GOV. MAURA HEALEY and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu are starting to make the case that the national fight over abortion could make the state a magnet for people concerned about […]
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 inHealth Care
Mass. moves to stockpile supplies of abortion pill
MASSACHUSETTS IS STOCKPILING the abortion drug mifepristone through the state university system and health care providers, shoring up access to the medication after a federal judge in Texas issued an […]
Posted inHealth
Bringing the abortion pill litigation into focus
Late Friday afternoon, two whiplash-inducing rulings out of Texas and Washington State threw the status of a commonly used abortion medication into limbo. Here’s why these cases matter in Massachusetts […]
Posted inPolitics
A digital push for more legislative participation
ONE OF THE most well-worn complaints among political watchers in Massachusetts is that the government can be, well, hard to watch. The state Legislature is one of the least transparent […]
Posted inHealth Care
To lower drug costs, report says let doctors dispense
IN MASSACHUSETTS, a doctor who diagnoses someone with pneumonia has to send the patient off to a pharmacy to fill a prescription for antibiotics. In most other states, the doctor […]
Posted inHealth Care, State Government
Jon Santiago: ‘Everyone is rooting for a veteran’
FOR A TIME, it seemed like Jon Santiago was juggling every job he could. The US Army reserve major worked as an emergency room doctor at Boston Medical Center during […]
Posted inGuns
Markey in DC, moms in Mass. push anti-gun violence efforts
ANOTHER YEAR, another mounting tally of mass shootings, and US Sen. Ed Markey was once again standing outside the Capitol arguing for funding to study gun violence. In 1996, a […]
Posted inHealth Care
State braces for MassHealth dislocation
AS THE STATE prepares to drop hundreds of thousands of people from the MassHealth insurance program, government and community leaders are hoping for a smooth year-long process – but bracing […]
Posted inHousing, State Government
Should state dollars be used to jumpstart market-rate housing construction?
THERE IS BROAD agreement that Massachusetts desperately needs to build more housing, but should state government be subsidizing the construction of market-rate units? That question is at the heart of […]
Posted inEducation
Should Massachusetts legalize teachers’ strikes?
WHEN EDUCATORS IN four Massachusetts school districts went on strike over the past year, walking out of the building meant walking into hot water with the state. Public employee strikes are […]
Posted inHealth Care
Healey warns pharmacies to keep abortion meds stocked
WITH ACCESS TO a widely-used abortion medication on the line, Massachusetts is trying to walk and chew gum at the same time – warning local pharmacies that they must continue supplying […]
Posted inHealth Care, State Government
Santiago vows to ‘rebuild trust’ in veterans’ services
JON SANTIAGO knows the pandemic left Massachusetts looking askance at its veterans’ services after scores of COVID deaths amid scandals over mismanagement at two long-term care facilities for veterans. Reforming […]
Posted inEconomy
Mass., California moving in different directions on gig worker issue
MASSACHUSETTS AND CALIFORNIA for now are on very different tracks when it comes to classifying gig workers as independent contractors or employees. Whether the question is tangled in west coast courts […]
Posted inHousing, State Government
Campbell warns municipalities MBTA zoning law not optional
MASSACHUSSETTS ATTORNEY General Andrea Campbell is wading into the MBTA communities dust-up, releasing an advisory Wednesday morning emphasizing that participating in the transit-oriented housing policy is not optional and raising the prospect […]
Posted inEconomy
Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse could impact Mass. affordable housing
SILICON VALLEY BANK’S sudden collapse is sending shockwaves far beyond the tech sector, leaving Massachusetts affordable housing organizations particularly panicky. It’s been less than two years since the California-based bank […]
Posted inGambling
Online sports betting launches in Massachusetts
SIX OPERATORS started taking online sports bets at 10 a.m. Friday, launching a new era of Massachusetts gambling one day after gaming officials and the attorney general worried about how […]
Posted inCourts, Government
SJC says it’s OK to be ‘rude’ at public meetings
SPEAKERS AT public meetings can feel free to channel their inner revolutionaries now that the state’s highest court has ruled that Massachusetts law protects the right to be “rude, personal, […]
Posted inHousing, Politics
Wu wins two victories at Boston City Council
THE BOSTON CITY COUNCIL gave its seal of approval Wednesday to Mayor Michelle Wu’s rent control plan and her pitch to reshuffle the city’s development agency, twin victories for the […]
Posted inState Government
DiZoglio plans to audit the Legislature
FOLLOWING THROUGH on a contentious campaign promise, state Auditor Diana DiZoglio announced Tuesday that she intends to audit the Legislature, an institution she served in for more than a decade […]
Posted inHousing, State Government
The curious state of Massachusetts’ rent control debate
WHILE CERTAIN FACTIONS of the Boston City Council appear to be coming around in support of Mayor Michelle Wu’s proposed middle-of-the road rent control home rule, stakeholders outside the chamber […]
Posted inCourts
SJC to weigh wrongful death restrictions in cigarette suits
IT’S THE nightmare scenario. After years of long-term cigarette addiction, a loved one is diagnosed with cancer. Years of chemotherapy, surgeries, attempts at quitting and relapses, and bone-deep exhaustion follow. Meanwhile, […]
Posted inHousing, State Government
Administration not waiting for a ‘housing hero,’ says LG
FILED ALONGSIDE HER inaugural budget on Wednesday, Gov. Maura Healey’s proposed cabinet reconfiguration legislation offers the first concrete look at the responsibilities of a new standalone housing secretariat. Housing programs currently […]
Posted inEducation
State board approves controversial Worcester charter school proposal
A SPLIT Board of Elementary and Secondary Education approved a controversial new charter school in Worcester on Tuesday – the first new charter given the go-ahead during Commissioner of Education […]
Posted inHealth, Health Care, State Government
A renewed push to legalize ‘medical aid in dying’
LEGISLATORS AND MEDICAL CHOICE advocates are taking another run at passing a medical aid in dying bill after the Supreme Judicial Court last year placed the responsibility squarely on lawmakers to […]