Two wrongfully convicted black men won big victories this week — one had a murder conviction vacated, and the second will get $3.1 million for serving 38 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit. Both men received sentences of life without parole. There is a combined 78 years of wrongful incarceration between […]
CommonWealth Staff
Posted inThe Download
House budget addresses COVID-related education dilemmas
The coronavirus pandemic created – and exposed – multiple problems with the state’s education system, from preschool through high school. Now, lawmakers appear poised to use the must-pass vehicle of the annual state budget to begin figuring out how to address some of these issues. A large consolidated amendment passed at the end of Tuesday’s […]
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Baker really is a RINO
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER’S status was sealed last night: He is now an officially certified leading figure among the ever-shrinking ranks of major elected Republicans who question the sanity of their party. It came when CNN’s Don Lemon, whose nightly show has been part of the cable network’s four-year monologue on the destruction being wrought by […]
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Tran’s concession statement reflects his isolation
Sen. Dean Tran of Fitchburg posted a concession statement of sorts on Facebook over the weekend that seemed to capture the isolation he felt on Beacon Hill. Tran lost a close race to Democratic political newcomer John Cronin, who had relentlessly attacked the Republican incumbent for the disciplinary action the full Senate took against him […]
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Mass. Democratic Party chair candidates look toward 2022
With the 2020 election in the rearview mirror, the Massachusetts Democratic Party is gearing up for its next fight: to retake the governorship in two years. Speaking on the Codcast, party chair Gus Bickford argued that he is best positioned to lead the party in that battle. But Mike Lake and Bob Massie, who are […]
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The case for Donald Trump
A Boston Globe news analysis of the presidential election posed the question that’s on the mind of many blue-state activists right now: Are we really that disconnected from the rest of our country? Political analyst Anthony Cignoli told the Globe that a large group of Democrats “are completely shell-shocked and demoralized” about how close the […]
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Enrollment declines crop up in public schools
Two months into the new school year, some communities are beginning to report enrollment declines, presumably an offshoot of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Worcester school district lost 1,046 students, about 4.2 percent of last year’s total of 25,049, according to the Telegram & Gazette. It was the second year in a row that enrollment declined, […]
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Race in doubt, polling in the cross hair
WE DON’T KNOW who will win the presidential election, but it seems clear who is getting tagged with a big loss: pollsters. “We still don’t know much about this election — except that the media and pollsters blew it again,” reads the headline over Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan’s early-morning dispatch posted at 5 […]
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Baker, McDermott fight to retain control of sheriff’s post
Two years ago, days after she stepped down in late 2018 as chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party, Kirsten Hughes landed on her feet at the Norfolk County sheriff’s office. Hughes, one of Gov. Charlie Baker’s close political allies, was given a $75,000 contract to serve as a special legal counsel, which turned into a […]
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Mail-in voting may be here to stay
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Massachusetts allowed no-excuse mail-in voting for the first time this year as well as expanded early voting – and millions of voters took advantage. By Saturday evening, 2.28 million voters had cast their ballots, either by mail or in person – a number equivalent to more than two-thirds of all […]