STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE DESPITE SIGNS that the state’s finances have not completely cratered during the pandemic, the Senate’s top budget official said this week he anticipates tax collections in fiscal 2021 to be down $5 billion from last year, and said lawmakers will need to dip “deeply” into the state’s $3.5 billion “rainy day” […]
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Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
State begins targeting COVID-19 spread in 33 communities
A CLUSTER of working-class cities remain the most hard-hit by COVID-19 in Massachusetts, as Gov. Charlie Baker on Tuesday announced new state assistance for virus hotspots. Although state officials have for months been releasing community-level information on COVID-19 spread, Baker on Tuesday announced a new effort with enhanced data to identify municipalities with particularly high […]
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Frustrated Globe union to protest at Fenway
THE UNION REPRESENTING Boston Globe editorial workers, which has accused management of employing “hardball” union-busting tactics, is coming inside with a high hard one of its own. Members of the Globe union are taking a contract battle to owner John Henry’s other marquee property with a protest Sunday outside Fenway Park. The protest coincides with support from fellow Henry employees who will be at work Sunday afternoon inside the ballpark, as the Major League Baseball Players […]
Posted inOpinion
Minimum guaranteed income = solution to poverty
IN THE WEEKS leading up to his assassination in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. launched a new chapter of his work, referred to as the “Poor People’s Campaign.” This campaign illuminated the relationship between racism and economic injustice and advanced a vision of eliminating poverty for Americans of all races. This work sought synergies […]
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Amendment creating state journalism commission passes
AN AMENDMENT CALLING for a study of the rapidly shrinking landscape of local news in Massachusetts passed the House Tuesday night as part of an economic development bill and now heads to the Senate for action. The amendment, patterned after a bill filed by Rep. Lori Ehrlich of Marblehead, would create the Commission to Study Journalism […]
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Lawmakers keep options open for this fall
LAWMAKERS ON TUESDAY released a three-month interim budget to keep the state running through October, and acknowledged that they will have to take the highly unusual step of returning to formal sessions in late 2020 to pass a full-year budget. “We certainly are going to have to come back at some time to put to […]
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As local news withers, we’re losing sense of identity
WHEN RICK HOLMES RETIRED as the opinion editor at the MetroWest Daily News in 2017, he was worried about the decline in journalism and what it would mean for local communities. CommonWealth Magazine · As local news withers, we’re losing sense of identity “The local paper introduces us to our neighbors. It’s a mirror, through which […]
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Legislature’s regular timetable may not be viable this year
THE TIME NEEDED to process legislation on Beacon Hill is running short – or is it? The typical end date for the legislative session is July 31, a week from Friday. Normally lawmakers end the session and head home to their districts to run for reelection. But this year may be different. Between the massive health […]
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Craft brewers, wholesalers strike distribution deal
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE CRAFT BREWERS AND the state’s beer wholesalers have reached a deal that would resolve a decade-long dispute over distribution rights centered around when a brewer can sever ties with their distributor, paving the way for the state’s smaller beer brands to free themselves from relationships that they feel are inhibiting their growth. […]
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Veterans tell Baker: Listen to us
A DAY AFTER independent investigator Mark Pearlstein released his scathing report on what went wrong with the coronavirus outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, Gov. Charlie Baker released a bill that would implement several reforms recommended by the report. These include things like hiring a health care leader to advise the secretary of veterans’ services, changing the composition […]