Bitter enemies are suddenly finding common ground on Beacon Hill. First, supermarkets and package stores endorsed legislation that would allow food stores to purchase more liquor licenses. Then insurance agents […]
Compromise is cheaper
Posted inPolitics
Agency spends big to fight severance
With the case only in the deposition stage, a quasi-public Massachusetts authority says it has already spent $240,000 on legal fees fighting a $562,000 severance payment claimed by former employee […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Winn pleads guilty to 2 misdemeanors
The prominent Boston developer Arthur Winn is pleading guilty to a pair of misdemeanor campaign finance violations, and a development company formerly headed by Winn agreed to pay a $1.5 […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics, The Back Story
Municipal health care reform taking hold
The municipal health care reform law is slowly starting to have an impact. Several early-adopter communities have used the law – or the leverage the law provides – to shave […]
Posted inEnvironment
Clean energy official a Big Oil investor
The Massachusetts official overseeing most of the state’s clean energy investments has a personal portfolio that includes stock holdings in many non-clean energy businesses. The 2010 ethics filing of Patrick Cloney, […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
The Constitution’s road map
Congress wasn’t intentionally setting out to write a Strategic Plan for the United States, but that’s what the Founding Fathers did in the preamble to the Constitution, only they didn’t […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Dimming the Globe’s Spotlight
The term “scoop” in a journalistic sense has become a cliché, used far more by outsiders than those in the business, if it’s ever heard in newsrooms at all. But […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, Transportation
Regional transit taxes get lukewarm reception
Bay State regional leaders applauded new proposals outlined in a new MassINC report that would empower metro Boston and other areas of the state to tax their own residents to […]
Posted inPolitics
Olver alters math of redistricting
Congressman John Olver of Amherst plans to retire at the end of the current session, the 11th term Democrat announced Wednesday, altering the dynamics facing state lawmakers as they look […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, Transportation
MassINC report calls for regional transportation taxes
A new MassINC report is calling for regional taxes to fund the state’s transportation infrastructure, which would mean any additional MBTA aid would have to come from residents of the […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Rushin’ roulette
It’s hard to know what the right metaphor is to capture all the absurd gyrations and policymaking-on-the-run that have characterized the mad dash to casinos and slots. Sometimes it seems […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The Bain of Romney’s business resume
Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign is built on his business acumen and turnaround skills. But what exactly does that mean? This week, New York magazine submits its answer. The magazine credits […]
Posted inPolitics
Occupy attracts few people of color
Three things stood out during five days and nights of visits last week to occupy Boston in Dewey Square – how peaceful things are, how committed the occupiers are, and […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
Western Mass. transit gain is MBTA’s loss
Once again, Washington shows Western Massachusetts the love. Lt. Gov. Tim Murray, Transportation Secretary Richard Davey, US Rep. John Olver, and other state and federal officials went to Greenfield recently […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Playing offense on redistricting
The last time lawmakers sat down to redraw the state’s legislative districts, they protected three white incumbents by sequestering black votes in Boston, an action that put them on the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
Judge Wolf: Courageous? Or coward?
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 […]
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 […]