Today's Boston Globe offers mostly very good news for Mayor Tom Menino, who holds a commanding lead over challenger Michael Flaherty in a new Globe poll with just over three […]
Menino still in pole position
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, The Download
Willie Horton Doctrine guides Bay State governors
Micheal Blanding writes in this week's Boston Globe Magazine that "The Long Shadow of Willie Horton" has put an end to the commutation of prison sentences in Massachusetts, regardless of […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Charter schools — how dare they want the best for their students?
Writing in last week's Boston Phoenix, Chris Faraone tees up some of the controversies surrounding charter schools in Boston. One big beef of charter critics that he lays out in […]
Posted inEducation
Term paper trafficking
See an update to this story here. Despite laws in Massachusetts and 16 other states, lawsuits, honor codes, and even sophisticated plagiarism-detection software, college students continue to buy term papers […]
Posted inPolitics
Missed opportunity
INTRO TEXT In the wake of the indictments of former state Sen. Dianne Wilkerson and former House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, a State House under siege by a fed-up public recently […]
Posted inPolitics
SFI filings
There are nearly 4,900 elected and appointed state and county officials required to file annual Statements of Financial Interest (SFI), and all public employees at all levels are subject to […]
Posted inUncategorized
Correspondence
State lotteries are predatory institutions Michael Jonas’s interview of Barbara Dafoe Whitehead was first-rate. (See “Ben Franklin Was Right,” CW, Summer ’09.) Interesting, substantive, and entertaining, it put a much […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
State of the unions
”Governor Patrick, Anti-Labor.” ”Governor Patrick, Anti-Public Safety.” That was the 411 from Arlington and Medford police officers lined up more than 200 strong in front of Arlington’s Town Hall in […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service, The Download
Federal stimulus funding cushions state budget
With Washington coming to the rescue, Massachusetts has been able to save programs that would have been decimated without federal stimulus funds. According to a report published Wednesday by the […]
Posted inHealth Care, The Download
First comes love, then comes marriage, then….
After Massachusetts led the way on gay marriage, other states followed. The Bay State may lead again on gay parenting, if one influential medical organization gets its way. The American […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Bay State leans on income taxes, not so much on sales levies
Massachusetts ranks third in its reliance on income taxes to fund state and local government, behind Oregon and Maryland, according to a new report by the Tax Foundation. And despite […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
What might David D’Alessandro find as he turns over the rocks at the MBTA?
Former John Hancock CEO David D’Alessandro is hard at work on his eagerly anticipated "top-to-bottom" review of the MBTA’s finances and management, due for release by the end of October. […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Charter schools and spaghetti?
Thursday, October 8, 2009 Granted, the connection is not immediately obvious. But this post on the indispensable Eduwonk employs a nifty marinara metaphor to frame the case for charter schools […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Khazei promises to shake things up
Alan Khazei, touting the endorsement of Max Kennedy and his wife Victoria, portrayed himself today as the change agent in the race for the US Senate seat of the late Edward […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Galluccio road show growing tired
So now we have what passes for an explanation from Anthony Galluccio for what happened late Sunday afternoon at a Cambridge intersection. Let's just say it doesn't pass the smell […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Mass. likely to lose House seat, but no population sinkholes here
The Electoral Map has a good rundown of the fastest-growing and fastest-shrinking congressional districts in the US. The upshot is that the Republicans are likely to make short-term gains after […]
Posted inPolitics
Galluccio road show growing tired
So now we have what passes for an explanation from Anthony Galluccio for what happened late Sunday afternoon at a Cambridge intersection. Let’s just say it doesn’t pass the smell […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Galluccio hits the road again
Perhaps by the end of the day Cambridge state Sen. Anthony Galluccio, who dodged all queries yesterday, will have come forward to attempt to explain this. I cannot imagine what he […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download
Competing non-competes
Tomorrow the Legislature's Committee on Labor and Workforce Development holds a hearing on two bills that, depending on whom you ask, could either invigorate or eviscerate the state's high-tech industry. […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Combatting the debt culture
David Brooks says we need to get ready for the next culture war. Not a divisive showdown over social issues to be dreaded, this is a battle, he says, to […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Economy, The Download
The Invention of Tax Credits
Friday, October 2, 2009 If you go to the new Ricky Gervais vehicle The Invention of Lying, keep in mind that the $9.75 you fork over isn't all you're paying […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
A book worth a look
Local author Mo Lotman's new coffee-table book Harvard Square is an illustrated retrospective of Massachusetts's most-opinionated zip code, but in addition to chronicling the visual changes in the square over […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Fact-checking Menino and Flaherty
By Jack Sullivan and Bruce MohlDuring an hour-long debate Thursday night between Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and City Councilor Michael Flaherty Jr. on WCVB-TV (Ch. 5), both men got their facts wrong […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, The Download
Gateways Cities leaders introduce economic development plan
Massachusetts needs to rework its tax incentive programs to create jobs, stimulate commercial development, and build market-rate housing in the state’s most economically distressed cities. That was the message from […]