State officials say the technology doesn’t exist to make sure users of Electronic Benefit Transfer cards, which took the place of paper food stamps, aren’t buying alcohol, tobacco, or Lottery […]
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.
Scream all you want but don’t Yahoo! at home
There’s something ironic, perhaps disconcerting, about a tech company built on people’s ability to access it from anywhere forcing its employees to work in the office rather than at home. […]
Patrick budget triples funding for RTAs
The Patrick administration’s proposed transportation plan includes a near-tripling of the annual budget for state’s beleaguered Regional Transit Authorities, a $100 million annual increase that officials insist will trigger a […]
Globe heah! Getchya Globe heah!
With the announcement by The New York Times Company that it will put the Globe and the rest of its New England holdings out for bid, the guessing game is […]
Brown’s quick jump over to Fox shows he’s no lazy dog
Former Sen. Scott Brown made his debut on Fox News last night and the interest may not be in what he said but more in what it means for his […]
Postal Service proves nothing is forever
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. Except on Saturdays. That dusty creed is a reflection […]
The Bay State shrugs
The reaction to Gov. Deval Patrick tapping friend and confidant William “Mo” Cowan for the interim post to replace Sen. John Kerry was a muted “meh” in and out of […]
Everything wants to be free; it just isn’t
Legal services want to be free. College degrees want to be free. Food wants to be free. Information wants to be free. Out of all those items that want to […]
Patrick and Obama sing same tune: Unchain my heart
As Janis Joplin wailed, “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.” One look at the unchained president and his similarly unshackled good pal, the Massachusetts governor, and you’d […]
Dookhan players covering their assets
Clarification: Alec Loftus, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, says Secretary JudyAnn Bigby did not see the monthly composite reports on the state drug lab’s […]
The language of guns
When President Obama unveiled his gun reform package yesterday, one month after the Newtown massacre, there was a commonly used phrase that wasn’t uttered by him or Vice President Joe […]
UMass football thrown for loss
THERE WEREN’T MANY bright spots last year as the University of Massachusetts Amherst stepped up to the top level of college football, the Football Bowl Subdivision. The team went […]
Casualties of war
One of the defendants affected by Annie Dookhan’s mishandling of drug lab tests seeks a later curfew before Special Magistrate Elizabeth Donovan. IT WAS THE SUMMER OF 2010. Robert Annunziata […]
Maybe Patrick wants to make more money
NO ONE SEEMS to believe him, but Gov. Deval Patrick was quite emphatic about his near-term future at the Democratic National Convention in September. “I’m gonna finish my term [as […]
Catholic schools remain off limits
THE HEAD OF THE BOSTON ARCHDIOCESE SCHOOLS is eager to work with public and charter school operators to improve education for all Boston students, but says the church’s recent […]
Question 2 triggers a battle over life, death, and dignity
Early on, it appeared that Massachusetts would become the third state to legalize so-called physician-assisted suicide, with polls showing voters favoring the end-of-life ballot question by a more than 2-to-1 […]
Cop in a lab coat
SHE WAS A forensic chemist who put her finger on the scale of justice, continually testifying and confirming that evidence brought to her by police and prosecutors was, in fact, […]
Women — can’t win without ’em
Everyone seems to be going after the women’s vote. But nobody, it appears, knows exactly what the “women’s vote” is except that they want it and it’s key to being […]
Romney writes off 2002 campaign loan
FOR NEARLY EVERYONE else, a half-million dollars would be a pretty healthy retirement account. But for Mitt Romney, who has an estimated worth of $250 million, it’s akin to change […]
Fire drill
‘ As adults we believe we are putting our children into a safe environment,” says State Fire Marshall Stephen Coan.as tropical storm Irene raged through the western part of the […]
Tracking the cash
after decades of shrugging off campaign finance disclosure mandates, Massachusetts lawmakers have finally turned the tide in reporting what their donors do for a living, giving watchdogs the tools to […]
Menino, Davis warn of surge in crime
The Suffolk County District Attorney says he and his staff will do everything they can in court to keep a scandal at a state drug lab from returning hundreds […]
What are the odds?
(A correction has been appended to this story) Tuesday morning, the Boston Globe and Boston Herald both wrote in-depth stories about Elizabeth Warren’s work for a steel company in Pennsylvania in 1995 that appeared […]
Tierney has surprising lead over Tisei
A new poll shows that while US Rep. John Tierney and his Republican challenger Richard Tisei are holding their own among partisan voters, Tierney leads the race by 7 percentage […]
