You’d never know by the civil face-to-face encounters across the state yesterday that underlying many of these contests is a nastiness – in some cases, outright disdain – for election […]
Putting a face on the opposition
Posted inPolitics
Talk is good
the country is hurtling toward the edge of a fiscal cliff, and nobody in Washington seems inclined to pull back. Indeed, no one in Washington seems inclined to do much […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
State seeks bids for health care
The state’s Group Insurance Commission issued a request for proposals on Wednesday that is expected to change the way its 400,000 members are insured and to cut expenses by nearly […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Brown and Warren head way out west
All things Western Massachusetts get a rare opportunity to shine when Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren take their campaign cage match to Springfield tonight. The candidates’ early vows to keep […]
Posted inPolitics
Boehner hosts fundraiser for Tisei
Seeking to bolster the Republican majority in the US House, Speaker John Boehner hosted a fundraiser for Congressional candidate Richard Tisei Tuesday morning at the Harvard Club in downtown Boston. […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Hard times at the New York Times
New York Times union employees staged the world’s most polite union walkout yesterday, filing out of the newspaper’s headquarters for a brief period to protest the slow pace of contract […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Student loan debt affecting more parents
As the nation’s economy inches toward recovery, economic growth is being challenged by an ever worsening student loan problem. And as a new ProPublica/Chronicle of Higher Education investigation finds, the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Back Story
Crime lab costs may be significant
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 […]
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 […]