Bay State Nation

What if America were more like us?

By Robert David Sullivan 0 Comments Aug 1, 2004

Read responses to this article. When the first President Bush ran for re-election in 1992, he cautioned the electorate against voting for a governor from Arkansas. “We do not want to be the lowest of the low,” Bush said, referring to literacy rates, poverty levels, and other measures that did not reflect well on the(...)

Arts and Culture/ Environment

The fatal Mill River flood was distressingly predictable

By Alan R. Earls 0 Comments Aug 1, 2004

In the Shadow of the Dam: The Aftermath of the Mill River Flood of 1874By Elizabeth M. SharpeFree Press, New York, 304 pages. Although floods still rank as major killers in many parts of the world, here in New England rampaging rivers aren’t a source of much worry. But it wasn’t always this way. Prior(...)

Politics

All about the “other” other JFK

By James V. Horrigan 0 Comments Aug 1, 2004

Multiple JFKs and other name games in Massachusetts politics When the Democrats convene in Boston’s FleetCenter to nominate US Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts for the presidency, the name John F. Kennedy is sure to be invoked, with no shortage of comparisons between the “old JFK” and the “new JFK.” What most of those(...)

Arts and Culture/ Environment

The cleanup of Boston Harbor was surprisingly triumphant

By John C. Berg 0 Comments Aug 1, 2004

Political Waters: The Long, Dirty, Contentious, Incredibly Expensive but Eventually Triumphant History of Boston Harbor—A Unique Environmental Success StoryBy Eric Jay DolinUniversity of Massachusetts Press, Amherst, 356 pages. At a recent Rappaport Institute panel at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, former governor Michael Dukakis called the Boston Harbor cleanup a success “that nobody talks about,”(...)

Education/ Opinion

A court decision on school financing is a chance to revisitand improveeducation reform

By Edward Moscovitch Elementary and Secondary Education 0 Comments Aug 1, 2004

The coverage in the press gave a misleading picture of the school finance decision handed down by Judge Margot Botsford in April. The judge did not say that the state needed to throw out its current system of funding schools nor did she say that we needed to divert millions of dollars from wealthy districts(...)

Economy

Who profits from federal spending

By Robert David Sullivan Taxes and Budget Issues 0 Comments Aug 1, 2004

The Big Dig notwithstanding, Massachusetts is one of the biggest losers in the tax-and-spend game run by the federal government. According to the Washington, DC-based Tax Foundation, in fiscal year 2002 the state got only 75 cents in federal expenditures in return for every tax dollar Bay State residents sent to the nation’s capital. Since(...)

Uncategorized

Letters

By CommonWealth Staff 0 Comments Aug 1, 2004

I want to congratulate David Ropeik for his insightful story about the state of health care media coverage in America (“Fear factor,” CW, Health Care Extra 2004). As a freelance health care writer, I am appalled at the inflated, often false, information perpetuated by the media. Recently, I wrote a story about a noise study(...)

Politics

A Woburn native battles the Bowling Alone phenomenon

By Robert Preer 0 Comments Aug 1, 2004

Many people at one time or another have read a book or article so engaging and compelling they vowed that once they finished it, they would get up and do something—volunteer for a cause, send money to a charity, or go on a diet. Cross-country flights, with their minimal distractions and rarefied air, tend to(...)

Economy/ Politics

The Big Dig gave birth to a business association that redefined civic leadership

By David Luberoff Growth and Development 0 Comments Aug 1, 2004

By the beginning of summer, the last remnants of the elevated Central Artery were being taken down, the green steel superstructure that walled off the financial district from the waterfront for decades torn into scraps and hauled away by the truckload. As the subterranean construction project known simply as the Big Dig turned into the(...)

Politics

No-party animals

By Robert David Sullivan Demographics 0 Comments Aug 1, 2004

Source: Elections Division, Massachusetts Secretary of State’s Office (www.sec.state.ma.us) As of February, 49.8 percent of Massachusetts voters were unenrolled in any party—a slight drop from the February 2000 high point of 50.3 for the independence movement (or non-movement), which has come back from a low of 35.3 percent in 1968. Going into this election year,(...)

Summer 2004

What if America were more like us?