New from CommonWealth Beacon INSURANCE: Massachusetts insurance commissioner Michael Caljouw sat down with Jordan Wolman to for a wide-ranging conversation about the insurance industry, affordability, health care, and climate change. […]
CommonWealth Staff
The Download: ‘Blunt optimist’: Mass. insurance commissioner Michael Caljouw tries to manage sea change in the industry
New from CommonWealth Beacon RETIREMENT: Massachusetts House Republicans will be faced with a choice once Minority Leader Brad Jones leaves office in January: pick a new leader who carries Jones’s […]
The Download: Tucked in House energy bill, a ‘big breakthrough’ on competitive energy suppliers
New from CommonWealth Beacon DATA CENTERS: Gov. Maura Healey’s big bet on the tech sector’s artificial intelligence boom is colliding with shifting politics around data centers as a key tax […]
The Download: Shifting politics around data centers scramble Healey AI push
New from CommonWealth Beacon BALLOT: A proposed ballot measure to change the way legislative stipends are doled out seems well-intentioned enough, but could create a host of unintended consequences, Chris […]
The Download: Healey’s shift toward nuclear energy raises affordability, feasibility questions
New from CommonWealth Beacon COMPETITIVENESS: Gov. Maura Healey’s top economic development official and state lawmakers musings at a recent budget hearing about affordability in the nation’s second-most expensive state centered […]
The Download: How energy affordability in Massachusetts reached crisis mode
New from CommonWealth Beacon LAWSUIT: Democratic Party insiders are suing to block a proposed ballot question that would end partisan primaries in Massachusetts. If that measure passed, it could create […]
How energy affordability in Massachusetts reached crisis mode
This week on The Codcast, we unpack how increasingly expensive utility bills are shaping the energy debate in Massachusetts and reaching a fever pitch on Beacon Hill. With energy costs now the top household concern in the Bay State, how should policymakers respond to the affordability crisis as power demand is expected to rise and with the due date on ambitious climate commitments creeping closer? Our guests, Kyle Murray, director of state program implementation in Massachusetts at the environmental nonprofit Acadia Center, and Dan Dolan, president of the New England Power Generators Association, hash it all out.
The Download: Massachusetts is poised to shake up literacy instruction — and some educators don’t like it
New from CommonWealth Beacon ENERGY: Massachusetts Democrats are poised to vote on a controversial and sweeping energy package in the House on Thursday. The bill, which is intended to respond […]
The Download: House tees up sprawling energy package that would cut $1B from Mass Save
New from CommonWealth Beacon NEW CODCAST: Is the T spending too much or too little? That’s the question Chris Lisinski explores on this week’s episode alongside guests Jim Aloisi, a […]
The ‘Right to Read’ bill must include teacher preparation
Sponsored by The Boston Foundation The Best of CommonWealth Beacon OPINION A school classroom in Holyoke. (Sarah Betancourt/CommonWealth Beacon) The ‘Right to Read’ bill must include teacher preparation February 15, […]
The Download: Mass. falling short of key climate targets, with some bright spots, after one year of Trump attacks
New from CommonWealth Beacon AUDITOR: State Auditor Diana DiZoglio and lawmakers played it cool at a Wednesday budget hearing, sticking to the topic at hand and deftly avoiding the elephant […]
The Download: Mass. climate chief missed her own deadline to calculate the cost of state’s climate commitments
New from CommonWealth Beacon OPINION: Some of the neediest Bay State students aren’t applying for financial aid for higher education. Massachusetts should require doing so as a condition of high […]
The Download: Cold weather threatens to take bite out of Healey’s energy savings bid
New from CommonWealth Beacon LAWSUIT: Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Campbell is suing nine towns for their refusal to comply with the MBTA Communities multifamily housing law, Jennifer Smith reports. BUDGET: […]
The Download: Next up on Beacon Hill: House leaders plan closed-door meetings on Healey’s energy affordability bill
New from CommonWealth Beacon TRANSFER FEE: After a proposal from Gov. Maura Healey that would have authorized new fees on property sales to fund affordable housing failed, supporters of the […]
The Download: Massachusetts set out to modernize its unemployment insurance system. Then it hit a new low.
New from CommonWealth Beacon MBTA: A French company in charge of running the state’s commuter rail network was once on thin ice with the state. Now its a finalist for […]
Inclusionary zoning in the legal firing line as Senate tries to boost policy
New from CommonWealth Beacon CAMPAIGN FINANCE: State Rep. Chynah Tyler of Boston will pay a $6,000 civil forfeiture to the state and submit to greater campaign-finance scrutiny for the next […]
Mass. insurer of last resort wrestles with thorny questions around affordability
New from CommonWealth Beacon BEACON HILL: There’s a lot of unfinished business on the Legislature’s plate this year, stretching from major budget questions to health care, housing, and energy affordability. […]
The Download: Our top five climate stories of 2025
Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper (right) speaks about energy affordability at a press conference alongside Gov. Maura Healey on October 14, 2025. Our top five climate stories of […]
The Download: Mass. home insurer-of-last-resort sees spike in enrollment
New from CommonWealth Beacon PRIMARY CARE CRUNCH: Pressure will rise on the Legislature to take action after a panel created to review primary care reforms coalesced around a “fundamental rebalancing” of how the state spends […]
The Download: Healey’s energy affordability push faces test in one of Massachusetts’s poorest communities
New from CommonWealth Beacon NEW CODCAST: Jennifer Smith talks Boston property tax rates with Greg Maynard, executive director of the Boston Policy Institute, the struggling commercial sector, and why the issue has led to public sparring between Mayor […]
The Download: Mass. never followed a 2017 rule to cut emissions from state vehicles, court documents show
New from CommonWealth Beacon BREAK TIME: The Legislature has begun its extended holiday break. As they go, Chris Lisinski breaks down what lawmakers sent to the governor’s desk, what measures […]
When health care access is a legal puzzle
On the monthly Health or Consequences episode of The Codcast, John McDonough of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute talk with Matt Selig, the executive director of Health Law Advocates. They discuss the blur between medical and legal access issues, the group’s history and capacity, and their current litigation focuses.
Municipal budgets at the breaking point
Massachusetts Municipal Association Executive Director Adam Chapdelaine, Amesbury Mayor Kassandra Gove, and Massachusetts Fiscal Alliance Executive Director Paul Craney join The Codcast to dive deep on the world of municipal finances in a panel discussion moderated by CommonWealth Beacon reporter Chris Lisinski. Guests unpack the various dynamics putting pressure on city and town budgets, consider the value of the tax-cap law known as Proposition 2½, and ponder who might be best equipped to provide relief.
A year of strained systems and trust after Carney closures
This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporters Jennifer Smith and Hallie Claflin talk about Claflin’s deep dive into the fallout from Steward Health Care’s bankruptcy. Two communities – the Boston neighborhood of Dorchester and the rural Nashoba Valley – lost their community health centers. Just over a year later, the local emergency health systems are strained and residents say they still feel confused about why the state allowed their centers to close while others were saved.