John McDonough and Paul Hattis talk with Zirui Song, associate professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School and a physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. They discuss Song’s research and thoughts about the primary care crisis nationally and in Massachusetts, and dive into the promise and issues with private equity in health care.
‘The exits are growing, the entries are slowing’ in primary care
Posted inEnvironment
Five Codcasts from 2025
CommonWealth Beacon reporters moderated panels and guided conversations on some of the thorniest problems facing the state. Here are five Codcasts from 2025 worth revisiting — or checking in on for the first time — as the new year kicks off.
Posted inHousing
Our top five housing stories of 2025
The Bay State’s housing crunch seemed to reach into all corners in 2025, tying up courts, lawmakers navigating climate and transportation concerns, groups dependent on federal fair housing funding, and services promising to make it easier for more people to afford to live in pricey Massachusetts.
Posted inState Government
Our top five Beacon Hill stories of 2025
The Democrats who control the levers of power in Massachusetts spent most of the year fretting about upheaval from the federal government and preparing for more expansive action down the line.
Posted inHealth Care
Healey explores options to cover Mass. residents losing health insurance
Healey said Tuesday that the loss of subsidies will translate into “upwards of 350,000” Mass. residents losing their health insurance.
Posted inEnergy
Our top five climate stories of 2025
Frustrations over high gas and electric costs drove Gov. Maura Healey’s agenda around energy issues.
Posted inGateway Cities
Our top five Gateway Cities stories of 2025
This year, CommonWealth Beacon ramped up its coverage of Massachusetts’ former industrial cities by adding a new Gateway Cities reporter role in its newsroom. Our reporting in 2025 shed light on major policy issues both new and old that have rattled cities like Holyoke, Leominster, and Lynn.
Posted inOpinion
Voters said no to one-size-fits-all tests. The governor’s graduation framework can’t let them go.
Piling multiple layers of new requirements on our students will create new obstacles rather than providing opportunities for them to increase their life skills and pursue their individual goals.
Posted inThe Codcast
‘In every difficulty, there’s an opportunity,’ Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler says about developing a post-MCAS high school graduation requirement
On this week’s episode of The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon executive editor Michael Jonas sits down with Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler to discuss the work of a state commission tasked with proposing a new graduation requirement to replace MCAS.
Posted inOpinion
Instead of a war on poverty, we wage war on the poor
EVERY SAFETY NET in this country has been stitched with holes just wide enough for many of us to slip through. We’ve recently had a front row seat to this […]
Posted inEnergy
Massachusetts kicks off big bet on battery storage
The four projects selected, out of 13 total bids, will create 1,268 MW of storage capacity, though that’s shy of the 1,500 MW the state and utilities had sought to solicit in this round of bids.
Posted inTransportation
Talk of new transportation dollars? Bring it on, says Senate chair
Brendan Crighton, the Senate’s point person on transportation issues, wants his colleagues to have hard conversations about new transportation-related levies even if the topic might be politically fraught.
Posted inExplainer
What is the Massachusetts FAIR Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort?
The increased FAIR Plan policies and rising home insurance prices in the private market across New England both reflect and tell the climate story, since insurers are the arbiters of risk.
Posted inTransportation
T says weekend ridership nearly back to 2019 levels
Chief Operating Officer Ryan Coholan said weekend ridership is nearly back to 2019 levels.
Posted inHousing
MBTA Communities fight heads back to the SJC
A group of holdout towns is banking on the very court that declared the legislation mandatory in January to rule that the mandate is illegal without dedicated funding.
Posted inOpinion
Beacon Hill’s new rules are good. They should follow them.
Everyday people–and not just advocates deep in the trenches–are seeing that things need to change.
Posted inState Government
Amid shaky economy, tax cut proposal draws heightened scrutiny
Already buffeted by economic pressures and federal funding cuts, top Democrats are beginning to warn that major financial upheaval would follow if voters approve a pair of tax-reform measures en route to the 2026 ballot.
Posted inOpinion
Why are we looking to deport ambition?
These students are tomorrow’s nurses, engineers, teachers, artists, and entrepreneurs. Driving them from classrooms is a moral failure, but also an economic one: It makes the next generation smaller, less educated, and less able to compete in a global economy that depends on talent and drive. We are shooting ourselves in the foot.
Posted inHousing
A push to build housing in ‘God’s backyard’
Massachusetts YIGBY legislation would allow faith-based organizations to build multi-family housing by right on parcels they’ve owned for at least three years.
Posted inOpinion
New graduation requirement must include rigorous statewide standards
Ensuring a reliable, objective measure of student competency must remain a top priority. Our students deserve rigorous statewide standards, not subjective benchmarks at a district’s discretion.
Posted inThe Codcast
The politics of who gets a musical education
On this week’s episode of The Codcast, what it means when political forces come for the arts. CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith talks with Élider DiPaula, the new executive director of Project STEP — a 12-year music program focused on bringing students from underrepresented or marginalized backgrounds into the world of classical string music. The program lost a federal grant this spring, as did hundreds of other programs considered out of step with President Trump’s nationalist priorities for the arts.
Posted inOpinion
We can’t sit idle as Washington pulls the plug on the Massachusetts innovation economy
The Commonwealth needs to act boldly and creatively to respond to the threats to its innovation economy. Fighting to reverse these moves in Washington should be a top priority, but we surely can’t count on that happening.