LEGISLATURE

PFAS chemicals are all around us — they are used in non-stick cookware, food packaging, children's products, carpets, leather goods, ski wax, firefighting foams and more, and they have leeched into drinking water supplies and the soil.

Massachusetts lawmakers agreed to a compromise spending bill featuring $388 million in spending directed at what the Senate's budget chief called "time-sensitive, urgent" needs along with $740 million in borrowing plans.

The provision allowing governmental bodies to meet using remote meeting technology has not been renewed yet. It, along with other pandemic-related measures are set to expire on March 31 and April 1, if the Legislature doesn't get a measure through conference committee and to the Governor in time.

More than a million state residents on MassHealth will be getting U-S postal mail with a blue envelope from the state agency. It means a re-certification is required, and the clock is ticking.

The Hawkins bill would require pest control professionals in Massachusetts who administer rodenticides to submit electronic reports to the state about how and where the poison is used.

The implementation of legal mobile sports betting in Massachusetts is this week. Mobile platforms will join in-person betting operations at MGM Springfield, Plainridge Park Casino, and Encore Boston Harbor.

If approved by the Massachusetts Senate the bill ill would direct $86 million toward expanding the emergency shelter system and placing affected students into local schools, $65 million for the universal school meals program and $130 million towards SNAP benefits.

John Olver represented western and central Massachusetts in Congress for more than two decades and died late last week.

Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey has not signaled very much about how she intends to spend her first state budget which is due by March 1. Municipal leaders have concerns.

The proposed panel would evaluate title insurance practices and rates, as well as hidden commissions paid to real estate lawyers in Massachusetts.