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Highlights

MORALE VIOLATION

Whistle-blowers report culture of “retaliation” and “nepotism” at Mass parole agency Over the past three months, seven staff members from the Massachusetts Parole Board have come to this reporter with harsh critiques of the agency. They are quoted throughout this article. The Commonwealth has a seven-member Parole Board that decides

JEAN TROUNSTINE May 23, 2022

SACRED SPACES: SPECIAL MOSQUE EDITION

Photo of Nigerian Islamic Society of Massachusetts by Derek Kouyoumjian While many Christians have been pushed out of their longtime places of worship, Muslims have spent decades configuring residential and commercial buildings The soaring brick facade of the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center (ISBCC), nestled between neighboring Roxbury Community

CLAIRE SADAR AND ALYSSA MALDONADO-ESTRADA May 5, 2022

THE PANDEMIC PAYDAY CONTINUES—FOR CONSULTANTS

Image via City Life/Vida Urbana Mass uses questionable tools to investigate eviction relief applicants State officials are spending more than $750,000 of COVID-19 aid on corporate consultants who will investigate applicants for eviction relief by running analytics on applications that housing advocates say can prevent residents from getting the relief

DAN ATKINSON April 12, 2022

PHONE CHECK

Mass is still gouging the families of prisoners on phone fees. Will lawmakers finally change that? For the past 10 years, Beverly Ross has spent hundreds of dollars a month on a middle-school teacher’s salary to ensure that her son knows his father, who is incarcerated in a Massachusetts

ASHLEY PETTUS April 11, 2022

A WIN FOR TRANSPARENCY AND POLICE ACCOUNTABILITY IN MASS

“We don’t go into things looking to file lawsuits, but when we feel like people have not followed the law, we challenge them.” A judge excoriated Worcester for its unlawful three-year campaign to keep police misconduct records secret from a local newspaper, writing in a recent ruling that a city

ANDREW QUEMERE February 8, 2022

PANDEMIC HOUSING RELIEF: END OF AN ERA

Governor Charlie Baker tours the new Heights at Haverhill apartment community on Nov. 5, 2020. Joshua Qualls/Governor’s Press Office Mass diverts eviction relief funds to investigate fraudulent applications As thousands of Massachusetts residents face eviction, the administration of Gov. Charlie Baker is cutting back aid payments designed to keep people

DAN ATKINSON January 31, 2022

GOVERNOR’S COUNCIL SIGNALS LANDMARK COMMUTATION LOOMS

Tom Koonce (left) and his son, Thomas Andrews, circa 2018, taken at MCI Norfolk “You had one really horrible day and you paid dearly but I think you paid enough.” On Jan. 26, 54-year-old prisoner Thomas Koonce, a former US Marine who was born in Brockton, spent nine-and-a-half hours at

JEAN TROUNSTINE January 27, 2022

THE MASS PAROLE BOARD HAS A TRANSPARENCY PROBLEM

From secret hiring practices to a revolving door of political appointees, the Mass Parole Board is a “black hole,” and “lives are at risk.” In the spring of 2021, Ms. Smith, whose name has been changed for this article, heard from a friend that there was a vacancy on the

JEAN TROUNSTINE December 20, 2021

BATTLE: SGARS

Poisons used by Mass municipalities are killing more than just the rats they’re targeting. In practice, their controversial tactics may actually protect the rodent population. It was a sunny Friday morning in late July of this year when Jodi Sylvester, a wildlife photographer from central Massachusetts, drove into the Boston area to check

LAURA KIESEL December 16, 2021

INVESTIGATING THE INTERSTATE: ON THE I-93 SOUND WALL STUDY

The new MassDOT project is seen as both a step forward and a long overdue move The Somerville Wire recently received a Kozik Environmental Justice Reporting Grant, through the National Press Foundation and the National Press Club Journalism Institute. This article is the second to last in a series about

SHIRA LAUCHAROEN December 7, 2021