THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION has started and voters in neglected parts of the country will likely determine the outcome. Both parties will plan how to win voters in the Rust Belt and rural America with proposals to address their needs, and Massachusetts stands as a model. That may seem like a jarring claim. But only […]
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Posted inOpinion
State’s manufacturing past is part of the future
THE DIVERSITY OF the Massachusetts economy is one of its strengths. Our leading positions in health care, higher education, technology, and the life sciences have allowed the Commonwealth to thrive during periods of expansion and weather the storms of recession better than other regions. Manufacturing remains a vital sector of our national economy, and one […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
Worcester T&G by way of Tokyo
More than 120 Massachusetts daily and weekly newspapers learned on Thursday that they will report to ultimate bosses halfway around the world after the private equity firm that owns GateHouse Media announced it was selling out to a Japanese multinational corporation for $3.3 billion. SoftBank Group Corp. said it is purchasing Fortress Investment Group, which […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Opinion
Tapping the gold mine of college talent
THIS IS A GOLDEN AGE for the Boston economy. We’re first by a mile in health care. The national leader in biotech. Surging in big data, robotics, fintech, data storage, clean tech and cybersecurity. A world leader in asset management. And witness to an unprecedented construction boom. There’s no regional economy in the country that […]
Posted inHealth Care, The Download
Baker gets pressure on paid parental leave
Message received. Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Attorney General Maura Healey, and state Treasurer Deb Goldberg are all offering employees paid parental leave, so now Gov. Charlie Baker is indicating that paid parental leave “is something worth looking at.” Unpaid parental leave is an anachronism internationally, yet Americans were slow to come around even to that idea. The […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics, State House News Service
Pregnant workers seek fair job treatment
SHOULD A PREGNANT worker expect her employer to offer “reasonable” relief from her workload or from certain tasks? Elizabeth Guyer, a former nurse practitioner who worked in Harvard University’s student health care system, thought so. In 2008, a pregnant Guyer expressed concerns to her supervisor about a plan to increase from 14 to 16 the […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, The Download
Market Basket, Arthur T, and the American Dream
Thousands of angry Market Basket workers have elevated ousted Market CEO Arthur T. Demoulas as close to god-hood as a man can get. More than 5,000 employees turned out to proclaim their loyalty to their former CEO at a Tewksbury rally Monday, double the size of a protest last week. Arthur T’s firing has provoked […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
Casinos’ slipping fortunes
It seems like eons ago that Bob DeLeo was extolling his casino bill (insisting on calling it a “jobs bill”), Deval Patrick was waxing rhapsodic about something called a “destination resort casino” (which was said to be wholly different than a plain vanilla casino), and everyone was giddy about all the money the state would […]
Posted inEconomy, State House News Service, The Download
Why Atlantic City casino woes matter here
Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen recently visited “Vegas-by-the-Sea” and found nothing good to say about Atlantic City’s casino experiment. In the time-honored tradition of journalists everywhere, Cullen tapped the consummate local expert, a taxi driver, for his view on the Bay State’s gaming proposition. “You say Massachusetts is gonna have casinos?” the cabbie said. “You […]
Posted inEconomy
The Massachusetts H-1B connection
MORE THAN 1,200 Massachusetts companies hired 5,481 skilled foreign workers last year through a controversial visa program that is simultaneously being praised for helping to plug holes in the state’s tech workforce and criticized as a way to replace US employees with cheaper foreign labor. The H-1B visa program, which allows skilled foreign workers to […]