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 […]
The Download: Talking the talk
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 inCriminal Justice, Health Care, The Download
The Download: The circus is coming
It’s a running joke on Beacon Hill that this current incarnation of the Governor’s Council may finally be the one that takes the whole institution down. That theory should be […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Redistricting opportunities for minorities
In the redistricting process now underway, the state’s minority groups are poised to reshape significantly how they are represented in every elected office from selectman to state senator, from school […]
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 […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
Patrick wants health bill faster
Gov. Deval Patrick amped up the pressure on the Legislature today to move faster on health care reform, saying recent statements by House Speaker Robert DeLeo and a top lieutenant […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, The Download, Transportation
The Download: Schoolyard rumble
A new study on schooling in America, a new round of charges and counter-charges about overblown claims of charter school success, skewed data sets, and incomplete analyses. Put it all […]
Posted inPolitics
Patrick nominates gay judge to SJC
Gov. Deval Patrick nominated Barbara Lenk to the state’s Supreme Judicial Court, allowing the openly gay Appeals Court judge to join the court whose 2003 decision in Goodridge v. Department […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The Download: Brown tome wrecker
The Boston Globe, in its review of US Sen. Scott Brown’s new book, Against All Odds, described it as “an incredible life story, told in the safest and most surface-level […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
The cult of Corbett
The only reform needed at the state’s Probation Department appears to be Ronald Corbett. The 27-year veteran of the court system was appointed commissioner of probation last year after his […]
Posted inEducation, Health Care, The Download
The Download: It’s all about perspective
Libya, budget stalemates, government shutdowns. Earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear meltdowns. Fleeing jobs, local aid cuts, spiraling health care. And yet another snow storm is expected to hit the region tonight and […]
Posted inPolitics
Globe files suit on severance records
Another in a series of occasional articles on public records and open meetings issues. The Boston Globe is suing eight Massachusetts executive agencies plus the Massachusetts Port Authority and the […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The Download: What Times is it?
Information may want to be free, but journalists and publishers want to get paid. Since the Internet destroyed the advertising model that fueled newspaper profits, finding a new online profit […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, The Download
The Download: Redistricting road show or sideshow?
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 […]
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 […]