Massachusetts officials disclosed to potential bond investors late last month that misconduct at a state drug testing lab may give rise to significant costs to address the problem, to defend […]
Crime lab costs may be significant
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Mitt hearts Mass.?
It was abundantly clear who the winner of last night’s presidential debate was: Massachusetts. After years of pursuing his White House dream while trying to keep an arms-length distance from […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Debating the moderators
In one of the most fiercely partisan eras in American politics, David Gregory managed to do the impossible. Republicans and Democrats will never agree on who won Monday night’s debate […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service
State pension fund braces for fiscal cliff
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE As disruptive federal tax hikes and spending cuts loom on the calendar, managers of the state pension fund say they are continuing with the strategy of […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Edge to Brown, but bipartisan image suffers
Both candidates for US Senate scored points in Monday night’s debate, with many analysts giving the edge to Scott Brown. But Brown may have undercut his image as an independent, […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Boston assignment plan: Let the hand-wringing begin!
Consider it as shocking a development as night following day.With the ink barely dry on a set of proposals to revamp the Byzantine student assignment system in the Boston public […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
What are the odds?
(A correction has been appended to this story) Tuesday morning, the Boston Globe and Boston Herald both wrote in-depth stories about Elizabeth Warren’s work for a steel company in Pennsylvania in 1995 that appeared […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Remembering Silber’s race for governor
John Silber’s death this week at age 86 is another one of those markers of local history, a moment to reflect on the past and consider how certain events have […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Lynn, Lynn the city of substance
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 […]
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 […]