THE MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION is trying to rein in the state’s 15 regional transit authorities, the agencies that run buses outside the MBTA service area. MassDOT recently signed a memorandum of understanding with each authority, laying out baseline figures for a variety of performance and financial metrics, and setting targets in each category for […]
Bruce Mohl
Bruce Mohl oversees the production of content and edits reports, along with carrying out his own reporting with a particular focus on transportation, energy, and climate issues.
He previously worked at the Boston Globe, where he spent nearly 30 years in a wide variety of positions covering business and politics. He covered the Massachusetts State House and served as the Globe’s State House bureau chief in the late 1980s. He also reported for the Globe’s Spotlight Team, winning a Loeb award in 1992 for coverage of conflicts of interest in the state’s pension system. He served as the Globe’s political editor in 1994 and went on to cover consumer issues for the newspaper.
Bruce is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
Posted inUncategorized
DPU approves National Grid rate hike
STATE REGULATORS on Tuesday approved raising National Grid’s monthly residential customer charge from $5.50 to $7 along with a yet-to-be-determined increase in the per-kilowatt distribution rate on residential customer bills. On a gross basis, the rate increase amounted to $90 million a year. The increase, the first since 2016, will take effect November 1. In […]
Posted inTransportation
What casino traffic?
FIVE YEARS AGO, when the Massachusetts Gaming Commission awarded a license to a proposed casino on the banks of the Mystic River in Everett, traffic was one of the most pressing concerns. The area was already heavily congested, and the conventional wisdom was that plunking a huge casino down near Sullivan Square would make matters […]
Posted inUncategorized
Lawsuit: Baker overstepped his authority with vape ban
THREE SHOPS SELLING electric nicotine delivery systems in Massachusetts sued Gov. Charlie Baker and his administration in federal court on Monday, alleging the governor violated the US Constitution by banning all vaping products for four months. The lawsuit alleges Baker overstepped his authority by banning products regulated at the federal level by the US Food […]
Posted inHealth Care
BMC chief backs Medicaid for all
KATE WALSH says she favors Medicaid for all, not Medicare for all. It’s not a political slogan you hear much these days, but Walsh, the president and CEO of Boston Medical Center, has a unique perspective since so many of her hospital’s patients are on Medicaid. “I actually think Medicaid is the most important insurance plan […]
Posted inUncategorized
Trump aide offers no guidance on Vineyard Wind
A TRUMP ADMINISTRATION official attending a conference in Boston on Friday repeatedly refused to say when the agency’s review of the Vineyard Wind project would be completed. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management put the offshore wind farm on hold indefinitely in early August while it tries to gain a better understanding of the cumulative […]
Posted inPolitics
Campaign finance chief to step down
THE DIRECTOR of the Office of Campaign and Political Finance is planning to step down sometime in the next nine months, creating a vacancy that prompted the House to change the way his replacement would be selected. Rep. John Lawn Jr., the House chair of the Legislature’s Election Laws Committee, said Michael Sullivan has made […]
Posted inPolitics
House OK’s ouster of GOP’s Lyons from commission
THE HOUSE APPROVED legislation on Wednesday making a number of reforms to state campaign finance laws, one of which was attacked by GOP lawmakers as an “asinine,” unnecessary bid to oust the Trump-loving chairman of the Massachusetts Republican Party from the commission that appoints the state’s top political fundraising regulator. The bill contains a number […]
Posted inUncategorized
Baker bans all vaping products for 4 months
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER declared a public health emergency on Tuesday, banning the use of all vaping products in Massachusetts for four months amid uncertainty about what’s causing a mysterious lung illness. Baker’s ban, which will be enforced by the Department of Public Health, came as the number of lung illnesses appears to be growing. More […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Barr donates $500,000 to MassDevelopment
THE BARR FOUNDATION on Tuesday donated $500,000 to MassDevelopment to augment the state agency’s arts-based programming in Gateway Cities. The money will be funneled into two pots. One pot of $285,000 will fund grants of $20,000 to $40,000 for projects that serve to promote local arts and infrastructure in districts within 16 Gateway Cities targeted […]