The state’s teen birth rate hit its lowest recorded level ever and analysts are crediting the use of contraception rather than a change in behavior for the decline. In 2010, […]
Big disparity on teen births
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Menino meddling?
Globe columnist Adrian Walker welcomes the coming Boston mayoral campaign, the first open race for the city’s top job since Tom Menino took power 20 years ago. What’s more, he […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Bluestone, Clayton-Matthews answer life science criticism
STATES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS have, at best, a checkered past in providing public handouts to private industry. In a desperate attempt to retain jobs or attract them, many states, cities, […]
Posted inPolitics
Menino meddling?
Globe columnist Adrian Walker welcomes the coming Boston mayoral campaign, the first open race for the city’s top job since Tom Menino took power 20 years ago. What’s more, he […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download, Transportation
Transportation transparency fantasy land
House Speaker Robert DeLeo misspoke. The Speaker, out on a swing through Western Massachusetts, admitted that describing Gov. Deval Patrick’s transportation finance plan as “fantasy land” was a “poor choice […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
DeLeo calls tax plan ‘fantasy land’
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICEHOUSE SPEAKER ROBERT DELEO called the governor’s request for $1.9 billion in new tax revenue “fantasy land” during a private political caucus with Democrats on Wednesday, expressing […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Menino’s mark
Today, anyone with a shred of political ambition is staring at something that hasn’t been seen in Boston since 1983: an open mayor’s seat. Boston Mayor Tom Menino tipped his […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Voting Rights Act debate misses larger civic opportunities
US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts caused a civil rights brouhaha last month by citing a seeming disparity between voter registration and turnout rates among African-Americans living in Massachusetts […]
Posted inThe Back Story, Uncategorized
Gateway Cities gain two new members
Gov. Deval Patrick last year vetoed legislation that would have expanded the number of Gateway Cities, but this year the economy is forcing his hand. The Patrick administration added Attleboro […]
Posted inPolitics
Menino’s mark
Today, anyone with a shred of political ambition is staring at something that hasn’t been seen in Boston since 1983: an open mayor’s seat. Boston Mayor Tom Menino tipped his […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Shaky job findings in Life Sciences Center study
Barry Bluestone and Alan Clayton-Matthews are respected economists at Northeastern University, but their just-released report on the Massachusetts Life Sciences Institute, and particularly the tax credits the agency hands out, […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service
Rating agencies raise concerns on tax plan
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICEGOV. DEVAL PATRICK’S $34.8 billion state budget plan and his proposed tax reforms have raised some alarms at Wall Street credit rating agencies, which are concerned about […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Weeding out the issues over medical pot
More than 63 percent of Massachusetts voters last November said okay to medical marijuana dispensaries. The ballot question passed easily in every county and the law took effect on Jan. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
Corrections reform lagging, report says
Massachusetts may be a leader in such areas as clean energy, health care, and education, but we are a big laggard when it comes to reform of a corrections system […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
The Phoenix’s Web goodbye
Last week the Boston Phoenix published its last print edition. This week brings the last online edition, featuring interesting stories by David Bernstein on Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s emerging profile in […]
Posted inEconomy
Film spending rebounds
FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTION spending in Massachusetts rebounded in 2011 and is starting to experience rapid growth, but most of the money is continuing to flow to out-of-state residents […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, State House News Service, The Download
Oil and water don’t mix for Stephen Lynch
If the Massachusetts Senate race shapes up as the first US election where the environment is a decisive factor, Stephen Lynch could be in for a very rough ride. Lynch […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
New Jersey pre-K holds lessons for Mass.
In 1998, in the landmark Abbott v. Burke school finance ruling that the New York Times called “the most significant education case” since Brown v. Board of Education, the New […]
Posted inEconomy, The Back Story
Targeting the stars
Keeping tabs on Hollywood stars is becoming a favorite pastime in Massachusetts (Was that Bradley Cooper on the Common?), but some officials on Beacon Hill are starting to wonder whether […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Dead presidents no laughing matter
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before. President Nixon is roaming the halls of the White House in the midst of the Watergate scandal when he is visited by […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, The Download
The messy politics of school assignment
A recent Atlantic Cities look at school performance in Washington, DC, helps illustrate why school assignment in Boston is such a politically thorny issue to tackle. DC recently opened a […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion, Politics
Charter schools work
Charter schools are one of the great success stories of Massachusetts education reform, but thanks to a state law limiting enrollment, their growth is about to hit the wall. Last […]
Posted inUncategorized
Warren: Gateway Cities liked my vision of future
The state’s Gateway Cities were the key to Elizabeth Warren’s election victory last fall, and Warren thinks she knows why.In an interview with editors and reporters from the Gateway Cities […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Harvard, MIT win funding fight
In a victory for Boston’s big research universities, but in a move critics say supports a system that lacks accountability and squanders scarce public dollars, the Obama administration has backed […]