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 […]
Tap vs. bottled
Posted inEconomy, Education
What would Jesus do?
The Holy Trinity School in Lawrence, which closed in 2004, was recently sold with the restriction that it not be used as a charter school for the next 90 years. […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Education, Opinion
You’ve got to have art
In many school districts, the last few years have not been kind to arts education. Arts are among the first subjects to be cut when budgets are tightened. But the story […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Patrick signs budget, sends amendments to Legislature
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Gov. Deval Patrick put his final imprint on a $32.5 billion state budget for fiscal 2013 on Sunday, returning several proposals with amendments to the Legislature […]
Posted inUncategorized
Gateway Cities veto draws fire
Legislators and municipal officials from Gardner slammed Gov. Deval Patrick for vetoing a budget provision that would have allowed their city and two others to be designated as Gateway Cities […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
New York vs. Boston
There is nothing worse than some quirky turn of events after deadline to throw off the storyline in a piece with a broader focus that nonetheless grabs at some smaller […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The conflict of being Mitt Romney
Mitt Romney has always been a conflicted and deeply flawed critic of the Affordable Care Act. This week, he showed just how conflicted he is: Romney stepped all over Republicans’ […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, The Download
Romney’s half-hearted education efforts
“Romney education record was mixed” reads the headline on today’s front-page Boston Globe story. It’s a look at Mitt Romney’s track record on education issues while Massachusetts governor, and the […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Back Story
Parking politics
The Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary is ratcheting down the tension surrounding its proposal to construct a 1,000-car garage under Storrow Drive and expand its facility out over the Charles […]
Posted inUncategorized
Lowell teens rally to vote at age 17
After receiving a green light from the Secretary of State, a group of teenagers rallied at the State House on Thursday in support of legislation that would allow 17-year-olds in […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics, The Download
Supreme winners and losers
The US Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision upholding the constitutionality of President Obama’s national health care law has something for nearly every one. There were obvious winners and losers, but the […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Conference committee agrees on $32b budget
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE The House and Senate are preparing to vote on a $32.5 billion state budget for fiscal 2013 after negotiators struck a compromise that increases funding for […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics, The Download
Breaking up the Supremes?
In the wake of one of the most momentous and historic weeks for the Supreme Court in generations comes the growing question of what will happen to the court after […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Fact, fiction, and adult conversations about transportation
If more evidence was needed that the state transportation sector is in freefall, Dana Levenson, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s chief financial officer, has obliged. The State House News Service […]
Posted inEconomy
Devens goes Hollywood
A group of Massachusetts investors unveiled plans on Tuesday to build a $30 million sound-stage complex in Devens, a bit of Hollywood-style infrastructure that is expected to help plug a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
Bulger shoots blanks
It was always going to come to this, and yesterday, J.W. Carney made it official: Whitey Bulger’s upcoming murder trial will be as much about Bulger’s sordid relationship with law […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
What does Vidal Sassoon have to do with P3s?
Vidal Sassoon died this month, and that news brought me back to the 1980s somehow (or maybe it was the new version of “Dallas.” Yikes.) But it reminded me that […]
Posted inEconomy, Health Care, Politics, State House News Service
Senate passes food pricing bill
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE With just two senators present, the Senate on Monday morning approved a bill that food stores in Massachusetts have been pressing unsuccessfully for a decade. Under […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
School turnaround failure
Yesterday’s front-page Boston Globe story on English High School is a cautionary tale of what takes place under the broad banner of “school turnaround,” and of how ill-conceived reform efforts […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, The Back Story
The bottle bill blues
The state already has on its books a recycling law that assesses a 5-cent deposit on beer and carbonated beverage containers. Supporters have been trying for 14 years to extend […]
Posted inPolitics
Dems: Brown’s king, queen gaffe not unique
A video produced by the Massachusetts Democratic Party suggests US Sen. Scott Brown has been mis-speaking a lot when it comes to meeting with kings and queens. During a radio […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Sympathy for Sal
Former House speaker Sal DiMasi’s tragic story of failing to get prompt treatment from prison officials for tongue cancer is touching off a wave of sympathy, but it’s unclear whether […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
RTAs strike back at T-only bailouts
State lawmakers outside Greater Boston, backed up by increasingly irate transit riders in their districts, are exerting a newfound assertiveness so they can get more of the state dollars that […]
Posted inHealth Care, The Download
Can health care reform recover?
Think of health care reform as a really sick patient in need of intervention. Better yet, think of it as a plane crash. In fact, think of it as 20 […]