The Census Bureau has caught up with reality and the numbers are grim. After a half-century of accounting only for inflation when measuring the poverty line, the federal head counters […]
National Politics
Posted inPolitics, The Download
If Kerry bolts, do Dems have a replacement?
Massachusetts political watchers have had their eyes on John Kerry’s Senate seat for nearly a decade now. At first, the seat was going to open up when Kerry cruised past […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Sen.-elect Warren is monosyllabic
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICECANDIDATE ELIZABETH WARREN was known for giving lengthy answers to the even the simplest of questions, often joking that she had not yet mastered the political skill […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Winners & losers
If the tone of Scott Brown’s campaign had matched the tenor of his concession speech, the man from Wrentham might be looking at six more years. Instead, Elizabeth Warren goes […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Warren turnout machine sweeps away Brown
SCOTT BROWN HANDED OFF ownership of the People’s Seat, stepped off the Park Plaza stage, and tried to explain to a crush of reporters how he’d just lost hold of […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, The Download
FEMA: How do you like me now?
If Katrina was the nadir for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, then Sandy is its brightest moment since New Orleans. Up and down the hurricane-battered Northeast corridor, local, state, and […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The Herald’s own case of Romnesia
There were two presidential debates last night: one viewed by huge swaths of the electorate, and whatever was streamed into the Boston Herald’s new offices on D Street. Most folks […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Obama, John Elway matter; Ross Perot not so much
To the surprise of exactly no one, President Obama endorsed Elizabeth Warren for the US Senate. The POTUS stamp of approval can’t hurt. Expect Warren to run with the endorsement […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Politics
Waiver warfare
of the domestic policy achievements of the past two decades, most would agree the two biggest are the welfare reform law of 1996 and the No Child Left Behind education […]
Posted inPolitics
Romney writes off 2002 campaign loan
FOR NEARLY EVERYONE else, a half-million dollars would be a pretty healthy retirement account. But for Mitt Romney, who has an estimated worth of $250 million, it’s akin to change […]
Posted inPolitics
Kaleidoscope
Photo credit: Tannen Maury/EPA/Landov Photo credit: Don Treeger/The Republican/Landov Story telling Spinning a good yarn is how we have recorded history, shared experiences, and tapped human emotion going back […]
Posted inPolitics
Talk is good
the country is hurtling toward the edge of a fiscal cliff, and nobody in Washington seems inclined to pull back. Indeed, no one in Washington seems inclined to do much […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Brown and Warren head way out west
All things Western Massachusetts get a rare opportunity to shine when Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren take their campaign cage match to Springfield tonight. The candidates’ early vows to keep […]
Posted inPolitics
Boehner hosts fundraiser for Tisei
Seeking to bolster the Republican majority in the US House, Speaker John Boehner hosted a fundraiser for Congressional candidate Richard Tisei Tuesday morning at the Harvard Club in downtown Boston. […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
What are the odds?
(A correction has been appended to this story) Tuesday morning, the Boston Globe and Boston Herald both wrote in-depth stories about Elizabeth Warren’s work for a steel company in Pennsylvania in 1995 that appeared […]
Posted inPolitics
Romney’s “givers and takers” moment
Mitt Romney’s intemperate remarks about the divide between givers and takers is now threatening to send his already teetering presidential campaign into a tailspin. The secret video recording of remarks […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The Bain of Romney’s existence
Mitt Romney, who says under his reign Bain Capital was a plus-jobs creator, has dismissed attacks on his record for more than a decade arguing the companies that went belly-up […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
Shifting alliances
the american medical Association, the venerable lobby organization for doctors, was for years a reliable Republican-leaning voice on big health care issues. For much of the past decade, however, the […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics, The Download
Supreme winners and losers
The US Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision upholding the constitutionality of President Obama’s national health care law has something for nearly every one. There were obvious winners and losers, but the […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics, The Download
Breaking up the Supremes?
In the wake of one of the most momentous and historic weeks for the Supreme Court in generations comes the growing question of what will happen to the court after […]
Posted inPolitics
Dems: Brown’s king, queen gaffe not unique
A video produced by the Massachusetts Democratic Party suggests US Sen. Scott Brown has been mis-speaking a lot when it comes to meeting with kings and queens. During a radio […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, The Download
UMass gives, takes away, and gets testy with Patrick
With student loan debt pushing past $1 trillion, Vice President Joe Biden, University of Massachusetts Amherst Chancellor Robert Holub, and representatives from the New York, Maryland, and Texas state university […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
A May surprise for Warren
After months during which virtually everyone anointed Elizabeth Warren as the Democratic nominee for Senate and ignored her potential primary opponent, Marisa DeFranco, suddenly there’s a storm over Gov. Deval […]