Patient takes ambulance from Worcester hospital, crashes in West Boylston

A patient drove off in an ambulance from a Worcester behavioral health hospital Sunday, Nov. 1, and crashed into a construction container in West Boylston, according to police and fire officials.

Worcester police received a call at about 8:07 p.m. reporting that a patient had taken a Coastal Medical Transport Systems ambulance from 100 Century Drive, Patch reported. The address houses the Hospital for Behavioral Medicine, according to Boston 25 News.

Police said the patient drove the ambulance into neighboring West Boylston, where it crashed near 1500 Century Drive in an industrial park along the Worcester line.

State police told NBC Boston the ambulance struck a large construction container. West Boylston firefighters found one person at the scene with life-threatening injuries, the fire department told the station.

Emergency crews took the patient to a nearby hospital as a Priority 1 patient, the most serious injury category, Worcester police said. Coastal employees reported no injuries, and police said the crash hurt no one else.

Video from the scene showed heavy damage to the ambulance’s front end. Crews cleared the crash site by early Monday, Nov. 2.

As of Monday morning, police had not released the patient’s name or announced charges. Worcester police said the investigation remains open. State police also responded to the crash, and NBC Boston reported that the Worcester County District Attorney’s Office has opened its own investigation.

Vacant St. Stephen rectory to come down, making room for parking

The vacant former rectory beside St. Stephen Church on Grafton Hill will come down within weeks, and a gravel lot for limited parking will take its place, the Catholic Free Press reported.

Nathan Schroeder, facilities director for the Diocese of Worcester, told the diocesan newspaper on Monday, Oct. 26, that the parish is waiting on a city permit and expects demolition within the next few weeks.

F&D Truck Co. of Millbury will handle the work. Schroeder said the teardown itself should take a couple of days, and filling the cellar hole and hauling away debris should take a couple of weeks more. The company put up chain-link fencing around the building in early October.

St. Joseph and St. Stephen Parish took out a Diocesan Expansion Fund loan of about $110,000 to cover demolition, cleanup and asbestos removal, according to Schroeder.

Fire risk and upkeep costs

The building last served as a religious education center and has sat empty for about three years, said Msgr. Robert K. Johnson, the parish pastor.

Schroeder said a fire in the vacant rectory could easily spread to the church next door.

“Given that it’s unused, it’s obviously more prone and more at risk for somebody breaking in and starting a fire and then you’re into St. Stephen Church,” he said.

Johnson said removing the building will save the parish the cost of insurance, heat, water, lights and fire alarms.

“It frees up finances for other things,” he said, “and an empty building is always a liability.”

He added that the open space will give the parish more room for events such as its annual Hispanic Festival.

Parking for a growing parish

Holy Family and St. Stephen parishes merged on Sept. 1, 2023, to form St. Joseph and St. Stephen Parish. Holy Family had worshipped at St. Joseph Church, 35 Hamilton St., across the street from St. Stephen Church at 357 Grafton St. Johnson lives in the renovated St. Joseph rectory with three other priests.

St. Joseph Church has no parking lot. Johnson said that for many years most parishioners lived in the neighborhood and walked to Mass.

The parish’s Brazilian community has pushed up demand for parking. The Portuguese-language Mass at St. Joseph starts at 11 a.m. Sundays, the same hour as the English Mass at St. Stephen, according to the parish Mass schedule.

“So parking is more important to us right now than a building that we don’t need or don’t use,” Johnson said.

He said attendance and weekly collections have both increased. The parish celebrates eight weekend Masses in English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Creole.

Image Credit: St. Shephen Church/ Facebook

National Grid sets Worcester County sessions to help customers with winter bills

National Grid customer advocates will hold six free sessions in Worcester County between Monday, Nov. 9, and Monday, Dec. 7, to help residents manage winter energy bills and sign up for a new income-based discount.

The company also scheduled a statewide virtual session from noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Nov. 30, for customers who can’t attend in person.

