INTRO TEXT The attorney general’s office and the governor’s insurance commissioner often disagree, but a public records request earlier this year showed that the squabbling gets nasty at times. Glenn Kaplan, the head of Coakley’s Insurance and Financial Services Division, sent a letter of protest to Insurance Commissioner Nonnie Burnes, arguing that she was giving […]
State House News Service
Posted inState House News Service, The Download, Transportation
Never mind the red ink: Team Trans spreads the good news
If the audience at yesterday’s Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs breakfast forum were the chanting types, the refrain would have been: Go, team, go! Duly noted was the novelty of having the titans of the state’s transportation agencies breaking bread together. The MBTA’s Dan Grabauskas, the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority’s Alan LeBovidge, and MassHighway’s […]
Posted inEducation, Politics, State House News Service
Patrick reveals a big appetite for education reform
INTRO TEXT The unveiling of the Readiness Project should dispel any doubt that Gov. Deval Patrick sees himself as the master builder of the next epoch of education reform. “Our goal is to reinvent and re-engineer an entire system and all of its components,” said Patrick during his address at the John F. Kennedy Presidential […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, Transportation
Pump it up
For a picture-perfect view of the Boston skyline on a bright, cloudless day, looking from the Longfellow Bridge to the other side of the Charles River is as good as it gets. For scenery of a different sort, amble down the stairway near Storrow Drive and walk underneath the span that links Beacon Hill to […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Laptops rule among students in middle school
INTRO TEXT Deep into their “Unsung Heroes” reports, students worked on monologues about historical figures they’d chosen that would be recorded as iMovies and posted to the school intranet. Tyrone Williams and Leroy Hamilton were drawn to the writings of members of the Black Panther Party, a 1960s African-American activist group. Kymaunii Godfrey liked what […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Craven gets a grip on the rising costs of school construction
INTRO TEXT School building authorityhead Katherine Craven. Katherine Craven is all about the numbers. On a yellow legal pad page, the head of the Massachusetts School Building Authority jots down “1983–2003” and, beside that, “$20 billion,” for the amount cities and towns spent on building schools over two decades. She circles “$11 billion” for the […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
Not everyone on the South Coast is getting into training
INTRO TEXT South Coast rail, the plan to extend passenger train service from Boston to New Bedford and Fall River, promises to stir up more grass-roots activism than the Patrick administration has bargained for. Last fall, state transportation officials decided to re-open the route identification process to the region’s residents as well as 11 other […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Patrick finds his footing in his second year on the Hill
INTRO TEXT Assessments of Gov. Deval Patrick’s first year in office were all pretty similar: He was, by his own admission, a political “amateur,” and one taking his bumps and bruises as he learned to navigate Beacon Hill. House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi reminded everyone of that fact in January, when he suggested Patrick’s first months […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
News from a new generation
Walter Robinson, who won a Pulitzer Prizeat the Globe, heads the investigativereporting program at Northeastern University. A decade is a long time. But advocates for senior citizens have been trying to drum up support on Beacon Hill for guardianship reform for at least that long. Seniors without relatives or close companions can end up, and […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Politics, State House News Service
A shot seen round the world
every era has its touchstone photograph. The Marines hoisting the American flag on Iwo Jima telegraphs the hard-fought triumphs of World War II. The New York City firemen raising the Stars and Stripes over the rubble at Ground Zero after 9/11 captures the resilience of a besieged city. The signature image of Boston’s busing crisis […]