Search Results

Keyword search: Massachusetts

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — Massachusetts is losing $12.2 million in federal money that had been earmarked for Bay State schools to buy food from local farms and Gov. Maura Healey indicated that the state has no plans to backstop the funding for more than 200 school systems, including virtually every school in Hampshire County.

By DOMENIC POLI

A clause in the new state gun reform law preventing 18- to 21-year-olds from carrying certain firearms has gun enthusiasts, including those in Franklin County and the North Quabbin region, asking a rhetorical question: Is there an age requirement for the Bill of Rights?

By ALISON KUZNITZ

The Healey administration launched a new website Friday to connect fired federal workers with job opportunities and training resources in Massachusetts.

By Sam Drysdale

BOSTON — With unusually high levels of uncertainty circling around the federal funding that buoys more than $16 billion of the state budget, Gov. Maura Healey’s finance secretary said that federal cuts would be too big of a problem for the executive branch to solve on its own.

By Mitch Fink

BOSTON — As they researched women’s health care for a civic action project at Frontier Regional High School in 2022, three eighth-grade students were appalled to learn that menstrual products — such as tampons and pads — can contain potentially harmful chemicals and toxins.

By COLIN A. YOUNG

More than six years in, the legal cannabis industry landscape in Massachusetts has had a chance to evolve, and a new industry report examines some of the trendlines.

By ALISON KUZNITZ

BOSTON — In the wake of last session’s clean energy development law, Gov. Maura Healey intends to pursue executive action and legislation in the new term to crack down on steep energy bills that are straining Bay Staters’ wallets.

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON – A bill pumping another $425 million into the state’s overburdened emergency family shelter system landed on Gov. Maura Healey’s desk Wednesday, more than three weeks after administration officials said they ran out of funding to pay providers for new services.

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Two years after policymakers enacted mental health care reforms designed to mitigate the problem, the share of patients experiencing long waits in Massachusetts emergency departments remains elevated, according to new state research.

By ELLA ADAMS

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted unanimously Tuesday to put its proposed competency determination regulations out for public comment, and solicit comment about a second potential pathway to graduation that could still feature use of the MCAS exams.

By CHINANU OKOLI

Applications are rolling in for the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources’ new Farm Transfer Planning Assistance initiative that connects aging farmers and their successors with experienced planners to set retirement goals and figure out how management and assets will be transferred.

By ALEXA LEWIS

NORTHAMPTON — Commemorating the third anniversary of the war in Ukraine, a handful of activists with Massachusetts Peace Action stood outside U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern’s Northampton office on Monday afternoon to demand peace negotiations. This standout mirrored another held by the organization at the same time in Boston.

By ALISON KUZNITZ

BOSTON — Bay Staters struggling to afford hefty energy bills this winter could soon see modest relief, after state regulators instructed utility companies to slash costs.

By ANTHONY CAMMALLERI

The Cannabis Control Commission (CCC), the state’s regulatory body for marijuana products, said it will continue to raise its standards for testing after cannabis contaminated with mold and mildew was reported in more than 20 dispensaries, including those in Greenfield, Montague, Winchendon and Easthampton.

By CHRIS LISINSKI

The Healey administration moved to overhaul the way vocational and technical schools admit students after years of criticism that the system excludes applicants from certain backgrounds, but some advocates who sought the changes are concerned the proposal will lead to “the same discriminatory selection pattern.”

By MICHAEL P. NORTON

Private sector efforts to seek and support diverse, equitable, inclusive and accessible workplaces are not illegal, a coalition of state attorneys general said Thursday, and the federal government can’t prohibit such efforts in the private sector through executive order.

By SCOTT MERZBACH

Over the course of two hours Monday, legislators sitting on the Special Commission on Combating Antisemitism presented numerous pro-Palestinian exhibits — resources that educators might use in their classroom — drawn from a members-only section of the Massachusetts Teachers Association website.

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey is proposing to limit spending on a rapidly growing home care program that is popular among the state’s expanding senior population but has become one of the state’s most expensive budget items.

By ALISON KUZNITZ

With the House gearing up for a potential legal battle over Question 1, Auditor Diana DiZoglio is trying to attach new urgency to her monthslong request that Attorney General Andrea Campbell intervene or allow her to seek outside counsel.

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — As nonprofits across Massachusetts face uncertainty over the future of federal funding, some are also expressing concern over a proposal from Gov. Maura Healey that they fear could further strain their budgets.

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Accessory dwelling units are now allowed by right in single-family zoning districts across most of Massachusetts, under a law Gov. Maura Healey signed in August. The rule went into effect on Sunday.