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By JUSTIN SILVERMAN

Open government mattered to all of us during the height of the COVID pandemic.Government played an outsize role in our day-to-day lives then. Schools closed, storefronts shuttered and the officials making decisions about quarantines, mask mandates and...

By STEVE LeBLANC

BOSTON — Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey plans to announce this week that she’s following the lead of President Joe Biden and issuing pardons to those convicted of simple possession of cannabis at the state level, her office said Monday.The move could...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — Aiming to have its new executive director on board by this summer, the state Cannabis Control Commission spent hours last week crafting the contours of the job and detailing what qualities a successful applicant will demonstrate.The CCC has...

By STEVE PFARRER

Augusta Savage rose to prominence as a sculptor and educator when she moved to New York City in the 1920s, where she soon became a key figure in the Harlem Renaissance.But Savage, who was also a determined advocate for equal rights for African...

By ALISON KUZNITZ

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey announced a $20 million campaign Tuesday to end veteran homelessness as she lamented the hundreds of former Massachusetts service members who have nowhere to call home.The governor said the effort, funded primarily through...

By XINYI YANG

BOSTON — Area lawmakers’ proposals to require menstrual products to be available for no cost in all state buildings, establish special dorms for students in recovery, and consolidate overlapping higher education financial aid programs all cleared a...

By BOB KATZEN

There were no roll calls in the House or Senate last week. This week, Beacon Hill Roll Call reviews local senators’ votes in the 2023-2024 on several proposals to raise or lower taxes. Included are comments from legislators and others at the time the...

Jewish Federation of Western Mass. offers scholarshipsSPRINGFIELD — The Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts’ Jewish Endowment Foundation is inviting undergraduate and college-bound students to apply for its annual Common Fund and Springfield...

Applications open for Habitat for Humanity Projects Applications are available for two new Pioneer Valley Habitat for Humanity projects: a one-bedroom, one-story adaptable home in Greenfield and a three-bedroom, two-story home in Northampton.The...

By GARRETT COTE

AMHERST — All signs pointed to something happening soon, but Corey Schneider had no idea it would be that soon.At a Feb. 22 event held at the UMass Club in Boston, nearly the entire UMass Board of Trustees was in attendance – which is fairly unusual,...

By BELLA LEVAVI

NORTHFIELD — Tree sap being boiled down into maple syrup filled the air with a sweet aroma on Friday as Department of Agricultural Resources Commissioner Ashley Randle celebrated the kickoff of Massachusetts Maple Month by ceremonially tapping a maple...

By ALISON KUZNITZ

Filling in some blanks on her economic development plans, Gov. Maura Healey said Thursday she wants to reauthorize the life sciences initiative at $1 billion for the next decade, and launch a separate $1 billion, 10-year climate tech initiative that...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

Safety on Massachusetts roadways is “at a crisis level,” the state highway administrator told lawmakers this week as he detailed steps the Department of Transportation has taken to try to prevent some of the most dangerous and deadly situations and to...

By Alison Kuznitz

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey will recommend reauthorizing the state’s life sciences initiative for another decade in a sprawling economic development bill she plans to file this week, she told hundreds of business leaders Tuesday morning. The bill will...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

Gov. Maura Healey’s push to overhaul local procurement procedures, rethink post-employment benefits and make permanent some pandemic-era policies won over many city and town leaders, but points of friction in her bill could create some tricky...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

With no significant jackpots at stake last month, sales at the Massachusetts Lottery were down nearly $34 million compared to last January, the agency’s head reported to the Lottery Commission on Tuesday.Executive Director Mark William Bracken said...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — From the edge of the Atlantic Ocean in Lynn to the state’s western border in Richmond, people in Massachusetts are letting the state know how they feel about wallet-busting energy bills.“I struggle to pay my bills, my electric runs $250 a...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Although they would not explicitly commit to fulfilling a funding request for Head Start, two of the most powerful players at the State House indicated Wednesday that funding the early education program is at the top of their priority list in...

By WENDY BERG and MARK REYNOLDS

The magnitude of global climate change has come home to us in Massachusetts. Last summer, flooding caused by intensive storms washed away roads and other critical infrastructure, destroying the crops on many local farms and in our community...

By SAM DRYSDALE

Senators next week will vote again on a bill to update the state’s sex education guidelines, something the chamber has already approved four times without getting buy-in from the House.The Senate Committee on Ways and Means polled the so-called...