SALISBURY — On a brisk October weekday, the only deals going down on Broadway are at Christy’s, a small pizza stand. At 1 p.m., the lunchtime crowd consists of two […]
A condo boom forces Salisbury to grow up
Posted inEducation
Classroom cash
It takes a lot of dough for Massachusetts to be nothing special in terms of staffing its public schools, according to the country’s largest teachers’ union. The National Education Association […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
New threats have public safety agencies trying to get on the same wavelength
A savvy technology entrepreneur is always on the lookout for new opportunities, especially in a market as hot as security. So Vanu Bose was ready when the National Institute of […]
Posted inEducation
An education tour of China reveals great success alongside vast failure
You would think that traveling with a 2-year-old would be enough to discourage trips halfway around the world. But when Primary Source, a regional professional development group, invited us on […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Massachusetts is a global leader in innovation but not in civic matters
MASSACHUSETTS HAS BEEN long recognized as possessing unique capacities at producing innovations that have changed the nation and the world. Whether its residents are especially gifted or they take advantage […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
Wrong answer on school finances
In the first week of October, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments in the Hancock school finance case. The arguments addressed the opinion issued last April by Superior Court […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
The state still doesnt provide equal education
June 15, 1993: an important day for education in Massachusetts. On that day, the Supreme Judicial Court issued its decision in McDuffy v. Secretary of Education and defined the Commonwealth’s […]
Posted inEducation
The Hancock Case: Remedy lies in new goals new strategies
We are really just beginning to understand that schools are indeed our most important social institutions. And only recently have we faced up to the reality that, rather than being […]
Posted inUncategorized
Letters
After reading the article “Being Ron Preston” (Health Care Extra 2004), I was appalled to realize how little the cabinet secretary charged with protecting the health of the Commonwealth understands […]
Posted inPolitics
Gallup’s top pollster says that our leaders dont pay enough attention to the wisdom of the people
In the home stretch of a hotly contested presidential campaign, it seems hard to imagine that public opinion is not getting sufficient attention. After all, hardly a day goes by […]
Posted inEconomy
Romney downplays job turnover and jousts with legislators over economic development
INTRO TEXT Mitt Romney swept into office with a vow to put his business know-how to work for the Massachusetts economy. Nearly two years after his arrival, however, employment growth […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Politics
Municipal governments use college internships to snag future employees
INTRO TEXT In 2002, Michael Young was still a Midwesterner, earning his master’s degree in public administration at the University of Kansas. But in order to graduate, he needed to […]
Posted inPolitics
Democrats and Republicans try to set the bar for this fall’s legislative elections
INTRO TEXT It has been billed as the biggest challenge to Democratic dominance on Beacon Hill in more than a decade. But after rolling out a field of 131 Republican […]
Posted inPolitics
Whither Worcester
If and when Worcester converts its municipal government from city manager to “strong mayor” rule—a change some hope will take place as early as next year—it will be easy to […]
Posted inPolitics
The connectors
WHEN 250 CHILDREN joined together to sing at the dedication of the Leonard P. Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge two years ago, it marked the first performance of what would go […]
Posted inPolitics
Half the battle
Some 50 percent of all Massachusetts voters will get to choose between Democratic and Republican candidates for state representative this fall, thanks to the “Team Reform” slate of GOP contenders […]
Posted inPolitics
Fox25 stakes a lonely claim on Beacon Hill
An ink-stained wretch no more, Joe Battenfeld wears a white T-shirt and dress pants as he walks through the Boston Common and up Beacon Street, carrying a camera-friendly suit jacket […]
Posted inPolitics
Field of battle
For the first time in more than a decade, voters in most Massachusetts communities will see a Republican candidate for state representative on their ballots this fall. (Also see State […]
Posted inEconomy
Split-level personality
In 1980, Republican presidential nominee Ronald Reagan, running against Democratic incumbent Jimmy Carter, asked voters, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” Note that he said “you,” […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
A new book of essays celebrates Boston without glossing over the citys weaknesses
The Good City: Writers Explore 21st-Century Boston Edited by Emily Hiestand and Ande Zellman Boston, Beacon Press, 175 pages. July’s Democratic National Convention did not, as it turned out, produce […]
Posted inPolitics
Republican congressional candidates try to get noticed by Bay State voters-and by their own party
Ken Chase is running for Congress, he says, to give voters a choice.”Fundamentally, there is a corruption of the process at the congressional level,” says the Medford native, who graduated […]
Posted inPolitics
Leverett still measures its campaign seasons in minutes not months
LEVERETT—It’s the only municipality in the US named Leverett, and residents of this small Massachusetts town like to think it’s unique. Leverett was one of the first places in the […]
Posted inUncategorized
Statistically Significant
Illustrations by Travis Foster Getting our Irish upHere’s another way in which Massachusetts is different from the rest of the nation. The US Census Bureau reported this summer that German […]
Posted inPolitics
All about the “other” other JFK
Multiple JFKs and other name games in Massachusetts politics When the Democrats convene in Boston’s FleetCenter to nominate US Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts for the presidency, the name […]