What you think of Chief US District Court Judge Mark Wolf and his decision to overturn a death sentence for serial killer Gary Lee Sampson may depend on where you […]
Judge Wolf: Courageous? Or coward?
Posted inEnvironment
Group ranks Mass. 1st on energy efficiency
Massachusetts edged out California for the first time in the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s rankings of states on energy efficiency policy initiatives. Massachusetts tallied 45.5 points out […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Sources say sports reporting needs to raise its game
While we don’t usually have a sports page here at the Download, the ongoing drama that is the Boston Red Sox points to a troubling trend in journalism: What, exactly, […]
Posted inEconomy
Court administrator wanted; pay $140,358
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court today posted the job description for a new court administrator. Recent legislation eliminated the post of chief justice for administration and management and split that […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Teacher bargaining changes urged
The Boston Foundation issued a report today written by Northeastern University’s Barry Bluestone and MIT’s Thomas Kochan that calls for a new approach to collective bargaining. Their reports advocates more […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
All’s fair in love and redistricting
The main takeaway from Tuesday’s Special Joint Committee on Redistricting announce-a-palooza was the explosion of new majority-minority voting districts, 10 for the House map, bringing the total to 20, and […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment
Clean energy employs 64,310, report says
A new report by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center finds that the Massachusetts clean energy sector has 4,909 firms employing 64,310 workers, or 1.5 percent of all employment in the […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
A different kind of slot position for Pats?
The Globe reports today that a lawyer for Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s company drafted a zoning change over the summer that would have allowed for a casino on property The […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Rebels without a cause?
THE MAIN COMPLAINT against the Occupy movement that has sprung up in New York, Boston and other cities has been that the group lacks focus: the distribution of wealth, rising […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Who’s guarding the guards?
Sunday’s Boston Globe led with the story that lottery officials tacitly accepted, and sometimes actively encouraged, high roller players in their manipulation the game Cash WinFall. The story also found […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
How much more can Ireland take?
Politics doesn’t seem to be Roderick Ireland’s strong suit. The chief justice of the state’s Supreme Judicial Court is on the outs with Gov. Deval Patrick, stuck in neutral with […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, Opinion, Transportation
Casinos and transit fare hikes a “one-two” punch
We now appear to be on the cusp of a “one-two” punch aimed at the poor and the middle class in Massachusetts. Punch number one will be the all-but-certain arrival […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Ireland praises DeLeo, Murray
Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Roderick Ireland yesterday praised the courage of House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray for approving emergency funds for the state court system, […]
Posted inEnvironment
Utilities to DPU: No Cape Wind
Below is a response by NSTAR and Northeast Utilities to Cape Wind’s request to the Department of Public Utilities that, as a condition of merger, the two utility companies buy […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Mass. to try for federal early ed. money
State education officials are busy finishing the commonwealth’s application for the $500 million federal Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge, the Obama administration’s signature early education initiative. Massachusetts […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Defining conflicts for lawmakers
State Sen. Steven Tolman put off his resignation from the Senate until the end of today so he could beat back any attempts to water down the casino bill and […]
Posted inPolitics
Two points of view on small claims reforms
In his 1913 essay on “The Administration of Justice in the Modern City,” Harvard Law School Dean Roscoe Pound put forth a novel notion – a small claims or “people’s […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
A Warren buffet
The national punditocracy continues to salivate over a presumed Elizabeth Warren-Scott Brown match-up. The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne rushes to Warren’s defense after George Will’s full-throated broadside against her as […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
The FBI’s unholy alliances
It seems fitting that the case against alleged Mob capo Mark Rossetti gets thrown into doubt over a long holiday weekend dominated by speculation about the FBI’s Icelandic Whitey Bulger […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
The casino misery toll
As state lawmakers move closer to cutting a deal on casino gambling in Massachusetts they should carefully ponder the human downsides as much as they consider the revenue upside. The […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
The bare facts
The country is an economic basket case and Washington is in political gridlock, but media coverage of the race for US Senate in Massachusetts is focused on a couple of […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Bay State Banner loan extended
A nonprofit affiliate of the Boston Redevelopment Authority is giving the Bay State Banner more time to pay off a $200,000 delinquent loan originally arranged by Mayor Thomas Menino two […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
iSad: Steve Jobs
Put up for adoption at birth by a young unwed mother, college dropout, garage inventor, Buddhist capitalist, culture changer, genius, tyrant. He never quite fit the profile of American entrepreneur, […]