Massachusetts ranks 20th among the 50 states on an index of laws relating to transparency, accountability, and limits in government, but its record was particularly bad on its public records […]
Mass. ranks 20th in transparency, 42d on public records
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Weld and Fried: New darlings of Massachusetts liberals
Yesterday’s separate endorsements of Barack Obama by former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld and Harvard Law School professor Charles Fried add to the growing roster of prominent Republicans who have jumped […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Finneran: I was playing a word game
By Colman M. Herman What do former House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran and former President Bill Clinton have in common? They both parsed their words under oath in a way […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Time to unite the Attleboros?
Sun Chronicle editor Mike Kirby suggested a merger earlier this week:In this era of regionalized government, isn’t a combined Attleboro-North Attleboro the way to go? Wouldn’t taxpayers save through economies […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Student loan debt rises faster than salaries for graduates
The average debt of students graduating from American colleges with loans was $20,098 in 2007, up 6 percent from the previous year’s class, according to a new report from the […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Taking stock: Starbucks or civic pride?
By Alison Lobron A recent MassINC research report on the attitudes of young adults indicated they love their employers but don’t have a lot of confidence in state government. This […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Worcester Polytech weighs heavier than Harvard
Following up on my earlier post on the financial burdens of college graduates, I should point out that the Project on Student Debt also has detailed data for individual colleges, […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
A survey of possible voting glitches, coast to coast
"What if we had an election and everyone came?” is the question posed by the Pew Center on the States/Electionline.org’s gargantuan Election 2008 Preview updating election administration issues — voting […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Finneran could resume legal work
Former House Speaker Thomas M. Finneran should be able to resume practicing law in January, according to a decision issued Monday by a three-member panel of the Massachusetts Board of […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
“Public records should be public”
But they’re often not. Or they’re prohibitively expensive, as CommonWealth magazine contributor Colman Herman explains in the Boston Globe today:The Public Records Law encourages officials to waive fees for fulfilling […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Massachusetts ranks 39th in government employees per capita
The Census Bureau today released its every-5-year tabulation of state and local government workers, and the Bay State is on the low end of the workforce scale. (The Census Bureau's […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
The Fix We’re In: Edward Glaeser on “the silver lining of bleak fiscal times”
With the stock market nosediving, credit lines freezing, retirement savings disappearing overnight, and the state budget on the chopping block, we are facing an economic peril as great as any […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
The Fix We’re In: Tamara Draut on “the deregulatory impulse”
With the stock market nosediving, credit lines freezing, retirement savings disappearing overnight, and the state budget on the chopping block, we are facing an economic peril as great as any […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Imagine who you can vote for…
A new Bay State website called Imagine Election lets you type in your address to see who will be appearing on your ballot on November 4, and then find out […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Voting made easy
INTRO TEXT The young man in a tattered baseball cap walked up to Sharon Adair’s table at the Ward 5 polling place near City Hall in Concord, New Hampshire. Daniel […]
Posted inPolitics
Paper tiger
INTRO TEXT A law designed to shine a bright light on the inner workings of state and local government in Massachusetts is instead leaving much of the bureaucracy in shadows, […]
Posted inPolitics
Divided loyalties
“So, what do you do?” My friend visiting from San Francisco stifled a laugh when she heard this familiar line at a cocktail party. She has a theory that Bostonians […]
Posted inBallot Questions, Economy, Opinion, Politics
The elimination of the states income tax is back on the ballot in November We present four distinct views on the question
Cut the waste and build the economy Why are 1.35 million Massachusetts voters already planning to vote yes on Question 1 to end the state income tax? Should you join […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion, Politics
Help wanted
the job of being the voice of consumers in government has been vacant for years in Massachusetts. Not since the ’80s and early ’90s have we had political figures who […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion, Politics
Working in the dark
states and cities in the US spend more than $50 billion a year in the name of economic development. But these subsidies to create and retain jobs, called everything from […]
Posted inPolitics
Correspondence
Fall 2008 Historical Commission also has secret side In “Preserving Power” (CW, Summer ’08), you raise questions about the lack of transparency in Secretary of State William Galvin’s awarding of […]
Posted inEducation
Cos for action
THE OCCASION WAS an NAACP dinner to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision outlawing school segregation, but Bill Cosby was in no mood to […]
Posted inEducation
Mentor program brings college option to low-income youths
INTRO TEXT Yan Zheng is the type of student who typically falls through the cracks in the state’s education system. She’s a hard worker and a bright student, but she […]
Posted inEconomy
Lawrence’s mill makeover gets a second start
INTRO TEXT Monarch on the Merrimack, a mill makeover once viewed as a potential linchpin to the revival of Lawrence, is trying to get back on track. The massive redevelopment […]