AS PART OF what’s likely to be a costly battle over high school testing standards, a union-backed group on Thursday launched its effort to eliminate MCAS as a graduation requirement. […]
Ballot campaign to end MCAS graduation requirement gets underway
Posted inHousing
Protest planned on eve of possible shelter evictions
The day before dozens of families are scheduled to be evicted from Massachusetts shelters, protestors plan to hold a vigil at the State House Thursday over new restrictions Gov. Maura Healey made to the family shelter system.
Posted inOpinion
Could a rush to embrace new advances in cancer screening do more harm than good?
Scientists are racing to develop new screening tests for cancer, but there’s a risk that these tests will be approved for widespread use without knowing whether they save enough lives to justify any harm that may result from their broad adoption.
Posted inHousing
Report finds Greater Boston’s homelessness rate is second highest nationally
A new Boston Indicators report lays out the “best and worst” of Greater Boston homelessness policy. The region has the second highest rate of homelessness among large US cities, but the eight lowest number of unhoused residents left without shelter.
Posted inHousing
As Healey signs housing bill, advocates lament what was left out
AS GOV. MAURA HEALEY and lawmakers celebrated what they called “historic” housing legislation getting signed into law Tuesday, some of the advocates credited with influencing the bill say it is […]
Posted inPolitics
After Wu voices disappointment with Senate inaction on tax bill, Spilka hits back
After Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said homeowners would have the state Senate to blame if Beacon Hill doesn’t pass legislation shifting more of the city’s tax burden onto commercial property owners, Senate President Karen Spilka made it clear she was not pleased with the comment.
Posted inEnergy
Healey urged to go big on offshore wind procurement
In the debate over whether the state should go big or small in this week’s offshore wind procurement, one argument has largely been missing from the go-big side – saving money. Now the go-big forces are marshaling pricing and reliability arguments as well.
Posted inState Government
State starts fiscal 2025 with drop in revenue
State tax revenue in July was down $18 million, or 0.7 percent, over the same month last year, a gap state officials say would have been even greater but for a quirk of timing.
Posted inOpinion
Bike lane brouhaha a test of Boston’s resolve
The great Florentine observer of human nature, Nicolo Machiavelli, famously wrote, “There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.” Boston leaders are learning that lesson anew as they push to end the era of automobile dominance in urban mobility.
Posted inEconomy
In 2024, Mass. is still minding the wage gap
There remains a huge gender and race wage gap, and the issue is more complicated than is often recognized.
Posted inThe Codcast
Minding the wage gaps
This week on The Codcast, Jennifer Smith of CommonWealth Beacon is joined by Kim Borman, executive editor of the Boston Women’s Workforce Council, to discuss trends in gender and racial wage gaps in Boston, why they persist, and how to address them.
Posted inMarijuana
Cannabis Commission says it failed to collect $500,000 in licensing fees
In an email, a spokesperson for the agency said a license renewal extension fee was implemented in August 2022 to give applicants for cannabis licenses more time to file them. Extensions were granted to 161 applicants, the email said, but the fees were never collected by commission staff. The total amount owed in licensing fees was $555,671, according to the email.
Posted inMarijuana
State crackdown on hemp products uneven
The 2018 Farm Act removed hemp from the definition of marijuana and deemed it an agricultural commodity, a shift that has led to the creation of an industry centered around many of the same intoxicating products found at marijuana dispensaries but without the heavy regulation on how it’s produced and who can consume it.
Posted inOpinion
We’ll pay a steep price if climate bill doesn’t get done
The Massachusetts Legislature’s failure to pass comprehensive climate legislation and a major economic development bond bill is deeply concerning. We must recommit ourselves to moving both initiatives forward with great haste.
Posted inState Government
House, Senate leaders to call lawmakers back into formal session
Both Senate President Karen Spilka and House Speaker Ron Mariano issued statements saying they are interested in resolving differences between the two branches on the bill and then holding a special session to approve it and send it along to the governor so she can sign it into law.
Posted inPolitics
Political notebook: Healey hires strategist | Gov. slams Vance’s ‘childless cat lady’ comment
NEARLY HALFWAY THROUGH her first term, Gov. Maura Healey has brought into the State House a longtime political hand. Corey Welford, who left for the private sector after serving as […]
Posted inOpinion
A game plan for the new hybrid work reality
Boston provides an illustrative example of this principle. Characterized by a greater mix of office, residential, dining, and retail uses, the Back Bay and Seaport neighborhoods feel more vibrant than the Financial District, with its preponderance of office towers.
Posted inState Government
Democrats warm to continuing debate on unfinished legislation
Nothing official has been announced, but House Speaker Ron Mariano and members of his leadership team raised that possibility early Thursday morning as it became clear that many of the bills they wanted to pass were not going to make it. Gov. Maura Healey also chimed in, urging action on her economic development legislation.
Posted inEducation
Backers claim progress in push to change teacher layoff rules
Backers of an effort to weaken seniority rules governing teacher layoffs in order to promote diversity in the teaching workforce did not see their bill passed this year, but say the issue is advancing because the state budget directs the education department to carry out an analysis of layoffs.