The in-person sessions, listed on National Grid’s customer assistance events page, include:

• Worcester: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Nov. 9, Worcester Community Action Council, 18 Chestnut St., Suite 500
• Leominster: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, Leominster City Hall, 25 West St.
• Worcester: 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18, Saxe Room, Worcester Public Library, 3 Salem Square
• Uxbridge: 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 18, Uxbridge Senior Center, 36 S. Main St.
• Grafton: 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 3, Grafton Council on Aging, 30 Providence Road
• Worcester: 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Dec. 7, Worcester Community Action Council, 18 Chestnut St., Suite 500

The sessions belong to a statewide series National Grid announced Oct. 28 for nine Massachusetts counties. Earlier stops in the county included Leominster on Oct. 28 and Worcester on Monday, Nov. 2.

Advocates at the events answer billing questions and check whether customers qualify for discount programs. They also explain payment options such as the Budget Plan, which spreads energy costs across 12 months, and the Arrears Management Program, which helps eligible customers pay down past-due balances.

Much of the focus this fall falls on a new tiered discount rate that took effect Sunday, Nov. 1. The state Department of Public Utilities ordered a statewide tiered discount structure for income-eligible gas and electric customers. National Grid’s version offers six levels of support based on household size, gross annual income or enrollment in a qualifying benefit program.

National Grid began offering a tiered discount to electric customers in 2025 after the DPU approved a five-tier plan with discounts ranging from 32% to 71%. The new structure brings tiered discounts to the company’s gas customers as well.

“We’re proud to have been the first utility in Massachusetts to propose and implement a tiered income-based discount for electric customers and are now extending that approach to our gas customers,” said Bill Malee, National Grid’s chief customer officer.

During the Nov. 30 webinar, customer advocates will walk through resources to help customers stay warm, save energy and manage their bills. Customers can register for the Fall Customer Bill Assistance webinar online, and National Grid will send a recording to registrants who miss the live session.

Customers can learn more about assistance programs at ngrid.com/hereforyou or by calling National Grid customer service at 800-233-5325.

West-East Railroad wins $30M federal grant to replace blocked rail crossings

Massachusetts will use a $30 million federal grant to build a roadway overpass in West Springfield that replaces two railroad crossings trains often block, state and federal officials announced Friday, Oct. 30.

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation won the money through the Federal Railroad Administration’s Railroad Crossing Elimination Grant Program. It will fund the Front and First Street Grade Crossing Elimination Project, which swaps the street-level crossings at Front Street and First Street for a single overpass.

Both crossings sit near the CSX Intermodal Terminal. Trains entering and leaving the terminal regularly stop traffic there, sometimes several times a day, and drivers and pedestrians wait until the tracks clear. CSX will contribute $2 million toward the work.

“This award will allow us to make badly needed improvements in West Springfield,” Gov. Maura Healey said.

A MassDOT presentation to the agency’s board in March put the project’s total cost at about $40 million and said design work had begun, led mainly by the Highway Division. The same presentation flagged the project as a likely candidate for this grant program. Friday’s announcement did not include a construction timeline.

State Rep. Michael Finn said residents have dealt with delays and worries about emergency response at the crossings for years.

“This $30 million investment is a major step toward fixing this problem,” Finn said.

State Sen. John Velis called the overpass a longtime local priority and said the grant moves it closer to construction. Agawam Mayor Chris Johnson said the funding should ease congestion and help first responders reach residents.

U.S. Rep. Richard Neal, who put the award at $30.3 million, described it as his third rail announcement of the month. He also pointed to a groundbreaking in Pittsfield on work to make the Berkshire Flyer a permanent service.

Meredith Slesinger, MassDOT’s rail and transit administrator, thanked CSX for its share and said the overpass will help freight and passenger trains move more smoothly through the area. Interim State Highway Administrator Meghan Haggerty said separating the road from the tracks will reduce the risk of collisions between cars and trains.

