DEP’s program review is one slice of the central debate animating the dynamic between regulators and the gas companies: whether and how fast the utilities should shift away from delivering gas to customers — their current business model.
State regulators are weighing how much to crack down on leaky gas pipes
Posted inOpinion
Dual language immersion programs are a huge asset to our schools. The state should stop treating them as an afterthought.
Every spring, the state celebrates high school graduates who receive the Seal of Biliteracy, while failing to build the dual language programs that would make bilingualism truly accessible to far more students.
Posted inHousing
Driscoll offers support for YIMBY legislation
Bay Staters “need to remember that zoning and zoning laws are provided to municipalities from the state,” said Rep. Andy Vargas. So, he said, “if we’re not building housing, it’s time for the state to relook at how we can take up that responsibility more aggressively.”
Posted inPolitics
Rikleen ends US Senate bid, endorses Markey
Rikleen, a former history teacher and fantasy sports writer making his first run for public office, launched his longshot Senate bid a year ago with calls for Democrats to more aggressively confront President Donald Trump and pursue sweeping reforms to the country’s political institutions.
Posted inEnvironment
Controversial private jet expansion proposal at Hanscom faces setbacks as developers look to move project ahead
The proposed hangar expansion has roiled activists and officials alike. Critics fear that a spike in air traffic will bring extra noise and emissions, as private flights are widely considered to be the most polluting source of transportation.
Posted inPolitics
A cakewalk for Bill Galvin
For the first time since he was elected secretary of state in 1994, Bill Galvin will not face either a Democrat or a Republican opponent this fall.
Posted inOpinion
We banned cellphones in our schools. It’s had a powerful, positive impact on students.
What our kids really need isn’t constant contact, it’s confidence.
Posted inThe Codcast
Health care coverage for immigrants remains in limbo
On the monthly Health or Consequences episode of The Codcast, John McDonough of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute talk with Vicki Pulos, a senior health law attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. They discuss the massive 2025 federal tax-and-spend law and its consequences for MassHealth and the Connector, what the state can do to limit coverage losses, and immigrant insurance eligibility cuts.
Posted inHousing
How a shuttered hospital site in Lynn is being transformed into affordable housing for seniors
Local leaders say the $85 million development — which will be reserved for residents age 62 and older with incomes up to 60 percent of the area median income — will help alleviate the city’s housing shortage and provide an affordable, accessible option to some of Lynn’s most vulnerable residents.
Posted inOpinion
The answer to the school desegregation lawsuit? Revive urban communities.
This long-overdue school desegregation lawsuit may provide the push we need to change the conversation from cross-district enrollment to place-based revitalization of urban neighborhoods.
Posted inHealth Care
Health insurers seek double-digit premium hikes on small businesses, again
A year after Gov. Maura Healey dubbed health insurance premium increases “simply unsustainable,” carriers are once again pursuing sizable rate changes that will fuel ongoing debate about the state’s affordability.
Posted inState Government
SJC ruling opens a path for legislative audit without ending the bitter dispute
Don’t expect a tidy resolution now that the state’s highest court has stamped an initial mark on the auditor’s long-running crusade to probe the House and Senate.
Posted inOpinion
Limits on local cooperation with ICE more urgent than ever
Sanctuary policies like the PROTECT Act have been the subject of public rancor and misunderstanding over the past year. These debates, though, often miss what sanctuary policies do – and what they do not.
Posted inHousing
Local complexity stymies ADU push
The report argues the permitting gap doesn’t reflect a lack of homeowner interest, but rather a regulatory system that was never designed to handle an influx of development of the small housing units across 351 cities and towns with their own set of permitting rules.
Posted inOpinion
Cranky, perhaps. But Barney Frank’s accessibility and honesty were a breath of fresh air.
Frank was consistently accessible, ever quotable, always on the record, and honest to a fault.
Posted inGovernment
Barney Frank, 86, left mark as trailblazer in politics
Barney Frank, the first member of Congress to voluntarily come out publicly as gay and a liberal bulldog who left his fingerprints on the nation’s banking regulations, died May 20, 2026. He was 86.
Posted inEnergy
Port cities try to weather shifting winds
Salem and New Bedford both received millions from the state to develop the sites of retired fossil fuel power plants into terminals that would serve as logistics and operations centers for the construction of offshore wind. But wind projects have long been struggling to get off the ground.
Posted inOpinion
Mass. environmentalists have lost the plot on energy affordability
People can want offshore wind, solar, storage, hydro, geothermal, efficiency, and new technology – while also supporting natural gas as an affordable and reliable bridge to that transition.
Posted inEnergy
Enbridge proposes new gas pipeline expansion in New England, placing Mass. in the crosshairs
Enbridge’s announcement is bound to ignite a firestorm and set off a host of thorny questions, while Gov. Maura Healey’s position on natural gas will again be put to the test as the proposal lands amid her reelection campaign.
Posted inThe Codcast
CommonWealth Beacon turns 30
Dave Denison was the first editor of CommonWealth magazine and oversaw the publication of its first issue 30 years ago, in the spring of 1996. Although much has changed about the country, the state, and the organization since the 1990s, Denison and current editor Laura Colarusso discuss the enduring mission of creating a more transparent political system for the common good.
Posted inOpinion
Massachusetts must stop separating siblings in foster care
IN NOVEMBER 2024, when I launched Kicking It Together, a soccer program for kids in foster care, I hoped it would be a fun, recreational outlet for children going through […]
Posted inHousing
One year in, backers of Massachusetts’s eviction sealing law say there is promise — and an awareness problem
The idea behind the law is to let tenants wipe the slate clean from certain evictions and not have those cases present obstacles to renting an apartment, securing a mortgage to buy a home, or finding employment.
Posted inOpinion
What does $1.7 billion get you in the Boston Public Schools? Abysmal student achievement and declining results.
A majority of Boston students are unable to read or do math at grade level. In a district spending $1.7 billion a year, it should be unconscionable to rest on good intentions without the ability to show real results.
