IN ITS FINAL REPORT ON mismanagement at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, an audit firm faulted some of the political appointees on the board of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The board’s Finance and Audit Committee, which is for overseeing risk management, failed to engage with staff at the RMV about big picture issues, according […]
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 inArts and Culture
Haymarket artwork mystery solved
THE MYSTERY OF the missing public artwork at Haymarket is solved: It was dug up by a contractor, but it’s now safely stored nearby and state officials plan to contact the artist to determine what should be done with it. Mags Harries, the sculptor, was kept in the dark for more than a week after […]
Posted inTransportation
The station that private capital built
IN SOMERVILLE, corporate interests are practically tripping over each other to pay for improvements to transit connections. Encore Boston Harbor is willing to pay $25 million for a footbridge over the Mystic River linking the Everett casino to Somerville’s Assembly Station, reports Jon Chesto of the Boston Globe. That’s at least according to Everett Mayor […]
Posted inTransportation
RMV: Rhode Island to hand over thousands of infraction notices
MAKING AMENDS FOR past inaction, Rhode Island regulators plan to send the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles roughly 22,500 notices about infractions committed by Bay State drivers in the Ocean State dating back two years. The massive data transfer will cover a range of violations including some triggering immediate suspensions, according to an update distributed […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Haymarket art hauled off with no warning
WITH NO NOTICE to the artist, a groundbreaking work of public art was ripped out of the ground in Boston’s Haymarket last Thursday and carted off. The art consists of bronze depictions of some of the castoff scraps from the city’s long-running pushcart marketplace – green beans, lettuce, newspapers. A contractor working on crosswalks for […]
Posted inTransportation
East Coast states outline carbon pricing plan
OFFICIALS FROM MASSACHUSETTS and Maryland on Tuesday laid out in broad strokes their plans for a forthcoming program across the East Coast to reduce harmful tailpipe emissions and fund greener transportation alternatives by pricing the carbon contained in gas and diesel fuels. The proposal would mimic a gasoline tax from the perspective of consumers, but […]
Posted inEducation
Franklin Institute moving to Dudley
THE BENJAMIN FRANKLIN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY, a fast-growing school serving mostly students of color, is selling its South End location and moving to a brand new campus in Roxbury’s Dudley Square neighborhood with hopes to begin holding classes there in two years. “What we’re really looking at is how do we take everything we’ve learned […]
Posted inPolitics
Kerry: Republicans shouldn’t rush to president’s defense
JOHN KERRY ISN’T just another Democrat inveighing against President Trump’s suspected crimes. While his political leanings are clear, Kerry also has unique experience in the diplomatic arena in which Trump appears to have transgressed as well as the legislative body that might ultimately determine his fate. During his tenure as secretary of state from 2013-2017, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Following the money through City Hall
THERE ARE several loose threads spilling out from the case of John Lynch, who pled guilty in September and is currently scheduled to be sentenced in January for accepting bribes. A longtime City Hall aide who worked at the Boston Planning and Development Agency, Lynch pocketed $50,000, allegedly from developer Steven Turner, to influence the […]
Posted inTransportation
Poll: Voters back subway-like commuter rail
RESIDENTS AROUND THE state want more frequent, reliable, and electrified commuter rail service, but they are more divided over how to pay for such improvements. A majority of the 1,430 voters surveyed online in August strongly support switching from diesel to electric power on the commuter rail system, prioritizing running the trains more frequently throughout […]