State officials tied the project to West-East Rail, the proposed passenger service linking Boston, Springfield and Pittsfield. That effort falls under Compass Rail, MassDOT’s intercity passenger rail program, and the new grant brings federal funding for Compass Rail to more than $320 million.

The award follows a $130 million federal grant the state announced Friday, Oct. 16, for track and signal upgrades around Springfield’s Union Station. That project aims to ease a bottleneck where freight and passenger trains compete for the same tracks.

U.S. Sen. Edward Markey said the new money keeps the region on course to become “the rail investment capital of the United States.”

What is West-East Rail?

West-East Rail, often called East-West Rail, is the state’s plan to bring regular passenger trains back between Boston and western Massachusetts. MassDOT runs it under Compass Rail, its intercity rail program centered on Springfield Union Station.

The first phase, the Inland Route, would run two daily round trips from Boston to New Haven, Connecticut, with stops in Framingham, Worcester and Springfield. A $108 million federal grant, plus matching money from MassDOT and Amtrak, pays for a $135 million package of track, signal and siding upgrades, much of it between Worcester and Springfield. MassDOT plans to start construction in 2027 and launch service in 2030.

A longer-term Boston & Albany Corridor would carry trains through Worcester, a new Palmer station and Springfield on to Pittsfield and Albany, New York. That route remains in federal planning, and the state has not yet secured money to build it.

CSX owns the tracks west of Worcester, so every new passenger train depends on agreements with the freight railroad. Federal awards for Compass Rail now top $320 million, including $130 million announced Friday, Oct. 16, for track and signal work around Union Station.

Crashes jump during evening commute after clocks fall back, AAA warns

Massachusetts drivers heading home between 5 and 6 p.m. face a sharply higher crash risk now that daylight saving time has ended, according to a new analysis from AAA Northeast.

Clocks fell back an hour early Sunday, Nov. 1, moving sunset into the evening commute. AAA Northeast reviewed figures from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s IMPACT crash data portal and found that crashes during the 5 p.m. hour rose 30% from October to November 2025.

Pedestrians saw the steepest change. Pedestrian crashes more than doubled over the same span, climbing from 15 in October to 32 in November.

Earlier darkness drives much of the increase, AAA Northeast said, and drowsy driving adds to it. Sleep cycles disrupted by the time change can take several days or even weeks to settle, even though people technically gain an hour of sleep.

Many drivers also misjudge how tired they are. In a simulated nighttime driving study by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, 75% of participants who rated their drowsiness as low turned out to be moderately or highly drowsy based on an objective measure of eye closure.

“The end of daylight saving time brings a combination of disrupted sleep schedules and earlier sunsets that can throw drivers off,” said Mark Schieldrop, senior spokesperson for AAA Northeast. “Drivers can help make the evening commute safer by getting enough rest, staying extra vigilant as rush hour becomes darker and anticipating that others on the road are also adapting to the changes in visibility.”

Marian Berkowitz, founder of the Drowsy Driving Prevention Project, has a personal stake in the warning. She lost her brother, Jim, after he fell asleep at the wheel during a six-hour drive from Virginia to his school in North Carolina. The crash happened the evening after the fall clock change weekend.

“Drivers should be aware they may be more tired than usual in the days following the fall or spring clock change as the change can disrupt our sleep pattern,” Berkowitz said. “What happened to my brother Jim could have happened to anyone.”

Tips for darker commutes

AAA offers the following advice as drivers adjust:

• Check headlights for yellowing or clouding, which can appear after just three years, and replace or restore them as needed.
• Keep the windshield clean and replace wiper blades that leave streaks.
• Leave at least four seconds of following distance, and more behind motorcycles or in poor weather.
• Slow to 5 mph when turning at intersections, especially where lighting is poor or pedestrians are likely.
• If an oncoming driver fails to dim high beams, look toward the white edge line on the right and hold your course until the vehicle passes.
• Scan beyond the area your headlights cover and watch for flashes of light that signal vehicles over hills, around curves and at intersections.
• Use the sun visor or polarized sunglasses to cut glare, which now hits earlier in the day.
• Get at least seven hours of sleep before driving. Drivers who struggle to stay awake should pull over somewhere safe, lock the doors and take a short nap.

