This week on the Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon’s Jennifer Smith is joined by Massachusetts Sen. Jo Comerford to discuss higher education policy, including the free community college measure in the state budget, as well as the full range of programs that support students, and the role of higher education in economic development and public life.
Doubling down on higher education
Posted inHousing
Lobbying intensifies on BlueHub mortgage amendment
A four-year court battle over the shared appreciation mortgages is coming to a head this September, but BlueHub isn’t waiting for a court judgment.
Posted inOpinion
My hopes for the upcoming busy week in health care
The state should focus on transforming the closed hospital sites into community centers providing some health care but also housing, education, and employment training.
Posted inOpinion
AG’s gig driver settlement is a good start, but only a start
The Massachusetts settlement with Uber and Lyft marks a substantial improvement over the companies’ withdrawn ballot measure. But the state and the voters can and should do more to help gig drivers.
Posted inOpinion
Doctors’ diagnosis on retail electricity misses the mark
The op-ed raises valid concerns about some suppliers’ unethical practices and rightly calls for consumer protection. RESA and its members agree. Where we differ is labeling an entire industry as bad actors. Taking away all licenses, rather than taking away the licenses of the bad actors, is overkill. More importantly, it dismisses the value of a competitive market.
Posted inHealth Care
Steward to close hospitals in Dorchester, Ayer
Carney Hospital and Nashoba Valley Medical Center will be closing on or around August 31, 2024, Steward said.
Posted inTransportation
Political notebook: Healey’s ‘tool kit’ task force | Pushback on merger of state agencies
“What we are really hoping to give [to the governor] is a tool kit that lists sources and uses. I am not so sure – again, I’m not a member of the task force, I’m staff to the task force — that they will get to the prioritization level. It’s possible, but we haven’t really discussed that yet.”
Posted inOpinion
Let’s start the conversation about congestion pricing
We must remember the $3.2 billion a year lost by Boston-area drivers to congestion.
Posted inOpinion
Restore the endowment match for community colleges
The budget has never been more generous to these colleges in terms of providing MassEducate, the free community college plan. But cutting this low-cost, high-impact match program is unnecessary and counterproductive.
Posted inOpinion
Don’t run my retail electricity company out of business
Massachusetts has a competitive energy market with many private market participants driving the state forward offering programs that compete with the utilities.
Posted inGuns
Healey signs overhaul of state firearms law
The law sets new strategies for combating so-called ghost guns, expanding the law that allows a court to take guns away from someone considered a threat to themselves or others, and adding schools, polling places, and government buildings to the list of areas where state law forbids people from carrying firearms.
Posted inPolitics
With session nearing end, Wu’s property tax shift bill on the move
The proposal cleared the Legislature’s Committee on Revenue a week after lawmakers raised questions about it at a hearing.
Posted inTransportation
T hires Keolis to electrify Fairmount commuter rail line
Service will be provided by trains capable of running off batteries as well as electric catenaries. The hybrid service will enable the trains to run through tunnels and other areas without needing to build overhead wires.
Posted inEnvironment
Will Mass. follow the lead of New York on climate change?
In 2019, New York set mandates calling for 70 percent of the state’s electricity to come from renewable sources by 2030 and net zero emissions by 2040. New York lawmakers also approved the creation of a congestion pricing plan for New York City that would assess a toll of as much as $15 on vehicles entering Manhattan south of 60th Street.
Posted inEnergy
Debris from broken turbine getting harder to find
Roger Martella, chief sustainability officer for GE Vernona, the manufacture of the wind turbines, said the company is preparing to remove what remains of the broken turbine blade with the help of a company called Resolve Marine, whose employees are on site working out of New Bedford.
Posted inOpinion
Misguided amendment would give more power to Ticketmaster
The House passed its much larger economic development bill and included an amended version of the original legislation. This amended version could do more harm than good.
Posted inOpinion
Time for action on PFAS on Beacon Hill
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.
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.