Boston Globe

In the past three years, Governor Deval Patrick has proposed applying the state sales tax to soda and candy, a measure aimed at raising revenue and curbing consumption of products that researchers tie to rising obesity rates among the state’s adults and children.

Each time, lawmakers refused to go along.

The Springfield Republican

In new signs of economic strength in Massachusetts, state tax collections soared in April far above projections and a key business index rose to a nearly four-year high.

But a new poll by a non-partisan organization in Boston found residents remain worried about their economic prospects and confidence in the recovery has dropped.

The Patriot Ledger

Patriot Ledger

Despite strong statewide economic growth in the first quarter, Massachusetts residents are still anxious about their economic prospects and confidence in the recovery has slipped, according to a new statewide poll released today by The MassINC Polling Group. 

The numbers are part of the Quarterly Trend Monitor which tracks a number of dynamics over time including direction of the state, and favorability for key leaders. 

Springfield Republican

White people continued to leave cities like Hartford, Holyoke and Springfield during the past decade, mirroring a longtime pattern dictated mostly by economic forces, new statistics from the U.S. Census show.

In Western Massachusetts, Springfield’s white population declined by 18,000, or 24 percent, since 2000, Holyoke’s fell by 3,000, or 13 percent, and Chicopee lost 3,500, or 7.5 percent, census statistics reveal.

South Coast Today

It is easier to talk about global warming than it is to do something about it, but most Massachusetts citizens are willing to put their money where their mouths are.

That is one of the lessons to be found in a report issued earlier this month by MassINC, an independent think tank and public issues organization.

Springfield Republican
A recent survey by The MassINCPolling Group indicates residents across the state see efforts to reduce climate change as a winning economic development strategy for the commonwealth. 

This new poll, which was sponsored by the Barr Foundation, shows three out of four residents think action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will either help or have no negative impact on the Bay State economy; about 60 percent believe “taking the lead” on efforts to reduce global warming will spur green job growth in Massachusetts.

Worcester Magazine

Just last year, higher ups in Massachusetts public education seemed keen on infusing underperforming school districts with charter schools – public schools that could work outside the system and create small clusters of education reform.

Administrators could hire whomever without much oversight thanks to a nonunionized teaching staff, and teachers had more flexibility to teach what they wanted.

Berkshire Eagle

Does Glenn Beck’s departure from Fox News signal the advent of a new era of serious, civilized discourse in America?

No, but it’s a start. There was a time when people could disagree on the issues of the day without portraying their opponents as devil-worshipping menaces to the American way of life, and maybe we can begin moving back to that day.

Metro West Daily News
Physically, humans are incapable of seeing beyond the horizon. Unfortunately, that appears to apply to time as well as space: We don’t react to problems in the distant future until they are too close to ignore.

WCAI

Metro West Daily News

Three-quarters of Massachusetts residents surveyed in a new poll believe global temperatures are rising, but only a third think manmade emissions are at least partly to blame and that serious problems will result if no action is taken.

The survey and an analysis, scheduled for release this morning by the nonpartisan think tank MassINC, finds Democrats, younger adults, and Latinos and blacks more likely to heed warnings on global warming.

Boston Globe

A majority of Massachusetts residents say global warming is happening and is caused by human activity, but many remain relatively apathetic on addressing the issue, a new survey released by MassInc shows.

The Barr Foundation-sponsored study comes as the state works toward meeting a requirement to reduce heat-trapping greenhouse gases by 80 percent by 2050 – one of the most aggressive goals in the country. It also highlighted significant differences of opinion based on political party, minority group, age and income.

Boston Globe

Winchester Star
As state government implements complex overhauls to Massachusetts’s transportation and economic development bureaucracies and lawmakers eye similar restructuring of the health care, criminal justice and pension systems, Senate President Therese Murray on Thursday outlined a plan to redouble the state’s effort to track their progress on these efforts.

“Performance management should be a major factor in everything we do,” the Plymouth Democrat said, according to a prepared speech she plans to deliver Thursday morning to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce at a Back Bay hotel.

Boston Globe

The population of Boston’s metropolitan area grew by just 3.7 percent over the past decade, far more slowly than the nation and most other large urban areas, according to new US Census Bureau figures.

Despite striking population gains in the city of Boston, the region’s overall population climbed just 161,000 between 2000 and 2010 to 4.5 million. Metro regions in Dallas, Houston, and Atlanta grew by more than 20 percent.

Wall Street Journal

As Brad Williams walked the halls of the California state capitol in Sacramento on a recent afternoon, he spotted a small crowd of protesters battling state spending cuts. They wore shiny white buttons that said “We Love Jobs!” and argued that looming budget reductions will hurt the Golden State’s working class.

Few markets, poor nutrition – Boston Globe

Supermarket chains are quick to locate on busy roadways that pass through well-to-do suburbs. But in many urban areas — especially the state’s gateway cities — political leaders need to clamor harder for big food stores.

