CODCAST: John McDonough of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute talk with Zirui Song, associate professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School and a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. They discuss the primary care crisis nationally and in Massachusetts and dive into private equity in health care.

BALLOT QUESTIONS: The Joint Committee on Election Laws advanced legislation to tighten disclosure rules for ballot question campaigns and reveal who’s funding them, signaling interest among lawmakers in updating laws that critics say have not kept pace with the scale and sophistication of modern ballot campaigns. Sam Drysdale with the State House News Service has more.

BEACON HILL: Despite the near-daily hand-wringing about the Trump administration’s latest actions to the prospect of voters seizing massive policymaking power in 2026 through a raft of ballot questions, most of the action from Beacon Hill this year involved teeing up the big questions until next year. Chris Lisinski runs through five of the biggest storylines from under the Golden Dome in 2025.

CODCAST REFLECTION: Over the past year on CommonWealth Beacon’s weekly podcast, The Codcast, reporters moderated panels and guided conversations on some of the thorniest problems facing the state, from federal data purges, to the primary care crisis, to climate change’s wake. Here are five Codcasts from 2025 worth revisiting — or checking in on for the first time — as the new year kicks off.

BOSTON COUNCIL: A new term for the Boston City Council starts Monday, and the winds of favor for the council president race continued to shift late into the night Sunday. (Dorchester Reporter)

WU: Speaking of Boston, Mayor Michelle Wu will be sworn in this morning for her second term after annihilating challenger Josh Kraft in the fall. She’ll continue to face pressure on housing costs, the White Stadium development, and clashes with the Trump administration. (WBUR)

SOCCER: Environmental activists found features to like, and features not to like, in the deals the Kraft Group struck with Boston and Everett to clear the way for a new professional soccer stadium on the site of a former power plant. (GBH News)

CAPE BRIDGES: The state is seizing homes as part of a megaproject to replace the Sagamore Bridge that links Cape Cod to the mainland, and those who retain their properties are worried they’ll still be impacted by extensive construction. (The Boston Globe – paywall)

NEW BEDFORD POLICE: Jason Thody, who started as New Bedford’s police chief five months ago, pledged to pursue new audits, transparency reports, and oversight after public scrutiny of the department. (New Bedford Light)