Commonwealth Magazine

IN A STEP toward menstrual equity, the Senate unanimously passed a bill on Wednesday that would make disposable menstrual products available at no cost in prisons, homeless shelters, and public schools. “I don’t say that very often for bills coming through the Legislature, but this one is simple,” said Senate President Karen Spilka at a press(...)

A PROPOSED TRANSMISSION cable manufacturing plant in Somerset to serve the US offshore wind industry cleared a major hurdle on Thursday when the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals voted unanimously to revise one of the conditions that had become a sticking point with the company. The board in mid-September voted unanimously to require Prysmian to(...)

IN TODAY’S AMERICA, the cost of college is nothing short of staggering. But this was not always so; in 1987, tuition and fees at a public institution in Massachusetts totaled $1,352 annually; equivalent to $3,220 in today’s dollars. This was a time when a summer gig paired with part-time work during the academic year could(...)

THE NEW MASSACHUSETTS state auditor won the Democratic nomination for the job in 2022 with an aggressive campaign centered on making the auditor the chief legislative transparency officer at the State House. At present, state Auditor Diana DiZoglio is attempting to sue the state Legislature into cooperating with her, while simultaneously supporting a proposed 2024(...)

NEARLY 50 YEARS AGO, I was hired by a prominent union side labor law firm as the first woman to practice union side labor law in Massachusetts. I learned that I had the position from the memo line on the check the firm sent reimbursing my interview costs: “Girl to be hired.” (I still have(...)

THE STATE’S public housing infrastructure is, to put it lightly, strained. And it didn’t get that way by accident. “The way I talk about it is that it’s not that you have a bowl that has some holes in it – it’s that our housing system in America is built to be a sieve,” Kenzie(...)

Encourages governor to make ‘temporary policy changes’ in 1983 law

Kenzie Bok says housing shortage no accident

2023 election (tag)

A SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE is expected to rule by the end of the day Wednesday on whether to block Gov. Maura Healey from putting a cap on shelter placements and waitlist families looking for emergency shelter. Judge Debra Squires-Lee on Tuesday heard arguments at an emergency hearing in Suffolk Superior Court. Lawyers for Civil Rights,(...)