The bill tackles PFAS at its source by banning PFAS in firefighting foam, firefighter personal protective equipment, and consumer products like food packaging, children’s products, personal care products, furniture, textiles, and cookware.
Time for action on PFAS on Beacon Hill
Posted inOlympics
20-20 hindsight on Boston 2024
Asked this week to reflect on the long-gone possibility of Boston hosting the 2024 Olympics, Senate President Karen Spilka didn’t hesitate. “I’m glad it’s in Paris,” she said. “That’s my quote.”
Posted inEnergy
GE suspects ‘manufacturing deviation’ with turbine blade
Scott Reese, the CEO of GE Vernova, said there is no indication of an engineering design flaw with the turbine blade. He said the company is re-inspecting all of the 150 blades that have been manufactured at a plant in Gaspe, Canada, to see if the problem occurred with other blades.
Posted inHealth Care
Each Steward hospital in Mass. has a bidder, Healey says
“We’ve received qualified bids. We are evaluating those now, and it’s currently with the parties right now in New York,” Gov. Maura Healey said.
Posted inOpinion
Some things our 248-year-old democracy and South Africa’s 30-year-young democracy might learn from one another
South Africa and the United States are both blessed with incredible natural and physical assets and resources, but also a still-unresolved, deeply troubled history with apartheid and slavery. Both have the capacity to thrive but are failing to deliver on their promise, largely due to ineffective, corrupt or dysfunctional government and poor governance.
Posted inImmigration
Healey keeps pulling up the emergency shelter system’s welcome mat
“Massachusetts is out of shelter space, and we simply cannot afford the current size of this system,” said Gov. Maura Healey.
Posted inEnergy
Holtec considers appeal to discharge water from Pilgrim plant
David Noyes of Holtec told the panel that there are “still avenues available to us, should we decide to pursue them, in order to be able to still consider the option of liquid discharge.”
Posted inHealth Care
3 long-term care facilities placed in receivership
Facilities owned by Blupoint Healthcare in South Hadley, Whitinsville, and Amesbury were experiencing financial difficulties, with workers complaining they weren’t being paid and even when they were paid the checks bounced.
Posted inOpinion
Massachusetts must address our maternal health crisis
Massachusetts is in a maternal health crisis, despite being a bastion of high-end medical care. Pending legislation could go a long way toward addressing the problems.
Posted inThe Codcast
Vineyard Offshore CEO: Time to go big
This week on the Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon’s Bruce Mohl is joined by Alicia Barton, CEO of Vineyard Offshore, to discuss the Vineyard Wind 1 and 2 projects, and the challenges facing offshore wind development more broadly.
Posted inEnergy
Should Mass. go big or small with upcoming offshore wind procurement?
Barton acknowledged supply chain concerns and ongoing economic uncertainty, but said the economics of offshore wind are unlikely to change any time soon and climate change dictates acting now and going big.
Posted inOpinion
Protect our patients, ban retail electricity suppliers
The bottom line is that third-party energy suppliers overprice a basic necessity for the poorest and sickest in our state while sowing confusion and mistrust about our urgent need for a clean, decarbonized economy.
Posted inPolitics
Biden drops out
Joe Biden scrambled the 2024 presidential race in a way without precedent by dropping out on Sunday. Read how Massachusetts political figures are reacting.
Posted inOpinion
Worrisome lack of progress at transportation task force
This pivotal moment cannot be squandered on yet another commission presenting policymakers with “transportation revenue options” or a mere “tool kit.” We know the available options, backed by countless reports outlining various revenue sources.
Posted inMarijuana
Cannabis regulators move closer to removing two-driver rule
The commission voted back in December 2023 to remove the two-driver rule, a requirement that every delivery be carried out by two drivers for security purposes.
Posted inOpinion
Addressing anti-semitism in the schools
The events of 10/7 and the ensuing war have had an unmistakable impact, even in Massachusetts. ADL tracked 440 incidents in the Commonwealth in 2023, a 189 percent increase. Eighty-four incidents were in K-12, and 31 occurred after 10/7, a 138 percent increase for the same three-month period in 2022.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Wu-Kraft race looking more and more likely | Full-tilt toward artificial intelligence
The official word from Josh Kraft is that he’s not a candidate for mayor of Boston and has to plans or timeline for such an announcement, but some coffee shop chatter overheard this week suggests a run could be in his future.
Posted inOpinion
Eds and meds should pay their fair share of property taxes
Since this is not a tax, payment is voluntary, but institutions were expected to act in good faith on their commitments. Some have; many have not.
Posted inState Government
Budget deal includes free community college and bus rides plus online lottery
Many of the biggest eye-catchers in the deal would commit significant funds toward reducing or eliminating costs Massachusetts residents face, including another year of free school meals, tuition-free community college, no-charge rides on the state’s 15 regional transit authorities, and making permanent a pandemic-era Commonwealth Cares for Children (C3) grant program that launched with federal dollars.
Posted inNews Analysis
Polls can’t really tell us whether Biden has a better chance than anyone else
Democrats must choose a course based on a map that really only shows where they are now and a blurry, half erased outline of what might be the path if Biden stays in. People can make strong cases that he should stay — or go. None are necessarily wrong, but none are clearly right.