House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo unveiled a proposal Tuesday for the most comprehensive changes to Massachusetts gun laws in 16 years, saying that the state cannot wait for federal action to curb gun violence. Under the bill, local police would be given expanded discretion to consider a person’s “suitability” to own a gun, the state […]

Given the attention now paid to implementing national health reform, the bulk of which is now upon us as 7 million new individuals now have health insurance, one important issue remains largely ignored by policy makers and industry leaders–health care workers are very unhappy. A 2012 national survey of 24,000 physicians across all specialties found that if […]

House Speaker Robert DeLeo, regarded as the most conservative Democratic leader on Beacon Hill, ventured into one of the most divisive political issues in American politics on Tuesday by unveiling what he is calling gun violence legislation. DeLeo’s bill, based on the recommendations of a commission he appointed last year, eschews more radical approaches to […]

WITH HIS column reporting on the work of engineers from UMass Lowell in Haiti (“Truly civil engineering,” Metro, May 19), Adrian Walker has touched on a significant transformation within American society. Quietly but surely, through the confluence of social responsibility, ingenuity, and youthful energy, the profession of engineering is becoming a prime instrument of fundamental change for […]

When Warren Buffett announced in 2006 that he would give away his billions, he was flooded with individual requests for help that still flow in today. Doris Buffett attends the Women for Afghan Women 12th Anniversary protecting women’s rights beyond 2014 at Tribeca 360 on May 30, 2013 in New York City. Instead of tossing the letters […]

Although mass murderers attempting to express their motivation in writing isn’t new, Northeastern University criminology professor Jack Levin said technology has changed the way that their messages are delivered. In the case of the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, Seung-Hui Cho went to a post office and mailed videos to NBC, which eventually released them. […]

Colorado movie theater shooter James Holmes. Sandy Hook school attacker Adam Lanza. And now Elliot Rodger. All were young loners with no criminal history who went on shooting sprees, leaving devastated families in their wake. Mass murderers tend to have a history of pent-up frustration and failures, are socially isolated and vengeful, blaming others for […]

MADRID — Outside City Hall late Saturday night, a man is on his knees, hands over his face, head pointed toward the sky as if in prayer. The screaming fans running past barely notice. They’ve got enough to think about. Real Madrid has won the championship in one of the most unexpected and anticipated contests […]

Thanks to a seven-minute YouTube video and a 141-page autobiographical tale of a troubled life, we have a fairly clear idea of why 22-year-old Elliot Rodger took to the streets of an ordinarily tranquil oceanside community in Southern California with enough guns and ammo to carry out a bloodbath. Even before the names of the six victims killed and […]

For students majoring in the liberal arts, with all of that degree’s vagary, the question is a common one: “What are you going to do with that degree?” Statistically speaking, it turns out the best answer would be to teach. That’s just one tiny finding in a sea of interesting data compiled by Northeastern University […]

Wary of threats to competition and the effects on consumers and patients, health economists and antitrust regulators are watching these market dynamics with a concerned eye. Last year, with Steve Pizer of Northeastern University and Roger Feldman of the University of Minnesota, in the journal Health Services Research, I published a study that directly related hospital-insurer integration with […]

Fresh from tentatively settling the class action lawsuit based on the concussions suffered by its players, the National Football League faces a new challenge that promises to cause the League migraines for years to come. Eight former NFL players — Richard Dent, Jim McMahon, Jeremy Newberry, Roy Green, J.D. Hill, Keith Van Horne, Ron Stone […]