It’s hour two of the Wilfredo Laboy Telethon, and Jim Braude and Margery Eagan have managed to raise only $37. But since the telephone lines are lit up—with callers ready […]
Former political activist Jim Braude wins converts as a broadcast news star
Posted inUncategorized
Past their prime
According to 2003 estimates from the Census Bureau, 126 of the state’s 351 communities (shaded on the larger map below) are now short of their population peaks. In some cases, […]
Posted inPolitics
Brave new world
The spate of sales of large local companies to out-of-state owners has been the topic of water cooler conversation for months now. Recent acquisitions of three prominent Boston-based companies are […]
Posted inPolitics
The feds demand more progress on state welfare reform
In 1995, Massachusetts was ahead of the welfare-reform curve, adopting guidelines aimed at moving welfare recipients from public dole to employment payroll a year before federal legislation was passed to […]
Posted inPolitics
Was the political deck stacked against a new library in Framingham
FRAMINGHAM—Route 9 slices the state’s biggest town almost perfectly in two, and the two halves have come to resemble each other less and less. If you live on the north […]
Posted inPolitics
Legislative careers and friendships begin in the curious Beacon Hill tradition known as the freshman bullpen
Legislative careers and friendships begin in the freshman bullpen The first day as a state representative in Massachusetts is memorable. Freshmen are surrounded by family and friends in the House […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
Can Boston survive without the Curse of the Bambino
Can Boston survive without feeling star-crossed? It’s time to find a new curse. The Bambino certainly held up his end of the deal. As curses go, the Babe’s was a […]
Posted inUncategorized
Letters
I read your article in The Boston Globe (Robert Keough, “The School Financing Conundrum,” Ideas, October 3, 2004) this morning, and reviewed the articles you cite from the fall issue […]
Posted inEducation
Author Peter Schrag talks about the Hancock case and the slippery concept of adequacy in education
As of this writing, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court has yet to hand down a ruling in Hancock v. Driscoll, the latest round of educational-equity litigation that has been on […]
Posted inPolitics
Bostons Villa Victoria shows that civic participation is hard to sustain in the best of circumstances
For poor rural Latin Americans with little education and almost no marketable skills, immigration to an American city with a dwindling manufacturing sector is rarely a recipe for success. Even […]
Posted inHealth Care
Counterpoints
Dear Gov. Romney: First of all, thank you. Your willingness to confront the dual crises of health access and affordability has enhanced prospects for reform. We may now be on […]
Posted inHealth Care
Argument
The stars and moon may be aligning, making this the year to fix health care. Employers and employees are finally balking at the high and rising cost of health insurance. […]
Posted inEducation
MCAS hasnt erased the need for remedial classes in community colleges
INTRO TEXT More than a decade after the Education Reform Act, and two years since passing MCAS became a graduation requirement for high school students, few of the grim prophecies […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
Harvard students help Somerville revamp its budgeting process
INTRO TEXT It was an unlikely scene last fall, as 60 students from a graduate course on budgeting at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government descended on Somerville City […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Economy
Civilian firefighters battle for benefits
INTRO TEXT In the day that 31-year-old Martin McNamara died in the basement of a Lancaster apartment blaze, few people on Beacon Hill gave much thought to what happens to […]
Posted inPolitics
A walk through four centuries of Boston politics
SADLY BOSTON’S DUCK Tours do not pass what former House speaker Thomas Finneran is said to have called “the best goddam bar in the world.” To find such landmarks, it […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
The courage of their convictions
Eight years ago, Donnell Johnson’s fate seemed to be sealed. He was convicted for the Halloween 1994 murder of a 9-year-old boy, then the youngest shooting victim in the history […]
Posted inPolitics
Meeting him halfway
Recently, as I contemplated Massachusetts politics, my mind turned to physics. Since science was never my strong suit, this is by no means a common occurrence. But it crossed my […]
Posted inPolitics
Great expectations
Just over two years ago, soon after he secured the votes to become the new president of the Massachusetts state Senate, Robert Travaglini began talking to colleagues about what roles […]
Posted inEconomy, Transportation
Driven To Distraction
When Cheryl Travis, an account supervisor at Weber Shandwick, a public relations and marketing firm in Cambridge, moved from Winchester to Charlestown two years ago, there was one cost that […]
Posted inEconomy
Two and a half decades of Prop. 2 1/2
Souce: Massachusetts Municipal Association (www.mma.org); state Department of Revenue, Division of Local Services (www.dls.state.ma.us)This year marks the silver anniversary of Proposition 2½, the property tax cap passed by voters in […]
Posted inUncategorized
Connecting the dots
Every once in a while, I come across people who know about CommonWealth, but have no idea it is published by MassINC. Others know full well that CommonWealth is a […]
Posted inPolitics
Sarahs Long Walk chronicles the first fight for school integration in Boston more than 150 years ago
Sarah’s Long Walk: The Free Blacks of Boston and How Their Struggle for Equality Changed America By Stephen Kendrick & Paul Kendrick Boston, Beacon Press, 291 pages. In 1850, 46 […]
Posted inUncategorized
Statistically Significant
Illustrations by Travis Foster WOMEN IN THE OFFICE, MEN IN THE CLASSROOM According to the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Massachusetts ranks second in the percentage of employed women who […]