Although Massachusetts is currently experiencing a moderate drought, the Bay State is unlikely to experience water problems of California-sized proportions. But the Bay State does have a major water problem, it’s just one that most people can’t see. The US Environmental Protection Agency recently projected the nation’s drinking water infrastructure needs and found that Massachusetts would need […]
Cost of Living and Consumer Affairs
Posted inHealth Care, The Download
The hidden cost of having health insurance
U.S. News & World Report is out with its annual index on health insurance and its impact on the economy. To the surprise of few, many of the costs are declining or at least not rising at the dizzying pace they had been. But much of those savings are going into the pockets of businesses and […]
Posted inEconomy
Boston wages outpace rest of nation
Private sector workers in the Greater Boston area saw their wages and salaries increase 3.9 percent over the last year, the highest increase among the nation’s 15 largest metropolitan area and the largest for that period since the federal government began indexing compensation costs in 2007. The high rate of wage and salary growth is […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
What do Hillary Clinton, the Globe’s Pulitzer, and Demi Moore have in common?
Income inequality seems to be a recurring theme in the news today in everything from presidential politics to Pulitzer Prizes to the for-sale sign on Demi Moore’s New York co-op. Let’s start with Hillary Clinton. She headed to New Hampshire to court skeptical liberals who tend to be supporters of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. The […]
Posted inEconomy
Firms highlight shortage of grads with tech skills
Representatives from the nation’s leading technology companies urged Massachusetts lawmakers on Wednesday to address a “talent crisis” among the state’s college graduates in the field of computing. Officials from Google, Microsoft, and Intel said they are facing a shortage of well-trained graduates with computer expertise and warned that the Massachusetts economy may suffer if the […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, The Back Story
EBT solution hiding in plain sight
State officials say the technology doesn’t exist to make sure users of Electronic Benefit Transfer cards, which took the place of paper food stamps, aren’t buying alcohol, tobacco, or Lottery tickets. But all officials need to do is look at their nearest drug store or supermarket to see that the technology does, in fact, exist. […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service
Many Mass. residents have little saved up
Low- and middle- income families in Massachusetts are in rough shape when it comes to managing their money and saving for a rainy day, according to a new annual survey of financial security indicators in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. The survey, produced by the Corporation for Enterprise Development, a nonprofit advocacy […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment
Solarize Massachusetts spreads to 17 towns
Massachusetts is rolling out a bulk-purchasing solar program to more than a dozen communities this summer that will allow homeowners to save as much as 30 percent on installations. Patterned after a pilot program last year in four communities, the Solarize Massachusetts program run by the state’s Clean Energy Center attempts to cut marketing costs by […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment
Tap vs. bottled
in the battle between tap and bottled water, bottled water usually has all the zest. Perrier, Poland Spring, Fiji, Glacier—these companies reel consumers in with big-budget advertising campaigns promoting crystal clear waters from exotic locales all over the world. It’s not easy to counter those images if you’re running the local public water authority. But […]
Posted inEconomy, Health Care, Politics, State House News Service
Senate passes food pricing bill
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE With just two senators present, the Senate on Monday morning approved a bill that food stores in Massachusetts have been pressing unsuccessfully for a decade. Under the bill, which has already cleared the House, grocery stores in Massachusetts would no longer be required to put price tags on each item and […]