By Gabrielle Gurley Unless more immediate steps are taken to rein in accelerating health care and pension costs, municipal officials will continue to triage community services to pay for employee […]
Salem mayor says health care impasse may require ballot solution
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Playing the ‘comment’ game
By Bruce Mohl The reader comments at the end of online newspaper stories are apparently becoming a battle ground in the fight over a proposed high-rise tower along the Rose […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Newspaper endorsements still matter
I’ve been on the “ed board” circuit lately—tromping around the state and attending meetings with newspaper editorial boards. The goal is for my clients to wow the opinion-makers with their […]
Posted inUncategorized
Defining nepotism is all relative
It’s not nepotism if you have the qualifications to do the job, no matter how many relatives work in the state’s trial court. That was the argument to the state’s […]
Posted inEnvironment, The Download
Berwick to replace Hibbard at DPU
By Bruce Mohl Paul Hibbard is stepping down as chairman of the state Department of Public Utilities and being replaced by a top aide to Ian Bowles, the secretary of […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
Holding on tight and not letting go
By Jack Sullivan Judging from comments House Speaker Robert DeLeo made to The Republican of Springfield, it doesn’t appear there’s any appetite in the Legislature for reining in the autonomy […]
Posted inEnvironment
Bowles urges more monitoring
The state’s top environmental official today released a letter he sent to the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station urging officials there to enhance air and water monitoring efforts. (See below, or […]
Posted inEnvironment
After tour, Bowles backs Pilgrim
The Patrick administration’s top environmental official says he is comfortable with the level of environmental monitoring at Pilgrim Nuclear Station and believes the plant should be relicensed by the federal […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Budget transparency – even for tax credits
By Bruce Mohl The Massachusetts House voted Wednesday night to create a budget website where taxpayers could track the flow of funds in and out of state government – even […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Chiofaro: A latter-day Leventhal?
Developer Don Chiofaro says his escalating battle with City Hall is not about his proposed waterfront towers, but about the future of the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway. At a press […]
Posted inEnvironment
Persistence pays off for Cape Wind
Gov. Deval Patrick and his energy and environment secretary, Ian Bowles, were beaming earlier today as they stood behind US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and they had good reason to […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download
Chiofaro to crank it up
By Bruce Mohl The sparks are about to start flying between developer Don Chiofaro and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. Chiofaro wants to build a pair of 625-foot towers on the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Economy, Politics
Courts “functionally disabled” due to cuts
Budget cuts have created a “functionally disabled judiciary” that strains the lives of families and the operations of Massachusetts’ businesses in real and immeasurable ways, according to a panel of […]
Posted inTransportation
T confirms $91m pricetag to fix ties
MBTA officials , after a year of minimizing the problem, have confirmed it will cost more than $90 million to replace the 147,000 defective concrete ties on the Old Colony […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Ethics complaint against Ethics Commission
Jack Authelet, the retired managing editor of the Foxboro Reporter weekly newspaper, filed a complaint with the State Ethics Commission after what he said were inappropriate remarks by a commission […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion, Politics
Tea partying for fun and profit
Even a grass-roots movement of The People needs leaders, and the recent Tea Party festival on the Boston Common reveals the group’s vanguard: commercial hucksters, both small-time and big-name, in […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
Bowles sued on renewable policies
The developer of a major wind power project in Maine is suing top officials in the Patrick administration for steering state subsidies to renewable energy projects in Massachusetts. TransCanada Power […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Uncategorized
Missing the Scott Brown juggernaut
By Gabrielle Gurley This week, Boston University and The Pew Research’s Center Project for Excellence in Journalism published Hidden In Plain Sight, From Kennedy to Brown. The report dissects national […]
Posted inUncategorized
Party registration by town 2008
As of fall 2008, the last time that the secretary of state’s office released town-level data, independent voters (technically, “unenrolled” voters), made up a slight majority of the Bay […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Globe’s dominating presence at the GOP convention
By Jack Sullivan If the GOP state convention in Worcester over the weekend is any indication, the Globe is still the paper of record for all things local, especially when […]
Posted inUncategorized
Mihos out
WORCESTER—Republican delegates, still bitter over Christy Mihos’ independent run for governor they say cost Kerry Healey the corner office, gave Charles Baker a free pass to the three-way November election.“I’ve […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
One sad Story
To understand the withered state of democracy in the Massachusetts House of Representatives look no further than the eye-popping comments this week of state Rep. Ellen Story. In years past, […]
Posted inPolitics
BPL, ex-Rep. at odds over lobbying contract
The Boston Public Library , which is preparing to shut down four branches and lay off close to 80 employees to balance its budget, says in a court filing that […]
Posted inPolitics
DeLeo flips 64 votes
For a breakdown of the House roll call on gambling, click here. House Speaker Robert DeLeo takes great pains to point out the differences between him and his predecessors but, […]