Editorials - News & Opinion - BostonHerald.com

Vetoes vs. good sense

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:56:42 -0400

Everybody knows the state's revenues are squeezed and Gov. Deval Patrick had to veto many expenditures in the budget he signed last week. Some made some sense, some...

No lock on CORI

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:56:37 -0400

Having burdened businesses with higher taxes on just about everything they buy and sell, Democrats on Beacon Hill now want to make it harder for them to hire the employees...

Wrong for UNESCO

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:09:54 -0400

An anti-Semitic Egyptian official is the leading contender to become director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization when the 193...

Joint venture at its end

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:09:41 -0400

General Motors Corp. is ending its 25-year-old joint car assembly venture with Toyota in California. GM started it to learn Toyota manufacturing techniques and learned a lot...

No holiday from taxes

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:53:58 -0400

Meanwhile this Independence Day holiday has us thinking about other holidays - including that sales tax holiday that we won't be getting in the Bay State this year. ...

Keeping the faith

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:52:48 -0400

When the last note of "Stars and Stripes Forever" has been played and the last fireworks fade from the night time sky, we will still have this - this freedom, this...

Please more taxes!

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:49:42 -0400

So Gov. Deval Patrick is reported to be gearing up for his 2010 re-election campaign and having just signed a $1 billion tax hike he's now talking about a graduated income...

Technology on the rails

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:43:08 -0400

Yesterday the MBTA announced it would test some new collision-avoidance technology on a two-mile-long Green Line branch in the wake of two crashes in the past year. After...

An unCommon proposal

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:20:42 -0400

Could it be? Could Boston Common actually host a charming little cafe or perhaps a small branch of one of the city's first class restaurants? The skating rink has brought...

Games unions play

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:05:59 -0400

The union representing Boston firefighters is on an incredibly noble crusade. Just ask them! With the fire commissioner cutting back on overtime by temporarily shutting...

House breaks the rules

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:56:29 -0400

The Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade anti-global warming bill passed by seven votes - amidst some sleazy maneuverings - in the U.S. House last week is, well, largely nonsense and...

Gov fuels tax talk

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:54:54 -0400

Beginning next month Bay State taxpayers will be forced to cough up $1 billion a year in new taxes - on restaurant meals, hotel rooms, beer, wine, satellite TV subscriptions...

Smoking out a scandal

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:51:41 -0400

Paul Caron would like taxpayers to know that he's just looking out for them. The ex-rep-turned-lobbyist who "retired" from the House at 47 (with an inflated...

Justice in New Haven

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:50:34 -0400

The city of New Haven thought it was doing everything right when it hired an outside firm to design a promotional exam for firefighters, taken by 118 members of its force....

Bernie's bad day

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:49:56 -0400

So Bernie Madoff will never again be a free man, and that's a very good thing indeed. It doesn't begin to make up for the damage he has caused - the financial...

Victims deserve action

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:43:38 -0400

Lawmakers were put on notice two years ago that a glaring loophole in state law could allow some rapists to get away scot-free. They still haven't acted to close it....

Testing the limits

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:42:55 -0400

A group of lawmakers is backing a plan to get physicians involved in deciding whether older drivers should be allowed to remain behind the wheel. They're making it far...

Green job fallacies

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:01:35 -0400

Can governments create "green" jobs by spending big wads of money? Sure - but at the cost of destroying other jobs. The benefits, environmental or otherwise,...

Take a breath, it's OK

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:00:58 -0400

A scary-sounding announcement from the Environmental Protection Agency last week needs a little perspective. The agency's third National Air Toxic Assessment concluded...

Regulating the regulators

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:25:05 -0400

Does a plane crash in the snow in Buffalo? Does a subway train rear-end another in Washington, D.C.? Have banks made unwise loans? Obviously, say critics, regulation of airlines,...

True test, for all

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 21:24:08 -0400

OK, so as the president of the Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts it's Robert McCarthy's job to thump his chest on behalf of his union members, especially...

A win for drug dealers

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:09:09 -0400

A convicted Massachusetts cocaine dealer has succeeded - with the help of a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court - in upending the nation's system of prosecuting drug crimes. ...

Legislating ethics

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:08:04 -0400

In their effort to change the way business is conducted on Beacon Hill, lawmakers this week did it, well, the same way they usually do. And yet we are advised that there has...

Best of a bad situation

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:22:18 -0400

The folks who administer the state's health care reform law took steps this week to keep it solvent, and some advocates would have us believe that their actions threaten...

Another taxing idea

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 17:21:45 -0400

The world's wealthiest university is planning to lay off 275 workers, thanks to a tumbling endowment. Harvard made that announcement this week after previously trimming...