1. Emergency room waits not exactly news -- smidge of new data thrown in.  2. Conservatives want a conservative for president -- with ginned up sense of "gotcha" of supposedly "secretive meetings."  Yawn.3. Governor Patrick's … [Read more...]

Don't cheat.  Try to come up with the answer.  It has to be a controversial policy issue where everyone agrees.  Answer below:"I am a strong supporter of charter schools, as you know. I think that we do have to innovate and … [Read more...]

Evidently, there's a hidden part of the BMG website where Bob, David, and Charley share various documents, strategies for world domination, gossip, and recipes....Guess what I found there?  Voila, their "BMG Sweet 16 brackets."  … [Read more...]

Is there a win-win-no loss-win opportunity for the Governor, the MA GOP, House and Senate Dems, and we the people, respectively?Maybe.CORI reform.  A bunch of good ideas from Boston Foundation here (pdf).  The issue?  Guys … [Read more...]

1. NEWSOn March 7th, 5,000 Boston parents -- 80% of whom are black or Hispanic, mostly low-income -- will find out if they won the lottery.  The prize?  Winning admission to a charter public school.  There are no entrance … [Read more...]

....an outfit you've never heard of called "EQA."  The Lege created the "Office of Educational Quality and Accountability" in 2000.  The basic idea - they get a group of retired teachers, principals, et al to review the management … [Read more...]

1. Gary is the single BMG poster (and fledgling RMG poster) who has irrefutably, over several months, pointed out the MA inconvenient truth.  I wonder who will play Gary in the movie version.  I'm picturing...Jon Voigt. Gary's … [Read more...]

UPDATE: I thought budget was coming out Tuesday, so we'd have a chance to predict what would happen.  As it turns out, it was leaked to Globe, so it's on front page of today's paper.  The budget could be DP's "comeback"....What do … [Read more...]

January 18, 2007BOSTON --Gov. Deval Patrick and his top budget chief, Administration and Finance Secretary Leslie Kirwan, on Thursday ordered department heads to find ways to cut 5 to 10 percent as the new administration prepares to give … [Read more...]

Here we've all been promoting our ideas -- on how to improve state and local government -- for free.  We just jot em down here on BMG.Turns out you can win $10,000 for doing same -- turning your blog post into a 5 page paper....An … [Read more...]