PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The congregation that worships at the nation's oldest synagogue prevailed Monday in a bitter legal fight that threatened its existence, as a federal judge ruled it may now control its own destiny and decide what to do with a set of ceremonial bells worth millions.
The lawsuit pitted congregants at the 250-year-old Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, against the nation's oldest Jewish congregation, Shearith Israel in New York City.
STATE HOUSE — The Massachusetts Senate is poised in the coming weeks to press the House and Gov. Charlie Baker to make larger investments in public higher education.
The fiscal 2017 budget proposal (S 4) marked for released Tuesday by the Senate Ways and Means Committee will call for a $13 million increase, above funding levels approved in April by the House, for the University of Massachusetts, according to committee chairwoman Sen. Karen Spilka. The committee's spending plan will allocate more than $521 million for the UMass system.
