MIXED MESSAGES are not usually held up as a quality of good leadership, but a lot of things have been different about life amid a global pandemic. That included Gov. Charlie Baker’s State House briefing on Tuesday where he offered a very calculated mix of hope and dire warning with Christmas approaching. Baker implored Massachusetts […]
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 inPolitics
Katherine Clark’s fast rise in the House
LAST YEAR, The Hill called Rep. Katherine Clark “the most powerful woman in the Capitol you’ve probably never heard of.” Plenty of people have heard of her now, and many more soon will. In January, Clark will become the fourth highest ranking member of the US House of Representatives when she assumes the post of […]
Posted inEducation
Tortured charter school building battle takes a new turn
ROXBURY PREPARATORY CHARTER SCHOOL, whose three-year odyssey to win approval to build a high school in Roslindale has turned into a toxic battle touching on issues of race, class, and the place of charter schools in Boston, is pivoting away from the contested site — at least for now — in order to explore other […]
Posted inHealth Care
Will people get a second COVID-19 vaccine?
A NEW POLL shows most Massachusetts residents are comfortable with eventually getting a COVID-19 vaccine. The results are good news, as health experts keep pointing out that even a vaccine with 95 percent effectiveness is only as good as its take-up rate by the population. But it might be good to hold off on taking […]
Posted inHealth Care
Vaccination catch-22 in black community
WITH TODAY’S ANNOUNCEMENT that the United Kingdom has approved use of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, the first Western country to sign off on mass use of an immunization, the crucial effort to finally rein in the pandemic has now begun. Similar approvals are expected in the coming days in the US and other elsewhere. A critical […]
Posted inEconomy
In Hingham, a welcome to (well-heeled) black residents
IN THE END, Hingham’s gonna Hingham. And so the tony town on Boston’s South Shore finds itself facing a bit of blowback following an effort to show that it wants to be known as something other than an almost-all white, upscale enclave of privilege. It started when a local group recently formed and took on […]
Posted inPolitics
Trump made gains in urban areas of Mass.
VOTING TRENDS THAT showed shifts in heavily Hispanic communities in Massachusetts toward President Trump in this month’s election are also apparent in other urban areas, including huge swaths of Boston, results that seem to defy expectations that four years of often racially-charged rhetoric from the president would further depress his already weak standing in communities […]
Posted inEducation
Parents frustrated, concerned with pandemic school year, poll finds
THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of Massachusetts K-12 students are either learning remotely from home or in a hybrid model that mixes in-person and at-home instruction, and most parents have a dim view of how the school year upended by the coronavirus pandemic is affecting their children. Those are among the findings from a new poll of […]
Posted inEducation
Union urging ‘no confidence’ votes in ed commish Riley
THE DEBATE OVER whether to reopen schools for in-person instruction is turning into an all-out war by the state’s largest teachers union against state education commissioner Jeff Riley. The Massachusetts Teachers Association is encouraging its local chapters to adopt votes of “no confidence” in Riley’s leadership in the face of a renewed push by Riley […]
Posted inPolitics
Mass GOP jumps on unfounded election ‘fraud’ bandwagon
“DEAD PEOPLE voted!” “In Wisconsin, a ‘glitch’ added over 100,000 votes to Biden’s tally in the dead of the night, and ZERO to any other candidate.” Tweets from President Trump? No. A fundraising email from Massachusetts Republican Party chairman Jim Lyons. Taking a page from the man he’s shown unstinting loyalty to, Lyons is parroting […]