A western Massachusetts press that publishes the work of one new female poet every year is celebrating twenty years. Perugia Press marks this milestone as its founder, director and editor, Susan Kan, is stepping aside.
Click the audio player above to hear Kan’s conversation with New England Public Radio’s Carrie Healy.
If the 2015-2016 legislative agenda were a bonfire, it’s now burning brightly, with a thick bed of embers, and Rep. Brian Dempsey is getting ready to hoist an oversized log onto the blaze. A session impaired out of the gate by the fierce early 2015 winter caught fire with last year’s major MBTA reform law and lawmakers recently fed the flames first with a law targeting opioid addiction and then with a new driving law statute to assist ex-offenders.
On deck is a law to spark the solar energy industry, with legislation to that end receiving Gov. Charlie Baker’s signature on Monday at a State House event with legislative leaders. With both branches hosting formal sessions on Wednesday, lawmakers may also send the governor a routine bill allocating $200 million for annual local road and bridge repairs, a cut from $300 million awarded by the state in 2015.
The lone conference committee still trying to reach compromise is focused on access to public records, with proponents hopeful for a resolution that will shine a light on more records and critics still trying to water that bill down.
Dempsey chairs the House Ways and Means Committee, which plans to unveil details Wednesday of its fiscal 2017 budget bill. Gov. Baker proposed a $39.55 billion budget bill (H 2) that calls for a 3.5 percent spending increase.
Ten years ago Tuesday, Gov. Mitt Romney, surrounded by Democrats, signed what came to be known as RomneyCare, a universal health care access law that became a model for the federal Affordable Care Act.
Click on the audio player above to hear State House News Service reporter Matt Murphy discuss Beacon Hill politics with NEPR’s Henry Epp.
Memorial Day weekend is often a time for families to observe long-standing traditions. For some, that includes the Massachusetts Sheep and Woolcraft Fair. Since the 1970s, the Cummington Fairgrounds in the western Massachusetts hilltown of Cummington has hosted sheep and wool enthusiasts for a weekend of family and sheep focused events.
The first such gathering was organized by Clifford Thayer in 1974. This year, one of the organizers of the 40th annual Mass Sheep and Woolcraft Fair is Cliff’s daughter, Shawn. New England Public Radio’s Carrie Healy, who herself raises sheep with her family, talked with Cliff and his daughter Shawn, surrounded by sheep in the Thayer’s barn in Cummington.