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By Credit search: State House News Service

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Two years after policymakers enacted mental health care reforms designed to mitigate the problem, the share of patients experiencing long waits in Massachusetts emergency departments remains elevated, according to new state research.

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — Two weeks before the policies are set to expire, the House and Senate took the first steps Monday to once again temporarily extend pandemic-era laws allowing remote access for public meetings in Massachusetts.

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Health care costs in Massachusetts surged at “unsustainable” levels in 2023, adding more pressure to strained household budgets, according to new state data.

By ELLA ADAMS

BOSTON — The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted unanimously Tuesday to put its proposed competency determination regulations out for public comment, and to solicit comment about a second potential pathway to graduation that could still feature use of the MCAS exams.

By ALISON KUZNITZ

BOSTON — Residents struggling to afford hefty energy bills this winter could soon see modest relief, after state regulators instructed utility companies to slash costs.

By ALISON KUZNITZ

BOSTON — With residents facing skyrocketing energy bills, Gov. Maura Healey demanded Sunday that a state regulatory agency and utility companies provide urgent relief to customers.

By MICHAEL P. NORTON

Private sector efforts to seek and support diverse, equitable, inclusive and accessible workplaces are not illegal, a coalition of state attorneys general said last week, and the federal government can’t prohibit such efforts in the private sector through executive order.

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — The astronomical cost of housing for Massachusetts households across the income spectrum and a bleak outlook for the new units needed over the next decade underscore the focus of the Healey administration’s new housing plan for the next five years — more production.

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Invoking Emily Dickinson, Phillis Wheatley, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Sam Cornish and Robert Frost, Gov. Maura Healey recently signed an executive order creating a position of poet laureate in Massachusetts for the first time.

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey intends to run for reelection in 2026, she said Friday.

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Accessory dwelling units are now allowed by right in single-family zoning districts across most of Massachusetts, under a law Gov. Maura Healey signed in August. The rule went into effect on Sunday.

By SAM DRYSDALE

Any selective criteria used to admit students to vocational technical schools must be actually essential to the success of the school, per new regulations the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) is drafting for their board’s review in February.

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Attorney General Andrea Campbell wants to stop students from using cellphones in schools, but education regulators seem unsure how far they should go — especially when that power lies not in the state’s hands, but with local school districts.

By CHRIS LISINSKI

Gov. Maura Healey’s proposal to increase state funding for local road and bridge projects also overhauls the way those dollars are distributed, and includes major boosts for smaller and rural communities that have smaller property tax bases, but more road miles to care for.

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Though Gov. Maura Healey maintains that she is not raising taxes, the budget she rolled out Wednesday could apply existing taxes to some purchases, or decrease how much residents are able to write off on their tax returns.

By COLIN A. YOUNG

Gov. Maura Healey announced a plan Tuesday to pump at least $2.5 billion into facilities at the University of Massachusetts, state universities and community colleges by the middle of the 2030s.

By SAM DORAN

BOSTON — With the state’s family shelter system under pressure from mounting costs and violent on-site incidents, Gov. Maura Healey is recommending statutory changes to the decades-old Right to Shelter Law, asking House and Senate leadership to fold the reforms into a supplemental budget.

By MICHAEL P. NORTON

BOSTON — Drought conditions are no longer considered “critical” in the Pioneer Valley and two other regions of Massachusetts, following designation adjustments made in the wake of what state officials described as “several weeks of snow and rain.”

By ALISON KUZNITZ

State officials are preparing for the rollout of expanded maternal health care services in 2025, stemming from a new law and recommendations they issued last year.Public health officials said the bevy of reforms were fueled by the controversial...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

Running consistent passenger rail service for 140 miles through northern Massachusetts communities to connect North Adams and Boston could attract hundreds of riders per day, but would also require hundreds of millions of dollars in up-front capital...

By ALISON KUZNITZ

BOSTON — U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, joined by a cohort of Massachusetts health leaders, has declared he will vote against confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the next U.S. Department of Health and Human Services secretary, saying Americans need a leader who...