LOTS OF POSTS IGNORED BY BLOGGER.....
OR REMOVED ON THEIR WHIM!
ALL POSTS ARE AVAILABLE ON
MIDDLEBORO REVIEW AND SO ON
BLOGGER DOESN'T LIKE TRUTH OR FACTS!
BLOGGER DOESN'T LIKE FUND RAISERS AND DELETES
POSTS THAT INCLUDE FUNDRAISING THAT 'VIOLATES THEIR
UNDEFINED COMMUNITY STANDARDS SO ALL 'FUND RAISING'
IS DELETED - CONTRIBUTE AS YOU ARE INCLINED TO SUPPORT
IMPORTANT ISSUES! THESE ARE NOT SOLICITATIONS
New from CommonWealth Beacon |
|
|
DOUBLE TAKE: Frustrated by “prolonged inaction” on major bills, Senate President Karen Spilka suggests she might not support extending the legislative deadline beyond July 31 next term. Chris Lisinski breaks down the split between the chambers. |
|
|
MUSICAL CHAIRS: Elizabeth Dionne, a Republican who unsuccessfully ran for state treasurer, has launched a bid for the Massachusetts Republican Party chair and said she would not take salary if elected. Colin Young of the State House News Service has more. |
|
|
OPINION: Pending Senate legislation that seeks to phase out the Gas System Enhancement Program is ill-advised, writes José Costa, president and CEO of the Northeast Gas Association. Instead of investing in the existing, dependable, and affordable natural gas system, the legislation would hasten the transition away from Massachusetts’s most affordable fuel. |
|
|
|
|
|
An annual report on the state of housing in Massachusetts’s most populous region offers a grim assessment of the housing crisis, just days after voters narrowly shot down a ballot question seeking to make it easier to build single-family homes on smaller lots. |
|
|
Greater Boston’s infamously high rental prices and home prices are leveling off, according to the Greater Boston Housing Report Card from the Boston Foundation and the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard. But permits for new units have hit their lowest level in a decade, population growth is slowing, and new units are down, setting the stage for a period of sluggish housing growth as the state struggles to get a handle on its cost-of-living crisis. |
|
|
“There’s a bigger question on what’s the health of the region’s economy in the next few years,” said Luc Schuster, executive director of Boston Indicators, the research arm of the Boston Foundation. “We could see a stagnation or recession,” he said, and while that may bring prices down, “that’s just not the way we want to address the housing cost problem.” |
|
|
The report found 32 Greater Boston municipalities had median single-family sale prices above $1 million in fall 2026. Cambridge, Wellesley, Weston, and Brookline all had median single-family prices above $2 million, and just six of the 147 municipalities in Greater Boston had median prices below $500,000. Despite the high costs, the speed of house and rent prices slowed over the year so far. |
|
|
A decade ago, 42 towns had median single-family sale prices below that amount, adjusted for inflation. |
|
|
More from CommonWealth Beacon |
|
|
NEW CODCAST: It's a wrap on elections in Massachusetts, and the Democrats have kept a hold on almost all their levers of power in the state. But there was still plenty of controversial policy that voters weighed in on. This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith talks with Talia Lissauer of The Berkshire Eagle and Ella Adams of the State House News Service about election week, starting with a late-breaking ballot question result. |
|
|
TWELVE-BILL PILEUP: Election season is done, and holiday season is near, but lawmakers still have a mountain of unfinished business. Chris Lisinski counts more than 40 discrete policy decisions that need to be made in the next eight weeks or expire and reset when the new term starts on January 6, 2027. |
|
|
ABORTION: Gov. Maura Healey has signed an emergency preamble forcing a new late-term law into effect immediately, preventing an anti-abortion coalition from suspending the law until voters can decide whether to keep or repeal it on the 2028 ballot. Jennifer Smith reports on the move. |
|
|
WATER: The Massachusetts Water Resources Authority has nixed its request to draw an additional 20 million gallons of water per day out of the Quabbin Reservoir, after the proposal prompted fierce backlash from the surrounding communities. Jordan Wolman has more. |
|
|
OPINION: Massachusetts voters who rejected Question 7 waved away a tangible solution to one of the biggest drivers of our affordability crisis: housing costs. Greg Reibman and Max Woolf of the Charles River Regional Chamber say there are lessons to be learned from the measure’s narrow defeat. |
|
|
|
|
|
| Massachusetts is growing and reliable energy helps make that growth possible. National Grid is investing in the energy infrastructure that powers our homes and businesses, while supporting new housing, new jobs, and economic growth across the Commonwealth. | In Massachusetts, it all starts with safe, reliable energy. Learn more. |
|
|
|
|
|
ENERGY: A Salem church is moving to a new green energy system: installing solar panels and a geothermal loop. Church leaders hope this can be a model for other historic New England cities and towns trying to retrofit old buildings to make them more energy efficient, while still preserving their cultural characteristics. (WBUR) |
|
|
PUBLIC RECORDS: Supporters of the recently passed Question 1, which subjects the Legislature and governor’s office to public records laws, are increasingy worried that the new law will never take effect. (GBH News) |
|
|
FLOCK: The mayor of New Bedford and civil liberties groups are at odds over whether a proposed ordinance will actually restrict the ways that controversial Flock license plate readers can be used. (The New Bedford Light) |
|
|
UTILITIES: With their constituents frustrated by rising water and sewer rates, Springfield-area representatives are pushing for more say in utilities operations. (MassLive – paywall) |
|
|
CHILD CARE: Smith College abruptly announced it would be closing its child-care center in June, prompting fierce pushback and shock over claims that the closure was, “first and foremost, about equity.” (The Boston Globe – paywall) |
|
|
|
|
|
