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 […]
Changes in laws keep teen drivers safer
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 […]
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 […]