The Codcast

Soon-to-be Assistant House Speaker Katherine Clark by CommonWealth Beacon

Jim Hunt, who is preparing to stop down as president and CEO of the Massachusetts League of Community Health Centers, talks with Paul Hattis and John McDonough about the origins of the community health center movement and the current challenges.

Devin Alexander, the co-founder of Rolling Releaf, and Chris Fevry, co-founder of Your Green Package, talk about the nascent marijuana delivery industry, and some of the controversy surrounding the drafting of state regulations. They argue a courier model won't work and push for delivery companies that buy their own marijuana wholesale and sell direct to consumers. Challenges ahead include getting...

Retiring rep, rep-elect share insights on State House opacity by CommonWealth Beacon

With Gov. Charlie Baker pressuring schools to reopen in-person, no one is arguing that this is the best way for students to learn. Some union officials and parents are worried about sending their kids to school with community-based cases increasing, and have pushed back. But what metrics should districts be basing their reopening decisions off of, and how can communication improve between local de...

Mass. Democratic Party chair showdown by CommonWealth Beacon

Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Massachusetts allowed no-excuse mail-in voting for the first time this year as well as expanded early voting – and millions of voters took advantage. By Saturday evening, 2.28 million voters had cast their ballots, either by mail or in person – a number equivalent to more than two-thirds of all ballots cast in the 2016 election. For Pam Wilmot, vice president o...

Biden's lead has supporters....nervous by CommonWealth Beacon

Evan Falchuk, in favor of Question 2 calling for ranked choice voting, squares off with Nick Murray, a policy analyst at the Maine Policy Institute.

We talk to David Seltz, the executive director of the state’s Health Policy Commission, about how the coronavirus is changing health care.

We talk with Boston City Councilor Andrea Campbell about her candidacy for mayor.

Michelle Wu is, by conventional standards, an unlikely figure to be challenging a sitting Boston mayor (though incumbent Mayor Marty Walsh has yet to declare his candidacy, he is widely expected to seek a third term next year). She is shy by temperament, and when she entered Harvard as an undergraduate in 2004, politics was so removed from Wu’s upbringing that she considered herself neither a Demo...

Massachusetts voters will be asked in November whether to update the Right to Repair law -- but they may have a hard time wading through the complexities of a ballot question when supporters and opponents cannot even agree on the basics of what it will do. Tommy Hickey, director of the Right to Repair Coalition, and Conor Yunits, a spokesman for No on One, joined the Codcast to discuss the ballot...

I took a Red Line train last week that was crowded according to the MBTA’s COVID-19 crowding standards, but the consensus on this week’s Codcast was that I didn’t need to worry. Jim Aloisi, the former secretary of transportation and TransitMatters board member, called my story on the crowded train ride a mild over-reaction “Your article might have given people an impression that they should be fea...

With less than two weeks until school starts, parents from Somerville and Newton say they have yet to get any details on what classes will look like for their children and whether remote learning will be better than it was when schools suddenly shut down last spring amid COVID-19. “Families cannot live in a state of uncertainty,” said Keri Rodrigues of Somerville on The Codcast. “I am two weeks aw...

The federal government allows states to recoup Medicaid costs after the deaths of patients who use the program. Estate recovery allows homes to be seized and sold to pay off expended Medicaid dollars, a move advocates decry as penalizing low-income families, and making Medicaid into a loan program. Some states take the federal rules a step further. “MassHealth has some of the strongest and most dr...

Markey-Kennedy race in the homestretch by CommonWealth Beacon

Curtatone, Novick hit Baker reopening guidance by CommonWealth Beacon

Downing, Vennochi voice concerns on Baker by CommonWealth Beacon

Two opponents debate a ballot question in Maine with huge importance for Massachusetts.

As local news withers, we’re losing sense of identity by CommonWealth Beacon

Differences between AIM official and transportation advocate mirror the split on Beacon Hill.

Michael Curry: Waging a duel-front war on the pandemic and racism by CommonWealth Beacon

Contact tracing effort scaled way back by CommonWealth Beacon

Spilka makes a case for substance over process by CommonWealth Beacon