OVER THE WEEKEND, public health experts warned that the national death toll from the coronavirus could kill up to 200,000 people, escalating the risk faced by the country. Despite these new warnings from the federal government, the response on the ground remains a patchwork of restrictions and recommendations as governors in red and blue states […]
News Analysis
Posted inEconomy
40 percent of Mass. residents expecting financial hardships
OVER THE COURSE of just a few weeks in March, the markets set records for crashes, unemployment claims shattered records for increases, and economic activity the world over slowed to a grinding crawl. Here in Massachusetts, the slow motion economy has caused massive job and wage losses, as people stay home and businesses close their […]
Posted inNews Analysis
Poll shows residents hunkering down at home
MONDAY’S “STAY-AT-HOME” advisory from Gov. Charlie Baker represents the most restrictive recommendation yet from the state to battle the growing coronavirus threat. Non-essential businesses have been ordered to close, and, perhaps the taller order, residents are being asked to stay at home. Three new datasets suggest residents are heeding this advice. The MassINC Polling Group, […]
Posted inNews Analysis
Simplistic theories won’t beat Trump
THE DRIVING FORCE in the Democratic presidential contest is the near-obsession of many voters with choosing a candidate who can beat Donald Trump. Nearly two-thirds of voters (63 percent) in this week’s New Hampshire Democratic primary said voting for a candidate who can beat Trump is more important than voting for a candidate they agreed […]
Posted inNews Analysis
Pros and cons on the Spotlight report on congestion
THE BOSTON GLOBE SPOTLIGHT TEAM reported this week that Greater Boston’s transportation problem is worsening and suggested the best way to deal with it would be to implement congestion pricing and use incentives to get people out of their vehicles. The massive three-part series contained a lot of great anecdotes and volumes of data. Over the […]
Posted inNews Analysis
Employer policies add to roadway gridlock
“WE HAVE MET the enemy and he is us.” That well-worn 1960s line from the Pogo comic strip could easily be deployed to describe the situation of Boston-area employers who are reaching the end of their rope over the never-ending woes of regional traffic gridlock. For a bunch of brain-powered heavyweights, the leaders of the […]
Posted inNews Analysis
Who’s in charge of Mass. offshore wind procurements?
THE MOST RECENT offshore wind procurement exposed a major flaw in the selection process, as the state’s three utilities – and not elected officials and their staffers – were charged with making policy decisions about the direction of the Massachusetts offshore wind industry. The procurement, the state’s second, attracted three bidders – Mayflower Wind, Vineyard […]
Posted inHealth Care
Mass. voters offer Warren a warning on Medicare for All
AS MASSACHUSETTS Sen. Senator Elizabeth Warren joins Joe Biden atop the Democratic primary field, her rivals have sharpened their attacks on her positions, most notably around her support for Senator Bernie Sanders’s “Medicare for All” proposal. Today, Warren doubled down, releasing a massively complex and detailed plan to pay for her $20.5 trillion extension of […]
Posted inPolitics
Kennedy still struggling to frame Senate run
WITH THE TOUGH decision to give up his House seat and challenge an incumbent Democratic senator behind him, Joe Kennedy now faces an equally tough question: Why is he running? The scion of America’s first family of politics is still struggling to frame a succinct answer. “Because our system is broken,” he said at the […]
Posted inNews Analysis
Americans evenly divided on impeachment
DEVELOPMENTS IN THE TRUMP-UKRAINE story are coming at a breakneck pace, and so now are national polls asking about whether the President should be impeached. There are enough impeachment polls now that data-analysis website FiveThirtyEight has launched an impeachment tracker. Like the site’s Trump approval tracker, the impeachment tool weights each poll “accounting for each […]