Boston Globe

When an MBTA commuter train takes more than three hours to get to Fitchburg, or more than four hours to limp into Worcester, the frustrated, long-delayed riders of each train aren’t the only ones who lose out.

Too many other areas of state policy hinge on reliable commuter rail to tolerate the systemic woes that became evident throughout an unusually snowy winter — capped off by two high-profile delays well after the most recent major storm.

WBUR

The scene: A packed forum yesterday at Suffolk University’s Modern Theatre, the old Theatre District movie house once considered beyond repair, now miraculously refurbished, a charming public space once again.

The cast, brought together by CommonWealth magazine and MassINC: Star-studded, at least for our local health care world. Recent Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker. Health and Human Services secretary JudyAnn Bigby. Blue Cross Blue Shield chief Andrew Dreyfus. Outgoing Tufts Medical Center chief Ellen Zane. And representing the representatives, Ron Mariano, majority leader of the Massachusetts House.

Arlington Advocate

An overhaul of the way patients, government, insurers and hospitals pay for health care – one that would eventually lead to massive reordering of Massachusetts’s multi-billion-dollar per year health care system – will likely be ready for legislative debate by the spring of 2012, a top House ally of Speaker Robert DeLeo said Thursday.

House Majority Leader Ronald Mariano predicted a form of the proposal would emerge for consideration despite concerns that the complexities involved and the long-term nature of the savings could prove difficult for lawmakers – particularly 41 freshmen still learning the ropes – to digest.

The Boston Globe

An anonymous donor has given CommonWealth magazine $1 million, part of a celebration of the 15th anniversary of its publisher, the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth, and nonpartisan reporting on politics and policy in Massachusetts. Announcement of the gift launched an 18-month fund-raising campaign.

Boston Herald

The cautious Beacon Hill lawmaker charged with redrawing the state’s voting districts — and axing one member of the Bay State’s congressional delegation in the process — vowed yesterday to maintain strong minority voting blocks, especially in U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano’s district, to comply with federal law and avoid being sued.

State Rep. Michael Moran’s promise comes after the disastrous redistricting process in 2000, which led to former Speaker Thomas Finneran’s indictment for lying to the federal court about his plan. Critics charged that his plan tried to dilute minority voting strength.

Boston Herald

Robert Cordy, a justice of the Supreme Judicial Court and a veteran of Gov. William Weld’s administration, said Thursday that placing the Probation Department under the control of the Executive Branch could leave the agency vulnerable to “the political mood.”

“The governor’s just fired the parole board,” he said, referring to Gov. Deval Patrick’s decision to accept the resignations of five of the seven Parole Board members after the shooting death of a Woburn policeman by a paroled convict.

Worcester Business Journal

Small businesses in Gateway Cities like Worcester could benefit from an initiative announced Wednesday by State Treasurer Steve Grossman.

Grossman’s “Move Money” program aims to shift state cash deposits under his control to local and community banks who agree to increase their small business lending.

Patriot Ledger

Just when we thought we had plumbed the depths of the MBTA’s $90 million rail tie debacle we learn that the problem may have begun long before the system’s 147,000 faulty concrete ties were even cast.

It originally seemed that the T’s worst decision regarding those defective ties was attempting to downplay the problem while knowing full well it would soon mushroom into a fiscal and operational nightmare.

Patriot Ledger

Gov. Deval Patrick addressed a gathering of mayors, educators and other officials Friday, Feb. 4 at the Gateway Cities Education Summit in Worcester, an event focusing on improving school services to the state’s mid-sized industrial cities, including Brockton.

Patrick said Massachusetts leads the nation in a variety of categories, including student achievement, health care coverage, clean energy initiatives and veterans services.

Worcester Telegram and Gazette
Education officials and experts gathered in Worcester on Friday for the first-ever Gateway Cities Education Summit on improving public schools in cities where “high concentrations of poverty pose significant challenges to educational attainment.”

Changing that reality will take more time, effort, and excellence in teaching and administration. It will also require two things more: the honesty to see the shortcomings of public education today, and a shift in thinking away from 19th century paradigms to ones responsive to the rapidly changing and diversifying 21st century.

Sentinel and Enterprise

Gov. Deval Patrick urged officials to “be bold” in coming up with creative ways to bridge the achievement gap in the state’s poorest school systems.

Speaking before representatives of the state’s 11 “gateway cities” on Friday, Patrick said these school districts should partner with local colleges and museums and form after-school programs with area businesses in order to improve the quality of education.

Sentinel and Enterprise

Gov. Deval Patrick urged officials to “be bold” in coming up with creative ways to bridge the achievement gap in the state’s poorest school systems.

Speaking before representatives of the state’s 11 “gateway cities” on Friday, Patrick said these school districts should partner with local colleges and museums and form after-school programs with area businesses in order to improve the quality of education.