House Minority Leader Brad Jones will not seek another term, creating a vacuum atop the chamber’s small GOP caucus for the first time since George W. Bush’s first term with major implications on how Republicans work with the Democratic supermajority.
Uncategorized
Posted inUncategorized
Bay State weighs big data center expansions and four more stories
The Saturday Send Welcome back to the Saturday Send, a weekly digest of stories from CommonWealth Beacon that you may have missed. This week, reporter Jordan Wolman covers how expanding […]
Posted inBallot Questions
Rent control opponents warn of $300 billion impact to property values
The real estate industry has a new line of attack in its campaign against rent control: the impact on property values, which could crumble and trigger difficult local decisions about cutting services or hiking taxes, according to a new report.
Posted inEnergy
Healey’s shift toward nuclear energy raises affordability, feasibility questions
The argument for nuclear is, in some ways, simple. It doesn’t generate greenhouse gas emissions and reliably produces power. But it’s no slam dunk either. Building new nuclear facilities is notoriously expensive and time-consuming.
Posted inImmigration
‘The brave people of the Twin Cities made a call’
Protestors called for the state to end all collaborations with ICE, and to take further steps to protect immigrant communities.
Posted inHousing
Researchers find MBTA housing law benefits ‘modest’ so far
According to the report, 34 municipalities have projects in the pipeline, ranging in size from two to more than 500 units.
Posted inMarijuana
Social pot consumption vote could come by Christmas
Chair Shannon O’Brien offered the latest timeline at the end of a meeting on Friday, as commissioners also learned that a new member, Carrie Benedon, is joining the commission.
Posted inHealth Care
New poll shows high satisfaction with health insurance in Mass., even as residents delay or skip care for cost reasons
New polling for CommonWealth Beacon conducted by the MassINC Polling Group paints a picture of Massachusetts residents mostly happy with their health care coverage, especially when compared with other states, even while large slices of the population report struggling with cost and access.
Posted inMarijuana
Mass. inspector general calls on cannabis regulators to conduct an audit over $550,000 in uncollected fees
MASSACHUSETTS INSPECTOR GENERAL Jeffrey Shapiro called on the Cannabis Control Commission to conduct an audit following the commission’s failure to collect approximately $550,000 in licensing fees since August 2022. In […]
Posted inHealth Care
Second Trump term has Mass. abortion advocates on edge
Rebecca Hart Holder, the president of Reproductive Equity Now, says Massachusetts needs to brace for possible assaults from the incoming Trump administration on the state’s ability to offer services not only to its own residents but to the thousands who have turned to Massachusetts for abortions in the past two years.
Posted inMarijuana
Vineyard and Nantucket pot shops on the ropes
Marijuana outlets on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket say they are facing an untenable fiscal squeeze because of a ban on transporting cannabis through federal waters.
Posted inOpinion
Advice from 2 mothers whose children died from meningitis
AS MOTHERS who have both lost a child, we often say we’re in a club that we want no one else to ever join. We started our individual foundations and […]
Posted inUncategorized
Feds downshift, say right to repair law can be implemented
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE STATE AND FEDERAL regulators appear to have made a breakthrough to move forward with a voter-approved vehicle repair data law after legal battles and safety concerns […]
Posted inUncategorized
Greg Torres: A most interesting man
IN 2016, MassINC and CommonWealth hosted Serious Fun, a humorous spoof on politicians and the Massachusetts political scene held at the John F. Kennedy Library. Greg Torres, the CEO of MassINC […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Lawmakers, Healey push budget deadline back another month
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. MAURA HEALEY bought top legislative Democrats up to another month to reach a long-overdue budget deal Thursday when she handed them a get-out-of-missed-deadline-free card, but […]
Posted inUncategorized
Iselin of Blue Cross raises red flag on rising health care costs
SARAH ISELIN, the president and CEO of the state’s largest health insurer, says the rising cost of health care may be another reason why Massachusetts is in danger of losing […]
Posted inOpinion
A letter to Bill McKibben: Do the math
Dear Bill McKibben, Thanks for coming home to Concord/Lexington on April 2 and reminding us how we have wasted precious time since you sounded the alarm in 1989 with “The […]
Posted inUncategorized
New Census numbers underscore competitiveness issues
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE POPULATION of Massachusetts shrunk by nearly 8,000 people between July 2021 and July 2022, a drop of about 0.1 percent, but the newest estimate released […]
Posted inUncategorized
Should Massachusetts legalize teachers’ strikes?
WHEN EDUCATORS IN four Massachusetts school districts went on strike over the past year, walking out of the building meant walking into hot water with the state. Public employee strikes […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
T says low-income fare ramp-up would be year
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE MBTA OFFICIALS estimated Thursday they would need at least a year and about $5 million to get a widespread low-income fare option off the ground, plus […]
Posted inOpinion
Getting to yes on climate change response
CLIMATE CHANGE is real. So too is a massive transformation underway of electric power generation markets and transmission networks. That transformation is largely driven by public policies focused on electrification […]
Posted inUncategorized
Region’s aging nuclear power plants drawing interest
NUCLEAR POWER APPEARS to be making a bit of a comeback. For decades, the trendlines have not been good, as aging reactors have found it difficult to compete against power […]
Posted inOpinion
How do floating wind farms work?
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA has some of the strongest offshore winds in the US, with immense potential to produce clean energy. But it also has a problem. Its continental shelf drops off […]
Posted inUncategorized
Teaming up to target the gender power gap
WE LIKE TO THINK of Boston as a bastion of progressiveness. The area hosts over 40 higher education institutions and hundreds of innovative and forward-thinking businesses are headquartered here. Yet, […]