In the last five years, Massachusetts newspapers have dramatically altered the way they cover—or don’t cover—the state’s congressional delegation in Washington.Every Bay State newspaper except the Boston Globe has pulled […]
Shrinking coverage
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
Grass is greener
like the health care bill before it, the fate of a new federal climate change law rests with the Senate. John Kerry is navigating a political minefield, with Republicans uniformly […]
Posted inPolitics
The Brown effect
in washington He said he wanted to be “a Brown Republican,” but what does that mean? Judging from his voting record from the time he took office in February until […]
Posted inPolitics
Probation location
the battle rages over which branch of government will control probation—and its $150 million budget—in Massachusetts. But looking for help to see how other states do it offers little in […]
Posted inEconomy
Eating up deficits
with depleted coffers forcing belt-tightening at all levels of government, it would make sense that officials, especially at the local level, would grab onto any chance to pick up a […]
Posted inEnvironment
An overdue cost-benefit analysis
when gov. deval Patrick signed sweeping energy legislation into law two years ago, the headline in the Boston Globe the next day was: “State starts a green era.”The story was […]
Posted inUncategorized
Fuel for thought
Power. It is, to turn a phrase, the fuel of our economy. For centuries, we have relied on fossil fuels to generate the power we need for our daily lives. […]
Posted inEducation
About-face
The Death and Life of The Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education By Diane RavitchNew York, Basic Books, 283 pages diane ravitch is the preeminent […]
Posted inPolitics
Filling the cracks
The news business is changing so quickly that sometimes you have to stop and take stock. Shawn Zeller did just that in his Washington Notebook report for this issue, and […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Washington may frown upon South Coast Rail
What would Peter Rogoff say about the $100 million deal the Massachusetts Department of Transportation recently signed with rail freight company CSX Transportation, giving the state ownership of 30 miles […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service, Transportation
Transit authority’s student pass may hold lessons for MBTA
If Chicago is a guide, the forever cash-strapped MBTA may be sitting on a rich vein of untapped revenue—area college students. The Chicago Transit Authority’s U-Pass is mandatory for the nearly […]
Posted inUncategorized
Nine questions for Mass GOP Chair Jennifer Nassour
COMMONWEALTH: Has there been a surge in GOP registrations since Brown’s victory?NASSOUR: We don’t have the registration numbers, but what we do have is an uptick in interest. We have […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
Mystery solved
Tucked deep inside an April report by Boston’s Climate Action Leadership Committee is a photo of a wharf seemingly under water. There is no explanation with the photo—indeed, no mention […]
Posted inEducation
Boston charities set ambitious education goals
When the kindergarten and first-grade chorus members from the Haynes Early Education Center in Roxbury closed the program with an uplifting rendition of “We Are The World,” they might as […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, State House News Service
Nuclear: Obama on board but not Patrick
President Barack Obama and Gov. Deval Patrick see eye-to-eye on most energy issues—except nuclear power. Obama is on board, but Patrick isn’t in any hurry to catch up. Nuclear power […]
Posted inEnvironment
Energy efficiency drives reinvention of Bay State company
The roots of East Walpole-headquartered Hollingsworth & Vose Co. extend back to the 18th century and to a product as basic as rag paper. But today, this old-line manufacturing firm […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
Cheap, clean energy stirring interest in Holyoke
Cheap, clean electricity is putting the city of Holyoke on the map.Holyoke, one of the poorest cities in Massachusetts, hasn’t attracted any significant business development in a long time. But […]
Posted inEnvironment
8 questions for Tom King, president of National Grid-US
cw: Why does National Grid make a portion of your salary contingent on meeting a company carbon-reduction target?king: National Grid is committed to taking a leadership role in addressing climate […]
Posted inHealth Care
Overexposed
Gov. Deval Patrick in April took the unprecedented step of rejecting double-digit rate increases being sought by most of the state’s health insurers for their small business plans. It was […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Just plain ugly
Bill Pedersen is a principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates in New York, a powerhouse architectural firm known for designing tall towers across the globe. He personally oversaw the design […]
Posted inPolitics
Deval on the defense
Four years ago, the Democratic Party reached a new apex in Massachusetts with the landslide election of Deval Patrick as governor. And the demographics seemed to portend further happy days, […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, State House News Service
Who’s the real environmentalist?
The elegant, lazy motion of wind turbines once appealed to Eleanor Tillinghast. Generating energy takes a heavy toll on the natural world, so it stood to reason that Tillinghast, a […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
The big bet
The south shore community of Milton is planning to borrow $6 million to build a large wind turbine on town land. Normally, a project of that magnitude in such a […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment
Seeing green
The air was thick with anticipation as US Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar stepped to the microphone, even though the news he was about to make had already leaked […]