THE STATE’S HIGHEST court has set a new standard for clerk-magistrates: Do your job. In an unanimous opinion in May, the state Supreme Judicial Court set a precedent by terminating […]
SJC to clerks: Do your job
Posted inTransportation
Your cash ain’t nothing but trash
THE STATE’S DEPARTMENT of Transportation is planning to convert the Tobin Bridge to all-electronic toll collection next year, but that effort may run afoul of some laws on the books. […]
Posted inEnvironment
Plugging into Canada
RHODE ISLAND GOV. LINCOLN CHAFEE steps up to the podium at a conference of power grid geeks in Boston and says what everyone is thinking. The region is becoming overly […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service
Booting up
MICHAEL FELD IS moving his small tech company from Northampton to Holyoke. That’s not a big deal on its own for Holyoke, but it will be a very big deal […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Title insurance
JACK LALOND AND his wife Kathy have refinanced or taken out equity loans on their Plymouth home six times since they purchased it. They used the loan funds and the […]
Posted inPolitics
The new campaign
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DEREK KOUYOUMJIAN JOYCE LINEHAN HAS the most famous living room in Massachusetts politics. It used to be that Linehan’s Dorchester house drew its fame as a crash pad […]
Posted inPolitics
The chained CPI
THIS FALL, PRESIDENT Obama and Congress will have another chance to strike a grand bargain on the deficit. If it happens, a new gauge of inflation that would both reduce […]
Posted inEconomy
The Massachusetts H-1B connection
MORE THAN 1,200 Massachusetts companies hired 5,481 skilled foreign workers last year through a controversial visa program that is simultaneously being praised for helping to plug holes in the state’s […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Walsh shifting to Patrick’s PAC
John Walsh is stepping down this fall as the head of the Massachusetts Democratic Party and taking the reins of Gov. Deval Patrick’s political action committee, Together PAC. The story […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Fitting the Boston mayoral race into an historical context
BOSTON AT THE close of the Menino era finds itself with a surfeit of candidates and a dearth of critical issues. That may be a good thing—many candidates will enliven […]
Posted inPolitics
We’re not missing this one
THE LAST TIME Boston had a race for mayor without an incumbent was 1993, three years before CommonWealth came into existence. We missed that race, but we aren’t going to […]
Posted inEnvironment
Summer 2013 correspondence and updates
Dirty-energy billionaire There are so many loathsome things about dirty-energy billionaire Bill Koch’s ramblings about Cape Wind in CommonWealth (“Look who’s talking,” Spring ’13) that it was hard to know […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Managing innovation
You’re the Boston Redevelopment Authority’s Innovation District manager. What does that mean? The Innovation District lives in between planning and economic development. It’s really meant to be an urban lab […]
Posted inEconomy
Poverty sprawl
INNER CITY SLUMS along with isolated rural outposts, have long defined our concept of poverty in America. Whether it is endless blocks of urban deprivation or a dilapidated house with […]
Posted inEducation
Moving backwards
I AGREE WITH Commissioner Chester that some around K-12 education are enthusiastic about Common Core. Washington, DC-based trade groups like the Council of Chief State School Officers, the National Governor’s […]
Posted inEducation
Educating for the 21st century
THIS SUMMER MARKS the 20th anniversary of the Commonwealth’s landmark Education Reform Act of 1993. That law ushered in a new era of clear, measurable academic standards for all students […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
The push and pull of school reform
The driving force behind the education reform movement in the US has been a recognition that poor and minority children were being left far behind by a public education system […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
The worker’s champion
Boston-based lawyer Shannon Liss-Riordan has represented cab drivers, baristas, exotic dancers, and waiters in class action lawsuits, but as the new owner of a Harvard Square-based pizzeria she’s hoping to […]
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Patrick signs budget, vetoes local aid, T funds
GOV. DEVAL PATRICK on Friday signed a $33.6 billion budget for the already-underway fiscal year, but vetoed $417 million in transportation and local aid funds because of an ongoing dispute […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download
Patrick’s bewildering tax standoff
If you’re confused about the tax standoff on Beacon Hill, you’re not alone. Gov. Deval Patrick is going to the mat with legislative leaders over the mere possibility that transportation […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
Patrick threatens veto of transportation bill
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. DEVAL PATRICK for the first time on Thursday promised to veto the Legislature’s transportation financing plan if it is not amended to replace toll revenues […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Bills push tax credits for angel investors
TWO STATE LAWMAKERS are pushing legislation that would create a new tax credit benefitting investors in Massachusetts startup companies, particularly firms located in struggling areas of the state. Rep. Claire […]
Posted inPolitics
July 11th Boston mayoral forum transcript
This is a transcript of a July 11th Boston mayoral forum with City Councilor Felix Arroyo, Charlotte Richie, and Bill Walczak. The forum was hosted by CommonWealth magazine, the Boston […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
CSI: Boston
One of the best things the O.J. Simpson trial did was introduce the vast majority of Americans to the criminal justice system. One of the worst things the case did […]