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By MADDIE FABIAN

As coyotes become more active during their mating season, spanning January through March, pet owners are urged to stay vigilant.The eastern coyote — which resembles a medium-size dog, but has pointed ears and denser fur — can be found in almost every...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey will press forward in her annual state budget with major investments into early education and child care despite her administration’s own forecast of limited revenue growth.Healey announced Tuesday that she will propose...

By MICHAEL P. NORTON

Home sales across Massachusetts sank to a 12-year low in 2023, the first year in office for Gov. Maura Healey, whose road to the corner office was paved with promises to boldly tackle the state’s housing crisis.The Warren Group reported Tuesday that...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — The climate crisis is fueling a steady growth in the intensity and frequency of extreme weather, and Massachusetts cities and towns face an increasingly common conundrum trying to respond to those crises.Many of the disasters that have hit...

By STELLA TANNENBAUM

Slowly but surely — and not without opposition — age-old efforts to change images of Native Americans that many view as offensive have gained new momentum across Massachusetts, sparking conversations about history, representation and what it means to...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Senate President Karen Spilka advises to “keep your eyes peeled” for free community college funding in the Senate’s version of the fiscal year 2025 budget.Making community college free for every Massachusetts resident could cost the state...

By STEVE LeBLANC

BOSTON — The highest court in Massachusetts ruled Thursday to raise from 18 to 21 the minimum age at which a person can be sentenced to mandatory life without parole — a narrow 4-3 ruling that juvenile justice advocates are hailing as progress.The...

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 EDEN MOR

Opponents of using the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test as a high school graduation requirement suggest there are better ways to measure student achievement, should voters get an opportunity to remove the requirement in...

By BELLA LEVAVI

The Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) has released the long-awaited Climate Forestry Committee’s report, which contains a slew of recommendations for forest management practices in Massachusetts with a key focus on climate...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

After filing legal challenges in several other states to bar Donald Trump from ballot eligibility in this year’s primaries, a Massachusetts-incorporated advocacy group has now done so in its home state.Free Speech for People, a nonprofit led by...

By JAIMEE FRANCIS

Heat pumps, which use electricity rather than directly burning fossil fuel, are a key piece of Massachusetts’ goal of reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But the state has hit only 1% of its installation target, in large part because...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — Utility regulators want to hear from Massachusetts residents who grapple each month to make choices between paying utility bills and covering other essential costs.The Department of Public Utilities on Thursday launched an official “inquiry”...

By MADDIE FABIAN

Editor’s note: This is the fourth and final article from the Western Massachusetts Solar Forum series. The first three forums took place in September, and another series of forums is in the works for this spring. AMHERST — Most experts agree solar...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

A permanent disaster relief fund to assist farmers devastated by acts of nature, and providing farmers more flexibility for using their properties once they are protected in the Agricultural Preservation Restriction program, are among the bills the...

By MADDIE FABIAN

Ask almost any conservationist about an Endangered Species Act (ESA) success story and they will tell you about the bald eagle.“Growing up, I would have never seen a bald eagle in western Massachusetts,” said Jeff Collins, senior director of...

By DON STEWART

As an inquisitive boy growing up in Amsterdam, he kept a menagerie of snails and toads and other small woodland fauna in his room, populating the glass terrariums he’d filled with mosses and ferns. Influenced by one uncle, an architect, and two others...

By EMILY THURLOW

A woman dressed in pajamas walks into a Cottage Street bar and challenges a random stranger to an arm-wrestling match.The circumstances sound like the set-up of a joke. It’s not.The woman is Rose Lynch of Easthampton, and over the next few weeks...

By DOMENIC POLI

GREENFIELD — A Bernardston woman is starting 2024 with a nest egg after winning $1 million on a Massachusetts State Lottery ticket she bought at the Greenfield Lodge of Elks 1296 on Christmas Eve.Vicki Sumner purchased a Billion Dollar Extravaganza...

By MARY BYRNE

GREENFIELD — A Greenfield Community College professor is one of three Massachusetts educators featured in a new television ad urging lawmakers to pass the CHERISH Act, which seeks to provide a more affordable path to a college degree for students and...