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By Credit search: State House News Service

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON – Moderate-income white students could gain the most under a proposal that top Senate Democrats are weighing to make community college free for all Massachusetts residents, according to a report, which urges lawmakers to make adjustments with...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

Nearly 200 water systems across Massachusetts — including towns, schools and hospitals — will likely need to take some action to comply with new federal limits on “forever chemicals” in drinking water, state regulators said Wednesday, a potentially...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON – The University of Massachusetts has taken a step toward hiking tuition and room and board charges for the next academic year, but some trustees said last Wednesday the proposed increases are not high enough and one said the status quo would...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — As chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Aaron Michlewitz sits in the catbird seat of budget and policy development on Beacon Hill.The Boston Democrat offered a glimpse Monday afternoon at the various balls he is trying to keep...

By ALISON KUZNITZ

BOSTON — Public Safety and Security Secretary Terrence Reidy warned lawmakers this week that big cities and small towns face a “major issue” with recruiting new candidates for law enforcement jobs and said he’s worried about the future of public...

By Allison Kuznitz

BOSTON — With an array of more than 50 state financial aid programs available to college students, public higher education officials are embarking on an effort to simplify those offerings by 2026.The Department of Higher Education plans to evaluate...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — More Massachusetts families would become eligible for subsidized child care and “transformational” grants that kept the early education system afloat during the pandemic would be made permanent, under a bill the Senate unanimously passed on...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote in 1913 that “sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants,” and Bay Staters on both ends of the political spectrum agreed this week that Beacon Hill could stand to open the curtains quite a bit...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

As policymakers this week examine a law meant to keep health care cost growth within sustainable bounds, a new report makes clear that the health care sector has a double-sided problem – the cost of care is pushing it out of reach for many...

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 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 SAM DORAN

BOSTON — The early education and care sector is seeing high turnover and a lack of younger educators entering the field, according to a report released Tuesday by The Boston Foundation, while the study’s authors recommended lifting up the sector with...

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

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 ALISON KUZNITZ

In South Carolina, former President Donald Trump notched another primary victory Saturday as he seeks the GOP presidential nomination, declaring afterwards that he has never seen Republicans “so unified.”But do Republicans here in Massachusetts feel...

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...

By ALISON KUZNITZ

BOSTON — A recently expanded state financial aid program has yet to make a major impact on high school seniors evaluating their college options, a leader of an educational nonprofit recently warned.The MASSGrant Plus expansion program, supported by a...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey has signed an executive order to create a task force meant to study artificial intelligence and to advise her administration on the state’s role in implementing and encouraging private sector use of the new technology.The...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeffrey Riley plans to step down on March 15 after six years leading Massachusetts’ K-12 school system, according to a letter he sent to the state’s education board Thursday.Riley plans to...