COMMONWEALTH BEACON is officially wrapping up 2025 and looking ahead to the stories that need to be told across Massachusetts in 2026. From major environmental scoops to local news in Gateway Cities to Beacon Hill happenings, our reporters covered a swath of issues last year, and many of those storylines will continue to unfold in the new year.

On this week’s episode of The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon editor Laura Colarusso sits down with reporters Jennifer Smith, Chris Lisinski, Jordan Wolman, and Hallie Claflin to discuss the team’s major stories in 2025 and what they will be covering on each of their beats in 2026.

Just weeks after joining the newsroom in September, Wolman uncovered that Rep. Mark Cusack, co-chair of the Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy, used Gov. Maura Healey’s pending energy affordability bill as a legislative vehicle to put forth a measure to weaken the state’s 2030 climate commitments. The House didn’t move forward with the legislation following intense backlash, but it’s still on the table for next year.

“Deep-blue state of Massachusetts walking back from its 2030 climate commitments is not a headline that, at least in November, House leadership was comfortable with,” Wolman said. “I think that we can look for a clearer compromise between what the governor had proposed and what was put forth in this trial balloon.”

Lisinski, who also joined the team in September but has been covering the State House for years, explained how President Trump’s second term dominated Beacon Hill in 2025. Looking ahead to 2026, he will continue covering the state’s budget pressures as Massachusetts faces sizeable tax revenue losses over a two-year span.

“The budget writers in the Legislature and in the Healey administration have been growing more and more worried about how much the state is collecting in tax revenue. They have been lifting up every metaphorical couch cushion, trimming spending here and there,” Lisinski said. “That’s just going to continue to get worse with the existence of … the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

Claflin joined the team in July to cover the state’s 26 Gateway Cities. In September, she followed up with leaders, health care workers, and first responders in Leominster to examine how the city and region is dealing with the loss of its maternity unit two years later. In 2026, she will continue to monitor hospital and health care service closures in Gateway Cities.

“Gateway Cities are particularly vulnerable when it comes to those kinds of closures. The payer mix is often challenging for hospitals that are already struggling financially – lots and lots of folks [are] on Medicaid and Medicare in those cities,” Claflin said. “I think there’s going to be more stories to tell there.”

One of Smith’s deep dives in 2025 shed light on geographic disparities across the state when it comes to health care access. From downtown Boston, getting to a hospital or health center can be as straightforward as walking a few blocks in any direction. But in more far-flung regions of the state, a long drive or a patchwork of transit modes can stand between someone in need of health care and the place best able to provide it. In 2026, she plans to cover a plethora of topics.

“One that I am excited to sink into a bit in the new year is this question of ‘What exactly can Massachusetts do if there’s a federal government that doesn’t seem aligned with the way that its voters would like the state to run?’” Smith said. “Often some of its only toolkits are ‘Well I guess you have to go sue the federal government in court.’”

On the episode, Colarusso introduces CommonWealth Beacon’s reporters (0:57), they discuss their major storylines from 2025 (2:06), and each reporter gives a brief overview of what they plan to cover in the new year (26:11).