Amazon withdraws Westborough drone delivery plan after months of opposition

Amazon has asked Westborough to let it withdraw its plan for a Prime Air drone launch site at its Otis Street fulfillment center, halting a proposal that drew months of opposition across Central Massachusetts.

In a letter dated Friday, Oct. 30, the company asked the Planning Board to approve withdrawal of Site Plan Review Application No. 26-02275 “without prejudice,” a status that leaves Amazon free to file again later.

State Sen. Michael Moore, D-Millbury, and state Reps. Hannah Kane, R-Shrewsbury, and Kate Donaghue, D-Westborough, announced the decision in a joint statement after Amazon called them Friday night.

“We are extremely pleased and thank Amazon for listening to the overwhelming concerns voiced in making this decision,” the lawmakers said.

The three legislators credited residents of Westborough and nearby towns who spoke up about noise, safety, privacy and quality-of-life concerns. They also thanked the resident group Mass Blue Skies, local officials, Gov. Maura Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and the state’s congressional delegation.

Amazon closed its brief letter by saying the company “values its relationship with the Town of Westborough and looks forward to continuing to work with Town officials on next steps.”

What Amazon proposed

Amazon planned to convert part of the parking lot at 64 Otis St. into a takeoff and landing area for its MK30 delivery drones. The service would have carried packages under 5 pounds to addresses within 7.5 miles, an area the lawmakers said covers Westborough and 15 surrounding communities. It would have been the first Prime Air site in New England.

Amazon told residents it hoped to eventually make up to 1,000 deliveries a day from the site. The MK30 releases packages from about 13 feet above the ground, according to a technical noise report filed with the FAA.

The Westborough site fit into Amazon’s plan to bring Prime Air to nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns by the end of 2026.

Opposition builds

Amazon presented the proposal to the Westborough Select Board on Aug. 18, and the Planning Board opened its hearing Sept. 15. Residents appealed the building commissioner’s ruling that treated the launch pad as an accessory use, which had sent the project to site plan review instead of the special permit process. The Zoning Board of Appeals had scheduled that appeal for Monday, Nov. 2, and the Planning Board had continued its hearing to Tuesday, Nov. 10.

On Monday, Sept. 28, Massachusetts joined 14 other states and Harris County, Texas, in suing the FAA over its July 28 nationwide environmental assessment for drone package delivery. The assessment lets the agency approve new delivery markets without a separate review for each one.

Moore, Kane and Donaghue asked Amazon the next day to pause its plans and engage further with the community. On Wednesday, Oct. 14, U.S. Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren and U.S. Reps. Jim McGovern and Lori Trahan asked Amazon and the FAA to require a site-specific environmental review of the Westborough hub.

Westborough Special Town Meeting voted 510-13 on Monday, Oct. 19, to adopt a bylaw barring commercial drone launch pads and drop zones in town. The bylaw still needs approval from the attorney general and MassDOT’s Aeronautics Division. That same day, 16 state legislators asked Healey to form a task force on commercial drones and to halt state processing of drone operator applications until the review ends.

MassDOT Aeronautics Administrator Denise Garcia wrote Amazon on Thursday, Oct. 22, that the company cannot establish a takeoff and landing area anywhere in Massachusetts without a certificate of approval from her division, as state law requires. Her letter said the division had not received a request for review from Amazon, and that it would hold at least one public hearing before deciding on a certificate.

Incidents elsewhere

Prime Air has faced publicized mishaps in other markets. In July 2025, an Amazon drone in Avondale, Arizona, dropped a package that its propellers then blew into a backyard pool. Amazon later apologized after one of its drones struck an apartment building in Richardson, Texas.

