Massachusetts is officially a casino state. Yesterday at two p.m. a slots parlor opened to the public in Plainville. Penn National reportedly spent $250 million to build and start up the facility, the first to bring Las Vegas to the Bay State. It could bring between $86m and $100m a year in state revenues and have some …
Continue reading Is the nation’s “best” casino policy good enough?
Thirty-six hours after Dylann Storm Roof slaughtered their loved ones in a Charleston, S.C AME Church, family members of the victims grieved their loss but urged the mass murderer be treated with grace, dignity and forgiveness. Like Nadine Collier, who lost her mother, they echoed her despair but also her goodness. “I will never talk to …
Take a yellow legal pad. Draw a line down the middle. Put Hillary Clinton's pluses on one side and minuses on the other. The symmetry is disturbing. Let's start with the good stuff. I confess to a sense of pride that a fellow alumna of Wellesley College could become the nation's first woman President (as …
President Obama's proposed trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), has me in a quandary. I've long held that free trade benefits everyone in the long run. It's what happens in the short run that can be daunting. Reduce or eliminate barriers to other nations' products and we get the benefit of lower prices and greater selection …
Continue reading Secrecy tips the case of the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Yesterday the Boston Business Journal revealed some of Boston 2024's duplicity in misrepresenting to the public what it had included in its bid for bringing the Olympics to the Hub. Information the BBJ obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request indicates the bid outlined the need for public funding (and a public authority) for land acquisition …
Continue reading Globe struggles to balance Olympics coverage
Many bemoan the revolving door in government/media circles. For a while you're a politician; then you get a job as a lobbyist, retaining your politicians' access; then you're a candidate again. One day you're a journalist; the next you're a communications director for a candidate or elected official; the next you're a TV or radio analyst. …
I long ago gave up my belief in the Easter bunny. (The rabbits who regularly destroy my garden took care of that.) Santa Claus is a relic of a decades-past childhood. But now, harsh reality demands that I can no longer cling to the idea of Tom Brady, man god. Mr. Perfect. The National Football …
Three years ago, I wrote about my mother, Mim Myers, who died in 2006 at the age of 93. She's now been gone nine years, and the aching loss is felt no less today. In fact, the meaning of things ephemeral becomes all the more acute with each passing year. There are so many things I …
Just 119 days into his first term in Congress, Salem's Seth Moulton, who upset longtime incumbent John Tierney in the Democratic primary last fall, brought his distinct perspective to The New England Council for the first time. He won, he said, by running to the center. And he's off to a good start, deftly responding …
Continue reading Combatting ISIS: Seth Moulton on strategy and tactics
At the risk of sounding immodest, I want to share with readers how deeply moved I am to be receiving an honorary doctor of letters from Regis College, a dynamic and growing university in Weston, MA. Last night I was privileged to deliver an address to the hundreds of students receiving master's and doctoral degrees. …
Continue reading Civic leadership through robust public dialogue and love of language
Marjorie Arons-Barron 