Local coverage
Built from what residents actually filed with the city — objections, petitions, appeals and public comment — not from press releases.
Boston public records — hearings, licences, layoffs and county notices as live tables, linked to the source.
Reformer faces independent Joe Pagliarulo in November to replace 2-decade incumbent
Why it matters: The next DA will decide whether to continue Morrissey's approach or shift course on high-profile prosecutions and police accountability cases in a county of 700,000.
Second Boston judge in four months to sanction ICE for false court statements
Why it matters: If federal courts stop trusting ICE's sworn statements, the agency must produce independent evidence to hold immigrants—changing who gets detained and released.
New technology would let PreCheck travelers keep ID and boarding pass in pocket
Why it matters: If the rollout proceeds, your face becomes your boarding pass at Logan — the post-9/11 ritual of showing ID at security starts to disappear.
Plan seeks 1.8 million square feet of housing and retail along the Dorchester Avenue corridor
Why it matters: If approved, this proposal and Core's 'On the Dot' would turn Dorchester Avenue from an industrial strip into a dense residential corridor.
Appeals court upholds block on USPS mail-ballot rule; Supreme Court weighs emergency appeal as midterm ballots go out
Why it matters: States must submit voter data and adopt federal barcoded envelopes within weeks, or the Postal Service will not deliver their mail ballots.
Healey's order ties state permits to community agreements and 100% clean energy as more towns move to ban or pause data centers
Why it matters: Anyone building a data center in Massachusetts must now win over the host town first — a model other states may copy.
New transmission line shut off eight days after going live during a cold snap
Why it matters: If Hydro-Québec can cut exports whenever Quebec gets cold, New England's clean-energy plan rests on a switch Quebec controls.
Maria Rosales, detained at Logan Airport in July, can amend her complaint against ICE
Why it matters: If Rosales wins, it could force ICE to review DACA renewals and curb warrantless arrests of protected immigrants.
David Higgins built six homes on a three-quarter-acre Plain Street parcel. His seventh and final proposal was unanimously rejected.
Why it matters: Boston's zoning board just showed that a decade-long build-out can be stopped by neighborhood opposition and site review requirements.
Insect confirmed in more than 145 cities and towns as fall egg-laying season begins
Why it matters: If the spread continues, spotted lanternflies could reach Massachusetts vineyards and maple groves, threatening crops the state's farms depend on.
A $2.275 million settlement with SafeRent Solutions limits how tenant screening algorithms can weigh credit history for voucher holders
Why it matters: If algorithms decide who gets housing, then those algorithms must follow fair housing law — this settlement sets a precedent for the entire tenant screening industry.
NECAT's tuition-free program will leave Mass and Cass for a transit-accessible home in Roxbury
Why it matters: This $18M move decides whether unemployed Bostonians get expanded free culinary training outside the Mass and Cass drug zone.
Mass resignation of a construction insurance team triggered a Suffolk Superior Court fight over clients and no-poach agreements
Why it matters: If WTW wins an injunction, insurance brokers across the industry face sharper limits on recruiting entire teams and taking client books with them.
Zoning board approves conversion after developer drops 20 apartments
Why it matters: Boston avoids a $60M courthouse renovation by moving into a converted 1948 bank, but the deal required dropping 20 planned apartments.
The Woburn developer exits a 95-unit project approved under Boston's conversion incentive program.
Why it matters: Boston expects office conversions to create 1,700 downtown homes; each developer that sells an approved site instead of building delays that housing.
As State Police weighs appeal, more towns drop Flock cameras
Why it matters: If it survives appeal, Massachusetts residents will finally learn where state police track their vehicles, and other states get a transparency template.
Approval rates split 83-48 along 2024 voting lines as states lose appeals
Why it matters: If FEMA approves red-state disaster aid and denies blue-state requests, local governments in Democratic-voting areas absorb recovery costs alone.
A $163 million redesign of the MBTA's busiest corridor now leans more heavily toward cars and parking after years of community feedback
Why it matters: The MBTA's busiest bus corridor is being rebuilt for the next generation, and the final street layout will decide whether thousands of daily riders get faster trips or keep crawling in traffic.
Mayor Wu's push to unseat senators who blocked her tax plan: one challenger lost, one is in a recount, and an incumbent she backed was ousted.
Why it matters: The recount decides whether Mayor Wu unseats a senator who defied her; Yu's win already changed one Beacon Hill seat.
Massachusetts' highest court calls scenic preservation a 'quintessential' public use, clearing the way for condemnation
Why it matters: Massachusetts towns can now use scenic preservation as legal grounds to seize land and block construction, a new weapon in local development fights.
The fast-casual chain's second airport outpost, after Las Vegas
Why it matters: Airport food is becoming fast-casual, and Dave's Hot Chicken's move shows which brands will dominate travel hubs.
A Beacon Hill market's scotch-and-tequila approval is the latest under a state law letting small shops skip the $600,000 license market
Why it matters: If the upgrade pathway spreads, Boston beer-and-wine shops can pour full spirits without a six-figure secondary-market license, cracking a post-Prohibition cap.
Boston Licensing Board says chain must prove crowd control before extending hours
Why it matters: Roslindale residents face more late-night noise and street-party traffic if the Wendy's wins the right to stay open until 3 a.m.
Klin Thai becomes the second Thai place on Centre Street with a beer-and-wine license
Why it matters: Boston's outer zip code licenses let small neighborhood restaurants serve alcohol without paying downtown prices, shifting where the city's dining scene grows.
$278M to 29 projects in 20 communities under 2024 Affordable Homes Act
Why it matters: Massachusetts faces a severe housing shortage; this funding round tests whether the 2024 Affordable Homes Act can actually deliver new supply.
Santander lends $60.7 million to build apartments under Massachusetts' Chapter 40B affordable housing law
Why it matters: A 1969 state law is forcing affluent Massachusetts suburbs to accept apartments they long resisted. Concord's 237-unit complex is the latest proof.
$47.5 million purchase gives United Therapeutics a nearly 300-acre site to expand organ-manufacturing operations
Why it matters: Organ manufacturing is moving from lab research to production scale, and this former brewery is where that could happen.
Blue Light Capital finances a two-year-old building that's 68% vacant — a bet on replacement cost over current rent
Why it matters: Lenders now underwrite scarce industrial space on rebuild cost, not rent — letting empty specialized buildings still attract financing.
Former Abiomed CEO brings Trump ties and a $15M war chest to November fight
Why it matters: Massachusetts has elected Republican governors repeatedly, but none allied with Trump. Minogue tests whether outsider anger can win in a deep-blue state.
Four more communities cut ties or pause use of the automated license plate readers
Why it matters: If the trend holds, Massachusetts could become the first state where most municipalities reject ALPR surveillance, pushing the legislature toward statewide privacy rules.