Amazon says its drones carry redundant safety systems and detect-and-avoid technology, and that propeller design cuts the MK30’s perceived noise by nearly half compared with earlier models.

Image courtesy of Amazon

Worcester City Council After 529 days: We’ll tell you nothing

The unofficial launch of the 2027 Worcester City Council campaign began on Tuesday, October 20, at around 10:25 PM.

How does the controlling majority of this city council kick off the early campaign season? A totally misguided, dishonest loyalty pledge to the most extreme voices at the police department. Obviously.

Nearly four hours after the Worcester City Council meeting began that night, District 5 City Councilor Jose Rivera requested to remove item 14f from the table. (An item “put on the table” means the item stays on the council’s agenda, but the council takes no action on it unless first “taken off the table.”)

Not only is the council giving another free pass on accountability at the police department, but they did it in a way that avoids having to listen to the public. The item no longer appears on the agenda, which prohibits residents from speaking about it during the public participation portion of the meeting.

A motion to file, if approved by a vote of the council, disposes of the item without further action.

The text of item 14f:

COMMUNICATION of the City Manager transmitting informational communication relative to how the U.S. Department of Justice’s report on the Worcester Police Department differs from the account of the municipality.
(Held Under Privilege – King April 29, 2025 and May 6, 2025 and Tabled – King May 13, 2025)

Councilors voted to take the item off the table, which allowed debate on it. Rivera said the following.

“So basically, I want to take this off the table. Mr. Chair, because I think, as we all know and we’ve heard and we’ve discussed this so much, DOJ decided not to go forward. You’ve also had many meetings and many communication with, chief of police and all of the stuff they’re doing with the police department and the direction the city’s moving forward.

So with that said, I just want to move to file this item.”

In other words, Rivera decided that although taxpayers paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for private legal counsel to represent the city in the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation of the Worcester Police Department, you should never get to know what in the DOJ report the city does not dispute.

As Rivera mentioned, the DOJ closed the investigation into the WPD as the Trump Administration abandoned three decades of precedent in conducting these investigations.

However, this order had nothing to do with the investigation itself, but the report the DOJ produced. Here is Councilor Khrystian King asking for the report on March 25, 2025.

“I would like to make a motion requesting, that the differences that are had, as mentioned, with this report are provided to us in a report from the administration. I also want in that report, areas where what was said is confirmed and necessary. I think we want fairness. I mean, your report, you know, sounds reasonable.

This is civilian oversight happening right now in real time. And of course, there’s always two sides, but absolutely. I want to say, fairness.”

On April 16, 2025, the Worcester Police Department released a 4,998-word statement titled “Worcester Police Analysis of the DOJ Report,” Not a single word of it acknowledged anything the police department views as accurate in the DOJ report.

When the city council next met on April 29, City Manager Eric Batista’s administration provided this same “analysis” to councilors.

King explained during the April 29, 2025, meeting why he chose to hold the item, and two meetings later raised a motion to place it on the table (an item can only be held to the next meeting twice).

“Appreciate this response to my order. And I just want to kind of speak on the spirit of the order that I filed. That particular order, was a request in search of fairness. We had a city council meeting. Chief, Saucier had indicated there were some discrepancies. And they weren’t outlined or identified.

And I think, as I mentioned, I think every stakeholder in this wants fairness and accountability. Well, fairness. I’m not sure about accountability, but we shall see. But everybody wants fairness from their perspective. And I think this is part of that. My concern is that this particular document does not include the rest of the order.

The order was asking for a report detailing any instances where the account within the DOJ report concerning WPD differs from the account of the city. Further request that that report include instances when the accounts of the DOJ had been confirmed. By the city. And, I’m not sure we’re at in that process, Mister Chairman, but it’s certainly not in this document.”

