Gerri Vaughan, the executive director of the Lowell General Physicians Hospital Organization, answers a question about the state’s rush to embrace a global payment system with a question. “If Pat […]
Piloting global payments
Posted inPolitics
Reigning supreme
Ronald Arruda is the clerk-magistrate of the Bristol Juvenile Court, which is a little like saying he is the king of his court. He was appointed to the job by […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Politics
Schools set aside funds for special ed increases
Brookline Public Schools are scrambling to close a nearly $1.5 million budget gap for the fiscal year beginning in July, yet the School Committee is nevertheless setting aside $400,000 in […]
Posted inPolitics
Lottery plots against ‘slots’
Like those running any gambling enterprise, officials at the Massachusetts State Lottery don’t like anyone muscling in on their turf. And when they think someone is, they can lower the […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Hollywood stars not paying taxes?
Some of Hollywood’s hottest stars may be shortchanging Massachusetts on their taxes. A brief reference at the end of the state Revenue Department’s latest report on the film tax credit […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Fall River gambler
in upending a planned 300-acre biotech park, Fall River Mayor William Flanagan picked a fight with the governor, angered the state university, junked a decade’s worth of planning, and endangered […]
Posted inPolitics, Transportation
Endless loop
Nearly a year ago Attorney General Martha Coakley proposed new regulations to protect auto insurance consumers, but she’s never pulled the trigger and implemented them.Coakley solicited feedback on her proposal […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Boston NAACP moves to recapture relevance
The NAACP’s Boston branch all but dropped out of sight in recent years, but new president Michael Curry is looking to erase doubts about the all-volunteer organization’s relevancy by stepping […]
Posted inPolitics
No easy patronage cure
the massachusetts trial Court’s policies and procedures manual says all hiring is to be based strictly on merit. No practice or appearance of nepotism or favoritism is allowed. Yet for […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Lawrence on the mat
lawrence, with an anemic tax base and the state’s highest poverty rate, is no stranger to the usual litany of urban woes facing struggling cities. But Lawrence’s problems suddenly became […]
Posted inUncategorized
Who does he think he is?
IT’S AN EARLY March afternoon and a gaggle of reporters are waiting outside the House chamber. The focus of their interest finally steps out and obliges the group. He and […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Environment, Politics, The Download
The Download: Boston’s innovative, antiquated City Hall
Saturday’s Boston Herald carried a story that is the kind Mayor Tom Menino loves to see. It chronicled how the city’s new digital constituent service effort, which lets residents file […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The Download: Cracking down on gambling
As everyone knows, slot machines and casino gambling haven’t been approved by the Massachusetts Legislature. But what most people don’t know is that devices that closely resemble slot machines have […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
MassINC Research Director on Chronicle
Friday, April 8, 2011 MassINC Research Director Ben Forman appeared on WCVB’s Chronicle last night to discuss the rise in immigration in Massachusetts, and the dramatic demographic shifts that have […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, The Back Story
Doubling down on Evergreen
Gov. Deval Patrick is taking a lot of heat for his administration’s bet on Evergreen Solar, but the state’s financial partnership with the Marlborough company began under former Gov. Mitt […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, The Download
The Download: Talking the talk
It’s never too early to speculate. Has conservatism run its course? Is the middle the new “silent majority?” Will the left start gaining some traction? And who will take over […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
Hampden County justice
The Globe’s Yvonne Abraham gives Hampden County Sheriff Mike Ashe some much-deserved attention today in this great column. Ashe’s reform-minded approach to corrections landed him — and his brother and partner […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Auditor: Tax breaks go into black box
I am here to support the goals of several bills that are before you today, but also to provide you with some information that I think will be helpful to […]
Posted inPolitics
Coakley regs ban ‘gambling’ machines
Attorney General Martha Coakley, after months of silence on the issue, today filed emergency regulations banning what she called illegal gambling at cyber cafes and phone card terminals across the […]
Posted inTransportation
Judge rips T on ‘squishy’ arguments
A federal judge ripped the MBTA yesterday for shoddy recordkeeping, “squishy” legal arguments, and depositions “designed to avoid the dangers of perjury” during a hearing in the agency’s $91.5 million […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Environment, Politics, The Download
Download: Driscoll goes down but not out
Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll is the first of the Democratic water-testers to wisely pass on taking on US Sen. Scott Brown. By way of explanation, Driscoll pledged her fealty to […]
Posted inUncategorized
Attorney suspended for term paper offer
The state’s Board of Bar Overseers issued a six-month license suspension to a former attorney for the Massachusetts Appeals Court who offered to write a law school term paper as […]
Posted inEconomy
Negative reviews for film tax credit
Officials from four Massachusetts think tanks offered differing perspectives on the state’s strategy in doling out corporate tax breaks, but they all agreed on one thing: the film tax credit […]