WHETHER YOU CALL IT a Nixon-goes-to-China moment or just an example of the shades of grey that color lots of criminal justice issues, Rachael Rollins is making news in a surprising way: The reform-minded Suffolk district attorney, who is part of a national wave of progressive prosecutors calling for a turn away from the tough-on-crime policies […]
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 inHealth Care
Antiviral drug ‘may have clinical benefit’ on COVID-19, study says
THE EXPERIMENTAL ANTIVIRAL drug remdesivir showed potential promise in a small study among severely ill coronavirus patients, raising hopes that it might prove to be an effective treatment for COVID-19. But the study results are far from conclusive proof, and doctors warned patients and health care providers against false hopes of a sudden treatment breakthrough. […]
Posted inHealth Care
Ventilators are life-savers, but questions loom about survival rates
MASSACHUSETTS LEADERS AND hospitals are scrambling to make sure they have enough ventilators for an expected surge of critically ill coronavirus patients. Meanwhile, the state public health department has issued guidance on how doctors might prioritize who gets the life-support machines if confronted with a shortage. But the focus on ensuring an adequate supply of […]
Posted inHealth Care
Coronavirus disproportionately hitting blacks and Latinos
IT IS BOTH A shocking but also utterly predictable new chapter in the unfolding coronavirus saga. The pandemic sweeping the country appears to be exacting a particularly high toll in black and Latino communities, where both infection rates and deaths appear to be far out of proportion to the groups’ share of the overall population. A […]
Posted inEconomy
Virus notes: Budget roundtable tripped up by livestream failure
IT WAS AN inauspicious start to the effort to reckon with the devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic on state revenue and the implications for the current fiscal year as well as the 2021 budget. A virtual economic roundtable scheduled by state budget writers for Tuesday morning was delayed by a week after the Legislature […]
Posted inHealth Care
Virus notes: Baker cabinet secretary tests positive
THE STATE’S PUBLIC SAFETY SECRETARY has tested positive for COVID-19, he announced Monday night, and is working from home. “This weekend, after experiencing mild symptoms, I was screened for COVID-19 and was notified late yesterday that I had tested positive,” Secretary Thomas Turco said in a statement. “I have notified my close contact colleagues and […]
Posted inEconomy
The coronavirus is expanding the safety net
LIKE MILLIONS OF other US workers, Charlie Burke and Mutwaly Hamid were used to getting up in the morning and putting in long days on the job. But when the coronavirus pandemic shut down huge parts of the economy, they weren’t just left out of work, they were left on their own. As two of […]
Posted inHealth Care
Virus notes: Unusually high amount of deaths in Franklin Cty
DATA FROM THE MASSACHUSETTS Department of Public Health indicate an unusually high number of COVID-19 fatalities are occurring in Franklin County. Three new deaths were reported in Friday’s report, bringing to 11 the number of people who have died of COVID-19 in Franklin County. That would place Franklin seventh among the state’s 13 counties in […]
Posted inUncategorized
For Trump, cameras leave no room for social distancing
Practice what I preach, not what I do. That’s the only takeaway message one can glean from what have now become daily televised briefings by President Trump from the White House on the coronavirus crisis. Yesterday’s briefing brought the most somber assessment yet of the toll the coronavirus will take in the US. Officials now […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
SJC rules against district court judge in indigent defense case
THE SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT ruled that a Springfield judge overstepped his authority in ordering the overburdened local public defenders’ office to take on more cases than the office said it could handle, but the justices deferred to the Legislature when it came to solving the problem of a chronic shortage of lawyers for poor defendants. […]