“It’s a very difficult sell to make to anybody that the Legislature and governor shouldn’t be subject to the public records law,” said Jonathan Cohn, policy director of Progressive Massachusetts. “Straightforward good government questions will always resonate with voters.”

The attorney general called for the Legislature to strengthen remedies for survivors of childhood sexual abuse and revealed that she is a survivor of childhood sexual abuse.

Healey’s ability to evade the bulk of the blame with voters for high energy costs is notable as she seeks reelection this fall, given how energy issues have proven stubborn, dogging much of her first term.

For all of the sound and fury legislative leaders have raised, voter support for the audit law has not budged in two years.

Price controls do not eliminate costs. They change incentives, reducing the expected return from developing medicines.

Elizabeth Dionne appeared on GBH Radio on Tuesday and detailed how she sees the state Treasury addressing "affordability via local aid."

What gets tested gets taught. Media literacy isn't tested in Massachusetts, so it isn't taught.

A new MassINC Polling Group survey finds that Bay Staters are still concerned about Gov. Maura Healey’s response to affordability concerns, even as she appears poised to win reelection with relative ease.

The CommonWealth Beacon survey asked voters to name their top issues at the ballot box in their own words. When the polling group reviewed those answers, guns and marijuana were the only ballot questions people cited as reasons to get out and vote.

Fire Station 9, which covers a portion of the city's North End neighborhood, had been billed for closure this fall as part of a round of city layoffs and program cuts intended to resolve what Mayor Jon Mitchell has said is a $32 million budget deficit for the city.

In 2015, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found that white households in Boston had a median wealth of $247,500, while Black households had a median wealth of close to $0. That was more than ten years ago. Now, the Boston Fed has released a new report examining the wealth gap across Massachusetts. Have things improved? What trends do we see in the new report? And how has the ongoing affordability crisis affected wealth disparities?

Rooftop solar should be compensated for the savings it provides the system — the avoided generation, the deferred upgrades, the peak demand it shaves — no more, and no less.

The state gas tax is the price we pay to ensure that we have safe and reliable ways to get where we need to go, with sufficient funding to build, operate, and maintain the essential transportation infrastructure we all depend upon.  

Shutdowns of complete sections of train lines have become the norm in recent years, as the MBTA officials looks to speed up repairs.

Under the version of the state gun law in place at the time, as well as the sweeping 2024 gun law that retooled many of the state’s firearms laws, local licensing officials like police chiefs can consider a broad range of evidence to determine whether someone is suitable to be granted a license to carry.

As cost-of-living pressures bearing down on Massachusetts residents become painfully obvious, the state's gubernatorial candidates are centering affordability in their 2026 campaigns.

The part of the plan that’s arguably generating the most blowback is the process the MWRA is deploying to win approval from state officials. 

Open up the primaries to every voter, every qualified candidate, and we get more competition, higher turnout, and better results.

Cities like Worcester — where the poverty rate is twice as high as the state’s — may have trouble getting people to the polls this November. The state’s most disadvantaged and diverse urban communities often have some of the lowest voter turnout rates. In the last midterm election year, nine of the 10 municipalities with the lowest voter turnout were Gateway Cities.

There’s still time for White Stadium project planners to deliver on the principles of EJ Community Engagement and Outreach – improved levels of trust, transparency, and stronger pathways for ongoing collaboration.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Minogue last week launched an ad saying he would suspend the gas tax "until prices stabilize."

The auditor’s report unveils how even before the agency was thrust into turmoil with record-breaking poor performance during a time of a relatively stable job market, out-of-work Massachusetts residents weren’t receiving the help they needed in a timely fashion.

People who are finishing their education are almost twice as likely to consider leaving Massachusetts in the next five years, quantifying a dynamic many have long suspected in a state that welcomes crowds of college students every year.

The total number of job losses in the last two months – about 11,100 – almost matches the jobs gained since September.

Organized labor has been out in force on ballot measures — recently literally trying to secure bargaining power through the ballot — and that means manpower, mobilization, and money funneling toward a set of policy measures that the Legislature has waved away. This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith looks at unions and direct democracy with two guests. Nick Juravich, associate professor of history and labor studies and associate director of the Labor Resource Center at UMass Boston, breaks down where we sit in the history of unions and ballot efforts. Then Chrissy Lynch, head of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, explains how the unions themselves pick their targets.