Worcester’s hush-hush courtship of the Pawtucket Red Sox just got a bit more interesting. The Telegram & Gazette reported that the city hired Smith College economist Andrew Zimbalist and former Massachusetts secretary of transportation Jeffrey Mullan to work as consultants on the project. Zimbalist is generally regarded as a skeptic when it comes to public […]
Current Affairs
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Judge, jury, executioner, and president
For someone who touts himself as a law-and-order kind of guy, President Trump does law enforcement officials and prosecutors no favors with his impulsive social media and campaign-style rhetoric. The terror attack that killed eight people in Manhattan on Tuesday is the latest incident to draw attention from Trump’s ungoverned fingers as he tweeted out […]
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Walsh plays it cute in council contest
It’s less than a week until Boston’s municipal election, which means we’re officially in the silly season phase. This stage of the race is the one in which we’re reminded of a time-honored Boston act of political hair-splitting: the offering of support for a candidate, but not a formal endorsement. The silly season episode this […]
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Naloxone is Band-Aid, not cure
New research indicates naloxone has been a huge life-saver for opioid overdose victims, but doctors say 1 in 10 of those rescued by the drug overdosed again within a year and died. Dr. Scott Weiner, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and the lead author of the research study, analyzed 12,192 […]
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Beacon Hill harassment
In the old days, we’d say House Speaker Robert DeLeo reacted to news about sexual harassment at the State House before the ink was even dry on Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham’s disturbing account of the sordid state of things under the Golden Dome. In this case, the ink actually hadn’t even start flowing. DeLeo stepped […]
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With Sanders, affordable housing feels the burn
What do Bernie Sanders and Boston area development battles have to do with each other? Not much. Or at least they didn’t — until Vermont’s socialist senator parachuted into the middle of very local squabbles by endorsing slates of candidates in the upcoming municipal elections in Somerville and Cambridge. Sanders’s effort is not only sowing […]
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Does GOP infighting matter?
Republicans in Washington are eating their own. US Sens. Jeff Flake and Bob Corker, on their way out the door, have unleashed themselves to attack President Trump and his penchant for name-calling and whipping the base into a mouth-foaming frenzy. Sen. John McCain, trying to be more elder statesmanny, skews the president without naming […]
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The bidding war for Amazon
Massachusetts chose not to specify what tax breaks it would offer Amazon if the tech giant located its second headquarters here, but other states and cities appear to be raising the bar pretty high. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie offered up to $7 billion in tax credits if Amazon put its headquarters in Newark. Chicago […]
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The Codcast: Do we need an Amazon kick in the pants?
As you pore over the bids for Amazon’s second headquarters, put your headphones on, call up The Codcast, and listen to Shirley Leung and Chris Dempsey talk about what’s at stake. Leung, a pro-growth columnist for the Boston Globe, and Dempsey, the director of Transportation for Massachusetts and one of the leaders of the No […]
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Drug treatment for drug addiction
Researchers are busy figuring out new ways to deal with the opioid addiction crisis, but one of the most effective approaches also comes with a good deal of controversy. That’s because it involves the use of drugs to deal with those hooked on drugs. Methadone and Suboxone are both opioids, but they satisfy an addict’s […]