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By SAM DRYSDALE

Career technical schools in Massachusetts will use a lottery system to admit students when there are more applicants than available seats, an approach that supporters say will ensure fairness and critics warn will water down education standards.

By SAM DRYSDALE

The state will close its remaining motel and hotel shelters this summer, Gov. Maura Healey announced Monday, as the governor and lawmakers have imposed restrictions on the emergency housing system over the past year and family enrollment has declined.

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — The state is soliciting proposals from artists, historians, designers, “culture bearers” and anyone else who has an idea for a new Massachusetts state seal, flag and motto.

By CHRIS LISINKSI

BOSTON — A key piece of a federal spending cut and tax relief plan that’s on the move in Washington could result in Massachusetts losing more than $1 billion annually and hundreds of thousands of Bay Staters losing health coverage, according to the Healey administration.

By MICHAEL P. NORTON

BOSTON — Surtax supporters have released data that they said pokes holes in the argument that the state’s new tax on high earners is causing higher-income residents to move out of Massachusetts.

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey is proposing to repeal a law put in place by voters as part of a worldwide nuclear freeze movement, a bid to open the door to greater deployment of newer nuclear energy facilities as part of a push to save ratepayers $10 billion over a decade.

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — One representative called it a “wonderful, reefer-smelling bag” and another worried a drug-sniffing dog might alert to him at the airport later as he passed the bundle of products down the Cannabis Policy Committee dais.

By JENNIFER PEDERSON

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — The House chairman of a key committee said that policymakers are reevaluating all of Massachusetts’ climate and emissions mandates, plans and goals in light of changes in federal energy policy, cracking open the door to the possibility of changes to the state’s commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2050.

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — As President Donald Trump passes 100 days in his second term in office, Gov. Maura Healey says she’s still willing to work with him, but called his administration “a disaster” so far.

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — While Senate Democrats do not have much legislative action ready to launch in response to President Donald Trump, they spent more than two hours Monday ripping into the administration’s immigration crackdown and warning about damage to the rule of law.

By ADITI THUBE

Mike Kennealy didn’t grow up dreaming of politics. He grew up in a middle-class family in Reading. His father was a steelworker, and his mother was a homemaker. From them, he inherited hard work and a deep belief in fairness.

By SAM DRYSDALE

Gov. Maura Healey on Wednesday nominated two new Superior Court judges, both of whom her office pointed out live in western Massachusetts, after a group of 20 lawmakers called on the governor to fill several vacant seats in the area.

By KEVIN HODGSON and LESLIE SKANTZ-HODGSON

All politics is local, so goes the adage, often attributed to Massachusetts’ own, “Tip” O’Neill.

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — The number of antisemitic incidents reported in Massachusetts was essentially unchanged in 2024, though officials with the Anti-Defamation League said the total is “part of a troubling long-term trend” of heightened harassment, vandalism and assault.

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — Economic Development Secretary Yvonne Hao is stepping down from her port at the end of the month, with Undersecretary of Economic Foundations Ashley Stolba in line to take over the secretary’s duties on an interim basis, the Healey administration said Tuesday.

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Senate Democrats announced a bill Monday morning intended to shield reproductive and transgender care in Massachusetts from out-of-state threats, saying it was part of the response effort to the Trump administration.

By Alison Kuznitz

With three state-funded youth mental health programs at risk of closing, lawmakers and providers ramped up their opposition this week to Gov. Maura Healey’s proposed budget cuts that come as Massachusetts continues to grapple with a behavioral health care crisis.

By U.S. SEN. EDWARD J. MARKEY

Western Massachusetts farmers are used to facing and overcoming challenges — from late frosts and damaging storms to droughts and soil erosion, and more. What they’re not accustomed to is the president of the United States standing in their way of earning a living and bolstering our local economies.

By ELLA ADAMS

BOSTON — Students warned lawmakers Tuesday of funding deficits and unpredictability, faculty layoffs and slashed electives at regional and rural schools, piling on to heightened calls to “crack open” the state’s Chapter 70 and rural aid funding formula.

By ANDREW MOREHOUSE and CHARLOTTE BONEY

The Food Bank of Western Massachusetts recently received troubling news: the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has canceled a portion of its food deliveries through August — an estimated $440,000 worth of food we were counting on. While this represents only 1% of our total distribution last year, it’s a serious shortfall that will force us to draw on emergency reserves to purchase food. Even more concerning are the proposed federal cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). These cuts would deepen food insecurity across western Massachusetts and further strain our already overburdened food assistance network.