SOME STUDENTS at Harvard don’t just want to abolish ICE. They also want to banish bedrock journalistic principles. The effort is misguided on a number of fronts, and potentially counterproductive because the student activists’ big gripe was that their student newspaper drew too much attention to a protest. Since they ratcheted up their criticism with […]
Andy Metzger
Andy Metzger is currently studying law at Temple University in Philadelphia. Previously, he joined CommonWealth Magazine as a reporter in January 2019. He has covered news in Massachusetts since 2007. For more than six years starting in May 2012 he wrote about state politics and government for the State House News Service. At the News Service, he followed three criminal trials from opening statements to verdicts, tracked bills through the flumes and eddies of the Legislature, and sounded out the governor’s point of view on a host of issues – from the proposed Olympics bid to federal politics.
Before that, Metzger worked at the Chelmsford Independent, The Arlington Advocate, the Somerville Journal and the Cambridge Chronicle, weekly community newspapers that cover an array of local topics. Metzger graduated from UMass Boston in 2006. In addition to his written journalism, Metzger produced a work of illustrated journalism about Gov. Charlie Baker’s record regarding the MBTA. He lives in Somerville and commutes mainly by bicycle.
Posted inTransportation
Massport: New Uber/Lyft drop-offs will speed Logan travel
THE MASSACHUSETTS PORT AUTHORITY staged a dry run on Wednesday to demonstrate how a centralized location for Uber and Lyft pickups and drop-offs will work at Logan International Airport. With the ambitious play to reduce airport congestion set to start phasing in on Monday, Massport conducted a mock drop-off and pickup in the newly renovated […]
Posted inHealth Care
Mass. residents overburdened by health costs
EVEN AS OVERALL statewide spending on health care has remained just within the strictures of the state’s benchmark of 3.1 percent annual growth, for many families the costs have surged beyond other expenses, gobbling up much of their recent salary increases. That was one big takeaway from the opening of a blockbuster two-day conference about […]
Posted inHealth Care
Lawmakers: Baker’s health care bill a good start
LAST SESSION, Beacon Hill’s big three – the governor, the House speaker, and the Senate president — each had fundamentally different ideas about how to reform the state’s health care system, and attempts at compromise sputtered and failed. Now, Gov. Charlie Baker is taking another go at changing the health care marketplace, and he’s getting […]
Posted inGambling
To entice customers, Encore discounts trips to casino
SINCE ITS JUNE OPENING, Encore Boston Harbor has slashed the cost of travel to the Everett casino, first offering free parking and now adding free bus service to some and steeply discounted boat travel to all. At the same time, the casino has lagged behind in its revenue projections, putting it on pace to reach […]
Posted inPolitics
Clark backs supervised drug injection sites
Congresswoman Katherine Clark supports the idea of opening facilities where people can use illegal drugs under medical supervision to prevent overdose fatalities and refer people to treatment for drug addiction when they are ready. “These sites, in particular, if it is saving some lives, if it is allowing us to have the intervention to stop […]
Posted inArts and Culture
The art of family reunification
THE DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES and the Massachusetts Cultural Council – two agencies that would appear to have little in common – have launched a pilot program with the goal of using art to make supervised meetings between foster children and family members living in separate homes more enjoyable. The pilot grew out of […]
Posted inUncategorized
Celtics star hounded by Erdogan fans
This story has been updated to reflect that Bijan Rafiekian’s conviction was recently overturned. ENES KANTER was just trying to pray, but supporters of Turkey’s authoritarian leader found him on a sidewalk in Cambridge and turned a visit to a mosque into something darker. The new center for the Boston Celtics was leaving the Islamic Society […]
Posted inTransportation
Baker backs Moulton’s RMV proposal
ONCE SEEN AS POTENTIAL RIVALS, Congressman Seth Moulton and his North Shore neighbor Gov. Charlie Baker are rowing in the same direction on how to prevent a repeat of the bureaucratic nightmare at the Registry of Motor Vehicles. Notifications about infractions Massachusetts drivers committed in other states piled up unaddressed at the registry over a […]
Posted inTransportation
Straus: Transportation revenue debate starting now
THE LONG-AWAITED legislative debate over how to fund improvements to the state’s beleaguered transportation system will kick off Tuesday, according to one of the key players. Gov. Charlie Baker himself will appear before the Transportation Committee to pitch lawmakers on his five-year, $18 billion bond bill financing transportation construction projects. Questions over how the governor […]