Massachusetts
Battenfeld: Meet the most powerful politician in Massachusetts
A once-obscure Democratic state senator from sleepy Ashland, unelected by most voters, has emerged as the most powerful public official in Massachusetts, topping even Gov. Maura Healey in clout and impact.
Senate Majority Leader Karen Spilka tells the governor, the House speaker and even the mayor of Boston what to do and right now stands as the biggest obstacle to transparency in the Legislature.
Most voters don’t know her and certainly never voted for her, yet Spilka, who represents the 2nd Middlesex/Norfolk District, controls the agenda in the state and how taxpayer money is spent.
Spilka was reelected without opposition in 2024, getting just 68,762 votes — a tiny fraction of the population of Massachusetts.
But she has managed to stay relatively scandal-free, unlike several of her Senate President predecessors who moved on.
While Spilka does not appear to have statewide ambitions, the position of Senate president has traditionally been a launching pad to lucrative lobbying careers.
And there really is no reason for Spilka to quit or run for governor, because she holds more power than any lobbyist or the current occupant of the Corner Office, Maura Healey.
When House lawmakers this week announced a breakthrough $4 million funding initiative to tackle Boston’s Mass and Cass drug issue, Spilka, who has feuded with Wu, was conspicuously absent, casting doubt about whether the funding will ever be approved.
Spilka and her fellow Democratic state senators stopped Wu’s commercial tax hike plan last year, angering the mayor and prompting her to challenge two senators who publicly blocked it. But Wu notably did not put up a challenger to Spilka.
The Ashland senator is also engaged in a very nasty public dispute with Auditor Diana DiZoglio over the voter-approved audit of the Legislature.
DiZoglio has compared Spilka to a monarch, saying she “rules and reigns over Massachusetts, just like a Queen.”
Spilka, with a straight face, retorted that the Legislature’s actions are of course democratic — a ridiculous assertion considering the way she runs the Senate.
She also denied not wanting the Legislature to face the voter-approved audit which DiZoglion is leading.
“We have really worked hard to increase transparency,” she said.
Spilka has often been in conflict with House Speaker Ron Mariano, and essentially nothing happens in the Legislature without Spilka’s approval. If Mariano were a Simpsons character, it would be Homer.
While staying away from scandal, Spilka is after all a creature of the Massachusetts Democratic hackerama, and has as bad a case of Trump derangement syndrome as any other liberal Democrat.
She raised eyebrows earlier this year by comparing President Donald Trump’s illegal immigration crackdown to the Holocaust.
“I’ve been open and honest that this moment, what is happening across our country, reminds me of what my family experienced in Poland in the 1930s leading up to World War II,” she said at the annual “Immigrant Day” celebration at the Statehouse.
“When people targeted my family with violence because they were Jewish. Like this government today, even targeting now because of people’s looks, their accents, the way they speak, and that is unacceptable.”
BOSTON (WWLP) – The Healey-Driscoll Administration and the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation announced the opening of 24 swimming pools for the summer season across the state.
This initiative includes the return of its free Learn to Swim Program for children and expanded lifeguard services at 30 DCR swimming areas. Registration for the free swimming lessons begins on Monday, June 22, providing children between the ages of 4 and 12 the opportunity to learn life-saving skills.
The DCR’s efforts aim to provide residents, visitors and families with safe places to swim and cool off during the summer. This commitment to water safety is supported by extending lifeguard coverage to seven days a week, which began last Saturday, running from 10:15 a.m. to 5:45 p.m., though continued coverage is subject to staff availability.
DCR Commissioner Nicole LaChapelle emphasized the importance of aquatic education. “Every child deserves the opportunity to learn how to swim. Swimming is more than a summer activity –it’s a life-saving skill that helps children safely enjoy our pools, lakes and beaches with confidence,” LaChapelle said. “By offering free swimming lessons at pools across Massachusetts, we’re helping remove barriers for families while helping more children safely enjoy the outdoor spaces that belong to all of us.”
The Learn to Swim Program will be offered at 19 DCR pools throughout Massachusetts and is structured into three sessions during the summer. Each session consists of eight half-hour group swim classes tailored for beginner-level swimmers and organized by age.
