14 years after a new law authorized the state to take control of underperforming school districts, Holyoke is poised to become the first takeover district returned to local hands.
Holyoke schools poised to exit state receivership
Posted inBallot Questions
Group pushes use of psychedelics in therapeutic settings
Promoted by a group called Mass. for Mental Health Options, the proposed ballot measure would establish a bureaucracy similar to the Cannabis Control Commission to make “naturally occurring” psychedelics like magic mushrooms (psilocybin), peyote (mescaline), and ibogaine available for consumption in “therapeutic settings through a regulated and taxed system.”
Posted inHealth Care
Steward seeks to sell physician network to Optum
“This is a significant proposed change involving two large medical providers, both in Massachusetts and nationally, with important implications for the delivery and cost of health care across Massachusetts,” HPC Director David Seltz said.
Posted inBallot Questions
Lawmakers, academics call DiZoglio ballot question a ‘power grab’
DiZoglio’s supporters come from both the right and left ends of the political spectrum, agreeing with her argument that the Legislature is one of the most opaque operating in the country.
Posted inOpinion
About $115 billion — that’s what it might take to fund the MBTA over next 15 years
Here is the exercise I would like to recommend to the governor and her leadership team, and indeed to each of us: What is the public transit and rail system we want operating in metro Boston in 2040?
Posted inEnergy
Chairs of divided energy committee call a truce
The legislative workaround resolves a particularly nasty fight between the two branches that resulted in an unusual committee standoff, with House members holding hearings separately from Senate members and witnesses forced to testify before both groups.
Posted inImmigration
Healey makes another tweak to the emergency shelter law
Gov. Maura Healey made a new change in the program, imposing one-month restrictions on families staying in overflow housing shelters while they wait for shelter spots to open up.
Posted inOpinion
First steps toward a coherent transportation revenue plan
These issues – the short-term need to generate ample net new revenue for the MBTA and the state regional transit authorities (RTAs), and the long-term need to find a permanent, fair, and viable replacement for the gas tax – intersect, and it’s important to understand this as policymakers decide what course to take.
Posted inOpinion
Governor, get your facts straight on MCAS ballot question
We were disappointed when Gov. Maura Healey, answering a question about the ballot question, responded that she’s against it because we need “to be able to assess how our young people are doing.”
Posted inEconomy
$15 minimum wage in hand, advocates look to $20
As the “Fight for $15” crossed the country over the last decade, Massachusetts joined states like Oregon, New York, California, and Connecticut in reaching or exceeding a $15 hourly wage. Areas with higher costs of living have gone even further, like New York City’s $16 hourly wage and Washington, DC, with the country’s highest minimum hourly wage at $17.
Posted inThe Codcast
Pitching a $20 minimum wage
This week on The Codcast, Jennifer Smith of CommonWealth Beacon talks to Enid Eckstein of the Raise Up Massachusetts coalition about their effort to increase the Massachusetts minimum wage to $20 an hour and index it to inflation. Along the way, they discuss the cost of living, inequality, business competitiveness, and political strategy.
Posted inEnergy
Beacon Hill is eyeing utility bill equity upgrades
But there are broader structural problems with utility rates that also need to be addressed, including one related to solar power development.
Posted inOpinion
Proposed landfill would pose threat to the Quabbin
Casella wants to build the landfill near Quabbin because the company has been forced by court order to close a similar facility that it has operated since 2003 in Southbridge.
Posted inEnergy
Feds offer bonus tax credits for offshore wind
The new guidance expands eligibility for a bonus that would increase the investment tax credit for eligible offshore wind projects from 30 percent to 40 percent.
Posted inPolitics
Sen. Edwards apologizes for Milton comments
“The measure of our character and professionalism is not in the fervor with which we hold our positions, but in the respect and civility with which we express them. In this instance, I failed to uphold these standards.”
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Mariano’s blunt urinalysis of Steward
We may be in an era of “Mariano missiles.” House Speaker Ron Mariano, a former schoolteacher from Quincy, can be similarly blunt, or teasing, in his remarks, as he was while speaking at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce on Thursday.
Posted inOpinion
Rethinking the way we do high school
Especially for disadvantaged kids who may not have as many family and friends who attended college or who work in leading sectors, we need to build stronger connections between what students are learning and experiencing in high school and the careers that await them when they graduate.
Posted inEnvironment
House eyes MWRA expansion
The MWRA was created by the Legislature in 1984 and currently provides wholesale water and sewer services to 3.1 million people and more than 5,500 businesses in 61 communities in eastern and central Massachusetts.
Posted inCriminal Justice
In remarkable start to 2024, Boston has had only 2 homicides this year
Boston has had just 2 homicides so far in 2024, and shootings are down 64 percent, an extraordinary start to the year in a city that already had low baseline rates of homicide and gun violence.
Posted inHousing
Battle over parking often really about housing and development
A focus on parking and parking minimums have shaped post-war development in the US for the worse, says author Henry Grabar. But he says we’re in the midst of an encouraging “parking science renaissance” that’s rethinking those policies.