Healey declares energy emergency, opens heating aid to middle-income oil customers

Massachusetts families who heat with oil and earn up to $171,749 a year for a household of four can collect as much as $680 this winter under a new benefit Gov. Maura Healey announced Monday.

Healey announced the benefit after declaring a state of energy emergency. Her executive order also boosts aid for low-income households and lifts some charges from electric bills. The administration values the package at nearly $150 million and says it will lower bills for about 85% of ratepayers.

“Families are seeing the impact of the war in Iran every time they fill up their gas tank, place an order for heating oil or open their electric bill,” Healey said in a statement.

Who qualifies for the new oil benefit

The one-time benefit covers heating oil customers with incomes between 60% and 100% of the state median income, a group that typically earns too much for existing aid. For a family of four, that means income above $103,049 and up to $171,749. The state lists income limits for each household size on its heating assistance page.

The administration expects about 50,000 households to qualify. Applications open in December, and the state will pay benefits through April 30, 2027, or until the money runs out. The local agencies that run the state’s existing heating aid program will handle applications.

Larger payments for low-income households

The state will add $15 million to the Home Energy Assistance Program, known as HEAP. The program helped more than 156,000 households, about 300,000 people, last heating season. Households that heat with oil will receive 20% more, and those that heat with gas or electricity will get a 15% increase.

State estimates put this winter’s HEAP benefits at $870 to $1,450 for oil or propane and $600 to $1,000 for gas or electric heat. A family of four earning up to $103,049 can qualify. Renters whose heat comes with their rent may also apply, and applicants do not need to receive public assistance or owe a heating bill.

The HEAP season runs Nov. 1 through April 30, 2027. Residents can apply for HEAP online or through a local agency.

Changes to electric bills

The administration will move $80 million in state money to cover the Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target, or SMART, charge on residential electric bills from January through March 2027. That charge pays for incentives for solar projects.

Through emergency regulations, the state will also cut the Alternative Energy Portfolio Standard requirement by 50% this winter. The administration estimates the cut will save ratepayers $20 million. The standard dates to 2009 and supports certain large heating and cooling systems through electricity supply rates.

Healey’s office said the state will pay for the expanded aid and bill credits with alternative compliance payments, which electricity suppliers owe the state when they miss clean energy quotas, according to the State House News Service.

Oil prices and price gouging

Heating oil averaged $6.08 a gallon statewide on Sept. 28, up 73% from $3.52 a year earlier, according to the state Department of Energy Resources’ weekly price survey. About one in five Massachusetts households heats with oil, mostly in older homes and rural communities.

The emergency declaration activates state protections against price gouging on petroleum products. Healey directed state agencies to monitor sellers and enforce those rules.

“No one should be afraid to turn on the heat when costs are high. This is a matter of public health,” said Rebecca Tepper, the state’s energy and environmental affairs secretary.

Charity fund and federal request

Citizens Energy Corp., the nonprofit led by former U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III, will start a new Emergency Winter Warmth Fund with $100,000. Local agencies will distribute donations to households in HEAP and in the new middle-income program. Details are on the Citizens Energy Winter Warmth Fund page.

“Every family deserves a warm and safe home, especially when winter arrives in Massachusetts,” Kennedy said.

Healey also asked congressional leaders for $3 billion more in emergency funding for the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which would bring it to about $7 billion. Congress provided about $4.05 billion for the program in fiscal 2026.

Healey faces Republican Mike Minogue in her reelection bid, and energy costs have become a campaign theme. Last week, she filed legislation to suspend the state’s 24-cent-per-gallon gas tax for two months. The House’s top budget writer has responded coolly to that proposal.

Museum of Worcester opens online auction ahead of sold-out Harvey Ball

The Museum of Worcester’s online silent auction is open to all bidders until 8:45 p.m. Oct. 8, when bidding closes during the museum’s sold-out Harvey Ball at Mechanics Hall.

Bidders don’t need a ticket to the ball. Anyone can place a bid online, and winners can take home their packages whether or not they attend.

The lineup includes vacation packages to Costa Rica and the Adirondacks. Other lots offer a trip to Kennedy Space Center and Broadway tickets, and one package puts a personal pasta chef in the winner’s kitchen. The museum plans to add more packages before the bidding ends.

Proceeds support the museum’s exhibits and educational programming, as well as its collections and archives. Bidders can browse the auction packages online.

