On the monthly Health or Consequences episode of The Codcast, John McDonough of the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute talk with Vicki Poulos, a senior health law attorney at the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute. They discuss discuss the massive 2025 federal tax-and-spend law and its consequences for MassHealth and the Connector, what the state can do to limit coverage losses, and immigrant insurance eligibility cuts.
Month: May 2026
Local leaders say the $85 million development — which will be reserved for residents age 62 and older with incomes up to 60 percent of the area median income — will help alleviate the city’s housing shortage and provide an affordable, accessible option to some of Lynn’s most vulnerable residents.
A year after Gov. Maura Healey dubbed health insurance premium increases “simply unsustainable,” carriers are once again pursuing sizable rate changes that will fuel ongoing debate about the state’s affordability.
Don’t expect a tidy resolution now that the state’s highest court has stamped an initial mark on the auditor’s long-running crusade to probe the House and Senate.
The report argues the permitting gap doesn’t reflect a lack of homeowner interest, but rather a regulatory system that was never designed to handle an influx of development of the small housing units across 351 cities and towns with their own set of permitting rules.
Salem and New Bedford both received millions from the state to develop the sites of retired fossil fuel power plants into terminals that would serve as logistics and operations centers for the construction of offshore wind. But wind projects have long been struggling to get off the ground.
Barney Frank, the first member of Congress to voluntarily come out publicly as gay and a liberal bulldog who left his fingerprints on the nation’s banking regulations, died May 20, 2026. He was 86.
Enbridge’s announcement is bound to ignite a firestorm and set off a host of thorny questions, while Gov. Maura Healey’s position on natural gas will again be put to the test as the proposal lands amid her reelection campaign.
One bill would ban anyone in Massachusetts from manufacturing, selling, possessing or operating a robotic device equipped with a weapon. Violators would face mandatory prison sentences of between 18 months and five years, with tougher penalties for repeat offenses.
Dave Denison was the first editor of CommonWealth magazine and oversaw the publication of its first issue 30 years ago, in the spring of 1996. Although much has changed about the country, the state, and the organization since the 1990s, Denison and current editor Laura Colarusso discuss the enduring mission of creating a more transparent political system for the common good.