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  • Obama Trumpets Democrats' Small-Business Bona Fides
    Jul 29, 2010 — New York Times
    Obama, in New Jersey, emphasized that he had cut taxes for small businesses eight times. “Helping small businesses, cutting taxes, making credit available. With the midterm elections just three months away, Senate Republican leaders see little reason to hand Mr.
  • Small businesses emerge as big campaign issue for Democrats and Republicans
    Jul 29, 2010 — Washington Post
    This is as American as apple pie," Obama said. "Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. If the logjam breaks in the Senate, the bill could be sent to the White House before the House adjourns for the summer on Friday.
  • Linking cities and eras
    Jul 25, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    On the upstream side, the sidewalk is scarcely wide enough for two adults to stand side by side. The bridge connects Boston's Cambridge Street with Cambridge's Main Street. And they point out that traffic adjusted when the Longfellow Bridge's travel lanes were temporarily closed for safety reasons. Romney's successor, Deval Patrick, pushed for statewide bridge repairs, with the Longfellow as the signature project.
  • Clean energy means Mass. money
    Jul 22, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    Many - including Senator Scott Brown - are understandably concerned about any proposal that could lead to higher costs in an already rocky economy. Moreover, these subsidies benefit fossil fuel-producing states to Massachusetts' detriment and add to the deficit. Since the Initiative began in January 2009, electric prices have declined from 18 cents per kilowatt hour to 16 cents per kilowatt hour, while prices have increased in other parts of the country.
  • Feds dismiss post-Enron tips of fraud
    Jul 22, 2010 — The Hill
    The law decrees that publicly traded companies can’t discharge, demote or harass employees who report violations of securities rules or fraud against shareholders. They say OSHA has done a good job of vetting whistleblower claims by dismissing clearly frivolous complaints, as well as claims over issues that don’t have a real effect on shareholders.
  • State's cuts leave Greenway wanting
    Jul 21, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    One barren site by Faneuil Hall has a half-acre of dried-out grass and a chain link fence encircling a highway ramp.
  • Obey's axe hovers over Obama's $1.3B education program
    Jul 19, 2010 — The Hill
    Unlike broad-based education programs such as Title I grants for low-income schools and special education assistance, only a select few states would win Race to the Top awards. Only two states — Tennessee and Delaware — have won Race to the Top grants so far.Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have made education reforms a top priority.
  • Childbirth in chains
    Jul 18, 2010 — Chicago Tribune
    Most of these women, according to their attorney, had been arrested for nonviolent crimes and were awaiting trial. She was rushed to Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, where doctors and nurses immediately protested when they saw Farrar's ankles shackled together and her arm handcuffed to the bed, Farrar recalled. But he said that, according to sheriff's office policy, if a doctor doesn't make a request, the restraints should be removed once a woman is in labor.
  • Firms cancel health coverage With cost of health policies rising, small companies turn to state
    Jul 18, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    There has not been an unusually large spike in enrollment in Commonwealth Care, the subsidized insurance program, according to spokesman Richard Powers. In February, the governor filed sweeping legislation that proposes to give the Division of Insurance the power to essentially cap health care price increases. When Executive Director Judy Knox terminated the company's health plan late last year, she asked Fields, the consultant, to help 10 of those workers enroll in Commonwealth Care.
  • Green Line extension deadline nearsBike path upgrade draws compliments for stateT still pursuing ways to stop illegal parking at bus stops
    Jul 18, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    That's unlikely to happen here, but MBTA drivers do have a special button they can push to signal the operations center that a stop is blocked. It will not cut across Tufts to Route 16, a final stop that state officials are putting off for a later phase. Now it is the best biking surface in the City of Boston.
  • 1 percent jobs solution
    Jul 17, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    Lower unemployment compensation costs, for example, and higher personal income and sales tax revenues - a great help to cash-strapped states and local governments. And while corporate America is emerging from recession with rising profits and strong finances, there are few signs of strong private sector job growth. Public sector jobs depend, by definition, on tax revenues generated by private enterprise.
  • State's recovery appears to slow
    Jul 15, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    ...economy showed signs of slowing in June, even as private sector employers added jobs for the sixth consecutive month and the state unemployment rate fell to its lowest level in nine months. The state gained 3,400 private sector jobs last month, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported yesterday, but the pace of growth slowed considerably, from about 7,000 private sector jobs in May and more than 15,000 in April. The state jobless rate declined to 9 percent from...
  • Fouled by the taxman
    Jul 14, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    The reason: Britain's exorbitant tax laws, which would force Bolt to pay more in taxes than he would earn by winning the race. But it is no coincidence that far more people migrate from high-tax states (California, New York, Ohio) to low-tax states (Florida, New Hampshire, Texas) than the other way around. When tax rates bite, taxpayers and businesses are driven to escape.
  • Philip Morris Said to Benefit from Child Labor
    Jul 14, 2010 — New York Times
    Nixon, the Philip Morris spokesman, said the company already had policies in place prohibiting purchases from farms that used child labor. Nixon said, Philip Morris would step up its efforts to eliminate child labor. The farmers studied by Human Rights Watch supply Philip Morris Kazakhstan, a wholly owned subsidiary of Philip Morris International, which is based in New York.
