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By SAM DORAN

Lawmakers say they’ve got the Department of Correction’s ear after 66 representatives and senators wrote to Gov. Maura Healey this week asking for immediate action to improve prison safety in the wake of September’s attack at the Souza-Baranowski...

By SAM DORAN

BOSTON — Paul Revere rode up Beacon Street blaring the news of rapidly approaching redcoats while Gov. Maura Healey trumpeted a message of her own, calling for Massachusetts to “show off our state over the next two years” as it prepares for center...

By SAM DORAN

The rail line stretching along the northern tier of Massachusetts to Greenfield and North Adams is a “strategic asset,” state transportation officials said in a new report this week, but the benefits of restoring passenger service in the region – with...

By SAM DORAN

LEXINGTON — Gov. Maura Healey signed off Thursday on a new veterans’ benefits law that she touted as “a big deal,” while Veterans’ Services Secretary Jon Santiago told a packed town hall that the Holyoke Veterans Home had been awarded licensure by the...

By SAM DORAN

BOSTON — Animal advocates from around the state focused their annual lobbying push Tuesday on bills calling for safety standards in the doggie day care industry, banning the use of big animals in circuses, and pushing back against dog breed...

By SAM DORAN

BOSTON — After a state judge ruled this month that Massachusetts law governing municipal home equity takings “requires Legislative correction,” a state senator who has filed a related bill for years said Monday that he is ready to start demanding roll...

By SAM DORAN

Senate and House negotiators on Wednesday proposed a new nine-month limit on how long families can stay in the state’s emergency shelters, while authorizing withdrawals up to $426 million from a state savings account to spend on the ongoing crisis.Top...

By SAM DORAN

BOSTON — The Governor’s Council unanimously approved Gov. Maura Healey’s mass pardon Wednesday that grants official forgiveness to anyone convicted of simple cannabis possession in Massachusetts.The courts must still work to identify people to whom...

By SAM DORAN

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey’s plan to pardon all misdemeanor marijuana possession convictions will impact hundreds of thousands of people, she told a crowd at the Grand Staircase on Wednesday, and represents “the most sweeping cannabis pardon ever...

By SAM DORAN

BOSTON — The early education and care sector is seeing high turnover and a lack of younger educators entering the field, according to a report released Tuesday by The Boston Foundation, while the study’s authors recommended lifting up the sector with...

By SAM DORAN

As towns and cities see a rise in natural disasters that require greater emergency response than their local resources can support alone, two western Massachusetts lawmakers renewed their call Tuesday to divert a portion of excess capital gains tax...

By SAM DORAN

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey and her budget team hit the reset button Monday, announcing a plan to cut $375 million from the current year’s budget amid flagging tax collections, to downgrade the amount of tax revenue expected this budget year by $1...

By SAM DORAN

BOSTON — Nearly three years after the Legislature tasked a panel with recommending changes to the state seal and motto, the group prepared to disband this week by asking to shift its unfinished work onto Secretary of State William Galvin’s office.The...

By SAM DORAN

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey on Tuesday unveiled an overhaul of the guidelines she will consider for pardon and commutation applications, which her office said “explicitly outline” for the first time how a governor will deploy executive clemency as a...

By SAM DORAN

BOSTON — A federal judge hadn’t even ruled yet on suspending approval of the abortion pill mifepristone in April when Gov. Maura Healey orchestrated a major reserve shipment of the drug through the state’s flagship university. But despite pledges of...

By SAM DORAN

Former House Speaker David Bartley, one of the youngest lawmakers ever to lead the House and a champion of education access, died Tuesday at the age of 88.Nearly half a century passed by since Bartley’s speakership, and he was still remembered this...