The curriculum for the classes is based on the American Red Cross and focuses on water safety and basic swimming skills. Registration is required and will operate on a first-come, first-served basis, closing once classes at each facility are full.
Participating DCR pools for the program are located in Agawam, Boston, Cambridge, Chelsea, Chicopee, Clinton, Fall River, Fitchburg, Hyde Park, Lawrence, Malden, Melrose, Milford, Somerville, Springfield, Watertown and Worcester.
The DCR is also actively recruiting certified lifeguards for its beaches and swimming pools for the current summer season. Positions are available through Labor Day and offer competitive hourly wages ranging from $22 to $27, depending on the position and associated certifications. More information about lifeguarding opportunities and application details are available on the agency’s lifeguarding webpage.
Beyond lifeguard services, the DCR maintains water safety at its state beaches and waterfronts through regular water quality testing at all 79 designated swimming areas. These areas are equipped with ropes and buoys to delineate swimming sections. Safety signage, which can be translated into nine languages including Spanish, Portuguese, Vietnamese and Traditional Chinese via a QR code, is also present.
To enhance safety, life rings are available for public use at both guarded and unguarded swimming areas in case of an emergency. All DCR swimming pools are equipped with chair lifts to provide water access. Several pools also feature ramps or zero-depth entry and select pools and spray decks offer beach wheelchairs for use.
All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by WWLP. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat information into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by WWLP staff before being published.
Local News Headlines
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Download the 22News Plus app on your TV to watch live-streaming newscasts and video on demand.
If you watch a movie, send an email, or put your photos in the cloud, there is a data center involved. With the rise of AI, there is more need for data storage and that means more power and more water. So, more Massachusetts communities are saying they don’t want them.
Data centers are growing increasingly unpopular. How unpopular? Polling shows people would rather live near a nuclear power plant. A Gallup poll found 71% of Americans would oppose a data center being built near their home and 53% would oppose a nuclear reactor.
Communities across the country have been fighting to stop the construction of mega sized data centers used to power the future of artificial intelligence.
In Massachusetts, several projects have been put on hold. The city of Lowell recently passed a one-year moratorium to stop the building or expansion of data centers. Lowell is the site of the largest data center in the state.
Markley data center in Lowell
The Markley data center is a mammoth building. It was built by Markley in 2015 on the site of an old Prince Spaghetti factory. Markley cleaned up the lot, painted the building black and set up a complex digital warehouse which stores data from more than a hundred customers ranging from hospitals to universities to police stations.
Like all things data center, this one comes with controversy. Jake Fortes lives in his childhood home where he takes care of his elderly parents. The data center, about 100 feet away, dwarfs his home.
Fortes says the building has nicknames including the “dungeon” and the “Death Star.”
“It’s nicknamed by a lot of residents in the neighborhood the dungeon,” Fortes said. “Because it seriously is just this black building that looms over us.”
Fortes said the rows of industrial air conditioners on the roof of the data center constantly hum and he claims exhaust from the four metal chimneys that rise from the data center’s emergency generators flow toward his bedroom windows.
“You will hear the A/C units. That’s a constant. And it’s worse in the summer,” Fortes said.
Markley has two data centers in Massachusetts. They built their first on top of Macy’s in downtown Boston in 2013.
From Lowell to Los Angeles, there are coast to coast concerns about what these data centers can do to the environment. From the massive amount of energy they use, to the incredible amount of water they need to keep the equipment from overheating. Some large data centers can use up to five million gallons of water every day. But the owners of the Lowell data center say it is not a drain on resources.
WBZ-TV’s David Wade asked Markley for tour of the data center, which they never do, and they agreed. They have grown frustrated with the negative narrative of data centers across the country and wanted to show they are different than the huge data centers built solely for AI companies.
Markley’s corporate VP Adam Burnham took him around the 350,000 square foot facility. The front entrance is teeming with a few dozen people, filled with colorful artwork and a TV monitor showing old video of a train that used to run through the property.
