Hundreds gathered outside Hadley Town Hall Sunday protesting a deluge of changes to the USDA by the Trump administration, including frozen grant money, program cuts, staff layoffs, and the slated closure of Massachusetts’ Natural Resources Conservation Service office.
‘Cut hay, not USDA’: Mass. farmers rally in Hadley against agriculture program cuts
Posted inHealth Care
Fresh allegations of mismanagement swirl around Benjamin Health Center, court documents show
Established in 1927, the Benjamin has more than 80 patients and residents, the vast majority of them people of color.
Posted inThe Codcast
Sec. Augustus on housing policy base hits
CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith sits down with Ed Augustus, Secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, to discuss how federal policy changes threaten state housing goals, the Commonwealth’s response, the tools it is using to meet those goals, and much more.
Posted inPolitics
Kitty Dukakis, a champion for the dispossessed who spoke openly of her struggles with depression and addiction, dies at 88
Kitty Dukakis was a prominent presence throughout her husband’s public life, which included a record-setting 12 years as governor and serving as the Democratic nominee for president in 1988.
Posted inOpinion
Making the 250th anniversary of our founding matter
If we truly wish to compete with our fellow patriots in Pennsylvania and Virginia, let us follow the example of Samuel Adams. Let us be bold about our beliefs and the messages we send to the nation.
Posted inHousing
Anti-discrimination housing orgs sue to ‘quite literally keep the lights on’
Less than a month after tens of millions of dollars in fair housing cuts dropped, organizations are scrambling to adjust operations while suing the Trump administration.
Posted inOpinion
On DEI, Massachusetts leaders are following public sentiment
Why are Massachusetts’s most prominent statewide officials challenging President Trump over DEI policy? It is what residents of the Commonwealth want their elected officials to do.
Posted inEnvironment
Mass. agriculture commissioner urges federal government to release funds and rehire USDA staff
The head of the Massachusetts’ agricultural department has written a letter urging the federal government to release frozen funds for farmers and reinstate staff at the US Department of Agriculture.
Posted inOpinion
Immigrants can make us rich, if we let them
In almost every geographic context, immigrants with both high and low levels of education are more likely than non-immigrants to open businesses. Unfortunately, we are not taking full advantage of this economic potential.
Posted inState Government
Health care cash rained on Mass. lobbying world in 2024
At a time when lawmakers are wrestling with cost, access and regulatory questions, health care industry power players continued to dominate the Beacon Hill lobbying world last year, spending the most on employing influential insiders who sway development of public policy.
Posted inEducation
Voc-tech admissions saga zigzags toward finish line
A nearly decade-long debate over admission policies at the state’s vocational high schools seems to be nearing a conclusion, but it’s been a tortured path and there is plenty of discontent with the likely outcome on both sides.
Posted inOpinion
We need to protect workers from dangerous ‘bossware’ technology
The FAIR Act would provide Massachusetts workers with much-needed protection against reckless and harmful uses of “bossware” technologies, electronic and algorithmic decision systems employers use to automate managerial functions, including determining whether workers get a job, tracking workers’ locations and communications throughout — and sometimes even after — the workday.
Posted inOpinion
Strengthening higher education in an era of federal instability
If Massachusetts intends to remain a leader in innovation, uphold equitable access to higher education, and sustain long-term prosperity, we must dedicate a substantial portion of Fair Share revenues to supporting public colleges and universities.
Posted inGovernment
Beacon Hill extending pandemic-era policy of remote access to public meetings
The remote access policy, a vestige of the pandemic era, allows members of the public to log on to Zoom, a phone conference line, or YouTube to participate in the meetings.
Posted inCourts
MBTA can be sued over assault by bus driver, SJC rules
There are good reasons to make sure public employers aren’t held responsible for the actions of third parties out of their control, but the state’s high court concluded the MBTA is not automatically immune from suit if an employee causes harm.
Posted inOpinion
We solved a big budget crisis before by closing corporate loopholes and tax dodges. We should do it again.
Massachusetts is one of the richest per-capita places in the world. We have the wealth to weather this storm, and maintain the state’s fiscal strength, by tapping a portion of the state’s rainy day fund and raising significant new revenue from the world’s largest, most profitable corporations.
Posted inState House News Service
Mass. legislators visited Canadian renewable power operations
The trip comes as state energy policies shaped through a series of clean energy laws are suddenly at odds with the new direction of federal energy policy under President Donald Trump.
Posted inThe Codcast
The data purge domino effect
CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith is joined by Ariel Beccia, an instructor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, to discuss the Trump administration’s purges of health-related government data, how these and other data purges ripple through society, and researchers’ efforts to respond.