The Codcast

The gubernatorial race between Minogue and Healey is heating up as the candidates head into the November election. In July, medtech billionaire Minogue released his “Patients First” plan for improving health care outcomes in Massachusetts. John and Paul sat down with Minogue to drill down into the details of his plan and his broader vision for the future of the state.

Guest:

Mike Minogue, republican nominee for Mass. governor, former CEO of Abiomed

Hosts:

John McDonough of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Paul Hattis of the Lowne Institute

Follow Health or Consequences:

⁠https://pod.link/6818916003⁠

CommonWealth Beacon is collecting listener questions regarding the November ballot for an upcoming podcast episode: ⁠https://commonwealthbeacon.org/uncategorized/ballotquestions/

In 2015, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found that white households in Boston had a median wealth of $247,500, while Black households had a median wealth of close to $0. That was more than ten years ago.

Now, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston has released a new report examining the wealth gap across Massachusetts. Have things improved? What trends do we see in the new report? And how has the ongoing affordability crisis affected wealth disparities?

Guest:

Sharon Scott-Chandler, president & CEO of Action for Boston Community Development

Host:

Jennifer Smith, senior reporter at CommonWealth Beacon

Read the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston's report:

www.bostonfed.org/publications/one-time-pubs/mass-echos.aspx

YouTube:

https://youtu.be/j4e_019F-uQ

Organized labor has been out in force on ballot measures — recently literally trying to secure bargaining power through the ballot — and that means manpower, mobilization, and money funneling toward a set of policy measures that the Legislature has waved away. This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith looks at unions and direct democracy with two guests.

Nick Juravich, associate professor of history and labor studies and associate director of the Labor Resource Center at UMass Boston, breaks down where we sit in the history of unions and ballot efforts. Then Chrissy Lynch, head of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, explains how the unions themselves pick their targets.

Guests:

• Nick Juravich, associate professor of history and labor studies and associate director of the Labor Resource Center at UMass Boston
• Chrissy Lynch, head of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO

Learn more about all 9 Ballot Questions

commonwealthbeacon.org/ballot-question

Watch this episode on YouTube:

youtu.be/vJwbgVX-pis

Gov. Maura Healey is all-in on artificial intelligence, but she's also trying to get a handle on soaring energy costs and a growing backlash to the very structures supporting the AI boom — data centers. This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporters Jennifer Smith and Jordan Wolman discuss the governor's new executive order trying to make data centers greener and more responsive to community feedback, and the paradox of pushing for expanded AI usage as communities revolt against its infrastructure.

Ep 302: Head over Healey - The Horse Race

https://podcasts.apple.com/no/podcast/episode-302-head-over-healey/id1287252103?i=1000655038138

What it means that a state ai assistant will handle your data - The Codcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-it-means-that-a-state-ai-assistant-will-handle/id1111787258?i=1000759887725

Watch on Youtube:

https://youtu.be/tf_m_Kxm-ec

[email protected] CommonWealthBeacon.org

The Codcast is supported by nationalgrid.org

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This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporter Hallie Claflin talks with Alecia McGregor, assistant professor of health policy and politics at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Katie Murphy, president of the Massachusetts Nurses Association. They dig into the consequences of recent maternity unit closures in Springfield and Methuen, discuss where Massachusetts stands in terms of maternal health care access, and detail what power the state has, if any, to regulate health service closures and consolidations. 

YouTube:

https://youtu.be/Pu7IwWHjAX4

Support this work:

https://commonwealthbeacon.org/support/

We all need care as we age. Adam Scott leads New England’s largest nonprofit provider of senior care and living communities. He says demand is rising as the Commonwealth’s average age continues to increase. This week on Health or Consequences, Scott discusses how the broader health care crisis is impacting long-term care.

Guest:

• Adam Scott, president and CEO of Hebrew SeniorLife

Hosts:

• Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute
• John McDonough of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public health

America's Wrong Turn: US Health Care in the Neoliberal Era by John McDonough is available now:

https://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title/53872/americas-wrong-turn

Question or comment for Health or Consequences?

• [email protected]

Support this work: 

https://commonwealthbeacon.org/support/

Massachusetts voters will decide in November whether to make big changes to the state's primary elections. But it's not a first-in-the-nation experiment: several other states, including California, already have similar systems in which all candidates appear on the same primary ballot and the top two advance to the general election, even if they're from the same party. This week on The Codcast, Chris Lisinski interviews Andrew Sinclair, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California about how the Golden State's primary framework came to be, what the effects have been, and what lessons Massachusetts might take.

Guest:

Andrew Sinclair, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College

Youtube:

https://youtu.be/LPblRDOF9rY

Support this work: 

https://commonwealthbeacon.org/support/

For the towns around the Quabbin Reservoir, managing worsening drought seasons comes with a bitter irony: they surround the essential clean water source for distant Greater Boston, and that means harsher water restrictions than the populous downstream cities. This week on The Codcast, Jennifer Smith talks with fellow CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jordan Wolman about his coverage of Quabbin watershed communities and their push for more state support.

https://commonwealthbeacon.org/opinion/towns-surrounding-the-quabbin-reservoir-protect-the-water-for-2-7-million-people-in-eastern-mass-theyre-getting-financially-starved-in-the-process/

https://commonwealthbeacon.org/government/state-government/healey-in-new-letter-urges-mwra-to-meet-the-pressing-needs-of-quabbin-reservoir-communities/

Youtube:

[email protected]

CommonWealthBeacon.org

When it comes to rebuking federal immigration actions, states’ options are limited. This week on The Codcast, Jennifer Smith and Iván Espinoza-Madrigal of Lawyers for Civil Rights discussed the PROTECT Act's new limits on ICE enforcement, the fallout from the Temporary Protected Status termination for Haiti, and the federal lawsuit challenging the state's in-state tuition law for immigrant students — and what, if anything, Massachusetts can actually do about any of it.

Guest:

Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights

Host:

Jennifer Smith, senior reporter for CommonWealth Beacon

Related Articles

https://commonwealthbeacon.org/the-codcast/health-care-workers-struggle-to-navigate-closures-and-immigration-fears/

https://commonwealthbeacon.org/education/trump-doj-sues-mass-over-immigrant-tuition-law/

https://commonwealthbeacon.org/immigration/supreme-court-paves-way-for-rollback-of-tps-protections-for-haitians-syrians/

Watch on YouTube

https://youtu.be/0TaiK2dSJpY

Wolman's article on Quabbin Reservoir:

https://commonwealthbeacon.org/environment/its-like-the-hunger-games-quabbin-reservoir-towns-take-funding-fight-to-beacon-hill-amid-extended-drought/

Credits:

• Footage "Governor Healey signs the PROTECT Act" -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtOc8AGGLn0
• Production, original music - Charlie Koczela
• Editing - Camila Ulian
• Cover photo Norfolk County Courthouse, Dedham, Massachusetts - Kenneth C. Zirkel

The traditional even-year July 31 deadline that marks an end to formal legislative business looks a little different this time around, but lawmakers still used the date to finish off a flurry of significant action. In a special bonus episode of The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon senior reporters Jennifer Smith and Chris Lisinski catch you up on why the significance of the deadline has changed, what topics are primed for legislative action in the remainder of the term, and what can still happen in the next five months before the term officially ends.