Robert J. Haynes, the new president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, is in his Beacon Street office in Boston, expounding on one of his favorite themes–the changing face and expanding role of organized labor in this state and in the country–when he gets buzzed for a phone call. He had told the receptionist to hold all […]
Robert Keough
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The Death and Life of an Empowerment Zone
Pat Cusick, a longtime fighter for the low-income residents of Boston’s South End, ought to know better than to get his hopes up. As executive director of the South End Neighborhood Action Program, or SNAP, Cusick has seen government programs — urban renewal, Model Cities, enterprise zones — come and go, sometimes helping, sometimes hurting, […]
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Behind the Revolving Door
In the fourth-floor press room at the State House, there’s no more popular sport than flack-bashing. If reporters harbor a natural mistrust of politicians, it’s nothing compared to their contempt for the press functionaries who run political interference for pols. “Goddamn flack” is a ritual refrain that reverberates around the room, usually following the slam […]