As Massachusetts’ famous cranberry industry consolidates and some of the cranberry bogs fade out of use, famers, governments, and conservationists are increasingly eager to start “re-wilding” them to natural rivers and wetlands.
‘Re-wilding’ Massachusetts cranberry bogs
Posted inOpinion
Some guideposts for restoring civic discourse
Our public debates favor controversy and often gloss over important details and trade-offs. The result: important issues get oversimplified and decision-making becomes dysfunctional.
Posted inOpinion
Panelists who impressed at health cost trends hearing
The Health Policy Commission’s annual cost trends hearing didn’t attract much media coverage this year, so I thought I’d summarize what I thought was most interesting.
Posted inOpinion
Safety should come first on social media platforms
Tech companies, including Meta (Facebook, Instagram), Google (YouTube), TikTok, and others have refused to answer to the government or parents like me who must bury their children because of the dangerous and toxic effects of social media. We are finally at a point in which Big Tech may have to answer for its greedy and misguided actions.
Posted inState Government
Short takes: DiZoglio all in on ballot bid
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio has drained her campaign account to pay for the signature-gathering effort to put a proposed law on the ballot allowing her office to audit the Legislature.
Posted inOpinion
Beacon Hill dawdling comes with consequences
Despite months of opportunity to work with Gov. Maura Healey to accommodate migrants and other families and pregnant women under the state’s right-to-shelter law, lawmakers dawdled, seemingly content to let Healey take the political heat.
Posted inTransportation
MBTA says two-thirds of assets are beyond useful life
Roughly two-thirds of the MBTA’s assets are beyond their useful life and would cost $24.5 billion to bring into a state of good repair, according to a new analysis of the transit authority’s infrastructure.
Posted inMarijuana
Collins stepping down as cannabis commission executive director
Two months after pushing back on a claim he would be leaving by the end of the year, Shawn Collins is resigning as executive director of the Cannabis Control Commission, the latest move to rock the troubled state agency, whose chair was suspended in September.
Posted inEducation
Mass. parents split on post-high school plans
When parents of grade-school children consider what those children will want to do after high school, a new poll finds the strongest indicator is the parents’ own resume and bank account.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Campbell hires gun control advocate to lead gun violence unit
Attorney General Andrea Campbell has tapped a rural litigator who previously worked for a gun control advocacy group to head up a new unit aimed at reducing gun violence.
Posted inEducation
New state aid will cut costs for 25,000 UMass students
A THIRD OF ALL UMASS students will qualify for free tuition paid for by the new income surtax on the state’s highest earners, under a plan the Healey administration rolled out Wednesday to spend an expansion of state financial aid.
Posted inState Government
Lawmakers fail to reach deal on shelter funds
THE LEGISLATURE adjourned early Thursday morning with no agreement between the two branches on an omnibus close-out spending bill that included $250 million to keep the state’s emergency shelter system afloat.
Posted inOpinion
It’s time to protect gig workers and consumers
Gig economy companies like Uber and Instacart are exploiting workers by misclassifying them as independent contracts and not employees, which limits the employment protections they deserve to have.
Posted inPolitics
At 90, Michael Dukakis still looks ahead
Michael Dukakis remade the Massachusetts Democratic Party, suffered a bitter loss after winning his party’s nomination for president, then spent three decades teaching college students and preaching the virtues of public service, something he has modeled for more than six decades.
Posted inState Government
Conflicting goals on Everett soccer stadium
The Legislature is on the brink of signing off on a plan that clears the way for the Kraft Group to build a soccer stadium for the New England Revolution along the Mystic River in Everett, but the behind-the-scenes sausage-making that has brought the plan to the goal crease deserves cheers or jeers, depending on who you listen to.
Posted inHousing
Newton voters oust backers of ambitious housing plan
A trio of Newton city councilors who backed a plan to allow even more housing than what is called for under a new state law were voted out of office, in what may be a cautionary tale for officials in other communities.
Posted inArts and Culture, State Government
State seal and motto commission punts to Legislature
Although the commission raised several possibilities for the seal and motto, the panel punted a decision to the Legislature. How that decision will be made is unclear at the moment.
Posted inOpinion
To reduce recidivism, raise the age of juvenile jurisdiction
We’ve seen the benefits of raising the age to 17 — a 48 percent reduction in juvenile arrests and a 67 percent drop in the arrest rates of 18- to 20-year-olds, according to data from the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security. Now it’s time to go further.
Posted inEnergy
Is shop and save the best bet with electricity?
With basic service, utilities purchase electricity contracts on behalf of their customers twice a year, serving as middlemen who earn no profit on the transaction. As the market for electricity has become more volatile recently, the twice-a-year approach has sometimes led to enormous spikes in basic service prices. Competitive suppliers and municipal aggregators, with far more flexibility in how and when they purchase electricity for their customers, have gained an advantage.
Posted inHousing
Sluggish housing production hammers Greater Boston
Three years after the start of the pandemic, rents are soaring and housing production is still nowhere near what it needs to be to meet demand, according to the new Greater Boston Housing Report Card from the Boston Foundation.