STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. CHARLIE BAKER will say goodbye to his longtime chief of staff Kristen Lepore next month as she plans to depart the administration with just more than eight months left on the governor’s term, leaving Baker’s hefty final-year agenda in the hands of another close confidant. Lepore, who has been a […]
Matt Murphy
Posted inTransportation
Ct. suspends gas tax; Mass. Senate rejects the idea
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AS MOMENTUM GROWS around the country for the suspension of state gas taxes, the state Senate on Thursday rejected a Republican-led push to pause gas tax collections through Labor Day even as Gov. Charlie Baker signaled he was warming to the idea. The vote in the Senate came the same day […]
Posted inState House News Service, Transportation
Record gas prices spur calls for tax relief
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE COST OF GAS in Massachusetts set a record Monday as the average price per gallon soared to $4.16, with drivers on the Cape and islands paying the most at the pump, according to AAA Northeast. The average cost per gallon is the highest ever recorded by the auto club, and […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Unemployment system shifting away from facial recognition tech
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE STATE’S UNEMPLOYMENT assistance agency will in the “coming weeks” stop utilizing facial recognition technology to verify the identities of benefit applicants after senior members of Congress, including US Sen. Elizabeth Warren, criticized the process and the Internal Revenue Service announced it would transition to a new verification process by next […]
Posted inTransportation
Mariano pushing driver’s license bill
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE HOUSE SPEAKER Ron Mariano intends next week to bring to the floor of the House a bill that would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses, potentially setting up an election year vote on a divisive issue that has been pushed for years by immigrant advocates. House leaders said Thursday they […]
Posted inPolitics
Ex-Trump aide Lewandowski joins Diehl campaign
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE LOWELL NATIVE and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski has joined Republican Geoff Diehl’s campaign for governor as a senior advisor, the GOP candidate announced Wednesday, drawing immediate criticism from a top Democrat in the field eager to link Diehl to the unpopular former president. Diehl announced that Lewandowski, who lives […]
Posted inGuns
Healey backs Mexico in case against gun manufacturers
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE RETURNING TO AN ISSUE that was at the center of her first campaign, Attorney General Maura Healey led a coalition of state prosecutors on Tuesday in the filing of a brief in US District Court supporting Mexico in its consumer protection case against seven gun manufacturers and a Massachusetts-based gun distributor. […]
Posted inPolitics
House stands firm against same-day voter registration
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE STATE’S MOSTLY successful experiment with voting-by-mail during the COVID-19 pandemic would become a permanent option for voters in future elections, but House lawmakers on Thursday passed a major voting access bill that omitted voter registration rule changes sought by advocates and the Senate. The House voted 124-34 to pass a […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Rollins goes out with a bang — at MBTA
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SUFFOLK COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY Rachael Rollins said Thursday that her office would open an investigation into whether the MBTA bore any criminal responsibility for the Green Line trolley crash last summer that injured 27 riders. Rollins, who plans to leave the office on Monday when she is sworn in as the […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service
Baker approves solar, truck emission initiatives
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE With two of its key climate change policies dead or near-dead, the Baker administration approved two initiatives last week to incentivize the development of solar power and expand the use of zero emission vehicles. The Department of Public Utilities finalized on Thursday a long-delayed regulatory process for a solar incentive program […]