Sold-out ball honors Bill Wallace

The Harvey Ball begins at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Mechanics Hall, 321 Main St. The museum will present its Harvey Ball Smile Award to Bill Wallace, its executive director for nearly 50 years.

The museum called Wallace “a builder of cultural bridges” and credited him with spending half a century gathering and sharing Worcester’s history.

Wallace led the institution for most of the decades it operated as the Worcester Historical Museum. The museum traces its roots to the Worcester Society of Antiquity, founded in 1875, and today it also runs Salisbury Mansion and a library and archives.

Wallace has long defended the city’s claim to the smiley face. He told the New England Historical Society that newspaper coverage, photographs, and the insurer’s own records document Harvey Ball as its creator.

An award rooted in a Worcester icon

The museum began the award in 2001 to recognize Ball and the yellow smiley face he designed in 1963 for State Mutual Life Assurance Co. Ball, a Worcester native and commercial artist, died in 2001.

Each year the museum honors a person or group whose work has made a difference in the city, according to a Worcester Business Journal event listing. Former Senate President Harriette Chandler received the 2025 award.

The ball follows the Oct. 2 opening of an expanded Harvey Ball Smiley exhibit at the museum, which Spectrum News 1 reported features one of the museum’s largest collections.

Image Credit: John Phelan, Worcester Historical Museum, Worcester MA, CC BY 3.0

Worcester leads Massachusetts in 2026 Schools of Recognition

WORCESTER – Worcester Public Schools earned more 2026 School of Recognition designations than any other Massachusetts district, with four elementary schools making the state list.

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education named Columbus Park, Francis J. McGrath, Midland Street and Worcester Arts Magnet among the 56 Schools of Recognition statewide. DESE released the list with its annual accountability data Sept. 22.

The state’s Schools of Recognition program honors schools that make significant progress toward accountability targets in English language arts and math and rank above the 20th percentile of schools statewide.

“I’m happy for these four schools and I’m hoping we see even more schools earn this honor in the years to come,” Superintendent Brian E. Allen said.

How the schools performed

Columbus Park Elementary School in the South Quadrant posted the strongest results, meeting or exceeding 98% of its targets. Its overall accountability percentile climbed 12 points from last year and 21 points across two years.

Worcester Arts Magnet School in the Burncoat Quadrant met or exceeded 90% of its targets this year, and its percentile rose 11 points.

McGrath, also a Burncoat Quadrant school, came in at 89%. Its percentile grew 13 points from last year and 21 points over two years, matching the two-year gain at Columbus Park.

In the Doherty Quadrant, Midland Street Elementary School met or exceeded 70% of its targets and gained 10 percentile points from last year.

“Every school is unique,” Allen said. “Columbus Park, McGrath, Midland and Worcester Arts Magnet schools have done tremendous work tailoring their approaches to meet the needs of their students.”

Principals credit staff and families

Columbus Park Principal Lisa Carignan tied the school’s results to its expectations for students. “Our success at Columbus Park starts with a deep belief that all students are capable of achieving great things,” Carignan said. “This accomplishment belongs to all of us.”

Midland Street Principal Tara Dexter pointed to student growth. “We are extremely proud of the growth our students have demonstrated and of what our school community has accomplished together,” Dexter said.

Worcester Arts Magnet Principal Mary Ellen Scanlon credited teachers and families. “Our faculty brings a strong commitment to our students every day, and our families are such important partners in that work,” Scanlon said.

Emily Kokansky led McGrath as acting principal last year and now serves as principal of Belmont Street School. “I am incredibly proud of the students and staff at McGrath for earning this recognition,” Kokansky said.

Erin Derr now leads McGrath. “I am honored to join the McGrath team at such an exciting time, and I look forward to building on this incredible momentum as we continue to grow and achieve even higher goals together,” Derr said.

Tracking progress during the year

Along with MCAS, the district gives the STAR assessment throughout the year to measure student comprehension in reading and math. WPS students have shown steady progress on STAR since 2022, and Allen has set a goal of raising achievement by at least 3 percent by June.

Students at the four schools have celebrated with extra recess time and assemblies since the state released the data. Smiley, the Worcester Red Sox mascot, visited some of the celebrations.

