Ben Downing

Earlier this year I commented here that policymakers were missing the mark if they did not turn their focus to poverty. Which begs the question, if they…

Massachusetts is one of the richest states in the richest nation on earth and yet, 1 in 10 people and 1 in 7 children struggle with hunger. That’s 701,630…

30 years ago, Healthcare accounted for 16 percent of the $20 billion Massachusetts state budget. 10 years ago, it accounted for 30 percent of a $28…

As the New Year begins, Governors, Mayors, and other elected officials, will deliver addresses aimed at setting the debate for the year ahead. Most will…

I consider the 10 years I served in the State Senate to be an honor. I met some of the finest women and men I have ever known working there. It was not a…

My Dad had been district attorney for less than 2 years when Wayne Lo opened fire on Simon’s Rock campus the night of December 14, 1992. He killed one…

On our national seal, you find a motto of the United States in Latin - “E pluribus Unum” … “Out of Many, One” … it was adopted to represent the coming…

Just about 2 months ago, my wife and I welcomed our son Malcolm into the world. Thanks to the miracles of modern science, we have the security of knowing…

The opioid epidemic claimed 2000 lives in Massachusetts in 2016, the third year in a year of significant increases. In 2014, for the first time in 15…

According to US News & World Report, Massachusetts is number one. That is a good thing. Having looked a variety of metrics, McKinsey & US News said, among…