Counting on new pilgrims

By Ian Bowles Immigration 0 Comments Oct 4, 2005

Fall 2005 Of all the media coverage generated in the wake of MassINC’s recent research on immigration, The Changing Face of Massachusetts, none was more poignant than an editorial by the Old Colony Memorial in Plymouth entitled “New Pilgrims.” The editors reminded readers of the Cordage Co., a local rope manufacturer, which a century ago(...)

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Letters

By CommonWealth Staff 0 Comments Oct 4, 2005

While your magazine is, of course, justified in providing wide latitude to Argument authors to spin numbers as they see fit (“How to reform the charter school program,” Argument & Counterpoint, CW, Summer ’05), that’s no excuse for allowing obvious misstatements of fact. 1) Sheldon Berman’s jihad on charter schools claims: “In fact, charter schools(...)

Politics

Municipalities face a deadline in making polling sites accessible for all

By Gabrielle Gurley 0 Comments Oct 4, 2005

INTRO TEXT Fall 2005 Everything these days is regulation, regulation, regulation, penalty, fine, threats.” That’s Medfield town administrator Mike Sullivan’s take on the Help America Vote Act, which is requiring municipalities to make all their polling places accessible to people with disabilities as of next year. Sullivan, who has been Medfield’s administrator for 30 years,(...)

Economy

Healey drops into a dispute over a homeless shelter in Worcester

By Noah Schaffer Housing 0 Comments Oct 4, 2005

Fall 2005 Lt. Gov.Healey at the controversial PIP Shelter in Worcester. The tour of the PIP Shelter on Main Street in Worcester on July 26 starts out as a routine, almost ceremonial, visit by Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, who chairs the state’s Interagency Council to End Homelessness. Healey is there by invitation of officials from(...)

Politics

Academics propose carrots and sticks to increase turnout in local elections

By Ned Bristol 0 Comments Oct 4, 2005

WHEN THE SOCCER moms showed up, James Glaser of Tufts University and his two colleagues knew their political science experiment was going to be a success. It was May 10, Election Day in Hooksett, NH, and Glaser and company had set up a tent outside the town’s single polling place in hopes of attracting voters. Among(...)

Economy

Bread winners

By Robert David Sullivan Demographics, Employment 0 Comments Oct 1, 2005

The business of making things is still strong in much of central Massachusetts, as well as parts of the Merrimack Valley and the southeastern region of the state. But curing other people is how more Bay State residents earn a living. The larger map below shows which economic sector is predominant among workers (not residents)(...)

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Statistically Significant

By Robert David Sullivan Demographics 0 Comments Oct 1, 2005

Illustrations by Travis Foster CURBS ON TEEN DRIVING PAY OFF More restrictions on driving by 15- to 17-year-olds have significantly reduced traffic deaths in that age group, according to a recent study by a Swarthmore College economics professor. Thomas Dee concluded that “graduated driver licensing,” which imposes restrictions on new drivers such as nighttime curfews(...)

Economy

Falling fortunes

By Eric Wagner Growth and Development 0 Comments Oct 1, 2005

If the German company Adidas goes through with its buyout of Canton–based sneaker rival Reebok, the Bay State will be the home of just nine Fortune 500 companies, down from 17 in 1998. While Massachusetts remains a hub for nonprofit institutions, it is quickly becoming a minor player in the world of big business. The(...)

Politics

The Red Sox have transcended if not reversed the racial curse

By Howard Bryant Civil and Constitutional Rights 0 Comments Apr 10, 2005

Now that donkeys can fly, hell has frozen over, and the Red Sox have been champions for an entire year, there exists here a palpable desire to peer even more deeply into victory for social significance, if there is any to be gleaned. It is an exercise peculiar to Boston baseball. When the Anaheim Angels(...)

Arts and Culture/ Health Care

The Rise and Fall of HMOs shows how a worthy idea went wrong

By Alain Enthoven 0 Comments Apr 10, 2005

The Rise and Fall of HMOs: An American Health Care RevolutionBy Jan Gregoire CoombsMadison,Wisc., University of Wisconsin Press, 430 pages. This well-written and thoroughly researched book by an unusually knowledgeable author traces two distinct, occasionally intersecting, histories. The first is that of the highly regarded Marshfield Clinic, a multi-specialty group medical practice in central Wisconsin(...)