The Rappaport Center for Law and Public Service offers a collection of Suffolk University Law School student commentaries each year on issues confronting state and local government in Massachusetts.

Since it was first published in 2011, the Rappaport Briefing has focused on a wide range of topics, from affordable housing and the issue of online sales tax to health coverage costs and the MBTA budget deficit.

The following reports appear in the 2013 Rappaport Briefing:

• Redistricting Boston: The need for a better approach, by Daniel Glissman
• The online sales tax problem: Congress must act, by Monisha Pahuja
• Massachusetts must restore the safety net to protect homeless families, by Deena Zakim
• Closing Massachusetts’ skills gap, by David H. Farrell
• A change for the better: Retooling the New England ground fishery, by Neil Clinton
• Charting the MBTA’s path to financial viability, by Nigel Crocombe
• An early start to negotiating community agreements will aid host communities, by David Chorney
• VMT: The real solution to Massachusetts’ transportation funding crisis?, by Paul A. Schmid
• Massachusetts must prepare now for flooding, by Erica H. Mattison