The Fore River Shipyard was in service between 1886 and 1985, first under the management of the Fore River Ship and Engine Building Company, then Bethlehem Steel, and finally General Dynamics. She helped to close out the age of sail with the construction of the largest sailing vessel in history without any kind of engine. Besides providing a substantial number of liberty ships, surface warships of various classes, and submarines during WWII, it may also be the source of the "Kilroy was here" graffiti. [more inside]
posted by rmd1023 on Nov 4, 2009 - 3 comments

A Day in the Life of a Blacksmith (start here) is the 1869-70 diary of an apprentice blacksmith in Medfield, Massachusetts, in blog form. Brought to you by the American Antiquarian Society and its new blog Past is Present.
posted by Horace Rumpole on Oct 23, 2009 - 15 comments

Massachusetts witnesses the end of Greyhound Racing. Today is the last day of Greyhound racing at The Revere, Massachusetts Wonderland Greyhound track. After a 2008 referendum vote put on the ballot by Grey2K and others the 74 year tradition of Greyhound racing at the former Victorian era Wonderland amusment park will end with a slate of 12 races tonight. Some say this is a great day to be at the dogs, some say this is a great day for the dogs. Still others say that the majority of dogs will be moved to other states and lose out on the hoped for opportunity to be adopted. In the end hundreds will lose their jobs in a state with 9.7% unemployment. The fate of the dogs is uncertain, and Boston's famed Revere Beach loses its final attraction.
posted by Gungho on Sep 18, 2009 - 94 comments

This weekend the Obama family arrives on the Massachusetts' island of Martha's Vineyard for a week-long vacation. While known as a summer colony/destination for New Englanders, tourists and the famous¹ the island has a storied history from its early pre-colonial days to today. The Obamas' visit highlights the island's proud connection to its deep African-American heritage as a "well integrated" community (especially Oaks Bluff)² from the days that freed slaves and retired black whalers settled and established homes and businesses on the island. [more inside]
posted by ericb on Aug 22, 2009 - 25 comments

A website has been launched to preserve the history of Danvers State Insane Asylum. The Asylum, which opened in 1878 in Danvers, MA (site of the Salem Witch Trials) and closed in 1992, was featured in the horror movie Session 9, and may have been the inspiration for HP Lovecraft's Arkham Asylum. Its Kirkbride Wings, which once held the institution's living quarters, now house a 400+ unit apartment complex. [more inside]
posted by zarq on Jun 30, 2009 - 35 comments

Into the black. At nearly five miles, it's the longest transportation tunnel east of the Rockies. Built in 1874, its construction took 200 lives, nearly bankrupted the state of Massachusetts, and served as a crucible for modern engineering. Journey into the Hoosac Tunnel, urban exploration destination and the most haunted place in New England.
posted by billypilgrim on Feb 20, 2009 - 18 comments

Just as a California campaign for a Constitutional ban on same-sex marriage (allowed since June 16, 2008) is heating up the Connecticut Supreme Court has followed suit and overturned bans on same-sex marriage in that state. [more inside]
posted by liketitanic on Oct 10, 2008 - 86 comments

Two years since Massachusetts instituted major statewide healthcare reform, the statistics are coming in. 340,000 residents, roughly half the state's previously uninsured, are now insured. The state says that 95% of its population is now covered, based on Department of Revenue estimates. However, a large portion of them are enrolled through state-subsidized insurance programs, and those program's rate of enrollment have far outpaced estimates. This has led lawmakers to forsee a budget shortfall. Premiums and co-pays are going up, cigarette taxes have increased, and a cost control proposal is making its way through the legislature. Assessments have been all over the map.
posted by Weebot on Jul 2, 2008 - 79 comments

Pregnancy Boom at Gloucester High As summer vacation begins, 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting babies—more than four times the number of pregnancies the 1,200-student school had last year. Some adults dismissed the statistic as a blip. Others blamed hit movies like Juno and Knocked Up for glamorizing young unwed mothers. But principal Joseph Sullivan knows at least part of the reason there's been such a spike in teen pregnancies in this Massachusetts fishing town.
posted by swift on Jun 19, 2008 - 209 comments

Tests reveal that an animal killed in Western Massachusetts was a gray wolf. The species has not been seen in the state for 160 years.
posted by VicNebulous on Mar 4, 2008 - 52 comments

