The state-owned building at Parcel 7 has kept a lonely watch over Boston’s Rose Kennedy Greenway for a decade now. The office structure, a relic of the Big Dig, has […]
Back where they started
Posted inUncategorized
METCO gets high marks in new report
The Pioneer Institute, in conjunction with the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice (CHHIRJ) at Harvard Law School, today published a report on the status of METCO, a […]
Posted inHealth Care
State workers embrace lower-cost health plans
Ninety-nine percent of active state employees have re-enrolled in health plans under an initiative state officials predict will save more than $20 million this year as more employees agree to […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Nothing to see here, folks
There’s probably no more happy sports fans in Massachusetts than Beacon Hill lawmakers that the Bruins won the Stanley Cup. Not just because it’s yet another feather in the city’s […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
DiMasi, McDonough guilty but not Vitale
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE After a six-week trial, a jury needed only hours before finding former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi guilty on seven of nine counts in his public corruption […]
Posted inUncategorized
DeLeo distances himself from DiMasi
“You’re nothing to me now. You’re not a brother, you’re not a friend. I don’t want to know you or what you do. I don’t want to see you at […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Masters of disaster
Depending on Uncle Sam’s largess and the kindness of strangers are just two of the life-altering changes facing communities hit by a major natural disaster. The Christian Science Monitor profiles […]
Posted inPolitics
10 thoughts about campaigning
The 2010 elections are in the rear view mirror, and 2012 now looms large on the political horizon. As a candidate for statewide office last year, I thought I might […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
The gay marriage divide
In Massachusetts, when someone suggests that a judge’s sexual orientation interferes with both logic and law, that suggestion invites public ridicule and rebuke. In California, it’s grounds for an appeals […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
Report: Senate health plan guts savings
An amendment in the Senate version of municipal health care reform would result in the measure coming up short of the $100 million savings target because of its requirement that […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Rainbow Boston
For all of its inglorious history when it comes to matters of race, Boston is now a national leader in diversity and multiculturalism.  That’s the finding from a new look […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Cutting the profits from nonprofits
Nonprofits, it seems, are in the official cross hairs and under assault.A bill filed by state Sen. Mark Montigny of New Bedford to stop health plans from paying “volunteer” board […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Mitt’s “birth certificate” challenges
Could Mitt Romney and Barack Obama have been separated at birth? I ask because they each face serious questions about their legitimate membership in American society – and from some […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Senate race no laugher
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Scott Brown and Martha Coakley squaring off for the Senate seat once held by the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Last year’s […]
Posted inPolitics
Who’s the fairest one of all?
It has become accepted as fact and repeated in local and national stories that Sen. Scott Brown is “the most popular officeholder in Massachusetts” since his stunning victory over Attorney […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download
Arlington overrides
Could other Massachusetts towns facing a Proposition 2 1/2 override drum up a “yes” vote like Arlington did yesterday? Doubtful, but it’s worth considering the reasons that barely carried the […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Immigration showdown
Gov. Deval Patrick waded back into the immigration quagmire again yesterday, saying Massachusetts won’t join a program sharing the fingerprints of arrested individuals with federal immigration agencies. Patrick said he’d […]
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
Culture of climate protection needed
Beacon Hill made a loud statement with the Global Warming Solutions Act. The 2008 law mandating an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions put Massachusetts on the leading edge […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, The Download
In New York City schools, civil rights or wrongs?
The school reform wars have taken a dramatic turn in New York City, where 2,500 parents and students – overwhelming black and Hispanic – rallied last week to protest the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, State House News Service, The Download
Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter
He went by Chris Gerhart, Christopher Chichester, Christopher Crowe, CCC Mountbatten, and ultimately Clark Rockefeller, but his real name was Christian Karl Gerhartsreiter, one of the strangest and most successful […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Is the HEFA severance fight worth it?
Citing attorney-client privilege, a quasi-public state authority is refusing to disclose how much it is spending on legal fees fighting a $562,000 severance payment to an official who lost his […]
Posted inEconomy
Many states trimming their film tax credits
Massachusetts is aggressively courting Hollywood productions with its film tax credit, but the movie-making tax incentives have lost some of their luster in other states, according to a new study […]
Posted inEnvironment, The Download
Storm cells
For years now, the topic of where news will come from has been feverishly debated as technology has enabled the average person to be eyewitnesses-cum-street-reporters of breaking news. Yesterday’s tornadoes […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Scholarships that keep students in the high school race
High school graduations are around the corner, and that means education officials are preparing thousands of scholarships to award to graduates. They are like volunteers at the famed Boston Marathon […]