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Will Massachusetts backslide without MCAS graduation requirement?

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Will Massachusetts backslide without MCAS graduation requirement?


BOSTON – Now that Question 2 has passed, removing MCAS as a graduation requirement in Massachusetts schools, are standards for high school graduation in the state practically nonexistent? One civic activist thinks so.

Will Massachusetts backslide without MCAS requirement?

“It is absolutely back to the future,” said Eastern Bank Executive Chairman Bob Rivers. “The only standard we will have left is four years attending, four years of gym and four years of civics.”

Rivers was one of a group of local business executives who joined with Gov. Maura Healey, Secretary of Education Pat Tutwiler and others in opposition to ending the MCAS standard. In an interview with WBZ-TV, he said that as a result of the 59%-41% approval of Question Two, “You’re just not going to know where your kids sit in an individual school in any particular way. There will still be an MCAS that’ll be administered, but it will become increasingly irrelevant because people won’t pay attention to it. They won’t study it. There’s already ways to opt out of it anyway.”

Campaign ads sponsored by the state’s largest teacher union, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, offered a vision of graduation standards tailored to individual students by teachers and, presumably, local school districts. But Rivers – and even some Beacon Hill supporters of Question Two – see a need for some form of statewide standards. 

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Will there be new statewide education standards?

Rivers noted that one of the driving forces behind the 1993 Education Reform Act that led to the MCAS standard was concern among employers that a high-school diploma offered no reliable guarantee that the graduate had the basic skills needed in the workplace.

“We see it a lot today now, in many ways, where kids just aren’t prepared for work, the workforce, a career or higher education, and this is only going to make it, make it worse,” he said. “Before the 1993 reform law, we were not number one in the nation in public education. We are today by any particular standard [but scores have been slipping in recent years]. A competitive strength of Massachusetts is the power of our workforce. Unfortunately, by elimination of this standard, that’s been significantly damaged.”

Rivers also discussed his objections to a deal worked out between Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and other business leaders that would raise commercial property tax rates in the city above the legal limit temporarily to compensate for an expected drop in revenues due to high office vacancy rates.

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Massachusetts

State police say Friday’s storm caused 200 crashes across Massachusetts

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State police say Friday’s storm caused 200 crashes across Massachusetts


State police say Friday’s storm caused 200 crashes across Massachusetts – CBS Boston

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State Police say they responded to 200 crashes on Friday across Massachusetts due to the snowstorm.

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Dangerousness hearing held for Taunton man in Fall River after Massachusetts, Rhode Island State Police make trafficking arrest involving Bristol, Plymouth, RI counties

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Dangerousness hearing held for Taunton man in Fall River after Massachusetts, Rhode Island State Police make trafficking arrest involving Bristol, Plymouth, RI counties


A dangerousness hearing was held Friday for a Bristol County man after a drug trafficking investigation led to his arrest.

According to Massachusetts State Police, during May and June of this year, members of the Commonwealth Interstate Narcotics Reduction Enforcement Team – South initiated an investigation into narcotics trafficking. Intelligence revealed that 33-year-old Jason Hodo of Taunton was distributing trafficking quantities of fentanyl and cocaine in Rhode Island and throughout Plymouth and Bristol Counties in Massachusetts. Investigators completed extensive traditional and covert surveillance, record checks, and intelligence analysis. The investigation led to warrants being sought and granted to search for all controlled substances at all locations related to Hodo.

In June, executing officers followed Hodo in his vehicle after he departed the Rhode Island location and drove to a Taunton gas station. Hodo was detained, searched, and arrested after amounts of fentanyl and cocaine were located. Members then executed the “knock and announce” search warrants without incident at locations in both states.

The searches in Massachusetts led to the seizure of approximately 528 grams of fentanyl, 206 grams of cocaine, and nearly $22,000 from Hodo’s person and vehicle. Hodo was eventually transported to State Police-Middleboro for booking on charges related to Trafficking Class A and Class B Substances.

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A simultaneous search of the Rhode Island location by Rhode Island State Police revealed the following: two firearms loaded with high-capacity magazines, approximately 12 grams of fentanyl, nearly $19,000, several high value bars of gold, jewelry, and a diamond/gold chain with receipt for $103,000.

Previously in Fall River Superior Court, Hodo pled not guilty at his arraignment and was held without bail pending a dangerousness hearing scheduled for Friday.

On Friday, also in Fall River Superior Court, dangerousness was taken under advisement with Hodo still held without bail.

His next scheduled court appearance is a pre-trial conference in February.

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Mass. State Lottery winner: Lucky store sold 6 winning tickets Friday

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Mass. State Lottery winner: Lucky store sold 6 winning tickets Friday


It was the final day of the fall, but for one store in Arlington, it was their luckiest day of the year.

On Friday, Dec. 20, Peter Pan Superette in Arlington sold six winning Keno tickets, each worth $9,600.

While over the course of the year the store has at times sold two winners in one day, Friday was the only time in 2024 the total grew to six.

Overall, at least 565 worth $600 or more were won or claimed in Massachusetts on Friday, including six in Springfield, 29 in Worcester and 42 in Boston.

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The Massachusetts State Lottery releases a full list of winning tickets every day. The list only includes winning tickets worth more than $600.

So far, the largest lottery prize won in Massachusetts this year was worth $1 million a year for life.

The prize was from the lottery’s “Lifetime Millions” scratch ticket game. The winner claimed their prize through a trust on July 10, and opted to receive a one-time payment of $15.4 million.



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