Maura Healey

Gov. Maura Healey signed a law Wednesday that bans the sale of puppies and kittens under eight weeks old, as well as the roadside sale of animals, her office said. 

Some reports have suggested task force members -- who stretch across a range of professional backgrounds and industry interests -- have been split over how far their recommendations to the governor should go.

Top Democrats needed a few extra months to reach agreements on major laws this session, but wrapped up business for the term with almost a day to spare and New Year's Eve plans intact.  

Thursday's action included three bills newly advanced by the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Foreign-trained physicians in Massachusetts are poised to return to practicing medicine under a new law that is also expected to alleviate primary care shortages for underserved and rural communities.

Top Democrats suggested they're open to Gov. Maura Healey's legislative push to minimize upheaval for hundreds of commercial drivers, in the process lamenting a bipartisan failure that contributed to the need for action so late in the lawmaking term.

Employees at Assumption University, Fidelity Bank, and Mirick O'Connell are advancing in their careers.

Gov. Maura Healey spent months clamoring for lawmakers to finish work on a sweeping jobs package she filed in March, and she wound up needing only about 60 percent of the time allotted for her review before making it law.

Four and a half years after the COVID-19 pandemic altered the configuration of the U.S. workforce, Central Massachusetts employers are still navigating the reverberations of a landscape that changed overnight.

Healey's appointees to the commission include Mary Jo Marion, associate vice president of Worcester State University.