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By MADDIE FABIAN

BOSTON — The Senate moved Thursday to give people the option to select a nonbinary “X” identification on their driver’s licenses and birth certificates, a choice LGBTQ allies have been advocating for years.The Massachusetts Senate unanimously voted to...

By SAM DORAN

BOSTON — Top House and Senate Democrats negotiating the fiscal year 2024 state budget, which is now four weeks overdue, announced Friday afternoon they had “reached an agreement in principle” paving the way for final votes at the formal sessions...

By CHRIS LARABEE

Legislators, education association representatives, and school and town officials were briefed Thursday morning on bills proposing to codify numerous recommendations to ensure the long-term sustain ability of rural schools.Bills H.3567 and S.2388,...

By CHRIS LARABEE

WHATELY — With a statewide push for renewable energy and electric vehicles, how will the Massachusetts Legislature approach modernizing the grid that would be supplying all this power? The answer, at this point, is unclear, but state Sen. Paul Mark...

By SAM DRYSDALE and CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Massachusetts voters could be asked to settle two major education debates in 2024, but retailers may pass on bringing tax cuts to next year’s ballot.The state’s largest teachers union is considering ballot questions that would eliminate the...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — Forty years after the state added a 5-cent deposit on some plastic bottles to encourage recycling, climate advocates say it’s “the right moment” to expand the state’s bottle redemption law.Proposals before the Committee on Telecommunications,...

By JAMES PENTLAND

WILLIAMSBURG — State Auditor Diana DiZoglio knows she’s going up against powerful interests with her push to audit the Massachusetts Legislature, but she’s forging ahead regardless.“We’ll be preparing a report,” she told an audience of 30 at the Anne...

By MARY BYRNE

Dozens of superintendents, including a handful from Franklin County and the North Quabbin region, have signed a letter to lawmakers urging them to make permanent the universal meals program School Meals for All, rather than just extend it for another...

By COLIN A. YOUNG

BOSTON — Following years of a piecemeal approach to PFAS contamination and more than a year after a task force unanimously recommended 30 steps to deal with the problem, environmental groups, consumer advocates, firefighters and the Attorney General’s...

By CHRIS LISINSKI

BOSTON — Lawmakers intend to schedule this year’s mandatory sales tax holiday for the weekend of Aug. 12-13, Senate President Karen Spilka said Monday.With a Thursday deadline to set the dates approaching, Spilka told reporters the Legislature intends...

By JAMES PENTLAND

Pioneer Valley peace activists and others urged a joint legislative committee Monday to pass a bill with strong local support that would establish a special commission to investigate the existential threats posed by nuclear weapons and climate...

By CHRIS LARABEE

SOUTH DEERFIELD — What began as a class project exploring students’ civic identities has found its way nearly 100 miles east, as three Frontier Regional School students testified at the State House Tuesday afternoon to support a bill they helped file...

By JAMES PENTLAND and BELLA LEVAVI

With the passage of the state Senate’s $55.9 billion budget for fiscal year 2024 last week, numerous area organizations can look forward to a financial boost.Sen. Jo Comerford, D-Northampton, and Sen. Paul Mark, D-Becket, secured earmarks for projects...

By SYDNEY KO

When she was 13 nearly a decade ago, University of Massachusetts graduate student Maggie Buswick was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Her doctors informed her that she needed to receive the “highest level” treatment of radioactive iodine, which is a...

By SAM DRYSDALE

BOSTON — As Massachusetts moves toward its 2050 deadline to reach net-zero carbon emissions, climate activists had lawmakers’ attention on Wednesday, proposing a new idea to reduce an unlikely source of carbon in the state.A bill sponsored by Rep....

By BOB KATZEN

There were no roll calls in the House or Senate last week. This week, Beacon Hill Roll Call reports on the percentage of times local representatives voted with their party’s leadership during the first four months of the 2023 session. The votes of...

By SCOTT MERZBACH

NORTHAMPTON — A panel known as the Select Committee on Pesticide Reduction in 2019 issued a report to the Northampton City Council urging municipal leaders to consider eliminating the use of pesticides.“If deemed absolutely necessary, any pesticide...

By BELLA LEVAVI

BOSTON — School committee members, administrators and students with the Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont regional school districts, along with elected officials from member towns, converged on the State House earlier this month to further advocate for...

By DOMENIC POLI

BOSTON — At least three Greenfield residents and the state senator representing 25 communities in Hampshire, Franklin and Worcester counties have submitted testimony to the Joint Committee on the Judiciary to express support for a bill that would...

By SYDNEY KO

Following the lead of New York and Maryland, veterinarians in Massachusetts are gathering support to ban procedures that declaw cats.A bill introduced by Sen. Mark Montigny, D-New Bedford, aims to ban the practice, a move veterinarians in...