Everybody went to a fight in Lynn yesterday and a debate broke out. Partisans, voters and media packed the gym at the Lynn campus of North Shore Community College yesterday […]
Lynn, Lynn the city of substance
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
Patrick appeals inmate sex-change ruling
Gov. Deval Patrick, who signed a transgender protection bill into law last November, is going to fight a judge’s ruling that the state must pay for a sex-reassignment surgery for […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
Dock your boat at Fenway?
Rising seas will bring big changes to Boston, and sooner than you might think. Climate change is expected to raise average global sea levels between two and six feet by […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Brown and Warren ads nauseum
When the going gets tough, the tough go negative. Scott Brown played nice until Elizabeth Warren pulled ahead in four out five recent polls. Both candidates received heaps of praise […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Bigger, older challenges ahead for new T chief
The state yesterday chose the head of Atlanta’s transit system to take the helm at the MBTA, a position that has been vacant for over a year since former general […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Clarifying the focus of CommonWealth’s sixth district debate
CommonWealth magazine set out more than a month ago to host a debate about the American Dream between the candidates in the Sixth Congressional District. Nothing has changed, despite US […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
Atlanta’s Scott chosen as next MBTA chief
Beverly Scott, the outgoing Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority chief, will move into one of the state’s top transportation positions as the MBTA general manager/rail and transit administrator in December. […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Personality politics
The latest installment of the Raybo-hearts-Scotto show couldn’t have taken place at a more appropriate spot than Sullivan’s at Castle Island. Ray Flynn, the former Boston mayor, is hot-dogging the […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story, Transportation
Pragmatic approach at authorities
The Patrick administration is taking a pragmatic approach to the salaries being offered to candidates for the long-empty top jobs at Massport and the MBTA, paying more money than the […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Edge to Warren
The media consensus seems to be that Elizabeth Warren handled herself well in her first debate against US Sen. Scott Brown, although neither candidate scored a decisive victory. Warren was […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Former prosecutor to head drug lab case review
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Former Suffolk County prosecutor David Meier will lead a new central office set up to review the thousands of criminal cases potentially tainted by a state […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Throwing MCAS results into the mix
From reading headlines and stories across the state, one would think the “M” in MCAS stands for “mixed.” The state released the results of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Lantigua Agonistes
With the Bay State riveted on Mitt Romney’s floundering fortunes and Scott Brown’s declining poll numbers, the biggest municipal scandal in recent years is playing out quietly in the Merrimack […]
Posted inPolitics
Romney’s “givers and takers” moment
Mitt Romney’s intemperate remarks about the divide between givers and takers is now threatening to send his already teetering presidential campaign into a tailspin. The secret video recording of remarks […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Warren bounce
A Suffolk University/WHDH-TV poll released yesterday became the third survey in recent days to show Democrat Elizabeth Warren ahead in her US Senate showdown with incumbent Republican Scott Brown. Suffolk’s […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Health Care, State House News Service
Department of Public Health Commissioner resigns
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Tendering his resignation, Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach on Monday accepted responsibility for the failed oversight of a state crime lab chemist accused of mishandling evidence […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
MCAS scores trending up
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICEStudents’ standardized test scores are trending upward and the persistent achievement gap between certain demographic groups is closing, according to the Massachusetts Department of Early and Secondary […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
Uber cab controversy
The Boston cab industry has never been much of a sympathetic character. So it was no surprise when the state’s August attempt to shut down the cell-phone-based cab service known […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Steward’s finances
Steward Health Care is tight-lipped about its finances, but a picture of the private, for-profit hospital chain’s first year in business is starting to emerge. The Boston-based company in 2010 […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, The Download
Fishing disaster
The US Commerce Department declared the New England groundfishery a disaster, a designation that could lead to $100 million in federal aid for fishermen and more reductions in catch limits. […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
Glynn to be tapped for Massport head
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE The lengthy search for a new chief executive of the Massachusetts Port Authority has narrowed in on former health care executive and MBTA chief Thomas Glynn, […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, The Download
The (rich) kids are alright
To paraphrase Mark Twain’s weather observation, everyone talks about the middle class but no one seems to be able to do anything about them. The U.S. Census Bureau released a […]
Posted inPolitics
Tierney has surprising lead over Tisei
A new poll shows that while US Rep. John Tierney and his Republican challenger Richard Tisei are holding their own among partisan voters, Tierney leads the race by 7 percentage […]