When in doubt, study is the default strategy of Massachusetts lawmakers when it comes to dealing with prickly issues like transportation finance. Rep. Dan Winslow attempted to slaughter a sacred […]
Massachusetts Legislature
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Tim-ber
This is the way the Legislature wanted it. If Tim Cahill had launched a quixotic gubernatorial run in 2006, and in the middle of this quixotic run, had he unleashed […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service, The Download
Tax breaks add up to big money
“Too complicated, too big.” Those were the words the Tax Expenditure Commission used to describe the tangle of tax breaks that amount to over $26 billion, or more in foregone […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download, Transportation
Transit insaniTy
It’s all over, including the shouting. If some MBTA riders actually thought that negative testimonies at public hearings were going to prevent fare increases and service cuts, now they know […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Mystery woman to run for office
The mystery woman who was at the center of a House chamber incident with a Braintree lawmaker last year says she is going to challenge Rep. David Torrisi of North […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
DeLeo bid to tamp down patronage talk does the opposite
Here’s how Charley Murphy rings out the old year, and rings in the new: The calendar turns, and the ambitious Burlington Democrat gets knocked down another rung in the House […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Odds improving for online poker?
Two Las Vegas gambling powerhouses, MGM Resorts and Boyd Gaming, are betting that Congress will legalize online poker — a development that could have deep ramifications for the casino gambling […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Compromise is cheaper
Bitter enemies are suddenly finding common ground on Beacon Hill. First, supermarkets and package stores endorsed legislation that would allow food stores to purchase more liquor licenses. Then insurance agents […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Rushin’ roulette
It’s hard to know what the right metaphor is to capture all the absurd gyrations and policymaking-on-the-run that have characterized the mad dash to casinos and slots. Sometimes it seems […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
All’s fair in love and redistricting
The main takeaway from Tuesday’s Special Joint Committee on Redistricting announce-a-palooza was the explosion of new majority-minority voting districts, 10 for the House map, bringing the total to 20, and […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Voting not to participate
What if they held an election and nobody came? It darn near happened in Brockton this week when only 4.7 percent of voters turned out for the city’s preliminary election. […]
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 inPolitics, The Download
The casino bill’s bad press
As far as inevitable developments go, Beacon Hill’s consensus proposal to license three resort casinos and one slot parlor sure has a lot of questions hanging over it. When the […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Hitting the jackpot
Tomorrow night’s Megabucks jackpot is an estimated $4.3 million. If you’re under 40 and not feeling particularly lucky but still like the sound of that much money, you could run […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The Download: The GOP’s alienation program
Instead of coming to grips with the changing face of America, the Republican Party appears to be dead set on alienating every minority group in the country. Mother Jones writer […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, The Download
The Download: Pawlenty fever? Try golf clap
On the same day Tim Pawlenty made his presidential candidacy official, Mitch Daniels said he was out of the race. Daniels was polling right next to Pawlenty – low-single digits […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, The Download
The Download: Michele Bachmann’s teen problem
US Rep. Michele Bachmann is contemplating tossing her hat in the ring for the Republican presidential nomination. With Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee out, the Minnesota Republican says her telephone […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics, The Download, Transportation
The Download: The T’s contract problem
The Boston Globe yesterday wrote another chapter in the ongoing saga that chronicles failures at the MBTA, this time regarding the T’s relationship to Mass Bay Commuter Rail, the company […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, The Download
The Download: Oddfellows: Globe to print Herald
What’s next, Howie Carr sporting a bowtie? Frank Phillips and Brian Mooney acknowledging their Herald roots? The Inside Track finding something interesting in the Boring Broadsheet? The Globe writing a […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The Download: Southern comfort
The most popular governor in the North is from the South. There was lots of carping in 2009 when Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor only got a measly $112 million in high-speed […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, The Download
The Download: Flaherty’s return engagement
He’s now made it official: former Boston city councilor Michael Flaherty wants his old job back. Actually, he doesn’t really want his old job at all. He wants the job […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, The Download
The Download: Grave dancing
“We don’t need to spike the football,” President Obama said in his decision to not release photographs of Osama bin Laden’s dead body. “That’s not who we are.” But who […]
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 inCriminal Justice, Politics, The Download
The Download: The birtherism of a nation
According to a New York Times/CBS poll released last week, 25 percent of adults surveyed believe that President Obama was not born in the US. Among Republicans, the figure soars […]