Two-fifths of the state’s municipalities have saved about $175 million by taking advantage of a state law passed a year ago giving cities and towns more flexibility in negotiating health […]
Health care reform saves towns $175m
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, The Download
Is going rural the key to opposition-free wind development?
Putting wind turbines in places where most people won’t come across them might be the key to easier wind development in Massachusetts. Monday’s Boston Globe featured a piece by Erin […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
The university connection
scott brown and Elizabeth Warren have been running neck and neck in the polls for months, but when an October survey conducted by the University of Massachusetts Lowell became one […]
Posted inPolitics
Was it something we said?
massinc is a small nonprofit that does research, hosts civic events, and publishes CommonWealth four times a year. Most people outside of our fairly wonky world have never heard of […]
Posted inPolitics
Summer 2012 Correspondence
Democracy is messy, but not a weakness Your Editor’s Note, “Closed-door democracy” (Spring ’12), was meaningful to me. It’s human nature not to appreciate what we have until we lose […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Hold your fire
DAVID KENNEDY IS an unlikely figure to be leading the charge on behalf of an innovative policing strategy to combat urban gun violence. For starters, he’s not a cop and has […]
Posted inEconomy, Health Care, Opinion
Mass. health care law hasn’t stunted growth
The following is a slightly edited transcript of Sen. Dan Wolf’s testimony in Washington on Tuesday before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform regarding the job and economic costs […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Health care act will hurt small businesses
Below is a slightly edited version of Michael Fredrich’s testimony before the federal House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. MCM Composites is a small manufacturing company located in Manitowoc, […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Health care act is most radical law ever
Below is a slightly edited version of John Goodman’s testimony before the federal House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The charts and footnotes accompanying his testimony are not included. […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
Natural gas: Good news and bad news
in january 2011, extremely cold temperatures enveloped New England, and demand for natural gas soared. Why does demand for natural gas matter to ISO New England, which operates the regional […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
Out front on climate change
massinc’s recent research report, Rising to the Challenge: Assessing the Massachusetts Response to Climate Change, was billed as “the first independent assessment of state action on climate change.” We, at […]
Posted inPolitics
What happens to unused campaign funds?
when elected officials leave office, they take a lot of things with them: memories, the appreciation of colleagues and constituents, and a pension if they served long enough. Some also […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
Shifting alliances
the american medical Association, the venerable lobby organization for doctors, was for years a reliable Republican-leaning voice on big health care issues. For much of the past decade, however, the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Restaurants in Boston get infrequent inspections
the massachusetts sanitary code requires municipalities to check restaurants for health code violations twice a year, but the city of Boston often is doing the inspections less frequently, in some […]
Posted inPolitics
Galvin’s slow motion public records office
the state office charged with ruling on the appeals of citizens whose requests for public records have been denied operates at a snail’s pace. About 250 appeals are filed each […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Changes in laws keep teen drivers safer
for most teens, obtaining a drivers’ license means newfound freedom and independence. For many decades, it also meant something more sobering: a higher risk than any other age group that […]
Posted inPolitics
Glove, glove me do
Odds are one of the four Republican state senators in Massachusetts has a better chance of getting one of his bills passed than he does of catching a foul ball […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Sex offenders challenge Lynn’s residency ban as unconstitutional
a court challenge to a Lynn ordinance that bans Level 2 and 3 sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school or park could impact 43 other cities […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Risky business
Correction: The story says a second budget amendment proposed by Sen. James Timilty would require the Division of Capital Asset Management to clean up the former hospital site so it […]
Posted inEducation
Not adding up
After CommonWealth went to press, the state budget was finalized. The Senate proposal for a Foundation Budget Review Commission, described in the final paragraphs of the story, was not agreed […]
Posted inHealth Care
Cerberus’s health care play
Illustration by Yuta Onoda.Chris Hopey, the president of Merrimack College, brought an intriguing proposal late last year to his board of trustees: Steward Health Care, the upstart, for-profit hospital […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Rumble in the park
Richard Davey, the state secretary of transportation, wants to wean the Greenway off public funds. state transportation secretary Richard Davey darts across Atlantic Avenue, lays down his umbrella, and settles under […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, The Download
Student loan debt got you down? Move to Niagara Falls.
Struggling cities and rural towns that have seen better days don’t spring to mind as places that recent college graduates would flock to. Yet officials in locales like Niagara Falls […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment
Tap vs. bottled
in the battle between tap and bottled water, bottled water usually has all the zest. Perrier, Poland Spring, Fiji, Glacier—these companies reel consumers in with big-budget advertising campaigns promoting crystal […]