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The mandate directing individuals to obtain health insurance or face tax penalties ends on Tuesday for most, but not all Americans. In Massachusetts, an individual mandate that has been on the books since 2006 will continue in the absence of the federal fines that had been in effect since 2014 under the Affordable Care Act but were eliminated as part of the Republican-backed tax reform law passed in 2017. Most residents of New Jersey and the District of Columbia must also be covered or incur fines in 2019 after lawmakers, fearing widespread...
LEICESTER, Mass. (AP) — Customers waited in long lines, sometimes for hours, on a cold and rainy New England day to be among the first people to legally buy recreational marijuana on the U.S. East Coast. More than two years after Massachusetts voters approved of legalizing marijuana for adults, the state's first two fully licensed pot shops opened Tuesday in Leicester and Northampton, selling strains of the part of the plant that can be smoked; pre-rolled joints; and edibles such as brownies and chocolate bars. Marijuana is already sold legally...
BOSTON (AP) — Is self-driving government in the future? Michael Dukakis, the former Massachusetts governor and erstwhile presidential candidate, doesn't think so. But he's jumping into the debate over artificial intelligence in an effort to ensure the rapidly growing technology is used responsibly by governments around the world. The 84-year-old Dukakis recently co-founded Artificial Intelligence World Society , a project that aims to bring scientists, academics, government officials and industry leaders together to keep AI a benign force s...
BOSTON (AP) — Jonathan Garland's fascination with architecture started early: He spent much of his childhood designing Lego houses and gazing at Boston buildings on rides with his father away from their largely minority neighborhood. But when Garland looked around at his architectural college, he didn't see many who looked like him — there were few black faces in classroom seats, and fewer teaching skills or giving lectures. "If you do something simple like Google 'architects' and you go to the images tab, you're primarily going to see whi...
BOSTON (AP) — U.S. mayors increasingly view climate change as a pressing urban issue, so much so that many advocate policies that could inconvenience residents or even hurt their cities financially. The annual survey of big-city executives, released Tuesday by the Boston University Initiative on Cities, also reflected the nation's sharp political divide. Ninety-five percent of Democratic mayors who responded believed climate change was caused by human activities, a view shared by only half of Republican mayors. A clear majority of mayors were p...
BOSTON (AP) — Regulators pledged on Thursday they would push ahead with implementation of the state's voter-approved recreational marijuana law despite potential confusion stemming from a shift in official U.S. policy on enforcement of federal laws against pot. State officials, including Republican Gov. Charlie Baker and Attorney General Maura Healey, a Democrat, criticized the announcement from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he was rescinding a policy from the previous administration that allowed legal marijuana to flourish, w...
BOSTON (AP) — When the time comes, Michael Martignetti isn't sure whether he'll ask his doctor for medication to end his life peacefully. But he wants that option to be there. "If one day I am terminally ill and I am facing a drawn-out, painful death, I would want the option of medical aid in dying," said Martignetti, who has a degenerative neuromuscular disease. "I don't know if I will use it, but I know I want the peace of mind that I can use it, if I choose." The 58-year-old Lexington man spoke slowly from his wheelchair Tuesday to m...
BOSTON (AP) — A settlement with a digital advertising company bars the firm from using a technology called geofencing to direct anti-abortion messages toward women entering reproductive health facilities in Massachusetts, the state attorney general said Tuesday. The agreement was reached after Attorney General Maura Healey investigated whether Copley Advertising or John Flynn, a Brookline man identified as the firm's manager and sole employee, was violating the state's consumer protection laws. Copley denied any wrongdoing. Geofencing allows a...
BOSTON (AP) — U.S. mayors from blue and red states and regardless of party affiliation share many common concerns about poverty, racial and income inequality and immigration, according to a new survey. The findings, based on interviews with more than 100 mayors from cities that collectively averaged 262,000 residents, point to an emerging national urban agenda as the Donald Trump administration prepares to take office, said Graham Wilson, director of the Boston University Initiative on Cities. A report from the group, founded by Boston's f...
