Where are they now A quiz

By Elizabeth Thorarajoo 0 Comments Dec 1, 2000

A scavenger hunt for political has-beens Whatever happened to …? That is the question. They were once movers and shakers in the byzantine world of Bay State politics. But now they are off the radar screen. They had clout, savvy, even–some of them–longevity. Today, they value their hard-earned (and well-deserved) obscurity. But CommonWealth tracked them(...)

Education

Adult educational attainment

By CommonWealth Staff 0 Comments Dec 1, 2000

Massachusetts residents are among the country’s best educated, but not everyone is prepared for a knowledge-driven world. Bay State adults rank fourth in college education, with 31 percent holding a bachelor’s degree or higher. But for those holding a high school diploma, the state falls to 18th, with nearly 15 percent of adults lacking that(...)

Uncategorized/ Opinion

Its easier to manage care than expectations

By Jon Kingsdale 0 Comments Dec 1, 2000

The principal challenge to scientific medicine is no longer discovering new cures but affording new discoveries. Modern medicine represents an awesome, ever-expanding repertoire of life-saving and life-enhancing diagnostic, surgical, and pharmacological inventions. American medicine is quite literally the envy of the world. In the 20th century, it has contributed to a doubling of life expectancy(...)

Uncategorized

How to avoid sentencing scandals

By Robert Keough 0 Comments Dec 1, 2000

The furor over Superior Court Judge Maria Lopez’s sentence of Charles Horton to home confinement and probation for abducting a child and sexually assaulting him at the point of a screwdriver has, as usual in allegations of judicial “softness” on criminals, veered off in the wrong direction. Calls for the judge’s removal from the bench(...)

Health Care

Michael Dukakis and Jerome Grossman MD discuss competition regulation and relationship in health care

By Robert Keough 0 Comments Dec 1, 2000

It has been said that if the health care system in this state, and in this country, is in crisis, it has been in crisis for 25 years. And during that crisis, it is fair to say, more people have gotten better care and more successful treatment for a variety of ills–many of them incurable(...)

Uncategorized

Counterpoint

By David Donnelly 0 Comments Dec 1, 2000

I am a democrat. A little “d” democrat. I think democracy is a good thing. A clear-eyed, educated, and informed public went to the polls on November 3, 1998 and cast a binding vote to enact the Massachusetts Clean Elections Law by a two-to-one margin. More than one million voters understood the need to overhaul(...)

Uncategorized

Argument

By Daniel E. Bosley 0 Comments Dec 1, 2000

I am proud to be a Democrat. I contribute to other Democrats who run for office. I do not contribute to Republicans as a rule. I don’t contribute to people who have views that are not in line with mine or whom I do not support. However, under the so-called Clean Elections Law, I am(...)

Uncategorized

The vanishing T token

By Richard Just 0 Comments Dec 1, 2000

The world of high technology has transformed Massachusetts economically. Could fare collection at the T be the next inroad for electronica? Thanks to an overhaul this year in the way the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is funded, the Boston-area transit agency is making some changes. For one thing, the fares have gone up-the first across-the-board(...)

Uncategorized

Summer school scenes

By Millicent Lawton 0 Comments Dec 1, 2000

Like a lot of other students in the Boston public schools this past summer, 15-year-old Christine Dihigo needed a little push. By her own admission, Christine, a self-confident girl with a dramatic flair for reading aloud in class, “didn’t care” about doing well in ninth grade last year at Brighton High School. As a result,(...)

Criminal Justice

Revolvingdoor prisons

By Robert Keough 0 Comments Dec 1, 2000

Urban anti-crime activists say they have two groups of people to worry about in the coming years: the large cohort of youngsters now aging into their teenage years and the generation of toughs sent to prison in the crackdown of the ’90s who are now getting out. “You’ve got young guys on the corner trying(...)

Fall 2000