STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE ALTHOUGH REGULATORS PLAN to keep a watchful eye, the path was cleared Thursday at the state and federal levels for a mega-merger that would create the Beth Israel Lahey Health System, which will represent the state’s second-largest care network, behind Partners HealthCare. Attorney General Maura Healey on Thursday announced the conditions that will […]
Michael P. Norton I State House News Service
Posted inEconomy
Union to offer Grid a counterproposal
STATE HOUSE NEWS NATIONAL GRID and representatives of its more than 1,200 locked-out gas workers plan to meet for more contract talks on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. “The union has a comprehensive counterproposal that we think will address the company’s concerns and the union’s concerns,” United Steel Workers Local 12012 president John Buonopane said […]
Posted inPolitics
New Dem electeds talk race — and racism
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE MASSACHUSETTS DEMOCRATS, who won race after race in Tuesday’s elections, appear to have a some racial tensions within their party. In a televised interview that aired Friday night on WGBH, Suffolk County District Attorney-elect Rachael Rollins and state representatives-elect Nika Elugardo and Liz Miranda, all of Boston, pledged to be forceful […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
DPU puts Natl. Grid on notice after incident
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AFTER FIELDING DOZENS of safety complaints filed in recent weeks by locked-out National Grid workers, state officials on Monday announced that a natural gas pressurization incident in Woburn had spurred them to impose a moratorium on all non-emergency and non-compliance work across the utility’s service territory. In a statement, an Executive […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Slow pot rollout costing state tax revenue
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE SAYING MASSACHUSETTS HAS missed out on $16 million in marijuana taxes, officials behind the 2016 legal marijuana ballot question on Monday pointed to staffing levels and bureaucracy at the Cannabis Control Commission as potential reasons for the slow rollout of retail sales in Massachusetts. “The Cannabis Control Commission needs to pick […]
Posted inHealth Care
Health commission seeks ‘guardrails’ on merger
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AN APPREHENSIVE HEALTH POLICY COMMISSION voted unanimously Thursday to refer the Beth Israel-Lahey Health mega-merger to Attorney General Maura Healey and Public Health Commissioner Monica Bharel for further review, with commission members hoping enforceable “guardrails” can be put in place to mitigate their concerns that the deal will threaten access to […]
Posted inHealth Care
Health Policy Commission to analyze nurse question
UNDER PRESSURE TO EXAMINE a nurse staffing ballot question, the state Health Policy Commission on Monday announced that it plans to present findings on cost impacts of mandated staffing ratios on hospitals and non-hospital settings that employ registered nurses as well as “the Commonwealth as a whole.” A commission official disclosed Monday that the panel […]
Posted inPolitics
Trahan wins recount by 145 votes
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THIRTEEN DAYS after an election that left her with a small advantage over Dan Koh, Lori Trahan of Westford emerged as the decisive winner Monday in the Third Congressional District Democratic primary, with Koh conceding as recount totals failed to alter the initial outcome. “My deep roots in the district will […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Baker declares emergency, enlists Eversource
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Friday afternoon declared a state of emergency in the wake of a series of gas fires and explosions in the Merrimack Valley, handing over control of the response to Eversource in place of the local utility that Lawrence Mayor Dan Rivera said had been “hiding from the […]
Posted inPolitics
Healey: Baker plays it safe
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WHILE MANY DEMOCRATS hoped she would challenge Gov. Charlie Baker, Attorney General Maura Healey is going for four more years in her current job. On Friday night, her party mates rallied around her bid to stay put at One Ashburton Place, but also responded with zeal as she took a few […]