SO NOW WHAT? Our Olympic wrestling match is over. The international sports spectacle will move on to another venue, most likely in Europe, and most Bostonians (in our unerring spirit […]
Civic engagement
Posted inEducation, Environment
Bruce Smith wants to take rowing to a new level
FOR BRUCE SMITH, rowing is more than just a sport. It’s a way of life, or a way of changing lives. He admits few people view rowing the way he […]
Posted inOlympics, Opinion, Transportation
Pride alone won’t fix things
PRIDE IS A tricky emotion. Even in ancient times, thought leaders cautioned people about the dangers of pride. “Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before the fall,” is […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Obama’s weak “movement” coattails
The front-page of this morning’s New York Times takes readers inside the campaign of Eric Lesser, a bright-eyed 29-year-old running for an open state Senate seat in Western Massachusetts. The […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Taking on Boston’s fun police (and the mayor)
Skim over most of today’s Herald story on the launch of the Future Boston Alliance, a new non-profit geared toward loosening the city’s regulations and making Boston a more lively, […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Whither – or wither – Southie?
Once a center of political power with a reach that extended well beyond its own boundaries, with clout at the city, state, and national scenes as well, South Boston’s outsized […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Hey, hey. Ho, ho. Occupy has got to go.
And so the word has gone out to the Occupiers in Dewey Square: You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here. Suffolk Superior Court Judge Frances McIntyre […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Cutting the profits from nonprofits
Nonprofits, it seems, are in the official cross hairs and under assault.A bill filed by state Sen. Mark Montigny of New Bedford to stop health plans from paying “volunteer” board […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Health Care, The Download
The Download: The circus is coming
It’s a running joke on Beacon Hill that this current incarnation of the Governor’s Council may finally be the one that takes the whole institution down. That theory should be […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Politics, The Download
The Download: Map quest
It’s a decennial dance that makes sausage-making look like an art form. Congressional redistricting, mandated every 10 years by the federal census, is once again playing out in all corners […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, The Download
The Download: Whose Constitution?
It couldn’t be termed a constitutional crisis but the decision by the new Republican-controlled House to read the Constitution into the Congressional Record was as much hysterical as historical. In […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download
The Download: Pondering patronage
Former Senate president Billy Bulger practiced the trade with such abandon that MBTA was said to stand for “Mr. Bulger’s Transportation Authority,” an only partially tongue-in-cheek reference that seemed to […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Globe’s dominating presence at the GOP convention
By Jack Sullivan If the GOP state convention in Worcester over the weekend is any indication, the Globe is still the paper of record for all things local, especially when […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
Carr and Braude sing the same tune
By Bruce Mohl Howie Carr and Jim Braude are about as far apart on the political spectrum as you can get, but both of them are singing the same song […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Fly the bipartisan skies
By Bruce Mohl Washington may be paralyzed by political partisanship, but our state’s Democratic and Republican senators seem to be getting along reasonably well. In Boston today to accept a […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Fact-checking the Senate candidates: Youth will be served
It was the starkest contrast of the webcast debate and the one area where U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano clearly differentiated himself from the rest of the field running for US […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Turn toward politics a natural one for City Year cofounder
The newest name in the US Senate sweepstakes: Alan Khazei, cofounder of the national service organization City Year, who says he's considering entering the Democratic primary for the seat held […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
An email’s as good as a phone call when nagging City Hall
The Web has not yet made everyone high-functioning citizens, according to "The Internet and Civic Engagement," a report released yesterday by the Pew Charitable Trusts. Affluent and well-educated Americans are […]
Posted inHealth Care, The Download
Kerry to face the (town meeting) music
It's John Kerry's turn. The state's soon-to-be-senior senator will follow scores of congressional colleagues who have waded into the uncertain waters of a town meeting that is likely to focus […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Can we talk?
Correction: My face is red. Even though the artist John Ewing received a 2009 Knight Foundation grant announced Wednesday for his Virtual Street Corners project, the dates we gave you were […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
The Commonwealth of Tweet
Marshall McLuhan famously said that the medium is the message, but with social-networking sites the opposite seems to be true. Last night, at a MassINC forum examining the recession’s effect […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
How long will a bleed lede?
It may be an oxymoron to say newspapers could become nonprofits, since so many of them already are – in the sense of not having any profits, that is. For some […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
State’s Public Records Law in need of repair
The state's Public Records Law is in desperate need of repair, according to a group of panelists who discussed the law today at a State House forum sponsored by CommonWealth […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Idealism in the age of Obama
Barack Obama's election in November and inauguration on Tuesday present a challenge to the belief system of some of us who were born, like the new president, in the closing […]