Image Credit: “Midland”: Students and staff at Midland Street Elementary School gathered for a large photo while wearing school pride shirts and displaying banners celebrating their School of Recognition achievement. (Photos by Kyle Prudhomme/WPS)

Massachusetts launches free app for people affected by gambling harm

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Sept. 30 announced Evive, a free mobile app for people affected by gambling harm, adding a new support option alongside the state’s round-the-clock problem gambling helpline.

The department’s Office of Problem Gambling Services designed the app for people who may not feel ready for clinical treatment but want to start changing their gambling habits. Users can complete daily check-ins, track their progress, work through evidence-based lessons and connect with peers in recovery.

Evive is available at no cost on iOS and Android devices. The app launched in English.

“Meeting people where they are means meeting them on the devices they already carry,” said Dr. Robbie Goldstein, the state’s public health commissioner.

Goldstein described gambling harm as a public health issue that reaches the families and friends of people who bet as well as the bettors themselves.

Victor Ortiz, director of the Office of Problem Gambling Services, said people with lived experience shaped the decision to add the app.

“For 10 years, we’ve listened closely to people living this experience,” Ortiz said. “They’ve told us, time and again, that support needs to be there around the clock.”

Ortiz said the app extends the reach of the helpline and gives people another way to find help whenever they need it.

Launch timed to football season

State officials timed the rollout to National Recovery Month, which the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration started in 1989 to recognize people in recovery from substance use and mental health conditions. DPH said gambling disorder carries the same stigma and isolation as those conditions.

The launch also lines up with the start of football season, which DPH said brings a significant increase in gambling activity.

Much of that activity now happens on phones. Massachusetts bettors wagered $914.7 million on sports in November 2025, a monthly record at the time, and placed 98.6% of those bets online, according to an RG.org analysis of Massachusetts Gaming Commission figures.

DPH said many people face their hardest moments late at night or after a loss, when they have no appointment scheduled and feel alone. The department said the app gives them a place to connect and begin recovery during those hours.

Helpline remains available

The Massachusetts Problem Gambling Helpline continues to take calls 24/7 at 800-327-5050. The free, confidential service assists callers in Spanish and other languages and offers online chat at MAProblemGamblingHelpline.org.

The helpline’s website now lists the app among its options for people seeking help.

The state created the Office of Problem Gambling Services within DPH to address gambling harm through prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery support. The office works with community organizations, clinicians and people with lived experience. More information is available at Mass.gov/OPGS.

Mass. student loan payments rank second-highest in US

Massachusetts borrowers pay a median of $250 a month on their student loans, the second-highest amount in the nation, according to a WalletHub analysis released Thursday, Oct. 1.

Only Vermont ranks higher, at $258. The Massachusetts figure rose from $241 in last year’s edition of the report, which also placed the state second.

The ranking lands as millions of federal borrowers face deadlines to pick new repayment plans. Borrowers enrolled in the SAVE plan, which a court ended in March, must switch to a new repayment plan within 90 days of receiving a notice from their loan servicer. Servicers mailed the first notices July 1, so the earliest deadlines passed Sept. 29.

New England leads the list

Northeastern states hold most of the top spots. Five of the six New England states rank in the top 10: Vermont ($258), Massachusetts ($250), New Hampshire ($249), Connecticut ($247) and Rhode Island ($236). Maine sits at No. 19 with a median payment of $214.

Payments drop sharply elsewhere. Wyoming has the lowest median at about $160 a month, nearly $99 less than Vermont ($258), with Arkansas and North Dakota just above it.

Nationally, about 42.6 million Americans owe $1.72 trillion in student loans, an average of roughly $40,500 each, according to WalletHub. Analyst Chip Lupo said a borrower carrying that average balance at the current 6.52% federal undergraduate rate would need to pay about $302 a month to clear the debt in 20 years. That amount exceeds the median payment in every state.

Source: WalletHub. No. 1 marks the highest median payment.

What the numbers measure

WalletHub built its ranking from credit data on its own users and calculated the median monthly student loan payment in each state. The company’s methodology lists no sample size, and the ranking makes no adjustment for local incomes. Washington, D.C., does not appear in the list.

Federal figures offer a broader view. About 900,600 Massachusetts residents hold federal student loans totaling $33.4 billion, according to an Education Data Initiative analysis of U.S. Education Department data. That group makes up 15.5% of the state’s adults.

