Free Republic

State Sen. Stanley Rosenberg, for decades one of the most powerful Democrats in Massachusetts, announced Thursday that he will resign Friday after 31 years as a lawmaker because of a scandal involving his estranged husband. His decision follows Wednesday’s release of an ethics report that states Rosenberg “failed to protect the Senate” from his estranged husband, who faces charges of racially and sexually harassing Senate employees. Rosenberg, 68, of Amherst, a former president of the Massachusetts Senate, was the first openly gay lawmaker to lead a legislative chamber in the Bay State, Boston’s Fox 25 reported. He stepped down as...

Bryon Hefner, the estranged husband of former Senate President Stanley Rosenberg, has been indicted on charges of sexual assault, criminal lewdness and distributing nude photos without consent, Attorney General Maura Healey and Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley announced today. Hefner is due in Suffolk Superior Court April 24 on the 10 felony counts.

Massachusetts Senate President Stanley Rosenberg on Wednesday called upon Berkshire Gas to lift its moratorium on new and expanded natural gas service in the region — but a spokesman for Berkshire's parent company, the publicly-traded Avangrid, told The Republican that the moratorium on new hookups would stay in place without a "permanent solution" for additional natural gas capacity in western Massachusetts. ... Berkshire Gas had hoped to purchase capacity on the line. Berkshire's parent company, Avangrid, had also signed on as an investor in the $5-8 billion Kinder Morgan pipeline. Berkshire more than a year ago imposed a moratorium on...