In our newly released summer issue of CommonWealth, I explore the issue of non-compete employment covenants, a multi-syllabic mouthful that can stop a Massachusetts worker from leaving Company A and […]
To compete or not: That is the question
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Bay State tourism $ takes dive, but Brazil and Argentina send more visitors
The just-posted (even though it's dated as June) newsletter from the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism has some grim numbers that help explain why Boston and other cities are […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
How to avoid tax increases: Pawn government buildings
Arizona legislators, desperate to avoid raising taxes, float the idea of selling government property — including legislative offices — and then renting the space from the new owners. The goal […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
Tracking more trouble for Grabauskas
MBTA General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas has certainly had better weeks and the immediate future doesn't look like it's going to give him any relief. With heat over the looming […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Charlie Baker and the Green Party are on the same page
Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker wants to roll back the state's recently increased sales tax. More surprisingly, the state's Green-Rainbow Party is making the same pitch. The party's state committee […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
CommonWealth’s Summer 2009 issue now online
The summer issue of CommonWealth is now available online in its entirety in both HTML and PDF formats. Click here to see the full contents, or click on a link […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Duncan jumps the gun on Massachusetts charter school boost
Gov. Deval Patrick says he wants to double the number of charter school seats in Massachusetts. But there's a big difference between a proposal and a policy or state law […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
Free labor market
INTRO TEXT when caroline huang remembers her first job out of graduate school, tension creeps into her soft-spoken voice even now, almost 20 years later. The speech recognition scientist went […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
No magic bullet
gov. patrick, the Boston Globe, MassINC, the Boston Foundation, the business community, and President Obama are all supporting charter schools as a key step toward school improvement, but a careful […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
A new prescription
before the year is out, Congress and the Obama administration will try to do for the entire nation what only one state, Massachusetts, has been able to do for its […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Untouchable turf
You know that municipal governments are in dire financial straits when they start looking to tax-exempt properties — schools, hospitals, and other nonprofit institutions — for new revenue. Many colleges […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download
Bay State Banner gets loan, draws attention to nonprofit
An obscure nonprofit corporation today made good on Boston Mayor Thomas Menino's promise to loan $200,000 to the Bay State Banner, a weekly newspaper targeted to the African-American community. The board of […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Patrick fights to keep DC outpost
The Boston Herald's Dave Wedge reports today that the Patrick administration is trying to keep its Washington, DC office going even after the Legislature took away its funding. The reaction […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
No cheerleading for convention centers
The Next American City’s Josh Stephens offers a skeptical assessment of gargantuan convention centers such as Boston’s BCEC, described as looking “like the starship Enterprise in drydock, with a titanium […]
Posted inEconomy, Transportation
Back tracking
INTRO TEXT UPDATE: The MBTA has announced plans to replace ties on the Old Colony line.
Posted inEnvironment, Opinion
Time saver
in 2008, the state of Utah was facing a number of compelling issues. Utility costs were rising, but there was no funding available to retrofit public buildings. Our government workforce […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Cancel their bill
it’s an issue that has received only limited media attention, so it may come as a surprise to most Massachusetts residents that a single telecommunications corporation — Verizon — has […]
Posted inUncategorized
Correspondence
Special ed story was a rehash of blame game After closely reviewing your cover story regarding special education in Massachusetts (“Spending Spiral,” CW, Spring ’09), I was dismayed to find […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
Towns seek more power to curb health care costs
The state of Massachusetts, facing a multibillion-dollar budget gap, plans to cut $86 million from its health insurance spending this fiscal year by unilaterally raising the percentage of premiums paid […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, State House News Service
Hub youth work to bring civics class back to public schools
It’s civic engagement at its finest. Like most students, Boston youth organizer Katherine Garcia, 16, had never designed a curriculum for a high school course. Roy Karp, executive director of […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Health Care, Politics
Boston health inspectors ease up on eatery grades
The city of Boston is doing away with failing grades for most of the restaurants that don’t measure up on health inspections. Thomas Goodfellow, assistant commissioner of the health division […]