THE HOUSE AND SENATE chairs of the Legislature’s Transportation Committee engaged in a back-and-forth debate about legislative priorities on transportation this year, with Sen. Joseph Boncore of Winthrop calling for a dramatic paradigm shift and Rep. William Straus of Mattapoisett questioning whether that shift has too big of a price tag. The two lawmakers appeared […]
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
Lobbying expenditures totaled $85.6m in 2020
THE STATE HOUSE is closed these days because of COVID-19, but for the most part businesses and other advocacy groups are continuing to hire lobbyists to represent their interests on Beacon Hill. Total spending on lobbying in 2020 was $85.6 million, down $1.8 million, or 2 percent, from 2019, according to Secretary of State William […]
Posted inEducation
Teachers unions seem to have Baker’s number
IF YOU’RE KEEPING score at home, Gov. Charlie Baker lost another battle on Wednesday in his long-running war with the state’s teachers unions. Baker for months had resisted the call by the unions to speed up the COVID-19 vaccination of their members. The governor insisted schools were already safe and teachers could wait their turn […]
Posted inEnvironment
Biden accused of playing politics on Vineyard Wind
WHEN THE TRUMP administration dragged its feet on the environmental permitting of Vineyard Wind, wind energy proponents in Massachusetts and across the country cried foul, claiming politics was driving the process. But now that the Biden administration is in office, the same claim is surfacing as the president quickly moves in the opposite direction. The […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Mom charged with attempted murder for putting baby in trash can
SUFFOLK COUNTY District Attorney Rachael Rollins filed attempted murder charges on Monday against a 33-year-old woman accused of giving birth all alone in the bathroom of a house she was cleaning and then disposing of the live infant in a trash can on Dorchester Avenue in the Lower Mills section of Boston. The baby was […]
Posted inPolitics
If Baker opts not to run, state GOP split on successor
A POLL COMMISSIONED by the conservative Fiscal Alliance Foundation indicates Republican primary voters would be split if Gov. Charlie Baker decides not to seek reelection next year. The poll initially asked 752 voters who have cast ballots in previous Democratic and Republican primaries their stances on a handful of policy issues. It then asked a […]
Posted inHealth Care
Contact tracing collaborative laying off 170
THE MASSACHUSETTS contact tracing collaborative is laying off 10 percent of its workforce this weekend as COVID-19 case counts continue a steady decline that prompted Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday to set March 22 as the starting date for the fourth and final phase of the state’s reopening plan. State officials said 170 of the […]
Posted inUncategorized
Baker: Mass. has received $71b in fed aid
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has funneled $71 billion to Massachusetts and its residents through four COVID-19 relief programs over the last year, Gov. Charlie Baker said at a legislative oversight hearing on Thursday. The $71 billion is an astonishing number, far higher than the $46 billion the Legislature appropriated for the state budget during the current […]
Posted inHealth Care
Hospitals to resume vaccinations Monday
HOSPITAL SYSTEMS are alerting their patients that they will resume COVID-19 vaccinations on Monday, less than three weeks after they were cut off by the Baker administration. Massachusetts General Brigham and Beth Israel Lahey notified patients Wednesday morning that they will be able to resume “limited appointments” for vaccinations on Monday. Spokespersons for the two […]
Posted inTransportation
With ‘cliff’ looming, T stalls for time
MBTA OFFICIALS are planning to put off the release of a new, five-year capital plan until June 2022, a move that reflects the financial uncertainty caused by the coronavirus and also the political calculus of a governor running out of funding options for the T’s ambitious capital spending program. It may sound like a minor […]