STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE VINEYARD WIND ON Monday vowed that it will move forward with its $2.8 billion, 84-turbine wind farm project despite a new delay caused by the federal government, though the project will take shape on a new, yet-to-be-determined timeline. The US Department of the Interior and Bureau of Ocean Energy Management on […]
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Union charges Globe with unfair labor practice
THE UNION REPRESENTING Boston Globe employees filed an unfair labor practice complaint against the company on Tuesday, alleging management and its attorneys are using “strong-arm tactics” to force draconian concessions from workers. More than 60 members of the union walked out during lunchtime Tuesday at the Globe’s headquarters in downtown Boston and at the paper’s production facility […]
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Bill would hit Netflix, Hulu with fees
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE AS MORE AND MORE Massachusetts residents cut the cord and turn to streaming video services instead of cable TV, a Dedham representative has filed a bill to charge a fee on streaming services like Netflix and Hulu that would be split between the state, cities and towns, and local access cable […]
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Cutting against the grain
ORDINARILY, THE FEDERAL RESERVE doesn’t cut interest rates when the economy is going gangbusters, but that’s what happened yesterday. The cut, which brings the rate to between 2 and 2.25 percent, was the first since 2008 when the central bank repeatedly dropped it from 3.5 percent to near zero in an attempt to boost lending in […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Lawmakers hike assessment on utilities 50%
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE THOUGH LAWMAKER LEFT a handful of proposed taxes on the cutting room floor when they compromised on a budget, the fiscal year 2020 spending plan being reviewed by Gov. Charlie Baker includes a 50 percent increase in the annual assessment imposed upon gas and electric utility companies. The assessment of a […]
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Journalists describe low pay, long hours
TURNING DOWN a $28,000 a year job. Taking the $28,000 a year job but working a second job on top of it. Working 70 hour weeks as the sole staffer of a weekly paper. Not knowing what to tell students about where to look for jobs as they prepare to graduate. Important town meetings going […]
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Could Warren-Castro be the ticket?
You have to wonder if Warren-Castro could be the ticket to Democrats unseating President Donald Trump in 2020. In a very crowded debate of 10 Democratic candidates, Sen. Elizabeth Warren got the chance to bookend the night during opening and closing statements, with her standard policy-laden plans sprinkled in between. As the top polling candidate […]
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Lawmakers: News business needs state help
SEN. BRENDAN CRIGHTON OF LYNN is so worried about the state’s shrinking local news coverage that he is pushing legislation to create a commission that would quantify the problem and come up with ways to address it. It’s a tall order at a time when the news industry is going through very tough times. It’s also a move […]
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GateHouse keeps cutting
LOCAL JOURNALISM Is a field full of landmines. One day a reporter could have a job, and the next day he or she is laid off. Possibly even worse, the reporter could be left as the sole staffer to put out an entire paper, which is what happened to Bill Shaner, a columnist for Worcester […]
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Weymouth gas compressor permit based on incomplete data
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE LAST YEAR, the Department of Environmental Protection sent air samples from the site of a proposed natural gas compressor station to a private laboratory and asked scientists to test for the presence of 64 different potential toxins. What they initially got back — and what was used to perform a health […]