NEWS
CommonWealth Beacon cracks open the stories, personalities, and political machinations that impact residents across the state.
Explore sharp, thoughtful reporting that explores local dust-ups, statewide legislative trends, transformative court rulings, and policies that shape life in Massachusetts.
In New Bedford, Healey celebrates completion of Vineyard Wind project as the company faces financial disputes
Gov. Maura Healey along with Massachusetts labor and energy leaders celebrated the completion of the country’s first commercial-scale offshore wind project, which concluded construction in March. She touted its benefits while shrugging off the wind development company’s recent financial disputes that have made headlines and threatened the project.
How the House’s sausage-making put transparency groups in a tough spot
A trio of good-government and transparency organizations backed the House’s proposal to craft a new public records framework for the Legislature, but they’re straining to avoid the riptide of the audit-the-Legislature debate that representatives tied to the same bill.
Pilot opens expansion opportunity for some family child care providers
The pilot will include about 25 to 30 programs, as EEC collects data and feedback from educators and families. EEC will use those findings to help guide future decisions about family child care capacity, staffing ratios and licensing structures.
Mass. high court strikes rent control question from ballot
The decision averts a months-long season of aggressive campaigning that seemed sure to generate tens of millions of dollars in spending on attack ads and dire warnings about economic upheaval.
A climate chief in an era of Trump and energy affordability: Does Melissa Hoffer still get a say?
Given how dramatically the landscape has changed around climate change since Hoffer took office, an obvious question emerges: What exactly is her job? And what kind of influence does she hold within the Healey administration?
Coca-Cola’s Northampton plant closing will trigger 175 layoffs
The plant on Industrial Drive will close on December 15, after the company previously eyed shutting down the facility in 2023.
As measles cases rise across the country, Mass. legislators face a decision on a key vaccine bill
As concern over the nationwide spread of measles grows, advocates for legislation intended to boost childhood vaccinations in Massachusetts have their fingers crossed that the bill, after being filed four times, will finally make it to passage this year.
Mass. primary election overhaul eligible for November ballot, SJC rules
Should Massachusetts run its elections more like California? That question is cleared to appear on the ballot, according to the state’s highest court, possibly teeing up a major shift in our notoriously uncompetitive races.
Regulators adopt emergency rules tied to new cannabis law
The regulations specify that for the first 12 months they’re in place, only social equity businesses are eligible to get up to six retail licenses and non-social equity businesses can hold up to five retail licenses.
SJC blocks high-stakes income tax cut question from the November ballot
In a blockbuster ruling just as ballot measure campaigns submit their final signatures, Massachusetts’s highest court cut the fuse of a revenue bomb that was set to blow $5 billion out of the state budget. An initiative aiming to cut income taxes is blocked from the ballot because of errors in the attorney general’s summary.
Springfield mayor calls for ending regional fare-free bus program, drawing criticism from state transit advocates
Officials and transit advocates have criticized the mayor’s approach and questioned whether the youth disturbances at Union Station can be attributed to the availability of free bus rides. Some have cited the success of the fare-free program and instead called for more policing.
New report urges state to think small on housing crisis
Massachusetts has become “a victim of our own affluence,” said Andrew Mikula, the report’s author. “It’s like we forgot how to build smaller homes that can be more affordable for folks.”
House committee strips Senate policy plans from environmental bond
The House Ways and Means Committee slimmed the Senate’s bond authorizations (S 3064) down by more than 20 percent, advancing a new draft Tuesday that would authorize $3.078 billion in borrowing compared to the Senate-supported $3.94 billion.
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