LOCAL GROWERS COMPETE IN COLLEGE CAFETERIAS It used to be a source of frustration in small towns in western and central Massachusetts that the contract for school milk would go […]
What works
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
Your town, USA
walk into a bookstore almost anywhere in America and you’ll find a shelf full of thin paperback books with distinctive sepia-toned covers. Light on text, heavy on photos, numbingly similar […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
Out of favor
in 2007, massachusetts Insurance Commissioner Nonnie S. Burnes announced the end of the auto insurance regulatory regime that had been in place for decades. Burnes proclaimed that the time had […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion, Politics
Beyond the box
government often uses task forces and special commissions in a somewhat dubious fashion — either as a graveyard for an initiative by burying it in endless analysis, or as a […]
Posted inPolitics
Correspondence
CASINO PLAN IGNORES THE COSTS OF ADDICTION It was a breath of fresh media air to read Phil Primack’s article “Playing the Numbers” (CW, Winter ’08), which provides evidence that […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
Marathon man
Bill Brett at a book signing at Fenway Park.Photo by Michael Manning. Few people know Boston and Bostonians as well as Bill Brett. He’s been taking photos for The Boston […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Point of reckoning
the massachusetts state budget has reached a point of reckoning. First and foremost, a stubborn — and insufficiently appreciated — structural imbalance approaching $1 billion threatens the state’s ability to […]
Posted inPolitics
Red Sox call their own play to control ticket scalping
INTRO TEXT The state’s antiscalping law is in tatters. No one enforces it, resellers ignore it, and now the Boston Red Sox are giving up on it. The Red Sox […]
Posted inPolitics
Murray uses IG as ombudsman for Phoenix story
INTRO TEXT When the Boston Phoenix reported last year that state Sen. Therese Murray steered $11 million in state money to a crony who failed to deliver on his assignment […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
Not everyone on the South Coast is getting into training
INTRO TEXT South Coast rail, the plan to extend passenger train service from Boston to New Bedford and Fall River, promises to stir up more grass-roots activism than the Patrick […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Patrick finds his footing in his second year on the Hill
INTRO TEXT Assessments of Gov. Deval Patrick’s first year in office were all pretty similar: He was, by his own admission, a political “amateur,” and one taking his bumps and […]
Posted inPolitics
State worker, 82, finally calls it quits
INTRO TEXT Donald Falvey, who is 82, retired from his $97,000-a-year job as deputy director of the Division of Standards at the end of January. Falvey worked in state and […]
Posted inEconomy
Subsidizing the stars
UPDATE: Since the spring issue of CommonWealth went to press, the Massachusetts Revenue Department released a report indicating the financial impact of the state’s film tax credit could be substantial. […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
News from a new generation
Walter Robinson, who won a Pulitzer Prizeat the Globe, heads the investigativereporting program at Northeastern University.A decade is a long time. But advocates for senior citizens have been trying to […]
Posted inPolitics
Betting on the House
If Gov. Deval Patrick represents the new face of liberalism in the Massachusetts Democratic Party, 14-term Congressman Barney Frank is the unabashed older version. But both men believe that government […]
Posted inTransportation
Statistically Significant
BUSES TAKE A HEAVY TOLL ON THE T Passenger fares accounted for only 29 percent of operating expenses on the MBTA during 2006, according to new data from the Federal […]
Posted inPolitics
Needs improvement
Here’s one report card that Massachusetts might want to hide: Governing magazine and the Pew Center on the States gave the state a “C” in their Grading the States report, […]
Posted inPolitics
Your blog of blogs
Illustration by Nick Galifianakis HERE’S WHAT Adam Gaffin finds frustrating. He’s in his car, heading for a meeting in Framingham, where he works in tech publishing. He’s got the radio […]
Posted inEconomy
Job seekers
UPDATE: The Bay State’s unemployment rate over the 2009 calendar year was 8.4 percent, far above the 4.5 percent that we found worrying in 2007. See the map below for […]
Posted inUncategorized
Editors Note
Sometimes you get lucky. I bumped into photographer Bill Brett walking through Downtown Crossing in January. He told me about his latest book project, which led to an interesting conversation […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Politics, State House News Service
A shot seen round the world
every era has its touchstone photograph. The Marines hoisting the American flag on Iwo Jima telegraphs the hard-fought triumphs of World War II. The New York City firemen raising the […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
Easy street
zero tolerance is always a favorite concept in American politics, and publicity-hungry politicians are still finding plenty of things they want to ban: transfats, people without health insurance, violent video […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Don’t make these voters angry
I’m working on some charts and maps showing which counties have a consistent bias for or against the incumbent party in presidential elections, which may take a little while. As […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Does it even matter who the Democrats nominate?
John Judis has a New Republic piece warning that Barack Obama will have a very tough time winning the "white working class vote" in November:Obama comes from a modest background […]