“We’ve been been preparing for a number of scenarios, including this one, and we are well positioned to respond and maintain access to vaccines across the state,” Goldstein said.
Massachusetts
Posted inState Government
Senators get ‘enough yeses’ to add $43.5 million to budget
The Senate Ways and Means Committee proposed an underlying budget that started at $61.32 billion, as Democrats forge ahead with their spending appetite despite modest state tax revenues and federal funding uncertainty.
Posted inEnvironment
Flooding in Massachusetts drains money, energy, and resources
Studies show that extreme precipitation and flooding are increasing in the Northeast and that coastlines are becoming more vulnerable due to changing frequency and intensity of storms and severe rain.
Posted inHealth Care
Speaker Johnson sends signals on two key Medicaid reforms
Johnson told reporters that the bill will not change the portion of state Medicaid costs paid by the federal government for states that have expanded Medicaid, like Massachusetts.
Posted inThe Codcast
No man is an island: The collective climate challenge of coastal Massachusetts
This episode of the Codcast is a recording of a live event that took place April 30 in Provincetown, Mass., co-moderated by CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith and Eve Zuckoff of CAI (the Cape and Islands NPR station). Together with a panel of conservation, planning, and community development experts, they discussed what it means to live and plan responsibly on the Cape and Islands, understanding the realities of climate change and the housing crunch as a collective crisis.
Posted inOpinion
Accelerating climate change demands ‘agile systems’ thinking — and action
In the face of accelerating climate change, the scale and scope of resilience work is growing far beyond what policy makers in the late 20th century thought possible. The general risk of not acting at the needed scale far surpasses the downside risk of any single action negatively impacting an ecosystem.
Posted inEducation
Tutwiler: Immigration chill leading to “extended absences”
According to the state’s top education official, some Mass. schools have reported “extended absences” for students as a result of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement.
Posted inThe Codcast
UMass Pres. Meehan on higher ed crisis response
CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith is joined by Marty Meehan, president of the University of Massachusetts system, to discuss UMass’s work in climate technology and its response to the federal government’s attacks on higher education.
Posted inOpinion
Why we were in handcuffs at Hanscom Airfield
Private developers are working with the Massachusetts Port Authority on a proposal to expand Hanscom’s private jet capacity with 17 new hangars, the accompanying fuel tanks, and other infrastructure. A coalition of neighbors and environmentalists had been working since at least 2023 to oppose the plan with petitions, meetings with representatives, and yard signs.
Posted inThe Codcast
The stakes of Western Mass. transit gaps
CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith is joined by state Rep. Lindsay Sabadosa of the First Hampshire district and Laura Sylvester, public policy manager at the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts, to discuss transportation challenges in Western Massachusetts and how they connect with other policy areas.
Posted inThe Codcast
Managed retreat: not if, but when?
CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith is joined by Kristin Uiterwyk, director of the Urban Harbors Institute at UMass Boston, and Chris Krahforst, Director of Climate Adaptation and Conservation for the town of Hull, to discuss managed retreat in Massachusetts coastal communities threatened by rising waters and shrinking sands.
Posted inState Government
Opponents knock Healey’s youth mental health plan
With three state-funded youth mental health programs at risk of closing, lawmakers and providers ramped up their opposition this week to Gov. Healey’s proposed budget cuts.
Posted inState House News Service
Former Baker deputy Mike Kennealy launches campaign for governor
A former private equity manager, who spent four years as state housing and economic development secretary under Gov. Charlie Baker, declared his candidacy for governor.
Posted inThe Codcast
Sec. Santiago on improving veterans services
CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith is joined by Jon Santiago, Secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Veterans Services, to discuss how the now two-year-old office is progressing, advances at the Commonwealth’s Veterans Homes, how it is responding to threats from Washington, and what work he’s excited about for the future.
Posted inState House News Service
Gov. Healey seeks $756 million for ‘time-sensitive deficiencies’
Healey’s office pitched the $190 million the bill includes for a child care financial assistance program as a way to “support Massachusetts residents at a time of rising costs.”
Posted inThe Codcast
Primary care physicians organizing union at Mass General Brigham
This week on The Codcast, John McDonough of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute talk to Michael Barnett, who is both a primary care physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a professor of health policy at the T.H. Chan School, about the ongoing effort to unionize PCPs across the Mass General Brigham system.
Posted inState Government
Mass. exploring possible third state-run veterans’ home
Talks are underway within state government about establishing a third long-term care home for veterans, Veterans Services Secretary Jon Santiago said Tuesday.
Posted inGovernment
‘Cut hay, not USDA’: Mass. farmers rally in Hadley against agriculture program cuts
Hundreds gathered outside Hadley Town Hall Sunday protesting a deluge of changes to the USDA by the Trump administration, including frozen grant money, program cuts, staff layoffs, and the slated closure of Massachusetts’ Natural Resources Conservation Service office.
Posted inThe Codcast
Sec. Augustus on housing policy base hits
CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith sits down with Ed Augustus, Secretary of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities, to discuss how federal policy changes threaten state housing goals, the Commonwealth’s response, the tools it is using to meet those goals, and much more.
Posted inUncategorized
Lawmakers: News business needs state help
SEN. BRENDAN CRIGHTON OF LYNN is so worried about the state’s shrinking local news coverage that he is pushing legislation to create a commission that would quantify the problem and […]
Posted inOpinion
We know how to fix the foster care crisis
WITH THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN in foster care spiking and an inadequate number of foster parents available to provide a safe home, Massachusetts’ foster care system is overwhelmed.  The solution […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Opinion
A Massachusetts freedom agenda
THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONÂ election unleashed forces of racism, sexism, anti-immigrant sentiment, and authoritarianism that, we now know, have been simmering just beneath the surface of the collective American polity. But […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
Galvin’s low energy dampens voting innovation
SINCE THE FLORIDA election debacle in 2000, the United States has seen dramatic developments in the administration of elections. States are modernizing and innovating so much that the act of […]