GOV. CHARLIE BAKER will allow more indoor performance and entertainment spaces to open on Monday, but only in communities deemed low-risk for transmission of COVID-19. His decision to continue with […]
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
Legislative candidates seek election do-overs
DOING THE SAME thing again and expecting a different result may be the definition of insanity, as the saying goes, but some legislative candidates are doing it anyway. This November, […]
Posted inHealth Care
Critics say Holyoke Soldiers’ Home chronically underfunded
THE OUTCOME OF COVID-19 at the state-run Holyoke and Chelsea soldiers’ homes could not have been more different. The Holyoke home was the site of a massive outbreak in which 76 veterans died, […]
Posted inHealth Care
Two at Holyoke Soldiers’ Home face criminal charges
FORMER HOLYOKE Soldiers’ Home superintendent Bennett Walsh and former medical director David Clinton have been indicted on criminal charges related to the COVID-19 outbreak that killed 76 veterans at the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Kraft will not be tried for soliciting prostitution
FLORIDA PROSECUTORS on Thursday announced they were dropping misdemeanor charges against Kraft for soliciting prostitution, after a court ruled that the video evidence against him could not be used. The […]
Posted inUncategorized
Marijuana delivery regs stir concerns on competition
WITH SOME MARIJUANA retailers worried that newly licensed delivery companies will undermine their sales, Cannabis Control Commission Chair Steven Hoffman’s response is: That’s capitalism. “This is the way every market […]
Posted inEducation
Baker denies ‘bullying’ school districts
GOV. CHARLIE BAKER on Thursday continued to push schools to bring students back in person while denying allegations by the state’s largest teachers union that his administration is “bullying” local […]
Posted inEducation
Riley presses districts that are starting year with remote learning
MASSACHUSETTS EDUCATION COMMISSIONER Jeff Riley is escalating his push to convince school districts to bring students back in person, asking 16 districts for more information about their plans – and threatening them with a potential audit […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Bar oversight agency considers misconduct by attorneys in lab scandal case
THE STATE Board of Bar Overseers on Monday began a two-week hearing to decide whether to recommend disciplinary action against three attorneys who worked for former attorney general Martha Coakley, who are accused […]
Posted inPolitics
Even basics in dispute on Right to Repair ballot question
MASSACHUSETTS VOTERS will be asked in November whether to update the Right to Repair law — but they may have a hard time wading through the complexities of a ballot […]
Posted inRace/Racism
SJC lobbies lawmakers on police reform
AS CONFERENCE COMMITTEE members negotiate a final version of a police reform bill, the committee’s senators just got a powerful ally: The Supreme Judicial Court. The SJC on Thursday, in […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Grappling with ‘driving while black,’ SJC offers help
THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT on Thursday issued a ruling that will make it easier for defendants to prove they are the victim of illegal racial profiling when pulled over during […]
Posted inHealth Care
COVID-19 vaccine unlikely to be a silver bullet
FOR MONTHS, a quarantine-weary, virus-ridden nation has been waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine. It’s become the endgame, the antidote to all the death and economic destruction the virus has caused. […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Revised medical parole rules draw fire
A SECOND ATTEMPT by the Department of Correction to develop medical parole regulations is running into blowback from lawmakers and advocates who say the Baker administration is continuing to block […]
Posted inUncategorized
For SJC, Baker tends to favor smart, moderate judges
IF THERE WERE EVER an example of the enormous power of the governor, it is this: Gov. Charlie Baker, with his next two picks, will appoint the entire seven-member bench […]
Posted inHealth Care
Health insurance premiums to rise 8% next year
HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS for Massachusetts residents will rise by an average of 7.9 percent at the beginning of next year, despite insurers having profited from declining health care costs during the […]
Posted inEducation
Agencies scramble to offer school-day childcare
THOUSANDS OF MASSACHUSETTS students are starting school remotely this fall. Many of their parents are working. Where will those kids go during the day? The question is one that myriad […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
SJC Chief Justice Ralph Gants dies
ONLY 10 DAYS after being hospitalized with a heart attack, Supreme Judicial Court Chief Justice Ralph Gants spent Monday morning on the phone from his home talking to attorneys and advocates about the state’s eviction moratorium and pending eviction […]
Posted inPolitics
Opposition forming to ranked-choice voting
THE RANKED-CHOICE voting ballot campaign has been pushing its message for months with only minimal, informal opposition. Now, with two months left before the election, an organization is finally forming to […]
Posted inEducation
Unions say ruling against Andover teachers won’t curb activities
AS SCHOOL DISTRICTS and teachers’ unions continue to debate whether teachers must report to work in person, a decision by the Commonwealth Employment Relations Board condemning an “illegal strike” by […]
Posted inEconomy
SJC case questions enforceability of Uber rider agreement
HAVE YOU EVER scrolled past the terms and conditions when downloading a new app, then mindlessly clicked “done” without reading the fine print? Most of us have done that more […]
Posted inPolitics
Car manufacturers pool $25m to fight auto repair ballot question
THE NATIONAL AUTOMOTIVE industry is ponying up huge sums of money to defeat a question on the Massachusetts ballot that would give independent auto repair shops the right to access […]
Posted inPolitics
Would ranked-choice voting have changed the 4th Congressional District race?
WHEN JESSE MERMELL gave her videotaped concession speech in the 4th Congressional District primary race on Friday, she did it in front of a sign that read “Jesse Mermell for RCV,” an acronym for ranked-choice voting. […]
Posted inPolitics
In victory, Auchincloss calls himself ‘pragmatic progressive’
JAKE AUCHICLOSS declared victory in the 4th District Congressional race on Friday, promising to lead as a “pragmatic progressive,” hours after his closest opponent, Jesse Mermell, conceded defeat. “Over the […]
