Political Notebook: Teachers vs. Smith & Wesson
Plus, fact-checking public records spending, and wait ‘til next year for rent control disclosures
The state’s largest teachers union is now the single biggest financial backer of keeping a 2024 gun control law on the books.
THE CODCAST
Artificial intelligence enthusiasm and energy needs clash on Healey’s docket
Gov. Maura Healey is all-in on artificial intelligence, but she’s also trying to get a handle on soaring energy costs and a growing backlash to the very structures supporting the AI boom — data centers. This week on The Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporters Jennifer Smith and Jordan Wolman discuss the governor’s new executive order trying to make data centers greener and more responsive to community feedback, and the paradox of pushing for expanded AI usage as communities revolt against its infrastructure.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Commonwealth in depth
The Dean of Massachusetts mayors
Leominster bills itself as ‘a city on the move,’ but it hasn’t elected a new mayor in more than three decades
BY THE NUMBERS
Yet again, legislative competition in Massachusetts will be woeful
Three in five House, Senate races will feature only one candidate on the ballot
From the Archives
On Heritage Road
In the heart of suburbia, anxieties about the new economy
