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Maura Healey

Analysis: Fair Share Fretting Belongs Firmly in the Commonwealth’s Past…

Last Tuesday, Governor Maura Healey signed a $1.3 billion supplemental spending bill. The funds will pour hundreds of millions of dollars into both education and transportation. The Millionaires Tax, or Fair Share Amendment, voters approved in 2022 will pay for the spending. Healey, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll and legislators gathered to fete the critical investments in the commonwealth’s people and infrastructure.

It is hard to believe a little over a week before, Healey seemed to doubt the tax.

Springfield No Kings

Springfield, Like Many Other Communities, Rejects a King (Again, Technically)…

SPRINGFIELD—A crowd of hundreds—and perhaps well over a thousand—here joined protesters across the 413 and the United States for the “No Kings” protests aimed at Donald Trump. Hours before Trump’s sputtering military parade in Washington, Americans rallied to oppose his increasingly monarchical tendencies.

Demonstrators gathered at the Federal Courthouse on State Street, filling the plaza at State and Elliot Streets and lining State nearly a block in each direction.

Springfield

Take My Council, Please: To Be Crossing the Threshold…

The ghost of Eastfield Mall and the promise of its property’s future hovered over the Springfield City Council on June 2. The administration presented the Council with a District Improvement Financing (DIF) plan to help pay for infrastructure around the site of what will be Springfield Crossing.

Justin Hurst

Justin Hurst Announces Comeback Bid…to Springfield City Council…

Although only the City Council and School Committee are on the ballot this year, Springfield’s midterm elections had been shaping up into a competitive affair. However, no at-large Councilor is retiring and the odds of defenestrating an at-large incumbent are daunting. That may have changed on Friday. Former at-large City Councilor Justin Hurst pulled papers on Friday to reclaim a citywide seat on the Council.

EPA

Springfield and Attorney General Coordinating to Recover $20 Million Feds Snatched…

The federal government has confirmed its cancellation of a $20 million environmental grant to the city of Springfield, but officials are not giving in. There is a formal, administrative appeal process. When city officials learned of the grant’s cancellation, it said it was considering all options. Since then, the city has been in touch with the office of Attorney General Andrea Campbell. That could add some firepower to Springfield’s response.

Biomass

If Biomass Could Turn Back Time; Appeals Court Found a Way…

This past Wednesday, the Massachusetts Appeals Court overturned a lower court ruling and, in effect, reanimated—although did not fully resurrect—the prospect of a biomass plant in Springfield. The decision gives the biomass plant proposed for Page Boulevard enough life to punch open the project’s coffin.

Springfield City Council DCAMM

DCAMM and Springfield Discuss Their Long-term Relationship with the Courthouse…

SPRINGFIELD—Residents of the city and state officials agree something must replace the aging and possibly dangerous Hampden County Courthouse. Yet, they aligned on little else during a nearly two-hour meeting at City Hall. Ward 7 Councilor Timothy Allen, who chairs the City Council’s Finance Committee, convened the meeting to provide residents with another opportunity to hear from state officials and provide feedback.

The Division of Capital Asset Management & Maintenance (DCAMM) is moving forward with a new courthouse secured via a lease.

Khalil Perkins Coie

Editorial: From Khalil to Perkins Coie, a Trump Threat to Free Speech Is Metastasizing…

Last fall, when we endorsed the Democratic ticket, we warned that Donald Trump sought to target the enemy within. To us, that plainly meant “Americans. Your friends, your neighbors, critics, journalists, indeed, your editor-in-chief.” Three months in, we have seen his will, if not always the power, to execute that prerogative and endanger the Constitutional rights all in this nation possess.