We’ve seen a dramatic loss of sponsorship support. In the digital age, almost all that money now goes to the big platforms — like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Spotify. This is bad news for the news business and has created big gaps that can’t easily be filled. In the last five years, our annual on-air sponsorship income (underwriting) has dropped by more than 40 percent — nearly $7 million.
WBUR, once flush, is warning of tight times ahead
Posted inCriminal Justice
Controversial gang database credited in big federal bust
The Boston Police Department’s controversial gang database has faced widespread criticism for improperly profiling young Black and Hispanic males, but Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox said it played a crucial role in the recent federal bust of more than 40 people allegedly connected to a violent street gang.
Posted inOpinion
Sunshine Week casts light on Beacon Hill’s democratic decline
During this Sunshine Week, when good governance advocates highlight the importance of public records and government transparency, there just might be a break in the usual clouds hanging over Beacon Hill.
Posted inHousing
Emergency shelter system morphing into something new
Gov. Maura Healey placed a cap on shelter families. Now the House is proposing time limits on stays in the shelter system.
Posted inEnergy
Solar changing the way the power grid works
For decades, demand for power from the grid has grown during the afternoon and early evening and then tapered off overnight as people go to sleep. But increasingly, on more and more days, demand for power from the grid is higher at night than it is during the day.
Posted inOpinion
Community colleges are not Harvard — and that’s a good thing
Even traditional liberals are beginning to wonder whether progressive ideology, or “wokeness,” on college campuses has gone too far, and become its own form of discrimination and free speech suppression.
Posted inEducation
A grilling for those looking to scrap MCAS graduation test
Two decades after the state began requiring students to pass the 10th grade MCAS exam to graduate from high school, the well-formed battle lines pitting supporters against opponents of the high-stakes test show little sign of fraying, with the prospects of a high-profile ballot showdown now looming over the debate.
Posted inEnergy
National Grid says Biden-backed transmission line ‘not viable’
The Twin States Clean Energy Link was considered a novel transmission line because it sought to transmit electricity in both directions – energy going from New England to Quebec when the region had a surplus and electricity flowing to New England when Quebec had a surplus.
Posted inTransportation
Eng says MBTA ridership will bounce back as service improves
Eng is focused on service improvement, aggressively ramping up hiring and moving to eliminate slow zones on all of the subway lines by the end of this year.
Posted inThe Codcast
Eng predicts MBTA ridership will bounce back after service improves
This week on The Codcast, MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng talks to CommonWealth Beacon’s Bruce Mohl about his first year running the T, why he’s optimistic about bringing riders back, and where things stand with train car manufacturer CRRC.
Posted inState Government
Lawmakers trying something new with ballot questions
House Speaker Ronald Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka announced the new approach at the end of January and the first hearing – on a question seeking to abolish the MCAS graduation requirement – is scheduled for Monday.
Posted inOpinion
Mass. on wrong track with child protection policy
In 2021, Massachusetts took children from their families at a rate 70 percent above the national average, when rates of child poverty are factored in.
Posted inPolitics
The bomb-tossing bean counter
Not even halfway through her first term as auditor, Diana DiZoglio has essentially returned to the campaign trail. She is lobbying voters, and emptying her own campaign coffers, to support an initiative she wants to put before voters this November.
Posted inOpinion
High electricity rates undermine heat pump expansion
What will it take to change course? Building more transmission from affordable Canadian hydropower in Quebec? Streamlining permitting for offshore wind? Permit reform for transmission? I’m all for any of those.
Posted inOpinion
One of our major climate challenges is our own trash
Calling incinerators “waste combustors” doesn’t change the fact that they are a major health hazard to local communities, emitting toxic air pollutants like particulate matter and heavy metals which are linked to a variety of health problems including asthma, heart disease, and high blood pressure.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook
WHEN STEVE LYNCH paints congressional Republicans as an extremist band of ideologues detached from reality it carries a bit more weight. The one-time Southie ironworker is nobody’s idea of a […]
Posted inEnergy
Brayton Point offshore wind plant hits snag
Prysmian Group, which is seeking to build a $300 million subsea cable manufacturing plant at Brayton Point, did not respond to a request for comment. But Jamison Souza, the chair of the town’s Select Board, angrily condemned the filing and the “false statements” it contains.
Posted inEnergy
Offshore wind power prices take big leap
A press release issued by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul indicated the average cost of the two contracts in New York is $150.15 per megawatt hour. The press release said the price “is on-par with the latest market prices,” but it’s a sticker-shock leap from the $76.73-per-megawatt-hour price that Massachusetts negotiated with Avangrid in March 2023.
Posted inOpinion
Walkable, denser development can address both housing and traffic woes
Part of the solution to our existential housing and transportation crises is building more homes, of all types, in and around walkable neighborhoods.
Posted inState Government
House looks poised to punt again on sex ed bill
Proponents have expressed mystification, and frustration, about the House’s continued resistance to the bill. Former Senate president Harriette Chandler, who supported the bill during her time in office, repeatedly called the long delay “a disgrace” last month on a local cable show she hosts while talking with bill sponsor Rep. Jim O’Day.