Prison and the Mentally Ill in Massachusetts: The Globe reports on the pitfalls and consequences of using a retribution-based correctional system on the criminally insane in MA, as inmates in the state kill themselves at triple the national rate. Part I. Part II. Part III (in tomorrow's Globe). Photos of the system's most troubled. Last words of some disturbed inmates. [more inside]
posted by rollbiz on Dec 10, 2007 - 92 comments

Wild turkeys up to 4 feet tall are strolling on the sidewalks of Boston, Cambridge, and Brookline, Mass. Animal control officer Pierre Verrier suggests shooing turkeys away with a purse. But some people need to be near the turkeys.
posted by lukemeister on Oct 24, 2007 - 72 comments

"Darling, I have a headache, why not use your robot?"
posted by bicyclefish on Oct 16, 2007 - 107 comments

Want to live for free (sort of) in a historic home? Maryland, Delaware, and Massachusetts all have resident curatorship programs, in which you can live rent-free in a historic home, provided you spend your own time and money renovating it. Contact your state's historic preservation office to see if there's a program like this near you...
posted by dersins on Sep 6, 2007 - 14 comments

Applicant who failed the MA bar exam sues not only the exam board, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court and four justices. Why? Because a question on the exam involved a Lesbian Couple, and therefore "the Massachusetts state government...are purposely-advancing Secular Humanism's homosexual agenda." (link goes to pdf of the complaint full of hilarious claims like this one)
posted by allen.spaulding on Jul 3, 2007 - 101 comments

"I'm all outta dollars, you got any Berkshares?" Several Great Barrington, Massachusetts businesses have developed a local currency to promote local business.
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Jun 21, 2007 - 34 comments

Boston's population woes may have been partially solved.
posted by RTQP on Jul 6, 2006 - 29 comments

Massachusetts is about to pass a "nearly" universal health care plan. It's an ambitious and innovative piece of public policy that mixes tax incentives to insure yourself if you can afford it to direct government subsidies to health care insurers to help cover the poor. Businesses will be fined if they are not going to cover their workers. It still does not cover escalating costs or malpractice wildness. And, it still will leave 5% uncovered. Nor, is it the plan specifically endorsed by Physicians for a National Health Plan (who favor a single payer system) or the AMA (who favor much greater reform of insurance providers). Still, it's a start from making us "the only industrialized nation in the world" to not, well you know.....
posted by narebuc on Apr 5, 2006 - 71 comments

I finally saw it and captured it on film. The picture got me wondering whether or not anyone else was equally smitten by these freaks of nature. Apparently the good people at The Albino Squirrel Preservation Society are. So are these seemingly nice folks. Leave it to the BBC to be the definitive authority on the topic. Of course there are those who will turn this into a tourist attraction or a way to make a quick buck. There are frauds. There are criminal aspects. There is always a detractor or two, and as always too much hype.
posted by scblackman on Mar 28, 2006 - 39 comments

Beer and Wine, Not Adam and Steve Just before you step inside of your local supermarket there's a person holding a clipboard asking you if you are a registered voter in this state. "Yes.." Would you like to sign a petition to allow this very store to sell beer and wine? "OK" You glance at the cover page on the clipboard then quickly scribble your name and address on page 5 and hand back the clipboard. Thank you. Just as many other hurried shoppers did before you, you have just added your name to the growing list of voters who support an amendment to ban same sex marriage. The family-focused (or somewhat obsessed) political group that organized the petition drive hired a political consulting firm that in turn hired subcontractors who are paid by number of signatures gathered. Discussed on the blue here before was another effort to make public names and addresses of all who signed the petitions.
posted by StarForce5 on Nov 7, 2005 - 49 comments

Know Thy Neighbor --playing hardball with those who sign a petition amending Massachusetts' Constitution to end same-sex marriage there. All who sign it will have their names and addresses posted on the site. It's the brainchild of Thomas Lang and Alexander Westerhoff, one of the first gay couples married in Massachusetts. A little more here, including this: ...altering the state Constitution is a big deal, and if the backers of this (or any) constitutional amendment can't find 66,000 Massachusetts residents who feel strongly enough about doing so that they're willing to make their support public, then maybe the measure shouldn't be on the ballot after all. ...
posted by amberglow on Sep 9, 2005 - 227 comments

