If a clean slate is a time for optimism, then Day One of the New Year should be a time to anticipate the coming year with a sense of the glass more than half full. On the political scene, Governor-elect Charlie Baker seems to be making all the right moves. His cabinet appointees are a …
Continue reading Glass more than half full on New Year’s Day
Yesterday, the city of Rome included itself among the potential hosts for the 2024 summer Olympics. Now, where would you rather be that August - Boston or Rome? Italian Premier Matteo Renzi said, "it's unacceptable not to try." Boston's self-appointed elite apparently feel that way. Today, Boston's bid boosters are in San Francisco to persuade the United States Olympic Committee to choose Boston over San …
Continue reading Boston 2024 Olympic bid: we could – but should we?
It's hard for millennials to imagine that not so long ago, blacks, who Constitutionally had the right to vote since 1870, were routinely blocked from exercising that right. But antagonistic county commissioners and viciously contrived regulatory barriers in the South routinely denied even the ability to register. In Selma, Alabama, a majority of the people were black, …
Question for gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley: if you knew that the legitimacy of the casino repeal referendum would end up at the Supreme Judicial Court regardless of how you decided on its constitutionality and you're supposedly fine with its being on the November ballot, why did you come down on the side of corporate interests rather than …
Continue reading Snake eyes for Coakley on casino referendum
Lieutenant Tim Murray is one lucky dude. You might say he has escaped with his life. The affable former three-term mayor of Worcester has never been able to elude the bad karma surrounding his mysterious early morning car accident in 2011 and his unsavory connection with felon Chelsea Housing Authority Michael McLaughlin, who also did (possibly …
Governor Patrick's hopes for Massachusetts, delivered in his state-of-the-state address in January were big-picture, visionary, limitless in their possibilities - especially in transportation, education and tax reform. They were so big, in fact, they took your breath away. His proposals focused on increasing income and gas taxes to pay for transportation improvements, more early childhood education and extended middle school hours, all the while …
Continue reading Grossman, DeLeo speak reality to Patrick’s dreams
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 …
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino this morning delivered one of the best speeches of his political career, and it brought the crowd of several hundred at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast to their feet in an enthusiastic ovation. In it, he laid out a compelling vision for a comprehensive overhaul of the Boston Public …
Continue reading Menino links proposed school system changes to potential economic growth
Scott Brown told the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce this morning that he’s “tired of the fluff.” He says that, in nine months in Washington, the Senate has only focused for 12 days on jobs and the economy. Agreed, jobs and the economy should be the #1 focus. But, while he decries the fluff, Brown …
Continue reading Scott Brown: He’s tired of the fluff, but where’s the depth?
With the passage of health insurance reform behind us, look for the President to sign financial services reform by Memorial Day, give or take. That, according to Congressman Barney Frank at this morning’s Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast. “The public is overwhelmingly in favor of financial services reform, so the banks can’t expect too …
Continue reading Barney: Speaking Frankly on financial services reform and Pentagon budgets
Marjorie Arons-Barron 