For the second time in less than three years, the state’s court system is marching to the tune of the Boston Globe’s Spotlight Team. The first instance came in 2010, […]
The SJC’s drunk driving report
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
The patient Menino
BOSTON MAYOR THOMAS MENINO is a patient investor with city money. Three years ago, when he was running for a fifth term, the mayor orchestrated a $200,000, two-year loan to […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Question 2 triggers a battle over life, death, and dignity
Early on, it appeared that Massachusetts would become the third state to legalize so-called physician-assisted suicide, with polls showing voters favoring the end-of-life ballot question by a more than 2-to-1 […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Abusing the disabled cannot be tolerated
ABUSE IN ALL ITS FORMS is shameful and grotesque, but abuse of people with disabilities is particularly horrific, and recent news accounts bring this fact into sharper focus. In […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, State House News Service
Coakley recuses herself in drug lab probe
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICEFOLLOWING CALLS for Attorney General Martha Coakley to recuse herself from a broader probe into the functioning of the state drug lab at the center of an […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, The Download
FEMA: How do you like me now?
If Katrina was the nadir for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, then Sandy is its brightest moment since New Orleans. Up and down the hurricane-battered Northeast corridor, local, state, and […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Reading law targets daunting problem
ON SEPTEMBER 26, surrounded by children in the Robin Hood School library in Stoneham, Gov. Deval Patrick signed An Act Relative to Third Grade Reading Proficiency into law. Three weeks […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Democrats target Republican freshmen
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICEFRESHMEN HOUSE REPUBLICANS are in the crosshairs this election cycle with the majority of incumbents from both parties facing no opposition and a Democratic majority all but […]
Posted inEnvironment, The Download
Sandy beaches
Sandy hit the state with force on Monday, and more than 300,000 Massachusetts customers were without power as of early this morning. However, state officials said there have been no […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Romney’s Etch A Sketch for the home stretch
It was way back in March, about a million Twitter news cycles ago, that Mitt Romney’s man behind the curtain, Eric Fehrnstrom, announced what nearly anyone who has followed Romney’s […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Lawrence’s licensing board circus
Nothing is easy in Lawrence — even filling empty seats on the city’s Licensing Board, which regulates nightclubs and hands out liquor licenses. One of the board’s three members stepped […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Brown’s bipartisan money
SEN. SCOTT BROWN has staked his reelection efforts to the notion of bipartisanship. When Brown talks about being a bipartisan senator, he’s talking about voting with Democrats on Capitol Hill. […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
State board strips pension from Finneran
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICEMORE THAN FIVE YEARS after former House Speaker Thomas Finneran pled guilty to obstruction of justice, the State Retirement Board on Thursday voted to strip the […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Scott Brown’s partisan problem
The second most bipartisan member of the Senate has a Republican problem. And his potential GOP colleagues are not helping him any. If there’s anyone in Massachusetts who has not […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service
Advantage Amazon
Correction: An earlier version of this story mispelled “Ronald Mann.” WITH BLACK FRIDAY not far off, business leaders and municipal officials have been clamoring for the Patrick administration to act […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Jill Stein and friends fight the good fight
Quick: Who is the only presidential candidate to be arrested this year? Answer: Lexington’s Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate for president, was arrested at the Hofstra University town hall […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service
Boston ranks 9th in clean tech
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICEBuoyed by its academic research centers, Boston ranks among the top 10 metro regions in the country for its use and development of clean technology, though it […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The Herald’s own case of Romnesia
There were two presidential debates last night: one viewed by huge swaths of the electorate, and whatever was streamed into the Boston Herald’s new offices on D Street. Most folks […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
A heads-up for youth sports
Buried inside the Globe’s Sunday sports section was a story about a Pop Warner football game last month where five children between the ages of 10 and 12 suffered concussions. […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Scott Brown’s unforced error
What in the world was Scott Brown thinking? In a campaign appearance in Taunton on Wednesday, Brown charged that paid actors were portraying relatives of victims of asbestos-related illnesses in […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Back Story
Cop in a lab coat
SHE WAS A forensic chemist who put her finger on the scale of justice, continually testifying and confirming that evidence brought to her by police and prosecutors was, in fact, […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Women — can’t win without ’em
Everyone seems to be going after the women’s vote. But nobody, it appears, knows exactly what the “women’s vote” is except that they want it and it’s key to being […]
Posted inPolitics
Warren takes lead in TV spending
Elizabeth Warren’s campaign put an exclamation point on one of the most expensive Senate races in history when it announced this week that it had raised more than $12 million […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Obama, John Elway matter; Ross Perot not so much
To the surprise of exactly no one, President Obama endorsed Elizabeth Warren for the US Senate. The POTUS stamp of approval can’t hurt. Expect Warren to run with the endorsement […]