Domestic Policy

Latest Articles

An education funding formula, hailed as a breakthrough, faces its critics

Fuzzy math
For years, Rhode Island was one of just two states in the union without a funding formula for its public schools. And then, for a time, it was the only state with that dubious dis-tinction.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 24, 2010

Spookin' the horses

Scary trumps stupid every time
Move over, Freddy Krueger. Here come the real scary monsters: Libby Mitchell and Paul LePage.
By AL DIAMON | June 16, 2010

Layers of buying local

Going green
When we drink a glass of organic milk, or eat organic pork sausage with our organic scrambled eggs, it’s easy to forget what goes into securing that “organic” label.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | June 09, 2010

Preparing for June 8

Candidate breakdown for districts 114, 116, and 119
Stuckey vs. Vincent, Capron vs. Sharif, and Barkley vs. Dini
By DEIRDRE FULTON | May 26, 2010

Hire us now, Ms. Gist!

Will tap dance for free!
Wow! Bow-wow! How do we get a job to write a speech for state education commissioner Deborah Gist for a cool $10,000?
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | May 26, 2010

Heck of a Guy

Despite a history of illiberal views and a boorish reputation, Guy Glodis enters the Democratic state convention unscathed
Scott Brown’s stunning victory in January’s special US Senate election continues to reverberate through Massachusetts politics.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | May 26, 2010

Bragdon vs. Trevorrow, Greens, District 120

Primary 2010
Charles Bragdon and Anna Trevorrow vie in the East End legislative race
By DEIRDRE FULTON | May 19, 2010

Can the Netroots triumph in Rhode island?

On the Hustings
Stories of State Representative David Segal’s nascent, underdog run for Congress invariably make a nod to the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. And rightly so.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | May 19, 2010

An immigrant song

What we can learn from our neighbors to the south
Arizona has declared war on Mexico. SB1070, the incendiary new immigration bill signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer, has set off national boycotts, lawsuits, protests, and denouncements.
By DAVID KISH | May 17, 2010

Review: 8: The Mormon Proposition

Sheds a sad light on Prop 8
While we were getting decriminalized weed in Massachusetts, a large segment of the population was reeling from the devastating passage of Proposition 8 in California.
By CHRIS FARAONE | June 18, 2010

Cape Wind: It’s Complicated

Obama gave the green-energy project a green light. Now, a slew of messy coalitions are going to battle over the future of clean energy.
Thousands of years ago, the terrain beneath what is now Nantucket Sound was dry, and populated by the ancestors of the Wampanoag people, who continue to revere it.
By VALERIE VANDE PANNE | May 07, 2010

Murdoch mishegoss

The new brand of gonzo journalism
Never mind that Rupert Murdoch is shelling out better than $2 billion to buy Metromedia’s seven TV stations. Never mind that he’s then turning around and reselling Boston’s WCVB-TV, Channel 5 to the Hearst Corporation for an astounding $450 million.
By DAVE O'BRIAN | May 06, 2010

Library woes

Plus, Arizona declares war on immigrants
In an attempt to save four Boston Public Library branches that are slated to close due to budget shortfalls, some state legislators from Boston have threatened to block all state funding the library receives if it shutters any of its 26 branches.
By EDITORIAL | April 28, 2010

Stars, bars, and open arms

Flags + Guns Dept.
The first thing I noticed when pulling into the Preble Street parking lot on Back Cove for last Sunday’s open-carry firearm event, which had been organized to encourage Mainers to legally wear their guns in public, was the Confederate flag.
By RICK WORMWOOD | April 28, 2010

Cover the boobs; leave the guns at home

Diverse City
Spring has barely started, and I was expecting a few of the usual seasonal assaults to the eyeballs.
By SHAY STEWART-BOULEY | April 28, 2010

Truthlive | Patience

IM (2010)
Consider Patience a penance for Seattle-based producer Jake One, who recently laced the soundscape for Philly coke-rapper Freeway’s remarkable Stimulus Package.
By CHRIS FARAONE | April 21, 2010

Springtime for Militia

Gun nuts from around the country converge upon the murder capital of the nation, Washington, D.C.
I’m scrubbing my armpits in the campground bathroom at Fort Hunt Park in Virginia. It’s taken more than 20 hours for me to get here for today’s firearm-friendly Restore the Constitution rally, which is supposed to commence shortly.
By CHRIS FARAONE | April 21, 2010

Fed up and low down

For once, the beleaguered taxpayers of Maine can’t lose
Just kidding. Of course they’ll lose.
By AL DIAMON | April 21, 2010

Bully pulpit

Letters to the Boston editor, April 23, 2010
While I understand, appreciate, and respect the First Amendment and our right to speak freely, in the case of bullying, Harvey Silverglate makes a dangerous assumption that “civilized people, even teenagers can intuit the difference between protected speech and criminal harassment.”
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | April 21, 2010

Shaking up the school system

The Reformer
Rhode Island education commissioner Deborah Gist’s take-charge style could make a winner of a state that often seems destined to fail. But critics say her free-market approach won’t work.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | April 21, 2010

Financial Reform Proposals

Big Fat Whale
"You broke asshole"
By BRIAN MCFADDEN | April 22, 2010

A wind farm — and a governor’s legacy — hang in the balance

Not Easy Being Green
With Governor Carcieri’s second and final term coming to an end, it is time to think about the “L” word — legacy.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | April 08, 2010

Lynch’s left flank

The Southie Congressman may have pushed progressives too far this time.
US Representative Stephen Lynch has held Massachusetts’s ninth congressional district since 2001 — a fact that has irritated the state’s liberals ever since.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | April 02, 2010

Extremist Fail

Letters to the Portland Editor, April 2, 2010
A political story could literally not contain more irony than the story of the USA PATRIOT Act and its effect on the modern extremist right-wing movement.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX LETTERS | March 31, 2010

Hallelujah!

Health-care reform is a new high-water mark
The Democrats won and the Republicans lost. That, in a nutshell, is the bottom line.
By EDITORIAL | March 24, 2010

Two and fro

Kolosko and Dimow’s Border Crossings
It can be easy to get wrapped up in Portland’s pop and rock scene, the singalong stuff you hear in the clubs and on the radio.
By SAM PFEIFLE | March 24, 2010

Tanked

A few guppies short
The term "think tank" looks as if it signifies something impressive.
By AL DIAMON | March 17, 2010

Pot bill progresses in Augusta

C'Mon Doc ...
At the end of February, Topsham became the latest Maine community to consider moratoriums on medical-marijuana dispensaries in the wake of last November's election.
By DEIRDRE FULTON | March 10, 2010

Two great flavors

Freeway and Jake One team up to lay it down
"When I said that I wanted to use 'What We Do' as a single," Freeway explains, "people said it couldn't happen because it didn't have a hook. You know how the rest of that one goes."
By CHRIS FARAONE | February 16, 2010

Baldacci, Dems raise broad-based taxes

What Promise? Dept.
Despite numerous repeated claims that he and his party will not raise "broad-based taxes" while attempting to solve Maine's decade-old budget disaster, Democratic governor John Baldacci and legislative Democrats have done exactly that, and are now expanding those efforts by increasing an additional tax that hits many Mainers.
By JEFF INGLIS | February 17, 2010