CommonWealth Beacon

12/19/2025

ICYMI: Tax ballot questions emerging as Beacon Hill boogeyman

House budget chief takes aim at ‘irresponsible’ proposal to slash income tax rate

12/19/2025

OPINION: Why are we looking to deport ambition?

These students are tomorrow’s nurses, engineers, teachers, artists, and entrepreneurs. Driving them from classrooms is a moral failure, but also an economic one: It makes the next generation smaller,...

12/19/2025

COURTS: A group of holdout towns is banking on the very court that declared the legislation mandatory in January to rule that the mandate is illegal without dedicated funding.

A group of holdout towns is banking on the very court that declared the legislation mandatory in January to rule that the mandate is illegal without dedicated funding.

12/18/2025

NEW: T says weekend ridership nearly back to 2019 levels

Chief Operating Officer Ryan Coholan said weekend ridership is nearly back to 2019 levels.

12/18/2025

A proposal to cap rents at no more than inflation across Massachusetts took another step toward the 2026 election Thursday when Secretary of State William Galvin's office announced the campaign collected enough voter signatures to advance.

Reporters Jennifer Smith and Chris Lisinski explain how the ballot question would take a more dramatic approach than previous rent control ideas and why progressives are split over whether to embrace it.

12/18/2025

OPINION: Everyday people--and not just advocates deep in the trenches--are seeing that things need to change.

Everyday people--and not just advocates deep in the trenches--are seeing that things need to change.

12/18/2025

ICYMI: A push to build housing in ‘God’s backyard’

Massachusetts YIGBY legislation would allow faith-based organizations to build multi-family housing by right on parcels they've owned for at least three years.

12/18/2025

ICYMI: Guv urges ICE to halt deportation flights out of Hanscom

Healey demanded the agency "immediately stop using any Massachusetts airports and private jets to deport residents and obstruct due process, and to halt this practice across this country."

12/18/2025

NEW: MBTA Communities fight heads back to the SJC

A group of holdout towns is banking on the very court that declared the legislation mandatory in January to rule that the mandate is illegal without dedicated funding.

12/18/2025

ECONOMY: House budget chief takes aim at ‘irresponsible’ proposal to slash income tax rate

House budget chief takes aim at ‘irresponsible’ proposal to slash income tax rate

12/18/2025

☀️ Good morning, Massachusetts! Here are today's most popular stories:

1. A push to build housing in ‘God’s backyard’

Massachusetts YIGBY legislation would allow faith-based organizations to build multi-family housing by right on parcels they've owned for at least three years.

12/18/2025

OPINION: These students are tomorrow’s nurses, engineers, teachers, artists, and entrepreneurs. Driving them from classrooms is a moral failure, but also an economic one: It makes the next generation smaller, less educated, and less able to compete in a global economy that depends on talent and drive. We are shooting ourselves in the foot.

These students are tomorrow’s nurses, engineers, teachers, artists, and entrepreneurs. Driving them from classrooms is a moral failure, but also an economic one: It makes the next generation smaller,...