Newsletters

New from CommonWealth Beacon ODD BEDFELLOWS: Both major parties, labor groups with significant political muscle, and groups that want to push state government to the left have all signaled opposition […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon COURTS: The Supreme Judicial Court rejected a challenge to Boston’s plan to transform White Stadium, paving the way for a new stadium to host the city’s […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon COURTS: The attorney general’s office has been on a tear prosecuting medical transportation companies for alleged MassHealth fraud. But the latest company in the crosshairs is […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon NEW CODCAST: Dive deeper into the fraught fight about the Quabbin Reservoir, whose host communities tend to the state’s largest drinking water source but cannot use […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon POLITICAL NOTEBOOK: Just a month after Gov. Maura Healey signed a $63.4 billion budget for fiscal year 2027, the quasi-public Massachusetts Clean Energy Center has laid […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon FORTUNE-TELLING: There’s no shortage of quirky state laws still on the books, including a measure requiring fortune tellers to be licensed after fulfilling a residency requirement […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon QUABBIN: Gov. Maura Healey is calling on Greater Boston’s water provider to offer more robust support for struggling rural towns near the Quabbin Reservoir in central […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon JUVENILE JUSTICE: Senators once again want to use the biennial economic development legislation as the vehicle to increase the age of juvenile jurisdiction, a change that […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon NEW CODCAST: Gov. Maura Healey signed into law a wide range of protections designed to limit federal immigration overreach in Massachusetts, but the rhetoric she and […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon EPA CUTS: Parts of Fitchburg were banking on a $500,000 EPA grant to mitigate pollution from stormwater runoff and create green space for a local middle […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon FINANCIAL DROUGHT: Declining economic conditions and a contentious history are roiling the Quabbin Reservoir towns that protect the state’s largest source of drinking water. Jordan Wolman […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon NEW CODCAST: In a special bonus episode, CommonWealth Beacon reporters Jennifer Smith and Chris Lisinski unpack the Legislature’s end-of-session rush and why this July 31 felt […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon STUDENT DISCIPLINE: Nearly 15 years after lawmakers enacted student discipline reforms, out-of-school suspensions are dropping, but administrators have increasingly turned to a technique known as emergency […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon NEW CODCAST: Jordan Wolman sits down with Vamsi Chadalavada, who leads the region’s grid operator known as ISO New England. They discuss whether New England’s energy […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon ENERGY: Gov. Maura Healey is ramping up pressure on state lawmakers to get to “yes” on sweeping energy affordability legislation, but it remains unclear how soon […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon DJ DISCO DINO: Leominster’s Dean Mazzarella is the longest-serving mayor in Massachusetts, but he’s also so much more: an entrepreneur who runs a flagpole business and […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon ON SECOND THOUGHT: Legislative leaders have not been shy about their disdain for the surge in initiative petitions that’s put a record-tying number of major policy […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon HOUSING IMPACT: A new bipartisan law represents the first time the federal government is seriously tackling housing policy in decades, but experts think it will have […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon NEW CODCAST: On a special episode of the Health or Consequences series, Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute interviews his cohost John McDonough of the Harvard […]

New from CommonWealth Beacon STATE GOVERNMENT: Senate President Karen Spilka begins her ninth consecutive term leading the legislative body this week, becoming the modern Senate’s second-longest-serving president, behind only President […]