THE STATE’S SUPERVISOR of public records says a state employee’s web browsing history is a public record, and has asked Attorney General Maura Healey to order the Baker administration to […]
Massachusetts politics
Posted inThe Download
On to the next ballot questions
Now that last year’s final ballot-approved law is in place (Gov. Charlie Baker signed the legislatively amended marijuana bill into law on Friday), Beacon Hill is gearing up for the […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Baker signs pot bill, raises concerns
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. CHARLIE BAKER signed a law on Friday overhauling the marijuana legalization measure voters put on the books in November, and immediately afterward offered a cautious […]
Posted inThe Download
A Metco take-down
The headline on the Sunday Globe front-page story suggested the 50-year-old school integration program known as Metco was a mixed bag, but the story painted an almost uniformly dismal picture […]
Posted inThe Download
The Codcast: Trash talk
CommonWealth ran a cover story in January 2015 that featured a photo of a dump truck unloading trash at a massive landfill in New Bedford. The headline, drifting in the […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Charlie sings the blues
Charlie Baker’s rhetorical style is a bit like easy listening music – not blaring, not head-banging, easy on the ears and mind, if not quite dancing music. But lately, Baker […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Raise the tobacco sales age to 21
MANY PEOPLE ARE SURPRISED TO LEARN that tobacco use remains the leading cause of preventable illness and premature death in Massachusetts and across the country, despite the strides we have […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Penn Station debate offers lessons for Boston
New York City is having its own North-South Rail Link debate, just on a much bigger scale. State and federal agencies in New York are pushing for a $20 billion […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Budget uncertainty
There is one certainty with the fiscal 2018 budget: For the first time ever, Massachusetts will have a spending plan exceeding $40 billion to run state government. After that, there […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Senate budget pinned on shaky revenue projections
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SENATE WAYS AND MEANS Committee members on Tuesday unanimously approved a $40.3 billion spending plan for fiscal 2018 that they said recognizes the state does not […]
Posted inPolitics
Brown seeks donors for group attacking Warren
A CONSERVATIVE MASSACHUSETTS political action committee has sent out a fundraising request attacking Sen. Elizabeth Warren that includes an appeal to donors from former US senator Scott Brown, whose nomination as […]
Posted inPolitics
Steve Lynch’s balancing act
NO ONE WOULD question the wisdom of a gambler who put money on US Rep. Stephen Lynch securing another easy win next year. Still, the odds are changing a bit, […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Words matter in immigration debate
The political divide over immigration is wide, and it can be seen clearly in the words people use to describe those at the center of the debate. The Eagle-Tribune reported […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
For Arroyo, probate job no soft landing pad
This wasn’t how the story was supposed to end. When Felix Arroyo was elected Suffolk County Register of Probate in 2014, the former Boston city councilor was supposed to sail […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The city of Framingham
Welcome to the small time. In the third attempt in the last 40 years to change their form of governance, and by less than a 1 percent margin, Framingham voters decided […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Scrambling the golden egg
Massachusetts, which cautiously and methodically inched its way into casino gambling, is looking at moving into overdrive as lawmakers consider legalizing online gambling. The state’s three approved casinos, of course, […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Party like it’s 1999
It would be fair to say the organizers of the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade in South Boston made a Wacko decision. As in the late John “Wacko” Hurley, the longtime […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics, Transportation
No place for ‘personal attack’ on Bump
I AM A FAN of MassINC and CommonWealth magazine, and a regular listener to the podcasts you produce. But I want to express in the strongest terms possible my outrage […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
A model for Baker in Maryland
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker continues his tightrope walk between owning the “R” after his name and trying to create distance with the R-occupant of the White House. The trouble is, […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Legislative income inequality
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE NOW THAT PAY RAISES for lawmakers have been finalized, House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Stanley Rosenberg will soon dole out the lucrative leadership and […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Baker’s health care tax is bad policy
IN AN ERA OF ALTERNATIVE FACTS, a bit of revisionist history may seem like a small sin. But in the case of Gov. Charlie Baker’s proposed tax on employers who […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Stipends on steroids
HOUSE SPEAKER ROBERT DELEO and Senate President Stan Rosenberg got much more than a $1,000-a-week pay hike when the Legislature passed the bill to increase their salaries: They also were […]
Posted inPolitics
Healey sues Trump
MASSACHUSETTS ATTORNEY GENERAL Maura Healey on Tuesday sued President Trump over what she called his “startling and chaotic” executive order banning immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries, saying the act violated […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Rosenberg likens Trump travel ban to Nazi Germany
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE DRAWING LINKS TO Nazi Germany, the president of the Massachusetts Senate condemned the Trump administration’s move to bar entry into the country of nationals from seven […]