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By CHRIS LISINSKI

The Healey administration’s budget chief is “cautiously optimistic” about the economic outlook for the year ahead, even though he expects lackluster tax collections to continue and sees “unavoidable deficiencies” on the horizon.Administration and...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON – Mindful of how difficult it is to grow much of anything in the outdoor climate of Massachusetts, never mind growing a crop that is legal here but still entirely prohibited at the federal level, the Cannabis Control Commission traveled to...

By ALISON KUZNITZ

Gov. Maura Healey said Monday she would oppose gun owners’ potential effort to suspend a new firearm safety law as part of their longer-term strategy to repeal the legislation through a ballot question in 2026.The governor has the authority to file an...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — As frustrations between House and Senate Democrats mounted Wednesday night into Thursday morning, House Speaker Ronald Mariano decided to take his hospital oversight bill and a prescription drug bill that the Senate has prioritized off the...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — The chances of the House and Senate reaching a stoppage time deal on clean energy permitting and other climate-related policies are slim, negotiators from both sides said shortly after midnight as the sniping and finger-pointing began.“I was...

By Colin A. Young

After years of working to pass legislation that would give certain terminally ill patients the legal option to end their lives with a doctor’s prescription, state Sen. Jo Comerford is as optimistic as she’s ever been about the chances of a bill...

By ALEXA LEWIS

A leading veterans agent in the region says an expansive bill soon to become law designed to improve the lives of Massachusetts veterans is “monumental” for its expanded inclusion efforts, benefits, and health care provisions, but the measure fails to...

By ALEXA LEWIS

A statewide proliferation in recent years of intoxicating, illegal hemp-based products — gummies, energy shot-like drink bottles and seltzers, to name a few — has raised concern among state officials and the cannabis sector alike.While these products...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON – Voters are on track to get the final say over whether Massachusetts businesses should pay a higher minimum wage to tipped employees after the state’s highest court on Thursday concluded that a proposed ballot question is properly drafted.The...

By DOMENIC POLI

ORANGE – To look at them and hear their origins, it doesn’t appear that ironworkers Ed Jordan and Jimmy Costello have much that would bond them.Jordan was raised by a loving family in a tough, Black neighborhood of Boston. Costello grew up in the...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

The next phase in the fight over half a dozen major and pressing policy proposals kicked off Wednesday with a common feature on Beacon Hill: lawmakers recommending that the Legislature not to take action.A special committee tasked with overseeing the...

By MAX BOWEN

ATHOL — Though they may not have been among the runners, the Salvation Army Athol Corps played an important role in the 128th Boston Marathon.The corps sent two vehicles — their mobile feeding unit, also known as a “canteen,” and a minivan — to help...

By MAX BOWEN

ATHOL — Two men from Athol and Needham and a woman from Weymouth were arrested Monday in Boston’s Downtown Crossing on several drug-related charges, according to police.At around 1 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 26, the Boston Police Department’s A-1 (Downtown)...

By STELLA TANNENBAUM

BOSTON — Massachusetts would become the second state in the nation to ban discrimination based on body size under a proposal aired at a recent hearing of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee.During a seven-hour hearing in which over 230 people...

By DOMENIC POLI

BOSTON — With hopes of providing important context for proposed legislation, a Ware author and historian was the featured speaker at the State Library Author Talks Series on Wednesday to discuss her book about three of the people who were forced to...

By DOMENIC POLI and CHRIS LARABEE

Towns across Franklin County are starting to adopt flag policies after being approached by an anti-abortion group wanting to fly its banner on public grounds.The Pro Life Legal Defense Fund Inc. emailed towns and cities across the state late last...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — The House has added a provision to a spending bill that would reinstate a state policy repealed two decades ago to offer Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to immigrants in the country legally, but who are not...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Patients would pay no more than $25 for certain name-brand medications to treat some chronic illnesses and face no costs whatsoever for similar generic options under the latest prescription drug legislation set to emerge in the Senate.Senate...

By JULIAN MENDOZA

BOSTON — Experts from Amherst College and Greenfield Community College advocated for Jurassic armored mud balls to become the state’s “official sedimentary structure” during a legislative hearing on Tuesday, with the deadline for written testimony...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Lawmakers have given no indication they are any closer to compromise on the tax relief they promised more than a year ago, and they continue to be buffeted by competing affordability crosswinds.Beacon Hill received another pair of pitches in...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Advocates for decriminalizing psychedelic drugs are hoping to get traction on Beacon Hill and in Massachusetts cities and towns this year, though they are taking different approaches to changing the law.Grassroots coalition Bay Staters for...