Massachusetts is the most educated state in the nation, according to census data. About 25% of residents 25 or older have at least a bachelor's degree. [Boston Globe] Remember to follow Bostonist on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
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Three of four men have survived a boat crash near the Merrimack River, and the causes are under investigation. [Boston Channel]
As expected, the next overpriced Fenway concert will be Paul McCartney in August. [Boston Music Spotlight]
Construction workers at the MFA find an letter from construction worker that was written in 1926. [Boston Globe]
When treasurer and legislature don't communicate, it can be a $25 million budget gaffe. [Boston Herald]
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Results tagged “massachusetts”
The House of Representatives easily passed the bill raising the country's debt limit tonight by a margin of 269-191. The Senate votes on the legislation tomorrow and President Obama will sign it. The debt can now grow by an additional $2.1 trillion through the 2012 election.
Michael Ryder's goal just 1:59 into overtime enabled the Bruins to take a 5-4 win away from Montreal and tie the first-round playoff series at 2-2. Ryder scored another goal in the second period and assisted on a third-period goal to tie the game and send it into overtime.
Borders is closing six Bay State stores. Home Depot is hiring in Massachusetts. Remember to follow Bostonist on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
Two serious illnesses are making waves in Massachusetts. One is common - flu - and one isn't - cholera.
Massachusetts is taking criticism for an apparently slow response to fighting drunk driving and smoking.
Business is happening all over Boston:
Massachusetts added 64,300 jobs since December. We're scheduled to lose one high-profile job in 2012: one of the Bay State's 10 Congressional seats. Yes, in the next round of reapportionment, or redistricting, Massachusetts will end up with nine seats. Nationwide, 18 states will be affected by 12 changing seats. Texas will gain four seats. [Boston Globe]
Although the state's tourism office didn't double-check the "1,000 Great Places in Massachusetts", I'm sure every community will take some pride for the one or more landmarks that were considered worthy.
The Fourth of July happened. The holiday weekend had drama, heat, music, fun and danger.
The headline event, of course, was the Boston Pops Fourth of July Spectacular on Sunday night. Toby Keith Lockhart entertained the crowd, viewers, and the troops, the Kennedy family got a well-deserved tribute, and stuff blew up. While the Boston fireworks display went off seamlessly, an illegal fireworks display in Marshfield on Saturday put people at risk in a chaotic run for safety. The explosion reportedly started earlier than planned.
More drama occurred as a whale watch ship named Massachusetts ran aground Saturday in Boston Harbor after colliding with the Devil’s Back. (The notion that a vessel called "Massachusetts" was in trouble is not lost on us.) The U.S. Coast Guard is investigating, and reports cite "pilot error" as the cause.
Ah, specialty plates: the random assortment of causes you can support thanks to somebody's dogged determination to get something supporting some cause accepted by the RMV (using a $100,000 bond and at least 1500 applications for the plate). Now, "Choose Life" joins the Mass plate options, enabling you to support the miracle of life while chugging around in an enormous deadly vehicle that is polluting the environment and slowly killing us all. Sweet!
Great news from the Commonwealth: the boil order has been lifted. Great news if you wanted to make some coffee this morning, but for those of you who have been using the situation to put off doing dishes, we are very sorry. Before drinking your water or using it for cooking, make sure you've flushed your household's plumbing system using these steps.
The Daily Caller (our buddy Tucker Carlson's brainchild) has a new story telling the tale of a stripper lamenting her profession's transition from independent contractors to regular ol' employees in Massachusetts.
New Englanders are terrified of Texas. When this Bostonist mentions that she once lived in the Lone Star State, people's eyes bulge out of their heads. They clutch their chests. They back up a little bit. They root around for a surgical mask to protect themselves from any residual Texagerms that may still be lingering. So it's funny that terrible Texas is now sort of setting itself up to be the next Massachusetts—assuming it doesn't learn from our mistake.
The Onion is totally into us lately! First, cats; now, Patriots and slacker roommates! The famed satirical publication has Tom Brady's take on fickle Pats fans: "There's no doubt we could have executed better, just like there's no doubt those 68,756 slavering fair-weather pieces of shit in the stands have less right than anyone else to point that out." The paper also covers a Boston resident whose roommate has a mysterious work schedule that involves sleeping during the day, making pasta in the middle of the night, and leaving the house at odd hours. "I think he said he works at this place where he makes these calls to people for these events," the interviewed Bostonian says of his roommate, but he's not quite sure. "Maybe he works at a place where they don't really monitor whether he shows up or not," he theorizes. "Or maybe he can work from home sometimes. Or maybe he's been working every day including weekends this entire time. Or maybe he's some lying weirdo."