  • Democrats battle anti-business charges with a $30B credit fund
    Jul 13, 2010 — The Hill
    He cited healthcare reform, student lending reform and Wall Street reform as examples of legislative pushes that have hurt businesses.Rep. Private lenders have become more reluctant to lend at a time when federal deficits raise the specter of inflation.
  • Gates Foundation playing pivotal role in changes for education system
    Jul 12, 2010 — Washington Post
    The Pittsburgh school district landed $40 million, Los Angeles charter schools $60 million and the Memphis schools $90 million. But what is certain is that Gates grants have become a leading currency for a particular kind of education reform. But Gates and the school district have won converts.
  • Jobs outlook for small businesses may be getting bleaker
    Jul 9, 2010 — Los Angeles Times
    The slowdown in hiring is particularly troublesome, experts say, because small businesses typically hire first during a recovery. The company defines small businesses as those with fewer than 20 employees. Intuit's data show that small businesses hired just 18,000 additional workers last month. But so far this year, these companies have provided about one-third of all new private-sector jobs, said Brian Headd, an economist with the Small Business Administration.
  • Small-business hiring weakens, payroll firm says
    Jul 9, 2010 — Los Angeles Times
    The slowdown in hiring is particularly troublesome, experts say, because small businesses typically hire first during a recovery. The company defines small businesses as those with fewer than 20 employees.Intuit's data show that small businesses hired just 18,000 additional workers last month. But so far this year, these companies have provided about one-third of all new private-sector jobs, said Brian Headd, an economist with the Small Business Administration.
  • Loans to small business gradually increase::
    Jul 8, 2010 — Los Angeles Times
    The bank's withdrawal reduced the availability of credit to small businesses, according to SBA officials.
  • With federal support, more loans trickle to cash-starved small businesses
    Jul 8, 2010 — Los Angeles Times
    The bank's withdrawal reduced the availability of credit to small businesses, according to SBA officials.
  • Obama to name Berwick Medicare, Medicaid chief
    Jul 7, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    Berwick is a self-professed supporter of rationing health care, and he won't even have to explain his views to the American people in a hearing. It also avoids a public fight over the new law before the midterm congressional elections. Some aspects of the law take effect in September, and federal rules for administering the law must be written.``It's not totally a shock that the president would use this maneuver.
  • Patrick has double standard, critics say
    Jul 7, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    Landolfi became chief of staff at the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority in the early 2000s, to help the agency recover from revelations of major cost overruns.
  • New SBA regional chief to focus on lending, job growth
    Jul 5, 2010 — Los Angeles Times
    That kind of help is especially useful to entrepreneurial folks," she said. Echols has some personal experience. She is the current director of the U.S. Green Building Council's Northern California chapter.
  • Emergency room visits grow in Mass.
    Jul 4, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    ...coverage does not reduce emergency room visits. This is because the uninsured "are not really responsible for significant ER use'' he said. The growth in emergency room use predates the health insurance law and mirrors national trends, according to Nancy Turnbull, a senior lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health.``I don't think the increase has anything to do with health care reform,'' she said. "It's much more reflective of [primary care] access problems.'' Sarah Iselin,...
  • Small business sidelined in slow recovery from recession
    Jul 3, 2010 — Los Angeles Times
    Those with 500 to 999 workers shed 102,000 jobs during that period. It's a lot easier to manage machines." That sort of thinking, of course, isn't unique to McCutcheon or to small businesses.
  • Transportation options promoted on the Cape
    Jul 1, 2010 — Cape Cod Times
    Jake Berry Jul. 1, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- BARNSTABLE -- Forget planes, trains and automobiles.
  • 10-year plan only partly funds I-93 project
    Jun 30, 2010 — The Eagle-Tribune
    ...or replacing deficient bridges. The 2011-2020 plan funds I-93 reconstruction through Exit 3 and red-list bridge replacements at Exit 5. The funding for those items comes from federal and interstate sources, and $195 million in bonds. The 10-year-plan includes highway, bridge, rail, transit and airport projects. "This plan allows us to move forward with important projects, such as the widening of I-93 and replacing the Memorial Bridge, that will stimulate economic...
  • Britain's Labor Party plots a return to power
    Jun 30, 2010 — Los Angeles Times
    By Henry Chu PEASEDOWN ST. John, near the city of Bath in southwest England, is a traditional Labor stronghold, a legacy from its days as a coal-mining area. But the wider parliamentary district exemplifies the work cut out for the party.In 1997, voters ejected their longtime Conservative member of Parliament and embraced Blair's New Labor revolution.
  • Voluntary taxes
    Jun 27, 2010 — The Boston Globe
    Instead, thousands of Bay Staters checked off boxes on their income tax returns opting to contribute to the funds. Ian Ayres, a Yale law professor and economist, has proposed a voluntary gas tax as a way to reduce oil consumption. Other familiar fixtures - state lotteries and specialty license plates - are also essentially voluntary taxes.
  • EDITORIAL
    Jun 24, 2010 — The Salem News
    Patrick has brought our state on a wild ride of binge spending and failed reform for the past four years.
  • As China Aids Labor, Unrest Is Still Rising
    Jun 21, 2010 — New York Times
    The labor laws have raised expectations, but still leave workers relatively powerless by Western standards. Meanwhile, because of lax enforcement, companies dodge other labor laws by cheating on minimum wage requirements and overtime pay. Xiyun Yang contributed reporting from Beijing, and David Barboza from Zhongshan, China.
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