LAND COURT JUDGE Robert Foster ordered the scrap metal export business at Brayton Point in Somerset to shut down largely because of what he heard and saw on a visit to […]
How 3 women helped drive a scrap metal business out of Somerset
Posted inHealth Care
Mass. health care spending actually dropped in 2020
BE CAREFUL what you wish for. After years of ever-increasing spending on health care that left policymakers struggling to contain costs, Massachusetts finally found the key to lowering spending on […]
Posted inOpinion
Van Welie is wrong about natural gas
IN RESPONSE to Russia’s unjust invasion of Ukraine, the European Union announced it will rapidly accelerate its transition from natural gas – much of which it gets from Russia – […]
Posted inOpinion
Why the MBTA is key — to easing the housing crunch
MASSACHUSETTS IS EXPERIENCING a severe housing crisis. Talk to anyone who has tried to purchase a home in the past few years or tried to find an affordable apartment and […]
Posted inTransportation
Poftak says show me the money
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A GROWING CHORUS of officials and activists have been pushing for the MBTA to roll out a reduced-price option for low-income riders, but launching that kind […]
Posted inOpinion
Progress being made on digital inequity — but more needed
THE COVID-19 pandemic brought education to computers and tablets, business to online marketplaces, and social activity to Zoom – all while bringing deep, systemic digital inequity fully to light. As […]
Posted inHealth Care
Bill tackles insulin affordability
THE COST OF treating her Type 1 diabetes for 15 years has taken a toll on Claire Clendenen’s life. Clendenen, who works in public health in Boston, just recently paid […]
Posted inThe Download
Parsing words at the Mass. Gaming Commission
MASSACHUSETTS LAWMAKERS MADE it pretty clear in 2014 that they wanted to protect midsize theaters from having to compete against event venues run by casinos, inserting into the gaming law […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Parsing words at the Mass. Gaming Commission
MASSACHUSETTS LAWMAKERS MADE it pretty clear in 2014 that they wanted to protect midsize theaters from having to compete against event venues run by casinos, inserting into the gaming law that […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
House leader questions implementation of criminal justice law
THE TOP HOUSE lawmaker on criminal justice issues is accusing the Baker administration of “outright resistance” to implementing the state’s criminal justice reform law. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Michael Day, […]
Posted inTransportation
MBTA nearing a financial cliff
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MBTA might inch to the edge of a financial “cliff” as soon as fiscal year 2024, when the agency will have exhausted all of the […]
Posted inHealth Care
Massachusetts will drop 3,700 from COVID death count
MASSACHUSETTS WILL REVISE its COVID-19 death count downwards by around 3,700 people as the state shifts to using a new definition to count deaths attributed to coronavirus. “We believe […]
Posted inHealth Care
Eating disorders are ravaging young people
AN EATING DISORDER epidemic is growing. Clinicians are seeing eating disorders in children at younger and younger ages, and now, due to the pandemic, eating disorders among teens are at an […]
Posted inThe Download
Lawmakers are revising road funding formula
THE HOUSE’S TRANSPORTATION policy leader pledged Wednesday that lawmakers will consider revising the state’s road and bridge funding formula, an indication that years of complaints by rural lawmakers may finally […]
Posted inGambling
Gaming Commission backs off oversight of Everett entertainment complex
THE MASSACHUSETTS GAMING Commission indicated on Thursday that it will not require a proposed entertainment complex across the street from Encore Boston Harbor to be subject to the commission’s regulatory […]
Posted inTransportation
Lawmakers are revising road funding formula
THE HOUSE’S TRANSPORTATION policy leader pledged Wednesday that lawmakers will consider revising the state’s road and bridge funding formula, an indication that years of complaints by rural lawmakers may finally […]
Posted inGambling
Encore tries to defuse concerns on concerts, expansion
ENCORE BOSTON HARBOR submitted a memorandum to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission on Wednesday trying to clear up confusion about concerts and other events held in its casino ballroom and its […]
Posted inOpinion
Why a real estate transfer tax is a bad idea
ONE POLICY that has recently garnered attention on Beacon Hill is the real estate transfer fee: a de facto new sales tax on real estate. The idea would be to […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
House rejects gas tax suspension, pursuing ‘real relief’
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE A $1.6 BILLION spending bill passed the Massachusetts House unanimously on Wednesday after representatives shot down a Republican bid to add in language that would have […]
Posted inUncategorized
SJC hears life and death arguments in medical aid in dying case
THE STATE’S HIGHEST COURT on Wednesday heard oral arguments in an emotional and high-stakes case over whether a physician can prescribe lethal medication to a terminally ill patient. Several Supreme Judicial […]
Posted inThe Download
Tsarnaev again faces death penalty, but support for capital punishment dropping
IT’S PROBABLY THE highest profile capital punishment case in the country. And while it was an administration in Washington led by a Democratic president opposed to the death penalty that […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Tsarnaev again faces death penalty, but support for capital punishment dropping
IT’S PROBABLY THE highest profile capital punishment case in the country. And while it was an administration in Washington led by a Democratic president opposed to the death penalty that […]
Posted inTransportation
E-bikes, electric vehicles focus of clean transportation grants
THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION on Tuesday awarded $5 million for “equitable clean transportation projects,” with a heavy focus on the deployment of electric bicycles in low-income communities and electrification of rideshare […]
Posted inTransportation
MBTA not among transit agencies splitting $2.2b in fed aid
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT on Monday announced $2.2 billion in aid to states to preserve transit jobs and pay for daily train and bus operations, but Massachusetts […]