State Sen. John Keenan is hardly a rabble-rousing bomb thrower, a point that underscores how uncontroversial one might think it is to call for legislators to be given time to read bills before they come to the floor and for their votes on legislation to be recorded for their constituents and others to see.
Government
Posted inTransportation
Healey huddles with her transportation task force ahead of report’s release
The governor met with her transportation funding task force as its members convened their final session and prepared to submit a final draft of a report expected to be released in the coming days.
Posted inState Government
Mass. leaders start to lay out a 2025 legislative wish list
In a 2025 kick-off episode of The Codcast, Salem Mayor Dominick Pangallo, Brad Campbell, president of the Conservation Law Foundation, and Jessica Collins, executive director of the Public Health Institute of Western Massachusetts, untangled the crush of late-term legislation and started laying out their wish lists for the year ahead.
Posted inOpinion
Transportation funding task force nears finish line
The governor’s task force on transportation funding is scheduled to hold its final meeting with both Gov. Maura Healey and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll in attendance.
Posted inPolitics
Political Notebook: Super PACs could make a big comeback in Boston
Prior election cycles in Boston offer a possible preview of what’s to come in this year’s mayoral contest.
Posted inState Government
With new term dawning, Spilka eyes K-12 funding reform, primary care overhaul
A newly reelected Senate President Karen Spilka previewed some of her legislative priorities for the 2025-2026 session: reexamining the state’s education funding formula, pressing for primary health care delivery reform, and pushing again to expand juvenile court jurisdiction to include young adults aged 18.
Posted inHealth Care
Five threats to health care in second Trump term
Health care advocates in Massachusetts are preparing for five potential attacks on health care under a second Donald Trump administration: undermining the ACA, slashing Medicaid, threats to immigrants and their health care coverage, restrictions on reproductive and gender-focused health care, and risks to public health.
Posted inTransportation
Healey task force on transportation funding will miss its December 31 deadline
The task force Gov. Maura Healey created to propose a new funding model for transportation in Massachusetts is going to miss its end-of-2024 deadline.
Posted inImmigration
‘Eso no va a ser bonito’
Los defensores de los inmigrantes piensan que exista la posibilidad de que New Bedford será un blanco clavo en una gran lista de lugares clavos en una nueva campaña de deportación baja la nueva administración.
Posted inPolitics
Leaving Beacon Hill after 32 years, Rep. Straus looks down the road
REP. BILL STRAUS would like everyone to stop talking about commuter rail. Not the system, of course. The Mattapoisett representative, who decided not to seek reelection after holding the 10th Bristol district seat for 32 years, has spent many of those years agitating for better rail connections between the far-flung regions of Massachusetts. But the […]