AG Healey should form independent commission to investigate the failed agreement Last week in the first installment of this two-part column, I ran through the many problems with the January 2016 deal between General Electric, the city of Boston, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that has now collapsed for all intents and purposes. […]
THE FALL OF THE GE BOSTON DEAL, PART I
The official narrative and the real story Readers might feel that this should be a time for me to take a victory lap. The GE Boston deal that I criticized from the moment it was made public in January 2016 has crashed to Earth a bit over three years later. The now-failing multinational […]
PIZZA BARONS LAY OFF 1,100: PAPA GINO’S & D’ANGELO WORKERS NEED TO ORGANIZE FOR JUSTICE
Mainstream press coverage of mass layoffs like Sunday’s shutdown of almost 100 Papa Gino’s and D’Angelo fast food restaurants generally looks upon such tragic events through a glass, darkly. Because journalism in the service of the rich and powerful is a poor reflection of reality when it comes to all things labor. Which is […]
THE MERRIMACK VALLEY DISASTER: IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT OLD PIPES
The events of last week in the Merrimack Valley were unfortunate by any measure. Something bad happened to the natural gas distribution system in parts of Lawrence, North Andover, and Andover that resulted in dozens of homes being damaged or destroyed by explosions and fire, at least 25 people getting injured, and one person […]
TOWNIE: CORPORATE TAX FABLES AND COMMUNITARIAN KIDDIE TABLES
Big local corps quiet about huge profits to come from Repub tax scheme… except GE An interesting WBUR article, “Largest Mass. Companies Are Mostly Silent On GOP Tax Plans,” asked the top 12 corporations in the Commonwealth to comment on the recently passed Republican scheme to transfer vast amounts of money from the working […]
TOWNIE: TAX DELINQUENT, TAX GIVEAWAY
Crutchfield sues Mass over online taxes, unions protest Siemens Online retailer tries to duck sales taxes For a long time, the internet was like the Wild West for online sales. Companies sold products to consumers all over the US, and the feds and many states were slow to tax those transactions. You know, […]
TOWNIE: A WORM’S EYE VIEW OF THE MASS POWER STRUCTURE
![Students at rally at Boston City Hall By NewtonCourt (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons](https://1fkoby17rlj41m4giv3x4cvk-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Students_at_rally_at_Boston_City_Hall_144819274-354x200.jpg)
From the guy that brings you Apparent Horizon The rich and powerful interests that control Massachusetts politics and the state economy have their fingers in every conceivable pie. So numerous are their projects that it’s difficult for most news outlets to keep track of them, let alone cover them all. Yet it’s […]
