In the News

SALEM — On a "momentous day" when a divided Congress was poised to impeach the president for only the third time in U.S. history, U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton held a Facebook town hall Wednesday morning to say he planned to vote "yes" on the two articles before the House of Representatives.

"I do plan to vote 'yes' on both articles of impeachment as I've described earlier," said the Salem Democrat..

Since 1996, the Essex National Heritage Area has presented the region’s history, nature and culture as a form of national park, but its federal funding could end within the next two years.

Yesterday, U.S. Reps. Lori Trahan and Seth Moulton took the first steps toward extending the life of its guiding organization beyond Sept. 30, 2021. They introduced the Essex National Heritage Area Permanency Act. The bill would eliminate the federal funding end date and the total budget cap for the Essex National Heritage Area.

SALEM — Congressman Seth Moulton paid tribute Tuesday on the floor of the House of Representatives to Pete Frates, the Beverly man whose struggle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) helped popularize the Ice Bucket Challenge.

Since being diagnosed in March 2012, Frates and his supporters raised millions for research for a cure to ALS, the disease that took his life at age 34 on Dec. 9.

An additional 4,000 Afghan interpreters who helped U.S. troops in Afghanistan could receive Special Immigrant Visas, thanks to a provision included in the National Defense Authorization Act the House passed last week.

The legislation, if passed in the Senate, means that a total of 22,500 visas through the Special Immigrant Visa program could be issued to former Afghan interpreters — up from the 18,500 limit previously in place.

CAMBRIDGE, MA — When the average Massachusetts driver thinks about what it costs to own a car, they probably lists the obvious costs: car payments, insurance, gas and maintenance. But a study released this week by the Harvard Kennedy School says the costs are much higher than most people realize, and that driving in Massachusetts costs the average family about $14,000 per year — even if they don't own a car.

U.S. Housing and Urban Development Development Regional Administrator David Tille joined Congressman Seth Moulton, and Lynn Mayor Thomas M. McGee to tour a home at 18 Jefferson St. owned by Richard Gaivin, which recently completed lead remediation work utilizing HUD Lead-Based Paint Hazard Control grant funding that the city received.

It’s Thursday morning, and millions of cars are parked in millions of driveways all over Massachusetts, gassed up and ready for their daily commutes. Car payments, insurance, E-ZPass and gas: These are the kinds of things most of us think about when we consider the cost of driving.

But the real price Massachusetts pays for its vehicle economy is much, much higher. Now, thanks to an ambitious research project by a team of graduate students at the Harvard Kennedy School, we have an idea of just how high: $64.1 billion a year.

A mere ten years ago, Boston politics didn’t seem all that different from a century earlier.

Men—primarily white, Catholic men—led the city’s transactional, tribal political machinery, where what you get is about who you know, and who you owe.

That was true in 1910, when James Michael Curley made a back-room deal with John Fitzgerald for Curley to stay out of that year’s mayoral race, and for “Honey Fitz” to step aside for Curley four years later.