The legislature is trying to impose its conception of "family values" on the state by banning spanking. Another case of religious fundamentalists imposing their values on everyone and meddling with individual liberties? Meet the sponsor. (Also see recent non-binding resolution nearby.)
posted by thedevildancedlightly on Jun 11, 2005 - 110 comments

Republican Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney - a likely contender for the Presidential Race in 2008 - pulls out the "gay marriage" card in two recent speeches: one in South Carolina; the other in Utah. Forget the fact that Romney seems to be spending most of his tenure as governor traveling outside the state, campaigning and not dealing with the affairs of the State, but he has now flip-flopped on his stance...and now continues the use of "gay marriage" and "civil unions" as a divisive political ploy on a national stage.
posted by ericb on Feb 26, 2005 - 26 comments

Sarah Roberts vs. Boston In 1848, five-year-old Sarah Roberts was barred from the local primary school because she was black. Her father sued the City (.pdf file). The lawsuit was part of an organized effort by the African-American community to end racially segregated schools. The book "Sarah's Long Walk: The Free Blacks of Boston and How Their Struggle for Equality Changed America" tells the story of the case of Roberts v. City of Boston, that remains a little-known landmark in the civil rights movement.
posted by matteo on Feb 24, 2005 - 4 comments

Gay divorce Well, if the track record of straight marriages is any indication, this was bound to happen sooner or later. "Less than seven months after same-sex couples began tying the knot in Massachusetts, the state is seeing ts first gay divorces."
posted by livingsanctuary on Dec 10, 2004 - 20 comments

This has a value in our profession, and it doesn't have to do with scale at all. It has to do with the actual meaning of a house.
posted by alms on Sep 9, 2004 - 8 comments

The Freeloader Registry. When an employer pays low wages and doesn't provide health care benefits, its employees often end up getting free care through state and federal programs. How much does this cost you, and which companies benefit from the practice? A new Massachusetts state law will provide detailed information about top corporate welchers. (This follows recent discussion of the topic in the context of Wal-Mart.) Via Good Jobs First.
posted by alms on Aug 6, 2004 - 21 comments

Whether you're for it or against it, it looks like we've got it.

March 17, 2004 brings gay marriage to Massachusetts, adding the USA to a short list of countries who recognize this union. Whether we remain on that list for long depends on whether certain people get their way.
posted by CrayDrygu on May 17, 2004 - 215 comments

Gay Marriage Opponents See Fight Getting Tougher ...or from a liberal view: "Whoo hoo!" The Boston Globe has a good article about the 'setback' that is about to happen to society on May 17th. No, not Brown vs. Board of Education's 50th Anniversary, but the Mass. Supreme Judicial Court's decision that gays and lesbians deserve equal marriage rights under the Mass. state constitution. ---- The Globe has an exhaustive list of links and opinions from both sides of the issue, including video clips, a full timeline of the Goodrich case, and even national news and opinions on the issue. ---- (This is my first FPP.)
posted by andreaazure on May 14, 2004 - 19 comments

What's a bigger waste of taxpayer money: Throwing a concert in a tunnel for a public works project years late and over budget or putting on a New Year's fireworks display for TV cameras only?
posted by MediaMan on Dec 9, 2003 - 23 comments

Mass. Rules In Favor Of Same-Sex Marriages. The highest court in Massachusetts has ruled that same-sex couples are legally entitled to wed under the state constitution, but stopped short of immediately allowing marriage licenses to be issued to the seven couples who challenged the law. The court is giving the Legislature 180 days to "take such action as it may deem appropriate in light of this decision."
posted by Stynxno on Nov 18, 2003 - 125 comments

Massachusetts governor has new plan to get death penalty re-introduced. Romney claims that his science is so tight that guilt will be irrefutable. It's an interesting angle to take to change legislation. I do, however, wonder how science can irrefutably detect crooked cops.
posted by Mayor Curley on Sep 24, 2003 - 33 comments

You've got to be impressed by Smith College's Brown Fine Arts Center. Not only do they have traveling shows, permanent works, and student installations, they've got one thing few other museums can boast: Restrooms As Functional Art. Check out the photos to see the different ways the men's and women's rooms became works in an of themselves.
posted by mathowie on Sep 16, 2003 - 13 comments