If you've ever lived anywhere but Massachusetts, you know this state has some annoying laws. Package stores, price stickers, police details: the list goes on and on (though many factors seem to start with p). Now a law passed in 2006 (after the Supreme Court struck down state bans on wine shipping) that forced wineries to decide whether to sell retail in Massachusetts or ship product here has been declared unconstitutional: "We hold that (the law) violates the Commerce Clause because the effect of its particular gallonage cap is to change the competitive balance between in-state and out-of-state wineries in a way that benefits Massachusetts's wineries and significantly burdens out-of-state competitors," the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in a recent decision upholding the original verdict, which had been appealed for the Massachusetts Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission by Martha Coakley's office. Not suprisingly, Scott Brown fans have already added this case to their list of reasons to go Brown, apparently not understanding what being Attorney General means.
Oh, Martha Coakley. How could you misspell Massachusetts? It's not like it's a difficult, cumbersome word, reflecting the overly complex infrastructure of the region it names. Or maybe the move was intended to reflect a sense of femininity, reminding the crucial female vote of Martha's -etteness? We're starting to feel a little bit feministe over here!
We recently ranked as the 43rd happiest state in the U.S., just shy of Rhode Island (42nd) and kicking the miserable asses of Connecticut and New York (49th and 50th, respectively). Notwithstanding our depression, possibly caused by a combination of terrible weather, high taxes, and crumbling transportation infrastructure, more people keep coming here: we added 50,000 folks to our ranks last year, growing 0.8% (compared to 0.9% for the U.S. as a whole) and coming in 25th out of all states. More than 250,000 residents left Mass for other states between 2000 and 2009, so our net gain of 24,518 international immigrants and 3,614 domestic movers (but not shakers) suggests we're starting to come back from that loss.
A $600 million budget gap could lead to trimming 2,000 state jobs, not to mention other cost-cutting measures. [Boston Globe]...The Mass. unemployment rate jumped to 9.2% in September, which might mean the Bay State is still in a recession. [Boston Herald]...Potential amendments to the state's transportation reform bill could eliminate some of the saving that was the purpose of the reforms. [Boston Herald]
The Commonwealth got its first shipment of H1N1 vaccine yesterday, according to this blog post. That's ahead of schedule, according to the state. Don't run out all at once to get your shots, though:
MassBike, the group that fought to pass the new bike law, has a survey on its Web site for bicyclists and motorists alike. Answering the questions won't win you anything, but it might help the group to shape its future advocacy. (Here's a hint: If you want to do well on the survey, brush up on your knowledge of Mass bike law. [Via Mass. Transportation Blog]
Reading today's Globe story on Menino's bike share proposals, we were intrigued to learn about a new bike safety law that includes a fine for hitting passing cyclists with the door of your car. Turns out, the law's actually not that new. The Bicyclist Safety Bill became law in January, but nobody seems to have heard of it. Among other things, the law gives cyclists the right to ride two abreast—previously illegal—and increases penalties for drivers who cut off cyclists or force them to the curb. MassBike has a good rundown of the changes the law has instituted. The full text can be found here.
The AP reports that Massachusetts filed suit in federal court over the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman and limits the rights of same sex married couples. The first state to legalize gay marriage, and the cornerstone of a five-state New England bloc of marriage equality, the Commonwealth argues that DOMA "constitutes an overreaching and discriminatory federal law." President Obama pledged during his campaign to repeal the law, and there's no word on his administration's reaction to the lawsuit.
The city of Boston and the men who fill the ranks of the Boston Fire Department simply can't get along. Contract disputes have long since gone nuclear and now any controversy turns into a five-alarm blaze of rhetoric and posturing perfectly designed for the city's competitive media outlets.
- Massachusetts has the second-lowest obesity rate in the nation at 21.2%, which still seems too high. [WCVB]
- Boston firefighters are defying Boston Fire Department orders to volunteer to staff three stations. [Boston Herald]
We, like the majority of Massachusetts residents, support universal health care in the Commonwealth, but the current system is badly flawed. And we need to figure out a way to fix it without screwing our most financially vulnerable neighbors.