Internal emails indicate the Massachusetts Gaming Commission earlier this year failed to anticipate public and media reaction to the hiring of Carl Stanley McGee, a Patrick administration official who had […]
Public relations misstep at gaming agency
Posted inPolitics
The inside story of gaming agency hire
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission hired Carl Stanley McGee as its interim executive director on May 1. McGee, a Harvard Law School graduate, former Rhodes Scholar, and Gov. Deval Patrick’s point […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Conservancy loses bid for Armenian park care
The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy has lost its bid to maintain the Armenian Heritage Park, a half-acre park that sits in the middle of the Greenway park system. The […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, The Download
Mitt Romney’s higher education record
Mitt Romney doesn’t want to talk taxes. He doesn’t want to talk much about his tenure as governor either. Perhaps that’s because, with his signature health care achievement off the […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Lantigua’s letter to O’Malley
The following is a letter from Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua to Cardinal Seán O’Malley requesting the removal of certain deed restrictions relating to the sale of Church-owned properties. The letter was […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Latest pitch on three-strikes bill may have been a foul tip
If you’re having a hard time figuring this Legislature out, especially the House, join the crowd. Lawmakers overwhelmingly voted last week to override three of Gov. Deval Patrick’s vetoes in […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
South Coast casino fears
For years, South Coast politicians were the lonely voices in the gambling wilderness. Even when legislative leadership stood solidly against legalizing casinos in Massachusetts, politicians from the state’s southeastern region […]
Posted inEconomy
Legal ambiguities face Mashpee Wampanoags
When Massachusetts lawmakers legalized casino gambling last year, they put the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe in a legally tenuous position: Lawmakers gave the tribe first crack at opening a casino in […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
The never-ending probation probe
The US Attorney’s long-running investigation of probation is apparently catching a second wind, with the Globe reporting that a Worcester grand jury is focusing on Democratic legislators, particularly House Speaker […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Lantigua appeals to O’Malley
In the wake of a CommonWealth magazine report, Lawrence Mayor William Lantigua is urging Cardinal Seán O’Malley to stop attaching 90-year deed restrictions to surplus properties sold by the Boston […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
Gateway Cities crack down on crime
The state’s Gateway Cities are plagued by poverty, anemic economic growth, and lagging educational attainment. What gets less attention is crime, which is a symptom of the lack of economic […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The Bain of Romney’s existence
Mitt Romney, who says under his reign Bain Capital was a plus-jobs creator, has dismissed attacks on his record for more than a decade arguing the companies that went belly-up […]
Posted inHealth Care
Health care reform saves towns $175m
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 […]
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 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 […]