By Robert Keough Political campaigns have their rituals, one of which is a round of meetings with newspaper editorial boards. Before the summer is out, the various candidates for governor […]
In their opinion
Posted inEducation
What community colleges could learn from the nations best
Across the country, community colleges are the fastest growing segment of public higher education. Close to half of all collegegoers now start their freshman year at a community college. In […]
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Counterpoint
The legendary journalist H.L. Mencken once said, “For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong.” If Mencken were alive and writing today, he could […]
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Argument
State housing policy in Massachusetts is a failure, not only for those individuals and families seeking affordable housing, but for the communities of the Commonwealth as well. What is needed […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
State of the marital union
INTRO TEXT “Politics and marriage don’t really mix,” said Boston College political science professor Alan Wolfe at the June 18 Commonwealth Forum on “The State of the Union: Understanding Marriage […]
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Prop 2 12 at 20
INTRO TEXT More than a few heads turned this spring when two different state representatives floated the idea of doing away with or amending Proposition 2 1/2, the state’s landmark […]
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GOP cyberkibitzer
INTRO TEXT Last fall, lots of Bay State Republicans were quietly fretting over acting Gov. Jane Swift’s sinking poll numbers, but only one posted his impolitic assessment of his party’s […]
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Crime labs morbid state
INTRO TEXT There is a rapist on the loose somewhere on the Cape, and Michael O’Keefe, first assistant district attorney for Cape Cod and the islands, says he’s pretty sure […]
Posted inPolitics
Mapping Massachusetts Politics
Just as the candidates will tell you, there’s a clear choice to be made in this year’s gubernatorial election, but it’s not about them. Mitt Romney and the Democratic nominee […]
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Converting to Modernity
The series of events that began with the conviction of John Geoghan in Boston on charges of sexual abuse–along with the revelations that the Boston archdiocese had known about his […]
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Does job training work
The Job Training CharadeBy Gordon LaferCornell University Press, Ithaca, 320 pages Even after a long economic boom, the United States continues to have many adults trapped in an unacceptably large […]
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Plymouth rejects cityhood but still debates governance
In its place of origin, town meetinglives to fight another day PLYMOUTH–When the town of Plymouth voted in May to preserve its town-meeting form of government, it was a victory […]
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Campaign Contributions
Already the most reliably Democratic state in national politics, Massachusetts puts its money where its mouth is. The Commonwealth is a cash cow for the national Democratic Party, but it’s […]
Posted inPolitics
Uncovering thirdparty candidates
Carla Howell has been avoiding me. For the past several weeks I’ve been trying to interview her, only to be told by her staff that she was too busy to […]
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Whats the big idea
By any measure, the gubernatorial race of 2002 is shaping up as a watershed election. It could mark the end of the Weld-Cellucci-Swift era, a remarkable 12-year reign for the […]
Posted inPolitics
Tales of Massachusetts politics
Massachusetts Politics and Public Policy: Studies in Power and LeadershipBy Richard A. HogartyUniversity of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 356 pages In Massachusetts Politics and Public Policy: Studies in Power and Leadership, […]
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North Adamss romance with the wrecking ball
“Tear it down, and they will come.” That could have been the rallying cry for the urban-renewal program that bulldozed 12 acres of the city of North Adams starting in […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
Keeping the faithful
If there ever was a separation of church and state in the newsroom–a certain kid-gloves treatment of churchly foibles–the raging controversy over clergy sexual abuse in the Boston Archdiocese has […]
Posted inPolitics
Stephen Goldsmith talks about government innovation and fiscal crisis
According to the old adage, necessity is the mother of invention. But you’d never know it, looking at the way state governments, including our own, are reacting to their current […]
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Public authorities have always been torn between loyalty and autonomy
On September 11, two airplanes that took off from Logan Airport brought down the World Trade Center and our nation’s sense of security. In Massachusetts, the events of that day […]
Posted inOpinion
Counterpoint
Rep. Thomas O’Brien claims his charter school bill is being put forward primarily for fiscal reasons, in the belief that a moratorium on the granting of new charters will somehow […]
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Argument
I would like to believe that someone who just lost his job would not build a new house or buy a new car. It seems like common sense. Why undertake […]
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The states real pension liabilities a iCommonWealthi investigation
INTRO TEXT Cases involving several top state officials who recently tapped an obscure state law to gain generous early retirement packages by claiming to have been fired turn out to […]
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How the iEaglei editor flew the coop
INTRO TEXT When Steve Lambert swooped into Lawrence as editor of The Eagle-Tribune, the mild-mannered newsman made some big moves to change the tenor and focus of the scrappy daily, […]