Beyond that there are long hallways with white tile floors and white walls that lead to rooms full of loud machines taking in, transforming and distributing large amounts of electricity throughout the building. How much electricity? Markley doesn’t say. Most data centers don’t. It’s why some lawmakers like Senator Elizabeth Warren are calling for more transparency from all data centers. But Markley’s Boston location boasts up to 30 megawatts of power, which is comparable to what tens of thousands of homes could use at any given time.
“Many petabytes” of data
There is a constant hum from the air conditioning machinery that helps to cool down the racks of servers.
How many servers are in the building? “There must be thousands,” Burnham said. “From hundreds of different customers.”
And how much data is that? “It would be hard to even quantify it. To use technical terms, it would be petabytes,” Burnham said. “Many petabytes for many customers.”
You have heard of megabytes and gigabytes but what is a petabyte? Well, just one petabyte is equal to roughly 250 million high resolution photos or the storage capacity of 250,000 smartphones or 13 years’ worth of continuous high-definition movies.
Markley says it stores data from all different types of companies. Financial companies, life science companies, universities, public safety companies. All those servers need lots of water to feed the system that keeps them cool.
How much water is used?
Some data centers use millions of gallons of water every single day. Markley says over the past year, they have used between 60,000 and 120,000 gallons of water per day. Those numbers match up with some of their water bills that WBZ was able to obtain.
Besides the effect on water and power, another criticism of data centers is once construction is done, they don’t create many jobs. Markley brought Lou Antonellis, a representative from the IBEW, an electrical workers union, to our shoot. Wade asked how many union workers he had working inside the building.
“Right now, it’s a little bit of a slow period. Probably about a dozen,” Antonellis said. That’s it. A dozen. Antonellis said there were also another dozen pipe fitters inside. He said there can be 80-100 workers when there’s a big project on site.
Hopes to expand in Lowell
But Antonellis and the IBEW say they really want Markley to expand. New buildings mean new construction jobs. WBZ learned Markley has been buying more land nearby with hopes of expanding, including an old power plant up the road. But they have a problem. The city of Lowell recently voted for a one-year moratorium on data centers. It means no new building, and no expansion.
On the final stop on the tour, the Markley people wanted to show the emergency generators that neighbors have complained about.
An hour earlier, Jake Fortes, the neighbor who calls the building the Death Star, had predicted they would take David Wade to the generators, and it would be less noisy than usual.
“Usually when they detect that there’s a reporter coming, they will turn it off and it will go very quiet and you will hear the birds,” Fortes said.
When they took David Wade to the emergency generators, which they fire up for a test every week for five minutes, you could barely hear the machines over the sounds of chirping birds.
“So, it’s not under a complete load, but this is the typical noise you’re going to get,” Burnham said.
Wade asked if the generators weren’t running at “full load” were they running at 20%, 50%, 80%? They couldn’t answer.
Then Wade asked if he thought neighbors had been exaggerating about the noise at the data center and the answer was clear. “I think they’re exaggerating, yes,” Burnham said.
If you have a question you’d like us to look into, please email questioneverything@cbsboston.com.
BOSTON (WWLP) – Gov. Maura Healey announced on Wednesday a comprehensive statewide initiative to reduce wrong-way driving incidents across Massachusetts.
The program combines advanced detection technology, enhanced roadway signage, infrastructure improvements and targeted safety upgrades to improve road safety and prevent tragedies.
The multi-year effort will focus on more than 500 high-risk locations across the state where drivers may be more likely to enter roadways in the wrong direction. Once complete, Mass. aims to have one of the strongest wrong-way prevention and detection programs in the country.
Jonathan Gulliver, undersecretary and state highway administrator, stated, “This plan combines detection, prevention and infrastructure improvements that are already underway and will continue over the next few years. Detection measures include technology that provides real-time alerts and warnings when wrong-way driving is identified, while enhanced signage and pavement markings will help clearly guide drivers and prevent these incidents from occurring in the first place.”
