The case of Eric Balderas would make a great movie. The child brought to the United States by his Mexican mother, fleeing an abusive father, when he was just four years old. She struggles as a factory worker to care for him. He studies hard, becomes valedictorian of his high school class, and miraculously gets …
Continue reading Harvard illegal puts face on immigration problem
President Obama said many of the right things last night in his speech on the Gulf oil spill, but there was no sense of satisfaction, much less elation. There was nothing soaring, not even reassuring. It had the feel of an after-school conference with your guidance counsellor. As Joan Walsh points out in Salon, the …
At 64 years old, an affluent and successful businessman and philanthropist, Steve Grossman could hardly be faulted if he wanted to play golf and winter in Palm Beach rather than subject himself to media scrutiny and today’s increasingly acerbic political environment. Instead, he is running for MA Treasurer. He says he takes his inspiration from …
Continue reading Steve Grossman a Solid Stand-out for Treasurer
Twenty-five thousand gallons a day of thick oil leaking into formerly pristine and productive waters. Thousands of goopy patches encroaching on four Gulf Coast states, threatening more. Birds black with oil. Local fishermen out of work. Cleanup workers struggling with toxic fumes and endangered long-term by exposure to chemical dispersants—which themselves have unknown environmental consequences …
Tough economic times can translate into mean-spiritedness and make things difficult for those who are different. If you’re a Muslim-American, for example, you can be assumed to be a terrorist. If you’re Latino, you can be assumed to be an illegal immigrant. And, when an increase in bias against such groups plays out in the …
Continue reading Immigation: Massachusetts an Arizona Wannabe?
Move over Damn Yankees! There’s a new musical about the Boston Red Sox, and it’s a home run. Red Sox fans, run, do not walk, to the American Repertory Theatre’s wonderful production of Johnny Baseball, a rich and richly entertaining musical about the Red Sox, race in America and the community of perpetual hope. The …
Kitty Kelley gets no respect. People sniff disdainfully at her books because she does unauthorized biographies of celebrities. The fact is, however, that she’s darn good at what she does. Her books are immaculately and exhaustively researched; then they’re vetted by teams of lawyers to ensure they’re not libelous. And Kelley asks the questions you …
Continue reading Kitty Kelley visits Boston to market Oprah (unauthorized) bio
Governor Deval Patrick is in high gear! He’s all energy, enthusiasm and confidence out on the campaign trail. He has long had a good story to tell about his administration’s accomplishments: pension reform, ethics reform, education reform, transportation agency consolidation, collaboration with the legislature to pass budgets reflecting more than $9 billion in recession-induced revenue …
The late Paul Sullivan lit up our lives. Today, three years after the former WBZ talk show host succumbed to cancer, he still lights up lives through the Paul Sullivan Leadership Institute at Middlesex Community College in Lowell.Every year the Institute selects a dozen students, men and women, to go through a ten-month program preparing …
Howie Carr and Adrian Walker don’t usually agree on much, but they, and most other sentient individuals, are appalled by the 19 percent increase an arbitrator last week awarded to the Boston firefighters union. They, and not the arbitrator, are dead right.The increase, awarded retroactively over FY ’07, ’08 and ’09 and arriving for some …
Continue reading Getting Paid Extra for Doing What You’re Supposed To
Marjorie Arons-Barron 