ONE WEEK AFTER Gov. Maura Healey declared a state of emergency regarding the migrant crisis, including a call for more expedited federal work authorizations, Attorney General Andrea Campbell and 18 […]
Jennifer Smith
Jennifer Smith writes for CommonWealth Beacon and co-hosts its weekly podcast, The Codcast. Her areas of focus include housing, social issues, courts and the law, and politics and elections. A California native who also lived in Utah, Jennifer has covered Massachusetts since 2011 for a variety of publications. She worked breaking news in the Boston Globe’s metro section and provided courtroom coverage of the Boston Marathon bomber trial for the international wire service Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA) while completing her undergraduate journalism degree at Northeastern University in Boston. For four years, Jennifer was a staff writer and later news editor for the Dorchester Reporter, covering her home neighborhood and the city of Boston with a particular focus on politics and development. Her work and commentary have appeared in WBUR, GBH News, Harvard Public Health Magazine, and Politico’s Massachusetts Playbook. She has co-hosted MassINC’s Massachusetts politics and policy podcast The Horse Race since 2018, interviewing newsmakers, journalists, and elected officials across the state.
Posted inPolitics
Ballot face-off over gig workers looms
TWO YEARS AGO, Massachusetts braced itself for what was expected to be the most expensive ballot measure campaign in the state’s history. That question, brought by ride-hailing companies to classify […]
Posted inRace/Racism
Black Boston takes the convention stage
For the first time in four decades, the national NAACP convention came back to Boston with a point to prove and a long list of political priorities to hammer out. […]
Posted inGovernment, Housing, Immigration
The migrant shelter crisis is also a housing crisis
THE MASSACHUSETTS state shelter system, now serving around 20,000 people across 5,600 families, is strained almost to capacity – a “humanitarian crisis” of migrant families drawing renewed attention to the […]
Posted inGovernment, Housing, Immigration
Healey declares state of emergency for ‘unsustainable’ migrant housing crisis
THE RATE OF MIGRANTS coming into Massachusetts, fleeing unsafe countries and looking for work and housing, is “unsustainable” without intervention from the federal government, Gov. Maura Healey said Tuesday. She […]
Posted inTransportation
On Boston MBTA board seat, fears of déjà-vu
IN THE LAND of late budgets and last-minute negotiations, even having both legislative chambers and the governor on board isn’t a guarantee that a provision makes it through to the […]
Posted inRace/Racism
NAACP panel tackles venture capital’s role in the racial wealth gap
Bostonians are very familiar with a bracing data point: in 2015, the median net worth for White households in Greater Boston was about $250,000, but just $8 for Black households. […]
Posted inEducation
In-state tuition, financial aid in sight for undocumented students
AFTER TWO DECADES of advocacy on Beacon Hill, Massachusetts is set to join about two dozen other states in removing a high-profile barrier to undocumented students in higher education. The […]
Posted inState Government, Transportation
In-car displays are the next distracted driving target
WHILE LAWMAKERS in Massachusetts and across the country worked to pass distracted driving laws limiting how much a person can mess around on a phone while operating a car, built-in […]
Posted inState Government, Technology
New state board charged with making digital spaces accessible
FOR MOST PEOPLE in Massachusetts, the biggest hassle about using digital technology is often a slow internet connection, a buggy device, or being in an inconvenient location to whip out […]
Posted inGovernment
Round two for ranked-choice in Boston
BOSTONIANS already gave the green light to ranked-choice voting in 2020, voting in favor of an ultimately doomed statewide ballot initiative that would have introduced the practice. The city might […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Drag queen story hours: pulling back the sequined curtain
ON A TOASTY JUNE DAY, the tinkle of a ukulele and cheerful outbursts from children bounced around an unassuming Brookline library building. Just a short stroll from the Chabad Center […]
Posted inTransportation
T officials say they have ‘reset expectations’ with rail car manufacturer
THE HEALEY ADMINISTRATION is hustling to speed production of new subway cars, but the transit system is still years away from getting its full order filled. After a series of […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Old North Church grapples with slavery
WINDING THEIR WAY along the red brick and red painted Freedom Trail, Boston tourists eventually find themselves in front of the Old North Church. Their eyes may seek out the […]
Posted inState Government, Technology
Does artificial intelligence belong in therapy?
FOR MANY, the nearest therapist these days isn’t someone sitting across from them in a room but a friendly face on the other side of a Zoom, or even a […]
Posted inTransportation
10 years in, a dispatch from the Cape Flyer
FOR THE CAR -AVERSE BOSTONIAN looking to flee a muggy 90-degree summer for cooler Massachusetts climes, the now decade-old Cape Flyer route might be the vehicle of choice if there […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Somerville makes push for mobile drug consumption site
SOMERVILLE is making strides toward being the first city or town in Massachusetts to open a supervised drug consumption site, an initiative that advocates say has shown promise internationally in […]
Posted inEducation
Mass. scrambles after affirmative action ruling
EDUCATION, BUSINESS, AND government entities in the Bay State expressed outrage and despair at the US Supreme Court decision striking down the use of race in college admissions, which sets […]
Posted inPolitics
Lawmakers target cell phone tracking data in abortion fight
MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATORS are taking a run at improving cell phone data privacy through a timely side door. The current political climate around abortion access leaves people seeking to end a […]
Posted inState Government, Technology
The disconnections of digital equity
It seems like easy enough math. Add access to computers, plus stable internet, plus the training to use technology, and digital equity results. So why, in tech-savvy, educated Massachusetts, are […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Healey administration grapples with record high opioid deaths
THE STATE WAS already swimming upstream against the opioid epidemic, but new numbers showing record high opioid-related overdose deaths brought an undercurrent of despair to Healey administration discussion of how […]
Posted inEconomy
Senate tax plan has different take on competitiveness
THE MASSACHUSETTS SENATE is taking a different tack on tax reform than the House or Gov. Maura Healey, going with a smaller overall package and a slightly different philosophy on […]
Posted inHousing, State Government
The mixed blessing of the Community Preservation Act
ROYALSTON, a rural Worcester County town with about 1,250 residents, has been squirreling away money from a tax surcharge partially dedicated to affordable housing for more than a decade now. […]
Posted inEducation
State moves to bring sex education out of the ‘90s
MASSACHUSETTS’ SEXUAL HEALTH curriculum remains stuck, at least on paper, in the Wild West educational landscape of 1999. But after some 24 years, and with more than a decade of […]