STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE MASSACHUSETTS NEEDS to shift from an era of statewide planning for climate policy to the key details of implementing it, according to a new report from the state’s top climate official, which includes sweeping recommendations to accelerate the state’s progress toward its emissions reduction goals. Climate Chief Melissa Hoffer recommends some […]
State House News Service
Posted inTransportation
MBTA bus network redesign put off until end of 2024
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AFTER PAUSING the campaign due to a shortage of drivers, MBTA officials are hopeful they can revive an effort to overhaul and expand the bus network by the end of next year. Justin Antos, the MBTA’s senior director of bus transformation, said Tuesday the project that aims to boost bus service […]
Posted inTechnology
State questions need for 1,687 new parking spaces at Encore
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE JUST LIKE COMMUTERS on nearby Interstate 93, the planned expansion of the Encore Boston Harbor casino in Everett is being held up by traffic. The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs this week declined to approve the project’s environmental impact report. Instead, the state ordered the casino company to submit an […]
Posted inEnvironment
First Vineyard Wind turbine installed
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE ONE DOWN, 61 to go. The Avangrid and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners joint venture announced Wednesday that the installation of the first of 62 turbine generators that will make up the Vineyard Wind 1 offshore wind project has been completed about 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard, but project officials also backed […]
Posted inImmigration, State House News Service
Lt. Gov. says state running out of shelter room
MASSACHUSETTS IS GOING to run out of places to shelter newly arriving immigrants and other families without housing “very, very soon,” leaving the one state in the country that has a legal obligation to shelter unhoused families in a position where “there is not going to be literally any room at the inn,” Lt. Gov. […]
Posted inTransportation
MBTA says all GLX slow zones are eliminated
THE MBTA reported on Wednesday that all of the slow zones on the Green Line extension have been removed – good news that was surprisingly buried in a MassDOT press release about repairs being completed early on the Squires Bridge in Somerville. The T has taken a lot of heat for 3 mile-per-hour slow zones […]
Posted inGuns
Gun legislation finally gets public hearing
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE BAY STATERS OF ALL STRIPES finally got the chance Tuesday to tell a panel of state representatives how they feel about a proposed overhaul of the state’s gun laws, and they poured out hours of impassioned commentary that sets the stage for a contentious House vote. Gun control and gun safety […]
Posted inMedia, State House News Service
Dumcius joining CommonWealth staff
GINTAUTAS DUMCIUS, who has spent nearly 20 years reporting on Boston and state politics, as well as neighborhood development and the courts, is joining the staff of CommonWealth. His hiring is part of a planned expansion and makeover of the nonprofit news organization.Dumcius most recently served as the Dorchester Reporter’s managing editor, and before that, […]
Posted inHealth Care
House OKs pay range disclosure bill
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MASSACHUSETTS Legislature unanimously passed a law in 2016 to address the yawning gap between the wages paid to men and women doing the same work, a law that Rep. Christine Barber on Wednesday called “one of the strongest pay equity laws in the country.” But as she made the case […]
