COURTS

Massachusetts Auditor Diana DiZoglio in a scathing new report called the executive branch's handling of employment settlements "dysfunctional" and "chaotic," saying agencies failed to operate with explicit policies for those agreements under the Patrick and Baker administrations.

President Donald Trump's executive order attempting to redefine birthright citizenship drew an immediate lawsuit from immigrants' rights groups, including the ACLU of Massachusetts, and another subsequent complaint from Attorney General Andrea Campbell and more than a dozen of her peers.

After 14 years on the job Franklin County Sheriff Christopher Donelan announced this week he will retire at the end of the month. Donelan, who turned 60 in December, would have been up for a third term reelection in 2028.

The rules, to go into effect in February, will require courts to hold so-called payment hearings to assure that low-income people aren't agreeing to give up legally protected income like social security to creditors.

During a classroom discussion, a teacher at Elms College asked students to assess the credibility of two sexual assault lawsuits filed against another student, the college and college administrators, according to amended complaints filed in federal court.

The scope of his charges make it one of the most striking serial rape cases in western Massachusetts in recent years.

The story behind the name of the outcropping of "Krieger Rocks" in Pownal, Vermont, has been immortalized on a marker, telling a forgotten story of a local widow.

A panel of Massachusetts educators and civil rights activists has issued recommendations for college campuses to promote access to higher education, particularly for students of color, LGBTQ+ students and low-income students. The report is in response to the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that bars the use of race in college admissions.

NEPM received an invoice and a purchase order in response to a public records request for documents related to the damage, as well as a copy of the personal check the sheriff wrote to the state on Monday covering the cost.