Gov. Maura Healey highlighted the human cost of wrong-way crashes. “We’ve seen firsthand the devastating impact that wrong-way driving crashes can have on families, law enforcement and communities across Massachusetts,” Gov. Healey said. “People deserve to be safe on our roads and we’re taking action. By investing in new technology, stronger safety measures and targeted infrastructure improvements, we’re working to prevent these crashes before they happen and help save lives.”
Lieutenant Gov. Kim Driscoll emphasized the safety benefits for all road users. “Every person who gets behind the wheel should be able to get where they’re going safely,” Lieutenant Gov. Driscoll said. “These investments will help us prevent wrong-way driving incidents, strengthen coordination with first responders and make our transportation system safer for drivers, passengers and families across Massachusetts.”
MassDOT will retrofit approximately 430 existing signalized intersections and mainline camera systems statewide. This new wrong-way detection technology will identify wrong-way movements and provide real-time alerts to transportation officials and law enforcement. New hardware will be installed within existing signal cabinets to enable data collection, detection and notification capabilities. Following installation, the systems will be integrated with activated warning measures, including illuminated signs with flashing LEDs designed to alert drivers before they enter a highway in the wrong direction.
Safety upgrades are also being implemented at highway ramps and interchanges statewide. These upgrades include enhanced WRONG WAY and DO NOT ENTER signage, improved pavement markings, directional arrows and lighting improvements designed to reduce driver confusion.
MassDOT is also piloting next-generation wrong-way detection technologies at locations without existing infrastructure. Data collected from these pilots will identify areas requiring more significant roadway improvements, such as curb and island realignment, ramp reconfiguration to clarify driving paths and channelization enhancements.
Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, a Republican from Gloucester, noted the urgency of the action. “Today our state embarks on a mission to use those tools and make our highways safer for everyone who travels on them,” Sen. Tarr said. “While we are working toward the final passage of legislation to codify a state plan in statute, the steps announced today will begin making a difference as soon as they are taken.”
The initiative also acknowledges the severe impact of past incidents. Massachusetts State Police Colonel Geoffrey Noble spoke about the personal toll on law enforcement. “The Massachusetts State Police continue to mourn the loss of Trooper Kevin Trainor, who gave his life while attempting to stop a wrong-way driver,” Col. Noble said. “His sacrifice is a solemn reminder of the dangers our Troopers confront every day in their mission to protect the public. While our men and women continue to respond courageously to dangerous driving incidents, these roadway improvements and investments in technology will provide another critical tool to help prevent tragedies and ensure that everyone makes it home safely.”
Sen. Joan B. Lovely, a Democrat from Salem, mentioned specific local impacts. “Our district has felt the cost of wrong-way driving in the most painful way, with the loss of Trooper Trainor and a second trooper struck on the same stretch of Route 1 weeks later,” Sen. Lovely said. “I am grateful to Gov. Healey for taking real action. This plan reflects the prevention we fought for in the Senate’s FY2027 budget and I will keep pushing to bring these safety measures to corridors like Route 1 so other families are spared this grief.”
Brian Williams, president of the State Police Association of MA, praised the proactive approach. “Entering a divided highway in the wrong direction is a reckless, lethal act,” Williams said. “We appreciate Gov. Healey’s proactive leadership in launching this advanced early detection initiative. Combining this tech-driven approach with enacting an expanded Move Over law will create the comprehensive safety net needed to protect our members and everyone on Massachusetts roads.”
Retired Chief Michael Bradley Jr., executive director of the Massachusetts Chief of Police Association, also voiced support for the solutions. “Wrong-way driving incidents are among the most dangerous events on our roadways, often resulting in tragic consequences for motorists, passengers and first responders,” Bradley said. “The Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association applauds Gov. Healey, MassDOT and our legislative partners for investing in proactive solutions that will help prevent these crashes and save lives.”
Improvements are already underway, with additional installations expected to begin in the coming weeks. The installations for the new detection technology will occur throughout 2026 and 2027. MassDOT will continue to evaluate roadway conditions, collect data and identify opportunities to further reduce wrong-way driving incidents across Massachusetts.
All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by WWLP. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat information into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by WWLP staff before being published.
Local News Headlines
WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Download the 22News Plus app on your TV to watch live-streaming newscasts and video on demand.
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