THE NOVEMBER BALLOT is coming into focus as the Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday ruled that a question regulating dental insurance can proceed to the ballot. The ballot question would require dental insurers to spend at least 83 percent of premiums on clinical costs and quality improvements, rather than administrative costs. This is referred to […]
Shira Schoenberg
Shira Schoenberg is a reporter at CommonWealth magazine. Shira previously worked for more than seven years at the Springfield Republican/MassLive.com where she covered state politics and elections, covering topics as diverse as the launch of the legal marijuana industry, problems with the state's foster care system and the elections of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Gov. Charlie Baker. Shira won the Massachusetts Bar Association's 2018 award for Excellence in Legal Journalism and has had several stories win awards from the New England Newspaper and Press Association. Shira covered the 2012 New Hampshire presidential primary for the Boston Globe. Before that, she worked for the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, where she wrote about state government, City Hall and Barack Obama's 2008 New Hampshire primary campaign. Shira holds a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
Posted inPolitics
Where does battle over app drivers go now?
FORGET NOVEMBER 2022. It will likely be a long time before Uber and Lyft drivers get certainty about their employment status in Massachusetts. Today, drivers are considered independent contractors, but Attorney General Maura Healey has sued, arguing that, under state law, they should be classified as employees. After the Supreme Judicial Court on Tuesday tossed […]
Posted inBallot Questions, Courts, Economy
SJC throws out Uber-Lyft ballot question
THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT on Tuesday threw out a ballot question that would classify ride-share drivers as independent contractors, putting a sudden end to what was primed to be an enormously expensive ballot campaign that was already gaining national attention. In a 31-page unanimous decision written by Justice Scott Kafker, the court concluded that the […]
Posted inHealth Care
Hospitals report over 1,000 patients awaiting discharges with nowhere to go
AT UMASS MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER in Worcester on Monday, there were 63 patients stuck in the emergency room waiting for an inpatient hospital bed to open up. Meanwhile, there were 80 patients on inpatient units who were ready to leave and give their beds to someone else. But the hospital could not discharge them safely, […]
Posted inBallot Questions, Courts, Economy, Politics
SJC lets liquor license question head to ballot
A QUESTION REFORMING the state’s liquor license system will continue on to the November ballot, after the Supreme Judicial Court on Monday upheld the attorney general’s decision that the question is constitutional. The ballot question, which is being advocated for by the Massachusetts Package Store Association, centers on a complicated dispute between package stores and food […]
Posted inMarijuana, State Government
Do marijuana community impact fees really address impacts?
AARON VEGA, director of the Office of Economic Development and Planning for the city of Holyoke, said the money Holyoke collects in community impact fees from cannabis companies will address costs related to the industry. So far, Holyoke spent $45,000 of nearly $2 million collected on staff for Vega’s office to review special permits for […]
Posted inImmigration, Transportation
Undocumented immigrants can get Mass. drivers’ licenses in July 2023
THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE completed its override of Gov. Charlie Baker’s veto on Thursday, allowing immigrants without legal status to obtain a driver’s license in Massachusetts. The state is the 17th, in addition to Washington, DC, to adopt that policy. The House overrode Baker’s veto with a 119-36 vote on Wednesday. The Senate followed suit Thursday with a […]
Posted inHealth Care
Employer health plans are expensive in Massachusetts
IF YOU WORK for a Massachusetts company, it’s likely your employer offers health insurance. But it will cost you. Survey results of 806 employers released Thursday by the Center for Health Information and Analysis found that 74 percent of Massachusetts firms offered their employees health insurance in 2021, compared to 59 percent of companies nationally. […]
Posted inPolitics
Legislature moves toward adopting permanent voting by mail
THE MASSACHUSETTS LEGISLATURE is poised to adopt permanent voting by mail, but not same-day voter registration. A committee of House-Senate negotiators on Wednesday released the final version of a voting reform bill, which will be subject to an up or down vote in the House and the Senate. The Senate plans to take up the […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Opioid overdose deaths up by 9 percent last year
THE NUMBER OF OPIOID overdose deaths in Massachusetts rose by 9 percent in 2021, a worrying number in a state that had started seeing some success in addressing the opioid epidemic when COVID-19 hit and reversed that progress. “These are sobering and devastating statistics,” said Deirdre Calvert, director of the Bureau of Substance Abuse Services […]