LAW

Donald Stern, a former U.S. attorney in Massachusetts, is the court-appointed claims administrator in charge of dispersing the $56 million settlement among residents of the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home who contracted and suffered from COVID-19.

Within the next few weeks, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to overturn Roe v. Wade, the 1973 case that made it a constitutional right to have an abortion. If so, it will be up to each state to determine whether abortion is legal. Even as Connecticut and Massachusetts have abortion rights baked into state law, the region will experience the ripple effects of this huge change.

Candidates needed to win the backing of at least 15% of delegates at the Democratic convention in Worcester to keep their campaigns alive over the summer, when they will be able to make their case to voters statewide.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has vetoed a bill that would allow immigrants without legal status to get driver's licenses. But the legislature gets the final word.

Technical details between Massachusetts House and Senate versions of the immigrant driver's license legislation must be worked out by lawmakers.

The unexpected departure of leadership of the state commission overseeing the cannabis industry in Massachusetts — and the reason for the delay in acknowledging the resignation — remains unclear.

Lawmakers will consider giving immigrants without legal status a pathway to get a state driver's license, and further consider sports gambling this week at the Massachusetts Statehouse.

Abortion rights advocates in Connecticut said the bill protects in-state patients and providers from legal action stemming from out-of-state laws.

This week, the Massachusetts House kicks off deliberations Monday on its $49.6 billion spending plan for FY23. The Senate, which meets in formal session Thursday, could move towards a long-awaited vote on sports betting after a bill emerged Friday from the Ways and Means Committee. Matt Murphy of the State House News Service talks about the week ahead.

A tentative consent decree between Springfield and the federal government over police reform includes several requirements concerning the city's new police commission.