UPDATED 10/8/25 1:11PM: To include clarification from the governor’s office on the staff changes. The name of a new staffer for Governor Maura Healey will sound familiar to some in the Lower Valley. Tuesday brought news that the governor’s new legislative director would be Thomas
Transition is coming early to the City of Easthampton. Mayor Nicole LaChapelle, who had announced last year she would not seek another term, will resign early to take on a new state role. Come July 21, LaChapelle will join Governor Maura Healey’s administration as Commissioner of the Department of Conservation & Recreation.
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.
SOUTH HADLEY—Despite a life of activism in politics, State Senator Jake Oliveira’s state electoral career only just began. However, his sophomore term in Beacon Hill’s upper house will differ from his previous two in the legislature.
Last Monday, the Springfield City Councilors chewed over an unusual batch of appointments to the Water & Sewer Commission: all of them. Before the body at its regular meeting were confirmations for all three members of the body.
As attorney general of Massachusetts, Maura Healey essentially ran point for the commonwealth’s legal opposition to Donald Trump. Now Healey is governor, a very different role than attorney general, and Trump has returned. Her successor in the AG’s office is facing a landscape not unlike the one Healey did—and Attorney General Andrea Campbell has been busy.
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) has selected a site for a rail station in Palmer, marking a significant step for the project. The choice may bring some controversy. The agency chose “Site B,” a location on the south side of a CSX railyard half of a mile from downtown Palmer. The state will now proceed to a conceptual design phase.
BOSTON—In her second State of the Commonwealth address, which solemnly nodded at the coming national change, Governor Maura Healey celebrated legislative accomplishments and restated 2025 goals. Among these were her $8 billion transportation plan. It was a laundry list and a pep rally that, as
BOSTON—The first sign may have been the duller than usual roar in the hours before legislators took the oath of office—COVID-era ceremonies aside. The galleries in the Senate chamber were busy, but not packed. The schmoozing wrapped up early. Little more than an hour after
After two years in office, Governor Maura Healey has made a mark on the judiciary. Governors can effectively choose whomever they wish to sit on the bench, subject to Governor’s Council confirmation. To that end, advocates have been pressing Healey to pick someone from Hampden County to join the Appeals Court.