Creative accounting on Beacon Hill

Lawmakers warm to the idea of private funding for police, fire training

By Bruce Mohl Charlie Baker, Massachusetts Legislature, Taxes and Budget Issues 0 Comments Jul 10, 2018

BRIAN KEYES, the police chief in Chelsea, sounds like a mountain climber with the summit finally in sight. He and his fellow chiefs have been scaling Beacon Hill for almost a decade looking for a way to fund police training programs that wouldn’t require them to go hat in hand to the Legislature each and(...)

Education/ Politics

Parent provocateur

Mom-in-chief Keri Rodrigues rallies parents on education issues, but her past work on charters dogs her

By Michael Jonas Elementary and Secondary Education 0 Comments Jul 10, 2018

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MICHAEL MANNING IT’S A THURSDAY EVENING in late May and about 20 immigrant parents and grandparents are gathered in a meeting room of the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association in Lowell. It’s the monthly gathering of the local chapter of Massachusetts Parents United, a statewide organization launched two years ago to give low-income families(...)

Media

CommonWealth going all digital

Quarterly print magazine ending as we focus exclusively on website

By Bruce Mohl Media and Journalism 0 Comments Jul 10, 2018

TODAY’S RELEASE of the print issue of CommonWealth will be our last. After surveying readers, consulting with board members of MassINC, and holding many discussions with my colleagues here at the magazine, I’ve decided we should stop printing the quarterly print magazine and focus all of our attention and resources on the CommonWealth website. The decision(...)

Arts + Policy/ Arts and Culture

Keeping Somerville cool

For Greg Jenkins, the arts encompass just about everything, even Marshmallow Fluff

By Bruce Mohl Gregory Jenkins, Somerville, Somerville Arts Council 0 Comments Jul 10, 2018

PHOTOS BY FRANK CURRAN SOMERVILLE MAYOR JOSEPH CURTATONE likes to be bold. “I always tell Greg, bring me something no one else has done and that’s really off the wall,” he says. Greg, in this case, is Gregory Jenkins, the executive director of the Somerville Arts Council. Jenkins generally does what his boss tells him(...)

Economy/ Health

Gateway Cities discover the power of food

Fresh veggies, koshari turn food deserts into oases

By Ted Siefer Gateway Cities, Growth and Development 0 Comments Jul 10, 2018

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KEN RICHARDSON FOOD HAS ALWAYS LOOMED LARGE in the life of Dimple Rana. While growing up in Revere, she helped her parents, immigrants from India, work in Indian grocery stores in Somerville. Later, she helped manage convenience stores owned by her family. But working retail wasn’t her ambition. She promptly left Revere after(...)

Politics

Is it possible Elizabeth Warren is becoming more bipartisan?

New research says yes, based on the bills she files, cosponsors

By Shawn Zeller National Politics 0 Comments Jul 10, 2018

An earlier version of this story said that none of Elizabeth Warren’s bills had become law during the current Congress. In fact, one of her bills, to make it easier to purchase hearing aids, was incorporated into legislation reauthorizing the Food and Drug Administration that was enacted in 2017, while Congress also enacted provisions similar(...)

Criminal Justice

Course corrections

Dogs, drumming, and beads: Is this really jail?

By Linda Enerson Criminal justice reform 0 Comments Jul 9, 2018

PHOTOGRAPHS BY MEGHAN MOORE THE HAMPDEN COUNTY SHERIFF’S Pre-release Center in Ludlow looks pretty much like what you’d expect of a minimum security jail—clean but stark. Then, Zadie and Misty, two energetic young hounds bound down the hallway to greet the visitors, ears flapping, tails wagging. As they fill the otherwise institutional space with infectious(...)

Health Care/ Opinion

The real driver of health care spending

An inefficiency gap is boosting costs — and profits

By Edward M Murphy Health Care 0 Comments Jul 9, 2018

THE HEALTH CARE DEBATES that occurred in Washington over the past year were largely irrelevant to what’s happening in the health care marketplace. Republicans couldn’t repeal the Affordable Care Act but they made some changes that weakened it. Those changes will increase insurance premiums in the individual market but they do nothing to address the(...)