When we look back to 2011 from some date in the future, it seems likely that people will wonder how there could have been such heated debate over the proposition […]
A lesson from Boston’s quest for a public water supply
Posted inEducation, The Download
NPR puts a face on dropping out
In a five-part series this week carried by WBUR, National Public Radio examines the cost of dropping out of high school through the stories of five people scattered around the […]
Posted inArts and Culture, The Download, Uncategorized
Back to math class for the Globe
We’re all familiar with the warning to keep matches out of the hands of children. The same should often be said with respect to statistics and reporters. Today’s exhibit: The […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Did Mullan deserve a raise?
Secretary of Transportation Jeffrey Mullan could make a pretty good case for a raise. Mullan was making $160,000 a year in September 2009 as executive director of the Massachusetts Turnpike […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Debt clock ticking
This morning the washingtonpost.com’s debt countdown clock reads 5 days and 13 hours until a government default. The news media and politicians are wading into the murky water of what […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
The state of black Boston: Not so good
The Urban League’s “State of Black Boston” report released Monday evokes the distinctly Hobbesian perspective that for many African-Americans in the Hub conditions are “poor, nasty, brutish and short.” To be […]
Posted inEconomy, Transportation
Delaware North bids $75m for T garage
An affiliate of Delaware North submitted the sole bid for the MBTA’s North Station garage today, putting the financially struggling transportation agency in line for a $75 million windfall. The […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Black holes
In the 35 years since National Urban League conventioneers last ventured into Boston, the city has made galactic strides in race relations. Boston is finally getting control of the one […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
The William Bulger I know
The recent capture of James “Whitey” Bulger has brought forth a torrent of commentary, much of it involving former state Senate president and University of Massachusetts president William Bulger. A […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service, The Download
Retail politics
In Washington, politicians are fighting over debt. Closer to home, it’s groceries they get all worked up about. The mayors of Somerville and Boston are currently beating up on Wal-Mart. […]
Posted inArts and Culture, The Download, Uncategorized
Bowling abroad
The breakdown in American civic culture and community has been well documented. The definitive treatise on this, of course, is Robert Putnam’s 2000 book Bowling Alone, which painted a picture […]
Posted inOpinion, Transportation
T chief responds to story on garage
It is important and necessary that I correct several facts and assertions made by Paul McMorrow in his Back Story entitled “Garage gamesmanship.” The MBTA concluded that the fair market […]
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Massport revenues sought for transportation
The Patrick administration, desperate for new transit revenues, is exploring ways the Massachusetts Port Authority can pump more money into the state’s transportation network. At a Massport board meeting on […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, The Download
Wallace indicted, questions remain
The indictment of former South Boston state representative Brian Wallace on campaign finance charges leaves a lot of questions unanswered. News outlets across the state carried the basics. The 61-year-old […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, The Back Story
Regulatory chess
The proposed merger of NStar and Northeast Utilities is starting to get interesting. What started out as a fairly straight-forward merger proposal is fast becoming a game of regulatory chess […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Education, The Download
Just between us, watch what you say
Mark Tremblay is, by all accounts, a reasonably intelligent family man who works two jobs, including installing “kill switches” in police cars. A 5-2 majority opinion by the state’s highest […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Health Care, The Download
Standard-Times all in on New Bedford schools
In this continuing era of reduced resources, it is both noteworthy and newsworthy when a newspaper devotes time, space, and manpower to examine in depth an issue that is critically […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Economy, Politics, The Download
For lawmakers on Beacon Hill, patronage is the scandal that won’t go away
<div id=”fb-root”></div><script src=”First it was Probation, a legislative jobs bank that blew up in spectacular fashion in its sponsors’ faces. Now, just two months after the Legislature tried distancing itself […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
40B debate, cont’d
Voters settled the latest battle over the state’s affordable housing law last November when they soundly rejected a ballot question that would have repealed the 42-year-old statute known as Chapter […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
MTA head responds to pension column
Stephen Eide’s argument for switching public employees in Massachusetts from a defined benefit pension system to a defined contribution system (“Time for Real Pension Reform,” July 5, 2011) ignores one […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Patrick’s compensation philosophy and Mullan
State Transportation Secretary Jeffrey Mullan is leaving his job later this year because Gov. Deval Patrick refused to give him a raise. The Globe broke the story, reporting that Mullan […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
The Big Dig’s paper trail problem
If the recent report on secrecy in the Massachusetts Department of Transportation and the subsequent suspension of engineer Helmut Ernst tell us anything, it’s that access to public records and […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
A woman’s place is in the House
When Niki Tsongas , the Lowell-based congresswoman, testified recently before the Massachusetts Special Joint Committee on Redistricting, she caused a kerfuffle. As the only woman in an otherwise all-male and […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Not your father’s Kennedys
With the passing of Ted Kennedy, it appears the family’s well-known ability to circle the wagons and protect the familial legacy as well as each other may also be slipping […]