SURROUNDED BY HEALTH CARE advocates and curious tourists peering into Nurses Hall, Gov. Maura Healey signed an expanded shield law giving patients and providers in Massachusetts a new layer of defense against out-of-state intrusion into reproductive and transgender care.
Healey signs bill expanding reproductive, transgender care protections
Posted inGovernment
Three ways for Massachusetts to lead post-‘Big Beautiful’ bill
Much as we did 250 years ago in leading our fledgling country’s fight for independence, here are three ways our Commonwealth can be a beacon of hope and progress in this moment.
Posted inHousing
‘Easier said than done’: Former mill cities struggle to rehab vacant, blighted properties in Western Mass.
In recent decades, historic mills and old industrial buildings in Gateway Cities across the state have been renovated and converted into much-needed housing. But while Eastern Massachusetts cities have had success, cities farther west with weaker housing markets still struggle with an array of blighted properties that have yet to be developed.
Posted inEducation
70 percent of Mass. infants live in child care deserts, according to state data
Enrollment differences between regions, student age groups, and income levels paint a picture of a system struggling to meet potential demand and that is most available to those at the highest income brackets.
Posted inBallot Questions
Remove restrictions that limit more housing? Rein in rents? Voters may face dueling ballot questions advancing competing ideas.
Housing advocates often fall into two camps, offering very different solutions to the housing crisis.
Posted inOpinion
Healey’s veto of funding for GLP-1 drugs harms public employees and the economy
Shouldn’t Massachusetts lead the way, rather than leave its citizens behind on this critical issue?
Posted inPolitics
Kraft 2.0 looks a lot like the first version
Boston mayoral challenger Josh Kraft is looking to recharge his struggling campaign, but it’s not clear how a speech he delivered on Sunday does much to juice his candidacy.
Posted inOpinion
SNAP cuts are an abdication of our shared moral responsibility
SNAP is not a wasteful program – it is our nation’s first line of defense against hunger. It is a trusted and proven program to support our most disadvantaged residents in putting nutritious food on the table.
Posted inThe Codcast
The good, the bad, and the uncertain in Trump’s tax bill
CommonWealth Beacon executive editor Michael Jonas talks with reporter Jennifer Smith about a series of stories parsing the sprawling Trump tax and spending bill. They discuss why it’s so hard to know if Opportunity Zones have been effective, and why affordable housing advocates are mixed on the administration’s approach to low-income renters.
Posted inOpinion
A nation of immigrants imperiled
In both of his terms in office, Donald Trump has taken aim at each of the principal ways that people from other countries can become naturalized United States citizens.
Posted inEnergy
Boston struggles to find takers for green roof grants
The Boston Water and Sewer Commission has had a hard time persuading residents to take them up on their offer to help subsidize green roofs to reduce stormwater runoff.
Posted inState Government
Deal to raise bar advocate pay panned as ‘a slap in the face’
Legislative leaders on Wednesday rolled out a take-it-or-leave-it proposal that some dissatisfied attorneys quickly slammed as insufficient.
Posted inHousing
Trump policies offer mixed messages on affordable housing
“There is just no way to subsidize housing development processes enough” to be affordable to the lowest income residents, said Matt Noyes of CHAPA, “without affordable rental assistance.”
Posted inOpinion
Nicotine bans are tired ‘nanny state’ politics
In an era where transparency, government accountability and personal freedoms are in peril every day, it is rather stunning that state legislators want to impose bans on tobacco and nicotine products that will forever prohibit anyone born after January 1, 2006, from being able to purchase legal adult products.
Posted inState Government
Despite widespread support, ‘menstrual equity’ bill has stalled for two sessions in the House
Despite seeming widespread support and no public opposition, Massachusetts’s menstrual equity bill has stalled over two sessions in the House Ways and Means.
Posted inEnvironment
Lynn, Swampscott team up to clean Greater Boston’s dirtiest beach
A three-month pilot program is working to tackle the century-old problem of pollution at King’s Beach using ultraviolet light. The initial results have been promising, but between the high cost projected for a long-term fix and cuts to federal funding, whether the system could be permanently implemented remains to be seen.
Posted inOpinion
The arc still has time to bend
Dr. King believed in a nation that could transform from the inside out. So the choice remains as urgent now as it was then.
Posted inThe Codcast
Rebalancing broker’s fees
This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith and Todd Kaplan, senior attorney at Greater Boston Legal Services, set the stage for a new law changing the way broker’s fees in Massachusetts have been handled for the past decade. Starting August 1, the balance is meant to shift away from the renters and towards landlords when the property owner insists on a broker’s services.
Posted inOpinion
The urgency of tackling health care affordability
We need to ensure our system is as strong and resilient as possible today, before federal government and market forces exert even more pressure tomorrow.
Posted inHealth
‘We are terrified’: Gateway City leaders prepare for federal cuts, changes to Medicaid
The Trump administration’s tax bill will likely hit hardest in the state’s Gateway Cities as work requirements and Medicaid eligibility checks ramp up.
Posted inOpinion
Should Massachusetts repeal its 2024 gun control law?
Gun rights advocates believe that gun ownership is essential for personal safety, individual liberty, and a free society, while gun control activists hold that widespread gun ownership leads inevitably to disorder and deadly violence on a mass scale.