INTRO TEXT would you lend ancient Chinese masterpieces to a middle school? Maybe not, but the Sackler Foundation didn’t blink before sending 33 priceless artifacts, among them Chinese Buddhas and tomb figures dating from 2000 BC, for use at Fitchburg’s Museum Partnership School. “We think that’s a unique situation,” says Roger Dell, education director at […]
State House News Service
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
CW comes of age
Spring 2006 Winston Churchill said, “History will be kind to me because I intend to write it.” In much the same vein, I intend, on the occasion of CommonWealth’s 10th anniversary issue, to say a few admittedly biased words of praise for the magazine I am proud to publish, and especially the team that puts […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
Education officials grow impatient with perenially failing public schools
INTRO TEXT ‘F’ is for failing, and some Massachusetts public schools have the dubious distinction of doing just that. But school turnarounds have not taken place as fast as education officials had hoped. A sizable cohort of students, especially in city schools, continues to be held back by poor academic performance, posting dismal MCAS results. […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Academics measure the effects of the Red Line expansion
INTRO TEXT Growth & Development Extra 2006 What’s mass transit worth to you? It depends on how close you are to it. “Proximity matters,” says Matthew Kahn, a Tufts University economist and co-author, with Brown University economist Nathaniel Baum-Snow, of a new study of urban rail transit expansion and its impact in 16 cities, including […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Mr Nice Guy
Growth & Development Extra 2006 If Grabauskas can turn around the RMV, perhaps he can revolutionize the MBTA. When Dan Grabauskas left the Registry of Motor Vehicles in 2002 to run, unsuccessfully, for state treasurer, Stephen Doody, his chief of staff, signed on as campaign manager, living on a $500-per-week stipend and no health insurance. […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Boston may join the minor leagues
INTRO TEXT Growth & Develpment Extra 2006 Boston City Councilor John Tobin’s dream comes with a name, and it’s not of a higher political office. “The Boston Nine—what do you think?” he asks. Tobin has hopes of owning a minor-league baseball team, and putting it right here in the major-league city of Boston at that. […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Municipalities face a deadline in making polling sites accessible for all
INTRO TEXT Fall 2005 Everything these days is regulation, regulation, regulation, penalty, fine, threats.” That’s Medfield town administrator Mike Sullivan’s take on the Help America Vote Act, which is requiring municipalities to make all their polling places accessible to people with disabilities as of next year. Sullivan, who has been Medfield’s administrator for 30 years, […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, State House News Service
DNA test cause headaches for the states crime lab
INTRO TEXT Even crime has its growth sector, and in the Bay State, it’s burglary. The only violent or property crime category to increase between 2002 and 2003, burglary rose 1.3 percent, according to the latest State Police figures. Trace DNA evidence from blood, perspiration, or saliva can help to solve those crimes, as well […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, Transportation
CommonWealth Forum weighs mass transit
INTRO TEXT The state’s plan to extend the MBTA’s Green Line to West Medford does not promise enough environmental benefits to justify its cost, according to one panelist at the latest CommonWealth Forum, but public-transit advocates responded that the project is only one of many needed to improve transportation and stimulate economic growth in the […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Sense of Loss
Population drop may have been a fluke, but slow growth has its costs By Robert David Sullivan Coming at the end of a year when Massachusetts had more than its fair share of the national spotlight (thanks to football, baseball, and presidential politics), it was disconcerting to learn that we were the only state in […]