Today’s unemployment report – the last before the November gubernatorial election – suggests the pace of recent job growth may be slowing. The unemployment rate in September fell to 8.4 […]
Sept. report shows job growth slows
Posted inHealth Care, State House News Service
Primary care docs in short supply
Primary care physicians continue to be short supply in the Bay State for the fifth year in a row, according to the 2010 workforce study released today by the Massachusetts […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Tribes lobby for reservation land
The demise of state gambling legislation this summer was a blow to Gov. Deval Patrick and many legislators, but no one was more disappointed when the deal fell apart than […]
Posted inEconomy
A ballpark assessment
can you believe it? Fenway Park, America’s most beloved ballpark, home to the Green Monster and Pesky’s Pole, and sacred ground to Red Sox Nation, is worth less than some […]
Posted inPolitics
Legislative pay
many massachusetts legislators say the salary they receive as full-time lawmakers is not enough to live on and raise a family, so the majority—nearly 60 percent—report some form of outside […]
Posted inPolitics
Road warriors
when the four gubernatorial candidates were queried at a debate about the cars they drove, Republican Charlie Baker drew some envious chuckles when he said he had a ’66 Mustang. […]
Posted inPolitics
Stop pushing paper
More than 4,500 state and local officials file statements of financial interest each year with the State Ethics Commission. The ethics forms are supposed to be readily available to the […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Politics
Backwater of the universe
Banned in Boston: The Watch and Ward Society’s Crusade against Books, Burlesque, and the Social Evil By Neil MillerBoston, Beacon Press, 209 pagesIt’s easy to be smug when you live […]
Posted inEducation, Environment, Health Care
Correspondence Fall 2010
MY MRI COST $7,200 Your article, “Overexposed,” in CommonWealth’s summer edition was superb. It revealed so many of the failures and successes of our medical system.I have only one thing to […]
Posted inPolitics
Big citizen
Alan Khazei stepped into the spotlight last fall when he ran in the special election race to fill Ted Kennedy’s seat in the US Senate. But the high-profile race was […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
Advice to the governor: Tough medicine
Click here for more advice for the governor Health care spending is back at the top of the agenda in Massachusetts, and addressing it must be a top priority of […]
Posted inEducation, Health Care, Politics
Advice to the Governor: Think smart
Click here for more advice for the governorDuring a painful recession, gubernatorial candidates make too many promises about fixing our near-term problems and too few commitments about the investments needed […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Advice to the Governor: Criminal justice overhaul is overdue
Click here for more advice for the governor Massachusetts’s criminal justice system is big, broken, and expensive. Our prisons are overcrowded and our young people continue to do harm to […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
Advice to the Governor: Push for higher standards
Click here for more advice for the governor Discussion of education issues in this year’s race for governor has often centered on the state’s recent decision to join the effort […]
Posted inTransportation
Time on T’s side
The MBTA and Massachusetts Bay Commuter Rail Company publish “report cards” showing the commuter rail’s performance and, by all accounts, the trains arrive when they are supposed to 95 percent […]
Posted inPolitics
Power is a money magnet on Beacon Hill
Money chases power on Beacon Hill, and there may be no clearer example of that relationship than the campaign war chests of state Reps. John Rogers and Charles Murphy.Rogers used […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Economy, Politics, State House News Service
Police scramble on Quinn pay
Police unions and individual officers are trying hard to save what’s left of the 40-year-old Quinn Bill with mixed success. Budget woes forced lawmakers to cut what was once a […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
On Beacon Hill, help is easy to find
Massachusetts lawmakers have pared back the size of the legislative staff in the midst of the current recession but the state still ranks as one of the most aide-heavy legislatures […]
Posted inEconomy
Feds taking aim at real estate fees; BRA seeks guidance
A novel real estate fee long collected by the Boston Redevelopment Authority, and more recently by some private developers, is coming under fire from the federal government.The Federal Housing Finance […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
A business improvement district in Boston-finally
With city services cut and unlikely to rebound to pre-recession levels any time soon, Bostonians are stepping into the breach.Businesses in the Downtown Crossing area are banding together and voluntarily […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Turnaround artist
Lisa Wong became a rising superstar in Massachusetts politics the moment she trounced a veteran Fitchburg city councilor and catapulted into the mayor’s office at age 28. The wonky daughter […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Raising the bar
Suzanne Bump’s campaign staff is antsy. It’s already an hour into the campaign event, a barbeque with Malden Democrats, and their candidate for state auditor is seriously lagging behind schedule. […]
Posted inEducation
False start
From tiny Roxbury Community College to the University of Massachusetts flagship school in Amherst, women run far behind men in nearly every measure of equal treatment.