The Supreme Judicial Court hears arguments about a change to the tenure guidelines at Tufts School of Medicine that cuts salaries of those who fail to raise enough money to support their labs. Several justices seemed wary of the changes.
SJC justices raise concerns about Tufts tenure tinkering
Posted inOpinion
Pharmacy benefit managers are engaging in thievery
Pharmacy benefit managers were created with the intention they would negotiate discounts and pass them on to patients. Instead, they’ve taken advantage of not being regulated using several tactics to reap profits, sometimes in the billions.
Posted inEnergy
Somerset approves $20m tax break for offshore wind supplier
Town meeting in Somerset voted Monday night to approve a $20 million property tax break for the Prysmian Group, which is planning to build a $250 million to $300 million subsea cable manufacturing facility at Brayton Point to serve the offshore wind industry.
Posted inHousing
Big 3 uncertainty over extra shelter funding
Speaker Ron Mariano said the House will vote to provide additional funding for the cash-strapped emergency shelter system on Wednesday, but neither he nor the governor nor the Senate president seemed to know how much money is needed
Posted inEducation
After SCOTUS setback, a new tack for student debt cancellation
THE US SUPREME COURT dealt advocates of canceling student debt a blow when the justices knocked down President Biden’s program as unconstitutional last June. Local advocates have reworked their focus. […]
Posted inEnergy
Eversource says it has buyer for offshore wind business
Eversource Energy says it has a buyer for its stake in three offshore wind projects. The company is eager to focus on its regulated businesses in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.
Posted inThe Codcast
Dissecting the new CommonWealth Beacon poll
Are we a beacon? This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon’s Michael Jonas is joined by Steve Koczela of the MassINC Polling Group and Erin O’Brien of UMass Boston to discuss new polling data on how Massachusetts residents see the Commonwealth relative to other states, and relative to 20 years ago.
Posted inBy The Numbers
Putting Massachusetts exceptionalism to the test
Is Massachusetts a beacon for the rest of the country? Yes and no is the split decision rendered by Massachusetts residents in a CommonWealth Beacon poll released last week, a finding pored over on The Codcast by MassINC Polling Group president Steve Koczela and UMass Boston political science professor Erin O’Brien.
Posted inOpinion
Seeds of discontent with Massachusetts exceptionalism
Massachusetts residents rightly view the state as a leader on issues like education, civil rights, and health care. But that sense of Massachusetts exceptionalism is threatened by growing economic unease about the cost of living here.
Posted inOpinion
Restoring civic discourse by embracing complexity
Sometimes things are simpler than they seem. But other times, maybe most of the time, things actually are complicated, with at least two sides to every story.
Posted inOpinion
SJC can fuel spread of Brookline tobacco law
The Supreme Judicial Court hears a challenge to a Brookline law that restricts access to smoking products by birth date rather than age. By siding with Brookline, the SJC could boost anti-smoking efforts.
Posted inMedia
The Emancipator prepares to relaunch with focus on video essays
The Emancipator, a digital nonprofit publication devoted to reframing the conversation around racial equity, is launching a new website and hiring a new editor.
Posted inCourts
Short takes: Extended hunt for SJC justice
“Third time’s the charm” is a proverb, not necessarily a legal doctrine. Even so, the team tasked by Gov. Maura Healey to help fill an upcoming vacancy on the state’s highest court is again extending the application deadline for people interested in becoming a justice on the Supreme Judicial Court.
Posted inState Government
Campbell says DiZoglio lacks legal authority to audit Legislature
Attorney General Andrea Campbell concludes the state auditor lacks the legal authority to audit the Legislature without its consent.
Posted inBy The Numbers
Healey said abortion and LGBTQ-friendly policies make the state more competitive. Residents agree.
In April, Gov. Maura Healey made an impassioned pitch to residents of other states: Massachusetts is the place to live, she said, if you care about abortion access and other civil rights. Results from the new CommonWealth Beacon poll suggest Bay State residents agree.
Posted inEnergy
Hydro-Quebec, a key source of power for Mass., outlines decarbonization plan
Hydro-Quebec, which is expected to be a major supplier of renewable energy to Massachusetts, outlines its 2035 decarbonization plan.
Posted inBy The Numbers
What regional differences reveal about Mass.
Poll results illuminate clear political regions within the state: Blue in Boston and its suburbs and in western Massachusetts; between them, a collar of red across central Massachusetts and wrapping north towards the New Hampshire border and down into the South Coast.
Posted inOpinion
A victory for toxic-free communities and cancer-free childhoods
After nearly 45 years, the US Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to ban trichloroethylene (TCE), the chemical linked to a cluster of childhood cancers in Woburn.
Posted inPolitics
Danielle Allen says we have work to do on Massachusetts democracy
Harvard professor Danielle Allen says a health democracy hinges on inclusionk participation, and competitiveness. “One each of those dimensions, we can see room for improvement in Mass.,” she says
Posted inThe Codcast
Is Massachusetts a beacon of democracy?
In this live episode of The Codcast, Commonwealth Beacon‘s Jennifer Smith is joined by Danielle Allen of Harvard University and Partners in Democracy to discuss how Massachusetts’s democracy is doing.
Posted inBy The Numbers
Troubling signs for Biden in deep blue Massachusetts
President Biden is looking shaky in the Bay State, where just 47 percent now say they approve of the job he is doing as president — 46 percent say they disapprove.