We wanted to launch this blog in time to cover the 2008 presidential primaries, but we can’t guarantee that those primaries will be at all exciting. Things on the Republican […]
Obama’s geography lesson
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
On the value of national polls before the Iowa caucuses
There is a school of thought that national polls don’t matter when it comes to presidential nominations, and that upsets in the early contests of Iowa and New Hampshire can […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
America’s 10 political regions redefined
UPDATE: November 2008 results. Also see my pre-election preview in America magazine. UPDATE: See charts on the voting history of each of the regions from 1948 through 2004 here. There […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
America’s 10 political regions redefined
UPDATE: November 2008 results. Also see my pre-election preview in America magazine. UPDATE: See charts on the voting history of each of the regions from 1948 through 2004 here. There […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
Made in Massachusetts
nowadays we expect to see actors, athletes, and other celebrities used to sell products. Things were much different a century ago, when goods got their props from doe-eyed, rosy-cheeked boys […]
Posted inEconomy, Education
AN OPPORTUNE TIME FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGES
Once I got past the inflammatory cover headline (“College Try: Why Aren’t Mass. Community Colleges Making the Grade?” CW, Spring ’07), I was glad to see CommonWealth present such a […]
Posted inEducation
MCAS is a national model for accountability
the anti-mcas activists may not want to hear this, but the MCAS graduation requirement is here to stay. The data does not lie: Our children are learning more, achieving more, […]
Posted inEducation
Ed reform must move beyond MCAS
the education reform Act of 1993 established curriculum frameworks for our public schools and mandated a way “to measure outcomes and results regarding student performance, and to improve the effectiveness […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
Falling membership doesn’t affect PTA’s political clout
INTRO TEXT gov. deval patrick’s selection of Ruth Kaplan, a Brookline School Committee member and longtime MCAS critic, as his first pick for a seat on the Massachusetts Board of […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service
Study says CPA steers money to wealthy towns
INTRO TEXT when the community Preservation Act emerged from a tortuous legislative process to become law in 2000, state officials heralded it as the most significant land-use bill passed in […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Closed meetings carry a cost
INTRO TEXT Municipal officials could be in for a rude—and costly—awakening if they don’t follow the letter of the law. The Open Meeting Law, that is. Under bills now pending […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Still working on the railroad: funding fuzzy for South Coast rail
INTRO TEXT “it’s easy to say, ‘Give me this, give me that,’” said Rep. Joseph Wagner, the Chicopee Democrat who co-chairs the Joint Committee on Transportation, during testimony on a […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Thinking big
Ansin has made mill redevelopmenthis passion—and the revival ofstruggling Bay State cities itshoped-for byproduct.if the walls of the Wood Worsted Mill in Lawrence could talk, they would tell the stories […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service
Saline solution
Illustration by Greg Morgana small group of Hull residents have roused themselves early on a Saturday morning for a presentation at the local senior center on the feasibility of getting […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
Cost unconscious
On a Wednesday afternoon in late April, I went to the John W. McCormack state office building, a pillar of bureaucracy a half-block east of the State House, and found […]
Posted inEconomy
Not-so-prime spots
UPDATE: For more recent foreclosure data, go to the Head Count in our Winter 2009 issue.home foreclosures in Massachusetts continued to climb this spring—up 40 percent in May compared with […]
Posted inUncategorized
Letter of introduction
Photograph by Russ Campbellon behalf of the MassINC board of directors, we are delighted to introduce readers to Gregory Torres, the new president of MassINC and publisher of CommonWealth magazine.Greg […]
Posted inPolitics
Dispatches
Pay up—and shut up? Under one school of thought, second-homeowners are a major asset to the Massachusetts economy. They pay property taxes, constantly renovate those second homes, and buy up […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Environment
Squeaky wheels
the specter of little toothpicks twirling on the horizon of Nantucket Sound is causing fits among the political elites who make summer a verb on Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, and […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
Simple pleasures
buildings matter. They temper our mood, refract our ambitions and sensibilities. At their best, they might inspire us to behave better. “We want [buildings] to shelter us,” says essayist Alain […]
Posted inEconomy
Tax and mend
asked why he’s taken a lead role in the bid by House Democrats this year to enact an overhaul of the little-known alternative minimum tax, U.S. Rep. Richard Neal of […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
On second thought
UPDATE: Kingston’s Place turned out to be far from a done deal. The developer pulled the plug on the project in 2010.kingston — Residential growth, smart or otherwise, is rarely […]
Posted inHealth Care
Statistically Significant
Illustrations by Travis Foster Maybe it’s a subliminal reminder to do well in school, but girls’ names ending in “a” are all the rage in Massachusetts. According to the Social […]