STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH HIS TEMPORARY BAN on vaping product sales set to end next week when public health officials adopt a new set of vaping rules, Gov. Charlie Baker this week expressed some surprise that other states did not follow his lead amid an outbreak of vaping-related illnesses. After Baker spoke Thursday at […]
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Say goodbye to flavored tobacco products
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE MASSACHUSETTS ON WEDNESDAY became the first state in the country to prohibit retail sales of all flavored tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes. Gov. Charlie Baker also announced that the state’s temporary ban on vaping product sales will now end on Dec. 11, when public health officials are set to adopt a […]
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DiMasi: ‘I’ve paid my debt to society’
FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER Salvatore DiMasi on Tuesday made a public appeal for a “second chance” after his conviction on federal corruption charges eight years ago, resuming his battle with Secretary of State William Galvin over the Democrat’s quest to return to Beacon Hill as a lobbyist. DiMasi, a former North End Democrat who led the […]
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Margaret Low hired for WBUR’s top spot
BELMONT NATIVE Margaret Low is getting quite a homecoming —a job heading Boston public radio powerhouse WBUR-FM. Her role as the outlet’s general manager and chief executive officer begins January 13. She spent more than three decades at NPR, starting out as an overnight production assistant on “Morning Edition,” making $16,000 a year and ending her tenure in 2014 as senior vice president of […]
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House bans flavored vaping and tobacco products
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MASSACHUSETTS HOUSE voted Wednesday to ban the sale of flavored vaping and tobacco products — including mint and menthol cigarettes — and to impose an excise tax on e-cigarettes. Rep. Danielle Gregoire, a main proponent of flavor ban legislation, said the vote marked “a chance to put an unprecedented nail […]
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It’s time to pass the Healthy Youth Act
IN 1992, responding to high rates of suicide attempts among gay and lesbian youth and reports of pervasive anti-gay bullying in schools, Gov. William Weld created the first-in-the-nation Governor’s Commission on Gay and Lesbian Youth, which is now known as the Massachusetts Commission on LGBTQ Youth. The commission held hearings around the state at which […]
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Rivera pushes ‘zombie property’ legislation
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE EVERY CITY IN MASSACHUSETTS has one or two, and in Lawrence, there are hundreds, Mayor Daniel Rivera said Thursday: vacant properties that aren’t being developed, because their owners are tied up in land court or the ownership is otherwise unclear. “They’re either zombie properties or in bureaucratic no-man’s land, where people […]
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Judge allows Baker vaping ban to continue
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE IN A RULING critical of how Gov. Charlie Baker went about banning the sale of all vaping products for four months, a Superior Court judge on Monday allowed the administration’s full ban to stay in effect, but only until next week unless changes are made. The ruling left the governor’s ban […]
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Pot store’s flower cupboard is bare
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THE MARIJUANA STORE closest to Boston is out of marijuana flower for non-medical customers while it waits to get test results back from labs that must approve all marijuana before it’s sold in Massachusetts. New England Treatment Access, which has locations in Brookline and Northampton, listed four strains of marijuana on […]
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Baker: State workers should pay leave costs
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE WITH A NEW TAX to fund the state’s paid family and medical leave program set to take effect Tuesday, Gov. Charlie Baker rejected calls by the state’s largest public union to relieve state employees of the obligation to pay into the system. The National Association of Government Employees, which has more […]