Salem’s Alternative Therapies Group becomes the first dispensary to open for business under the long and winding regulatory road set up by the Bay State. Gov. Charlie Baker quietly paved the […]
Municipal Government
Posted inArts and Culture, The Download
BPL’s special collections dilemma
The swift-moving narrative on management of the Boston Public Library is likely to take another turn this week, as a consultant’s report suggests inadequate staffing and funding may be the […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Honeymoon over for Walsh?
The honeymoon may be nearly over for Boston Mayor Marty Walsh. When he took office in January 2014, Walsh was an awe-struck neophyte whose thrill at being mayor was charming. […]
Posted inArts and Culture, The Download
Throwing the book at the library president
It looked like a good-news story to revel in. The valuable pieces of artwork that were presumed missing from the Boston Public Library weren’t missing after all. They were apparently […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion
Lessons from Ferguson
FOR MONTHS WE’VE all watched the travesty in Ferguson, Missouri, unfold from the death of Michael Brown, to the militarized police response to public protest, to the Department of Justice […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Marty’s moment of reckoning
When all the snow has melted and the debates are done about space-saver policies and how well — or poorly — the city did at digging out from under it […]
Posted inThe Download
Eavesdropping on Instagram
The police and school departments in Lowell are preparing to hire a company to monitor social media use within the city’s borders, scrubbing public posts on Twitter, Facebook, and other […]
Posted inOlympics, The Download
An elephant in the Olympics financing room
There has been all sorts of talk about the costs of a Boston Olympics, with elected officials left and right stamping their feet, drawing lines in the sand, and otherwise […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Sam Sutter, politician
No one will ever accuse Sam Sutter, the newly elected mayor of Fall River, of being dumb or blind. Or of lacking ambition. Sutter, the soon-to-be-former Bristol district attorney, saw […]
Posted inPolitics
Odds are Fall River mayor can’t lose
An ad appearing on Flanagan’s Facebook page. Fall River Mayor Will Flanagan may pull off one of the most improbable election victories in history in three weeks: the odds are […]
Posted inPolitics
Casino cannibalism
Massachusetts voters overwhelmingly voted to uphold the state’s casino gambling law earlier this month. By a margin of 20 percentage points, voters rejected a ballot question that would have repealed […]
Posted inPolitics
Fall River follies
Since 2010, Massachusetts voters statewide have marched to the polling booth eight times for primary, general, and special elections and there have been at least 13 other special elections with […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Goodbye to the urban mechanic
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Thomas Menino, a self-described “lunch bucket guy” who rose from his roots in Hyde Park to dominate Boston and Massachusetts politics as the capital city’s mayor […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
DeLeo’s extended term dalliance
Federal prosecutors never went directly after House Speaker Robert DeLeo in the recently concluded Probation Department trial that snared three key department officials. But by labeling him an unindicted co-conspirator, […]
Posted inPolitics
Needham’s anti-smoking legacy grows
Needham in 2005 raised the smoking age to 21, establishing a public policy on teen smoking that appears to be gaining momentum in Massachusetts and across the nation. Salem became […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Let there be light
What do you get when you jam an 18-month legislative session into a frenzied final few hours of votes? Well, you get what you deserve, but thankfully for the Legislature, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, The Download
The politics of guns
Beacon Hill moved closer to passing a new gun control law on Thursday, but not before once again scaling back the proposed legislation to appease the concerns of firearm owners […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Walsh calls BRA a mess
Shoddy record-keeping and weak management inside the Boston Redevelopment Authority have cost Boston’s powerful development agency millions of dollars in unpaid fees and lease payments, an outside audit of the […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Walsh’s waffling on casinos
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is a straight-shooter on most issues, but on casino gambling he’s tied up in knots. He voted for casinos as a state legislator, but now he’s […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Summer heat turns up on DeLeo
There’s nothing like a summer news lull to fan the flames of a good scandal, and it’s House Speaker Robert DeLeo ’s turn in the glare of the beating summer […]
Posted inPolitics
Curtatone, Ash upset with arbitration awards
The mayor of Somerville and the city manager in Chelsea rolled the dice and lost in seeking surrounding community casino mitigation payments from Wynn Resorts, but the two officials say […]
Posted inPolitics
Walsh calls off talks with Wynn, Mohegan
Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is unilaterally calling off all mitigation negotiations with the two companies vying to build a casino on the city’s border until after the Massachusetts Gaming Commission […]
Posted inEducation, Politics
Globe Foundation gives full-page ad to Walsh
The Boston Globe Foundation donated a full-page ad in Wednesday’s newspaper to Boston Mayor Marty Walsh so he could thank the staff of the Boston Public Schools at the close […]