STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE State education officials on Tuesday approved a major change to the way the state evaluates the performance of school districts, drawing the ire of charter school advocates who argued the new formula will limit school choices for low-income families in a handful of cities. As the Legislature grapples over whether to […]
Matt Murphy
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
DeLeo, Murray call on Roche to resign
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE As House Speaker Robert DeLeo and Senate President Therese Murray called for the immediate resignation of Department of Children and Families Commissioner Olga Roche on Monday, Gov. Deval Patrick expressed his own lack of confidence in the agency after two new child deaths were reported over the weekend. The situation, which […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service
Lawmakers want charters, regular schools in same boat
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Two key Democratic lawmakers on Monday promoted a plan brokered over the weekend and designed to resolve the impasse over legislation that would trigger an expansion of charter schools in low-performing districts. With a deadline approaching, the deal’s fate was far from certain. With the Education Committee planning to meet Tuesday […]
Posted inEnvironment, State House News Service
Solar backers push to lift subsidy cap
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Solar energy proponents urged a legislative panel on Tuesday to remove a barrier to renewable energy production by lifting the state’s cap on the amount of energy that can be sold back to the grid by public and private customers with their own renewable energy systems. Municipal leaders, solar advocates, and […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
SJC chief Ireland stepping down in July
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Roderick Ireland plans to step down in July, giving Gov. Deval Patrick several months to secure a successor atop the high court before the governor leaves office at the end of the year. Ireland is set to turn 70 – the mandatory retirement age for judges […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics, State House News Service
Baker: ACA driving health consolidation
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker on Monday credited the trend toward consolidation and mergers in the health care marketplace to the enormous regulatory changes being imposed on the industry by the Affordable Care Act, and warned that Massachusetts doctors and hospitals would be hit harder than their counterparts in most states […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics, State House News Service
Gun group critical of report for DeLeo
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE The state’s largest gun owners group released a critique on Tuesday of a task force’s recommendations to reduce gun violence, concluding that experts appointed by House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who characterized the state’s gun laws as among the strongest in the nation, failed to recognize the inability of those laws to […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Economy, Politics, State House News Service
DeLeo rules out new taxes, fees
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE House Speaker Robert DeLeo on Wednesday ruled out any new taxes or fees in the budget his deputies will produce this spring, essentially nixing Gov. Deval Patrick’s call to extend the sales tax to candy and soda. “We will pass a balanced budget that takes care of those in need while […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Henriquez, in cuffs, testifies at State House
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE With his lawyer asserting his innocence and suggesting the all-white jury that convicted him was not a “jury of his peers,” incarcerated state Rep. Carlos Henriquez was hauled in handcuffs back to the State House on Friday as the House Ethics Committee considers disciplinary action against the Dorchester Democrat. In an […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Rep. Reinstein resigning to take beer firm job
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE After 15 years in the House, Rep. Kathi-Anne Reinstein plans to resign from the Legislature this month to take a job with the Boston Beer Company, a move that opens up a top slot on House Speaker Robert DeLeo’s leadership team. A Revere Democrat, Reinstein was an early backer of DeLeo’s […]