Job training initiatives should begin with realistic expectations about employers and employees

By Erin Flynn Employment, Higher Education and Adult Learning 0 Comments Aug 1, 2005

The Commonwealth has an impending workforce crisis on its hands, but it’s one that’s paradoxical. As a percentage of population, Massachusetts has more college-educated residents than any other state in the country. At the same time, with a slow-growing workforce fueled largely by foreign immigrants, a larger and larger share of our adult population is(...)

Politics

Lynnfield tries to add town meeting attendees by reducing its quorum

By Eric Wagner Municipal Government 0 Comments Aug 1, 2005

LYNNFIELD – It’s Monday, May 2, the second night of town meeting, and residents are gathered in the auditorium of Lynnfield Middle School to consider two articles left over from the previous week. Things are supposed to start at 7:30 p.m., but 10 minutes later there are only 139 people in the room, far short(...)

Education

Counterpoints

By David Driscoll Elementary and Secondary Education 0 Comments Aug 1, 2005

Yes, charter schools have been controversial, but then again, so has just about everything we’ve done to improve public education. Curriculum frameworks, graduation requirements, teacher testing, you name it, and it’s been controversial. If it disrupts the status quo, someone’s against it. So I am heartened to read in Shelley Berman and Tom Scott’s article(...)

Uncategorized

Statistically Significant

By Robert David Sullivan Demographics 0 Comments Aug 1, 2005

Illustrations by Travis Foster GREEN CARS MAY HIT GLASS CEILING Hybrid cars, which are partly powered by electric batteries and thus burn less gasoline, are surging in popularity, according to automotive industry analyst R.L. Polk & Co. The number of hybrid cars registered last year was 83,153, an annual increase of 81 percent. Massachusetts ranked(...)

Education

Argument

By Sheldon Berman and Thomas Scott Elementary and Secondary Education 0 Comments Aug 1, 2005

Since Massachusetts launched its experiment with charter schools in 1993, tensions between Commonwealth charter schools and public school districts have steadily intensified. Proposed as laboratories of innovation that, by suspending bureaucratic and union rules, would produce exceptional results for children and provide examples of innovation that could be replicated, charter schools have not met these(...)

Environment

Wind farms stir up trouble in the hills

By Stacie N. Galang Energy 0 Comments Aug 1, 2005

INTRO TEXT Wind turbines may be a source of renewable energy, but they also generate strong feelings. That’s what William Hubbard learned from his two-year fight to build a 12-megawatt wind farm – small by industry standards – in Fitchburg. The Applied Wind Technology developer says that in December the city took him to district(...)

Economy/ Politics

The Community Preservation Act finds its balance

By Michael Jonas Municipal Government, Taxes and Budget Issues 0 Comments Aug 1, 2005

DESPITE EARLY WORRIES that the Community Preservation Act was funding a land grab by suburban communities eager to lock in open space at the expense of the affordable housing the law was also designed to support, new spending data show that communities are pursuing the balance of uses envisioned five years ago when the measure was(...)

Criminal Justice

DNA test cause headaches for the states crime lab

By Gabrielle Gurley 0 Comments Aug 1, 2005

INTRO TEXT Even crime has its growth sector, and in the Bay State, it’s burglary. The only violent or property crime category to increase between 2002 and 2003, burglary rose 1.3 percent, according to the latest State Police figures. Trace DNA evidence from blood, perspiration, or saliva can help to solve those crimes, as well(...)

Politics/ Transportation

CommonWealth Forum weighs mass transit

By Eric Wagner Media and Journalism 0 Comments Aug 1, 2005

INTRO TEXT The state’s plan to extend the MBTA’s Green Line to West Medford does not promise enough environmental benefits to justify its cost, according to one panelist at the latest CommonWealth Forum, but public-transit advocates responded that the project is only one of many needed to improve transportation and stimulate economic growth in the(...)

Economy/ Politics

Under Control

By B.J. Roche Municipal Government, Taxes and Budget Issues 0 Comments Aug 1, 2005

Consultant Carroll Buracker (left at microphone) gives the Springfield Finance Control Board his grade of the police department: “Dysfunctional with a capital ‘D.'” It was nearly a year after the city of Springfield, on the brink of bankruptcy, received a $52 million state loan, and the five-member Finance Control Board imposed by the state in(...)

Summer 2005