During questioning during that same April 29, 2025 meeting, Chief of Police Paul Saucier repudiated what he described as a media narrative that the department is totally against the DOJ report.

He also appears to indicate that he had already compiled things he agreed with in the report.

“Yes. And I know the media has put out there that we’re just going out, you know, saying the whole reports garbage. I’ve never said that publicly, ever. I talked to reporters. They did not put it in the paper. I don’t know why. Because this this seems better to have the Worcester police come out here and say, oh, we’re just against this.

We’re not totally against it. We understand that, you know, we are human beings. We’re not robots. We make mistakes and we go out there and do the best job we can with what we have. I have two pages of things that I agreed with in that report. Not once has anybody ever asked me what were those things.”

The city manager’s administration ignored the order for those “two pages of things” for 529 days until Oct. 20, when Rivera and seven other councilors voted to tell you that you don’t need to know.

Of the eight who decided you don’t need to know, seven received the endorsement of the NEPBA Local 911, the union that represents patrol officers at the WPD, during the last campaign (Bergman, Economou, Mitra, Rivera, Rosen, Toomey, Petty). John Fresolo also voted to file the item.

Taxpayers paid $825,000 for a settlement this summer for the unhinged behavior of some during the June 2020 George Floyd protests on Main Street where the police department says its personnel violated no laws or policy. Taxpayers paid $258,000 as of January 2025 to the private attorney representing the city in the DOJ investigation.

But Mayor Petty and his majority coalition in the city council have no time to seek answers. They have loyalty pledges to police union interests to take, as they dutifully did on Oct. 20. After all, there is an election next year.

Just shut up and pay, pleb.

Four charged after Southbridge narcotics search finds cocaine, fentanyl

Southbridge police arrested four people and seized crack cocaine, fentanyl and nearly $2,000 in cash early Monday, Oct. 26, during a search of a Langlois Avenue home, according to the department.

Detectives and patrol officers executed a narcotics search warrant at 12 Langlois Ave. at about 1:37 a.m. The department’s K9, Vice, and a K9 team from the Webster Police Department assisted.

Officers seized about 48 grams of suspected crack cocaine and about 9 grams of suspected fentanyl, both packaged for distribution, police said. They also found prescription pills that police believe were meant for sale, digital scales, $1,987 in cash that police suspect came from drug sales and other materials used to package and distribute drugs.

Charges

Eddie O. Rivera, 42, of 12 Langlois Ave., faces charges of trafficking 36 grams or more of crack cocaine, possession with intent to distribute Class A fentanyl and conspiracy to violate drug laws. Police said Rivera also had an outstanding warrant for failure to register as a sex offender, subsequent offense.

Darilys M. Maldonado, 41, of 517 Charlton St., faces the same charges as Rivera. According to police, she also had two outstanding warrants. One stems from failure to comply with the terms of a drug distribution case involving Class B substances, and the other involves a probation violation.

Keith R. Howe Jr., 47, of 12 Langlois Ave., faces charges of possession of Class A fentanyl, possession of Class E clonidine and conspiracy to violate drug laws.

Miguel A. Alicea, 36, of 41 School St., Apt. 1, faces a charge of possession of Class A fentanyl.

Police also charged a 45-year-old woman with multiple drug-related offenses. She will receive a summons to appear in court at a later date, police said.

Howe and Rivera each face $50,000 cash bail. Alicea’s bail stands at $1,000 cash, and Maldonado remains held without bail.

All suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Judge strikes Trump rule narrowing Medicaid work exemption for medically frail

A federal judge in Boston on Thursday, Oct. 29, struck down a Trump administration rule provision that would have made it harder for medically vulnerable Medicaid recipients to win an exemption from new federal work requirements.

U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns ruled that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services overstepped federal law when it narrowed who counts as “medically frail,” according to the court’s decision. Stearns vacated the disputed language and issued a permanent injunction barring the federal government from enforcing it.

