The Legislature’s redistricting road show debuted in Springfield last weekend, and the good people of western Mass. hit ‘em with everything they had. Multiple pols noted that the region’s two […]
The Download: Redistricting road show or sideshow?
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Mapping a survival strategy
All eyes are on how state lawmakers will wedge 10 incumbents into nine congressional districts. But first, and with potentially more impact, the legislative cartographers have to figure out how […]
Posted inTransportation
T projects $1.1 billion deficit over next 5 years
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is facing a combined budget deficit of more than $1.1 billion over the next five years – a figure that exceeds even the “bleak” estimates […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment
Evergreen chief defends shutdown
The chief executive of Evergreen Solar said today his company decided to close a state-subsidized manufacturing facility in Massachusetts and shift its focus to China because of that country’s overwhelming […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
T advisory board backs cost shifting
UPDATE: A correction has been made to this story. See below. To help balance its fiscal year 2012 budget, the MBTA Advisory Board is proposing to transfer some of the T’s transportation […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, The Download
The Download: Veterans’ services quagmire
Veterans deserve our gratitude and all the benefits to which they are entitled. They do not deserve duplicative, unaccountable bureaucracies that dole our services with no oversight. But that appears […]
Posted inEducation, Environment, Politics, The Download
The Download: On the web, traffic still rules
The recent sale of the Huffington Post to AOL and the New York Times’s implementation look like very different moves by very different media entities. But scratch below the surface […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The Download: Killing them softly
It hasn’t appeared on the Federal Election Commission filings yet, but it can’t be long before President Obama and his aides send campaign contributions to Mitt Romney. It would only […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, Transportation
Doubts on T parking revenue proposal
Should the MBTA use some of its future parking revenues to help rescue the agency from its latest financial crisis? A group of independent transportation experts who advise the state […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, The Download
The Download: Census data, race, and advertising
Robert Groves, the director of the US Census Bureau, is a man in demand. While state demographers mull over why people are fleeing Lincoln, Stockbridge, and Provincetown, advertisers are trying […]
Posted inEducation, Environment, Politics, The Download, Transportation
The Download: Sen. Warren? (Elizabeth, that is)
Up until now, the nascent movement to draft Elizabeth Warren to challenge Sen. Scott Brown has had one glaring deficiency – a willing participant. After all, why would Warren willingly […]
Posted inEconomy
Convention center questions
A panel weighing the expansion of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center said on Tuesday that state lawmakers would have to identify between $78 million and $117 million annually in […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, The Download
The Download: March madness
The NCAA men’s basketball tournament carries the right nickname, but not because of the excitement it generates. The madness is the big-money pursuit of top basketball talent by colleges and […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, The Download
The Download: An early toast
Who could have guessed the third week in March would be a bad one for alcohol sales in Boston? In a city effort to keep things family friendly for the […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Rumored corruption
The FBI used Ron Wilburn, and then tossed him aside. The feds got Wilburn, a Roxbury businessman, to wear a wire while passing bribes to Dianne Wilkerson and Chuck Turner. […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, State House News Service, The Download
The Download: Payback
Maybe it’s the defensiveness engendered by the decades-long moniker of Taxachusetts or the relentless hammering by Republicans and corporations about the inhospitable business atmosphere in the state, old perceptions that […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, Politics, The Download
The Download: Nuclear fear factors
Fears about nuclear power increase with each new, catastrophic development in Japan. In Germany, people took to the streets after last week’s earthquake to protest against nuclear power. Not needing […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, The Download
The Download: DeLeo’s GIC ultimatum
Two years ago, when House Speaker Robert DeLeo made his first address to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, he distanced himself from his embattled predecessor and burnished his reputation […]
Posted inPolitics
DeLeo promises more transparency in courts
House Speaker Robert DeLeo says he wants the embattled probation department to remain in the judiciary but is filing a bill that would put a professional administrator in charge of […]
Posted inEducation, Environment, Politics, The Download
The Download: Taking a chance on schools
There has been a lot of talk recently about lotteries and education. The documentary “Waiting for Superman” was structured around the stories of children whose families had pinned hopes for […]
Posted inEnvironment, Health Care, The Download
The Download: Clear as mud
The Department of Public Utilities ruling yesterday on the proposed NStar-Northeast Utilities merger is about as clear as mud. For 60 years, the DPU has approved mergers if they cause […]
Posted inThe Back Story, Transportation
Knocked off track
Click here for more Back Stories. Don’t get Back Story? Sign up here. Is there a calculable dollar value inherent in warranties? That could be the key question in the […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Doctors’ response
The MassINC/CommonWealth magazine forum, Global Payments: The Next Chapter in Health Care Reform?, at Suffolk University’s Modern Theater last night was a well-intentioned and welcome event. Any dramatic change to […]
Posted inHealth Care
Dreyfus makes case for global payments
The president of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts made the case for global health payments last night during a discussion sponsored by CommonWealth magazine at Suffolk University’s Modern Theatre, […]