6000 breathtaking aerial photos of American towns and other sites, with particularly good coverage of towns in New England (MA, VT, CT, NH, RI, ME). All of this by one photographer, Joseph Melanson, whose mission in life is "to show you facets of your environment that you never realized no matter how long you lived there."
posted by dougb on Aug 6, 2003 - 23 comments

Virgin Mary lurks in Boston hospital. Or something.
posted by xmutex on Jun 19, 2003 - 25 comments

Boneheads of the Year - The year may only be just shy of two months old, but these two Massachusetts men have already wrapped up the award for 2003. Really, how dumb can TWO people be?
posted by MediaMan on Feb 26, 2003 - 12 comments

State income tax or not? Massachusetts voters get to decide on Nov. 5th. Is this a real possibility or just a publicity stunt for Carla Howell and the Libertarian party?
posted by Hall on Aug 16, 2002 - 48 comments

The catch-22 of prison therapy. The biggest criticism of sex offender justice is that imprisonment does not mean rehabilitation. In Massachusetts because of stringent anti-sex offender laws, lawyers are advising their clients to turn down prison therapy because it will be used against them. Even used against them after they're done with their sentence. These are serious violations of double jeopardy and doctor patient privilege.
posted by skallas on Jul 28, 2002 - 9 comments

Massachusetts Legislature kills proposed amendment to ban gay marriage. Is this a breach of grass roots justice? or the majority's right to strip rights from a minority should not be put to a popular or legislative vote?
posted by LinemanBear on Jul 17, 2002 - 37 comments

Nat Hentoff tells the story of the Northampton Bill of Rights Defense Committee, a grassroots group of citizens dedicated to defending the Bill of Rights "--not only against the USA Patriot Act but also against subsequent Presidential executive orders, and actions by John Ashcroft, that 'threaten key rights guaranteed to U.S. citizens and noncitizens by the Bill of Rights and the Massachusetts Constitution.'". Visit their Web site to find out what you can do to help, including signing the Petition to Repeal the Patriot Act.
posted by mr_crash_davis on Jul 4, 2002 - 3 comments

Do you want to eat horses or do you wish to marry someone of the same sex. Or something like that. I don't know. I'm confused. Are people pro horse-meat or anti-gay? What does this say about those of us in the Commonwealth that shop at Walmart? Where's Catherine the Great when you need her!
posted by dchase on Mar 26, 2002 - 15 comments

Sodomy laws repealed in Massachusetts Equal laws no matter what 'things' you're doing? The sky is going to fall? You decide.
posted by LinemanBear on Feb 22, 2002 - 27 comments

Hands where I can see them, and turn off that tape recorder! Today the Massachusetts Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a man for violating the commonwealth's electronic surveillance law when he secretly recorded police who pulled him over in a traffic stop. While it's generally bad to tape people without telling them, should there be an exception w/r/t to recording public officials acting in their official capacities? Or is wrong just wrong?
posted by dchase on Jul 13, 2001 - 22 comments

Important Massachusetts Legislation shown here makes me pruod to live in the Commonwealth...
posted by phunkone on May 10, 2001 - 20 comments

The estate of a divorced father is freed from paying a failing son's tuition. Basically, the ruling establishes (at least in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) that children have obligations to parents. OK, if you want your parents to pay for your college education, you should at least try to graduate. But what are the other consequences of this ruling? What's the point at which a child's bad behavior releases a parent from their obligations as a parent? If your divorced dad is the Great Santini, can he cut off your child support if you hit him back?
posted by dchase on Apr 20, 2001 - 2 comments

Gymnast vaults into gender-equity flap. "For more than two decades in Massachusetts, boys have been allowed to compete on girls' teams (and vice versa) if their school doesn't have a team for their gender. But everywhere else in the region, they're still banned."
posted by idiolect on Mar 16, 2001 - 1 comment

Excellent. Massachusetts judge allows lesbian couple's names on original birth certificate. One supplied the egg, the other, the womb. The sperm were anonymous.
posted by baylink on Aug 11, 2000 - 0 comments

Massachusetts father surrenders in hockey rink killing A local story for me, but a scary one at that. The story is that Junta fought the hockey coach after the game because the game was too rough. This was after he had been kicked out by the rink manager. He then proceeded to beat the coach unconscious, in front of the kids, and the coach later died. His plea is self-defense. Yeah, he left the rink, came back, beat up a guy who was 100 pounds lighter, and pleads self-defense.
posted by jmackin on Jul 12, 2000 - 7 comments