Chuck Turner

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What happens if they hold a city election and nobody notices?

The past few years, Boston has been almost continuously wrapped up in big, attention-getting elections.
Quiet fight
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | June 10, 2011

The Third Annual Phoenix Memorial Day look at the laughable state of Massachusetts politics

Hey, thanks for having me back for the Third Annual Boston Phoenix Memorial Day Political Roast! Good to see so many of you here — the last time I saw this many Beacon Hill insiders in one place was on the prospective witness list for the Sal DiMasi t
Ready, Aim — Roast
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | May 27, 2011

District 7 endorsement: Vote Tito

Thirty-five-year-old Tito Jackson, a former economic development official in Governor Deval Patrick's administration, is the candidate most deserving of District 7's votes.
Plus, sex ed and race in Boston’s schools
By EDITORIAL | March 04, 2011

Turning on Turner - Letters

By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | February 11, 2011

DOJ turns on Turner, First Amendment

The sentencing memorandum filed by Boston federal prosecutors last week, seeking between 33 and 41 months incarceration for convicted former Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner,...
By Harvey Silverglate | January 25, 2011

Q&A #4: In Which I Am Not Much Help

"Johnny" hits me with three questions that I'm not going to be very helpful with: Which people at the Probation Department will be indicted? Any...
By David S. Bernstein | January 21, 2011

The new black

When the Theater District's Cure Lounge ejected a group of black Harvard and Yale alums and grad students last month, many saw it as the latest confirmation of Boston's racist core.
Can a new group of leaders help Boston finally shed its reputation as hostile territory for the black professional middle class?
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | December 17, 2010

Wiki paradoxes

Trust us: It is only a matter of time before Hollywood brings the saga of WikiLeaks impresario Julian Assange to the big screen.
Plus, kudos to Council and DeLeo
By EDITORIAL | December 10, 2010

Interview: Boston City Councilor Matt O'Malley

Age 31, recently elected Boston City Councilor Matt O'Malley is a member of a new generation of local politicos who are more at home in coffee bars than in smoke-filled rooms.
The new kid
By PETER KADZIS | December 10, 2010

Boston City Council: Chuck Turner's Last Stand. For Now.

Chuck Turner is absolutely right. I'm not being sarcastic. The expelled councilor is right that the FBI's case against him was overblown and petty, that...
By Chris Faraone | December 01, 2010

Kids In The Hall

Boston City Hall politics, normally a year-round spectator sport, was largely overshadowed this year by state and national campaigns. With the attention off, a surprising amount of activity has been going on — not in the mayor's office, but down the cor
A growing batch of young, progressive City Councilors is making the much-derided body relevant again
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | November 12, 2010

The persecution rests

Charles Dickens believed that the law is an ass. Well, he might have been right: last week's federal-court conviction of six-term Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner on bribery charges certainly seems to support that theory.
Turnergate
By PETER KADZIS AND HARVEY SILVERGLATE | November 05, 2010

Trail of jeers

As summer officially kicks off this weekend, thousands upon thousands of people will be descending on our fair metropolis to get a glimpse of America's most history-drenched city.
Forget Paul Revere. This summer, treat yourself to a tour of Boston's worst in political corruption.
By LAWRENCE ''HUGGY'' BERGMAN | June 18, 2010

The Battle of Mission Hill

Oftentimes, inner-city dwellers who have to routinely phone police about disorderly neighbors fear retribution from gangbangers or drug dealers.
Town-versus-gown tempers are boiling over near the Northeastern campus, as residents charge the giant school with 'death by incrementalism'
By CHRIS FARAONE | June 11, 2010

Oil, oil, everywhere

It is not enough that British Petroleum’s wounded oil well in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico continues to bleed millions of gallons of viscous crude oil, killing marshes that could offer protection from future hurricanes, destroying habitats for m
BP’s latest eco-crime; City Council Pres. Mike Ross does the right thing; Scott Brown disappoints
By EDITORIAL | May 28, 2010

The war over peace

In the early infancy of this five-week-old year, Boston has been rocked by four homicides and 10 non-fatal shootings. By the time this goes to print, there may well be more.
A decade after the 'Boston Miracle,' violent crime has again overtaken parts of the city. Can the miracle makers create a new peace?
By CHRIS FARAONE | February 05, 2010

Boston teen in Haiti stranded without a country

Jenny Ulysee was inside her stepmother's hair salon in Mariani, Haiti, when the January 12 earthquake caused a nearby building to buckle and collapse onto the roof of her family's business.
Lost
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 29, 2010

Green school. Red light?

