With the Red Sox sucking all the oxygen out of the news cycle in these parts, it might have been a little hard to notice other things going on yesterday, […]
Obama: Every little thing’s gonna be alright
Posted inPolitics
When it comes to skylines, bigger isn’t always better
Fifteenth in a series When Boston College Dean W. Seavey Joyce flew over Boston in the mid-1950s for the first time (he was a fearful flyer), he looked down upon […]
Posted inPolitics
MAYOR MATTERS: A 21st century mayor
Third in a series Boston is embarking on a new era, as Mayor Thomas Menino leaves office after two decades. His successor will have to both build on Menino’s accomplishments […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
State taking over 4 different schools
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICEThe state will take over four chronically under-performing schools that have been “stuck” as other troubled schools have made “quite good progress,” Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Cape officials show how to get rail done
For years, Cape Cod officials wanted to use rail to get tourists off their clogged roads and onto beaches and into restaurants and shops. Coordinated by the Cape Cod Regional […]
Posted inPolitics
MAYOR MATTERS: Boston’s parks need to play catch-up
Second in a series Boston is home to the oldest park in the country, so perhaps it’s no surprise that innovation may not be the first thing that comes to […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Linehan’s total isolation
Bill Linehan held on to his Boston City Council seat two years ago, but it appears that victory cost him the support of much of the city’s political establishment. Now, […]
Posted inPolitics
Boston: More integrated yet also very divided
Fourteenth in a series Boston was nearly torn apart by the forced busing experience. The palliative quality of time healed many of the wounds, as did lot of hard work […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
Regional planner slams S. Coast Rail article
I am writing to give your readers some additional perspective on South Coast Rail in response to Gabrielle Gurley’s October 23 opinion piece singling out the project (“Deval Patrick, John […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics, State House News Service
Warren: Obama ‘dropped the ball’ on website rollout
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICESen. Elizabeth Warren said on Monday that President Obama’s administration “dropped the ball” on the rollout of the federal health care website, but added that the Affordable […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Mayoral limits
BOSTON POLITICAL WATCHERS are breathlessly anticipating the final week of the mayoral showdown. Tomorrow is the last of three televised debates between John Connolly and Marty Walsh. The candidates will […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
It’s John Henry’s Globe and T&G
Red Sox principal owner John Henry officially took ownership of the Boston Globe and Worcester Telegram & Gazette from the New York Times Co. on Thursday, but we still don’t […]
Posted inHealth Care, The Back Story
Robin Hood health care
Like health-care Robin Hoods, Massachusetts officials are taking roughly $216 million from the state’s health insurance plans and biggest hospitals and giving the money to small community hospitals, physician practices, […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Big, dark money flowing into Boston mayoral race
Outside PACs and unions are funneling money into Boston at a rate that far outpaces anything seen nationally in other recent big-city mayoral races. The mayor’s contest is awash with […]
Posted inHealth Care, The Download
Rage against the machine
Technology has been credited – some would say condemned – for launching the demise of newspapers and other media. Now, the computer industry has been identified as the bogeyman in the […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
MCAS scores highlight 3d-grade reading problem
Last month’s release of 2013 MCAS results generated some good news. Concealed in the results, however, is a hidden story that is cause for concern: 43 percent of the state’s […]
Posted inPolitics
Walsh, Connolly say Boston racially divided
The two candidates for mayor of Boston told a large crowd in Roxbury Wednesday night that the city in many ways remains as racially divided today as it did in […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Deval Patrick, John Adams, and rail to the South Coast
The week before Halloween, Gov. Deval Patrick is giving out transportation projects like candy: New Red and Orange line cars to calm those anxious commuters in Greater Boston who despair […]
Posted inPolitics
Patrick: American Dream in Mass. is in trouble
What follows is a transcript of Gov. Deval Patrick’s speech to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday. The portion in bold is the transportation initiative he announced. I […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The (kid) gloves come off
Word over the weekend that an outside group backing Marty Walsh was sending a mailer that disparaged John Connolly as a “son of privilege” and “privileged corporate lawyer” was the […]
Posted inPolitics
White guides Boston through its darkest hour
Thirteenth in a series Kevin White’s inauguration as mayor of Boston on January1, 1968, was held at Faneuil Hall, a departure from precedent, a signal that this would be an […]
Posted inPolitics
MAYOR MATTERS: Fair play
First in a series In the Summer issue of CommonWealth, with the Boston mayor’s race gearing up, James Aloisi suggested that Boston faced a “surfeit of candidates and a dearth […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Rendering unto Caesars
Suffolk Downs entered the Massachusetts casino sweepstakes dripping with inevitability . It was the bidder that had the backing of Boston’s mayor. It was the track the House speaker used […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Dookhan sentencing debate
Prosecutors are seeking a five- to seven-year prison sentence for former state chemist Annie Dookhan if she pleads guilty to falsifying evidence. The sentence is far longer than the one […]