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By Credit search: State House News Service

By Sam Drysdale

BOSTON — Lawmakers tasked with negotiating details of a major firearms bill left their work open to the public last week — a move that broke from opaque traditions on Beacon Hill. A week later, those negotiators moved to close their meetings to the...

By Chris Lisinski

BOSTON — Did anyone really expect Auditor Diana DiZoglio’s pitch to lawmakers about why she should be able to audit them to be dull?A cart overflowing with stacks of old books, no-holds-barred warnings about government overreach, and personal feuds...

By Sam Drysdale

HOLYOKE — Almost a decade after the state took control of Holyoke Public Schools through the controversial and rarely used receivership model, the district is now on the path back to local control.The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education...

By Alison Kuznitz

BOSTON — With funding for “vital” human services and early education programs running low, Gov. Maura Healey filed a nearly $535 million supplemental budget Monday afternoon to address the shortfalls and to shore up funding for safety-net...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — More Massachusetts families would become eligible for subsidized child care and “transformational” grants that kept the early education system afloat during the pandemic would be made permanent, under a bill the Senate unanimously passed late...

By Michael P. Norton

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey is adding to state government’s energy bureaucracy with a new Office of the Energy Transformation that the administration says will execute a “community-by-community decarbonization strategy.” Massachusetts has been...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — A Labor Advisory Council will be created to advise Gov. Maura Healey on matters related to organized labor, under an executive order the governor signed Tuesday.Healey also announced Roger Brunelle, former vice president of the Massachusetts...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Despite a tightening state budget picture, the Senate this week plans to take up a pricey early education and child care bill aimed at expanding access to education for the state’s youngest learners and making it more affordable for families,...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Over more than three hours of discussion about a proposal to stop using MCAS exam scores as a high school graduation requirement, lawmakers kept returning to one specific question: If the ballot measure were passed, how would Massachusetts...

By Sam Doran

By Sam Doran The Governor’s Council on Wednesday confirmed Supreme Judicial Court nominee Gabrielle Wolohojian, approving Gov. Maura Healey’s second appointee to the state’s highest court. The council voted 6-1 to confirm the nomination, with...

By Chris Lisinski

BOSTON — Two more high-profile ballot questions could soon face the state’s highest court after opponents challenged the eligibility of measures seeking to eliminate the separate tipped minimum wage and to allow Uber and Lyft drivers to unionize.A...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Massachusetts voters may get the chance to cast ballots to legalize access to some psychedelic substances this fall. And though advocates say the Oregon psilocybin therapy program that would be used as a model for Massachusetts is beneficial...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley plans to step down on March 15 after six years leading Massachusetts’ K-12 school system, according to a letter he sent to the state’s education board on Thursday.Riley plans to...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

Immigrants who settle and find work in Massachusetts provide “a direct economic benefit to the region in which they are working in both the value of work produced and in added local spending power,” according to a new report that lands as...

By Alison Kuznitz

BOSTON — Nearly 130 years after abolitionist, orator and newspaper publisher Frederick Douglass addressed state lawmakers, the Senate plans to unveil a bust in the branch’s chamber honoring his legacy during a ceremony this week.An empty pedestal...

By Sam Drysdale

BOSTON — Following a presentation on reforming education to embrace artificial intelligence, build more flexibility into the school day, and fundamentally rethink how and where students learn, the state’s K-12 education commissioner agreed that...

By Chris Lisinski

BOSTON — Pitching it as “the best way to honor” military members who died in the line of duty, Gov. Maura Healey and the state’s top veteran services official urged lawmakers this week to overhaul a wide range of services and benefits for Bay State...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — The Healey administration wants to tap new revenue sources and keep spending growth somewhat constrained in a $58.15 billion state budget that officials pitched as putting Massachusetts on a “glide path” toward potentially better financial...

By Alison Kuznitz

BOSTON — Days before unveiling her fiscal 2025 budget plan and with state tax collections weakening, Gov. Maura Healey unveiled her plans to boost state aid to cities and towns and give municipalities the ability to raise certain taxes.The tax plan...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey will press for major investments into the long-strained early education and care sector despite her administration’s muted forecast for state finances, pitching the spending as an economic and competitive necessity.Healey on...