New England News

The state House of Representatives has approved a $20.5 billion budget deal reached between Governor Dannel P. Malloy and Democratic legislative leaders that would address the growing deficit and increase future spending by $143 million.

The House voted 95-49 along party lines in favor of the plan at about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday. It now goes to the Senate.

The budget plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1 would increase education aid to cities and towns by $50 million. But it also would trim about $28 million from Malloy's original $128 million education proposal.

The founding of the third oldest county in Massachusetts, Hampshire County, is being observed this year.  Officials are using the 350th anniversary to promote an effort to fund major repairs to the county's best known landmark.  WAMC's Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports.
       

With a new online criminal background check system launching Monday,  improvements to the Criminal Offender Record Information system, or CORI, come two years after legislation was signed to protect Massachusetts residents who have paid their debt to society.

The new CORI database provides easier access to the public including landlords and employees seeking background information on potential tenants or employees. At the same time the system overhaul will restrict their searches to information on convictions dating back ten years.  

DEP Commissioner Ken Kimmell says that the plan currently under development to reduce the amount of food waste in landfills, which could eventually lead to banning commercial institutions from disposing organic waste in the conventional manner, is an attempt to get a return from a resource literally being thrown away.

The Massachusetts Gaming Commission is being urged by some to speed up its work to shorten the expected time table for issuing up to three licenses to build resort casinos.  An casino-sitting advisory committee has been created in Springfield, as officials there pursue a casino development.  WAMC”s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill reports.

State lawmakers in Connecticut are entering the final days of the legislative session and still need to finish work on some key bills.

The General Assembly has yet to vote on a revised budget for the fiscal year that ends on June 30, or reach a final agreement with Governor Dannel P. Malloy on a plan to overhaul the state's public education system.

The regular legislative session ends on Wednesday at midnight.

Massachusetts is launching a new online system for employers to check criminal backgrounds of prospective workers, but their searches are only being allowed to go back 10 years.

Supporters of the new Criminal Offender Record Information system — known as CORI — say it will help former convicts who have paid their debt to society and stayed out of trouble for a decade get jobs and reintegrate into society.

Opponents say companies have a right to known the complete criminal history of hirees.