Those borrowers owe an average federal balance of $37,086, about 6% below the national average, the analysis found. WalletHub’s payment figures and the federal balance data come from different sources and track different measures.

Repayment rules shift

Federal repayment options look different from a year ago. In March, a federal court approved a settlement between the Education Department and Missouri that ended the Biden-era Saving on a Valuable Education plan, known as SAVE. About 7.5 million borrowers had enrolled in the plan, the department said.

Each SAVE borrower receives a notice from a loan servicer that starts a 90-day clock to choose a new plan, and the notice lists that borrower’s specific deadline. Borrowers who let the window lapse move automatically into the Standard Repayment Plan or the new Tiered Standard Plan, both of which base payments on loan balance in place of income.

Servicers send the notices in waves, so many borrowers face deadlines later this fall, Newsweek reported. The 2025 federal tax and spending law created a new income-based option, the Repayment Assistance Plan, which launched July 1. RAP sets payments at 1% to 10% of adjusted gross income and trims the bill by $50 a month for each dependent. Payments can fall as low as $10.

Borrowers can compare their options with the federal Loan Simulator at StudentAid.gov.

Help for Massachusetts borrowers

The Massachusetts attorney general’s office runs a Student Loan Assistance Unit that helps residents resolve problems with servicers and review repayment options. Borrowers can reach the unit at 888-830-6277.

The office also houses the state’s student loan ombudsman, a position lawmakers created in the 2021 Student Loan Borrower Bill of Rights. That law requires most companies servicing loans for Massachusetts borrowers to hold a license from the state Division of Banks.

Massachusetts joins 25 other governments in suing EPA over power plant rollback

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell joined a coalition of states and cities Thursday in suing the Environmental Protection Agency over its repeal of greenhouse gas limits on existing power plants.

The coalition filed a petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, according to a news release from Campbell’s office. The same day, the group sent the EPA a notice of intent to sue over the agency’s failure to limit pollution from existing gas-fired plants.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin signed the repeal Sept. 14, and it takes effect Nov. 16. The rule strikes carbon-capture requirements for existing coal-fired plants and for new gas turbines that run around the clock, according to the agency’s power plant standards page and Federal Register notice.

Zeldin announced the repeal at a meeting of G20 energy ministers in Houston. He said the administration wants to make sure Americans can “afford to keep the lights on,” NBC News reported. The EPA estimated the repeal would save the power sector $160 billion in compliance costs from 2026 through 2047.

Alongside the repeal, the EPA issued a supplemental proposal asserting that the Clean Air Act gives the agency no authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. If the EPA finalizes it, the proposal would eliminate the remaining federal carbon standards for the sector.

Campbell’s office testified against that proposal Thursday, the same day the EPA held a virtual public hearing on it. Her office said the plan “flouts the law and the science.”

In the lawsuit, the coalition argues that the EPA unlawfully dropped carbon limits without properly weighing alternatives. The states also contend the agency ignored the health and climate costs of leaving existing plants unregulated.

The EPA set standards for new gas plants more than a decade ago but has never limited pollution from existing ones, the coalition said in its notice. Those plants include “peaker” plants that run during periods of high electricity demand. Campbell’s office said such plants often operate in low-income communities and communities of color.

Power plants produce roughly one-quarter of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions, according to the attorney general’s office. Her office said added pollution would bring hotter heat waves and heavier flooding, and would aggravate asthma and heart disease in communities already burdened by pollution.

Campbell also has a pending court challenge to the EPA’s February rescission of the 2009 finding that greenhouse gases from motor vehicles endanger public health and welfare. Environmental and public health groups have filed their own lawsuits over the power plant repeal.

The petitioners in the D.C. Circuit case are the states of New York, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin; Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro; the District of Columbia; the cities of Chicago and New York; and the City and County of Denver. The suit names the EPA and Zeldin as respondents.

Massachusetts man’s $400,000 loss shows how AI powers romance scams

Victims nationwide reported losing $929 million to confidence and romance fraud in 2025, up 38% from $672 million in 2024, according to the FBI’s 2025 Internet Crime Report. Americans 60 and older accounted for $584 million of those losses.

In New England, more than 700 people in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Rhode Island told the FBI they lost about $20 million to romance scams last year, the bureau’s Boston field office said in February.

