Winter 2006

Winter 2006

Off-peak condition

Increases in the infectious disease rate and the percentage of people without health insurance, along with a drop in per-capita public health spending, caused Massachusetts to slip three notches, to ninth place, in the United Health Foundation’s annual ranking of health status in the 50 states, released in December. The Bay State peaked at third(...)

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Watertown provides a case study of citizen journalism on the web

Watertown provides a case study of citizen journalism on the web

Citizen journalist Lisa Williams wants to add to,not replace, the media mainstream. On an early-October evening at Watertown High School, Lisa Williams is in full schmooze mode. Williams, a 35-year-old mother of two, is the force behind H2otown, a weblog that combines news, photos, quirky commentary, and, above all, a running conversation about the place(...)

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Letters

Loved Mark Murphy’s article (“Rooting for the Home Team,” CW, Fall ’05) about minor-league and indy-league ballclubs in Massachusetts. I’m a fan of the North Shore Spirit, who play at Fraser Field in Lynn. I look forward to opening day every year. I pay $5 for a bleacher seat along the first base line and(...)

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"Strapped" author Tamara Draut explains why young adults arent getting ahead

“Strapped” author Tamara Draut explains why young adults arent getting ahead

In her new book, Strapped: Why America’s 20- and 30-Somethings Can’t Get Ahead, Tamara Draut crunches numbers and interviews young adults across the country to show how, for the generations following the Baby Boomers, the transition to full-fledged adulthood—living on your own, launching a career, starting a family—has become difficult to accomplish without going broke.(...)

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Turning 10

Turning 10

In 1996, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was at about 4,000 and just beginning its dizzying five-year runup to more than 11,000. The United States was in the midst of the longest period of sustained economic growth on record. Wealth was being created on a scale not seen in our history. In politics, Bill Weld(...)

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As jobs go off the books immigrants edge out some nativeborn workers

As jobs go off the books immigrants edge out some nativeborn workers

The economic recovery from the recession of 2001, both nationally and in Massachusetts, has been not only mixed, but also puzzling in a number of key respects. Nationally, growth has been fairly robust in Gross Domestic Product and corporate profits, and housing prices have risen rapidly in both the state and the nation through the(...)

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