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By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — The industry group representing package stores signaled this week that it’s ready to “beg” lawmakers to end the authorization for takeaway drinks, a pandemic-era policy allowing many bars and restaurants to sell beer, wine and cocktails to...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — With the Conservation Commission and Board of Health registering objections to the proposed poured-in-place rubber surface of a playground at the town’s new elementary school, the design team is asking the Elementary School Building...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Activists in Northampton calling for a cease-fire in Gaza have stepped up their efforts in recent days, hoping to pressure the city to quickly pass a resolution in support of their goals and to condemn recent actions by the Israeli...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey’s proposal to give cities and towns new tax-hike authority would provide “game-changers” at the local level, especially for less populated areas, one mayor said Tuesday.A bill Healey filed last month would offer...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON – Make it seven months.Having already made mid-year budget cuts and dimmed the outlook for tax collections through June based on six consecutive months of underwhelming receipts, the state reported Monday that tax revenue came in below even...

By MICHAEL P. NORTON

BOSTON — While the bill has a long path ahead of it, advocates for more government transparency are encouraged that a House-Senate committee on Tuesday gave a favorable report to a bill whose sponsors say it will bring needed “sunlight” to the...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — A former Amherst finance director is returning to town for the next few months to assist officials in getting through the budget season.Sanford “Sandy” Pooler, who was Amherst’s finance director from 2011 to early 2016, will be coming back...

By Bob Katzen

THE HOUSE AND SENATE: Beacon Hill Roll Call records local senators’ votes from the week of January 15-19. There were no roll calls in the House last week.BAN DECLAWING OF CATS (S 2552): Senate 39-0, approved and sent to the House a bill that would...

By JAMES PENTLAND

NORTHAMPTON — Local leaders are reacting favorably to legislation filed this week by Gov. Maura Healey that would give municipalities the authority to increase local option taxes on meals, lodging and motor vehicles.The state’s Democratic legislative...

Staff Report

NORTHAMPTON — State grants totaling $10 million for communities hit by last year’s flooding have been announced by the Healey-Driscoll administration. The neighboring Franklin County towns of Deerfield and Conway topped the money list, with awards of...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

SHUTESBURY — The chairwoman of the town’s Conservation Commission has stepped down, a decision she said stems from alleged personal attacks and interference by elected and appointed officials at Town Hall.Miriam DeFant’s decision comes on the eve of a...

By ALEXANDER MACDOUGALL

NORTHAMPTON — Two LGBTQ+-owned businesses are the first recipients of the city’s new vacant storefront tax credit program, an initiative established in autumn 2022 in an effort to fill empty spaces downtown.The two businesses are Many Graces Farm &...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

AMHERST — Four new councilors will join nine holdovers when Amherst’s third Town Council convenes its first meeting Tuesday evening, with the only decisions on the agenda being a vote on who will serve as the council’s president and vice president...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

HADLEY — A revised club alcohol license for the Young Men’s Club that offers more flexibility for where members and their guests can be served and consume alcohol at the 138 East St. property, including on an outside deck, has been approved by the...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — A Superior Court judge ruled Friday that Treasurer Deborah Goldberg can go ahead with the meeting that could lead to the firing of suspended Cannabis Control Commission Chairwoman Shannon O’Brien and also cautioned the parties that “political...

By EVAN HALPER

The Biden administration raised the stakes on its politically fraught bet on massive subsidies for nascent clean-energy technologies Friday, rolling out a plan for awarding billions of dollars in tax credits to the makers of ultrapowerful “green”...

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 MARTIN MILLER

The Amherst Town Council will be making a very important decision at an upcoming December meeting. I, along with a likely majority of voters (based on the results of the town vote in 2021), are asking that the council vote in favor of amending the...

By JEFF LEE

Next week the Amherst Town Council will be deciding whether to add $9,860,100 to the $35.3 million borrowing authorization it approved in 2021 to pay for a renovation and expansion of the Jones Library that has been years in planning. Given Amherst’s...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

Leaders of at least a half-dozen initiative petition campaigns working toward the November 2024 ballot said Wednesday they had collected at least enough signatures to meet an end-of-the-day deadline and to put their policy ideas in front of the...