Senator Elizabeth Warren, in office for less than two months, remains a breath of fresh air. She comes to the body with experience, intellect and relative sophistication for a newcomer to the club. She has been there before but is now calibrating her new role at the table. She is frustrated by the impending sequestration cuts, and decries the "mindless across-the-board …
Continue reading Elizabeth Warren still a breath of fresh air
President Barack Obama's state-of-the-union speech was as much a liberal manifesto as I've heard in decades. Not surprising then that so many of the talking heads take the speech as evidence that Obama is trying to move the American center to the left in much the way Ronald Reagan moved it decades ago to the …
I can remember the day when many, if not most, major Broadway shows opened in Boston for a test run. West Side Story and South Pacific are just two that spring immediately to mind. (Others opened in Philadelphia or New Haven.) Now some legislators want to offer $3 million in tax credits for plays and musicals that …
Continue reading Proposed pre-Broadway production tax credit a no-no
A Senate run by Scott Brown would have been a little like Ground Hog Day, and I'm sure his decision not to run for John Kerry's Senate seat was a relief for his ever cheerful, ever campaigning family. If he wants to cash in on his past success, the time to do it is now, not …
Mea culpa. On December 4, this very blog expressed the sense that Boston Mayor Tom Menino should hang it up. Quit while he was ahead. Yield to diminished physical capacity and rest on his laurels. Accept congratulations for all he has done for Boston and ride off, if not in the sunset, at least to …
The scion of a multi-generational political dynasty, Massachusetts' new fourth district congressman is youthful, charming, and unpretentious. He reflects an honest humility appropriate to someone who has been in Congress for just three weeks. Speaking to this morning's meeting of The New England Council, Joe Kennedy also avoided liberal generalizations, emphasized the importance of public/private partnerships and showed a tendency to be …
Continue reading Joe Kennedy takes measured approach to government
Attorney General Martha Coakley told a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast Wednesday that government's role is not to pick business winners and losers but to create a competitive environment conducive to the development of new ideas and technological innovation. How to do that will be one of several topics explored at an energy summit …
For four decades, the Commonwealth has been trying to figure out how to have a comprehensive transportation system. Comprehensive, well maintained but affordable. The issues don't change: what to provide,who should pay, where the money should come from. For the most part, it's been patch, patch, patch. We love our cars but for 22 years haven't …
Continue reading Transportation, teaching and taxes the focus of Governor’s large proposal
Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray has announced he won't be a candidate for governor or any other statewide office in 2014. We're thus spared the media obsession with his peculiar early morning driving accident in 2011, never explained to the satisfaction of many in the Commonwealth. And we can leave it to the court system, rather …
How effective the President will be on gun safety remains to be seen, but today he took a first step in the right direction by laying out an agenda to minimize future gun violence. He sounded like a leader. We eagerly await his action. To many, the recommended measures are a no-brainer: universal background checks wherever guns …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 