Chris Colocousis thought he had checked out the woman who contacted him on Facebook. “Eliza” had a New York phone number and said she worked at a well-known financial firm in Atlanta. On a video call, she looked exactly like her photos.

Colocousis, a divorced Massachusetts man in his 60s, said he lost the $400,000 he “invested” under her guidance, The Associated Press reported in June. He still does not know whether he was talking with a real person or with ChatGPT.

“You just feel like your whole world fell apart,” Colocousis told the AP.

“Fraudsters are lurking online claiming to be looking for love when they’re really just looking to loot your bank account,” Ted E. Docks, special agent in charge of the FBI Boston Division, said in the statement.

Massachusetts residents filed 22,936 internet crime complaints of all types with the FBI in 2025 and reported $410.9 million in losses, the 14th-highest total among states. Residents 60 and older reported $113.9 million of that amount.

AI lets one scammer work many victims

An investigation by the AP and the PBS series “Frontline” found that scam compounds in Myanmar use software built on American artificial intelligence models, chiefly ChatGPT and Gemini. The tools generate automated replies and translate messages into more than 100 languages.

Safeer Mohammed Koorimannil, whom traffickers took to one of those compounds, told the AP that on a typical shift he chatted with more than 100 people across dozens of profiles at the same time. His bosses gave him four days to make each victim fall in love. Records he smuggled out show he targeted some 50,000 people in a single month, the AP reported.

The FBI counted more than $19 million in 2025 confidence and romance fraud losses with a likely AI connection. In a December 2024 public service announcement, the bureau warned that criminals use AI to create realistic images for fake social media profiles in romance schemes and to generate video for real-time video chats.

In a University of Waterloo study released in 2024, 260 participants told real faces from AI-generated ones only 61% of the time, well below the 85% the researchers expected.

Personal data helps scammers pick targets

Data brokers collect and sell personal information that scammers can use to choose victims. In December 2024, then-Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra warned in prepared remarks that “identity thieves and scammers purchase detailed dossiers to target vulnerable consumers, particularly seniors and people in financial distress.”

Romance scammers often build a relationship over time before offering to help victims invest, the Federal Trade Commission said in May. The agency reported that romance scam losses rose 22% in 2025, with a median loss of $2,020 per person.

In January 2025, a man showed up at Colocousis’ home and collected $80,000 in cash that Colocousis believed would unlock his money on a cryptocurrency trading app, the AP reported.

An earlier FTC analysis found that reports of romance-related sextortion grew more than eightfold from 2019 to 2022, with people ages 18 to 29 reporting it most often.

How to protect yourself

The FBI advises people to make social media accounts private and accept followers only from people they know. Limiting the photos and voice recordings people post online also makes it harder for scammers to build fake identities with AI, the bureau said. It also suggests checking images and video for flaws such as distorted hands or lag.

The FBI’s Boston office urges people to move slowly in online relationships and to stay skeptical of anyone who quickly wants to take the conversation off a dating site. It also warns against lending money or sharing financial information with someone met online.

Massachusetts officials offer similar guidance. In a February advisory, the state Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation told residents to watch for suitors who ask for payment in cryptocurrency or gift cards. The office said the attorney general’s office has shut down more than 50 cryptocurrency fraud websites and returned $6 million to Massachusetts consumers.

Residents who suspect a romance scam can call the attorney general’s consumer advocacy hotline at 617-727-8400 or file a complaint with the FBI at ic3.gov. The FBI advises anyone who sent money to contact their bank immediately.

New Poll Finds Voter Support for Auditing the Legislature Holding Steady

by Chris Lisinski, CommonWealth Beacon

There’s been an awful lot of sound and fury from top Democrats when it comes to the long-stalled, voter-approved law empowering the state auditor to give the Legislature a closer look.

They say allowing the auditor to probe the House and Senate would violate the sanctity of the state Constitution, which requires a separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches. They say both chambers already undergo financial audits by outside firms and post the results online. And they say Auditor Diana DiZoglio, a former representative and senator herself, is motivated by personal animus toward her former bosses, rendering her a walking conflict of interest.

Yet all of the headlines and handwringing over the past two years have not moved the needle among voters, not even by a single point.

A new CommonWealth Beacon/MassINC Polling Group survey (Toplines | Crosstabs) found that 72 percent of likely voters support explicitly allowing the state auditor to audit the Legislature — exactly the same share that voted in support of a 2024 ballot question writing that power into state law. Only 7 percent of respondents oppose the law, and 21 percent said they are unsure.

