WITH LESS THAN a month before a new governor takes over, the MassDevelopment board of directors approved a long-term contract extension for Daniel Rivera, the authority’s president and chief executive officer. A spokesman for the authority confirmed the board on Wednesday extended the contract of Rivera until June 30, 2026, and said the vote was unanimous. […]
Government
Posted inCriminal Justice
Baker issues three more pardons
AFTER FAILING TO issue a single pardon or commutation in his first seven years in office, Gov. Charlie Baker continued to use his final months in office to wield his pardon power. Baker on Wednesday recommended three more pardons, building on the eight pardons he issued in October and seven in November. He also commuted […]
Posted inState Government, State House News Service
Healey’s office approves Nantucket topless beach bylaw
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE ATTORNEY GENERAL Maura Healey’s office has approved a bylaw that allows anyone to go topless on any public or private beach on Nantucket. Island voters approved the bylaw during a Town Meeting held in May. The citizen petition offered by Dorothy Stover, formally labeled “Gender Equality On Beaches” and proposed as […]
Posted inEducation
Foster care mentoring turns into 20-year relationship
MIKE SMITH was 5 years old when he met Justin Pasquariello and Vanessa Fazio. Pasquariello, then 22, had started a Boston-based mentoring program for kids in foster care, and Fazio was a college intern there. Smith, who was living in Dorchester, had been in foster care since he was three. Smith remembers Pasquariello taking him to […]
Posted inState Government, State House News Service
State pension board looking to rebound
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE OFFICIALS AT THE STATE pension fund expect economic cycles and market downturns will periodically affect their investments and the quarter that ended in September “was one of those periods, unfortunately,” the head of MassPRIM said as the agency also confirmed that it has connections to the failed cryptocurrency firm FTX. The […]
Posted inPolitics
Race heating up for Mass. GOP chair
AFTER THE CLOBBERING taken by Massachusetts Republicans in the 2022 election, as many as three candidates could be posing challenges to state Republican Party chairman Jim Lyons. The January election will be a debate over how to rebuild the party, which has been sharply divided between factions loyal to moderate GOP Gov. Charlie Baker and […]
Posted inEducation
Hints of Healey education plans
IT HAS FAST become the parlor game of choice among political and policy prognosticators: Exactly what will incoming Gov. Maura Healey do once she grabs the reins of power in January? The former standout point guard never broke a sweat on her way to a layup landslide election, a race so one-sided that she was […]
Posted inOpinion
Getting our state parks back on track
On October 14, Massachusetts Conservation Voters convened a state virtual parks summit attended by more than 20 environmental organizations from across the Commonwealth. This open letter, signed by more than 50 organizations, is the result. MASSACHUSETTS STATE PARKS are in crisis. More than a decade of funding and staffing cuts have eviscerated the Department of Conservation […]
Posted inTransportation
Regional transit authorities offer free bus service for holidays
THE PUSH TO lower or eliminate public transit fares is getting a holiday boost from the state, which has unwrapped a $2.5 grant that is allowing all 15 regional transit authorities across Massachusetts to offer fare-free bus service for the rest of the year. The free-ride initiative, which is being billed as “Try Transit,” begins […]
Posted inPolitics
Healey announces transition committee chairs
GOV.-ELECT MAURA HEALEY, whose campaign often addressed issues more with broad brushstrokes than detailed policy prescriptions, announced six transition policy committees on Friday that will be tasked with “translating the campaign’s vision into plans.” The committees will be led by 15 co-chairs, including several well-known names from the worlds of education, business, and environmental policy. […]