THE GOOD NEWS is the Boston area is hardly alone in facing serious headwinds from the pandemic’s upending of work patterns and the uncertainty it’s introduced about our economic future. The bad news: simply having plenty of company in our misery does not mean we can sit back and wait to ride some broad trend […]
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 inMedia, Politics
A nonprofit news launch in Worcester
WHEN IT COMES to the state of the news industry, the news has not been good. Over a span of less than two decades, a quarter of the country’s newspapers have folded. That translates to tens of thousands of reporters laid off – and it means far less coverage of communities across the country. Less […]
Posted inEducation
Mayors renew call for vocational school admission changes
MORE THAN THREE YEARS after calling on the state to revamp what they said were unfair and discriminatory admission practices at regional vocational schools, a group of Massachusetts mayors says little has changed – and they are calling on the new Healey administration to take decisive action on the issue. Admission policies at the schools […]
Posted inPolitics
Arroyo, Lara losses carry echo of past races
CHALK ONE UP for the goo-goos. Actually chalk two up. The term came into use in the late 1800s and early 1900s as a reference to good government reformers who were looking to rid municipal government of corruption. In yesterday’s Boston city election, the modern-day goo-goos decided they’d seen enough and tossed two incumbent city […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Did Patriots cornerback Jack Jones get off easy in gun case?
WITH THE OFF-FIELD behavior of professional athletes an increasing focus of concern, getting busted trying to bring two loaded guns through security at Logan Airport certainly was not exactly a good look for a guy about to start his second season with the New England Patriots. And to any armchair jurist it seemed an open-and-shut […]
Posted inPolitics
Is Massachusetts becoming the state of emergency?
IN GOVERNMENT, as in life, what gets the most attention is often a matter of priorities. It’s hard to focus on too much at once, so the most important things get pushed to the top of the to-do list. Sometimes, though, even setting out an agenda of top priorities doesn’t seem to be enough. Lately, […]
Posted inArts and Culture
UMass Dartmouth exit a tough blow for New Bedford
WHILE STUDENTS ACROSS the state descend on campuses for fall move-in day, Monday was move out day for Zeph Luck. With a backseat loaded with canvases, the 26-year-old grad student was making his third and last trip to clear all his paintings out of the downtown New Bedford studio where he’s been working for two […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Boston launches coordinated plan to curb gun violence
ISAAC YABLO, Mayor Michelle Wu’s senior advisor for community safety, says a shortcoming of efforts to rein in those responsible for gun violence in Boston has been that “we gave them the wrong diagnosis and therefore [applied] the wrong solution.” He says the nature of gun violence in the city has changed significantly since the […]
Posted inGovernment, Politics
Wu backs challenger to Arroyo in Boston council race
IN A MAJOR blow to City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo’s already hobbled reelection bid, Mayor Michelle Wu is throwing her support behind one of his challengers, Enrique Pepén, a former City Hall aide, in the race for the district seat representing Hyde Park, Roslindale, a section of Mattapan. “Enrique is exactly the kind of leader we need […]
Posted inPolitics
For Lara, a lot of explaining
“IF YOU’RE EXPLAINING, you’re losing,” according to a quip credited to Ronald Reagan. For the Hollywood actor-turned-president, regarded as a master communicator, that meant delivering a straightforward message that voters could readily absorb without need for a lot of explanatory elaboration. But it probably applies even more so to an elected official who finds themself […]