Informed that the support margin in the poll mirrored the 2024 vote, DiZoglio’s first response was to chuckle.

“It’s certainly on theme,” she told CommonWealth Beacon. “We continue to push for the voter-mandated audit that 72 percent voted for, and as the poll demonstrates, that push is not waning. People are just as motivated as they were in 2024.”

Consensus among the electorate has not extended to the House and Senate. For more than a year following the question’s approval, top Democrats in each chamber refused to comply with DiZoglio’s newly empowered outreach, prompting the auditor to sue them earlier this year.

An initial skirmish before the state’s highest court brought little resolution. A case focused on the constitutionality of DiZoglio’s initial request for a limited batch of documents — official legislative budgets, financial audits of the House and Senate, information about the “balance forward” line items used to carry funds into another year, and monetary settlements between the branches and current or former employees — is now pending in Suffolk Superior Court.

In a brief filed in that case, the House’s legal counsel argued that DiZoglio’s January 2025 request infringes on the separation of powers between the branches and violates a section of the state constitution declaring that legislative speech cannot be the target of any legal action. Furthermore, the House’s top attorney contended, the court is not empowered to order the chamber to make any changes.

Meanwhile, the Senate argues that it should not be subject to the lawsuit because its leaders already voted to provide the documents in question to DiZoglio — even while insisting they had no legal obligation to fulfill other audit requests. The House followed up that vote with its own legislation that would limit the scope of any probe by the state auditor’s office, in perpetuity, only to the subset of documents DiZoglio outlined in her very first request.

“The House has long believed that the audit ballot question violates the state constitution – a position that we have held since before the question passed in 2024,” House Speaker Ron Mariano said in a statement to CommonWealth Beacon. “While the House remains opposed to a politically motivated audit conducted in violation of the Constitution, we did pass legislation earlier this year providing the Auditor with the authority to conduct a financial audit of the House, and we continue to undergo an audit conducted by an independent auditing firm every year.”

Gray Milkowski, a spokesperson for Senate President Karen Spilka, noted that the chamber’s latest legislative rules made more information about committee votes available because the Senate “understands that transparency is important to voters.”

“In addition, the Senate continues to put all of its expenditures—including payroll and payments to vendors—online for every resident of the Commonwealth to see and review,” he said.

With implementation in limbo, the law has morphed into a political utility tool. “Where the hell is our audit” or references to “the 72 percent” have become stand-in responses to a whole host of complaints about Beacon Hill, even if addressing such a grievance is not within the scope of a routine audit of one government entity by another.

Republicans, who are outnumbered in the Legislature seven to one, made a point to visibly embrace both the audit law and also DiZoglio herself, the only statewide Democrat who did not draw a GOP challenger this fall.

But among voters, support is massive across different ideologies. For all the complaints top House and Senate Democrats make, 70 percent of Democratic likely voters back the audit law, according to the new CommonWealth Beacon survey. Seventy-nine percent of Republicans support it, as do 72 percent of those not enrolled in either major party.

The poll involved 800 likely voters surveyed between September 14 and September 22. It has a credibility interval of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Voters have another legislative transparency decision to make this fall. DiZoglio and her allies are pushing a new ballot question that would subject the House, Senate, and governor’s office to the state’s public records law, with the auditor pitching it as a natural follow-up to her winning campaign two years ago.

Already, that idea has been caught up in the gears of Beacon Hill. Over the summer, while the ballot question was already well on track to land on the November ballot, both branches approved legislation creating a new public records framework for themselves. Depending on where the final compromise bill lands, it could supersede whatever voters decide at the polls.

DiZoglio suggested she could take legal action if that comes to pass.

“The Legislature, in doing this, is signaling to the voters of this Commonwealth that they do not respect the will of the electorate and that election results don’t matter to them,” she said.

This article first appeared on CommonWealth Beacon and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Worcester Library Director Jason Homer Leaving for Baltimore

WORCESTER, Mass. — Jason Homer, executive director of the Worcester Public Library for nearly six years, will leave to lead the Baltimore County Public Library in Maryland, the Worcester library’s board of directors announced on Thursday, Oct. 1. Homer’s last day in Worcester will be Nov. 6.

