsh and Menino clans as Hatfields and […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
Big rail growth in state spending plan
State transportation officials just unveiled their first capital spending plan since being rebuffed last year on an expensive, ambitious plan to pour higher income taxes into Massachusetts roads, rails, and […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Chris Christie’s bridge to nowhere
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has been touting his image as a bridge to bipartisanship in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election. The bridge, it seems, has collapsed. We […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Addressing poverty requires holistic approach
Alone, poor, and guilty. Guilty of poverty itself and its toxic effects. That’s still the way single mothers are cast today because in our culture it’s “her baby, her fault.” […]
Posted inEnvironment, The Back Story
Coal, oil stage comeback
Nearly written off as dinosaurs heading toward extinction, New England’s struggling coal and oil power plants have staged a temporary comeback during the recent cold snap. Data compiled by New […]