THE MASSACHUSETTS prison system has long faced criticism for its inability to provide adequate mental health treatment to incarcerated people. A mental health bill that Gov. Charlie Baker signed into law this summer aimed to improve the situation by giving inmates in crisis the opportunity to transfer to a mental health treatment facility. However, advocates […]
Shira Schoenberg
Shira Schoenberg is a reporter at CommonWealth magazine. Shira previously worked for more than seven years at the Springfield Republican/MassLive.com where she covered state politics and elections, covering topics as diverse as the launch of the legal marijuana industry, problems with the state's foster care system and the elections of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Gov. Charlie Baker. Shira won the Massachusetts Bar Association's 2018 award for Excellence in Legal Journalism and has had several stories win awards from the New England Newspaper and Press Association. Shira covered the 2012 New Hampshire presidential primary for the Boston Globe. Before that, she worked for the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, where she wrote about state government, City Hall and Barack Obama's 2008 New Hampshire primary campaign. Shira holds a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
Posted inMarijuana
Worker dies at Holyoke cannabis cultivation facility
LORNA MCMURREY, a 27-year-old West Springfield woman, died in January after a shift working at a Holyoke cannabis cultivation facility. The company, Trulieve, was fined $35,200 by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which found that McMurrey could not breathe after inhaling ground cannabis dust. McMurrey’s mother, Laura Bruneau, said she is considering filing a […]
Posted inPolitics, State Government
Business versus business in millionaire’s tax fight?
THE BATTLE LINES in the debate over passing the so-called millionaire’s tax have generally pitted organized labor, which supports the tax hike, against organized business groups, which oppose it. But now, proponents of the question are trying to muddy that narrative and argue that they have businesses on their side, too. A constitutional amendment on […]
Posted inEducation
MCAS scores show major drop since 2019
STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT REMAINS well below where it was in 2019, indicating a steep loss in learning during the pandemic that has yet to be made up, according to statewide MCAS results released Thursday. “Compared to pre-pandemic we still have a way to go across all subject levels to fully recover learning losses,” said state Education […]
Posted inPolitics, State Government
Polito praises Driscoll’s experience – but won’t endorse
WHEN THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION created a Seaport Economic Council in 2015, chaired by Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito, one of its first appointed members was Salem Mayor Kim Driscoll. In 2019, Polito co-led a statewide Economic Development Planning Council on which Driscoll served as a member. And when Gov. Charlie Baker and Polito were pushing for […]
Posted inHealth
Medicaid waiver makes money available for housing, nutrition
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT on Wednesday approved a five-year, $67 billion agreement with the state of Massachusetts that will govern how the state administers its Medicaid program. Gov. Charlie Baker said the so-called 1115 waiver is the primary way in which Massachusetts has historically been able to implement new, innovative programs within MassHealth, including paving the […]
Posted inPolitics
Two surgeons who are moms jump into politics
UNTIL SHE STARTED a PAC to elect candidates to Congress, Dr. Anahita Dua had little exposure to the world of politics. Dua is a vascular surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she co-directs a center focused on peripheral artery disease and limb amputation, and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. The 39-year-old Newton resident, […]
Posted inGambling
Sports betting regulators confront licensing quirks
THERE’S AN ODD quirk in the law legalizing sports betting in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Gaming Commission is allowed to license seven mobile sports betting apps, in addition to mobile apps that are tied to in-person gaming facilities like casinos and racetracks. But the law also lets the commission give an unlimited number of temporary mobile […]
Posted inPolitics
Ballot question would shift profits from insurers to dentists
WHY ARE MASSACHUSETTS dentists and orthodontists spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a campaign to change the rules governing dental insurance? Evan Horowitz, executive director of the Center for State Policy Analysis at Tufts University, has the answer in a report released Thursday: money. A November ballot measure – Question 2 – would require […]
Posted inHealth, Health Care
Mass. Medical Society president says pandemic ‘ripped the Band-Aid off’ health care inequities
SINCE MASSACHUSETTS MEDICAL SOCIETY president Ted Calianos took the helm of the organization in May, he has been developing priorities that range from restoring trust in medicine to addressing workforce issues. A plastic and reconstructive surgeon who practices on Cape Cod, Calianos was born in Worcester and grew up in the Manomet village of Plymouth. He […]