A confidential texting hotline for young people in need of support reported resounding success after its first full year in operation, but after Gov. Maura Healey proposed dropping state funding for the new lifeline, one senator said advocates need to "dig deep and push hard" to pack the $1 million back into the budget this spring.
Facing a "substantial increase" in people being robbed of their public benefits by fraudsters and scammers, Acting Commissioner Mary Sheehan asked lawmakers Tuesday to support a proposal in Gov. Maura Healey's budget that would allow the Department of Transitional Assistance to offer recipients a new way to protect their accounts.
Gina Nortonsmith got a promotion, and so now she expects she'll need to make the trek from her home in Northampton to Northeastern University's Boston campus more frequently.
In 41 days, National Grid customers will start getting relief from soaring electric rates.
The Office for Refugees and Immigrants would see a $1 million boost in state funding to increase capacity and oversight, if the Legislature agrees with Gov. Maura Healey's budget recommendation.
![METCO students prepare to sing on the Grand Staircase during a lobbying day for the voluntary school integration program. Rep. Chris Worrell, a METCO graduate, poses for a photo with them. [Sam Drysdale/SHNS]](https://www.statehousenews.com/content/frontpage_photo/2023/03-21_Metco.jpg "METCO students prepare to sing on the Grand Staircase during a lobbying day for the voluntary school integration program. Rep. Chris Worrell, a METCO graduate, poses for a photo with them. [Sam Drysdale/SHNS]")
Hundreds of students and parents roamed the halls of the State House on Tuesday to ask state lawmakers to support increased funding for the largest school integration program in the country.
![Veterans' Home in Holyoke Superintendent Michael Lazo (left), Secretary of Veterans' Services Jon Santiago (center) and Assistant Secretary of Veterans' Homes and Housing Robert Engell, who is serving as interim superintendent at the Veterans' Home in Chelsea, detailed changes at the state-run veterans' homes Tuesday before the Joint Committee on Ways and Means. [Screenshot]](https://www.statehousenews.com/content/frontpage_photo/2023/03-21_Santiago_Ways_Means.jpg "Veterans' Home in Holyoke Superintendent Michael Lazo (left), Secretary of Veterans' Services Jon Santiago (center) and Assistant Secretary of Veterans' Homes and Housing Robert Engell, who is serving as interim superintendent at the Veterans' Home in Chelsea, detailed changes at the state-run veterans' homes Tuesday before the Joint Committee on Ways and Means. [Screenshot]")
Three weeks into the job, Secretary of Veterans' Services Jon Santiago told his former legislative colleagues Tuesday that he views the challenge of implementing reforms at his department similar to leading a business startup or turnaround, and highlighted how things have changed at the state's troubled veterans' homes.
During her previous career as a third-grade teacher, Rep. Brandy Fluker Oakley always made a point to keep snacks in her classroom. She knew that her students came to school hungry some days and did not have access to a meal once they got there, making it harder to focus on the lesson at hand. One student, Fluker Oakley recalled, would ask to be excused to go get a drink of water by saying he needed "oxygen for my brain."
The House gaveled in Tuesday in the hopes that a borrowing bill financing local road and bridge repairs might be ready to tee up on the floor, but after waiting around for nine minutes, representatives gaveled out to try again Wednesday.
Thousands of bills have been filed, they've been sent to committees, and the next step is to let the public weigh in. But out of 33 committees, all 33 are delinquent on an initial step in setting up shop for the two-year term. After they take their seats, committee chairs have four weeks to develop internal rules that will direct the flow of business before their panels over the following 22 or so months.
Completed single-family home sales were down 20 percent in Massachusetts last month, but the Massachusetts Association of Realtors pointed to the fact that the percentage decrease was not as severe as previous months as an optimistic signal.
More than one hundred organizations endorsed a call Monday for lawmakers to extend a pandemic-era eviction prevention policy, warning that the looming March 31 expiration will displace Bay Staters and stymie other efforts to keep people in their homes.
Lawmakers advanced an annual bill Monday to provide cities and towns with $200 million in state borrowing for local road and bridge maintenance, in the process reshaping Gov. Maura Healey's proposal and putting it in contention for a full House vote later this week.
Now counting nearly one-third of the Legislature as members, the Massachusetts Caucus of Women Legislators on Monday identified its top five legislative priorities and laid out the three overarching priorities that will guide its work for the new two-year session.
The Senate reworked its schedule for the week Monday, voting to hold a previously-unscheduled session on Wednesday this week.
The House accepted Gov. Healey's newest supplemental budget and passed it along to the House Ways and Means Committee on Monday morning.
After running for statewide offices in each of the last two cycles, Quentin Palfrey started working for the Healey administration Monday as the head of an interagency task force meant to deploy a new strategy for competing for federal money.
It took about a day and a half longer than the best-case forecast, but the MBTA on Sunday evening shifted from slowing down the entire Green Line to speed restrictions on a vaguely defined series of Green Line stretches. About 18 percent of the Green Line is now subject to slow zones, and similar blocks remain in place on the Red, Orange, Blue and Mattapan Lines.
The banking sector was roiled Sunday by another "emergency rescue," Sen. Elizabeth Warren over the weekend asked federal officials to open an investigation into bank management and regulatory problems that she said resulted in this month's failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, and Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll said recent upheaval in the industry has commanded the attention of the Healey administration.
Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll didn't have any answers Sunday about immediate fixes to problems that continue to afflict the MBTA, but said Gov. Maura Healey's administration is "really close" to finally finding a new leader of the transit authority.