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.
SJC ruling opens a path for legislative audit without ending the bitter dispute
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.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Healey underwater in new poll
A new MassINC Polling Group survey finds the incumbent governor with a net unfavorable rating among voters, but don’t overread the significance of one snapshot this far out from the election.
Posted inMiddle class
‘I want a legacy for my family’
For years, small business ownership has served as a “gateway” to the middle class, particularly for residents in Gateway Cities like Holyoke where economic mobility is otherwise limited and educational attainment is low. But since the pandemic, experts and advocates have warned that Massachusetts’s small businesses are struggling to survive.
Posted inOpinion
Massachusetts should join the 43 states that allow psychologists to provide telehealth therapy across state lines
Competing priorities and legislative inertia are the only reasons Massachusetts has not caught up to the other states that have already taken this step to enhance access and continuity of behavioral health care.
Posted inOpinion
Hampshire College, as we know it, is closing. We still think it has a future.
The question is no longer whether Hampshire’s existing financial model is viable—it is not—but whether what remains can be guided through a structured transition rather than resolved through rapid liquidation.
Posted inPolitics
Healey’s reelection bid confronts volatile energy politics
Healey’s shift on climate is now starting to bleed into her campaign for a second term as players across the spectrum are looking to leverage their support in the November election to make gains on their issues.
Posted inEducation
As school districts cut budgets, DEI work may be first to go
Brookline’s school district is one of at least four in Massachusetts that have cut DEI initiatives or positions despite community support, citing shrinking student enrollments and rollbacks in federal funding that threaten school budgets.
Posted inOpinion
The Health Policy Commission is concerned about health care costs — but powerless to do much about it
It was created in 2012 as part of legislation aimed at containing health care costs, but not vested with much authority.
Posted inThe Codcast
The historic tightrope of middle-class life
Defining the middle class is harder than it might seem – it might mean owning a home, having steady work, keeping a pot of savings, or the kids and white picket fence vision of the “American Dream.” Historian Andrew Seal, whose research and writings focus on how the middle class thinks of itself, joins CommonWealth Beacon senior reporter Jennifer Smith on The Codcast to interpret recent Bay State polling and dive into how a middle-class identity intersects with race, media portrayals, and American individualism.
Posted inMiddle class
It’s hard work making it in the middle class
If there’s a single unifying theme to the Massachusetts middle-class outlook in 2026, it’s contradiction: We have more than ever, and in many cases, that’s not enough to enjoy the stability of prior generations.
Posted inOpinion
Voting Rights Act ruling can harm belief in fair representation, even in bluest states like Massachusetts
Civic participation is shaped as much by trust as it is by policy. That’s why leadership at the state level must be proactive, visible, and unequivocal in the face of federal rulings that set us back.
Posted inOpinion
Norwood Hospital was done in by inadequate state regulations. Here is the fix.
Massachusetts has shown it knows how to prevent the next Norwood-like crisis. The question is whether it will build the tools to help the communities already living through one.
