This week on The Codcast, Jonathan Wynn of UMass Amherst and Dan Skinner of Ohio University join CommonWealth Beacon’s Jennifer Smith to discuss their book, The City and the Hospital, about the mixed effects nonprofit hospitals have on the neighborhoods they operate in, and how they do and don’t fulfill their community obligations.
What hospitals owe their neighborhoods
Posted inEnergy
New Bedford mayor’s take on offshore wind bids
Mitchell likes the fact that the three offshore wind developers vying for business in Massachusetts have either stated publicly or told him privately that they want to use the port of New Bedford as an operations and maintenance base. The mayor says operations and maintenance work is attractive because it involves a good number of jobs for the entire life of the project, typically 20 to 25 years.
Posted inOpinion
Starter homes begin with starter lots
Starter homes have become virtually impossible to build in Massachusetts, but we can change that by changing zoning rules governing lots sizes.
Posted inEnergy
Commission pushes speedier approval process for clean energy infrastructure
The tone of the report is balanced, but the recommendations would concentrate more power in the hands of the state’s Energy Facilities Siting Board.
Posted inPolitics
Quincy’s Ian Cain forms campaign committee to challenge Elizabeth Warren
Ian Cain, the Quincy City Council president and a newly registered Republican, formed a campaign committee to take on US Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Posted inHealth Care
When hospitals make bad neighbors
“The big flashy hospitals that everybody thinks about when we think about the largess of American health care – and they have incredible accomplishments happening inside their walls – one of the things we notice is that not only does it not translate to local communities, but hospitals actually turn out to be pretty poor neighbors a lot of the time and actually have negative effects,” said Jonathan Wynn, chair and professor of sociology at UMass Amherst.
Posted inOpinion
Surprise — not enough skilled workers to fill AI jobs
According to the IBM Global AI Adoption Index 2023, conducted by Morning Consult on behalf of IBM, the top barrier hindering successful AI adoption at enterprises exploring or deploying the technology is “limited AI skills and expertise.”
Posted inHealth Care
Boston nursing home prepares to shut down
The Benjamin’s financial woes are part of an industry trend, but the nursing home also has had its own unique problems, some of them self-inflicted it would appear.
Posted inOpinion
State needs to get tougher with hospitals, pharma
With over 30 state reports that identify consistently that provider prices and drug costs drive health care spending, the Center for Health Information and Analysis findings make it clear that hospitals and pharmaceutical companies must do their part to rein in their costs and must have accountability like the regulations on health plans.
Posted inOpinion
Unions key in ramp up to the next industrial revolution
As the presidents of the labor union federations in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island, we have communicated the importance of a worker-centered approach to building out offshore wind in discussions with state officials and offshore wind developers.
Posted inOpinion
Preserve choice, retain competitive electricity suppliers
Despite the persistent claims from some regulators and consumer advocates that consumers are filing an excessive number of complaints against competitive retail suppliers, the data released by these same groups do not add up.
Posted inHousing
Political Notebook: MBTA panel clash | A fare deal | Call him Charlie
Tension over the MBTA Communities Law was on display Wednesday night at a CommonWealth Beacon panel in Quincy as a state legislator who voted for the law – and feels it did not go far enough – clashed with a city council president who expressed reservations with the top-down nature of the state telling cities and towns what to do.
Posted inGuns
Rare public conference committee closes its doors
Sen. Joan Lovely of Salem, a member of the conference committee, said her family was stalked after her prior participation on a committee dealing with gun regulations and that person has resurfaced.
Posted inOpinion
Mass. wheelchair repair system is a disgrace
AS WHEELCHAIR USERS, we understand that our chairs are much more than just vehicles to get us from point A to point B. They are a lifeline and a connection […]
Posted inGambling
Coalition launches to tackle scourge of youth sports betting
IN ATTORNEY GENERAL Andrea Campbell’s view, sports betting is not only a potentially hazardous vice in and of itself, but also a gateway to other addictive behavior – especially if […]
Posted inTransportation
MBTA board approves low-income fare
The amendment by Tibbits-Nutt was unusual in that she publicly overruled T staff, who had argued against including premium service in the discount, and did so without any debate over the extra cost.
Posted inTransportation
MBTA hits ‘reset’ on deal with subway car manufacturer
The MBTA board voted on Thursday to waive $90.6 million in penalties and possibly nearly $40 million more if the cars are delivered on the new timetable. The T also agreed to pay CRRC, the world’s largest rail car manufacturer, $148 million to cover unexpected cost increases brought about by the pandemic and hefty tariffs on the cars imposed by the US government.
Posted inTechnology
Taking shots at tech CEOs from Facebook’s birthplace
JUST A FEW BLOCKS from the dorm room where Mark Zuckerberg launched the first version of what would become Facebook, Gov. Maura Healey and tech journalist Kara Swisher got some […]
Posted inEnergy
New England’s last coal-fired power plant to close
Granite Shore Power said it reached an agreement with the US Environmental Protection Agency to close Merrimack Station in Bow, New Hampshire, as well as Schiller Station in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and transform them into what the company called “renewable energy parks.”
Posted inHousing
Milton says Campbell overstepping on MBTA Communities Act
In a filing with the SJC, Milton argues that it should not have to take any further action because the law’s guidelines were not promulgated properly and, even if that issue was rectified, the Legislature didn’t grant the attorney general the power to enforce the law.