With the state mired in a labor crunch, MassHealth hopes to double its call center workforce capacity in the next two months to deal with the undertaking of determining which of the 2.3 million people on the state-funded health plan are still eligible.
The sound of chanting students rang through the State House during the Massachusetts YouthBuild Coalition's annual advocacy day Tuesday, as the group looks to keep hold of its funding to serve around 300 participants in 11 cities.
The state's governing document still only refers to elected officials by male pronouns. And while the process to change that language would be lengthy, this is the year to start because "history has blown by the Massachusetts Constitution," according to one lawmaker.
For a Revenue Committee hearing, there was relatively little in-depth talk Tuesday about the nitty-gritty details of Gov. Maura Healey's tax package.
The Department of Children and Families is dealing with fewer cases today than it was several years ago, but those that remain are increasingly complex matters involving children with significant needs, the bureau chief said Tuesday.
Lawmakers should approve both funding proposals Gov. Maura Healey rolled out in the past month to ease the burden on schools facing a jump in special education costs, not one or the other, a top administration official said Tuesday.
While a new wrinkle has emerged, House and Senate Democrats appear to heading for a relatively early session agreement on legislation allocating $200 million for local road and bridge work and another $150 million for transportation-related infrastructure grants.
More than half of the roughly $2.6 billion in emergency education aid the federal government steered to Massachusetts during the pandemic remains unspent, according to a top Department of Elementary and Secondary Education official.
Sales at the Massachusetts Lottery were up more than 20 percent in February, due in large part to a sizable bump in sales of a key product that Lottery officials have been concerned about in the last year.
Despite high demand for workers with tech skills, there are persistent gaps and inequities in computer science courses for Massachusetts high school students, according to a new report, which recommends that the state eventually mandate that students take a computer science class in order to graduate.
From fish being reeled in by anglers in Taunton to the drinking water at an elementary school in New Salem, so-called forever chemicals known as PFAS are everywhere, the questions and comments from lawmakers from various corners of Massachusetts at Monday's Joint Committee on Ways and Means budget hearing made clear.
![After introducing himself to Massachusetts at a Riverside Station press conference on Monday -- and making clear that he's a Mets fan, not a Yankees fan -- incoming MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng hopped aboard a Green Line train to head into Boston for more meetings with T staff. [Chris Lisinski/SHNS]](https://www.statehousenews.com/content/frontpage_photo/2023/03-27_Phillip_Eng_Presser_1.jpg "After introducing himself to Massachusetts at a Riverside Station press conference on Monday -- and making clear that he's a Mets fan, not a Yankees fan -- incoming MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng hopped aboard a Green Line train to head into Boston for more meetings with T staff. [Chris Lisinski/SHNS]")
Incoming MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng is walking into an agency where slow zones cover more than a quarter of subway tracks, service cuts persist on heavy rail and buses, and the chasm of a budget shortfall in the hundreds of millions of dollars looms just a couple of years away.
The Greater Boston Real Estate Board has a new leadership slate ... After advising several federal and state campaigns in the region, communications firm SKDK has launched a New England practice ... The Massachusetts Health and Hospital Association has a new health equity leader whose resume goes back to Mayor Menino's administration ... And the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development has a new communications director ...
![Gov. Maura Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and Housing and Economic Development Secretary Yvonne Hao speak to reporters after a hearing on creating a new housing secretariat. [Sam Drysdale/SHNS]](https://www.statehousenews.com/content/frontpage_photo/2023/03-27_Healey_Driscoll_Hao.jpg "Gov. Maura Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and Housing and Economic Development Secretary Yvonne Hao speak to reporters after a hearing on creating a new housing secretariat. [Sam Drysdale/SHNS]")
Tim Scalona woke up on a June morning in 2012 ready to play video games and go outside with his neighbors. Instead, he watched his family home in Wilmington packed up into cardboard boxes, beginning their decade of homelessness.
When the Federal Transit Administration concluded last year that the Department of Public Utilities fell short in its safety oversight of the MBTA, the department's then-chair told lawmakers that it was working to roughly double the number of employees in its Transportation Oversight Division. More than six months and a new chair later, DPU is still trying to bulk up its safety staff.
The Senate on Monday queued up a redraft of the borrowing bill to finance local road and bridge improvements, placing that matter on the calendar for a Thursday formal session even though it's still in committee.
Winters in Massachusetts are changing and that means the Department of Transportation has to rethink how it talks about its wintertime snow and ice removal operations, which are also becoming more expensive because of the changes.
The House on Monday approved a bill allowing the city of Boston to waive the maximum age requirement for one of its police officers and advanced two other local bills dealing with police in Leicester and Watertown. No other business emerged during the lightly attended session, which came on the heels of last week's approval of a roughly $1.1 billion combined spending and borrowing bill and authorization of $350 million in funds for local road work and transportation infrastructure.
![Newly-announced MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng. [Governor's Office]](https://www.statehousenews.com/content/frontpage_photo/2023/03-27_Phillip_Eng.jpg "Newly-announced MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng. [Governor's Office]")
Phillip Eng, a longtime engineer and former president of the Long Island Rail Road, will become the next top leader at the MBTA as Gov. Maura Healey's administration sets out to put the ailing transit agency on firmer footing.
After running for president early in her second term, Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Monday declared she will seek a third U.S. Senate term in 2024, promising to pass a "wealth tax," more strictly regulate banks, and modernize transportation in Massachusetts.