The Codcast: The Greenway deal

By CommonWealth Staff Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy 3 Comments Jun 23, 2017

The Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway Conservancy gained a measure of stability this week as the state, the city of Boston, and park abutters agreed to provide $2 million a year to help cover the organization’s operational expenses. The Conservancy didn’t gain any new money with the agreement, but it avoided a big loss. The Baker(...)

The Download/ Politics

A costly lesson

By CommonWealth Staff Taxes and Budget Issues, UMass 1 Comment Jun 21, 2017

Mark Twain once famously observed, “Everyone talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.” College debt, it seems, is falling into the same category as tuition rates continue to climb with little relief coming from state or federal governments. University of Massachusetts President Marty Meehan said it’s likely that tuition and fees at(...)

The Download/ Politics

Baker likes the center

By CommonWealth Staff Charlie Baker, Current Affairs, Elections 0 Comments Jun 20, 2017

Gov. Charlie Baker demonstrated again on Monday his ability to shape-shift to the political center. The Republican governor, who had once floated the idea of merging the state’s Life Sciences Center into a broader economic development agency, opted instead for a five-year extension of his Democratic predecessor’s life science initiative. He said he would ask(...)

The Download/ Education/ Politics

Targeting charters

By CommonWealth Staff Charter schools, Silver Hill Horace Mann Charter School 2 Comments Jun 19, 2017

One has to wonder at what point charter schools will no longer be the education lightning rod. Long the target of union and administrator angst for what they perceive as drawing on tight public resources, charter schools have been attacked from all angles since they came into being as part of the Education Reform Act. The(...)

The Download/ Politics

The Codcast: How you beat Baker

By CommonWealth Staff Bob Massie, Jay Gonzalez, The Codcast 0 Comments Jun 16, 2017

Jay Gonzalez and Bob Massie grabbed some badly needed media attention this week when the two candidates for the Democratic nomination for governor issued a joint press statement attacking Gov. Charlie Baker for refusing to take a stand on the millionaire’s tax. Gonzalez, a former health care executive and top budget official under former governor(...)

The Download/ Politics

Free things on the internet of things

By CommonWealth Staff internet, Taxes and Budget Issues 0 Comments Jun 15, 2017

The Age of the Internet has spawned a number of changes in the way people think, chief of which is a growing sense of entitlement. Since the dawn of the world wide web, people have been able to access and get to things quickly, easily, and relatively cheaply, if not totally freely. But with that(...)

The Download/ Health Care/ Politics

How a health care bill becomes a law

By CommonWealth Staff Current Affairs, Ethics and Open Government, Health Care, National Politics 0 Comments Jun 14, 2017

While all eyes yesterday were on the Senate hearing where Attorney General Jeff Sessions was testifying, some actual legislating is taking place in Washington — or so we are led to believe. The once-moribund Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill, which the House resuscitated last month, passed, and sent along to the Senate, may be moving toward a(...)

The Download/ Politics

High Times indeed

By CommonWealth Staff Current Affairs, Legal marijuana, marijuana legislation 0 Comments Jun 13, 2017

As the Massachusetts Legislature prepares to amend the voter-approved pot law, it’s a good time to take stock of where we are and where we’re headed. Voters approved the recreational sale of marijuana back in November by a 54-46 margin, despite claims by most of the state’s top pols that pot is a gateway drug(...)

The Download/ Politics

Fighting inequality: A losing battle?

By CommonWealth Staff Boston Bridge, Income inequality 0 Comments Jun 12, 2017

It’s the overarching issue of our time, so income inequality was certainly deserving of the package of pieces devoted to the topic in yesterday’s Globe Ideas section. There was only one problem with the four stories on the subject: Once you were done reading them all, rather than having a better understanding of how the(...)

The Download/ Transportation

The Codcast: Auburndale whistleblowers

By CommonWealth Staff The Codcast, Transit Matters 1 Comment Jun 9, 2017

Today’s Codcast features the TransitMatters guys who put the brakes on an $11 million MBTA redesign of the Auburndale commuter rail station that was going to improve handicap accessibility but result in poorer service on the Framingham-Worcester Line. Andy Monat brought the problem to the general public’s attention with an article in CommonWealth that bluntly(...)


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