State House

Massachusetts lawmakers are considering a bill (H 3999) prohibiting schools from punishing students with meal debts and requiring districts with large shares of low-income students to provide free breakfast and lunch.

Massachusetts lawmakers are considering changes to a 2016 animal welfare law that sets living standards for egg-laying hens and some livestock to avoid a possible egg shortage.

Lawmakers are taking up legislation Monday that would allow safe drug use sites to open in Massachusetts. Two bills decriminalizing possession of controlled substances (S 1277 and H 2119) and three bills calling for safe drug consumption sites (S 1258, H 2088, and S 1272) are on the agenda for a Committee on Mental Health, Substance Use and Recovery virtual…

Massachusetts’ House of Representatives voted Thursday to require all members and staff to be fully vaccinated if they want to work out of the State House, agreeing to strict new COVID-19 health protocols that will put it mostly in line with the Senate and Gov. Charlie Baker’s policies on employee vaccination. The measure is intended to be the first...

Lawmakers will take up a vaccine mandate for themselves and workers here at the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Hill. House leaders propose anyone who wants to work from the state house will need to be vaccinated. Some republicans have come out against the mandate saying that they work for the people, not the legislature and should be allowed in…

House leaders have proposed that anyone who wants to work from Beacon Hill will need to be vaccinated.

MassINC Polling Group found that about 70% of people support or strongly support bringing back happy hour in Massachusetts, while only 20% oppose.

The vast majority of Massachusetts residents want to bring happy hour back, a new poll shows. MassINC Polling Group found that about 70% of people support or strongly support bringing back happy hour in Massachusetts, while only 20% of people were against it. The numbers were pretty similar across the board. Republicans were slightly more likely to support happy hour,…

Lawmakers will introduce a decade-long pilot program Friday to establish at least two safe injection sites in Massachusetts, a place where people can inject illicit drugs under medical supervision. Reps. Dylan Fernandes and Marjorie Decker, Sen. Julian Cyr and the Massachusetts for Supervised Consumption Sites Coalition will host a virtual briefing at 1 p.m. on the legislation. The proposed 10-year…

Massachusetts lawmakers will introduce a controversial pilot program Friday to establish at least two safe injection sites in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts lawmakers will consider proposals for new regulations on automatic license plate reader systems Thursday, among a host of other transportation bills.o

Massachusetts lawmakers will consider proposals for new regulations on automatic license plate reader systems Thursday, among a host of other transportation bills. Massachusetts ended the use of a controversial license plate surveillance system in December 2020, after discovering a glitch that caused inaccurate data to be recorded for more than five years. Inaccurate dates and time stamps were found in…

A new coalition of organized labor leaders, workers rights advocates and app-based drivers will rally at the State House at 10 a.m. Tuesday to launch its campaign pushing for gig economy businesses such as Uber, Lyft and DoorDash to classify drivers as workers rather than independent contractors.

Arguing that app-based companies such as Uber and Lyft shift costly burdens onto taxpayers by denying drivers employee status, a new coalition of labor, civil rights and racial justice groups launched an effort Tuesday to oppose the tech giants in their effort to rewrite state labor laws. Dozens of activists with the Coalition to Protect Workers’ Rights kicked off their…

A Truro Democrat on Friday pushed members of a new commission studying qualified immunity to reach out and listen to a diverse set of voices, saying the group’s primarily white makeup needs to recognize the topic they are studying disproportionately impacts people of color. “I do really want to note the composition of this commission, at least in the...

The Massachusetts Fire Marshal released photos of a person of interest in multiple “intentionally set” fires and a burglary in Brockton early Wednesday morning. Authorities believe the incidents are connected. The old State House at the Brockton Fairgrounds was destroyed in a five-alarm blaze overnight, according to Fire Marshal Peter Ostroskey’s office. “It was good back in the 80s —…

The Baker administration has been quietly planning for a permanent “hybrid” work model for as much as half of the state workforce, and over the course of 2021 will be redesigning office space and equipping employees with the technology they need to be able to continue to work remotely after the COVID-19 pandemic. Gov. Charlie Baker last week sent an…

All streets near the Massachusetts State House have been reopened Sunday, Boston police announced, several hours after saying they would be closed effective immediately and with no set end date. A Boston police representative said the officers helped Massachusetts State Police secure the State House “out of an abundance of caution,” but didn’t give more information. The roughly five-hour...

Massachusetts State Police say they’ve received no specific threats at the State House, or any other public venue in Massachusetts, after the FBI sent an alert to law enforcement agencies warning of calls for “peaceful armed protest” planned at all 50 states’ capitols. Additionally, a representative of the FBI’s Boston office told NBC News on Monday that it “is...

The FBI sent a warning that armed protests may be planned for all state capitols in the U.S. Jan. 16-20.