STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE LANDLORDS AND PROPERTY owners will be barred from seeking to evict tenants in Boston under a new city-level moratorium acting Mayor Kim Janey announced Tuesday afternoon. Five days after the US Supreme Court struck down the Centers for Disease Control’s eviction moratorium and under pressure from rival candidates for mayor, Janey […]
COVID-19
Posted inEducation
Early ed commissioner seeks childcare mask mandates
A WEEK AFTER state education officials approved a temporary mask mandate in public schools, a separate state board will be asked to approve a mask mandate for staff and children over age five in early education settings. Early Education and Care Commissioner Samantha Aigner-Treworgy announced that she will ask the Board of Early Education and Care at a […]
Posted inEconomy
Reckoning coming as fed unemployment benefits ending
MORE THAN 300,000 Massachusetts residents will lose federal unemployment insurance benefits at the end of this week, and no one is sure what that will mean for them or the state. The federal government is pulling the plug on the benefits, which include an extra $300 a week, extra weeks, and a special program for […]
Posted inOpinion
Mass. should require vaccination for all teachers and eligible students
LOCAL BOARDS OF HEALTH, school committees, and municipal leaders are struggling to navigate through the challenges of assuring that all eligible school children and teachers are vaccinated. Increased urgency around the need for vaccination follows from the alarming turn the pandemic has taken. The highly contagious Delta variant has very rapidly become the dominant strain […]
Posted inThe Download
Unclear whether VaxMillions increased vaccinations
State officials are trying to spin the VaxMillions Giveaway as a success, but it’s very hard to say whether the lottery game actually did what it was intended to do – prod more people to get vaccinated. The Baker administration points out that between the time the game was announced on June 15 through the […]
Posted inUncategorized
Unclear whether VaxMillions increased vaccinations
STATE OFFICIALS are trying to spin the VaxMillions Giveaway as a success, but it’s very hard to say whether the lottery game actually did what it was intended to do – prod more people to get vaccinated. The Baker administration points out that between the time the game was announced on June 15 through the […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Spilka lays out vaccine mandate
STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE STATE SENATORS Â and Senate employees will need to show proof they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by October 15, a new requirement Senate President Karen Spilka laid out Tuesday. Spilka told senators and staff in a late afternoon email that the mandate is based on a recommendation of the Senate’s Reopening […]
Posted inThe Download
Battling over religion and vaccines
With the rise of the Delta variant of COVID-19, the vaccination strategy in Massachusetts is shifting from cajoling, pleading, and incentivizing (gift cards, free coffees, and lottery prizes) to more explicit forms of pressure. Politicians of all stripes, even laissez-faire Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, are embracing vaccine mandates for public employees and encouraging private employers […]
Posted inUncategorized
Battling over religion and vaccines
WITH THE RISE of the Delta variant of COVID-19, the vaccination strategy in Massachusetts is shifting from cajoling, pleading, and incentivizing (gift cards, free coffees, and lottery prizes) to more explicit forms of pressure. Politicians of all stripes, even laissez-faire Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, are embracing vaccine mandates for public employees and encouraging private employers […]
Posted inOpinion
Abolish the vaccine religious exemption
VACCINES SAVE LIVES. Never has this been more evident than in the last year. Since the spring of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has claimed more than 15,000 lives in Massachusetts alone and is a leading cause of death in the United States. With the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines in Massachusetts, we have seen our […]