THERE’S AT LEAST some good news about the news business for a change. According to a new report from the Pew Research Center, the total number of statehouse reporters nationwide […]
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Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Mass. Senate staff seek to unionize
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE MASSACHUSETTS SENATE employees are hoping to become the second unionized state legislative staff in the country, announcing on Monday night their intent to unionize with Quincy-based […]
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Globe refutes claims made by scientists in CommonWealth article
BOSTON GLOBE Media Partners produced emails and text messages on Monday contradicting the claims of a series of prominent scientists who claimed they were interviewed for Globe sponsored content without […]
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Should remote access to government continue?
MANY BYPRODUCTS of the pandemic cannot disappear too soon – the illness, the social isolation, the toll constant anxiety is taking on our collective mental health. Yet some societal changes […]
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Scientists object to inclusion in Globe’s Philip Morris ads
Editor’s note: The Globe on Monday April 4 shared emails and text messages with the scientists quoted in this story that sharply contradicted their statements about not being told about […]
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Groups call for making online meeting access permanent
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE DARKNESS OF the pandemic brought a surprise element of transparency to government, and a range of groups, including those representing individuals with disabilities, this week […]
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House rejects gas tax suspension, pursuing ‘real relief’
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A $1.6 BILLION spending bill passed the Massachusetts House unanimously on Wednesday after representatives shot down a Republican bid to add in language that would have […]
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State House dropping mask, vaccine requirements
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH THE COVID-19 pandemic’s two-year anniversary approaching, legislative leaders lifted the mask mandate and proof-of-vaccination-or-negative-test requirement for entry into the State House, starting on Monday. House […]
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Masks no longer mandated on school buses
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A DAY AFTER K-12 students returned to classrooms with a statewide mask mandate no longer in place, the Baker administration announced that children no longer need […]
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Wu proposes restricting ‘targeted residential picketing’
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE BOSTON MAYOR Michelle Wu, who has regularly encountered protesters outside her home, filed a proposed ordinance Monday to put new rules in place restricting demonstrations that […]
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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 […]
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State seeks OK to forgive UI overpayments
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION on Thursday asked US Labor Secretary Marty Walsh to intervene and grant Massachusetts permission to forgive wide swaths of overpaid unemployment benefits, warning […]
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Getting social mobility done during a pandemic
THIS ISN’T ANOTHER COVID think piece written by a college president. This is a story about upward mobility in the face of the most significant public health crisis of our […]
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New link to improve access to SNAP benefits
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AN IMPENDING CHANGE to link MassHealth applicants to a food assistance program will serve as an “important step” toward removing barriers that limit hundreds of thousands […]
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Baker seeks to dole out extra state cash
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH TAX COLLECTIONS running nearly $1.5 billion ahead of expectations, Gov. Charlie Baker on Friday filed a spending bill that seeks to spend $1.6 billion in state funds […]
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Fall River to offer free menstrual products in schools
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AS FALL RIVER plans to use a state grant to provide free menstrual products in the city’s middle and high schools, bills that similarly look to […]
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State eases indoor face-mask guidance
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT of Public Health on Tuesday relaxed its face-covering advisory, publishing an updated version that no longer recommends vaccinated individuals mask up in all […]
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Lawmakers urge pause on pursuing collections
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A PAIR OF TOP legislators on Friday urged the Baker administration to halt pursuing overpaid unemployment benefits for the next five-plus months, calling for more time […]
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COVID spending bill grows to $101m, passes within hours
A $55 MILLION COVID-related spending bill ballooned into a $101 million bill under an agreement reached between House and Senate negotiators, which lawmakers sent to Gov. Charlie Baker’s desk just […]
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Municipal officials slam Polito local aid projection
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH STATE TAX REVENUES continuing to blow past projections, municipal leaders said Friday they are disappointed in Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito’s forecast that cities and towns […]
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Report slams sheriffs over campaign money from contractors, employees
A NEW NATIONAL report says campaign contributions to county sheriffs, including in Massachusetts, are rife with potential conflicts of interest from donors who stand to benefit from contracts or other […]
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988 state employees left jobs due to vaccine mandate
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE JUST FEWER than 1,000 executive branch employees have left their jobs because they did not or would not comply with Gov. Charlie Baker’s vaccine mandate for […]
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CommonWealth’s 10 most-read news stories of 2021
AS COVID-19 continued to dominate society in 2021, a story about the virus also topped CommonWealth’s most-read stories of the year. In early September, as the Delta variant was causing […]
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Spilka discloses she suffered ‘mild stroke’
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SENATE PRESIDENT Karen Spilka had what she said was “a mild stroke” in mid-November and was told by her doctors to get some rest, she said […]
