The acting education commissioner’s recommendation to allow KIPP Lynn to add 450 seats represents selective enforcement of the long-standing and clear regulations governing charter school expansion in the Commonwealth.
State Government
Posted inHousing
Vacation home trends add to Massachusetts housing crunch
A new statewide housing assessments finds almost half of all vacant homes are being reserved for seasonal or part-time use, worsening an “existential crisis” for small tourism-centered towns.
Posted inOpinion
Thieves are stealing $1 million a month from Mass. SNAP recipients — and there is an easy fix to stop it
Every month in Massachusetts, tech-savvy thieves wipe out roughly 1,700 low-income families’ Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. We can easily fix this.
Posted inHousing
Compassion and costs collide in shelter debate
State leaders continued to struggle this week to balance the commitment to sheltering homeless families with fiscal concerns about runaway costs.Â
Posted inState Government
Redacted filing sheds some light on O’Brien firing
A REDACTED COPY of Treasurer Deborah Goldberg’s decision to fire Shannon O’Brien as chair of the Cannabis Control Commission was filed in court this week, but the treasurer is asking a skeptical judge to keep troves of other information related to the long-running saga out of public view. Goldberg fired O’Brien in September 2024 after considering about […]
Posted inOpinion
The case for more Black lobbyists
Massachusetts has elected a Black governor, a Black attorney general, Black state senators and state representatives. There are Black heads of departments and secretariats. But there are virtually no Black lobbyists on Beacon Hill.
Posted inEconomy
AG Campbell: Medical research change could ‘undermine our economy’
Attorney General Andrea Campbell and nearly two dozen of her peers sued the Trump administration and federal health care agencies Monday, alleging that they unlawfully moved to cut crucial federal dollars for research.
Posted inPolitics
Healey plans to seek reelection in 2026
“And I feel like we’ve done all those things, and there’s a heck of a lot more to do. And so I plan to run for reelection, because there’s a lot more to do.”
Posted inOpinion
Small businesses should not pay for Massachusetts’s $2.1 billion unemployment insurance mistake
The real question is, will state elected officials return to their default settings by expecting job creators to shoulder the burden through higher taxes, or will they learn from past UI missteps and seek meaningful reforms?
Posted inState Government
House Dems restrict shelter eligibility in $425 million bill
Th bill adopts the administration’s recommendation around so-called presumptive eligibility by allowing the state to verify eligibility for shelter benefits during the application process.