Author: Spare Change

  • Editorial: Senators, You’re No Ted Kennedy

    When Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid appointed John Kerry to the so-called “super committee” charged with cutting more than $1 trillion from the federal deficit over 10 years, we couldn’t help but wonder if the Bay State’s senior senator is in for more swift-boating. Kerry and the two other Democratic senators appointed to the committee…

  • Editorial: The Feel-good Sales Tax Holiday

    “We do it, frankly, not because it’s particularly fiscally prudent, but because it’s popular.” That’s Gov. Deval Patrick explaining what has become the annual sales tax holiday, this year’s scheduled for the weekend of Aug. 13-14. In other words: it makes no real sense, but a lot of people are fooled into thinking it’s a…

  • Editorial: Behind Closed Doors at the State House

    The debate over a proposed shift in homeless policy was debated and settled behind closed doors at the State House, among a select few powerful dealmakers. So was a debate over collective bargaining for municipal employees. And proposed immigration crackdown measures. And so was just about everything else in the new $30.6 billion state budget,…

  • For the Past Five Years

    For the past five years, anyone that passed the corner of Tremont Street and Winthrop Street in Boston knew the daily smile of George (Peanut) Beatty as he sold the Boston Herald Newspaper. Unfortunally, that smile has recently faded away with his early passing on May 30, 2010. George was born the son of the…

  • A Duet: Brother Blue & Ruth Edmonds Hill

    Brother Blue to Ruth: We’ve been together a long time. You’ve heard me tell many stories, and I’ve watched you in your work, collecting oral histories, over the years. But though we know a great deal about each others work and each others aspirations in the work, there is much that we don’t know. Let…