House Speaker Robert DeLeo says he wants the embattled probation department to remain in the judiciary but is filing a bill that would put a professional administrator in charge of the business side of the courts including hiring and budget oversight. Gov. Deval Patrick has pushed to move the probation department under his wing and […]
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 inThe Back Story, Transportation
Knocked off track
Click here for more Back Stories. Don’t get Back Story? Sign up here. Is there a calculable dollar value inherent in warranties? That could be the key question in the MBTA’s suit against Rocla Concrete Ties over 150,000 defective concrete ties on the Old Colony Commuter Rail. Denver-based Rocla, seeking summary judgment in federal court, […]
Posted inTransportation
T denies warranty change for ties
The MBTA in court filings denies it agreed to a change in the warranty on concrete ties it purchased for the Old Colony commuter rail line and hints that political lobbying by former US Rep. Joseph Moakley may have played some role in the hiring of Rocla Concrete Ties of Denver. The T’s filing in […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Mulligan, Heffernan bid for Probation
Video highlights from “A New Path for Probation” As the top administrative judge and Gov. Deval Patrick’s public safety secretary each made their pitch to oversee the state’s troubled probation department, a key lawmaker indicated the Legislature is in no hurry to move the agency from its current oversight structure. “I don’t think we can […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Transportation
Cracks in T tie suit
Newly filed court documents indicate the MBTA agreed to pare back a warranty on concrete railroad ties it purchased in 1994 and now could be left holding the bag for the $90 million cost of replacing them despite manufacturing defects. Rocla Concrete Ties of Denver is seeking the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the […]
Posted inPolitics
Ireland appeals to keep probation
The state’s top judge today strongly urged the governor, speaker and Senate president to keep the Probation Department under the judiciary, threatening that putting the embattled agency under the executive branch would force judges to imprison more defendants at a cost of millions of dollars to the state. In a letter to the three leaders, […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Piloting through shortfalls
massachusetts communities lead the nation in reaping revenues from tax-exempt properties, but the payments represent pennies on the dollar compared to what municipalities would bring in if the land were on the tax rolls. Some 84 cities and towns in Massachusetts have instituted PILOT (payments in-lieu of taxes) programs where a nonprofit—mostly hospitals and colleges […]
Posted inHealth Care
Name that malady
First, The Beatles, now flagellate hyperpigmentation. There’s no limit for the apps someone can download for their iPhone or iPod. The New England Journal of Medicine now has a smartphone application available for download that runs a version of the Journal’s popular Image Challenge. The app is available for $2.99. Each week, NEJM posts a […]
Posted inPolitics
Money for nothing
kathryn harper and her husband, Winston, were beside themselves one weekend in early November. The 63-year-old Salem grandmother had just scratched a $5 Massachusetts State Lottery ticket and discovered she was an instant millionaire, giving the couple money they could use to make trips, help their kids, and pay off their mortgage for a worry-free […]