The chief goal of the conference committee examining a proposed education bill on Beacon Hill is to dot the Is and cross the Ts on how the state will spend $1.5 billion more into public education over the next seven years. But negotiators also have to decide whether to retain an amendment that requires an analysis of the state law that limits increases in property taxes, the main source of local funding for K-12 education.
An energy analyst says a late decision by the New York Attorney General to drop two of four fraud allegations against ExxonMobil in a lawsuit over climate change bodes ill for the Massachusetts Attorney General's case against the oil giant.
On Thursday, November 7, a lawyer for the New York Attorney General's office told a judge before closing arguments in a trial that the state would drop two fraud counts alleging actual harm done by ExxonMobil and keep two remaining counts under an expansive New York state law that outlaws misrepresentation even if no damage occurred.
