This story was updated. FRUSTRATED OVER THE lack of cooperation from the Baker administration on a legislative probe into extensive failures at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, lawmakers cut short their oversight hearing Monday morning, essentially telling Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack to come back when she had something to tell them. An “extremely disappointed” House […]
Andy Metzger
Andy Metzger is currently studying law at Temple University in Philadelphia. Previously, he joined CommonWealth Magazine as a reporter in January 2019. He has covered news in Massachusetts since 2007. For more than six years starting in May 2012 he wrote about state politics and government for the State House News Service. At the News Service, he followed three criminal trials from opening statements to verdicts, tracked bills through the flumes and eddies of the Legislature, and sounded out the governor’s point of view on a host of issues – from the proposed Olympics bid to federal politics.
Before that, Metzger worked at the Chelmsford Independent, The Arlington Advocate, the Somerville Journal and the Cambridge Chronicle, weekly community newspapers that cover an array of local topics. Metzger graduated from UMass Boston in 2006. In addition to his written journalism, Metzger produced a work of illustrated journalism about Gov. Charlie Baker’s record regarding the MBTA. He lives in Somerville and commutes mainly by bicycle.
Posted inUncategorized
Budget stalemate ends, plan ups spending
ABOUT THREE WEEKS into the fiscal year, House and Senate budget negotiators have produced a compromise budget bill that takes some steps toward reducing pharmaceutical costs for Medicaid, nixes proposed taxes on e-cigarettes and opioid medication, and finds ways to spend or store away more than a half billion dollars in revenue above earlier expectations. […]
Posted inPolitics
Baker bill seeks new rules for commercial drivers
JUST UNDER A MONTH after a truck crash that killed seven motorcyclists in New Hampshire, Gov. Charlie Baker filed legislation Friday that he says would enhance safety by keeping dangerous commercial drivers off the road. The bill aims to accomplish that goal by increasing penalties for repeat bad drivers and requiring trucking businesses to sign […]
Posted inGambling
Mohegan’s “all or nothing” challenge to Encore dismissed
RELATIVELY MINOR VIOLATIONS of the open meeting law by state gambling regulators shouldn’t invalidate Encore Boston Harbor’s casino license, a state judge wrote in dismissing a court challenge brought by a handful of Revere residents. The three residents’ open meeting law challenge was part of a larger suit that Encore’s rival, Mohegan Sun, is pursuing […]
Posted inEnvironment
What to do about Cape Cod’s sharks?
IT WOULD BE AN ENVIRONMENTAL success story were it not for all the swimmers and surfers. The rejuvenated population of great white sharks patrolling the waters off Cape Cod has raised the alarm, and for good reason. The sharks pose a potentially fatal threat to people in the water, and that offshore menace creates risks […]
Posted inTransportation
Riders give T worst marks yet in June performance review
RIDERS’ OPINIONS OF the MBTA plummeted in June, perhaps unsurprisingly, as more than half of the respondents to the T’s regular survey were at least somewhat dissatisfied with the service overall. The June rating of 2.5 out of 5 is the lowest since that survey began in February 2016, and a striking dip from ratings […]
Posted inPolitics
Mass. Republican elected leaders decry Trump’s remarks
THE BAY STATE’S three most powerful elected Republicans have now each criticized President Trump to varying degrees for his recent racist exhortations, but other top members of the president’s party from Massachusetts would rather ignore it. House Minority Leader Brad Jones and Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr on Tuesday both joined Gov. Charlie Baker in […]
Posted inTransportation
Sometimes a Mr. Fix-it needs to get under the hood
IT MUST HAVE BEEN A SIGHT. Gov. Charlie Baker, who has steadfastly refused to ride the MBTA as governor, was nevertheless there on a Red Line passenger platform about a week after the June 11 derailment and crash that has precipitated a summer full of delays. The governor wasn’t at JFK/UMass to catch a train, […]
Posted inPolitics
Baker proposes new ride-hailing regs
Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday proposed a range of new regulations to prevent abuses of the Uber and Lyft ride-hailing platforms and to more precisely monitor how those on-demand travel services are being used. The legislation would require the tech giants that host the services to share reams of anonymized data about rides so that […]
Posted inPolitics
Could partisanship become justification for Census query?
READING BETWEEN THE lines of two blockbuster Supreme Court rulings this summer, it’s easy to guess what the Trump administration’s next move might be to try to put a citizenship question on the 2020 US Census. Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s majority closed one door, ruling that the Trump administration’s rationale for a […]