Benjamin Goldberger

Sep 18, 2023 | commonwealthmagazine.org | Bhaamati Borkhetaria |Jennifer Smith |Colman M. Herman |Benjamin Goldberger

IT'S BEEN A long and winding 11-year road for the Dorchester Food Co-op, which will be opening its doors to the public this month. It marks the return of community and work-owned food co-ops to Boston, five years after the last local grocery co-op shuttered. Co-op markets differ from other markets primarily in their ownership model.

Sep 17, 2023 | commonwealthmagazine.org | Jennifer Smith |Colman M. Herman |Benjamin Goldberger |Phil Johnston

Sep 17, 2023 | commonwealthmagazine.org | Jennifer Smith |Colman M. Herman |Benjamin Goldberger |Phil Johnston

TUESDAY'S PRELIMINARY election was a drubbing for two of the Boston City Council's most outspoken progressive voices, but the city's progressive mayor rejected the idea that the results represent an indictment of the movement's power in Boston.

Sep 17, 2023 | commonwealthmagazine.org | Benjamin Goldberger |Jennifer Smith |Colman M. Herman |Phil Johnston

AT THE END of this past year's term, the US Supreme Court issued a decision finding that affirmative action programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Reasoning that college admissions are zero-sum and consideration of race necessitates "employ[ing] race in a negative manner" as to some applicants, the court rejected any continued use of race in considering college applications.

Sep 17, 2023 | commonwealthmagazine.org | Jennifer Smith |Colman M. Herman |Benjamin Goldberger |Phil Johnston

IN LATE MAY, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of 94-year-old Geraldine Tyler, a Minnesota woman who did not get the surplus back after her condo was foreclosed on and sold off for $40,000 - $25,000 more than what she owed. By keeping the excess, the court held the Minnesota county where Tyler lived violated the "takings clause" of the Fifth Amendment of the US Constitution, which states that private property cannot be taken for public use without just compensation.