Many have been sounding the death knell for print and television news since the worldwide embrace of the Internet. Legacy media have been losing eyes and bleeding red ink as more and more readers get their news online, whether it’s from their tablets and computers or, increasingly, their smartphones. So why, one might ask, would such […]
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Posted inPolitics, The Download, Transportation
Senate guts Baker’s T plans
While the Legislature’s Transportation Committee was busy on Monday taking testimony on Gov. Charlie Baker’s MBTA reform bill, the Senate Ways and Means Committee was cutting to the chase and putting the finishing touches on a budget proposal that guts most of what Baker is seeking. The Senate budget proposal dispenses with the T fiscal […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Is bipartisanship killing the era of school accountability?
Partisan gridlock is something everyone loves to hate. The dysfunction in Washington underscores everything that’s wrong with governing today. That should make moments of bipartisan agreement something to celebrate, glimmers of hope amidst the endless rancor that show leaders can find common cause for the greater good. But what if it turns out that everyone […]
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
The Globe’s I-93 off-ramp
Boston 2024’s initial plan for transforming the area around UMass Boston into an Olympic Athlete’s Village included a new on-and-off ramp to I-93 that would have cut right through the southern portion of the Boston Globe‘s property on Morrissey Boulevard. A map on page 27 of the key venue plan shows a new entrance and […]
Posted inHealth Care, The Download
The hidden cost of having health insurance
U.S. News & World Report is out with its annual index on health insurance and its impact on the economy. To the surprise of few, many of the costs are declining or at least not rising at the dizzying pace they had been. But much of those savings are going into the pockets of businesses and […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Clinton, Warren, and Sanders: It’s complicated
Elizabeth Warren has so far resisted every appeal from her progressive fanbase to get into the 2016 race for president. Some refuse to believe that her “no” is genuine, which is why her recent meeting with a coalition of social and racial justice advocates that included Draft Warren supporters has created a frisson of anticipation through […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Tom Brady’s politics
Ever since Tom Brady skipped the New England Patriots’ White House visit late last month, there has been endless speculation on talk radio and in print about why the team captain was a no-show. Was he making some sort of political statement? (He had no problem visiting the Bush White House) Did he have Oval […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, The Download
Conservative hypocrisy on police unions
In the charged atmosphere surrounding the debate on race and policing in American cities, nuance and fresh perspective have often been in short supply. That made Ross Douthat‘s column in Sunday’s New York Times a welcome tonic. The reliably conservative voice on the Times op-ed page weighs in with a thoughtful critique of those on the […]
Posted inArts and Culture, The Download
Iron Man run off by reporter
Robert Downey Jr. was talking up the new Avengers movie in London when his TV interviewer suddenly started asking him questions about his past drug use, his politics, and his father. Downey eventually took offense, shed his microphone, and left. “It was getting a little Diane Sawyer and you’re kind of a schmuck,” he said to his interviewer on […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Baker takes conventional approach to change
The honeymoon between Gov. Charlie Baker and the public is not at an end but the realities of the forced marriage between Baker and Democrats are starting to bubble up as Baker on Wednesday pulled the plug, at least temporarily, on the planned $1 billion expansion of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center that is backed […]