Worcester City Manager Michael O’Brien, Fitchburg Mayor Lisa Wong, Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, and New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell. Building a vibrant arts sector has become a popular idea […]
For Gateway City leaders, time to get creative
Posted inHealth Care, The Download
Jim Belushi steps into the Mass. medical marijuana debate
A California medical marijuana card won’t get you very far in Massachusetts, as comedian Jim Belushi recently discovered on Martha’s Vineyard. Medical marijuana isn’t legal in the Bay State just […]
Posted inPolitics
Boston City Council Oks wedding restrictions
UPDATE: The Boston City Council approved the new marriage ordinance on Wednesday. The Boston City Council is preparing to restrict when the city clerk can marry people during work hours […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Politics
House budget offers few new initiatives
House Democrats proposed a $32 billion spending plan that includes no new taxes, fees, or bottle deposits but does provide a slight increase in local aid, additional funding to combat […]
Posted inEconomy, Health Care
The Haiti-Boston connection
jim ansara looks out over the sprawling 180,000-square-foot National Teaching Hospital under construction in Mirebalais, a town in the central plateau of Haiti. Audacious in conception, innovative in execution, the […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Chasing the middle class
the 2012 massachusetts Senate election is shaping up as a competition for the hearts and minds (and votes) of the Bay State middle class. Both US Sen. Scott Brown and […]
Posted inUncategorized
Spring 2012 Correspondence
Museum defends $1 per year lease Your article, “Freeloading” (Winter ’12) raised concerns over a number of state Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) leases, including one with the Museum […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Health Care
Rock star science
Craig Mello and UMass Medical School Chancellor Michael Collins, with the Albert B. Sherman Center in the background. craig mello is sitting in a chair outside the office of […]
Posted inPolitics
Beacon Hill’s army of influence
special interests spent more than $67 million last year lobbying on Beacon Hill, the equivalent of about $335,000 per lawmaker, according to state records. The Massachusetts Teachers Association was the […]
Posted inPolitics
Closed-door government
the machinery of government, whether it’s a regulatory proceeding or the route a bill takes to become law, is designed to give members of the public the chance to voice […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Economy
The great divide
Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960 – 2010By Charles MurrayNew York, Crown Forum, 407 pages Reviewed by Ralph Whitehead, Jr in the america of 1960, writes Charles Murray […]
Posted inPolitics
Political repurposing
two weeks after his inauguration, President Obama invited supporters of his 2008 campaign to the White House to lay out his plan for a Middle Class Task Force. The idea […]
Posted inPolitics
Lowell teens lobby for the 17-year-old vote
When it comes to ranking the interests of teenagers, political activism would presumably come low on the list, somewhere between heeding good advice and doing the laundry. But teens in […]
Posted inPolitics
Lawmaker using exile as platform
No one had to put Charley Murphy’s desk out in the hall, but they might as well have. In December, Murphy resigned as House majority whip, one step ahead of […]
Posted inEducation, Health Care, Transportation
Groups promote walking to school
Over the past 30 years, the number of overweight children in the United States has soared while the number of kids walking to school has plummeted. The two trends, and […]
Posted inEconomy
Build it, they will come
James Rooney is telling lawmakers that if they build an addition on to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, convention groups will come. Now he’s got proof. Four groups have […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
What’s up with the sales tax?
Sales tax receipts normally behave like you’d expect them to: They rise when the economy is expanding, and fall when unemployment spikes. Data from across the country show that, historically, […]
Posted inPolitics
Eat your greens
The latest gamble by one of the country’s most successful, but aging, state lotteries is to use lifetime payouts to attract a new breed of bettors. While the Lottery has […]
Posted inEconomy
The stimulus
State officials gave a green light to the $29.6m North Bank pedestrian bridge because it was shovel ready. The bridge, which looks like a roller-coaster, runs underneath the Zakim […]
Posted inUncategorized
Finding her voice
Attorney General Martha Coakley at a financial literacy workshop at East Boston High School.Martha Coakley has a cold. The attorney general apologized for this fact as she took the […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Time out
Illustration by Eva Vazquez. DEAN WILLIAMSON, A high school senior from Worcester, came to the State House in late February hoping to see a debate in the House of Representatives. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Society’s lepers
on a chilly night in early February, the Massachusetts website that informs the public where the state’s most dangerous sex offenders are living indicates 41 of them are staying at […]
Posted inEducation
Log-on learning
Brynn Wetherbee, an eighth grader from Clinton, is a student at the Massachusetts Virtual Academy, the state’s first full-time online school. SCHOOL BOOKS, PAPERS, and two laptop computers are […]