AS THE NATION enters hurricane season, Massachusetts is one of a handful of states on the East Coast facing the greatest financial risk because of the heavy concentration of business activity in hurricane flood zones. According to a report released Wednesday by Moody’s Investor Service, total wages in Massachusetts flood zone areas during the third […]
Economy
Posted inEducation
In Newton, the everyday version of “Varsity Blues” scandal
NEVER MIND BRIBING the college tennis coach and all its potential downsides — like a felony conviction and jail time. It turns out going to Newton North High School also sets up students for an extra edge in the college admission race, with the added bonus of being perfectly legal. There were plenty of jaw-dropping […]
Posted inOpinion
Overtime law needs an overhaul
THE MORE WE WORK, the less time we have for ourselves, our families, and our communities. That’s why, in order to protect employees from being forced to work long hours, we have overtime laws. These laws, in place since the New Deal, require that most workers be paid time-and-a-half for every hour they work over […]
Posted inPolitics
Thornton squeaks out a win from divided FEC
THE POLITICALLY WIRED ATTORNEYS at Thornton Law Firm won a partial — and ironic — victory at the Federal Election Commission last week. Andrea Estes, an investigative reporter at the Boston Globe, wrote what could wind up as the epilogue to a story she helped break three years ago. Back then, Estes and Viveca Novak […]
Posted inEconomy
State turns profit on GE HQ sale
MAYBE LESS IS MORE in Fort Point. Since announcing it would move to Boston in 2016, General Electric has scaled down the scope of its business, and on Thursday it sold off a 2.7-acre Boston property once slated to be part of the company’s headquarters. The company will have a more modest presence than the […]
Posted inPolitics
Fallen firefighter’s story highlights chemical fears
SUE PIPITONE WAS A PIONEER. The Everett Fire Department’s first and only active-duty female firefighter, she was known to drive Engine 1 “like a boss.” She enjoyed being “one of the boys” in the department, but young girls who visited the fire station were excited to see her because she was one of them. She also attracted attention away […]
Posted inOpinion
Massachusetts cannot afford an undercount in 2020
TODAY, THE US SUPREME COURT is hearing oral arguments on the addition of a question about citizenship on the 2020 Census. This proposed question compounds the climate of fear and distrust in the federal government and likely would lead to lower response rates among immigrant communities. Massachusetts has the seventh highest proportion of residents who are immigrants. […]
Posted inEconomy
New voices, proposals emerging in Boston’s biz community
WINDS OF CHANGE are starting to blow through Boston’s business community. One clear signal came earlier this month, when close to 20 business organizations said they would heed an appeal from House Speaker Robert DeLeo to help develop a transportation policy that likely will call for additional revenues. “It’s time for a united voice from […]
Posted inBook Review
Reforming capitalism to save it
IN THE FIVE YEARS since the publication of Thomas Piketty’s runaway bestseller, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, rising inequality has yet to force any consensus on what to do about it, while the macro trends of globalization and automation continue to make America unequal. Now, at the start of the 2020 election cycle, actors of […]
Posted inEconomy
Coughlin changes hats at hearing on drug pricing
AT A PACKED STATE HOUSE hearing Thursday on legislation to rein in the cost of pharmaceuticals, MassBIO CEO Robert Coughlin and two of his national colleagues were pitching the same argument they’ve been using for a long time – that any form of price control would jeopardize a thriving local industry and hinder the development […]