Economist Paul Harrington has lots of data about manufacturing employment in Massachusetts, and all of it is ugly. In 1984, about 670,000 people were employed in making things, or about […]
Blue collar blues
Posted inPolitics
Rhode Island’s secretary of state takes an expanded view of civics
One early November morning last year, when the rest of their Woonsocket High schoolmates were sleeping late or otherwise enjoying a cherished day off for teacher conferences, 17 students from […]
Posted inUncategorized
Without a hitch
Unmarried couples remain a relative rarity in Massachusetts, according to the 2000 US Census. Of the 1.33 million households headed by self-described couples, only 130,919 are headed by unmarried partners. […]
Posted inPolitics
A Boston Globe summer series was narrative journalism at its best
Editor’s note: This article has been updated since the print (and pdf) version went to press.When the Pulitzer Prizes were announced April 5, the folks on Morrissey Boulevard had reason […]
Posted inEducation
A hard look at education accountability in the wake of No Child Left Behind
No Child Left Behind? The Politics and Practice of School AccountabilityPaul E. Peterson and Martin R. West, editorsWashington, DC, Brookings Institution Press, 340 pages. In January 2002, President Bush signed […]
Posted inEconomy
Robert Greenstein and the Center on Budget get hawkish on the federal deficit
Earlier this year, when President Bush proposed his budget for fiscal 2005, it surprised no one that the administration’s spending plan was denounced by the Center on Budget and Policy […]
Posted inPolitics
Devens inches closer to becoming the states newest municipality
DEVENS–Leslie Doolittle and Eric Edwards loved their townhouse the day they moved there in May 2002, but within a year they were ready for something bigger. They looked no further […]
Posted inUncategorized
New inductees for the state’s endangered species list, carefree men and worried women, a treasure trove of data from the Pioneer Valley, New York Citys complaint hotline, Bostons enthusiasm for the arts, Amazon’s nailing of local reading habits
Swan song for the twilight moth?State wildlife officials are singing the blues over the Twilight Moth, believed to be near extinction in Massachusetts. They’re proposing to add the moth, last […]
Posted inUncategorized
The Bay States march up the State of Caring Index
Massachusetts became a kinder and gentler state during the 1990s, at least according to the United Way of America’s State of Caring Index, which was updated last December and includes […]
Posted inPolitics
State of the State speeches accentuate the positive
A State of the State address is no time for bad news, unless it’s your first year as governor and you have predecessors to blame. “This is a government with […]
Posted inPolitics
School-kids steamroll pols on Beacon Hill
Do you think we need an official state color? If certain Bay State schoolkids named Amber, Ashley, Brittany, and Brianna have their way, it won’t be long before we have […]
Posted inEconomy, Health Care, Opinion, Politics
Rising medical costs could upend state government
Read responses to this article When we speak of balance in government, the typical reference is either to the intricate separation of powers inherent in our constitutional democracy, or to […]
Posted inUncategorized
Letters
I have read the Conversation with bankruptcy expert Elizabeth Warren in the recent issue of CommonWealth magazine (“Doubling Down,” Fall 2003). In short, let me say it was fantastic. It […]
Posted inEconomy, Health Care
Economist David Cutler says increased life expectancy comes at a price and we havent figured out how many more years we want to pay for
Harvard economist David M. Cutler’s new book, his first, has a catchy, if somewhat threatening, title: Your Money or Your Life. The subtitle promises “strong medicine for America’s health care […]
Posted inPolitics
Let towns have more power and regional planning may follow
In Massachusetts, the birthplace of town meeting, no civic value is more sacred than the idea of home rule. By the term “home rule,” people generally mean the right of […]
Posted inHealth Care
Counterpoint
In recent months, a growing number of public officials here in the Commonwealth and across the country have proposed schemes for city and state governments to import prescription drugs from […]
Posted inHealth Care
Argument
Can we talk honestly for a minute? Prescription drug prices are exorbitant. Drug companies defend their high prices–in particular, for the brand-name drugs they advertise incessantly on our televisions –by […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Tim Cahill targets pols pensions
INTRO TEXT Nobody likes getting fired. Well, almost nobody. For long-time state workers, getting the heave-ho or having their position eliminated can be a pension bonanza under a controversial provision […]
Posted inEconomy
The state considers carrots for smart growth
With Massachusetts home prices continuing to soar, the housing crisis has begun to sound like the old Mark Twain saw about the weather: Everybody talks about it, but nobody does […]
Posted inPolitics
David Bartley takes some parting shots
INTRO TEXT David Bartley is rarely at a loss for words, and this cool autumn afternoon is no exception, as he spins tales from a lifetime of public service and […]
Posted inEconomy
Commonwealth Forum ponders middle-class debt crisis
MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN about federal and state governments spending beyond their means, but many middle-class American households are also awash in red ink. At the Commonwealth Forum “Going for Broke: […]
Posted inPolitics
Popping the Question
One almost certain consequence of Goodridge, et al v. Department of Public Health, the decision by the Supreme Judicial Court last November to allow gay marriage, will be an increase […]
Posted inEconomy
Moving In-or Moving On?
TENY GROSS has never felt better about his work with urban youth. As executive director of the two-year-old Institute for the Study and Practice of Nonviolence, Gross is building on […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Down but not out
SPRINGFIELD, THE STATE’S third largest city and the metropolitan anchor of western Massachusetts, is in the soup. To say it is on the brink of disaster might be going too […]