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By Bob Katzen

THE HOUSE AND SENATE: Beacon Hill Roll Call records local representatives’ and senators’ votes on roll calls from the week of July 24-28. $375 MILLION FOR ROADS AND BRIDGES (S 2375): House 157-0, Senate 39-0, approved and sent to Gov. Maura Healey...

By Bob Katzen

THE HOUSE AND SENATE: Beacon Hill Roll Call records local senators’ votes on roll calls from the recent debate on the Senate’s version of a $55.9 billion fiscal 2024 state budget. Sen. Becca Rausch (D-Needham) filed and gained approval for several...

By Bob Katzen

THE HOUSE AND SENATE: Beacon Hill Roll Call records local representatives’ votes on roll calls from the week of July 10-14. There were no roll calls in the Senate last week. $693 MILLION FISCAL 2023 SUPPLEMENTAL BUDGET (H 3982): House 154-0, approved...

By CHRIS LARABEE

Legislators, education association representatives, and school and town officials were briefed late last week on bills proposing to codify numerous recommendations to ensure the long-term sustain ability of rural schools.Bills H.3567 and S.2388,...

By Sam Drysdale

BOSTON — Technology’s new frontiers present unique regulatory challenges for government systems that often lag behind the rates of change in fast-developing tech sectors.But some in the Legislature are trying to help orchestrate a response. Several...

By CHRIS LISINSKI and ALISON KUZNITZ

BOSTON — Representatives will gather in closed-door meetings next week to hold “candid discussions” about a 140-page gun reform bill that Speaker Ron Mariano wants to win House approval by the end of the month.With the omnibus bill idling amid a...

By SAM DRYSDALE and CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Massachusetts voters could be asked to settle two major education debates in 2024, but retailers may pass on bringing tax cuts to next year’s ballot, the News Service has learned.The state’s largest teachers union is considering ballot...

By Sam Drysdale

BOSTON — Forty years after the state added a five-cent deposit on some plastic bottles in order to encourage recycling, climate advocates say it’s “the right moment” to expand state’s bottle redemption law. Proposals before the Committee on...

By MARY BYRNE

Dozens of superintendents, including a handful from Hampshire and Franklin counties, have signed a letter to lawmakers urging them to make permanent the universal meals program School Meals for All, rather than just extend it for another year.“Being a...

By Sam Drysdale and Sophie Hauck

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey moved Wednesday to update the state’s sex education guidelines for the first time in 24 years. The updates are “inclusive, medically accurate and age appropriate,” Healey said at a State House press conference about the...

By Chris Lisinski

BOSTON — The fate of tax relief will now rest with a legislative negotiating committee after the Senate late last week stamped its unanimous approval on a nearly $590 million package. Both branches have voted this session on increasing tax breaks for...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Supporters of allowing terminally ill patients to receive medication to end their lives continue to target Massachusetts as a “priority” state, more than a decade after voters here narrowly rejected a similar policy.A long-running campaign to...

By Chris Lisinski

BOSTON — Lawmakers intend to schedule this year’s mandatory sales tax holiday for the weekend of Aug. 12-13, Senate President Karen Spilka said Monday. With a Thursday deadline to set the dates approaching, Spilka told reporters the Legislature...

By MERCEDES LINGLE

Lawmakers on Beacon Hill heard testimony recently on a bill that would require public higher education institutions to provide menstrual products to students at no cost.“The commonwealth needs to … start treating menstrual products like we do toilet...

By SYDNEY KO

When she was 13 nearly a decade ago, University of Massachusetts graduate student Maggie Buswick was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Her doctors informed her that she needed to receive the “highest level” treatment of radioactive iodine, which is a...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — As Massachusetts moves toward its 2050 deadline to reach net-zero carbon emissions, climate activists had lawmakers’ attention on Wednesday, proposing a new idea to reduce an unlikely source of carbon in the state.A bill sponsored by Rep....

By DOMENIC POLI

BOSTON — At least three Greenfield residents and the state senator representing 25 communities in Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester counties have submitted testimony to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary to express support for a bill that would...

By Chris Lisinski

BOSTON — Top House and Senate Democrats have not publicly mentioned legalizing medical aid in dying as a priority, but one legislative sponsor believes the chances of action are better than ever now that Gov. Maura Healey is in the corner office.Rep....

By Sydney Ko

Following the lead of New York and Maryland, veterinarians in Massachusetts are gathering support to ban procedures that declaw cats.A bill introduced by Sen. Mark Montigny, D-New Bedford, aims to ban the practice, a move veterinarians in...

By Sydney Ko

Brittainy Simpson grew up in the hearing world but was considered an oral deaf, a person who is born deaf or becomes deaf before they learn how to speak. Despite getting by with a hearing aid and lip-reading, Simpson only learned how to sign at age...