The judge also gave states a six-month stay of enforcement on medical frailty decisions to absorb errors or delays as the work requirements roll out.

Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell announced the ruling Thursday. She co-led the lawsuit with California Attorney General Rob Bonta and New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport on behalf of a coalition of 24 attorneys general and two governors.

“Today the court ruled that the Trump Administration’s attempt to impose new, burdensome requirements on medically vulnerable Medicaid recipients is unlawful and effectively blocked these harmful rules from taking effect,” Campbell said.

“This victory protects access to healthcare for residents with serious illnesses and disabilities and ensures their care won’t be interrupted due to unlawful red tape,” she said.

What the rule required

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which President Donald Trump signed July 4, 2025, requires some adult Medicaid recipients to complete 80 hours a month of work or community service, or enroll at least half time in an educational program, starting Jan. 1, 2027.

Congress exempted people who are “medically frail” and listed five types of conditions that fall under that label, among them substance use disorders and serious or complex medical conditions.

CMS published an interim final rule June 3 that added a test: a person’s condition had to significantly impair their ability to comply with the work requirement. Stearns found that Congress set the five categories as a floor, leaving CMS no authority to shrink them.

The six-month stay applies to any determination of whether a person qualifies as medically frail. The Jan. 1 start date stays in place, and the states did not ask the court to change it.

The states lost two other challenges. Stearns upheld a 12-month claims look-back provision and a limit of one self-attestation per enrollment period, finding the government offered a sufficient rationale for each.

What it means for MassHealth members

About 360,000 MassHealth members may face new work and education reporting requirements starting in January, according to Gov. Maura Healey’s office.

As of Friday, Oct. 30, MassHealth’s online guidance for members tells people with certain disabilities or an addiction that they may need to show their condition significantly impairs their ability to work. That language mirrors the standard the court struck down. Campbell’s office did not say how the ruling will change MassHealth’s exemption process.

Medicaid, the nation’s safety-net health program for low-income Americans, runs on joint state and federal funding, with Washington covering at least 50% of the cost of services.

When the coalition filed suit in June, it argued that the rule added reporting burdens likely to strip coverage from eligible people. Campbell’s office said earlier Medicaid work requirement programs showed that added paperwork pushes eligible people off the rolls, which strains safety-net providers and emergency rooms and drives up costs.

Attorneys general from Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawai’i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin joined the case, along with the governors of Kentucky and Pennsylvania.

State troopers to offer free car seat checks at Worcester State Nov. 7

Massachusetts State Police troopers will inspect and install child car seats for free from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, at Worcester State University, 486 Chandler St.

Worcester State is partnering with the state police and the Heart of New England Council, Scouting America, on the family safety event, which is free and open to the public.

Certified troopers will check that each seat fits the child and sits securely in the vehicle. Organizers encourage families to bring their vehicles and child safety seats.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that nearly half of all car seats have installation errors. A correctly installed seat cuts the risk of fatal injury in a crash by 71% for infants and 54% for toddlers, according to the agency.

Massachusetts car seat law requires children to ride in a federally approved car seat or booster seat until they turn 8 or grow taller than 57 inches. Children who outgrow a booster must wear a properly adjusted seat belt until age 13.

State police will also bring their rollover simulator, a hands-on demonstration that shows riders why seat belts save lives. Troopers plan to display specialized equipment they use in their public safety work.

Scouts and volunteer leaders from Worcester packs and troops will help run activities and talk with families interested in joining.

“This event represents the power of community partnerships,” said Jason Pigg, Scout executive and CEO of the Heart of New England Council.

Pigg said the partnership lets organizers “provide an important public service while introducing families to the positive impact Scouting has throughout our communities.”

The council serves about 4,000 young people in more than 60 central Massachusetts communities. Families can learn more on the Heart of New England Council website.

Families who cannot attend can find year-round help through the state’s list of free car seat inspection sites. For event details, contact Leslie Parady at 508-752-3769, ext. 104.