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By EDEN MOR

Two Pioneer Valley lawmakers are seeking a more concrete plan — including the creation of a “watchdog group” — to improve the health of public school buildings and reduce their environmental impact throughout the commonwealth.Sen. Jo Comerford,...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Framing her new legislation as “historic” and “urgent,” Gov. Maura Healey detailed a wide-ranging $4 billion-plus housing bill Wednesday at several stops throughout the state, including Springfield, and speculated that its passage could...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — As the state moves into a “new phase” of its ongoing emergency shelter crisis, Gov. Maura Healey is turning to a Southampton resident for help.The governor announced Monday that she has appointed Lt. Gen. Leon Scott Rice, former director of...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Within a year, students and researchers in a laboratory at the University of Massachusetts will begin using a nanoimprint lithography tool to craft metal lenses in what will be the first open access facility in the country for the...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Bay Staters of all stripes finally got the chance Tuesday to tell a panel of state representatives how they feel about a proposed overhaul of the state’s gun laws, and they poured out hours of impassioned commentary that sets the stage for a...

By Chris Lisinski

BOSTON — Pointing to a shooting in Holyoke last week that left a pregnant mother critically injured and killed her baby, House Democrats have resurrected their campaign to overhaul the state’s firearms laws, rolling out a redrafted bill that...

By SAM DORAN, COLIN YOUNG andCHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Senators overwhelmingly approved the long-awaited tax relief and reform agreement Thursday, and Democrats then turned back a Republican attempt to amend it before shipping it to Gov. Maura Healey's desk.The Senate accepted the conference...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

With Massachusetts straining under an overburdened emergency shelter system and staring down a shortfall of workers, a group of more than 60 Bay State lawmakers is sending a letter urging the White House and Congress to work with haste to find a...

By Chris Lisinski

BOSTON — Exactly 30 years after Massachusetts voters narrowly prohibited rent control across the state, a long-running debate about whether to reverse or uphold the ban might once again be settled at the ballot box.A small group of local officials,...

By CHRIS LARABEE

Legislators, education association representatives, and school and town officials were briefed Thursday morning on bills proposing to codify numerous recommendations to ensure the long-term sustain ability of rural schools.Bills H.3567 and S.2388,...

By Sam Drysdale

BOSTON — Technology’s new frontiers present unique regulatory challenges for government systems that often lag behind the rates of change in fast-developing tech sectors.But some in the Legislature are trying to help orchestrate a response. Several...

By SAM DRYSDALE and CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Massachusetts voters could be asked to settle two major education debates in 2024, but retailers may pass on bringing tax cuts to next year’s ballot, the News Service has learned.The state’s largest teachers union is considering ballot...

By Sam Drysdale

BOSTON — Forty years after the state added a five-cent deposit on some plastic bottles in order to encourage recycling, climate advocates say it’s “the right moment” to expand state’s bottle redemption law. Proposals before the Committee on...

By Sam Drysdale and Sophie Hauck

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey moved Wednesday to update the state’s sex education guidelines for the first time in 24 years. The updates are “inclusive, medically accurate and age appropriate,” Healey said at a State House press conference about the...

By MERCEDES LINGLE

Lawmakers on Beacon Hill heard testimony recently on a bill that would require public higher education institutions to provide menstrual products to students at no cost. “The commonwealth needs to … start treating menstrual products like we do toilet...

By SYDNEY KO

When she was 13 nearly a decade ago, University of Massachusetts graduate student Maggie Buswick was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Her doctors informed her that she needed to receive the “highest level” treatment of radioactive iodine, which is a...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — As Massachusetts moves toward its 2050 deadline to reach net-zero carbon emissions, climate activists had lawmakers’ attention on Wednesday, proposing a new idea to reduce an unlikely source of carbon in the state.A bill sponsored by Rep....

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — A panel known as the Select Committee on Pesticide Reduction in 2019 issued a report to the Northampton City Council urging municipal leaders to consider eliminating the use of pesticides.“If deemed absolutely necessary, any pesticide...

By DOMENIC POLI

BOSTON — At least three Greenfield residents and the state senator representing 25 communities in Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester counties have submitted testimony to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary to express support for a bill that would...

By SYDNEY KO, CHRIS LARABEE and MAX BOWEN

Following the lead of New York and Maryland, veterinarians in Massachusetts are gathering support to ban procedures that declaw cats.A bill introduced by Sen. Mark Montigny, D-New Bedford, aims to ban the practice, a move veterinarians in...