Little girls and boys frolic on swing sets whittled from recycled beech wood.
At-large City Councilor John Connolly sets his sights on creating multi-million-dollar environmental academy.
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 08, 2010

Dispatch from an Election Night Pub Crawl

Photo Credit:Melissa Ostrow The angry spirits that supervise Boston politics tried to silence this election coverage. Between a T-Mobile outage that put me behind every...
By Chris Faraone | November 04, 2009

For Mayor: Vote Flaherty + Yoon

Boston’s mayoral candidates are running campaigns that are variations on a theme.
Boston District City Council: Henriquez, Ross, ciommo, LaMattina
By EDITORIAL | October 30, 2009

Knight of night life

The most feared man in Boston isn’t a crazy-eyed killer or a brutal street thug — he’s an elected official. Evidence? When was the last time you heard a disgruntled Boston businessperson publicly criticize Mayor Tom Menino?
Taking on Boston’s biggest bully
By CHRIS FARAONE | October 23, 2009

Burn, baby, burn

The Phoenix opposed President Barack Obama's efforts to help Chicago win the 2016 Summer Olympics on the grounds that doing business with the International Olympic Committee is always bad news for the host community.
The Olympics, zipper-gate, stimulus money, and why Coakley must investigate City Hall
By EDITORIAL | October 09, 2009

Preliminary findings

Even knowledgeable City Hall insiders know they're better off scratching lotto tickets than wagering on Boston politics.
Handicapping the 15-headed horse race that is Boston's at-large City Council election
By CHRIS FARAONE | August 14, 2009

Yoon or Flaherty

Boston voters will go to the polls in less than seven weeks to choose two candidates, out of the four now running, to face off against each other in November's mayoral election.
Who will win the chance to challenge Menino?
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | August 14, 2009

Who's next?

If Melvin B. Miller has his way, last week's shutdown of the Bay State Banner — the African-American-focused weekly paper Miller ran as editor and publisher for nearly half a century — won't be the end.
What the Banner 's closure means for Boston's African-Americans
By ADAM REILLY | July 17, 2009

The 12th Annual Muzzle Awards

With the era of repression and secrecy fostered by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney finally over, this should be the best of times for freedom of expression, open government, and civil liberties. Yet change comes slowly.
A look at the dishonorable enemies of free speech and personal liberty in New England.
By DAN KENNEDY | July 10, 2009

Massholes

Scandal and accusations of corruption are nothing new to Massachusetts state government. Hutchinson was accused of enforcing the much-despised Stamp Act and Tea Act in part because his brother-in-law was stamp master, and two of his sons were designate
A timeline of modern-day state house corruption
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | June 19, 2009

Swan song for Southie?

South Boston is famous for producing politicians the way Detroit is known for manufacturing automobiles.
As circumstances have changed for Irish Bostonians, the political talent pool in South Boston has dried up. Plus, voting a black slate?
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | April 24, 2009

Blackballed

Turner might want to avoid hitching his fortunes to those of such utterly disreputable pols as former DC mayor Marion Barry, ex-Newark mayor Sharpe James, and Dianne Wilkerson.
If Chuck Turner is innocent, why is he aligning himself with a coterie of disreputable African-American leaders?
By CHRIS FARAONE | March 04, 2009

Black History Month lands on City Hall

Members of Boston's Black Ministerial Alliance might resent New Black Panther Party soldier Jamarhl Crawford for his persistently blasting them as crooks and opportunists.
Panther Party
By CHRIS FARAONE | February 25, 2009

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