FOUR YEARS AFTER elected officials and advocates began calling for changes to state regulations governing admission to vocational-technical high schools, Education Commissioner Jeff Riley is proposing a sweeping update to a system that critics say has let voc-tech schools “cream” higher-performing students while locking out English language learners, students of color, and special education and […]
Michael Jonas
Michael Jonas works with Bruce in overseeing CommonWealth Beacon coverage and editing the work of reporters. His own reporting has a particular focus on politics, education, and criminal justice reform.
Michael has worked in journalism in Massachusetts since the early 1980s. Before joining the CommonWealth staff in 2001, he was a contributing writer for the magazine for two years. His story on Boston youth outreach workers was selected for a PASS (Prevention for a Safer Society) Award from the National Council on Crime and Delinquency. His CommonWealth work has also won awards from Capitol Beat for state government coverage and from the New England Newspaper & Press Association for work in several areas.
Prior to coming to CommonWealth, for 15 years Michael wrote a weekly column on local politics for the Boston Globe. Michael has also worked in broadcast journalism. In the late 1980s he was a co-producer for "The AIDS Quarterly," a national PBS series produced by WGBH-TV in Boston, and in the early 1990s, he worked as a producer for a weekly news magazine program on WHDH-TV (Ch. 7) in Boston.
Posted inCriminal Justice
Janey says internal records on officer to be released
ACTING BOSTON Mayor Kim Janey said late Monday afternoon that she has ordered the city’s law department to review “as quickly as possible” internal affairs records related to former police officer Patrick Rose Sr., who has been charged with 33 counts of sexual abuse of minors, so that the information can be publicly released. The announcement came […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
City councilors call on Janey to release records on former police officer
THREE BOSTON CITY COUNCILORS on Monday called on the city’s new acting mayor and the Boston Police Department to release records of internal investigations related to former police officer Patrick Rose Sr., who now stands charged with 33 counts of sexual abuse of minors. City Councilors Andrea Campbell and Lydia Edwards, in a press conference […]
Posted inPolitics
Janey expects report on Boston police commissioner Dennis White this month
ACTING BOSTON MAYOR Kim Janey said she expects the investigation into domestic violence allegations against Boston’s police commissioner to be completed sometime this month — and she voiced mixed sentiments about the issue at the center of the probe. Janey, appearing on WGBH radio, told hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan that she anticipates receiving […]
Posted inEducation
Boston exam schools face court test
HERE WE GO again. More than two decades after federal lawsuits forced Boston to ditch admission policies that set aside seats for black and Latino students at the city’s selective-entry 7-12 grade public schools, the issue of how students are admitted to the three schools is back in court. An organization representing Asian American and […]
Posted inPolitics
Janey will seek full term as Boston mayor
ACTING BOSTON MAYOR Kim Janey, who has looked very much like a candidate for a full term since taking the reins from Marty Walsh two weeks ago, made it official on Tuesday morning, announcing that she will vie to be elected to the seat in the fall election. “The work to address the challenges we […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Rachael Rollins on vindication of her decline-to-prosecute policy
RACHAEL ROLLINS made headlines during her 2018 run for Suffolk County district attorney when she said, if elected, the office would not prosecute those charged with a set of 15 lower-level misdemeanor offenses and focus its energy on more serious crimes. Rollins said the criminal justice system spends too much time on cases that end […]
Posted inPolitics
Janey already scoring from her potent perch
For more than three years, Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu — who was way out in front on the issue — has been hammering away at the idea of making the MBTA free for riders. With one week on the job, Acting Mayor Kim Janey made it happen. OK, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. […]
Posted inPolitics
Chang-Diaz considering a run for governor
STATE SEN. SONIA CHANG-DIAZ is the latest Democrat to signal a potential interest in running for governor next year. The Jamaica Plain legislator said in a statement released Monday morning that she will give serious thought to entering the 2022 race. “Families across Massachusetts are struggling to make rent, stay safe, and give their kids […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Study finds not prosecuting misdemeanors reduces defendants’ subsequent arrests
A STUDY EXAMINING the effect of declining to prosecute lower-level nonviolent offenses — a signature policy adopted by Suffolk District Attorney Rachael Rollins that has drawn both praise and scorn — suggests the approach leads to significantly less future involvement by those defendants in the criminal justice system. The new study, which looked at cases […]