FOR NEARLY two centuries, the Acton Congregational Church has stood serenely in the town’s main square, its pews offering a welcoming haven for spiritual renewal and quiet reflection. Starting in […]
CW in Depth
Posted inEconomy
A race to keep up – or to the bottom?
MARCH WAS “Problem Gambling Awareness Month” in Massachusetts, but for those in charge of the state lottery the gambling problem coming into the new year was that people weren’t doing […]
Posted inEconomy
A race to keep up – or to the bottom? Lottery bets big on $50 scratch ticket, online games.
MARCH WAS “Problem Gambling Awareness Month” in Massachusetts, but for those in charge of the state lottery the gambling problem coming into the new year was that people weren’t doing […]
Posted inEconomy
Could Boston face an ‘urban doom loop’?
AT FIRST, the emptying out of downtown Boston office buildings looked like a seismic, but temporary, reaction to a once-in-a-hundred-year pandemic. Once we got a handle on the mysterious new […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Broadening theater’s reach
RODNEY KING’S BEATING at the hands of Los Angeles police officers in 1991, their subsequent trial and acquittal, and the days of violent unrest that followed came 15 years before […]
Posted inBook Review
Reimagining a mutual aid society
WHEN SARA HOROWITZ got her first job as a labor lawyer at a firm in 1994, she writes, she assumed it “would come fully loaded. Benefits just came with a […]
Posted inEducation
Are exam schools really an academic promised land?
AFTER MONTHS OF debate amid heightened attention to racial justice issues, the Boston School Committee approved sweeping changes on Wednesday night to admission rules for the city’s three selective-entry 7-12 […]
Posted inHealth Care
2017 birth control provision fell through the cracks
IN 2017, amid growing concern that Congress and the Trump administration were moving to limit free access to contraceptives, the Massachusetts Legislature passed and Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law a bill guaranteeing access […]
Posted inRace/Racism
Why are Latinos so overrepresented in the state child welfare system?
LAST MONTH, workers from the state Department of Children and Families knocked on the door of Raquel, an El Salvadoran immigrant living in Worcester. DCF had gotten an anonymous call about a fight between her husband and […]
Posted inPolitics
Is Karyn Polito angling for a third term — or a first?
ON THE WALL behind her desk, Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito keeps the official portrait of former Republican Gov. Paul Cellucci, one of her political mentors, the man who first encouraged […]
Posted inOpinion
Meet the new public records law – same as the old one
OVER THREE YEARS have gone by since the Commonwealth’s much-heralded overhaul of the Public Records Law went into effect in 2017. Regrettably, the old vexing problems nonetheless still persist. That’s […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Protesting the George Floyd killing: A moment or a movement?
THE BURST OF protests across the country following the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer are demanding dramatic reform of policing practices. But are […]
Posted inEconomy
Coronavirus campus unrest
APRIL, TRADITIONALLY A time of excitement and possibility in higher education, is instead proving to be the cruelest month for US colleges and universities. High school seniors normally would be […]
Posted inEconomy
The coronavirus is expanding the safety net
LIKE MILLIONS OF other US workers, Charlie Burke and Mutwaly Hamid were used to getting up in the morning and putting in long days on the job. But when the […]
Posted inEducation
Is Massachusetts failing its brightest kids?
FOR MORE THAN two decades, efforts to improve US public schools have set forth an ambitious goal. Leave No Child Behind. The Every Student Succeeds Act. The Student Opportunity Act. […]
Posted inEducation
UMass football thrown for big losses
WHEN THE UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS opted to enter major college football in 2012, officials pitched the idea that the program would pay for itself over time, even bolstering non-revenue sports […]
Posted inEnvironment
Cracking the climate code
AN ARCANE STATE BOARD, known to few outside the world of design and construction, is the setting of a furious clash the outcome of which could influence the amount of […]
Posted inBook Review
A blue wave in 2020?
DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS encouraged (or alarmed) by Democratic gains in Virginia and Kentucky in November will want to read the new book by Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg to see if […]
Posted inPolitics
From insurgent to incumbent
TO SECURE A victory in last September’s Democratic primary against one of the most powerful members of the Legislature, Nika Elugardo ran a blistering campaign excoriating the entire House establishment, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
The complicated legacy of ‘broken windows’ policing
DRAWING ON LESSONS he learned as a seminarian, social worker, and then probation officer, George Kelling became a major thinker on law enforcement, envisioning a new approach to policing that […]
Posted inArts and Culture
In Holyoke, arts education takes front seat
SIX-YEAR-OLD JUAN patted an inflatable ball as he peered out of his blue-rimmed glasses. Which way to send the ball? What could he knock down? Juan was playing “human bowling” […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Western Mass. ‘Hilltowns’ look for a foothold
THE ARRIVAL OF warmer weather means visitors will be flocking to the Berkshires, where a set of towns come to life as summer homes to renowned music and dance enterprises […]
Posted inPolitics
Healey vs. Trump
IN A 2016 FUNDRAISING PITCH just after Donald Trump was elected president, Attorney General Maura Healey said she wouldn’t hesitate to take the incoming president to court if he carried […]
Posted inBook Review
Reforming capitalism to save it
IN THE FIVE YEARS since the publication of Thomas Piketty’s runaway bestseller, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, rising inequality has yet to force any consensus on what to do about […]