A FORMER state correction officer pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to charges of having sexual relations with an inmate. Charlotte Ferro, who worked at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center, was arraigned […]
Shira Schoenberg
Shira Schoenberg is a reporter at CommonWealth magazine. Shira previously worked for more than seven years at the Springfield Republican/MassLive.com where she covered state politics and elections, covering topics as diverse as the launch of the legal marijuana industry, problems with the state's foster care system and the elections of U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Gov. Charlie Baker. Shira won the Massachusetts Bar Association's 2018 award for Excellence in Legal Journalism and has had several stories win awards from the New England Newspaper and Press Association. Shira covered the 2012 New Hampshire presidential primary for the Boston Globe. Before that, she worked for the Concord (N.H.) Monitor, where she wrote about state government, City Hall and Barack Obama's 2008 New Hampshire primary campaign. Shira holds a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism.
Posted inPolitics
Liquor license ballot question has layers of controversy
NURSE STAFFING ratios. Right to repair. Zoning reform. Almost every election, there is at least one ballot question that defies easy explanation and generally boils down to a dispute among […]
Posted inHealth Care
Baker renews push for primary, behavioral health care
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Tuesday reintroduced a bill that would require hospitals and insurers to spend more on primary and behavioral health care, an attempt to revamp a medical system […]
Posted inEconomy
Fixing early ed system could cost $1.5 billion a year
MASSACHUSETTS’S EARLY CHILDHOOD education system is unaffordable and inaccessible to too many families, and it will cost an estimated $1.5 billion a year to improve it, according to a report […]
Posted inHealth Care
Mass. health care spending actually dropped in 2020
BE CAREFUL what you wish for. After years of ever-increasing spending on health care that left policymakers struggling to contain costs, Massachusetts finally found the key to lowering spending on […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
House leader questions implementation of criminal justice law
THE TOP HOUSE lawmaker on criminal justice issues is accusing the Baker administration of “outright resistance” to implementing the state’s criminal justice reform law. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Michael Day, […]
Posted inHealth Care
Massachusetts will drop 3,700 from COVID death count
MASSACHUSETTS WILL REVISE its COVID-19 death count downwards by around 3,700 people as the state shifts to using a new definition to count deaths attributed to coronavirus. “We believe […]
Posted inTransportation
Lawmakers are revising road funding formula
THE HOUSE’S TRANSPORTATION policy leader pledged Wednesday that lawmakers will consider revising the state’s road and bridge funding formula, an indication that years of complaints by rural lawmakers may finally […]
Posted inUncategorized
SJC hears life and death arguments in medical aid in dying case
THE STATE’S HIGHEST COURT on Wednesday heard oral arguments in an emotional and high-stakes case over whether a physician can prescribe lethal medication to a terminally ill patient. Several Supreme Judicial […]
Posted inPolitics
House pares down Baker budget bill to $1.6B
AS GOV. CHARLIE BAKER well knows, you don’t always get what you want – even in a state awash in money. The House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday released […]
Posted inHealth Care
Supreme Judicial Court to consider medical aid in dying case
WHEN ROGER KLIGLER was a practicing physician, he had terminally ill patients ask him to end their suffering. “As a physician, I felt I could not do that. I could […]
Posted inPolitics
Chang-Diaz aims for big, progressive change
STATE SEN. SONIA CHANG-DIAZ’S mother was a social worker, who helped women and children living on the margins overcome systemic barriers. Her father was a Costa Rican-born NASA astronaut who […]
Posted inArts and Culture
New Samuel Slater Experience spotlights ‘father of American manufacturing’
AS SAMUEL SLATER traveled from England to the United States in 1789, he voiced his ambitions to revolutionize the US textile industry with knowledge he had gained in England. Yet […]
Posted inEconomy
Report knocks Senate staff pay scale as unclear, lacking transparency
LEADERS IN THE Massachusetts Senate are vowing to overhaul the pay structure for Senate staff, after a confidential report found that the Senate lacks transparency in how salaries are set […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Supreme Court reinstates death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev
THE SUPREME COURT reinstated the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, in a split 6-3 decision. The decision was written by Justice Clarence Thomas. The three liberal justices […]
Posted inUncategorized
Senate passes ‘period poverty’ bill
VIRTUALLY EVERY WOMAN of child-bearing age has had that panicked moment: she gets her period unexpectedly in a public bathroom and doesn’t have menstrual products. For low-income women and girls […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Shifting narrative on report on traffic stops
WHEN THE LEGISLATURE passed a law banning the use of handheld cell phones while driving, a major concern voiced by lawmakers was that it would be enforced disproportionately against Black […]
Posted inPolitics
Jay McMahon announces AG run in unusual fashion
REPUBLICAN JAY MCMAHON on Tuesday announced he was launching a second campaign for attorney general in an announcement made in unusual fashion – by the Massachusetts Republican Party. McMahon launched […]
Posted inUncategorized
Defense lawyer dismisses Baker marijuana bill as ‘junk science’
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER has been pushing for legislation he says would give “law enforcement more tools to keep our roads safe from impaired drivers.” John Amabile, president of the […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Asian-American/Pacific Islander arts face unique challenges post-COVID
TWO YEARS AGO, Wah Lum Kung Fu & Tai Chi Academy had 200 students learning martial arts in Malden and Quincy. Its performance team was hired to perform lion and […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Hate crimes up slightly in Mass. in 2020
THE NUMBER of hate crimes in Massachusetts increased slightly in 2020, with a larger percentage related to racial and ethnic bias, according to a new report issued by the Executive […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Governor’s Council commutes sentences of two men convicted of murder
THE GOVERNOR’S COUNCIL on Wednesday voted unanimously to commute the sentences of two men convicted of first-degree murder, Thomas Koonce and William Allen, sealing the deal on the first commutations […]
Posted inPolitics
Danielle Allen ends gubernatorial campaign
DEMOCRATIC GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE Danielle Allen announced Tuesday that she will end her campaign for governor. Allen, a Harvard professor, entered the race in June of 2021, but struggled to […]
Posted inUncategorized
Cost of welfare benefits skyrockets during pandemic
USE OF VARIOUS welfare assistance programs skyrocketed amid the pandemic, particularly as federal unemployment benefits dried up, according to new data provided by the Department of Transitional Assistance. The higher […]