Tressa Santillo, the library’s director for library innovation and public services, will serve as interim executive director while the board conducts a national search for a permanent replacement.

“Leaving Worcester Public Library is incredibly bittersweet,” Homer said in a statement released by the library. “There is no way to adequately express what this community and this library have meant to me.”

He credited the library’s staff for the changes made during his tenure.

“I am proud of what we have accomplished together,” Homer said. “But I am even more proud of the people who made it happen.”

Under Homer, the library created a Community Resources Department that pairs social work with library services. The department connects residents with help on housing, food insecurity, health, immigration, re-entry, veterans’ services and English-language learning, according to the board.

The library also expanded its digital equity and accessibility programs and adopted a new strategic plan, called the Purpose, Ambition and Strategic Roadmap. It introduced a “You Belong Here” brand during the same period.

The library and its staff collected several national and international honors while Homer led it. Those include the American Library Association’s John Cotton Dana Library Public Relations Award and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions PressReader International Library Marketing Award. Staff members were named Library Journal Movers & Shakers, and the Worcester Talking Book Library was named the 2026 National Library Service Subregional Library of the Year.

The library was also a finalist for the National Medal for Museum and Library Service, awarded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Individual staff and board members received the Worcester Regional Research Bureau’s Thomas S. Green Public Service Award, the YWCA’s Katharine F. Erskine Award and recognition from the Massachusetts Library Association, the board said.

“For Jason, leadership has always been about people,” said Stephanie Pasha, president of the library’s board of directors. “He has challenged us to think bigger about what a public library can be, while making sure that the people doing the work had the support, encouragement and opportunities to make that vision a reality.”

Pasha said that the library is in a strong position for the transition.

“Jason leaves WPL stronger than he found it,” she said. “We are incredibly grateful for his leadership and excited about what comes next.”

The board said the search will focus on candidates who can build on the library’s strategic direction, staff, and community partnerships. It did not announce a timeline for naming a permanent director.

The library will hold a public farewell celebration for Homer from 5 to 7 p.m. Oct. 27 at the Main Library, 3 Salem Square. Staff, volunteers, partners and residents are invited to attend and meet the leaders who will guide the library during the transition.

“I will miss Worcester enormously,” Homer said. “But I leave knowing that WPL is ready for what comes next.”

Worcester Man Indicted After Decades Living as Dead Citizen

WORCESTER — A federal grand jury has indicted a Worcester man known only as “John Doe” on charges he spent more than two decades living under a dead U.S. citizen’s identity, using it to obtain food assistance, state health benefits and a Massachusetts ID card, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.

The man’s true identity remains unknown. He is charged with unlawfully obtaining Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, false representation of a Social Security number, making false statements related to health care matters, and aggravated identity theft. He was previously arrested in April 2026 after being charged by criminal complaint and remains in federal custody.

According to charging documents, the man has lived in Massachusetts since at least 2001 under the identity of a U.S. citizen from Puerto Rico who died in 2006. Prosecutors allege he used that identity to fraudulently obtain a Massachusetts identification card and MassHealth benefits.

Charging documents also allege the man has criminal convictions in Massachusetts under the deceased citizen’s identity, including for assault and drug trafficking. In September 2012, he was convicted in Worcester Superior Court of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, a gun, and of trafficking cocaine, for which he was sentenced to 8 to 10 years and 11 to 15 years in state prison, respectively.

After his release from prison in January 2022, the man allegedly used the stolen identity to apply for SNAP benefits. According to charging documents, he spoke with an employee of the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance in April 2022 as part of his application, claiming he was the individual named on the application, that he was a U.S. citizen, and verifying the Social Security number tied to that identity.

The DTA employee noted in the file: “Death match ??? – reviewing with supervisor,” apparently flagging that the Social Security number corresponded to a deceased person. The application was nonetheless approved, and the man went on to collect SNAP benefits, prosecutors allege.

In total, from April 2022 through February 2026, the man allegedly applied for and obtained approximately $12,623 in SNAP benefits under the stolen identity.

• The charge of unlawfully obtaining SNAP benefits provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
• The charge of misrepresenting a Social Security number provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000.
• The charge of false statements relating to health care matters provides for a sentence of up to five years in prison, up to three years of supervised release, and a fine of up to $250,000.
• The charge of aggravated identity theft provides for a sentence of at least two years in prison, up to one year of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000