CommonWealth Beacon

6 days ago | commonwealthbeacon.org | Jennifer Smith

PRICES ARE BALLOONING, unit construction is stagnating, populations are declining, and a housing crisis deserves to be treated as such, the Barnstable County Assembly of Delegates declared on Wednesday. The regional legislative body voted 14-1, which counts as 79 percent to 21 percent because the delegates’ votes are weighted by their town’s population, in favor of a resolution declaring a housing crisis on Cape Cod.

1 week ago | commonwealthbeacon.org | Gintautas Dumcius

THE MASSACHUSETTS PORT Authority, which owns and operates high emissions-producing Logan International Airport, has hired its first chief climate and resilience officer. The agency, also known as Massport, announced the hiring of Jill Valdes Horwood, who has worked for the Barr Foundation, a grant-making private foundation, and advocacy group Boston Harbor Now, as the new chief.

1 week ago | commonwealthbeacon.org | Gintautas Dumcius

CONSUMER SHOCK at high energy bills this frigid winter sent Gov. Maura Healey and Massachusetts policymakers scrambling to ease the burden. State regulators cut by $500 million the proposed budget for MassSave, an energy efficiency program for consumers interested in help buying heat pumps and electric vehicle equipment.

1 week ago | commonwealthbeacon.org | Michael Jonas

THE GOVERNOR proposes, the Legislature disposes.  So goes the saying that points to who ultimately wields power on Beacon Hill. On most issues, lawmakers can have the final say.  That’s true for things introduced by the governor, but it also extends to other players in state government.   A case in point is the ongoing debate over vocational high school admission policies, which a top House official is suddenly looking to upend through one legislative lever or another.

1 week ago | commonwealthbeacon.org | Jennifer Smith

AT SOME POINT between February and early March, as seasonal wind and rain hammered New England coasts, a relatively new but enthusiastically embraced tool for predicting erosion slipped off the Federal Emergency Management Agency website. Pioneered on Nantucket in 2020, the Coastal Erosion Hazard viewer that covered all of New England is now unavailable.