Three weeks after both Gov. Maura Healey and the Black and Latino Legislative Caucus offered separate roadmaps for action, it’s still unclear how or when House and Senate Democrats will proceed amid national pressure to respond to ICE raids.
Will Brownsberger
Posted inGovernment
Boston tax relief response, ballot question reform emerge for Senate action
As political fallout from Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s ill-fated property tax plan continues, the Senate prepares to vote on a relief plan of its own, plus a measure to impose new scrutiny on ballot question electioneering.
Posted inState Government
State House labor pains: The long fight carries on for unionizing legislative aides
Three and a half years after State House aides went public with their desire to unionize, the effort remains stalled by skepticism from top Democrats who often position themselves as allies of labor.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Making sense of correctional spending
MASSACHUSETTS SPENDS MORE than $1 billion a year to incarcerate roughly 13,000 people in its state prisons and county houses of correction, but a lot of the details of that […]
Posted inPolitics
House, Senate redistricting plan would increase minority voting clout
LEGISLATIVE LEADERS on Tuesday released proposed new maps for Massachusetts House and Senate districts, which would enhance the political clout of minority voters while also protecting almost all incumbents. […]
Posted inPolitics
Redistricting effort looks to reestablish Black Senate seat
A REDISTRICTING PUSH to establish a majority-Black state Senate district in Boston is coming at a time of heightened attention to racial equity issues and demands for a seat at […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Families want to end prison phone call charges
AYANA AUBOURG MET her father Winchel Aubourg as an infant while he was behind bars for a drug-related crime. For the next 17 years, she spoke with him over the […]
Posted inThe Download
The Codcast: Warren, Brownsberger go at it on criminal justice bill
The sweeping criminal justice bill that Gov. Charlie Baker signed earlier this month received widespread, but not universal, praise as a welcome turn away from the tough-on-crime policies of the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Criminal justice bill reaches finish line
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER signed sweeping criminal justice legislation on Friday, capping several years of discussion on Beacon Hill and casting Massachusetts squarely in the national wave of rethinking tough-on-crime laws […]