Gene Rivers has always been the skunk at the garden party, the guy who interrupts the echo chamber of chatter among the politically correct to offer an impolitic pronouncement that […]
No bend in raging Rivers
Posted inEconomy, The Back Story
The new local aid
The Community Preservation Act, once seen as an antidote to urban sprawl, is on the verge of becoming just another form of state aid to cities and towns. In its […]
Posted inPolitics
Stories on area hockey haters deliver cheap-shot hit on the city
The headlines all have a familiar ring to them. So familiar, in fact, that the New York Times incorporates that déjà vu feeling into the headline atop its story: “Hockey […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Bonin book stirs the pot
A book on Robert Bonin’s ouster in the late 1970s as chief justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court is rekindling some old feuds. The book, The Vidal Lecture: Sex and […]
Posted inPolitics
A battle of the 1 percenters
A Senate campaign being fought over middle-class values is being waged by a pair of 1 percenters. US Sen. Scott Brown and Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren released tax return information […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Budgeting efficiency
For bloodless efficiency, you couldn’t beat the House deliberations over a $32 billion budget, which were wrapped up Wednesday night after just three days of debate, an antiseptic process that […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics, The Download
The Holy Grail of health care savings
For years, those trying to control health care costs have placed private and public attempts on par with the little Dutch boy who put his finger in the dike to […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Death by a thousand transportation studies
When in doubt, study is the default strategy of Massachusetts lawmakers when it comes to dealing with prickly issues like transportation finance. Rep. Dan Winslow attempted to slaughter a sacred […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Get used to it: casino sparks are flying
The fight over casinos in Massachusetts is becoming less of a metaphor every day. Today’s Sun Chronicle reports on a dust-up between the Plainridge Racecourse, a harness racing track pursuing […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Bipartisan blues
The right-wing remaking of the Republican Party continues apace, and Indiana is the next battlefront in this internecine GOP war. That’s where veteran Republican US senator Richard Lugar faces a […]
Posted inEconomy
Group backs periodic reviews of tax breaks
A state commission assembled to review a $26 billion budget of tax breaks, deductions, and expenditures unanimously approved recommendations on Monday calling for periodic reviews to assess the effectiveness of […]
Posted inEconomy, The Back Story, Transportation
Massport and the T
The Massachusetts Port Authority is exploring ways to shoulder some of the MBTA’s financial burden (and increase mass transit use at Logan) , but the agency is moving slowly because […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
The income (inequality) wars
We began this week talking about the Buffett Rule, an attempt to make millionaires pay a tax rate of at least 30 percent. President Obama and Democratic Senate candidate Elizabeth […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Whither – or wither – Southie?
Once a center of political power with a reach that extended well beyond its own boundaries, with clout at the city, state, and national scenes as well, South Boston’s outsized […]
Posted inEconomy
Filmmaker admits tax fraud
A Cape Cod movie producer and director pled guilty Thursday to 10 counts of larceny and filing false tax returns and was ordered to repay $4.4 million in fraudulently obtained […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download
Warren, Brown and the optics of income tax returns
Let the name calling begin. The latest salvo in class warfare, Bay State edition , finds Elizabeth Warren trying to shake off the “elitist hypocrite” label bestowed upon her by […]
Posted inHealth Care
My bad
I’m sorry. Those two words could go a long way in cutting health care costs, experts say, and some Massachusetts hospitals in conjunction with the Massachusetts Medical Society are launching […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Bottle deposit bill going for No. 15?
For 14 years, supporters of the state’s bottle deposit law have been pushing to expand its reach to include a host of non-carbonated, non-alcoholic beverages such as bottled waters, juices, […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
A new tack in tax wars
In 2009, Tea Party activists used the federal tax filing deadline to stage a series of rallies that catapulted the protest movement into national prominence. Tax day started a wave […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Back Story
No new taxes but lots of tax breaks
House leaders proudly unveiled a $32 billion budget this week that avoids new taxes and fees by paring back 280 individual spending accounts and even ordering agencies to put contracts […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
“A constitutional crisis”
Seven of the state’s top jurists say a constitutional crisis is brewing in Massachusetts, with legislatively-imposed budget cuts creating a court system that is undermanned, overwhelmed, and increasingly unsafe. At […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
New Hampshire push poll law gets it wrong
Every four years, Granite State residents are bombarded with calls from political pollsters, gauging the state of the first-in-the-nation presidential primary. Then, but a few months later, the shelling begins […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
A remote chance of seeing TV political spending records
Keep the clicker ready. Now that the final showdown between President Obama and Mitt Romney is all but set in stone, both sides and their surrogates are gearing up for […]
Posted inPolitics
City tweaks contract with Swan Boats
It’s that time of year again in Boston as the city makes way for the ducklings and for another unusual deal for the operator of the swan boats in the […]