This article was updated to clarify the jury’s ruling on the lower value of the former School Department building. A JURY HAS RULED that Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera breached the […]
Municipal Government
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Governor proposes $200 million in roads funding
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THREE DAYS AFTER saying he would file a multiyear local road funding bill, Gov. Charlie Baker submitted a one-year, $200 million borrowing bill that includes $50 […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Senate unanimous in support of Public Records Law update
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE ACKNOWLEDGING THAT ADVANCES in current technology has rendered the decades-old law ineffective, the Massachusetts Senate on Thursday passed a public records reform bill updating the statute […]
Posted inEconomy, Opinion
Are dashboards the right tool to measure progress?
YOU RUN A government agency or nonprofit. You ask management experts how you can assess your “bottom line,” given that earning profits is not your mission. You want to know […]
Posted inPolitics
Senate puts teeth into public records reform
THE STATE SENATE unveiled its version of Public Records reform, potentially the first major overhaul since the law was enacted in 1973, placing a hard time limit on responses, requiring courts […]
Posted inOpinion
Municipalities shouldn’t go it alone on IT
EVERY ONE OF US relies on the services of local public works departments, pretty much every day, from morning to evening, in one way or another. Think for a moment […]
Posted inThe Download
ACLU sends Worcester, Lowell big legal bills
The lawyers who successfully challenged anti-panhandling ordinances in Worcester and Lowell are now demanding more than $1.7 million from the two cities in court costs and fees. The American Civil […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Closed doors
Photographs by Michael Manning IN NEWTON, WHERE single-family home values are creeping into the million-dollar range, few things trigger more raw emotion than proposals for affordable housing. That emotion […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
RTAs taking the wheel
Photographs by Meghan Moore WHILE GREATER BOSTON AGONIZES over the multibillion-dollar MBTA project to extend the Green Line a mere five miles, another transit tug-of-war is going on across the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Another approach on drunken driving
A TOUGH BUT fairly low-tech approach to drunken driving prevention is showing some promise in a handful of states and starting to pick up converts across the country. Called 24/7 […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Hingham policeman indicted for insurance fraud
HINGHAM POLICE SGT. KRIS PHILLIPS, who figured prominently in a recent police probe of anonymous letters criticizing the current chief, was indicted on Wednesday for alleged insurance fraud. Phillips, 52, […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Baker bill empowers municipalities
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE REVIVING AN EFFORT that stalled under his predecessor, Gov. Charlie Baker on Monday proposed legislation that would give local officials control over the number of liquor […]
Posted inUncategorized
House okays panel to review public records exemptions
THE HOUSE ON Wednesday unanimously approved a watered-down Public Records reform bill but beat back an attempt to lift the exemption covering the Legislature, instead agreeing to form a commission […]
Posted inPolitics
Public records bill does little to open access
THE HOUSE WAYS AND MEANS Committee is set to unveil a bill that would allow those who are thwarted in seeking public records to collect attorney fees, a stick designed […]
Posted inThe Download
Evil of Paris attacks clear, path forward not
French President Francois Hollande vowed to “lead a war which will be pitiless” against ISIS, the Islamic terrorist group that claimed responsibility for Friday’s massacre of more than 125 people […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Hingham letter investigation could turn criminal
HINGHAM OFFICIALS ARE HINTING that their $40,000 probe into who wrote two anonymous letters to the Board of Selectmen in April could possibly turn into a criminal investigation. One Hingham employee has already […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Zombie politics
Stephen Murphy lost his at-large Boston City Council seat in last week’s election, but a delicious piece of gossip buzzing through political circles has him rising from the political dead […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Hingham spends $40,000 tracking anonymous letter
AN EMPLOYEE OF THE TOWN OF HINGHAM stepped forward this week to say he wrote an anonymous letter mailed to the three members of the Board of Selectmen earlier this […]
Posted inUncategorized
Letters, Fall 2015
INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING NOT WORKING IN CAMBRIDGE James Sutherland’s article on Instant Runoff Voting (“A Democracy Worth Paying For,” Summer ’15) points out that turnouts in Cambridge run higher than […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Paintgate comes to an end in Billerica
Up in Billerica, they’re calling it Paintgate. Selectman George Simolaris was so alarmed that seven town crosswalks hadn’t been painted that he bought some green deck paint and painted them […]
Posted inPolitics
Rivera’s old-school push for change
AT DANIEL RIVERA’S INAUGURATION as mayor of Lawrence in January 2014, he was hailed as the guy who would take the city in a new direction. Even though he squeaked […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
The failure of public assistance
Democrats and Republicans alike have fought for and voted to support programs and funding to provide assistance to our most vulnerable citizens. The intention of this support was always to […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Instant runoff voting could improve Boston elections
ACROSS THE COUNTRY, voter turnout in local elections has steadily dropped. Electorates for local elections are a shell of what they once were — and of what they could be, […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Walsh is flush
The Herald’s Matt Stout reported on Sunday that Mayor Marty Walsh is proving to be very popular among campaign donors and voters. The Boston mayor’s campaign finance report for the […]
