John Silber’s death this week at age 86 is another one of those markers of local history, a moment to reflect on the past and consider how certain events have […]
State Government
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
Atlanta’s Scott chosen as next MBTA chief
Beverly Scott, the outgoing Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority chief, will move into one of the state’s top transportation positions as the MBTA general manager/rail and transit administrator in December. […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story, Transportation
Pragmatic approach at authorities
The Patrick administration is taking a pragmatic approach to the salaries being offered to candidates for the long-empty top jobs at Massport and the MBTA, paying more money than the […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Former prosecutor to head drug lab case review
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Former Suffolk County prosecutor David Meier will lead a new central office set up to review the thousands of criminal cases potentially tainted by a state […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
Glynn to be tapped for Massport head
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE The lengthy search for a new chief executive of the Massachusetts Port Authority has narrowed in on former health care executive and MBTA chief Thomas Glynn, […]
Posted inPolitics
Tierney has surprising lead over Tisei
A new poll shows that while US Rep. John Tierney and his Republican challenger Richard Tisei are holding their own among partisan voters, Tierney leads the race by 7 percentage […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Back Story
DCR ups rent demands
The Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation, under scrutiny for leasing state land at bargain-basement rates, is demanding a big increase in rent for a state-owned parking lot located in […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, The Back Story
Tax breaks on the hot seat
Tax breaks, for years a largely untouchable entitlement that Beacon Hill offered to businesses, are finally coming in for some serious scrutiny. The Patrick administration told state lawmakers this week […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
A frustrating Dream
Faith in The Dream By Deval Patrick Hyperion, 100 pages In the mid 1960s, when he was about 10 years old and living in Chicago, Deval Patrick went with one […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
AG: Health care law gives her enormous power
Attorney General Martha Coakley says the state’s new health care law gives her office enormous power to force hospitals, doctors, and other providers to rein in cost increases. The new […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, State House News Service
Patrick signs sentencing reform bill
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Gov. Deval Patrick on Thursday morning signed legislation eliminating parole eligibility for certain repeat violent offenders and making about 600 non-violent drug offenders immediately eligible for […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, State House News Service
DeLeo uncertain of Patrick’s sentencing bill plan
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE With the possibility that Gov. Deval Patrick could quietly kill habitual offender legislation by vetoing it after formal sessions end for the year at midnight tonight, […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service, Transportation
Moving with delays
Both the MBTA and the Massachusetts Port Authority have interviewed candidates for their top jobs, but after a year of searching neither agency appears close to naming executives to run […]
Posted inPolitics
The inside story of gaming agency hire
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission hired Carl Stanley McGee as its interim executive director on May 1. McGee, a Harvard Law School graduate, former Rhodes Scholar, and Gov. Deval Patrick’s point […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Conservancy loses bid for Armenian park care
The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy has lost its bid to maintain the Armenian Heritage Park, a half-acre park that sits in the middle of the Greenway park system. The […]
Posted inPolitics
What happens to unused campaign funds?
when elected officials leave office, they take a lot of things with them: memories, the appreciation of colleagues and constituents, and a pension if they served long enough. Some also […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Patrick signs budget, sends amendments to Legislature
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Gov. Deval Patrick put his final imprint on a $32.5 billion state budget for fiscal 2013 on Sunday, returning several proposals with amendments to the Legislature […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Conference committee agrees on $32b budget
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE The House and Senate are preparing to vote on a $32.5 billion state budget for fiscal 2013 after negotiators struck a compromise that increases funding for […]
Posted inEconomy, Health Care, Politics, State House News Service
Senate passes food pricing bill
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE With just two senators present, the Senate on Monday morning approved a bill that food stores in Massachusetts have been pressing unsuccessfully for a decade. Under […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
What does Vidal Sassoon have to do with P3s?
Vidal Sassoon died this month, and that news brought me back to the 1980s somehow (or maybe it was the new version of “Dallas.” Yikes.) But it reminded me that […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics, The Back Story
The bottle bill blues
The state already has on its books a recycling law that assesses a 5-cent deposit on beer and carbonated beverage containers. Supporters have been trying for 14 years to extend […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
RTAs strike back at T-only bailouts
State lawmakers outside Greater Boston, backed up by increasingly irate transit riders in their districts, are exerting a newfound assertiveness so they can get more of the state dollars that […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Gambling glitch
The gambling conglomerate bankrolling the efforts to build a tribal casino in Taunton has become embroiled in an apparent pay-to-play scandal in New York, a fact that sheds new light […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Environment, Politics
Murray rips NRC, Entergy
As the lockout of workers at the Pilgrim nuclear power plant in Plymouth continues amid stalled contract negotiations, Senate President Therese Murray had some harsh words Thursday for the Nuclear […]