With the Red Sox sucking all the oxygen out of the news cycle in these parts, it might have been a little hard to notice other things going on yesterday, […]
Jack Sullivan
Jack Sullivan is now retired. A veteran of the Boston newspaper scene for nearly three decades. Prior to joining CommonWealth, he was editorial page editor of The Patriot Ledger in Quincy, a part of the GateHouse Media chain. Prior to that he was news editor at another GateHouse paper, The Enterprise of Brockton, and also was city edition editor at the Ledger. Jack was an investigative and enterprise reporter and executive city editor at the Boston Herald and a reporter at The Boston Globe.
He has reported stories such as the federal investigation into the Teamsters, the workings of the Yawkey Trust and sale of the Red Sox, organized crime, the church sex abuse scandal and the September 11 terrorist attacks. He has covered the State House, state and local politics, K-16 education, courts, crime, and general assignment.
Jack received the New England Press Association award for investigative reporting for a series on unused properties owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, and shared the association's award for business for his reporting on the sale of the Boston Red Sox. As the Ledger editorial page editor, he won second place in 2007 for editorial writing from the Inland Press Association, the nation's oldest national journalism association of nearly 900 newspapers as members.
At CommonWealth, Jack and editor Bruce Mohl won first place for In-Depth Reporting from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors for a look at special education funding in Massachusetts. The same organization also awarded first place to a unique collaboration between WFXT-TV (FOX25) and CommonWealth for a series of stories on the Boston Redevelopment Authority and city employees getting affordable housing units, written by Jack and Bruce.
Posted inHealth Care, The Download
Rage against the machine
Technology has been credited – some would say condemned – for launching the demise of newspapers and other media. Now, the computer industry has been identified as the bogeyman in the […]
Posted inEducation, The Download
Did anyone Google Evan Dobelle?
Type “Evan Dobelle” into any Internet search engine and you get about 93,000 results for the embattled – now suspended – Westfield State University president. Add in “Hawaii” and you […]
Posted inEconomy, The Download
The irony of the medical device tax standoff
There are any number of contradictions and ironies in the federal budget stalemate that has shut the government down, none more than the focus on a repeal of the medical […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Political friends – with benefits
When the Massachusetts Legislature passed its highly touted Ethics Reform Act in 2009, tucked inside was a change to the law that allows elected officials to set up funds separate […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Scott Brown is taken aback by politics
The sitting senator sent out a fundraising appeal, citing the specter of a potential challenge from a partisan television personality and commentator. The TV type immediately fired back, dismissing the […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Gabriel Gomez’s Etch A Sketch moment?
Former Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez insists his conversion from staunchly defending an absolute Second Amendment right to bear arms to now supporting an assault weapons ban and limiting magazine sizes […]
Posted inEconomy, Environment, The Download
A flood of opposition to insurance and map changes
Anyone who lives near the ocean in New England knows it comes with a cost, but one of the prices that homeowners pay for the privilege is high insurance premiums […]
Posted inPolitics
Wolf gets ethics stay but gov run in doubt
The state Ethics Commission voted to formulate some changes in the conflict of interest law that would allow state Sen. Dan Wolf and other lawmakers with private business interests to […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
Insensitivity training at Massport
My 9-year-old granddaughter knew that yesterday was the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States. Her class read it in their history books and discussed it during […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
The future of newspapers – again
Seems every time a newspaper is sold, the prognosticators and print junkies predict – and hope for – a new way forward. Isn’t that the expectation for Jeff Bezos and […]
Posted inPolitics
Heavy hitters go to bat for Wolf
State Sen. Dan Wolf has lined up nearly a dozen big guns, including former judges, top prosecutors, and ethics experts, to persuade the Ethics Commission to change the rules to […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service, The Download
What’s a Big Mac worth?
In the big picture, no one would argue that everyone deserves a decent wage and decent benefits for a decent job and decent work effort. It’s what’s euphemistically referred […]
Posted inPolitics, The Back Story
Other lawmakers face similar conflicts as Wolf
A correction has been added in the story below. A number of lawmakers have a personal and financial interest in the outcome of Sen. Dan Wolf’s dispute with the Ethics […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Wolf to stay in Senate, seeks ethics exemption
In an abrupt about-face, state Sen. Dan Wolf will be staying in his seat while he asks the Ethics Commission to rewrite the regulations that triggered him to suspend his […]
Posted inPolitics
Ethics Commission backtracks
The state Ethics Commission admitted on Thursday that it erred in ruling that state Sen. Dan Wolf must abandon his run for governor unless he divests himself of his ownership […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
The GOP comes to town
Boston is a red town this week but the presence of the Republican National Committee’s annual summer meeting at the Westin Boston Waterfront Hotel in the Seaport District is another […]
Posted inPolitics
Wolf resigned to quitting
State Sen. Dan Wolf said on Tuesday that he intends to ask the state Ethics Commission to reconsider its decision requiring him to either divest his holdings in Cape Air […]
Posted inThe Download, Transportation
Airing out a conflict
For years, the state Ethics Commission has been derided as a toothless watchdog, set up by the Legislature but with enough ambivalence in the statutes to thwart any meaningful enforcement. […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Lottery fever
Most people probably don’t remember Candido Oliveira of Dorchester hit the Mega Millions jackpot two years ago. Or that Rosa DeLeon of Arlington and Reginald LeBlanc of Lexington, coworkers at […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
On the cover of the Rolling Stone
Gonna see my picture on the cover Gonna buy five copies for my mother “The Cover of the Rolling Stone,” – Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show It’s been […]
Posted inTransportation
Your cash ain’t nothing but trash
THE STATE’S DEPARTMENT of Transportation is planning to convert the Tobin Bridge to all-electronic toll collection next year, but that effort may run afoul of some laws on the books. […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Title insurance
JACK LALOND AND his wife Kathy have refinanced or taken out equity loans on their Plymouth home six times since they purchased it. They used the loan funds and the […]
Posted inPolitics
SJC to clerks: Do your job
THE STATE’S HIGHEST court has set a new standard for clerk-magistrates: Do your job. In an unanimous opinion in May, the state Supreme Judicial Court set a precedent by terminating […]
