THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION has started and voters in neglected parts of the country will likely determine the outcome. Both parties will plan how to win voters in the Rust […]
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Posted inOpinion
State’s manufacturing past is part of the future
THE DIVERSITY OF the Massachusetts economy is one of its strengths. Our leading positions in health care, higher education, technology, and the life sciences have allowed the Commonwealth to thrive […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Worcester T&G by way of Tokyo
More than 120 Massachusetts daily and weekly newspapers learned on Thursday that they will report to ultimate bosses halfway around the world after the private equity firm that owns GateHouse […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Opinion
Tapping the gold mine of college talent
THIS IS A GOLDEN AGE for the Boston economy. We’re first by a mile in health care. The national leader in biotech. Surging in big data, robotics, fintech, data storage, […]
Posted inHealth Care, The Download
Baker gets pressure on paid parental leave
Message received. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Attorney General Maura Healey, and state Treasurer Deb Goldberg are all offering employees paid parental leave, so now Gov. Charlie Baker is indicating that paid parental […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Pregnant workers seek fair job treatment
SHOULD A PREGNANT worker expect her employer to offer “reasonable” relief from her workload or from certain tasks? Elizabeth Guyer, a former nurse practitioner who worked in Harvard University’s student […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, The Download
Market Basket, Arthur T, and the American Dream
Thousands of angry Market Basket workers have elevated ousted Market CEO Arthur T. Demoulas as close to god-hood as a man can get. More than 5,000 employees turned out to […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Casinos’ slipping fortunes
It seems like eons ago that Bob DeLeo was extolling his casino bill (insisting on calling it a “jobs bill”), Deval Patrick was waxing rhapsodic about something called a “destination […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, The Download
Why Atlantic City casino woes matter here
Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen recently visited “Vegas-by-the-Sea” and found nothing good to say about Atlantic City’s casino experiment. In the time-honored tradition of journalists everywhere, Cullen tapped the consummate […]
Posted inEconomy
The Massachusetts H-1B connection
MORE THAN 1,200 Massachusetts companies hired 5,481 skilled foreign workers last year through a controversial visa program that is simultaneously being praised for helping to plug holes in the state’s […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Shaky job findings in Life Sciences Center study
Barry Bluestone and Alan Clayton-Matthews are respected economists at Northeastern University, but their just-released report on the Massachusetts Life Sciences Institute, and particularly the tax credits the agency hands out, […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, The Download
Fishing disaster
The US Commerce Department declared the New England groundfishery a disaster, a designation that could lead to $100 million in federal aid for fishermen and more reductions in catch limits. […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, The Download
Labor pain for Democrats
Chris Christie stormed into the New Jersey governor’s office by tossing verbal bombs at the state’s teachers’ union. Scott Walker caused a national sensation when he went after the collective […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service, The Download
The Welfare Bogeyman rises again
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, welfare became a wedge issue for both of the nation’s political parties, with Republicans decrying the “gimme” nature of programs while Democrats insisted […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, The Download
Pilgrim relicensing reaches critical mass
Nuclear power plants are a lot like baseball umpires: It’s far better for everyone when you don’t hear their names. But the Pilgrim power plant in Plymouth is receiving a […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download
Unemployment down; political intrigue up
The economy, bit by bit and with all sorts of caveats, appears to be improving, which could reshape the political landscape next year. The national unemployment rate fell to 8.6 […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download
Michael Moore occupies Wall Street
Filmmaker and lefty firebrand Michael Moore decided that Occupy Wall Street could benefit from serious storyboarding. To help rescue the movement from what critics across the political spectrum have dismissed […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download
Fiscal concerns trump political loyalties
The Massachusetts Legislature continued to put fiscal concerns ahead of political loyalties as the Senate voted 24-10 for a bill that would make new public employees work longer for less […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Next DC crisis: The Postal Service is broke
Washington loves a good crisis, and it has had no shortage of them this year, from a near-shutdown of the federal government in April, to the 11th-hour negotiations over the […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Wife’s cancer leads to his firing
It seems so unfair. First, Kathy Sorabella of Natick learned she had lung cancer and her prognosis wasn’t good. Then Carl Sorabella, her husband, told his boss that he might […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service, The Download
The Download: Days of yore
As much of America is fixated on a wedding in the royal family — except, believe it or not, viewers of Fox 25 — that harkens back to the time […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, State House News Service, The Download
The Download: Payback
Maybe it’s the defensiveness engendered by the decades-long moniker of Taxachusetts or the relentless hammering by Republicans and corporations about the inhospitable business atmosphere in the state, old perceptions that […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download
The Download: Breaking news—important people consort and talk to each other
“No matter how cynical you get, it’s impossible to keep up,” Lily Tomlin famously said. That’s especially so if your news consumption consists of a steady diet of Boston Herald […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Download
The Download: First and goal
Union matters seem to dominate the 24-hour news cycle these days. From Wisconsin’s governor looking to eviscerate his state’s public sector unions; to Ohio being on the verge of doing […]